UG
An Exposition of the Scientific Basis of U.G.'s Philosophy
Dr. O.S. Reddy
Introduction: My Encounter With a Man Called U.G. · The Influence of Environment · The Sensory System and Natural Rhythms · U.G.'s Views and Their Scientific Basis Unfolded · The Uniqueness of Man · The Innate Intelligence of the Body · Manifestation of Order and Disorder in Nature · Matter-Energy · Our Quest For God · The Genetic Degradation of Modern Society · The Physics and Biology of Enlightenment · Thought as a Survival Phenomenon · The Pursuit of Happiness · The Myth of the Mind: Knowledge Redefined · Religion · Moral Codes of Conduct · The Transience of Life · The Conditioning of the Mind · Society Is a Jungle · Communication of Experience · Can We Experience Timelessness? · By-products of Modern Civilization · U.G.'s Views on the Future of Mankind · Ecology · War · Human Nature · Sexuality · Does Life Have a Meaning? · What is the Purpose of Life? · Identity · The Story and History of U.G. · Transformation · Birth
It so happened one day that I visited my nephew, K. Rajasekhara Reddi, at his residence. He is an old admirer of U.G. and is presently busy writing a detailed biography of him. In his house I saw a photograph of U.G. He looked different in it than any other man I had seen before. I cannot explain why I liked that face. Maybe it indicated his state of happiness. I asked my nephew and found out that the picture was of U.G. Krishnamurti, who is said to have conceived a new philosophy described by some as nihilism. I forgot about the face in course of time. But whenever I went to my nephew's house the only thing that drew my attention was the face of U.G. in the photograph. I made further inquiries with my nephew about U.G. and learned that he was a unique man talking about the catharsis of the cultural and spiritual heritage of man. Is he a spiritual man? My nephew's answer was, "He is what each person feels about him." Then I forgot about him again and his image faded in my memory. For a while I was deeply immersed in my day-to-day struggle for survival. But now and then his face has been haunting me. Am I obsessed? I'd better get busy using my talents to make enough money to help me and my family survive. Why do I have such an obsession? There is no rational explanation. Five years have passed by in this turbulent life.
I encountered another photograph of U.G. when I visited an industrialist in Madras, Mr. Malladi Krishnamurti. It looks like I run into him wherever I go. What is it that is so captivating about that face, etching itself in my memory? Mr. Krishnamurti, one of the gentlest human beings I have encountered in this chaotic modern world, informed me that U.G. comes and stays with him for a day or two at a time. I thought of how fortunate he was to have an association with such a unique man. I expressed a desire to meet him. In November, 1993, Mr. Krishnamurti, true to his word, informed me over the phone that U.G. was coming to Madras on his way to Australia, and suggested that I should meet him there. In spite of my strong urge to see him, I could not make the trip to Madras because of some problems I had been experiencing. This was perhaps meant to be so. I was sorry I missed the chance, since U.G. visits India only once in a year. I reconciled myself to my ill luck.
In March, 1994, I was told by Mr. Krishnamurti that U.G. was likely to visit Hyderabad. I was in ecstasy. The guest house of the Malladi Company in Banjara Hills was selected to house U.G. Soon the place was furnished to meet the needs of U.G. and his visitors. My son Sai Srinivas Reddy worked overtime for three days to get the house ready and make it look spick and span. But it had no telephone. Later U.G. remarked on this saying that it was a blessing in disguise for him.
I went to receive U.G. who arrived with Mr. Brahmachari and Mrs. Suguna. My son Srinivas was driving us from the airport. I was deeply touched by the serenity of U.G.'s face that haunted me for years, and my senses became numb. He is not like other spiritual leaders who are full of pomp and vulgar affluence. His presence made a deep impression on my mind. I could not resist the temptation of firing the first salvo. I asked, "Are you irrational or unrational?" Mr. Brahmachari replied that he was unrational.
That was how I had the good fortune of meeting this unique man. I felt as if whatever I had lost all these decades of my life had come back to me now. Except for my pension, I did not make quite enough money to survive in my retirement. But my mind became unruffled. I was happy that I met a jewel among men. That feeling remained with me during the following six days I was with him. I spent at least 12 hours each day with him. At the same time, I studied the basics of his philosophy. I also participated in discussions with him. I felt that he was talking all in "reverse gear" when he was brushing aside religion and spirituality. I could not reconcile myself with his ideas, as the conservatism deeply entrenched in me rose.
I would arrive at U.G.'s place at 4 o'clock in the morning and tape all our discussions. People from all walks of life—university professors, businessmen, lawyers, doctors, and housewives—came to see and hear him. There was no prior appointment. There were only conversations or discussions; no discourses or lectures. I transcribed the recorded conversations and prepared more questions to clear any doubts lingering in my mind, such as whether he was natural or just a sycophant in a different garb. After five days of listening to him and digesting his philosophy from his books, I found that this man is an extraordinary piece in evolution and what he says has a strong scientific basis. You cannot brush him aside. He may appear unrational to you, but what he says has a deep meaning.
On the Shivarathri day (March 10, 1994), I was sitting there observing him. He has long ears. I never met a man with four-inch long ears. (We are told that the Buddha had such ears.) That explains why he covers his ears with long hair. Around 3 o'clock in the afternoon that day, I observed a change in him. I looked into his eyes. They looked fierce and scary. I felt as if I was looking at a cobra. Suddenly I blurted, "You have cobra-like eyes." He laughed. Immediately I expressed my apology for such an uncivilized remark. My remark did not bother him. "Mr. Reddy, don't feel bad. I am what I am," he said. Around 5 o'clock, crowds gathered increasingly and I was feeling a little uneasy. I wanted to get him out of the milling crowd. But who am I to do so? Who gave me the mandate to take charge of him? I know he comes into the kitchen to take his "cream with coffee." (He does not eat much except rice flakes and cream. I wonder how this man survives with such little food!)
Luckily he came out and I asked him why the blood vessels on both sides of his neck were engorged. One could clearly notice them. He said they got so on full moon days and also on the Shivarathri day.
I left him at 7:30 p.m. hoping to see him at three o'clock in the next morning. Due to a transportation problem I could not get there even by 5 a.m. By that time something extraordinary had happened. I did not see this myself, but heard it from others who had seen it: he was sitting in Padmasana and swaying like a cobra without any movement at the base of his spine. U.G. goes to bed at midnight and takes catnaps. He sleeps in a coiled fashion like a cobra.
The next day we drove to the hilly parts of Jubilee Hills. On the way he said that he felt that a spot on his forehead was activated. He said that it could be the pineal gland in his brain. Unfortunately, as I was sitting in the front seat of the car I could not observe him well. U.G. and Mr. Brahmachari were in the rear seat. I am already used to observing him closely, noticing his movements, postures, and so on.
Soon the parting day arrived. U.G. was leaving for Bangalore. We all gathered at the airport. As he was bidding goodbye I could not contain my emotions. "Who is this man to make me suffer so much? Why am I to regret the departure of this man whom I have never met in all the 65 years of my life? What is my weakness?" I went to the side, wiped my tears, came back and bade him farewell. My mind was in a turmoil. I came home and rested for a few hours.
I contacted U.G. in Bangalore over the phone. He promptly answered. I told him in a single sentence, "U.G., I am deeply grateful to you." He asked me, "What for? What have I done for you?" I said, "Yes, you have. You have created a turbulence in my mind and a longing to be with you. This feeling of separation is killing me." U.G. replied, "Forget it. You are a scientist, and you should not have sentiments." But we are what we are. It is difficult to remove him from my mind.
It so happened that I was to go to Mysore soon after, and I told U.G. that I would be in Bangalore that Thursday. He said at the airport before he left, "I'll see you in Bangalore." I did not take his words seriously at that time because he had finalized his itinerary of going to Yercaud on that Wednesday with his daughter Usha and Major Dakshinamurti. Contrary to my expectations, he indeed cancelled the trip and waited for me in Bangalore till Thursday when I spent seven hours with him.
When I entered Mr. Chandrasekhar's house, U.G. stood up along with several others and welcomed me. "We have been waiting for you for such a long time. Why are you so late?" U.G. said. That aggressive courtesy drenched me in a fit of emotion which I tried to contain. "Why am I attracted to this man? What is the connection?" I was with U.G. till 5 p.m. and left for Mysore.
These encounters with U.G. prompted me to write what all I have understood from my discussions with him and from my reading of his books. What I present here is just my personal viewpoint. I am not a sycophant nor am a disciple of U.G. The question I like to ask is how scientific U.G. is. I am interested in discovering if there is any scientific basis for U.G.'s philosophy.
The Influence of Environment
The uniqueness of a person lies in the genes which are inherited from one's father and mother under natural circumstances. The clicking of genes makes a person a genius in a rare event. A certain type of genetic endowment just happened in U.G. but not in others.
We impose on a child right from its birth a series of dogmas, superstitions, religious rituals, language, behavior, and a framework of morals. All this can be described as the superstructure. Thus the developing child is subjected to a series of conditioned responses that finally form part of his thought system called knowledge. Such knowledge is stored in us as memory. Liberalism, God, ecstasy, and bliss are all man-made, man-created insulated shields to pressure and perpetuate the ego and the dominance of man. Mankind has been submitted to millennia of these conditioned responses, thus fixing the frame of the human mind. As a consequence of this, contrary to animals, man got isolated from nature completely. If man had functioned as an animal in nature, in tune with it, his sensory system should have been in tune with nature. The fixations of mind are the malignancy of mankind.
The genetic endowment of man cannot fully blossom unless the external and artificial encasement is broken. Despite their genetic background, human beings are unable to blossom because of their past. The natural expression of man is hampered by his conditioning and by the culture of his ancestors. If man had been left to operate or express in accordance with his potential and in tune with nature, we would have achieved peace and tranquility. Unless he is liberated from this malignant historical mental frame, there is no chance for his survival. His selfish genes will create problems.
The Sensory System and Natural Rhythms
The remarkable thing about life is not that it exists in such a variety of forms but that so many forms maintain the basic shape and integrity for so long, despite the multitudinous environmental forces tending to disrupt them.
An elementary glance at evolution indicates anatomical, physiological, and biochemical linkage. At the molecular level we see a common chemical thread of life. The DNA with its four nucleotides assembles all the 20 amino acids. The coding linkage and the codes are similar in all life systems. Thus all living systems are similar in their basic structure, language and function. That is to say that all life is related to other life, whether it is animal, human or plant. Unity in diversity is the essential feature of nature.
"What delusion and what sorrow can there be for that wise man who realizes the unity of all existence by perceiving all beings as his own self?" Modern science of genetics has confirmed the above truth.
U.G.'s Views and Their Scientific Basis Unfolded
In the following chapters I have selected some of U.G.'s statements and attempted to provide their scientific basis.
The Uniqueness of Man
"Each individual by virtue of his genetic structure is unparalleled, unprecedented and unrepeatable." —U.G.
All human beings have fundamentally the same anatomical structure (which is in no way different from that of mammals like dogs or pigs), operate through the same biochemical and physiological processes, and are driven by similar biological urges. Yet, no two human beings are alike. What is more important is that the individuality of a person living now is entirely different from anyone who has ever lived before in the past or will live in the future. Each person is unique, unprecedented, unrepeatable, and unparalleled. Each is a unique genetic print out. But sometimes, in one in a million, things click in such a fashion that the individual becomes an outstanding one. Leonardo da Vinci, the great scholar, painter, philosopher—all rolled into one, the creative genius, was the so-called illegitimate son of a half-witted woman who spent a night with an itinerant soldier at a wayside inn. That clicking of genes is a rare event.
The biological mechanisms through which each person develops his own behavioral singularity are twofold: his genetic endowment and his evolutionary past. Some of these mechanisms have their roots deep in the evolutionary past of the human genes which human beings have in common with other organisms and which have similar effects on the human species. Other mechanisms are derived from the peculiarities of human genetic endowment. Each individual with his predetermined genetic endowment responds differently to his environment, since each is unique by virtue of his genes.
There is a uniqueness in each of us. Unfortunately society and polity do not accept this disparateness and club us all into one. Each of us has a different potential that has to be expressed and realized in a unique way. In an attempt to establish the equality among men we have suppressed individual peculiarities which are most useful. For, happiness depends on one's being exactly fitted to nature's own work. There are many varied tasks in a modern nation. Human types, instead of being standardized, should be diversified, and their cultural differences maintained and exaggerated by different modes of education and life habits. Each type will find its place.
Modern society has refused to recognize the dissimilarity of the human being and crowded him into four classes—the rich, the politician, the farmer, and the middle class. The clerk, the police man, the teacher, the shop-keeper, or the government employee, and all others, have the same standard of living as the rest of the middle class. Such ill-categorized types are banded together according to their financial position and not according to their individual characteristics. Obviously they have nothing in common.
The best of those people who could develop their potentialities are atrophied by the narrowness of their life. In order to promote human progress it is not enough to hire architects, to buy bricks and steel, and to build schools, or establish innumerable universities, laboratories, libraries, and temples. It is far more important to provide those who devote themselves to the things of the mind with the means of developing their personalities according to their innate constitutions. The brutal materialism of our modern civilization is not only opposed to the soaring of intelligence but it also criticizes the nonaffluent gentle weak who look for other things than money and whose ability does not withstand the struggle of life.
Every individual is unique since everyone is a genetic print out. But among these unique ones there appear to be some exceptional people who claim transformation. First of all, transformation is a false claim. Secondly, you cannot study one yogi or meditator and apply what is true of him to everyone.
It is, of course, necessary to study man. He has to understand himself first. Understanding oneself demands not only an accumulation of data but a quantum jump. The Einsteinian world became different from the Newtonian world. Nature attempts to create unique entities. Nature does not use models. A unique individual like Leonardo da Vinci was of no use to nature and was thrown off the evolutionary process, and this specimen is unable to reproduce itself. By using the models of Jesus, Buddha, Rama or Krishna we have destroyed the possibility of nature throwing out unique individuals. Those that recommend these people forget nature's uniqueness and put everyone on the wrong track. It's like the blind leading the blind. Society is interested in maintaining the status quo and has provided models for us to follow. You want to be a saint, savior or a revolutionary, but it is an impossibility.
Throwing up of the uniqueness provided by nature is the blooming of individual uniqueness. It happens once in a way that a person frees himself from the burden of his entire past. One has to be in a primordial and primeval state without primitiveness. If we drop the fictitious model of a saint, we are left with natural biological arrangements. Each cell in the body knows itself. Cells cooperate with each other, not out of love and compassion, but from the terror of self-annihilation. They need to cooperate in order to survive. Can everyone bloom by the flowering of individuality? No, it is impossible; only isolated individuals can. Perhaps genetic engineering can be used to modify the static genetic state and modify genetic destiny.
The Innate Intelligence of the Body
The problem with man is that he has been subjugated by the thought culture which has an immense hold on him and which has created the notion of the self in him. This precludes the living organism's interacting with nature. That is to say that the self has separated man from nature. Thus man with his self-centeredness leads a duplicate life as a hypocrite, leading himself eventually to destruction.
U.G. says that the innate natural intelligence of the organism is fantastic. The acquired intelligence is no match to it. For example, the body's defense mechanism lies in its immune system. In fact, the best organized system in the body is the immune system that functions without our intervention. The immune system has nothing to do with the intellect. It does not work at your will and pleasure. It acts spontaneously to respond to a challenge. It is innovative and it operates in a clearly defined fashion.
Manifestation of Order and Disorder in Nature
"Order and disorder occur simultaneously in nature." —U.G.
Einstein's general theory of relativity has proved, from the verification of the perihelion of Mercury, the bending of light due to gravitational effects, red shift, and the phenomenon of black holes. As will be explained below, black holes and gravity are manifestations of order and disorder in the universe.
Black holes contain dense matter with an enormous gravity. They attract hydrogen atoms, cosmic particles, and everything close to them. Since any charged accelerating particle creates an electromagnetic radiation, the black hole emits an enormous amount of electromagnetic radiation. A black hole is an area of space which appears absolutely black, as the gravitation in it is so intense that not even light can escape through it. Black holes are believed to be a product of stellar evolution.
Stars do not burn indefinitely. They evolve through a life cycle which begins with hydrogen gas and ends sometimes with very dense rotating burned out stars. Black holes may be a few miles in diameter and yet may contain the entire mass of a star three times larger than the sun. Such a dense mass produces a gravitational field strong enough to pull everything inside the field and not allowing anything to escape. Anything within the gravitational field is quickly pulled toward it. Once past the event horizon it can never return.
It is the event horizon which constitutes the essential feature of the black hole. What happens to an object that passes through an event horizon is even more fantastic. If the black hole is not rotating, the object is pulled towards the center to a point called 'singularity', and it will be squeezed out of existence. The state is called 'zero volume state' where all the laws of physics break down. Time and space disappear. It is speculation that all that is sucked in is spilled out again on the other side of the black hole—the other side being another universe.
If the black hole, on the other hand, is rotating, the object sucked into the event horizon could miss the black hole's singularity (which is shaped like a ring in the rotation black hole) and escape into another time and another place in the universe (through 'worm holes') or into another universe (Einstein Rosen bridges). In this sense rotating black holes are sometimes considered as ultimate time machines.
One seriously considered possibility is that whatever disappeared in a black hole reappears somewhere else. There is a possibility that there are black holes in other universes which are sucking matter from those universes and letting it out into our universe. There are objects in our universe which are reverse of black holes. These are called white holes or quasi-stellar radio sources, or quasars, for short.
Quasars are extraordinarily intense energy sources. Most of them have a diameter much longer than our solar system and yet they emit more energy than an entire galaxy of over 150 billion stars. Astronomers believe that quasars are the most distant objects ever detected; yet their incredible brightness allows us to see them clearly.
The relationship between black holes and quasars is purely speculative and mind boggling. As I mentioned above, some physicists believe that black holes suck matter from one universe and pump it into another universe or into another part and time of the same universe. Thus the output side of a black hole is a quasar. If the speculation is correct, then the matter in our universe is being sucked into its many black holes, only to reappear in other universes, while matter in the other universes is being pumped into our universe, which is again being sucked through black holes into other universes.
This is a process that goes on and on feeding on itself, another beginningless and endless process. Thus order and disorder occur simultaneously in nature. The matter in the universe is destroyed and simultaneously recreated by the two process of black holes and quasars respectively. Black holes represent disorder and quasars represent order.
One of the most profound by-products of the general theory of relativity is the discovery that gravity, which is considered to be a real and independently existing thing, is only our mental creation. There is no such thing in the real world. The planets do not orbit around the sun because the sun exerts some invisible gravitational force on them. They follow their paths that they do because these paths are the easiest ways for them to traverse the terrain of space-time continuum in which they find themselves.
There is no such thing as the real world. From one frame of reference black holes and event horizons make sense. From another frame of reference absolute non-motion makes sense.
We call something nonsense if it does not agree with a set of carefully constructed edifices. What appears as nonsense from one frame may appear as sense from another frame, and vice versa. Like measurements of space and time the concept of nonsense (itself a sign of measurement) is relative.
