Guha: What happened to us humans? Why do we understand things? We do understand a lot. But then we create a lot of hazardous things. The latest one is AI, by the way. It will come back to us with great vengeance. We have no idea but we are already using it. There is a fundamental difference between AI and other discoveries. For example, nuclear energy by itself cannot create other newer kind of explosives. But, AI may find out the ways and means to harness nature through experimental iterations by processing massive amounts of data. You know, according to some historians, World War II started the day Germany decided to attack Poland. What is going on currently in the Middle East and Europe is like World War III has started. Nowadays, the countries are marginally restrained because everybody has nukes. You think hard before you hit your opponent.
Anyway, no matter what you do, personal problems will remain. You as you know yourself are a complicated mess in the system. There is a constant demand in the system to overcome that complication to maintain the rhythm of life, which isn’t happening. So the problem continues to exist. Someone doesn’t have money to travel, someone’s junior got a higher raise at work, someone is lonely because the husband is away. Because the problem is in here (points to the head), the solution also has to be perceived in here. You understand? The problem is created by the reasons that are there in your head. Isn’t it? Say if you get Alzheimer’s, what problem will you have? There will be no god, no ghost. You will listen, eat, drink, walk. There will be no problem. There will be nothing. If there is a nuclear explosion we all die, you don’t have to think about it. By worrying you are not going to stop doing your day-to-day work. So wherever the problem is, the solution has to appear there. A resolution has to happen in the world of thinking.
I should tell you this – reason is not going to bring about a solution because it is an unreasonable solution. But you are trying to understand, which is only going to give you more reasons, thereby perpetuating the problem. Yesterday, I saw 3 copies of Larry Morris’ book “Dangerous Friend” in Julie’s library. There are some lines in it that are funny because it is a familiar feeling, you know. Larry Morris was absolutely sure that the effect of UG’s presence was going to change the world. But actually, it does not work like that because it is “unreasonable”. That is why it does not have a general appeal to the social value system. Ideas are very powerful. If you have an idea and you build a story around it which is easy to understand, and offer some kind of simplistic solution no matter how wrong or fictitious, it can have a powerful appeal to many. It is the apparent agreement and matching of ideas that generate power in the world of thinking. All the freaking religions were created that way! Since it is a generalized fictitious solution, there is no way to test it. It does not require a big mental exercise like it does to understand physics, chemistry or biology. Nothing like that. It is simply about using the words, applying the meanings and sticking to them. Something that is unreasonable and acausal is not going to be popular. You can’t even convince yourself, other than the fact that you can’t deny its effect. But if you can reason and understand how it sustains, then it becomes a belief structure, a personal belief structure.
You think you are going to learn something. You are wasting your time. This is not sellable. I cannot sell it, seriously. It is not like some Yoga Rahasya (Mystery of Yoga). The moment I say “rahasya”, it implies there is a mystery and a way to solve it. Yoga has been around for centuries but just look around you – all the gurus are selling hope. Don’t think about what you can do. What you can do is something that will give you a certain result. For the modern human being stupidity and wisdom are like alcohol and water. They are so intermingled, there is no separation. One makes you blind, the other gives you life. Yet they are so mixed up!
Q: How can we discriminate between the two?
G: Do you think anyone can teach you that? If somebody thinks they can teach, that person has no idea about the complexity of life. They can at best tell this is how it is. How can you teach the unreasonable solution to a reasonable mind? I don’t know. For example, when I was very high about UG, I used to feel like, “This is it!” If you read the book 14 Days In Palm Springs with UG, you will sense my excitement. It was as if I had discovered something that was going to solve the problem of humanity by giving a helping hand to people. But I realised it is unlike the understanding of science since it cannot be explained in reasonable terms. But a subject like the evolution of human beings has possible explanations which appear reasonable to our minds. Around 70,000 years ago humans started using symbols. The symbols and the brain together have become so powerful. 26 alphabet letters and 9 numbers. The entire human history, all the civilizations and their understanding are being expressed just through these. Imagine the power of the brain that is capable of such permutations and combinations! It is truly “countable infinite”, meaning you can count as it is being formed. So that has happened to our brains. I am just trying to point out how complex the problem is. And you think you can solve them reasonably, all your heartaches. Heartache implies some dissatisfaction deep down, because the society gave you a dope and now you desperately want that dope. You still have hope that you will be enlightened someday. It is all fake! Nothing exists. Every single guy in the market is fake. The moment they say they know, they found it, they have an idea, don’t even go there. The past you don’t need to worry about, it is gone. The future that is yet to come – if anybody says they know about it, avoid them like plague. Ultimately, in the name of giving you freedom they will make you the worst slave ever. If it were possible to know, we would know, like we know physics. So don’t even reflect on it. It is a waste of time. Do whatever you can do best and make sure you get your proper share in return. Well, if you have the means to survive and the wisdom, you should not have any problem. It is the lack of wisdom that creates hope. See, we live in our heads and there is this movement of thinking. I am not asking you to stop it. It is going on. Use this momentum to solve the problem that you can. If I have good health, if I have no problem of food, clothing and shelter, then I don’t need anybody to tell me what is right or wrong. Do you? Who doesn’t know this? But those people in the market assume you don’t have the brains to understand even this simple thing. Basically, you are an idiot according to them. So, they will teach you the purpose of life. They will tell you, “You westerners only think about money. You should learn spirituality. Look at Ramana Maharishi. He was so happy just wearing a loin cloth.” Why do they bother to tell you that Ramana was happy? Obviously, they themselves are not happy! No human being wants to listen to anybody. It is our nature. If you solve a problem, would you ask others about the solution? That would be fake. You know that.
