9-Mar-2019
Kolkata, India
This man lives without any burden of the past. His living is full of energy and punch. He says to me, “So many people have come to see me. Most feel nothing and go away. And here you are saying so many things about me and my effect on you. How is that?” His effect is not universal. It is subject specific he says. It depends on the person interacting with him. What will come out of him largely depends on me in my case. So it is with the others. Hence, it cannot be applied universally, unlike the laws of science. I used to feel his presence is bound to have some effect whether or not one is aware of it, but then I found it somehow largely depends on how the individual translates the effect into his or her understanding. The right kind of alignment in terms of information can perhaps lead to resonance. Without that, either the interest in him will snap quickly, or it will be one long struggle if one is somehow still able to hold some interest.
His presence cannot be used for social improvement or mass reform. On the contrary, it has no social value and one does not get any reward out of it. We cannot put Guha up on a pedestal and ask people to worship him, like the way Vivekananda did in his missionary zeal through the establishment of the Ramakrishna Mission. Life doesn’t function that way, Guha says. This shakes to the core our moral values and scriptural ideals of general good, peace and well-being springing out of spiritual pursuits. These are distractions. Practice makes us cunning and manipulative individuals.
The only way to get a glimpse of his living energy is to interact with him. His effect cannot be measured. All measurements require a reference but here there is none. No knowledge, no understanding can teach us how to deal with him. It has to be a personal discovery.
Discover Sabyasachi Guha 