Apart from order and disorder in the universe, we have order and disorder manifesting on our planet. The second law of thermodynamics states that everything tends to become more and more disorderly until the final and natural state of things is a completely random distribution of matter. Thus, any kind of order, even the arrangement of atoms in a molecule, is unnatural and happens only by chance, and it eventually encounters the reverse trend. These events are statistically unlikely, and the further combination of molecules into anything as highly organized as living organisms is improbable. Thus life is a rare and unreasonable thing. Its continuation depends upon the maintenance of an unstable situation. It is something like an auto(rickshaw) that is made roadworthy by being fitted with an endless supply of spare parts.
Matter-Energy
"There is chaos beneath the order of matter." —U.G.
If we take a piece of wood and look at it under the microscope, we would see fibers consisting of patterns of cells. Cells under magnification are seen as patterns of molecules. Molecules under high magnification are seen as patterns of atoms, and atoms have turned out to be patterns of subatomic particles. In other words, matter is a series of patterns out of focus. The search for the ultimate stuff of the universe ends with the discovery that there is not any.
If there is any ultimate stuff of the universe, it is pure energy. There is no gravity but only motion. There is no time, but only an inseparable space-time continuum which contains mass and energy. Mass is energy. Hence the ultimate stuff of the universe is energy. At the subatomic level these subatomic particles are not made of energy, but they are themselves energy. Thus energy interacts with energy. The dancer and the dance are one and the same.
According to physics, the world is fundamentally a dancing energy, energy that is everywhere and incessantly assuming first this form and then the other form. What we call matter (particles) is constantly created, annihilated, and created again. This is due to particle interaction. It happens spontaneously out of nowhere. Then suddenly there is "something," and then that something changes into something else before vanishing.
In other words, in physics we do not see any distinction between "empty" as in empty space and "not empty," or between something and "not something." The world of particle physics is a world of sparkling energy dancing forever in the form of particles, as they twinkle in and out of existence, collide, transmute, and disappear again.
Thus matter at the fundamental level (in particle physics) is a picture of chaos beneath order. At that level there is a confusion of continual creation, annihilation, and transformation. Above this confusion, limiting the forms that it can take, are a set of conservation laws. They do not specify what must happen, as ordinary laws of physics do; rather, they specify what cannot happen. They are permissive laws. At the subatomic level, absolutely everything that is not forbidden by the conservation laws actually happens.
Life draws its components from the environment. From the vast mass of chaotic probability flowing by it extracts only distinctive improbabilities, the little bits of order among the general confusion. It uses some of these as a source of energy which is obtained by a destructive process called digestion. From others it gets the information needed to ensure its survival. This is the hardest part—extracting order from disorder, distinguishing those aspects of the environment that carry usual information from those which simply contribute to the overall process of decay. Life manages to do this by a splendid sense of the incongruous.
Life also protects itself from the ceaseless bombardment of millions of conflicting signals like sound waves and electromagnetic waves by using sense organs, letting in only a limited range of frequencies. Life systems select information from their surroundings, process it according to a program that entails survival, and supply an output order. The cosmos itself is a patternless jumble of random and disorderly events. Life makes patterns out of patternless disorder.
Our Quest for God
The quest for God has become a great obsession despite the impossibility to attain such a goal. But we still hope to seek pleasure without the accompaniment of pain. We know this is an impossibility. Yet we would like to know what that state is. That is to say, the mind acts as a destructive force to try to achieve what cannot be achieved. Man has come to believe that there is what is called liberation described as moksha, liberation of the soul, God, and the like, a state of permanent bliss, a state that cannot exist in nature under natural laws.
In nature there is nothing like permanency. Matter is continually destroyed and made. Even the subatomic particles like protons, neutrons, and electrons have only half life. Thus nothing is permanent in nature. Everything changes. Matter cannot be in a permanent state. It has to change. When this is the case with physical systems, the life systems that are built upon natural laws operate also on the same basis. Life cannot exist violating natural laws.
When permanence cannot exist in nature, permanent bliss is automatically ruled out. Scientifically it is untenable. The laws of physics and chemistry are the laws of our universe. Their universality is unquestionable. Yet man has come to be possessed by a desire to experience that presumed state of permanent happiness. The promises of godmen to teach how to attain the unrealizable state of permanent bliss is only an empty rhetoric.
The Genetic Degradation of Modern Society
"We are robots." —U.G.
Memory is stored in the brain in a chemical form. The whole human body functions as a stimulus-response system. What there is is only a response to a stimulus. If the response is not translated, then the situation is analogous to transferring information from one floppy disk to another. There is no link up here. Each is an independent frame. Translating sensory perceptions into images is the cultural input. When I do not look at you how can I create an image of yours? The creation of images born out of imagination is mostly culturally-induced. The brain translates the sensory perceptions into the framework of memory. Memory is not a constant factor.
When light falls on the retina creating an image, the sensory impulses are carried through the optic nerve to the brain that re-creates the image by memory. Suppose the brain does not translate the frame of the object falling on the retina, there is no way to perceive the object. As U.G. explains it, the movie camera captures the movement of a hand in frames. To see this movement we need a projector.
Sound is also recorded similarly. The sound is 19 frames below the corresponding picture frame. Thus there is a gap of 19 frames between the picture and the sound. Thought is exactly like that. It is slow. By the time it comes and captures the object within its framework, your eyes have moved away somewhere else, and the object is completely wiped out, i.e., erased from the brain.
Television is a good example. There is no picture on the screen at all. What we really see is a collection of dots in frames. There is an illusion that somebody is looking at it. It is the neurons that put the dots and create a picture.
Can we teach each individual a unique life path? The uniqueness of each individual cannot be expressed due to the stranglehold of the experience of others, as others' experiences have an effect on the person. There is no way to experience a feeling without knowledge. Happiness, for instance, can only be experienced, but not expressed. When you say you are happy you capture the sensation within the framework of knowledge.
Awareness is an integral part of the activities of all life systems. But you cannot use it as an instrument to bring about change.
The Physics and Biology of Enlightenment
What does physics have in common with enlightenment? Physics apparently belongs to the external world of physical phenomena and enlightenment to the internal world of perceptions. A closer examination, however, reveals that physics and enlightenment are not so disconnected as we might think. First, there is the fact that only through our perceptions can we observe physical phenomena. In addition to this obvious bridge, there are other intrinsic similarities. Enlightenment entails casting off the bonds of concept ("veils of ignorance") in order to perceive directly the inexpressible nature of undifferentiated reality.
"Undifferentiated reality" is the same reality that we are part of now, as always have been and will be. The difference is that we do not look at it the same way as an enlightened being does. As everyone knows, words only represent (re-present) something other than themselves. They are not real things. They are only symbols. According to the philosophy of enlightenment, everything is a symbol. The reality of symbols, however, is an illusory reality. Nonetheless, it is the one in which we live.
Although undifferentiated reality is inexpressible, we can talk around it using more symbols. The physical world as it appears to the unenlightened consists of many separate parts. These parts, however, are not really separate. According to mystics from around the world, each moment of enlightenment (grace/insight/samadhi) reveals that everything—all the separate parts of the universe—is a manifestation of the same whole. There is only one reality. It is whole and unified. It is one.
Enlightenment is a state of being (Heisenberg, 1958). Like any state of being it is indescribable. It is a common misconception (literally) to mistake the description of a state of being for the state itself. For example, try to describe happiness. It is impossible to do that. We can talk around it, we can describe the perspectives and actions that usually accompany the state of happiness, but we cannot describe happiness itself. Happiness and the description of happiness are two different things. Happiness exists in the realm of direct experience. It is the intimate perception of emotions and sensations which, indescribable in themselves, constitute the state of happiness. A state of being is an experience. A description of a state of being is a symbol. Symbols and experience do not follow the same rules.
This realization that symbols and experience do not follow the same rules has been brought to the science of physics by the formidable quantum logic. The possibility that separate parts of the universe like you or any other thing are connected in ways which both our common experience and laws of physics belie has forced its way into physics under Bell's theorem.
Laser fusion research and the hunt for quarks are paradigms of physics. A paradigm is an established thought, a framework. Quantum logic calls us back from the realm of symbols to the realm of experience. The second Bell's theorem tells us that there is no such thing as separate parts. All the parts of the universe are connected in an intimate fashion, as has been claimed by mystics.
The difference between experience and symbol is the difference between mythos and logos. Logos imitates but never replaces experience. It is a substitute for experience. Logos is an artificial constitution of dead symbols which mimics experience on a one-to-one basis. Classical physical theorems are an example of a one-to-one correspondence between theory and reality.
Einstein argued that unless a physical theory has a one-to-one correspondence with phenomena it is not complete. In other words, every element of physical reality must have a counterpart in the physical theory. Quantum theory does not postulate a one-to-one correspondence between theory and reality, as it cannot predict events, but only probabilities of events.
If enlightenment is seen as the realization of ultimate unity, then this is how Bell's theorem amply proves it. But if enlightenment is taken as 'I' exist in 'all' and 'all' exists in 'I' then the unity refers to life systems as the chemical thread of life (DNA) and as the unifying thread of all living systems. All living systems are characterized by the common chemical thread of DNA linking all organisms from primitive viruses to man. Life is similar in all beings, whether it be a snake, a bird or a dog. Thus a man could see his own life in all and all life in him. In this sense I am in all and all is in me.
A vital aspect of the state of enlightenment is the experience of an all-pervading unity. 'This' and 'that' are no longer separate entities. They are different forms of the same thing. Everything is a manifestation. It is not possible to answer the question, "Manifestation of what?" because what is is beyond words, beyond concept, beyond form, beyond even space and time. Everything is a manifestation of that which is. "That which is"—beyond these words lies the experience, the experience of that which is. Everything is that which is. We are part of that which is. In fact, according to the discovery of Bell in 1965 formulated in what is called the Bell's theorem, at a deep and fundamental level, the separate parts of the universe are connected in an intimate and immediate way.
Are there glandular changes that accompany the dying process (as in the case of U.G.'s Calamity)? Dr. Paul Lynn in the U.S. stresses the way the thymus gland functions. Other glands, like the pineal and the pituitary, are also affected. The thinking consciousness of man is affected by propaganda, persuasion or drugs. Mystical enlightenment is different: it is physiological mutation where endocrine transformation reacting with the nervous system causes changes.
The Endocrine Orchestra: The anterior pituitary operates through the hypothalamus and the pineal gland. It is the conductor of the endocrine orchestra with its tropic influence resulting in the release of several hormones from the thyroid, ovaries, testes, the adrenal gland, and the like, through a feedback system.
The Thymus: this is an important lymphoid organ. It is well developed at birth, continues to grow till the time of puberty, and atrophies thereafter. It controls lymphopoiesis and maintains an effective pool of circulating lymphocytes competent to react with innumerable antigenic stimuli. It controls the level of development of peripheral lymphoid tissues. The involution of the thymus is enhanced by the hypertrophy of the adrenal cortex and administration of cortisone or androgenic hormones. The involution is delayed by castration and adrenalectomy.
Thymic hyperplasia or tumors are often associated with myasthenia gravis characterized by excessive fatigue of voluntary muscles. The thymus influences the transmission of nerve impulses at neuro-muscular junctions.
The Pineal Gland or Epiphysis Cerebria: in many reptiles (snakes) the pineal gland is represented by a double structure. The anterior part (para pineal organ) develops into the pineal or parietal eye. In humans the pineal body represents the persistent posterior glandular part only. The parietal eye disappears functionally. It plays a part in the development of gonado-trophins through the hypothalamus, particularly in the period before sexual maturity. The amino acids N-acetyl-5-methoxy tryptamine (melatonin) and serotonin that are found in the gland may have some action on sexual maturity. The effect of light, stress, temperature variation, and feeding on the reproduction cycle are mediated through this.
The Hypothalamus: The hypothalamus is part of the diencephalon forming the floor and the lateral wall of the third ventricle. It is the head ganglion of the autonomic nervous system, and controls the metabolic activities in the body. It has an endocrine control over releasing TSH, ACTH, STH, PRL, LH, FSH, MAH by the anterior pituitary gland. It has neural control over two hormones in the posterior pituitary, oxytocin and vasopressin (an anti-diuretic hormone). The anterior part of the hypothalamus mediates parasympathetic activity and the posterior part sympathetic activity. But these effects overlap.
The hypothalamus controls cardiovascular, respiratory, and alimentary functions—three functions important for survival. It regulates temperature, and food and water in-take, as it has centers for hunger, satiety, and thirst. Through its controls over the anterior pituitary it controls gametogenesis, the reproductive cycle (the uterus and the ovaries), and the maturation and maintenance of secondary sexual characteristics.
Through its connection with the limbic system it participates in the elementary drives associated with food (hunger and thirst) and sex. It is a biological clock. The circadian rhythm of wakefulness and sleep is controlled by the reticular activating system (for wakefulness) and the hypnogenic zones (for sleep) respectively. Many of the functions of the thalamus, the hypothalamus, and parts of the brain stem lesions of the anterior hypothalamus disturb the circadian rhythm.
Emotions such as fear, rage, aversion, and pleasure are centered in the hypothalamus limbic system and prefrontal cortex. Sham rage can be produced by the stimulation of caudal hypothalamus and eliminated by its destruction. Positive and negative reward centers have been shown to exist in the hypothalamus.
Creation and destruction are simultaneous events. So also are the birth and death of thought. There is no such thing as death. The body changes from one state into another as recycling of matter. Matter is not born, but changed. It is not possible to experience one's own death. What we experience is the void or emptiness that occurs on the disappearance of someone's dead body. In the 'natural state' the continuity of thought is absent. What is present is a disjoined series of independent interactions. What happens in the environment happens in us in that state. There is no division. When the externally imposed armor is stripped we will find extraordinary sensitivity of the sensory system that responds to the phases of the moon, the passage of seasons, and the movements of the planets.
The recurring death process in U.G. can be compared to the process of birth of a baby. The body goes through a daily death process. The way the newborn baby moves and articulates the body is an example of a natural rhythm. In U.G. after the breath and heart beat come to the lowest ebb, his body begins to come back to life. The body warms up and begins to move. Pulse and metabolism pick up.
The present yoga is perhaps a reversal of the process in operation in the natural state, and is born out of a misunderstanding. The body has to die first before yoga asanas begin, not vice versa. The whole process of dying and renewal does not occur in U.G. by volition. His breathing responds to the physical environment, but is not under the influence of his thought.
Thought As a Survival Phenomenon
"The fundamental attributes of life are survival and reproduction." —U.G.
Living organisms experience through the input of the sensory system. When we touch a body, the idea that it is rough or smooth is born out of imagination and translation of this tactile sensing within the framework of our past experience. Similarly, when the breeze touches our body we feel the breeze. This feeling is thought. The moment we separate ourselves from the breeze, the sensory activity is translated within the framework of the knowledge that we already have. If there is no translation then there is no way of separating the breeze from ourselves and experiencing it. It does not mean that we are the breeze, but the feeling that it is breeze is a part of the knowledge we already have. Thus all the knowledge that is in our brain computer is not a creator but a processor. The brain only processes input information, analyzes, sorts and retrieves it.
There is no new experience, but the demand to experience repeatedly wears out the entire mechanism of memory for which it is not intended. Then what is consciousness? Consciousness is memory. We become conscious of something through the help of the knowledge we have of it and that knowledge is stored in memory. There is nothing like conscious or subconscious levels of consciousness. Awareness can never be separated from the activity of the brain. When we see an object we think that recognition and naming are different. They are both the same. Once we separate them, we introduce duality. Stimulus-response is one unitary movement. The moment we say we are aware, there is already division.
Memory maintains its continuity through a constant demand for using it. Thought has survived for millions of years, and it will have to maintain its continuity in order to survive. Thoughts come from outside of the organism, in the sense that they originate due to outside influences. The translation of sensory perceptions within the framework of our experience structure is thought. We are using these thoughts to achieve a goal. Our brain is a computer. Its searching is thinking. It is a mechanical process. There is no thinker thinking in this computer.
Unfortunately, we do not accept that thought is mechanical because that knocks down our feelings. We are mechanical; machines. We are extraordinary machines, nevertheless, in no way different from computers with parallel computing. We are not just computers, but also something more complex, something living. We have vitality and carry life energy like the electric energy.
When sense perceptions reach the brain, if any information is available it is retrieved. When the information is not available, we say we do not know. It is not that we do not know, but it just means that there is no information available in the memory banks.
The feeling of separateness from nature has brought the idea that everything has been created for us; and that is responsible for our destruction. Thought is destructive; it is a self-protecting mechanism. That is to say, all that is born out of thought is destructive, irrespective of its nature, whether it be religious, scientific or political. Thinking cannot help us solve human problems. We create problems since we cannot live without them. But we are not ready to accept that thought is our enemy, we do not know how to survive and function without thoughts. There is no way to get over the fact that thought is a self-perpetuating system. It controls, molds, and shapes ideas and actions. Ideas and actions are the same. All our actions are born out of ideas. Our ideas are thoughts passed on from generation to generation. Thought is not an instrument that can be used to help us live a harmonious life. That is why all the ecological or pollution problems have arisen, destroying us with the destructive weapons we have unleashed.
The body has an enormous intelligence to function in an integrated manner, but we want to teach the body things for which it has no interest. But the body is not interested in things like enlightenment or permanent pleasure. The basic objectives of life are to survive and to reproduce. But when we try to superimpose other goals on the body we create problems. Pain is a symptom arising, say, from a cut on the skin. Such pain is part of a healing process. The body can take care of itself, healing itself without our intervention. But we interfere and take painkillers. The body does heal on its own; but the healing is not a result of our volition.
When we notice the phenomenon of death, we form a desire to survive beyond death. So naturally we create something beyond it. We replace one illusion with another illusion, because ending illusions is death. Man is not happy unless he has illusions. Illusions vanish only at his death.
The so-called value system is solely responsible for human misery and malady.
The Pursuit of Happiness
The quest for happiness is a sensual activity. All our experiences are limited to this area. The human species at some stage of evolution experienced self-consciousness which separated him from the rest of the species on the planet. Then thought came into existence. Thought is a protective mechanism. It has helped us to be what we are today. It has helped us create high technology and make our life more comfortable. Also, it made us discover laws of nature. Thought, however, is interested in its own survival. And for that reason, it is opposed fundamentally to the functioning of the organism in a natural way.
We are fed on the belief that there is what is called the mind, solely created for the purpose of continuing and maintaining the status quo of the social order or condition to which man is exposed. Simultaneously it has created what is called individuality. There is a conflict between the two—the idea of the individual and the impossibility of functioning as an individual separate and distinct from man's totality of thoughts and experiences.
Thoughts are not spontaneous or self-generated. We use what we call thought to achieve our material or spiritual goals. The latter we deem as higher because of the conditioning by culture and because of its thoughts. All spiritual goals are material in their value. In the process of thinking we created our separate identity and a separate mind. But actually if we want to experience anything we have no way to experience it without the use of the knowledge that is passed on to us. Hence we can conclude that thought is memory.
Is there a thoughtless state? Spiritual teachers tell us that there is. So, whatever we experience in the process of achieving the goal of the thoughtless state strengthens the very thing we are trying to be free from, because the process implies further thought.