This is my Diwali message – you are basically free. Do not listen to anybody because there is no bondage. The bondage has been created by some people for the sake of exploiting you. The ones who want you to give up your attachment to money are the biggest hoarders of money. Look at all the gurus, man! They sit there like kings and you give 20% of your monthly earnings to them. Can you imagine the economics? We are so stupid to believe all this.
Q: You dropped bombs and lit firecrackers!
G: Let the cracker crack your mind!
Q: You once saw in your vision that you lit one lamp and it became thousands of lamps …
G: Yes, I did a long time ago. That was probably my deep religious desire to show humanity a way. It was the leftover from beliefs. But it doesn’t work that way. In another vision I saw a sage telling me, that the boy (UG) was going to change the human world. All I know is, it changed my world. “Me” is the universe, isn’t it? Aren’t you? If you are not there, what is the universe for you? It doesn’t have any meaning. It is you. If anything changes you, you are a changed person, that’s all you have. Do I frustrate you? Anyway, I don’t want to keep you guys any longer and not allow you to see the fireworks outside! Do you have any question?
Q: A few months back I had asked you about how to meditate. Then the lines from the Yoga Sutra vitaraga vishayam va chittam …
G: They tried everything. Nothing worked. No one got whatever they got, by doing anything, none. The very few people you want to pay any attention to, like Ramana or Sri Ramakrishna, did not know what they had. There was some resolution of problem, and they gave it different names. What could they do? That’s why I say phenomenology does not know the scientific reason behind it. Like the village kid, who has no idea about angular momentum and its direction, plays masterfully with the spinning top. I had to go through all that for the sake of my own understanding, and I know none of these things can produce what I am talking about. I only started sensing it when UG appeared in my life. Period. Full period. One day, UG asked J Krishnamurti, “You are asking us to be choicelessly aware, but do you think what happened to you happened by practising choiceless awareness? Did you do any those things to achieve this confidence?” JK said, “No.” What yoga did Ramana or Ramakrishna do? None. Why are you interested in all this? You can achieve efficiency through practice but what has that got to do with this? Somebody can run 100 meter in 9.9 seconds. You can sing a raga very well by practicing but will that solve your problem? I don’t want you guys to waste your energy by thinking that I’m asking you to do something or function in a particular way. No, I’m not. I can’t bring UG to you. I wish I could, but it’s not happening. This is life. So, what do I do? That’s the way I think and I have no other clue. But I know, these questions that arise in your mind do not arise in me. Whoever has spent time with me knows it never arises in me, not even in my dream. The questioner is totally hopeless.
The photo book is coming out soon but I am not selling it! You will get nothing by reading it! All you will sense is a series of negations, or a particular glimpse into the way things are. A perspective is like seeing through a window. If you have a big cube, and the cube is way bigger than each viewing window through which the cube can be seen, each window will see something different. That’s perspective. Life and its happenings are huge and each one of us has a unique perspective window, but we don’t understand that. Let’s say, through my perspective window I see the society and its functioning and what we are. Then I use the English language to express what I see. Some people will find it interesting, others will not agree with my perspective at all. I am seeing “6” but you are seeing “1” because you believe in Advaita. I don’t. You believe in eternity, I believe in constant change.
October 31, 2024
Princeton, NJ
Discover Sabyasachi Guha 