The cause-effect relationship is invented by thought. Every event is an individual and independent event. We link up several events to create continuity. The clock strikes 12 o'clock and the train reaches the station. These are separate and simultaneous events with no cause and effect connection. U.G. says that though events are disconnected in themselves, they are connected by thought. Cause-effect relationship does not exist even in nature. Hence there is no cause for the 'big bang' or for the creation of the universe or of life. There is no beginning or end. It is in a perpetual state of flux.
Maintaining what is called our identity through the constant use of memory creates tremendous problems because such use involves enormous expenditure of energy and leaves us with no residual energy to deal with the problems of everyday living. Is there a way out to free ourselves from our identity? No, that very thought of freeing ourselves creates problems.
Thought is essential for survival, but it cannot help us reach that goal. The quest for happiness is a myth because there is nothing like permanent happiness. There are moments of happiness or unhappiness. But the demand to be in a permanent state of happiness is the enemy of the body. The body is interested in maintaining its homeostasis due to the action of the sensory system, and also in maintaining the sensitivity of the nervous system that is essential for its survival.
If we use the same instrument of thought to achieve the goal of permanent happiness, the sensitivity of the body is destroyed. Hence the body rejects all the states of permanent happiness and pleasure, because there is no pleasure without pain. Even the so-called highly excitable sexual pleasure is not without pain. The body gets tired enormously. Thus thought is not intended to understand the significance of life or to achieve a spiritual goal, or to be used for the quest of permanent pleasure.
Thought influences the innate intelligence of the body. It is thought that makes our life more miserable and makes us end up with psychosomatic diseases like high blood pressure and the various neurological diseases of the modern age. Thus thought is not conducive to the harmonious working of our body because it only wants the perpetuation of pleasure without pain. This is the only way for its continuation. Thought also is inimical to the body because it wants permanence. And the demand for permanence destroys the body's sensitivity. The body is not interested in permanent pleasure or pain. The nervous system cannot handle permanent states of pleasure or pain. Thus the functioning of the body and the demands of thought are always in conflict and mutually opposed. This situation cannot be resolved by thought. Further, thoughts will only add up and aggravate.
We have to end this destructive interference of the self-perpetuating mechanism of thought. We cannot, however, control thought. One usual way to control thought is by adopting the 'rational approach'. The rationalistic approach is based on cause-effect relationship.
U.G. says that there is nothing like self-independence of the thought process. There is no thinker but only thinking. We think that there is a thinker, but actually there is none. There is no way to know the thinker, if there is one. We only see the movement of thoughts. Thought is the movement of memory. U.G. also says that there is nothing like observation or understanding of thought because there is no subject or observer independent of thought. The division between thought and an independent subject or observer is an illusion created by thought. Thus, awareness of one's own thought process is not factual. U.G. says that the idea of a thoughtless state has been exploited by many gurus and god men for their own commercial aggrandizement. Gurus claim copyright while nature does not.
U.G. maintains that the thoughtless state occurs when thought collapses. What is left is the harmonious mode of function of the organism where thoughts appear and disappear in accordance with a natural rhythm and in response to a challenge. The body functions in a natural state freed from the morbid hold of thought. Thought per se is not the problem, but it is only its self-perpetuating process that is dangerous. The death of thought as a self-perpetuating mechanism involves death, as in the case of U.G. Was it a state of trance? Mystic examples like Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Ramana Maharshi exist in India. But wherever it happened and to whom it ever happened, it is unique. In the case of U.G., the sensory system disappeared beginning with touch, then taste, smell, sight, hearing, one each day for five days. The order of the disappearance is striking. These sense organs went into dysfunction in the order of their development in the human fetus in the embryonic state.
In other words, the chronology of disappearance is the chronology of development. The state attained by U.G. is indescribable and has nothing to do with bliss, thoughtless silence, and other business jargon. Later, all the senses became functional, working independently. Hence, there was no connecting leading to a build up of thought. The senses were working in their peak capacity free from disturbing influences; but no omniscience. The demand to know was absent. There was physical tension and pain. Whenever the self-perpetuating thought system collapses, energy is released.
This state cannot be shared, since sharing presupposes a division between self and others. It also assumes that the knowledge he has is lacking in others. U.G. thinks that we are all on the same wave length. There is nothing to give and nothing for others to take. This idea runs counter to the traditional Hindu concept of guru-sishya parampara.
Thus the guru tradition becomes a hoax, as the guru is the central pillar in the Indian spiritual tradition. No one can give you enlightenment. You have to get it by yourself. If someone says he will show you the way, he is being a mercenary. Each individual is unique. He can have such an enlightenment, but it will be unique to him. To put all diverse experiences into one frame is absurd. There is no universal pattern or model. Thus, imitation of someone is useless. The past spiritual leaders tried to create a model for others based on their own experience. This is untenable, since every man is unique, and his enlightenment has to be different.
When it is something that cannot be shared or transmitted to others, the whole guru system collapses. Gurus transformed this spirituality into commercialism. The so-called past masters like Rajneesh and Muktananda are the worst perpetrators of crime against humanity, since they only advocated authoritarianism and sexual abuse of female disciples. These are perverted minds with neurological disorders.
Thanks to U.G., he did not build a math or assembly of disciples or organizations to preserve and perpetuate his teachings or cult. He is totally against the personality cult.
The great misery of humans is brought about by the search for enlightenment or moksha—a goal imposed by culture over millennia. The physical, physiological, and mental tortures which people undergo to attain this state are perverse. The torture of the body by withholding food causes such metabolic changes that it may cause hallucinations which are mistaken as spiritual experience. Desire stems from thought. There is nothing like absence of desire for the living being. It is this desire for moksha that one has to be free from.
U.G. does not see any distinction between material goals and spiritual goals. Spiritual goals are as self-centered as material goals. Spiritual goals are illusory and only extensions of material goals. If you think of God, it is only for your security that you do. Faith in God is a means to achieve material goals. It is just a delusion.
There is no delusion or fragmentation in U.G.'s philosophy. It is a monism based on physical and physiological modes. Nature is a single unit and the body cannot be separated from the totality of nature. This is a naturalistic principle and it is perfectly scientific. U.G. has explained his experience in neurobiological terms devoid of religious, psychological or mystical implications. This is a new concept, the concept we see in nature—a natural concept.
The Myth of the Mind: Knowledge Redefined
"There is only knowledge in the brain. That is what you are. You cannot directly experience the world without the help of knowledge. There is no world beyond space and time. It is the invention of the unholy minds of holy men." —U.G.
Knowledge is not mysterious nor is it abstract. It is just identification of an object. The knowledge that we have stored in our memory created the object we experience. Without the help of knowledge we cannot experience. The act of knowing is the accumulation of memory and the subsequent modification of it.
You cannot listen and think simultaneously. Only one action is possible at a time. The birth of thought itself is action. You cannot look at thought. Thought creates a space between the thinker and the thought and then tells itself, "I am looking at my thoughts." Is that possible? Thought brings in another thought.
We have been brainwashed over centuries by the holy men to control thoughts without thinking. We would be reduced to the state of a corpse. There is no qualitative difference between thoughts. There is no difference in your thoughts as, for example, when you go to a temple. But you attach great significance to visiting a temple. It is only prejudice that makes the difference.
Thought can never capture the movement of life. Thought and life are like thunder and lightning which occur simultaneously, but the sound of thunder reaches us later by virtue of its lower velocity, thus creating the illusion that there are two events. The natural physiological sensations and perceptions can move with the flow of life. There is no question of capturing or containing the movement.
Actually, consciousness is something we will never know. We become conscious only through memory and knowledge. There is no such thing as looking at something without the interference of knowledge. To look you need space. Thought creates space. Thus space itself is a dimension which is the creation of thought.
Let us examine: the time-space gravitational force is not a force like any other force. It is a consequence of the fact that space-time is not flat as has previously been assumed, but curved because of the destruction of mass and energy in it. The gravitational field is represented by the curve of space-time. Space and time are dynamic quantities. When a body moves or a force acts on it, it affects the curvature of space-time.
In turn, the structure of space-time affects the ways in which bodies move and forces act. Normally we think of events which are measured in terms of the coordinates of space-time. But with Einstein's general theory of relativity space-time is not just a frame of reference but is itself being affected by everything that happens in the universe. Experience in everyday life indicates that time flows in one direction, i.e., from past to future.
When we travel fast time slows down. Everything is relative, and space and time are inextricably linked. Time is a function of the occurrence of events. Space and time are a continuum, and it is impossible to draw a distinction between past, present, and future. In biological terms the fourth dimension represents continuity.
An individual who is free from self-consciousness no longer experiences his own independent existence. It is the movement of thought that is taking you away from the natural state and creating a division. You can never experience ultimate reality. Experiencing reality from moment to moment is also a thought-related state of mind.
Our search for happiness is prolonging our unhappiness. The demand to be free from problems is the cause of all our problems. That pursuit itself is slavery. The urge for freedom and self-knowledge are connected. The knowledge we have about freedom denies the very possibility of freedom. When we stop looking at ourselves with the knowledge we have, the demand to be free from the self drops away.
There is no stillness of mind. What there is is the constant demand to be free. Why should you be free from memory? Memory is absolutely essential. The problem is not having memory but our tendency to use it to further our spiritual interests or as means to find happiness. The attempt to be free from memory is withdrawing, and withdrawing is death.
Not knowing is a myth to us. What there is is not knowing, but knowing prevents a state of freeing yourself from the known. The demand to be freed from the known creates a problem. Idealization of a non-existent ideal person or state is that doom. The greatest ideal that man has invented is the most imposing, perfect, and powerful God—an invention of a frightened mind. The history of human thinking has produced saints, teachers, and so on, but the idea of God is the most corrupt of all. Man's already messed up life has been made worse by religion.
The sum total of knowledge is there in everyone. You cannot separate experience from knowledge. Similarly enlightenment has no independent existence of its own apart from the knowledge we have about it. There is no enlightenment at all. The idea of enlightenment is tied with the desire to change. But there is nothing to change. The attempt to change is just an attempt to eliminate one state and replace it with another. What we are, how we are, and what we ought to be are linked by time. We are going to be enlightened tomorrow!
We are always dealing with pairs of opposites—happiness, unhappiness, freedom, no freedom, desire, no desire. A man who is not concerned with morality will not be interested in immorality. The answer to selfishness lies in selfishness. Similarly, freedom from anger lies in anger. So also, freedom from greed lies in greed, not in non-greed.
We have to accept the world as it is revealed to us by our sense organs. Belief is like any other habit, an extension of the survival mechanism. When you want to be free from belief, whatever you do or hope to do to be free from belief adds momentum to it. You cannot control your thought, do what you may. Thought by itself or in itself is not damaging. It is only when you want to do something with it, such as trying to achieve something unattainable, that you create a problem.
Religion
The only difference between the East and the West is in respect of religions. Christianity did not produce such weird characters as Hinduism did. In India religion is an individual affair, each selling its magic ware, thus generating a lot of variety. This is the religious heritage. Hinduism is a combination and confusion of many things. The actual word 'Hindu' comes from a non-Sanskrit word. The invading Moslems from the Middle East found the native Indians to have a dark complexion. So they named the natives' religion as the religion of the 'Black Hindus'. Scholars may not like this interpretation, but U.G. claims that it is correct and historical.
According to him, Hinduism is not a religion. It is a street with a hundred shops, each claiming its wares as the best. For example, Rajneesh's sex shop, J. Krishnamurti's awareness shop, Maharshi Mahesh Yogi's meditation gymnasium, and Satya Sai's magic and mesmerism. The durability of these products is questionable. The teachings of the great founders of religions and saviors of mankind have resulted only in violence which is perpetrated by their followers. Every teacher talks peace, but his teaching resulted in violence in the end.
Religious people do not want to lose their hold on people. It is their business, their livelihood. They are permanent parasites on people. They have great taste for human blood like a man-eater—the taste of the man-eater is so refined that he does not touch anything else except man!
Moral Codes of Conduct
The religious people preach us to practice moral codes of conduct such as generosity, compassion, and love while they remain greedy and callous all the time. Codes of conduct are set up by societies in their own interest. There is no religious content in it. The religious man puts the priest inside you, and society puts the policeman outside. Religious people have to be ignored. After all, they have stakes in this business.
Our attempt to attain a permanent state of happiness and uninterrupted pleasure is only choking the body, when we know full well that such a state cannot be realized. That state may be romantic, religious, spiritual—it makes no difference. Our attempt to attain it only adds momentum to the false continuity, radically destroying the chemistry of the body and precipitating psychosomatic diseases like hypertension, diabetes mellitus, schizophrenia, neurosis, etc.
When a person is in a depressed state, his body falls asleep. It is nature's way of handling the situation. Or you are told to attain permanent or uninterrupted bliss. Thus, your ceaseless search will only destroy the sensitivity and intelligence of the nervous system while radically disturbing the chemical balance. This results in the precipitation of what are called psychosomatic diseases. The body is not interested in happiness. The body's natural intelligence is handling the system well by processing with sensory inputs. The recognition of sensation involves energy. And continued recognition makes a dent on the energy reserves. We try to increase pleasure and decrease pain, something which is opposed to natural laws.
The body is interested in survival and reproduction. Thought is essential for survival, since it determines action and reaction. All animals have survival thoughts, but in the case of man, thought is complicated by the additional factor called recognition, which consists of superimposing something over the natural sensory functions. The thought structure seeks continuity at all costs. If you go into deep sleep long enough, 'you' disappear. The body goes through clinical death, and, in some cases, renews itself. At that point the entire history of the individual located in the genetic structure of the body no longer separates itself from life and the person falls into his own rhythm. That is to say, the genetic potentiality has been allowed to be expressed without his interference. This genetic expression is innate.
So long as motivation exists there is self-centered activity. The more you are engaged in it, the more you become selfish. We will never be free from selfishness, though we are encouraged by saints to be selfless. Selflessness is an idea we use to protect ourselves in our selfishness. The so-called selflessness does not exist, but exists only in the future—tomorrow or the next life. Just as the limitation of the eye creates the illusion of a horizon, selflessness is an illusion created by our thought. Selfishness is in our genes. Selflessness is a commodity sold by priests and moralists so they can become rich.
The search for happiness is in no way different from spiritual purification. All spiritual purification is unnatural. That is why we are eternally unhappy. The search for happiness makes us unhappy. Thus spiritual and religious activities are basically selfish. All spiritual and religious expositions should be challenged not on the authority of holy books like the Gita or Upanishads, but on your own authority.
A great sage like Gowdapada can speak of the Upanishads, but he is not here today; so you do not look in them for solutions to your problems. Identify the problem and you will find that the problem is the solution. If anyone says there is a way out he is a dishonest man. He simply wants to market his product by convincing you of the superiority of his product over all others. Another fellow sells his own product. Thus it becomes a chase of your own shadow. Yet we cannot remain where we are. That is the problem.
Now the conclusion appears to be that the situation is hopeless. And this can create more hopelessness, because we do not want to be free from our fear, envy, jealousy, and selfishness. That is why the situation becomes hopeless. Selfishness gets strengthened by the cultivation of selflessness.
We have lost the desire to question what others say. We have been subjugated by religious teachers not to ask but merely submit ourselves. You have the full defensive armor with Brahmasutras as your bullet proof vest, Gita as your jacket and Gowdapada as your gloves. Nothing can penetrate you. There are only a few saints and seers, but the rest are technocrats. Now with the development of drugs, saints are dispensed with. You can take a drug and control your thoughts.
The Transience of Life
Our tradition tells us that life is transient. Tradition means no change. Thus our life is a denial of the reality of change. We only speculate about death. Living people do not bother about death. The memory in you wants to know whether it will continue even after what it imagines as death occurs. Death is the finality. There is no solution without death. The death of the individual is necessary for the survival of the species, since without death there is no turnover of genotypes to create variability on which natural selection acts for purposes of evolution.
You can only help yourself. No outsider can help you. You should ask yourself: is there anything that can be attained? The physical wants are understandable. The object of search is born out of our thought. Freedom exists not in finding answers but in the dissolving of all questions. Unfortunately, we are not interested in this.
Thought control is not possible without becoming a neurotic. Just as a well-fed man is not in search of food, a happy man is not interested in seeking happiness. So long as you search for happiness, you are unhappy. Society is so organized along with limitations it places on all of us that we have to accept it as it is. The real individual is he who is free from the accumulated tradition and knowledge of mankind. Such an individual, however, is a threat to society, just as U.G. is a threat for the existence of society.
You have a desire to change yourself and society. But you cannot change them. You want to change the world, so that you can live happily, full of compassion for mankind. So long as you desire a change in society, you remain discontent and want the world to be different. When the inner demand to be different comes to an end, you are in harmony with the society, including tolerating its brutalities, starvation, and poverty. All attempts to change the brutal society will only add to its momentum. Unless you are at peace with yourself, there cannot be any peace in the world.
As long as your interests do not clash with others' interests your relationship with them is perfect. We all demand happiness to be a permanent feature of our lives, which is impossible. In nature there is nothing like permanence at all. Everything is in a flux. Because we cannot face impermanence in our relationships, sentiment, romance, and other dramatic emotions are created to give the relationship a continuity. Therefore, we are always in conflict emotionally.
You need not impose any meaning on life. The problem is that, instead of living, we are obsessed with the question of how we can live. Society has created in us the need to do something to live better and nobler.
The Conditioning of the Mind
We have powerful instincts. The conditioned mind cannot be deconditioned. Gurus propose the deconditioning of the mind. It is another sales gimmick. Conditioning is intelligence; it is the ability to respond adequately to our environment. It is in no way related to our fantasies, ideations and mentations.
U.G. discovered for himself that what has been fed to him about freedom and enlightenment is false.
Society is a Jungle
"I do not look upon the world as a separate thing as you do. The knowledge about the world comes to me when there is a demand. The natural state is one of unknowing. I do not know that I am a free man. There is no way to experience the reality of anything. It is something that cannot be experienced by anybody." —U.G.
Society is a jungle created by us. U.G.'s exposition takes you to the questions of untouchability in India, and suffering and despair everywhere. There is no future for man. Anything that is born out of the division in man will eventually destroy mankind because of the inevitability of the war inside. The so-called military war is an extension of what is going on all the time inside of you. It occurs because of our search for peace. The instructions we are using in our attempts to be at peace with ourselves is war. There is already peace in us. It needed not be sought. The living organism functions in an extremely peaceful way. Man's search for truth is born out of the same search for peace. He disturbs the peace in the body the moment he starts searching for peace.
What keeps people together is terror, not love. Man's instinct for survival is deep-rooted. The terror of mutual extinction has a strong influence on man. But there may be no guarantee of his survival. Now we have reached a higher level in technology. By neutron bombs we can not only annihilate man, but also the entire life on the planet.
The day man felt self-consciousness, felt that he is superior to all the species on the planet, that day he laid the road for total self-destruction. Destruction may not occur through man; lack of resources, economic slavery, or poverty can also cause it. But man will take everything with him when he destroys.
The urge to become a master of the planet stems from religion which says that man is the center of the universe and that everything in it is for him. That is why he has plundered the planet.
Thought is born out of the divisive consciousness in man. Ultimately it will end up defeating the very cause men are working and dying for. The people around Mother Theresa are capitalizing on her fame. All they are interested in now is money to carry on her work. Why should all these things be institutionalized?
You corrupt the feeling of that immediate response—which is not just a thought or petty emotion—when you attempt to institutionalize generosity and empathy. It is the immediate response to the situation that counts. Institutionalization dulls the natural sensitivity...
"The world does not owe a living to me. If I wish to enjoy the benefits of organized society, I have to contribute something." Thus, in enjoying its benefits we also contribute to the status quo maintenance of its continuity.
The fundamental features of a living organism are to survive and reproduce one like itself. Survival needs food. After satiation of hunger, reproduction plays a greater role. Talent is not necessary for reproduction but is essential for survival. Thus survival is linked to talent. The end result of survival is reproduction. There is nothing like mind or consciousness. Thought builds up an experience and creates a desire for ultimate happiness devoid of pain. Thus thought-derived self-centeredness maintains and perpetuates itself even at the cost of the destruction of the world. This can also lead to self-destruction for the sake of even a silly idea, as witnessed in wars.
But what is the way out? U.G. says there is none. Because of the repeated attempts you make to get rid of this thought bondage, thought further perpetuates and strengthens itself, thus entrenching itself more deeply. Any attempt by way of meditation, spiritual purification, use of religion or social reform, or even by revolution of any kind, will only strengthen the thought bondage, thus strengthening the self. We are, however, unable to get out of this self-slavery. But in some individuals, that too in a unique individual like U.G. (how many of them are there?), a change occurs, which he calls "mutation" (not in the genetic sense, but in a physiological sense), and the organism becomes free from the bondage to thought.
When it becomes free, the organism returns to its original natural biological condition. Thought then falls (how?) into a natural rhythm in which the activity of thought becomes limited to the given situation. This cannot be caused by your effort or volition. The congenial condition for this change to happen is to remain effortless. Thought comes into action when the situation demands. But how? Unless you attain that change, it is not possible to experience the situation. We can see several analogies.
We sometimes do act spontaneously. We do not always think first, and then act. U.G. perhaps acts spontaneously without thought and that condition of his is sustained. Then how to get the situation-oriented thought?
In U.G., knowing and unknowing occur in the same frame simultaneously. He has nothing to know or understand, but at the same time he cannot communicate with us. How does he know that he is in a state of unknowing? We cannot understand that.
U.G. says that you and I are not separate or different from each other, though we think we are. So it becomes impossible to prove or disprove some of his teachings. His memory is tremendous and baffling. He appears to live in a discontinuous state of memory. But how can we have that state?
Beliefs are relative. U.G. employs one belief to combat another, and uses a third belief to combat the first, thus indicating an inconsistency in his position.
According to U.G., the driving force for human action is power, not rationality. Knowledge is power. It is technology that is the driving force. The rationalistic approach is based on faith in the ability of thought to transform the human condition. U.G. says that this is a misplaced faith, because thought is divisive and tries to perpetuate itself, thereby leading us to destruction. Intuition, he claims, is refined thought, just as faith is without any foundation. Everything that is born out of thought is destructive and harmful one way or the other. U.G. says that the innate natural intelligence of the organism is the one we have to depend upon. The acquired intelligence is no match to it.
Communication of Experience
"Experience can never be translated." —U.G.
According to Finklestein, the language of mythos, a language which alludes to experience but does not attempt to replace it, is the true language of physics. This is because not only the language we use to communicate our experiences in daily life but also mathematics follow a certain set of rules (as the rules in classical logic). Experience is not bound by these rules. It follows a much more permissive set of rules (viz., quantum logic). Quantum logic is more real. It is based not on the way we think of things but on the way we experience them.
When we try to describe an experience with classical logic (the way we have been doing since we learned to write), the logic imposes certain restrictions, and also introduces distortions. These restrictions are the set of rules in classical logic, where the rules are well defined and simple. Unfortunately, they do not correspond to experience. The most important difference between classical logic and quantum logic concerns the law of distributivity. The distributive law which is the foundation of classical logic does not apply to quantum logic. (van Neumann, 1955 and van Neumann and Birkoff, 1936).
The above authors have demonstrated mathematically that it is impossible to describe experience with classical logic because the real world follows different rules. The rules that experience follows constitute quantum logic whereas the rules that symbols follow constitute classical logic.
Pure experience is never restricted merely to two possibilities. Our conceptualization of a given situation may create an illusion that each problem has only two solutions; but this illusion is caused by assuming that experience is bound by the same rules as symbols. In the world of symbols everything is either this or that, but in the world of experience there are more alternatives available.
Let us take an example. A judge has to try his son in a court of law. The law allows only two alternatives, viz., a verdict of guilty or a verdict of not guilty. But for the judge there is a third verdict possible, viz., "He is my son." The very fact that judges are prohibited to try cases in which they have personal interest is a tacit admission that experience is not limited to the categorical alternatives of guilty or not guilty. Only in the reality of symbols the choice is clear.
The recognition of this quality of experience is an integral part of quantum logic. Van Neumann's discovery that our thought processes (which occur in the realm of symbols) project illusory restrictions on to the real world is essentially the same discovery that led Einstein to formulate the general theory of relativity. Einstein disproved the universality of Euclidean geometry which had been accepted as the underlying structure of the universe. Until now classical logic has been accepted as a natural reflection of the nature of reality.
A powerful awareness lies dormant in these discoveries, an awareness of the hitherto unsuspected power of the "mind" (brain) to mold "reality," rather than the other way around. If Buddhism is the philosophy of enlightenment, then the philosophy of physics is becoming indistinguishable from it.
In nature things are as they are. Correlation is a concept which we use to describe the connections we perceive. The word and concept of 'correlation' have no significance apart from people. This is because only people use words and concepts. Correlation is a concept. Subatomic particles are correlations. If we are not here to make them, there would not be any concepts, including the concept of correlation. The same is true of particles: if we were not here to make them, there would not be any particles.
From a pragmatic point of view nothing can be said about the world 'out there' except via our concepts. Even in the world of our concepts particles do not have a separate and independent existence. They are represented by wave functions (Schrödinger's wave equation); and the meaning of the wave function lies only in the correlation of other macroscopic things. Since the wave function is thought to be a complete description of physical reality, and since that which the wave function describes is an idea as well as matter, the world cannot be as it appears.
A macroscopic object like a table or a chair has an experienced meaning. That is, we organize our sensory perceptions directly in terms of it. These experiences are such that we can believe that the object has an existence and a well-defined location in space-time that is logically independent of other things. But the concept of independent existence evaporates at the subatomic level. If it has an idea-like aspect, the physical world cannot be substantive in the usual sense of the word. One hundred percent matter is one hundred percent idea.
The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics states that the physical world is not what it appears to be. It states that what we perceive to be physical reality is actually our cognitive construction of it. This cognitive construction may appear to be substantive, but the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics leads directly to the conclusion that the physical world itself does not exist. This claim appears preposterous and far removed from our experience; and our inclination is to discard it as a foolish notion. But there are several reasons why we should not be so hasty, since quantum mechanics is a logical system which is self-consistent and consistent with all known experimental results. The experimental evidence is not compatible with our ordinary notions of reality. Not only physicists but most Hindus and Buddhists hold a similar unconventional view of reality.
The uncertainty principle of Heisenberg brings us to the realization that there is no "my way" which is separate from the world around us. It brings into question the very existence of objective reality as does complementation and the concept of particles as correlations. Science at the level of subatomic particles does not see any distinction between the objective and the subjective portals through which the universe manifests itself. The unchanging, absolute aspect of presumed reality depends upon the experiment process as per the special theory of relativity which tells us that space and time are not separate entities, just as mass and energy are not. The mass of the object increases and its length decreases with velocity and show down time. Reality varies from frame to frame of reference. According to Einstein, there is no single time which flows equally for all observers. In other words, there is no absolute time.
Can We Experience Timelessness?
There is speculation and some evidence that consciousness (awareness of surroundings, recognition, etc.) at the most fundamental level is a quantum process. The eye adopted to the dark, for example, can detect a single photon. If, at the quantum level, the flow of time has no meaning, if consciousness is fundamentally similar to the quantum process, and if we can become aware of this process by something like chemical inhibition in ourselves, then it is also conceivable that we can experience timelessness. In fact, LSD trippers report time distortion and timelessness.
If we can experience the most fundamental functions of our psyche, and if they are quantum in nature, then it is possible that the ordinary conceptions of space and time might not apply to them at all, as they do not seem to apply in dreams. It is difficult to explain this rationally.
The mind is such that it can only deal with ideas. It is not possible for the mind to relate to anything other than ideas. Therefore, it is not correct to think that the mind can actually ponder reality. All that the mind can ponder are its own ideas about reality. Therefore, whether or not an idea is true is not a matter of how closely it corresponds to the absolute reality, but how consistent it is with our experience. Even the Copenhagen interpreters of quantum mechanics were forced by their own findings to acknowledge that a complete understanding of reality lies beyond the capabilities of rational thought. Einstein did not accept this. Instead, he stated that the most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.
Death is only an intermediary step in the continuous cycle of organic processes in nature. In other words, death is a process of recycling matter. Death is essential because without the turn over of genotypes there would be no variations on which natural selection can act. If there is no action of natural selection on variations created in each genotype, there can be no evolution. This is a fundamental truth about nature. Without evolution there is no betterment of species.
After death the body is reduced to various chemical elements and in the soil enters the process of recycling which supports the growth of plants, animals, and eventually man. Thus, we have rebirth in this fashion, i.e., through the reconstitution of elements. There is nothing to be reborn in this body, as has been envisaged by Hindu philosophy.
If we go to the fundamental level, there is continuous creation, transformation, and annihilation at the subatomic level. Thus what we see are patterns changing from one level to other levels, as, for example, from subatomic particles (themselves energy) to atoms to molecules to cells and finally to organisms. Patterns change, but not the process. The process continues in space and time. Then where is death?
By-Products of Modern Civilization
Science no longer holds any absolute truths. The principle of uncertainty holds true. As a consequence of scientific advances it is true that mankind has been benefited immensely, but it is also true that these advances have brought innumerable miseries. The main undesirable features of the modern civilization are:
Production of mass destructive atomic, chemical, and biological weapons.
Destruction of the planet leading to its degradation.
Mass production technology replacing crafts and satisfying work.
Excessive urbanization and high-density crowding associated with industrialization.
Dehumanizing effect of computers in administration.
Genetic engineering to replace genes.
Creation of new species, thus crossing the species barrier, as for example, the cross between sheep and goats by manipulation of the embryo.
In vitro fertilization.
Manipulation of the human embryo.
Surrogate motherhood.
Accelerating lifestyles and destroying traditional customs, causing instability, such that people have a feeling of insecurity and unhappiness, as, for example, when are they are struck by heart disorders, hypertension, cancer, and the like.
An unimaginable brave new world of tomorrow.
Can we face these revolutionary changes? U.G.'s view is that we have to face reality, since you cannot change the world around, much less yourself.
U.G.'s Views On the Future of Mankind
U.G. says there is no future. You are stuck in a cul-de-sac, and you cannot get out of it. Hence we face the world as it is? Do not try to change it, since you will face annihilation. The acceptance of limitations is intelligence. You are trying to be free from these natural limitations. That is the cause of sorrow and pain. Your action limits the next action. Saints and saviors have succeeded in making your life miserable.
Love and hate are both the same. Both resulted in murder, massacre, wars and genocide. Buddhism brought wars in Japan. All the political systems stem from a religious basis. The field of psychology has dislocated the thinking of man for hundreds of years, and we now know that Freud is the greatest fraud of the twentieth century. The spiritual people are dishonest. They created a human jungle. The men who claim to be virtuous are the men of vice. All men "will be virtuous tomorrow." Your virtue always exists in the fictitious future.
Spirituality is an invention of the mind and the mind is a myth. The absence of peace of mind is due to sadhana. Since you are told that life has meaning it makes you feel that life has no meaning. If you drop the idea of meaningfulness, then you see the meaning in daily life. It is impossible to be selfless, since selfishness is in your genetic makeup. You sit in meditation when the battle is raging in you. The state of samadhi comes after the ending of all you have ever known, that is, at the time of death. The body has to become like a corpse before that knowledge, locked up in every cell, ceases. The stopping of doing is courage, when authority and fear are thrown out of the system.
There is nothing to incarnate after death. What is there even when you are alive? Is there anything beyond the totality of knowledge which exists inside of you now? So, is there death? Can you experience death? No. The body recycles itself into organic and inorganic systems.
What you call the act of knowing is an accumulation of memory. You have added to and modified your knowledge. Essentially knowledge does not belong to you at all. It is an external input into your memory.
The body or organism is not interested in spiritual matters. It only aims at survival and reproduction. You are born and you die with every breath. That is what is meant by birth and death. Yet thought denies the reality of death. Nowadays you can substitute drugs for yoga. The problem with man is not memory, but your tendency to further your spiritual thought. Freedom from memory is death. Enlightenment does not exist in finding answers. The real individual is one who is free from the accumulated tradition and knowledge of mankind, and he is a threat to society.
Understanding yourself is one of the greatest jokes perpetrated on the gullible and credulous people everywhere. Conditioning is intelligence. It is the ability to respond to the environment adequately. Unconditioning and deconditioning of the mind—such trade jargon has no meaning.
There is no such thing as reality at all. Reality is imposed on us by culture, education, and society. Man's search for truth is born out of the same search for peace. It only causes further disturbance in the already present peace. It is mortality that creates immortality, known the unknown, time the timeless. It is thought that creates the thoughtless. It is perception in terms of dualism that drains you.
Human beings are essentially helpful to each other. The institutionalization of charity, on the other hand, dulls your natural sensitivity. It is not compassionate.
Karma has no foundation. There is no natural law called karma. The whole concept of reincarnation is built on the foundation of belief. What is there to reincarnate? We have in our midst enormous poverty, starvation, and degradation attributable ostensibly to the actions in the past birth. It is comforting to believe and to take shelter in that belief in order to reconcile oneself to a given situation. A child with a birth defect is believed to be born so due to its past misdeeds. But we know that these are developmental anomalies during embryogenesis due to exposure to viruses or chemicals or radiation or due to chromosome defects in parents.
Communism at least succeeded in providing for the basic necessities of life like food, clothing, and shelter, but as a political ideology it failed, because there cannot exist a classless society in nature. Any society tolerates dissent only up to a certain point. No society will tolerate a threat and will tend to maintain its status quo. Any attempt to change this status quo will end up in violence. The reality of the capitalist society today, despite its inhumanness, has to be tolerated for survival reasons.
Communism is dead. Maoism is dead. Democracy will decay because of the rule by criminals and the affluent. Human desires multiply. The rich rob the poor and the state robs all. The state stands by the rich. It is the rich, that is, the state, that will dictate the policies. The poor will be dispensed with, for there is no hope for them. Democracy promises profuse and abundant freedom without food, shelter, and clothing. You survive or perish. Push or perish is the philosophy. Politicians thrive on cheating with false promises. Governments thrive on untruths. They promise something which they cannot deliver, as for example, employment.
The anti-atomic bomb movement is regarded by U.G. as a hoax. The bomb culture is only an extension of the protection of collective property or nation from perceived threats. You cannot justify police and law and order and at the same time oppose the necessity for the bomb to maintain international law and order. The atom bomb is a deterrent. We have to maintain peace by war threats.
Ecology
The present day ecological crisis is due to the Judo-Christian belief that man is superior to all others and he can exploit nature mercilessly for his survival. It is due to the belief that man has the license to dominate and subjugate nature. Several plants and animals have become extinct because of man. Hinduism and Buddhism also share the view to some extent, namely the view that to be born as a man is a great boon and a virtue, thus arrogating superiority to the human species. A belief is widely held that even gods have to be born as humans in order to attain enlightenment. The human species was not created for a specific purpose by any force. Man is just like any insect or animal.
Inorganic evolution has resulted in the formation of elements. This was followed by organic evolution which resulted in the origin of life just as a matter of chance and not by the will of anyone. The origin of life is believed to be synonymous with the origin of the genetic code—an association of nucleic acids with proteins. Thus primitive organisms arose from which, by a process of natural selection and mutation, complex organisms arose. Our superiority gave us power to exterminate all of them; and this justification resulted in the ecological crisis. The superiority is now due to the technology and economic system we have, and it is the structure of belief and values which drive the technology and economic system. Hence the problem is not that the planet is endangered but that it is we who are endangered. It is absurd to think of saving the earth or the planet. We have to save ourselves.
We can use genetic engineering to change a man's diseased state. But the state control of genetic engineering is dangerous, as it would impose its dominant pattern. We function as per our gene culture. That is the greatest problem for us. This is a formidable achievement and a great leap for mankind to get out of the shackles of millennia of culture seeped in spirituality, imbibed in religious stink, and fortified by the malignancy of a thought-perpetuating system.
War
War is love, since war making and love making spring from the same source, viz., the separative structure of thought. There is nothing to a loving relationship which springs from a sense of isolation created by thought. One wants to fill this void with someone. Thus love is self-fulfillment or self-gratification. Unfortunately we do not acknowledge this sordid truth. That is why we have invented fictions like 'loving care' to deceive ourselves.
We have to find answers to our problems by ourselves and for ourselves. No one can help us. Because of society we have no way of asserting our individuality.
Money has become the most important factor in our life. They say money is the root cause of all our troubles. But it is not. It is the root cause of our existence, our survival. It is better to worship the money God. Even the holy men talk about money and want money. It is easy for the religious people to get money because others deny money to themselves to enrich the holy.
(In U.G.) the goals and needs are the same. U.G. has no goals beyond his needs or beyond his means. For him there is nothing wrong with this world.
The positive and the negative do not exist at all. If they do, they exist in the same frame. There is order and disorder (chaos) in the universe 'in the same frame'—i.e., simultaneously. That is the way the living organism operates. The moment thought is born, it cannot stay there (in U.G.). Thought is matter. When once the matter that is necessary for the survival of the living organism is created, the matter becomes part of the energy. Life and death are simultaneous processes.
Except on the level of mutual gratification there is no relationship. The value system demands security and mutual possessiveness. You want to possess the other individual. When you hold on to the other, the other becomes weak and your relationship wears out. That is why the relationship between a man and a woman is based on the images that the two create for themselves and for each other. When everything fails the last trump card is love, with all the marvelous romantic ideations around it.
Even animals have been spoiled by our making them pets and conditioning them. India is called a non-violent country. It is a joke. Where is a place where there is no violence, whether in the mind or in the society or in the state?
The basic issue in the world today is its resources. The fear of extinction brings us together, not love or brotherhood. The biological instinct is very powerful, and it is the fear of extinction, not love or compassion, that will probably save mankind.
Modern man is the product of evolutionary symbiosis. Life in its emergence from the "primordial soup" has given rise to simple forms of organisms which over millennia evolved into more complex forms. Modern man with his specially developed cortex (the human brain) has been able to develop communication skills like language which enriched his culture. He extended his domination over the subhuman sphere and became supreme. Now dominating his environment, man has no serious adversary to face other than his own kind. Then came strife among men—the dance of death. Wars broke out. War became the principal factor of selection in the human species. In the evolution of animals this phenomenon is rare. Among larger animals even a single combat does not end up with death.
Thus, in animals Spencer's struggle for life does not appear to have an appreciable effect. It played only a minor role in evolution. This is not true with mankind. Tribal and racial warfare emerged as an important evolutionary factor in the development and expansion of mankind. It is believed that the mysterious disappearance of Neanderthal man was the result of genocide committed by the ancestors of Homo sapiens. There are several such instances in history.
Then in what direction has this selective pressure pushed human evolution? It favored the expansion of races and cohesion of tribal law, and manifested itself more in collective aggression than in individual aggression.
During the past thousands of years cultural evolution affected physical evolution. It is behavior that orients selective pressure. Once the behavior ceased to be automatic and became cultural, cultural traits exerted their pressure on the evolution.
In modern societies selection has been relaxed to a great extent. There is no longer natural selection in the Darwinian sense. Selection does not operate in favor of the survival of the fittest—that is to say, the genetic survival of the fittest through more numerous progeny. Intelligence, ambition, and courage are the parameters of success in modern societies. But the success is personal, not genetic. What matters in evolution is genetic success. We know the negative correlation between the intelligent quotient (at the cultural level) and the average number of children per couple. Also, we see a high positive correlation between the intelligence quotients of marital partners. This situation is dangerous, since it leads to a gradual drain of the highest genetic potential into an elite which is shrinking in relative size.
The situation gets further aggravated by the absence of the weeding out of the physical and mental unfits most of whom would otherwise have been eliminated automatically under natural selection before they even reached their puberty. Today many of the genetic cripples not only survive but marry and produce progeny, thereby increasing the number of genetic cripples for future generations. This is due to the great medical advances that enable genetic cripples to survive. Thus the natural mechanisms whereby genetic cripples were once eliminated stand suspended today (Monod, 1970).
Molecular biology has shown a way to improve the genetically affected children, but only with regard to the individual child. It has not shown any way to repair the genetic flaw in the germ cells like spermatozoa or eggs. The present knowledge rules out such intervention.
Thus the only way that we can improve the human species is to introduce deliberate selection. But who can do this? Can the governments do it? Perhaps only a country like China can. They have already prohibited the marriage of genetic cripples.
The present-day conditions in advanced societies pose a greater threat to the species. But it would take about 20 generations to increase the number of genetic cripples. Can the state afford to keep them healthy? And for how long?
We face today the much more burning problem of population explosion which has resulted in the death of the natural environment and scarcity of natural resources. This is further complicated by a much more deep-seated spiritual sickness.
The social organization of mankind is seen again only in ants, termites, and bees. Social behavior in them is innate. But man's social institutions which are cultural in nature cannot attain such stability. For his survival man needed the invention of religion and philosophical systems—a price he had to pay to survive as a social animal. But cultural heritage alone is not enough to hold social structure. It needs genetic support to provide something essential to mankind. That is why the religious and philosophical ideologies keep recurring in some form or other. We have yet to see how mankind will tackle the degradation of its own species. Tampering with nature has brought enormous problems, as can be witnessed in the case of natural resources.
Tampering with the heredity of man is fraught with grave danger. Survival or annihilation appear to be the only choices left for mankind.
Human Nature
Human nature is the same irrespective of the country where it occurs. Human problems are the same. Selfishness extends from individuals to nations. The nations enjoying the monopoly of using global resources will not tolerate if they are threatened to be dislodged. The destructive weapons invented by them will be used to protect their monopoly. That is to say that nations, like individuals, preach love and brotherhood. This is the height of hypocrisy. All ideologies—legal ideologies, and the institution of marriage—are the warty outgrowth of religion, all having their common origin in religion. There is a tendency to replace one belief by another, one value system by another, and one illusion by another.
Millions of people starve today in the world. Millions died in wars. Violence has become part of man because thought is violent. That is how man functions. Thought is interested in its survival. Take even the elementary unit of life—the cell. Millions of cells form the body. There is cooperation among cells. They recognize each other and coexist because the destruction of a neighboring cell will destroy the cell itself. Coexistence is a survival mechanism.
The value system has only brought malady, misery, and tragedy forcing everyone to fit into a single model. Even those who rebelled against religion only created communism. The communist society has only created another value system. Revolution is only a revaluation and replacement of the current value system.
The main question is what kind of a human being do we want? We do not know. Every being is unique—a unique molecular print out. If at all any change occurs, it should come from the biological level. Biology can bring about change, genetic change by genetic engineering, but the state will misuse it.
People often indulge in a utopia in the lines of Western civilization where countries are affluent, where the rule of law, respect for human rights, free market, and economic freedom of expression are unparalleled. But as a source of happiness such a utopia is false. What is the use of freedom of speech, freedom of worship or freedom of the press for a starving stomach? Many people do not even read newspapers and are ignorant. At least in the communist system people were fed, clothed and sheltered, though not to the fullest extent. Corruption and selfishness crept into that system leading to destruction in Russia. There is tremendous unemployment in the U.S.A. Economic growth is down. They want trade barriers. The exploitation of global resources by some nations has increased the disparity between the rich and the poor, the North and the South.
Take the laws. The judgement delivered by a judge is backed by force. We submit to the judgement lest we be punished. So all the gangsters get together and create a legal structure favorable to them. See the application of law and the consequent destruction in the wars of Grenada and Iraq. America attacked. Grenada is a small nation. Nobody objected. Iraq attacked and occupied Kuwait—a small nation. But then America sent its forces using UNO as a legal shelter and waged a war for the deoccupation of Kuwait. It imposed economic sanctions against Iraq. Hungry and emaciated Iraq lay prostrate with no support or sympathy from any country. Morality is what the rich and powerful nations prescribe and UNO puts its seal on.
Let us take morality at the individual level. The institution of marriage will not disappear so long as we demand relationship with each other. In other words, we would like to be possessive. Women tolerate drunkard husbands—why? It is because of their possessiveness. The institution of marriage is so complicated with children and property, and it will not disappear. Unmarried couples in Western countries are more miserable than married couples.
Thus we are maintaining this superficial, artificial, and non-existent duality, the division between our life and the life around us. And there is conflict between the body and the mind.
Thoughts are not self-generated or spontaneous. Thought is a response to sensory stimuli. The brain is only an instrument like a computer which takes care of the needs of the biological organism maintaining its sensitivity. But thought by its constant interference is destroying the very sensitivity the body is endowed with. Thank God we cannot destroy the sensitivity of the immune system or the workings of the heart. They go on unmindful of what we indulge in. Thus there is a conflict between the needs of the body and thought-induced sensual activity. The activity of the body is to react to sensory stimuli, whereas the mind's activity is primarily sensual.
The mind does not exist as an entity. It only exists as memory in structural neurons. The brain, the seat of the computer, is interested in maintaining the survival of the organism. It is only meant to do so. It is not interested in your political, spiritual or sensual pursuits. Happiness is something that the body is not interested in. It cannot take it for long. The body does not know what pleasure is. Happiness is a cultural input. It is the common desire of everyone in every part of the world. It is like any other sensation. Any sensation, even an extraordinary one, is rejected by the body. Keeping the sensation going on for a long period of time destroys the sensory perception and sensitivity of the living organism. If we do not know what happiness is, we will never be unhappy.
We are like any other animal. No one created us nor is there any purpose behind creation. We differ from animals with respect to thought. It is thought that separates us. Because of our thinking we could exploit nature to satisfy our demands and live longer.
Death is the end of illusion, end of fear, and end of knowledge. The intelligence that is necessary for survival is already there. But we have acquired what is called the intellect through the constant use and reshaping of thought. The intellect helped us build the modern civilization. The demand to bring about a change in us is due to the cultural input.
The heart does not know it is purifying blood; the kidneys do not know their own function. The body just functions. It does not ask questions.
There is nothing like consciousness of the body. The one thing that helps us become conscious of the nonexistent body for all practical purposes is the knowledge that is given to us. Without that knowledge there is no way to experience it. We become conscious of it through the knowledge we have of it. The touch does not tell us anything except when we translate it within the framework of knowledge. Otherwise, there is no way of experiencing touch at all. We feel that the surface of something is hard or soft. The touch sensations reach the brain, our memory sorts them out by the previously stored experience, and with the help of that knowledge we can tell that the surface is hard or soft.
The senses operate entirely differently from the way we are made to believe. The eye looks at your moving hand. Except observing it, it cannot say anything.
People call U.G. an atheist. He says God is irrelevant. But that does not mean he is an atheist. He says that there is no use in wasting our energy thinking about God.
The whole culture of our civilization is built in external violence, killing, and getting killed, first in the name of God as symbolized by the church, then by religious institutions, and finally, in the name of political ideologies as symbolized by the state. Killing is basic to our culture. Our culture is not based on harmony with nature.
The human brain is interested in the maintenance of the organism. It is not interested in what culture has superimposed. It is interested in safeguarding the body in its smooth functioning. The brain, the wonderful computer, translates the input sensory signals. It is not interested in religiosity or spirituality. Religious experience is sensual in nature. It is the mind's memory that you have recorded that longs for sensuality. Life is creative, in the sense that it does not use any model.
Nature does not copy. Different forms of life arose due to the action of natural selection on genetic variability. If nature has copied, it would have uniform organisms. Genetic diversity arises from the gene combinations in a species. The more the genetic diversity, the more the chances for new types of organisms that would emerge. Man has evolved from a unicellular organisms by a process called organic evolution that has taken millions of years. Nature has never copied; yet in nature life has diversified itself into a multitude of varieties.
Every cell in the body has all the information—genetic information. Everything is genetically controlled. You cannot change your genetic structure. We only live in hope and die in hope.
Nature is interested in creating perfect species and not perfect individuals. Perfect individuals are created by the religious thinking of man. If all of us were to be Jesus or Buddha, you can imagine the story.
Sexuality
It is not possible for animals to have sex at any time. Unless the female is estrous, i.e., in heat, it would not receive the male. Males detect by olfaction (their sense of smell) that the female is in heat. But in the case of humans, somewhere in evolution, the female came to accept the male all the time even though she is not estrous. It is a remarkable phenomenon that gave vent to biological urges everyday, thereby increasing the thirst for sex. The religious people imposed control over sex. The psychologists have turned it into something extraordinary. All commercialism is related to sex. We have come not to appreciate even commercial ads without sex. Nowadays sex has become a major part of life. That value system has created you, and there is no way to free yourself from that. Anything you do to free yourself only adds momentum to that.
The capacity to learn is genetically determined. Thus we end up with genetic limitations. Unless the genes function we cannot. A tendency like alcoholism is due to the genes. Manipulating genes will give a substantial edge in making man the way we want him to be. Education and preaching morality will take a long time, but gene manipulation is by far the shorter route. Man is the captive of his genes. This is the determinism of his life. He has to function within the radius of gene-imposed reactions.
Does Life Have a Meaning?
We have been brainwashed for centuries that the end-product of human evolution is the creation of perfect models such as the great spiritual teachers of mankind with their special behavioral patterns. But nature is not interested in creating a perfect being, only a perfect species. It is only interested in making a species more adaptable to changing environment. Nature does not use any models. The creation of the human species is an unparalleled event. But culture is interested in fitting all into a common mold, since it wants the status quo of its value system. Thus we find in U.G.'s philosophy a profound sense of nature, a profound sense of the absolute and primitive reality of life which is an extraordinarily positive force.
Humanity somewhere made the mistake of experiencing separateness from the totality of life. This self-consciousness separated man from the nature all around him which culminated in an isolation that frightened him.
The longing to be a part of the totality of life around him created the tremendous demand in man for the ultimate. Then he thought that the spiritual goals of God, Truth, or Reality will help him become a part of the whole again. This very attempt to become one with or become integrated with the totality of life has only kept him separate. Isolated functioning is not part of nature.
When a void is created, when all systems failed, religious concerns creep in. But our experience is that religion has created schemes causing tremendous destruction of life and property. It is most unfortunate. Religion has failed in its purpose. We live and die in the hope that somehow the very same thing that has failed us will one day rescue us. You cannot conceive of the impossibility of creating a harmony between humans and the life around through thought.
What is the Purpose of Life?
First of all this question is born out of the assumption that we know something about life. We do know about the biochemistry, the physiology, and the anatomy of life. However, scientists have not discovered any purpose for life. Life arose spontaneously from the primordial soup, and it took ten billion years to make us. There is neither a direction nor a purpose for life. But what we are concerned is about living not life. Living is our relationship with our fellow beings, with the life around, for material benefits. Is the acquisition of material benefits the end of it? There you have a problem. You not only ask this question, but pose others, as if they have answers. Even if we know the meaning or purpose of life, how does it help us? Will we change according to its dictates? It is a futile attempt to try to find the answers, but we go on asking these questions.
The demand to bring about a change in ourselves is the cause of our suffering. There is nothing to be changed. Revolutionary teachers, however, want to bring about a radical revolution in man, assuring us that there is such as thing as the soul, spirit or the 'I'. But the reality of the world is as it is imposed on us. And we also know that thought is merely functional and cannot help us to become something which we are not.
Identity
The recognition of ourselves as an entity is possible only through the knowledge we have about ourselves. We start the process as children with identification of teeth, nose, mouth, hands, name, and so on. That is the origin of our identity. The constant use of the knowledge about ourselves maintains that identity. We do not want it to come to an end. We do take steps to maintain and perpetuate it. But the immense effort we make to maintain it wears us out. Ultimately we reach a point where we have to give it all up—the value system. Then we are branded as crazy.
Our identity is destroyed by the loss of memory. In Alzheimer's disease there is a total loss of memory. The disease is genetic, but the way it is spreading is alarming. The incidence is one in three in the 60 year age group and one in two in the 90 year age group. It appears to be much more dangerous than AIDS. About a hundred thousand people have been reported to have been affected in the world so far. Is it nature's way of turning mankind into vegetables? Is the over use of memory responsible for the destruction of memory?
Thoughts are outside the field of the body. The brain has nothing to do with creativity. The brain is just a reactor. The question of the self haunted U.G. for years. Suddenly he realized one day that there is nothing to realize: "...as it occurred to me like a lightning leading to the shattering of thought, leaving the living organism with its innate intelligence, with its pulse, beat, and throb of life."
The very fact that we assume that something meaningful must be there, and that we have to do something to become a part of the whole thing is born out of the fundamentally mistaken assumption that we are a special creation with a great purpose. This assumption is intensified by our culture which has led to an enormous belief that the whole of creation is meant for man. The demand to use and plunder nature and its resources has created problems of enormous magnitude, causing pollution, ecological problems, and devastation. Thus we have reached a crash point from which we cannot retrace our steps. U.G.'s logic in this context is absolutely consistent and unassailable.
The problem with man is that he wants to be something other than what he is. That is the culture-imposed personality. Such an idea is driving him all the time. That is schizophrenia. So, U.G. says, "What is here is the opposite of what you would like to be." Thought can never conceive the possibility of achieving anything except in time; thought is never new. The brain cannot create answers. Our memory is not that fast, due to the activity of the stimulus-response sensory system. There is the illusion that memory is operating all the time and trying to capture everything within its framework. But the illusion is created by the mind in order to maintain the continuity of our identity.
Man has to be rescued from the state of intellectual, moral, and physiological atrophy brought about by the modern conditions of life; he should be reestablished in his unity with nature; and he should be induced to express his genetic potential and break the shell in which education and society have succeeded in encasing him. We have to intervene in the fundamental organic and mental processes. But man has no independent existence. In order to remake him we have to transform the world. Our social frame, and our material and mental background will have to be rebuilt. Since society is not plastic, its form cannot be changed instantly. Each individual has the power to modify his way of life and create an environment around him different from that of the unthinking crowd. He is capable of isolating himself in some measure by imposing upon himself certain physiological and mental disciplines.
Revolutions often start with a lone individual. Thus the new renaissance must start with a few people. Culture without comfort, beauty without luxury, machines without enslaving factories, science without the worship of matter are likely to restore man to his intelligence and lead him to the summit of development.
The Story and History of U.G.
U.G. does not believe in transformation. Hence he uses the term 'mutation'. A mutation precipitated a profound change in him; it was rather a physiological mutation—a glandular change mediated by the hypothalamus.
Hailing from an orthodox Brahmin family on 9th July, 1918, he had his young days spent with his grandfather, a Theosophist, whose house was a religious center where endless discussions on philosophy, comparative religions, occultism, mysticism, and metaphysics took place. His formative years were seeped in religious lore and saturated with spiritualism, with gurus, mahants, swamis, and saints. Thus his early life came under the culture of spiritual personages for which he took great fascination. He traveled to all the holy places and centers of learning, and even spent seven summers studying classical yoga with Swami Sivananda.
During these years U.G. began feeling that something went wrong somewhere in the religious traditions in which he had been immersed since his childhood. Swami Sivananda's behavior of devouring pickles behind closed doors while at the same time preaching eating ascetic (bland) food to his disciples made him realize that if there was anything to these holy men, it was only unadulterated hypocrisy. Thus skepticism arose in him concerning spirituality. There was a strong inner urge in him to have his own way of thinking and acting. Breaking established Brahmin traditions, he threw out his sacred thread, the symbol of religious heritage, and became a rebel rejecting all conventions of his culture. He started questioning himself. He was beginning to lose his respect for religious institutions and traditions which were the hallmark of his family. It struck him that the holy business was unholy. His attitude made his grandmother remark that he had the heart of a butcher, testifying to the fact that he had enormous determination and courage to disregard everything that represented the embodiment of Hindu heritage. Thus with one stroke he swept the entire psychological content of his past.
It so happened that U.G. once visited Sri Ramana Maharshi in 1931 at the latter's ashram at Tiruvannamalai near Madras. Ramana Maharshi was supposed to be a realized saint. But the realized soul did not make much impression on U.G. With great trepidation U.G. asked Ramana Maharshi three questions:
"Is there anything like enlightenment?"
Ramana's answer was: "Yes, there is."
"Are there any levels to it."
Ramana replied: "No, no levels are possible. Either you are there, or you are not."
"Can you give it to me?"
Ramana answered: "Yes, I can give it. But can you take it?"
U.G. was stunned by Ramana's reply. "What is it that he can give and I can't take?" And he abruptly left the ashram. He never went again to Ramana Maharshi who subsequently died of cancer in 1951.
By the age of 21 U.G. almost became an atheist while studying philosophy and psychology at the university of Madras. At that time he wanted to be on his own in his quest.
Meanwhile, around his 25th year, he developed sex problems. He wanted to be celibate, but soon realized that sex was a natural drive, a biological urge, and that it was not wise to suppress it while the institution of marriage was available to fulfill the urge. He reluctantly got married to Kusuma Kumari, a charming and beautiful Brahmin girl selected by his grandmother. He was to say later about his marriage: "I woke up the morning after my wedding night and knew without doubt that I had made the biggest mistake in my life." That was his instantaneous reaction after his first night. He led his married life for 17 long years and fathered four children—two sons and two daughters. His eldest son Vasant came down with polio, and U.G. decided to move to U.S.A. to seek medical treatment for him, thus spending all the fortune he had inherited. He also planned to get higher education for his wife. He wanted her to get a job which would make her financially independent. She refused to work and U.G. sent her away to India against her will. His spiritual quest drove him to the point of deserting his family. The letter he wrote to his wife was perhaps his most poignant. Her mental trauma (which he described in the letter) was immense and she eventually became a mental wreck.
His family became a problem for U.G. In his early 40s (around 1960) he was financially broke and wandered aimlessly after his family was sent back to India. He went to various places like New York, London, and finally to Geneva. He went to the Indian consulate in Geneva and requested the consul to give him a lift to India. After looking at the credentials of the man whom the then-President of India, Dr. Radhakrishnan, praised as a great orator, the consul gave him time to get some money from India. It is at that historical moment that an employee of the Indian consulate, the sixty-year-old Valentine de Kerven, came into contact with him and helped him settle down in Geneva, thereby dissuading him from going back to India. This was the turning point in U.G.'s life. History was yet to be made, but the time had come.
Right from his 35th year U.G. used to suffer from recurring headaches which were not relieved by aspirin and coffee. He began to grow young and looked like a boy in his teens. He was feeling as if he was headless and developed occult powers (which U.G. calls man's natural powers and instincts). He could see a person's entire past history. He could discern from a stranger's palm his entire destiny. These powers came to him after his 35th year, but he never used them. He never told Valentine about all the bizarre happenings, lest she might suspect him to be mentally ill.
U.G. was approaching his 49th birthday. He suddenly decided with a friend to hear J. Krishnamurti lecture on the outskirts of Saanen where he and Valentine were living. He did not have contact with J Krishnamurti for many years then and so longed to hear him and refresh his memory. But midway through the talk U.G. realized that the state which J. Krishnamurti was describing was the same as he was in. "Why the hell am I listening to someone describe how I am functioning?" He realized that the way he was functioning was that real state. He left the tent in a dazed state of mind, went to the other side of the valley and rested on a bench overlooking the beautiful river and the mountains of Saanen valley.
At this moment U.G. was contemplating about enlightenment and the search for it—how it was the search that choked him and kept him out of the natural state. He realized that there is nothing like spiritual or psychological enlightenment, as there is no spirit or psyche at all. At that moment all his questions disappeared and he ceased to act through the thought structure that separates. There was a collapse of the entire thought structure, and along with it, the separate self and an opposing society. He calls it the 'calamity'. The physiological change must have touched him at the very molecular levels.
He was flabbergasted at his identification of himself in his own mind as a full-clothed monkey. The slate has been wiped clean of the self. What was left was a simple and gracefully functioning organism. U.G. refers to the changes that occurred then in purely physiological terms: within a few hours he felt constriction at various locations in his body and head. Large swellings appeared at various sites like the anterior surface of the throat and the center of the forehead; also there were changes in the hypothalamus, pituitary, pineal, and thymus glands. The eyelids stopped blinking and tears were rolling down, cleansing and lubricating the eyes in a new way. Energy seemed to flow upward from below, analogous to the kundalini energy. Temperature used to rise and the body used to get covered with ash. His body temperature would drop to low levels barely enough to sustain life. Then his pulse would quicken and temperature would rise. The body would start with slow arching movements and eventually return to the normal state. Thus U.G. went through a series of death states with his heart beat intact.
It was a tremendous shock to the body to have its separative psychic structure collapse and disappear. There was no psychic coordinator collecting, comparing, and matching all the sensory inputs so that it could use the body for its purposes. Events became disjointed and unrelated. The senses started functioning independently. Thought was in the background but came into operation only when there was a demand for the functioning of the organism. U.G.'s memory became extraordinary after the event.
U.G.'s hands faced backwards. The body became functional and bisexual—hermaphroditic. His right side responded more to women, and left more to men. (At the time of marriage and other Hindu ceremonies the wife always sits on the right side of man. Is that a coincidence?) U.G.'s energy otherwise utilized by thought started to flow from his spine to the top of his head. U.G. had only one sensitivity, that is, biological sensitivity. It became magnified. Celestial bodies like the moon had a strong effect on him.
These incredible physiological changes continued for years. U.G. was so bewildered, yet he never told anyone, lest they would brand him mad. He never even spoke for a whole year after the change. He had to relearn practically everything, just like a baby. After a year or so he regained most of his communicative powers, yet he did not utter a word about these changes to anyone. What is there to say? One day the answer came to him like a flash: "I will say exactly the way it is."
U.G. does not regard this as a new way of living. He has no basic survival or reproductive objectives. Desires have disappeared in him. Thus his disarming message is that all psychological and spiritual wants are without any foundation. There is no message he can give or technology he can offer. He has no disciples, no teaching, and no sadhanas. His message is that he has no message for mankind. He cannot save us from our basic dilemma or from our self-deception. Yet he says, "If I cannot help you, no one can."
Transformation
It was on his 49th birthday in 1967 that U.G. experienced some profound changes in himself, not because of, but despite everything he had done before in his life to cause them. The changes had no cause. The transformation was acausal, like a thunderbolt or lightning. At that moment he was dead and what was left after that is not known. Did anything happen to him? What he found was that the very thing he had been searching for all his life was shattered to pieces. The goal that he had previously set for himself was self-realization or God-realization. Now, on the other hand, transformation or enlightenment were all figments of imagination. There was nothing to realize. The very demand to be free from everything, even from the physical needs of the body, disappeared. But after the change something extraordinary happened. Everything that man had thought, felt, and experienced—the entire cultural milieu—was purged out of his system.
People are curious to know how it happened. They are interested in the cause of the transformation, when he says it is acausal. Then they get disappointed. Their interest is to ascertain the cause and induce such changes in themselves.
People claim that this state of his has resulted from his hearing J. Krishnamurti's talk. This is highly erroneous and not based on facts.
U.G. was listening to J. Krishnamurti. It suddenly dawned on him: "Why the hell have I been listening to this man? From his description I feel that I am in that state." He then walked out with the whirling thought that he was familiar with Krishnamurti's description of the various states. So the question went on and on in his mind, and suddenly the question disappeared. Then he said to himself that he is not grateful to anyone for this state, because it was in him. Whatever happened to him happened despite listening to all the teachers. "The happening or event that precipitated a profound change in me is something which I cannot communicate or give that feel to anyone."
Birth
Freud said birth is traumatic. But no one can experience his own birth. In the newborn baby there is no experiencing structure at the time of the birth, and even if it is there, when it comes into operation is not known. The experiencing structure is genetic in its origin and expression.
Since every human being is unique by virtue of his molecular (DNA) printout, the code of enlightenment, if there is any, would be unique to each. Hence we cannot produce enlightened people on the assembly line. Even India, the great spiritual country, can boast of very few enlightened people. But claimants are many because of the market demand. An enlightened man, if there is one, will not be interested in enlightening anybody, because he has no way of knowing that he is a free and enlightened man.
U.G.'s encounter with Ramana Maharshi and the traditional answer that was dished out by all the spiritual teachers hurt him. He felt that, "If there is one in the whole world who can take it, it is me." Thus he walked out to lead another phase of his life studying religion, philosophy, psychology, and science. His basic, oft-repeated question was, "What is mind?" "Finally I came to know there is nothing like mind."
U.G.'s life appears to be peculiar since a seven year cycle repeats itself with significant events.
References
"The Copenhagen Interpretation and the Nature of Space and Time." American Journal of Physics. 1977. pp.108-9.
Crick, Francis. The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul. 1994. New York, Charles Scribners. pp. 66-70, 101.
Einstein, Albert. "Aether und Relativistat Theorie." Transperret and Geffrey, G.B. Sidelights on Relativity. 1922. London. Mathew. P. 407.
Einstein, Albert and Infeld, Leopold. The Evolution of Physics. 1961. New York. Simon and Schuster. pp. 33-34, 219.
Finklestein, David. "Past-Future Asymmetry of the Gravitational Field of a Point Particle." Physical Review. 1958. pp. 110-165.
Heisenberg, Werner. Physics and Philosophy. 1958. New York. Harper Torch Books. Harper and Row. p. 42.
Monod, Jacques. Chance and Necessity. Translated from French by Austryn and House. 1970. Collins/Fount Paperbacks.
Newton, Sir Isaac. Philosophy Naturales; Principia Mathematica. Reprinted in Sir Isaac Newton's Mathematical principles of Natural Philosophy and His System of the World. Cajori, Florian. Berkeley, University of California Press. 1946. 547ff.
Reddi, O.S. Understanding Genetics. 1993. New Delhi. Allied Publishers.
Schrödinger, Erwin. "Discussions and Probability Relation between Separated Systems." Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. 1935. pp. 555-562.
Stapp, Henry Pierce. Bell's Theorem and World Process. 1975. Il Nuovo Cimento. pp.29b, 271
von Neumann, John. The Mathematical Foundation of Quantum Mechanics. Translated by Beyer, Robert T. 1955. New Jersey. Princeton University Press. p.253.
Birkhoff, Garrett and von Neumann, John. "The Logic of Quantum Mechanics." The Annals of Mathematics. 1936.
Zukav, Gary. The Dancing of Wu Li Masters. New York. Bantam Books. 1986. pp.156-7, 260.
Quotes from U.G. are taken from tape recordings of U.G.'s conversations made by Prof. O.S. Reddi in March 1994 and from the various published works of U.G.
Dr. O.S. Reddy
Centre for Molecular Immunology
265, Road No. 10, Jubilee Hills
Hyderabad, A. P. 500 034
India
I encountered another photograph of U.G. when I visited an industrialist in Madras, Mr. Malladi Krishnamurti. It looks like I run into him wherever I go. What is it that is so captivating about that face, etching itself in my memory? Mr. Krishnamurti, one of the gentlest human beings I have encountered in this chaotic modern world, informed me that U.G. comes and stays with him for a day or two at a time. I thought of how fortunate he was to have an association with such a unique man. I expressed a desire to meet him. In November, 1993, Mr. Krishnamurti, true to his word, informed me over the phone that U.G. was coming to Madras on his way to Australia, and suggested that I should meet him there. In spite of my strong urge to see him, I could not make the trip to Madras because of some problems I had been experiencing. This was perhaps meant to be so. I was sorry I missed the chance, since U.G. visits India only once in a year. I reconciled myself to my ill luck.
In March, 1994, I was told by Mr. Krishnamurti that U.G. was likely to visit Hyderabad. I was in ecstasy. The guest house of the Malladi Company in Banjara Hills was selected to house U.G. Soon the place was furnished to meet the needs of U.G. and his visitors. My son Sai Srinivas Reddy worked overtime for three days to get the house ready and make it look spick and span. But it had no telephone. Later U.G. remarked on this saying that it was a blessing in disguise for him.
I went to receive U.G. who arrived with Mr. Brahmachari and Mrs. Suguna. My son Srinivas was driving us from the airport. I was deeply touched by the serenity of U.G.'s face that haunted me for years, and my senses became numb. He is not like other spiritual leaders who are full of pomp and vulgar affluence. His presence made a deep impression on my mind. I could not resist the temptation of firing the first salvo. I asked, "Are you irrational or unrational?" Mr. Brahmachari replied that he was unrational.
That was how I had the good fortune of meeting this unique man. I felt as if whatever I had lost all these decades of my life had come back to me now. Except for my pension, I did not make quite enough money to survive in my retirement. But my mind became unruffled. I was happy that I met a jewel among men. That feeling remained with me during the following six days I was with him. I spent at least 12 hours each day with him. At the same time, I studied the basics of his philosophy. I also participated in discussions with him. I felt that he was talking all in "reverse gear" when he was brushing aside religion and spirituality. I could not reconcile myself with his ideas, as the conservatism deeply entrenched in me rose.
I would arrive at U.G.'s place at 4 o'clock in the morning and tape all our discussions. People from all walks of life—university professors, businessmen, lawyers, doctors, and housewives—came to see and hear him. There was no prior appointment. There were only conversations or discussions; no discourses or lectures. I transcribed the recorded conversations and prepared more questions to clear any doubts lingering in my mind, such as whether he was natural or just a sycophant in a different garb. After five days of listening to him and digesting his philosophy from his books, I found that this man is an extraordinary piece in evolution and what he says has a strong scientific basis. You cannot brush him aside. He may appear unrational to you, but what he says has a deep meaning.
On the Shivarathri day (March 10, 1994), I was sitting there observing him. He has long ears. I never met a man with four-inch long ears. (We are told that the Buddha had such ears.) That explains why he covers his ears with long hair. Around 3 o'clock in the afternoon that day, I observed a change in him. I looked into his eyes. They looked fierce and scary. I felt as if I was looking at a cobra. Suddenly I blurted, "You have cobra-like eyes." He laughed. Immediately I expressed my apology for such an uncivilized remark. My remark did not bother him. "Mr. Reddy, don't feel bad. I am what I am," he said. Around 5 o'clock, crowds gathered increasingly and I was feeling a little uneasy. I wanted to get him out of the milling crowd. But who am I to do so? Who gave me the mandate to take charge of him? I know he comes into the kitchen to take his "cream with coffee." (He does not eat much except rice flakes and cream. I wonder how this man survives with such little food!)
Luckily he came out and I asked him why the blood vessels on both sides of his neck were engorged. One could clearly notice them. He said they got so on full moon days and also on the Shivarathri day.
I left him at 7:30 p.m. hoping to see him at three o'clock in the next morning. Due to a transportation problem I could not get there even by 5 a.m. By that time something extraordinary had happened. I did not see this myself, but heard it from others who had seen it: he was sitting in Padmasana and swaying like a cobra without any movement at the base of his spine. U.G. goes to bed at midnight and takes catnaps. He sleeps in a coiled fashion like a cobra.
The next day we drove to the hilly parts of Jubilee Hills. On the way he said that he felt that a spot on his forehead was activated. He said that it could be the pineal gland in his brain. Unfortunately, as I was sitting in the front seat of the car I could not observe him well. U.G. and Mr. Brahmachari were in the rear seat. I am already used to observing him closely, noticing his movements, postures, and so on.
Soon the parting day arrived. U.G. was leaving for Bangalore. We all gathered at the airport. As he was bidding goodbye I could not contain my emotions. "Who is this man to make me suffer so much? Why am I to regret the departure of this man whom I have never met in all the 65 years of my life? What is my weakness?" I went to the side, wiped my tears, came back and bade him farewell. My mind was in a turmoil. I came home and rested for a few hours.
I contacted U.G. in Bangalore over the phone. He promptly answered. I told him in a single sentence, "U.G., I am deeply grateful to you." He asked me, "What for? What have I done for you?" I said, "Yes, you have. You have created a turbulence in my mind and a longing to be with you. This feeling of separation is killing me." U.G. replied, "Forget it. You are a scientist, and you should not have sentiments." But we are what we are. It is difficult to remove him from my mind.
It so happened that I was to go to Mysore soon after, and I told U.G. that I would be in Bangalore that Thursday. He said at the airport before he left, "I'll see you in Bangalore." I did not take his words seriously at that time because he had finalized his itinerary of going to Yercaud on that Wednesday with his daughter Usha and Major Dakshinamurti. Contrary to my expectations, he indeed cancelled the trip and waited for me in Bangalore till Thursday when I spent seven hours with him.
When I entered Mr. Chandrasekhar's house, U.G. stood up along with several others and welcomed me. "We have been waiting for you for such a long time. Why are you so late?" U.G. said. That aggressive courtesy drenched me in a fit of emotion which I tried to contain. "Why am I attracted to this man? What is the connection?" I was with U.G. till 5 p.m. and left for Mysore.
These encounters with U.G. prompted me to write what all I have understood from my discussions with him and from my reading of his books. What I present here is just my personal viewpoint. I am not a sycophant nor am a disciple of U.G. The question I like to ask is how scientific U.G. is. I am interested in discovering if there is any scientific basis for U.G.'s philosophy.
The uniqueness of a person lies in the genes which are inherited from one's father and mother under natural circumstances. The clicking of genes makes a person a genius in a rare event. A certain type of genetic endowment just happened in U.G. but not in others.
We impose on a child right from its birth a series of dogmas, superstitions, religious rituals, language, behavior, and a framework of morals. All this can be described as the superstructure. Thus the developing child is subjected to a series of conditioned responses that finally form part of his thought system called knowledge. Such knowledge is stored in us as memory. Liberalism, God, ecstasy, and bliss are all man-made, man-created insulated shields to pressure and perpetuate the ego and the dominance of man. Mankind has been submitted to millennia of these conditioned responses, thus fixing the frame of the human mind. As a consequence of this, contrary to animals, man got isolated from nature completely. If man had functioned as an animal in nature, in tune with it, his sensory system should have been in tune with nature. The fixations of mind are the malignancy of mankind.
The genetic endowment of man cannot fully blossom unless the external and artificial encasement is broken. Despite their genetic background, human beings are unable to blossom because of their past. The natural expression of man is hampered by his conditioning and by the culture of his ancestors. If man had been left to operate or express in accordance with his potential and in tune with nature, we would have achieved peace and tranquility. Unless he is liberated from this malignant historical mental frame, there is no chance for his survival. His selfish genes will create problems.
The remarkable thing about life is not that it exists in such a variety of forms but that so many forms maintain the basic shape and integrity for so long, despite the multitudinous environmental forces tending to disrupt them.
An elementary glance at evolution indicates anatomical, physiological, and biochemical linkage. At the molecular level we see a common chemical thread of life. The DNA with its four nucleotides assembles all the 20 amino acids. The coding linkage and the codes are similar in all life systems. Thus all living systems are similar in their basic structure, language and function. That is to say that all life is related to other life, whether it is animal, human or plant. Unity in diversity is the essential feature of nature.
"What delusion and what sorrow can there be for that wise man who realizes the unity of all existence by perceiving all beings as his own self?" Modern science of genetics has confirmed the above truth.
In the following chapters I have selected some of U.G.'s statements and attempted to provide their scientific basis.
All human beings have fundamentally the same anatomical structure (which is in no way different from that of mammals like dogs or pigs), operate through the same biochemical and physiological processes, and are driven by similar biological urges. Yet, no two human beings are alike. What is more important is that the individuality of a person living now is entirely different from anyone who has ever lived before in the past or will live in the future. Each person is unique, unprecedented, unrepeatable, and unparalleled. Each is a unique genetic print out. But sometimes, in one in a million, things click in such a fashion that the individual becomes an outstanding one. Leonardo da Vinci, the great scholar, painter, philosopher—all rolled into one, the creative genius, was the so-called illegitimate son of a half-witted woman who spent a night with an itinerant soldier at a wayside inn. That clicking of genes is a rare event.
The biological mechanisms through which each person develops his own behavioral singularity are twofold: his genetic endowment and his evolutionary past. Some of these mechanisms have their roots deep in the evolutionary past of the human genes which human beings have in common with other organisms and which have similar effects on the human species. Other mechanisms are derived from the peculiarities of human genetic endowment. Each individual with his predetermined genetic endowment responds differently to his environment, since each is unique by virtue of his genes.
There is a uniqueness in each of us. Unfortunately society and polity do not accept this disparateness and club us all into one. Each of us has a different potential that has to be expressed and realized in a unique way. In an attempt to establish the equality among men we have suppressed individual peculiarities which are most useful. For, happiness depends on one's being exactly fitted to nature's own work. There are many varied tasks in a modern nation. Human types, instead of being standardized, should be diversified, and their cultural differences maintained and exaggerated by different modes of education and life habits. Each type will find its place.
Modern society has refused to recognize the dissimilarity of the human being and crowded him into four classes—the rich, the politician, the farmer, and the middle class. The clerk, the police man, the teacher, the shop-keeper, or the government employee, and all others, have the same standard of living as the rest of the middle class. Such ill-categorized types are banded together according to their financial position and not according to their individual characteristics. Obviously they have nothing in common.
The best of those people who could develop their potentialities are atrophied by the narrowness of their life. In order to promote human progress it is not enough to hire architects, to buy bricks and steel, and to build schools, or establish innumerable universities, laboratories, libraries, and temples. It is far more important to provide those who devote themselves to the things of the mind with the means of developing their personalities according to their innate constitutions. The brutal materialism of our modern civilization is not only opposed to the soaring of intelligence but it also criticizes the nonaffluent gentle weak who look for other things than money and whose ability does not withstand the struggle of life.
Every individual is unique since everyone is a genetic print out. But among these unique ones there appear to be some exceptional people who claim transformation. First of all, transformation is a false claim. Secondly, you cannot study one yogi or meditator and apply what is true of him to everyone.
It is, of course, necessary to study man. He has to understand himself first. Understanding oneself demands not only an accumulation of data but a quantum jump. The Einsteinian world became different from the Newtonian world. Nature attempts to create unique entities. Nature does not use models. A unique individual like Leonardo da Vinci was of no use to nature and was thrown off the evolutionary process, and this specimen is unable to reproduce itself. By using the models of Jesus, Buddha, Rama or Krishna we have destroyed the possibility of nature throwing out unique individuals. Those that recommend these people forget nature's uniqueness and put everyone on the wrong track. It's like the blind leading the blind. Society is interested in maintaining the status quo and has provided models for us to follow. You want to be a saint, savior or a revolutionary, but it is an impossibility.
Throwing up of the uniqueness provided by nature is the blooming of individual uniqueness. It happens once in a way that a person frees himself from the burden of his entire past. One has to be in a primordial and primeval state without primitiveness. If we drop the fictitious model of a saint, we are left with natural biological arrangements. Each cell in the body knows itself. Cells cooperate with each other, not out of love and compassion, but from the terror of self-annihilation. They need to cooperate in order to survive. Can everyone bloom by the flowering of individuality? No, it is impossible; only isolated individuals can. Perhaps genetic engineering can be used to modify the static genetic state and modify genetic destiny.
The problem with man is that he has been subjugated by the thought culture which has an immense hold on him and which has created the notion of the self in him. This precludes the living organism's interacting with nature. That is to say that the self has separated man from nature. Thus man with his self-centeredness leads a duplicate life as a hypocrite, leading himself eventually to destruction.
U.G. says that the innate natural intelligence of the organism is fantastic. The acquired intelligence is no match to it. For example, the body's defense mechanism lies in its immune system. In fact, the best organized system in the body is the immune system that functions without our intervention. The immune system has nothing to do with the intellect. It does not work at your will and pleasure. It acts spontaneously to respond to a challenge. It is innovative and it operates in a clearly defined fashion.
Einstein's general theory of relativity has proved, from the verification of the perihelion of Mercury, the bending of light due to gravitational effects, red shift, and the phenomenon of black holes. As will be explained below, black holes and gravity are manifestations of order and disorder in the universe.
Black holes contain dense matter with an enormous gravity. They attract hydrogen atoms, cosmic particles, and everything close to them. Since any charged accelerating particle creates an electromagnetic radiation, the black hole emits an enormous amount of electromagnetic radiation. A black hole is an area of space which appears absolutely black, as the gravitation in it is so intense that not even light can escape through it. Black holes are believed to be a product of stellar evolution.
Stars do not burn indefinitely. They evolve through a life cycle which begins with hydrogen gas and ends sometimes with very dense rotating burned out stars. Black holes may be a few miles in diameter and yet may contain the entire mass of a star three times larger than the sun. Such a dense mass produces a gravitational field strong enough to pull everything inside the field and not allowing anything to escape. Anything within the gravitational field is quickly pulled toward it. Once past the event horizon it can never return.
It is the event horizon which constitutes the essential feature of the black hole. What happens to an object that passes through an event horizon is even more fantastic. If the black hole is not rotating, the object is pulled towards the center to a point called 'singularity', and it will be squeezed out of existence. The state is called 'zero volume state' where all the laws of physics break down. Time and space disappear. It is speculation that all that is sucked in is spilled out again on the other side of the black hole—the other side being another universe.
If the black hole, on the other hand, is rotating, the object sucked into the event horizon could miss the black hole's singularity (which is shaped like a ring in the rotation black hole) and escape into another time and another place in the universe (through 'worm holes') or into another universe (Einstein Rosen bridges). In this sense rotating black holes are sometimes considered as ultimate time machines.
One seriously considered possibility is that whatever disappeared in a black hole reappears somewhere else. There is a possibility that there are black holes in other universes which are sucking matter from those universes and letting it out into our universe. There are objects in our universe which are reverse of black holes. These are called white holes or quasi-stellar radio sources, or quasars, for short.
Quasars are extraordinarily intense energy sources. Most of them have a diameter much longer than our solar system and yet they emit more energy than an entire galaxy of over 150 billion stars. Astronomers believe that quasars are the most distant objects ever detected; yet their incredible brightness allows us to see them clearly.
The relationship between black holes and quasars is purely speculative and mind boggling. As I mentioned above, some physicists believe that black holes suck matter from one universe and pump it into another universe or into another part and time of the same universe. Thus the output side of a black hole is a quasar. If the speculation is correct, then the matter in our universe is being sucked into its many black holes, only to reappear in other universes, while matter in the other universes is being pumped into our universe, which is again being sucked through black holes into other universes.
This is a process that goes on and on feeding on itself, another beginningless and endless process. Thus order and disorder occur simultaneously in nature. The matter in the universe is destroyed and simultaneously recreated by the two process of black holes and quasars respectively. Black holes represent disorder and quasars represent order.
One of the most profound by-products of the general theory of relativity is the discovery that gravity, which is considered to be a real and independently existing thing, is only our mental creation. There is no such thing in the real world. The planets do not orbit around the sun because the sun exerts some invisible gravitational force on them. They follow their paths that they do because these paths are the easiest ways for them to traverse the terrain of space-time continuum in which they find themselves.
There is no such thing as the real world. From one frame of reference black holes and event horizons make sense. From another frame of reference absolute non-motion makes sense.
We call something nonsense if it does not agree with a set of carefully constructed edifices. What appears as nonsense from one frame may appear as sense from another frame, and vice versa. Like measurements of space and time the concept of nonsense (itself a sign of measurement) is relative.
Apart from order and disorder in the universe, we have order and disorder manifesting on our planet. The second law of thermodynamics states that everything tends to become more and more disorderly until the final and natural state of things is a completely random distribution of matter. Thus, any kind of order, even the arrangement of atoms in a molecule, is unnatural and happens only by chance, and it eventually encounters the reverse trend. These events are statistically unlikely, and the further combination of molecules into anything as highly organized as living organisms is improbable. Thus life is a rare and unreasonable thing. Its continuation depends upon the maintenance of an unstable situation. It is something like an auto(rickshaw) that is made roadworthy by being fitted with an endless supply of spare parts.
If we take a piece of wood and look at it under the microscope, we would see fibers consisting of patterns of cells. Cells under magnification are seen as patterns of molecules. Molecules under high magnification are seen as patterns of atoms, and atoms have turned out to be patterns of subatomic particles. In other words, matter is a series of patterns out of focus. The search for the ultimate stuff of the universe ends with the discovery that there is not any.
If there is any ultimate stuff of the universe, it is pure energy. There is no gravity but only motion. There is no time, but only an inseparable space-time continuum which contains mass and energy. Mass is energy. Hence the ultimate stuff of the universe is energy. At the subatomic level these subatomic particles are not made of energy, but they are themselves energy. Thus energy interacts with energy. The dancer and the dance are one and the same.
According to physics, the world is fundamentally a dancing energy, energy that is everywhere and incessantly assuming first this form and then the other form. What we call matter (particles) is constantly created, annihilated, and created again. This is due to particle interaction. It happens spontaneously out of nowhere. Then suddenly there is "something," and then that something changes into something else before vanishing.
In other words, in physics we do not see any distinction between "empty" as in empty space and "not empty," or between something and "not something." The world of particle physics is a world of sparkling energy dancing forever in the form of particles, as they twinkle in and out of existence, collide, transmute, and disappear again.
Thus matter at the fundamental level (in particle physics) is a picture of chaos beneath order. At that level there is a confusion of continual creation, annihilation, and transformation. Above this confusion, limiting the forms that it can take, are a set of conservation laws. They do not specify what must happen, as ordinary laws of physics do; rather, they specify what cannot happen. They are permissive laws. At the subatomic level, absolutely everything that is not forbidden by the conservation laws actually happens.
Life draws its components from the environment. From the vast mass of chaotic probability flowing by it extracts only distinctive improbabilities, the little bits of order among the general confusion. It uses some of these as a source of energy which is obtained by a destructive process called digestion. From others it gets the information needed to ensure its survival. This is the hardest part—extracting order from disorder, distinguishing those aspects of the environment that carry usual information from those which simply contribute to the overall process of decay. Life manages to do this by a splendid sense of the incongruous.
Life also protects itself from the ceaseless bombardment of millions of conflicting signals like sound waves and electromagnetic waves by using sense organs, letting in only a limited range of frequencies. Life systems select information from their surroundings, process it according to a program that entails survival, and supply an output order. The cosmos itself is a patternless jumble of random and disorderly events. Life makes patterns out of patternless disorder.
The quest for God has become a great obsession despite the impossibility to attain such a goal. But we still hope to seek pleasure without the accompaniment of pain. We know this is an impossibility. Yet we would like to know what that state is. That is to say, the mind acts as a destructive force to try to achieve what cannot be achieved. Man has come to believe that there is what is called liberation described as moksha, liberation of the soul, God, and the like, a state of permanent bliss, a state that cannot exist in nature under natural laws.
In nature there is nothing like permanency. Matter is continually destroyed and made. Even the subatomic particles like protons, neutrons, and electrons have only half life. Thus nothing is permanent in nature. Everything changes. Matter cannot be in a permanent state. It has to change. When this is the case with physical systems, the life systems that are built upon natural laws operate also on the same basis. Life cannot exist violating natural laws.
When permanence cannot exist in nature, permanent bliss is automatically ruled out. Scientifically it is untenable. The laws of physics and chemistry are the laws of our universe. Their universality is unquestionable. Yet man has come to be possessed by a desire to experience that presumed state of permanent happiness. The promises of godmen to teach how to attain the unrealizable state of permanent bliss is only an empty rhetoric.
Memory is stored in the brain in a chemical form. The whole human body functions as a stimulus-response system. What there is is only a response to a stimulus. If the response is not translated, then the situation is analogous to transferring information from one floppy disk to another. There is no link up here. Each is an independent frame. Translating sensory perceptions into images is the cultural input. When I do not look at you how can I create an image of yours? The creation of images born out of imagination is mostly culturally-induced. The brain translates the sensory perceptions into the framework of memory. Memory is not a constant factor.
When light falls on the retina creating an image, the sensory impulses are carried through the optic nerve to the brain that re-creates the image by memory. Suppose the brain does not translate the frame of the object falling on the retina, there is no way to perceive the object. As U.G. explains it, the movie camera captures the movement of a hand in frames. To see this movement we need a projector.
Sound is also recorded similarly. The sound is 19 frames below the corresponding picture frame. Thus there is a gap of 19 frames between the picture and the sound. Thought is exactly like that. It is slow. By the time it comes and captures the object within its framework, your eyes have moved away somewhere else, and the object is completely wiped out, i.e., erased from the brain.
Television is a good example. There is no picture on the screen at all. What we really see is a collection of dots in frames. There is an illusion that somebody is looking at it. It is the neurons that put the dots and create a picture.
Can we teach each individual a unique life path? The uniqueness of each individual cannot be expressed due to the stranglehold of the experience of others, as others' experiences have an effect on the person. There is no way to experience a feeling without knowledge. Happiness, for instance, can only be experienced, but not expressed. When you say you are happy you capture the sensation within the framework of knowledge.
Awareness is an integral part of the activities of all life systems. But you cannot use it as an instrument to bring about change.
What does physics have in common with enlightenment? Physics apparently belongs to the external world of physical phenomena and enlightenment to the internal world of perceptions. A closer examination, however, reveals that physics and enlightenment are not so disconnected as we might think. First, there is the fact that only through our perceptions can we observe physical phenomena. In addition to this obvious bridge, there are other intrinsic similarities. Enlightenment entails casting off the bonds of concept ("veils of ignorance") in order to perceive directly the inexpressible nature of undifferentiated reality.
"Undifferentiated reality" is the same reality that we are part of now, as always have been and will be. The difference is that we do not look at it the same way as an enlightened being does. As everyone knows, words only represent (re-present) something other than themselves. They are not real things. They are only symbols. According to the philosophy of enlightenment, everything is a symbol. The reality of symbols, however, is an illusory reality. Nonetheless, it is the one in which we live.
Although undifferentiated reality is inexpressible, we can talk around it using more symbols. The physical world as it appears to the unenlightened consists of many separate parts. These parts, however, are not really separate. According to mystics from around the world, each moment of enlightenment (grace/insight/samadhi) reveals that everything—all the separate parts of the universe—is a manifestation of the same whole. There is only one reality. It is whole and unified. It is one.
Enlightenment is a state of being (Heisenberg, 1958). Like any state of being it is indescribable. It is a common misconception (literally) to mistake the description of a state of being for the state itself. For example, try to describe happiness. It is impossible to do that. We can talk around it, we can describe the perspectives and actions that usually accompany the state of happiness, but we cannot describe happiness itself. Happiness and the description of happiness are two different things. Happiness exists in the realm of direct experience. It is the intimate perception of emotions and sensations which, indescribable in themselves, constitute the state of happiness. A state of being is an experience. A description of a state of being is a symbol. Symbols and experience do not follow the same rules.
This realization that symbols and experience do not follow the same rules has been brought to the science of physics by the formidable quantum logic. The possibility that separate parts of the universe like you or any other thing are connected in ways which both our common experience and laws of physics belie has forced its way into physics under Bell's theorem.
Laser fusion research and the hunt for quarks are paradigms of physics. A paradigm is an established thought, a framework. Quantum logic calls us back from the realm of symbols to the realm of experience. The second Bell's theorem tells us that there is no such thing as separate parts. All the parts of the universe are connected in an intimate fashion, as has been claimed by mystics.
The difference between experience and symbol is the difference between mythos and logos. Logos imitates but never replaces experience. It is a substitute for experience. Logos is an artificial constitution of dead symbols which mimics experience on a one-to-one basis. Classical physical theorems are an example of a one-to-one correspondence between theory and reality.
Einstein argued that unless a physical theory has a one-to-one correspondence with phenomena it is not complete. In other words, every element of physical reality must have a counterpart in the physical theory. Quantum theory does not postulate a one-to-one correspondence between theory and reality, as it cannot predict events, but only probabilities of events.
If enlightenment is seen as the realization of ultimate unity, then this is how Bell's theorem amply proves it. But if enlightenment is taken as 'I' exist in 'all' and 'all' exists in 'I' then the unity refers to life systems as the chemical thread of life (DNA) and as the unifying thread of all living systems. All living systems are characterized by the common chemical thread of DNA linking all organisms from primitive viruses to man. Life is similar in all beings, whether it be a snake, a bird or a dog. Thus a man could see his own life in all and all life in him. In this sense I am in all and all is in me.
A vital aspect of the state of enlightenment is the experience of an all-pervading unity. 'This' and 'that' are no longer separate entities. They are different forms of the same thing. Everything is a manifestation. It is not possible to answer the question, "Manifestation of what?" because what is is beyond words, beyond concept, beyond form, beyond even space and time. Everything is a manifestation of that which is. "That which is"—beyond these words lies the experience, the experience of that which is. Everything is that which is. We are part of that which is. In fact, according to the discovery of Bell in 1965 formulated in what is called the Bell's theorem, at a deep and fundamental level, the separate parts of the universe are connected in an intimate and immediate way.
Are there glandular changes that accompany the dying process (as in the case of U.G.'s Calamity)? Dr. Paul Lynn in the U.S. stresses the way the thymus gland functions. Other glands, like the pineal and the pituitary, are also affected. The thinking consciousness of man is affected by propaganda, persuasion or drugs. Mystical enlightenment is different: it is physiological mutation where endocrine transformation reacting with the nervous system causes changes.
The Endocrine Orchestra: The anterior pituitary operates through the hypothalamus and the pineal gland. It is the conductor of the endocrine orchestra with its tropic influence resulting in the release of several hormones from the thyroid, ovaries, testes, the adrenal gland, and the like, through a feedback system.
The Thymus: this is an important lymphoid organ. It is well developed at birth, continues to grow till the time of puberty, and atrophies thereafter. It controls lymphopoiesis and maintains an effective pool of circulating lymphocytes competent to react with innumerable antigenic stimuli. It controls the level of development of peripheral lymphoid tissues. The involution of the thymus is enhanced by the hypertrophy of the adrenal cortex and administration of cortisone or androgenic hormones. The involution is delayed by castration and adrenalectomy.
Thymic hyperplasia or tumors are often associated with myasthenia gravis characterized by excessive fatigue of voluntary muscles. The thymus influences the transmission of nerve impulses at neuro-muscular junctions.
The Pineal Gland or Epiphysis Cerebria: in many reptiles (snakes) the pineal gland is represented by a double structure. The anterior part (para pineal organ) develops into the pineal or parietal eye. In humans the pineal body represents the persistent posterior glandular part only. The parietal eye disappears functionally. It plays a part in the development of gonado-trophins through the hypothalamus, particularly in the period before sexual maturity. The amino acids N-acetyl-5-methoxy tryptamine (melatonin) and serotonin that are found in the gland may have some action on sexual maturity. The effect of light, stress, temperature variation, and feeding on the reproduction cycle are mediated through this.
The Hypothalamus: The hypothalamus is part of the diencephalon forming the floor and the lateral wall of the third ventricle. It is the head ganglion of the autonomic nervous system, and controls the metabolic activities in the body. It has an endocrine control over releasing TSH, ACTH, STH, PRL, LH, FSH, MAH by the anterior pituitary gland. It has neural control over two hormones in the posterior pituitary, oxytocin and vasopressin (an anti-diuretic hormone). The anterior part of the hypothalamus mediates parasympathetic activity and the posterior part sympathetic activity. But these effects overlap.
The hypothalamus controls cardiovascular, respiratory, and alimentary functions—three functions important for survival. It regulates temperature, and food and water in-take, as it has centers for hunger, satiety, and thirst. Through its controls over the anterior pituitary it controls gametogenesis, the reproductive cycle (the uterus and the ovaries), and the maturation and maintenance of secondary sexual characteristics.
Through its connection with the limbic system it participates in the elementary drives associated with food (hunger and thirst) and sex. It is a biological clock. The circadian rhythm of wakefulness and sleep is controlled by the reticular activating system (for wakefulness) and the hypnogenic zones (for sleep) respectively. Many of the functions of the thalamus, the hypothalamus, and parts of the brain stem lesions of the anterior hypothalamus disturb the circadian rhythm.
Emotions such as fear, rage, aversion, and pleasure are centered in the hypothalamus limbic system and prefrontal cortex. Sham rage can be produced by the stimulation of caudal hypothalamus and eliminated by its destruction. Positive and negative reward centers have been shown to exist in the hypothalamus.
Creation and destruction are simultaneous events. So also are the birth and death of thought. There is no such thing as death. The body changes from one state into another as recycling of matter. Matter is not born, but changed. It is not possible to experience one's own death. What we experience is the void or emptiness that occurs on the disappearance of someone's dead body. In the 'natural state' the continuity of thought is absent. What is present is a disjoined series of independent interactions. What happens in the environment happens in us in that state. There is no division. When the externally imposed armor is stripped we will find extraordinary sensitivity of the sensory system that responds to the phases of the moon, the passage of seasons, and the movements of the planets.
The recurring death process in U.G. can be compared to the process of birth of a baby. The body goes through a daily death process. The way the newborn baby moves and articulates the body is an example of a natural rhythm. In U.G. after the breath and heart beat come to the lowest ebb, his body begins to come back to life. The body warms up and begins to move. Pulse and metabolism pick up.
The present yoga is perhaps a reversal of the process in operation in the natural state, and is born out of a misunderstanding. The body has to die first before yoga asanas begin, not vice versa. The whole process of dying and renewal does not occur in U.G. by volition. His breathing responds to the physical environment, but is not under the influence of his thought.
Living organisms experience through the input of the sensory system. When we touch a body, the idea that it is rough or smooth is born out of imagination and translation of this tactile sensing within the framework of our past experience. Similarly, when the breeze touches our body we feel the breeze. This feeling is thought. The moment we separate ourselves from the breeze, the sensory activity is translated within the framework of the knowledge that we already have. If there is no translation then there is no way of separating the breeze from ourselves and experiencing it. It does not mean that we are the breeze, but the feeling that it is breeze is a part of the knowledge we already have. Thus all the knowledge that is in our brain computer is not a creator but a processor. The brain only processes input information, analyzes, sorts and retrieves it.
There is no new experience, but the demand to experience repeatedly wears out the entire mechanism of memory for which it is not intended. Then what is consciousness? Consciousness is memory. We become conscious of something through the help of the knowledge we have of it and that knowledge is stored in memory. There is nothing like conscious or subconscious levels of consciousness. Awareness can never be separated from the activity of the brain. When we see an object we think that recognition and naming are different. They are both the same. Once we separate them, we introduce duality. Stimulus-response is one unitary movement. The moment we say we are aware, there is already division.
Memory maintains its continuity through a constant demand for using it. Thought has survived for millions of years, and it will have to maintain its continuity in order to survive. Thoughts come from outside of the organism, in the sense that they originate due to outside influences. The translation of sensory perceptions within the framework of our experience structure is thought. We are using these thoughts to achieve a goal. Our brain is a computer. Its searching is thinking. It is a mechanical process. There is no thinker thinking in this computer.
Unfortunately, we do not accept that thought is mechanical because that knocks down our feelings. We are mechanical; machines. We are extraordinary machines, nevertheless, in no way different from computers with parallel computing. We are not just computers, but also something more complex, something living. We have vitality and carry life energy like the electric energy.
When sense perceptions reach the brain, if any information is available it is retrieved. When the information is not available, we say we do not know. It is not that we do not know, but it just means that there is no information available in the memory banks.
The feeling of separateness from nature has brought the idea that everything has been created for us; and that is responsible for our destruction. Thought is destructive; it is a self-protecting mechanism. That is to say, all that is born out of thought is destructive, irrespective of its nature, whether it be religious, scientific or political. Thinking cannot help us solve human problems. We create problems since we cannot live without them. But we are not ready to accept that thought is our enemy, we do not know how to survive and function without thoughts. There is no way to get over the fact that thought is a self-perpetuating system. It controls, molds, and shapes ideas and actions. Ideas and actions are the same. All our actions are born out of ideas. Our ideas are thoughts passed on from generation to generation. Thought is not an instrument that can be used to help us live a harmonious life. That is why all the ecological or pollution problems have arisen, destroying us with the destructive weapons we have unleashed.
The body has an enormous intelligence to function in an integrated manner, but we want to teach the body things for which it has no interest. But the body is not interested in things like enlightenment or permanent pleasure. The basic objectives of life are to survive and to reproduce. But when we try to superimpose other goals on the body we create problems. Pain is a symptom arising, say, from a cut on the skin. Such pain is part of a healing process. The body can take care of itself, healing itself without our intervention. But we interfere and take painkillers. The body does heal on its own; but the healing is not a result of our volition.
When we notice the phenomenon of death, we form a desire to survive beyond death. So naturally we create something beyond it. We replace one illusion with another illusion, because ending illusions is death. Man is not happy unless he has illusions. Illusions vanish only at his death.
The so-called value system is solely responsible for human misery and malady.
The quest for happiness is a sensual activity. All our experiences are limited to this area. The human species at some stage of evolution experienced self-consciousness which separated him from the rest of the species on the planet. Then thought came into existence. Thought is a protective mechanism. It has helped us to be what we are today. It has helped us create high technology and make our life more comfortable. Also, it made us discover laws of nature. Thought, however, is interested in its own survival. And for that reason, it is opposed fundamentally to the functioning of the organism in a natural way.
We are fed on the belief that there is what is called the mind, solely created for the purpose of continuing and maintaining the status quo of the social order or condition to which man is exposed. Simultaneously it has created what is called individuality. There is a conflict between the two—the idea of the individual and the impossibility of functioning as an individual separate and distinct from man's totality of thoughts and experiences.
Thoughts are not spontaneous or self-generated. We use what we call thought to achieve our material or spiritual goals. The latter we deem as higher because of the conditioning by culture and because of its thoughts. All spiritual goals are material in their value. In the process of thinking we created our separate identity and a separate mind. But actually if we want to experience anything we have no way to experience it without the use of the knowledge that is passed on to us. Hence we can conclude that thought is memory.
Is there a thoughtless state? Spiritual teachers tell us that there is. So, whatever we experience in the process of achieving the goal of the thoughtless state strengthens the very thing we are trying to be free from, because the process implies further thought.
The cause-effect relationship is invented by thought. Every event is an individual and independent event. We link up several events to create continuity. The clock strikes 12 o'clock and the train reaches the station. These are separate and simultaneous events with no cause and effect connection. U.G. says that though events are disconnected in themselves, they are connected by thought. Cause-effect relationship does not exist even in nature. Hence there is no cause for the 'big bang' or for the creation of the universe or of life. There is no beginning or end. It is in a perpetual state of flux.
Maintaining what is called our identity through the constant use of memory creates tremendous problems because such use involves enormous expenditure of energy and leaves us with no residual energy to deal with the problems of everyday living. Is there a way out to free ourselves from our identity? No, that very thought of freeing ourselves creates problems.
Thought is essential for survival, but it cannot help us reach that goal. The quest for happiness is a myth because there is nothing like permanent happiness. There are moments of happiness or unhappiness. But the demand to be in a permanent state of happiness is the enemy of the body. The body is interested in maintaining its homeostasis due to the action of the sensory system, and also in maintaining the sensitivity of the nervous system that is essential for its survival.
If we use the same instrument of thought to achieve the goal of permanent happiness, the sensitivity of the body is destroyed. Hence the body rejects all the states of permanent happiness and pleasure, because there is no pleasure without pain. Even the so-called highly excitable sexual pleasure is not without pain. The body gets tired enormously. Thus thought is not intended to understand the significance of life or to achieve a spiritual goal, or to be used for the quest of permanent pleasure.
Thought influences the innate intelligence of the body. It is thought that makes our life more miserable and makes us end up with psychosomatic diseases like high blood pressure and the various neurological diseases of the modern age. Thus thought is not conducive to the harmonious working of our body because it only wants the perpetuation of pleasure without pain. This is the only way for its continuation. Thought also is inimical to the body because it wants permanence. And the demand for permanence destroys the body's sensitivity. The body is not interested in permanent pleasure or pain. The nervous system cannot handle permanent states of pleasure or pain. Thus the functioning of the body and the demands of thought are always in conflict and mutually opposed. This situation cannot be resolved by thought. Further, thoughts will only add up and aggravate.
We have to end this destructive interference of the self-perpetuating mechanism of thought. We cannot, however, control thought. One usual way to control thought is by adopting the 'rational approach'. The rationalistic approach is based on cause-effect relationship.
U.G. says that there is nothing like self-independence of the thought process. There is no thinker but only thinking. We think that there is a thinker, but actually there is none. There is no way to know the thinker, if there is one. We only see the movement of thoughts. Thought is the movement of memory. U.G. also says that there is nothing like observation or understanding of thought because there is no subject or observer independent of thought. The division between thought and an independent subject or observer is an illusion created by thought. Thus, awareness of one's own thought process is not factual. U.G. says that the idea of a thoughtless state has been exploited by many gurus and god men for their own commercial aggrandizement. Gurus claim copyright while nature does not.
U.G. maintains that the thoughtless state occurs when thought collapses. What is left is the harmonious mode of function of the organism where thoughts appear and disappear in accordance with a natural rhythm and in response to a challenge. The body functions in a natural state freed from the morbid hold of thought. Thought per se is not the problem, but it is only its self-perpetuating process that is dangerous. The death of thought as a self-perpetuating mechanism involves death, as in the case of U.G. Was it a state of trance? Mystic examples like Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Ramana Maharshi exist in India. But wherever it happened and to whom it ever happened, it is unique. In the case of U.G., the sensory system disappeared beginning with touch, then taste, smell, sight, hearing, one each day for five days. The order of the disappearance is striking. These sense organs went into dysfunction in the order of their development in the human fetus in the embryonic state.
In other words, the chronology of disappearance is the chronology of development. The state attained by U.G. is indescribable and has nothing to do with bliss, thoughtless silence, and other business jargon. Later, all the senses became functional, working independently. Hence, there was no connecting leading to a build up of thought. The senses were working in their peak capacity free from disturbing influences; but no omniscience. The demand to know was absent. There was physical tension and pain. Whenever the self-perpetuating thought system collapses, energy is released.
This state cannot be shared, since sharing presupposes a division between self and others. It also assumes that the knowledge he has is lacking in others. U.G. thinks that we are all on the same wave length. There is nothing to give and nothing for others to take. This idea runs counter to the traditional Hindu concept of guru-sishya parampara.
Thus the guru tradition becomes a hoax, as the guru is the central pillar in the Indian spiritual tradition. No one can give you enlightenment. You have to get it by yourself. If someone says he will show you the way, he is being a mercenary. Each individual is unique. He can have such an enlightenment, but it will be unique to him. To put all diverse experiences into one frame is absurd. There is no universal pattern or model. Thus, imitation of someone is useless. The past spiritual leaders tried to create a model for others based on their own experience. This is untenable, since every man is unique, and his enlightenment has to be different.
When it is something that cannot be shared or transmitted to others, the whole guru system collapses. Gurus transformed this spirituality into commercialism. The so-called past masters like Rajneesh and Muktananda are the worst perpetrators of crime against humanity, since they only advocated authoritarianism and sexual abuse of female disciples. These are perverted minds with neurological disorders.
Thanks to U.G., he did not build a math or assembly of disciples or organizations to preserve and perpetuate his teachings or cult. He is totally against the personality cult.
The great misery of humans is brought about by the search for enlightenment or moksha—a goal imposed by culture over millennia. The physical, physiological, and mental tortures which people undergo to attain this state are perverse. The torture of the body by withholding food causes such metabolic changes that it may cause hallucinations which are mistaken as spiritual experience. Desire stems from thought. There is nothing like absence of desire for the living being. It is this desire for moksha that one has to be free from.
U.G. does not see any distinction between material goals and spiritual goals. Spiritual goals are as self-centered as material goals. Spiritual goals are illusory and only extensions of material goals. If you think of God, it is only for your security that you do. Faith in God is a means to achieve material goals. It is just a delusion.
There is no delusion or fragmentation in U.G.'s philosophy. It is a monism based on physical and physiological modes. Nature is a single unit and the body cannot be separated from the totality of nature. This is a naturalistic principle and it is perfectly scientific. U.G. has explained his experience in neurobiological terms devoid of religious, psychological or mystical implications. This is a new concept, the concept we see in nature—a natural concept.
Knowledge is not mysterious nor is it abstract. It is just identification of an object. The knowledge that we have stored in our memory created the object we experience. Without the help of knowledge we cannot experience. The act of knowing is the accumulation of memory and the subsequent modification of it.
You cannot listen and think simultaneously. Only one action is possible at a time. The birth of thought itself is action. You cannot look at thought. Thought creates a space between the thinker and the thought and then tells itself, "I am looking at my thoughts." Is that possible? Thought brings in another thought.
We have been brainwashed over centuries by the holy men to control thoughts without thinking. We would be reduced to the state of a corpse. There is no qualitative difference between thoughts. There is no difference in your thoughts as, for example, when you go to a temple. But you attach great significance to visiting a temple. It is only prejudice that makes the difference.
Thought can never capture the movement of life. Thought and life are like thunder and lightning which occur simultaneously, but the sound of thunder reaches us later by virtue of its lower velocity, thus creating the illusion that there are two events. The natural physiological sensations and perceptions can move with the flow of life. There is no question of capturing or containing the movement.
Actually, consciousness is something we will never know. We become conscious only through memory and knowledge. There is no such thing as looking at something without the interference of knowledge. To look you need space. Thought creates space. Thus space itself is a dimension which is the creation of thought.
Let us examine: the time-space gravitational force is not a force like any other force. It is a consequence of the fact that space-time is not flat as has previously been assumed, but curved because of the destruction of mass and energy in it. The gravitational field is represented by the curve of space-time. Space and time are dynamic quantities. When a body moves or a force acts on it, it affects the curvature of space-time.
In turn, the structure of space-time affects the ways in which bodies move and forces act. Normally we think of events which are measured in terms of the coordinates of space-time. But with Einstein's general theory of relativity space-time is not just a frame of reference but is itself being affected by everything that happens in the universe. Experience in everyday life indicates that time flows in one direction, i.e., from past to future.
When we travel fast time slows down. Everything is relative, and space and time are inextricably linked. Time is a function of the occurrence of events. Space and time are a continuum, and it is impossible to draw a distinction between past, present, and future. In biological terms the fourth dimension represents continuity.
An individual who is free from self-consciousness no longer experiences his own independent existence. It is the movement of thought that is taking you away from the natural state and creating a division. You can never experience ultimate reality. Experiencing reality from moment to moment is also a thought-related state of mind.
Our search for happiness is prolonging our unhappiness. The demand to be free from problems is the cause of all our problems. That pursuit itself is slavery. The urge for freedom and self-knowledge are connected. The knowledge we have about freedom denies the very possibility of freedom. When we stop looking at ourselves with the knowledge we have, the demand to be free from the self drops away.
There is no stillness of mind. What there is is the constant demand to be free. Why should you be free from memory? Memory is absolutely essential. The problem is not having memory but our tendency to use it to further our spiritual interests or as means to find happiness. The attempt to be free from memory is withdrawing, and withdrawing is death.
Not knowing is a myth to us. What there is is not knowing, but knowing prevents a state of freeing yourself from the known. The demand to be freed from the known creates a problem. Idealization of a non-existent ideal person or state is that doom. The greatest ideal that man has invented is the most imposing, perfect, and powerful God—an invention of a frightened mind. The history of human thinking has produced saints, teachers, and so on, but the idea of God is the most corrupt of all. Man's already messed up life has been made worse by religion.
The sum total of knowledge is there in everyone. You cannot separate experience from knowledge. Similarly enlightenment has no independent existence of its own apart from the knowledge we have about it. There is no enlightenment at all. The idea of enlightenment is tied with the desire to change. But there is nothing to change. The attempt to change is just an attempt to eliminate one state and replace it with another. What we are, how we are, and what we ought to be are linked by time. We are going to be enlightened tomorrow!
We are always dealing with pairs of opposites—happiness, unhappiness, freedom, no freedom, desire, no desire. A man who is not concerned with morality will not be interested in immorality. The answer to selfishness lies in selfishness. Similarly, freedom from anger lies in anger. So also, freedom from greed lies in greed, not in non-greed.
We have to accept the world as it is revealed to us by our sense organs. Belief is like any other habit, an extension of the survival mechanism. When you want to be free from belief, whatever you do or hope to do to be free from belief adds momentum to it. You cannot control your thought, do what you may. Thought by itself or in itself is not damaging. It is only when you want to do something with it, such as trying to achieve something unattainable, that you create a problem.
The only difference between the East and the West is in respect of religions. Christianity did not produce such weird characters as Hinduism did. In India religion is an individual affair, each selling its magic ware, thus generating a lot of variety. This is the religious heritage. Hinduism is a combination and confusion of many things. The actual word 'Hindu' comes from a non-Sanskrit word. The invading Moslems from the Middle East found the native Indians to have a dark complexion. So they named the natives' religion as the religion of the 'Black Hindus'. Scholars may not like this interpretation, but U.G. claims that it is correct and historical.
According to him, Hinduism is not a religion. It is a street with a hundred shops, each claiming its wares as the best. For example, Rajneesh's sex shop, J. Krishnamurti's awareness shop, Maharshi Mahesh Yogi's meditation gymnasium, and Satya Sai's magic and mesmerism. The durability of these products is questionable. The teachings of the great founders of religions and saviors of mankind have resulted only in violence which is perpetrated by their followers. Every teacher talks peace, but his teaching resulted in violence in the end.
Religious people do not want to lose their hold on people. It is their business, their livelihood. They are permanent parasites on people. They have great taste for human blood like a man-eater—the taste of the man-eater is so refined that he does not touch anything else except man!
The religious people preach us to practice moral codes of conduct such as generosity, compassion, and love while they remain greedy and callous all the time. Codes of conduct are set up by societies in their own interest. There is no religious content in it. The religious man puts the priest inside you, and society puts the policeman outside. Religious people have to be ignored. After all, they have stakes in this business.
Our attempt to attain a permanent state of happiness and uninterrupted pleasure is only choking the body, when we know full well that such a state cannot be realized. That state may be romantic, religious, spiritual—it makes no difference. Our attempt to attain it only adds momentum to the false continuity, radically destroying the chemistry of the body and precipitating psychosomatic diseases like hypertension, diabetes mellitus, schizophrenia, neurosis, etc.
When a person is in a depressed state, his body falls asleep. It is nature's way of handling the situation. Or you are told to attain permanent or uninterrupted bliss. Thus, your ceaseless search will only destroy the sensitivity and intelligence of the nervous system while radically disturbing the chemical balance. This results in the precipitation of what are called psychosomatic diseases. The body is not interested in happiness. The body's natural intelligence is handling the system well by processing with sensory inputs. The recognition of sensation involves energy. And continued recognition makes a dent on the energy reserves. We try to increase pleasure and decrease pain, something which is opposed to natural laws.
The body is interested in survival and reproduction. Thought is essential for survival, since it determines action and reaction. All animals have survival thoughts, but in the case of man, thought is complicated by the additional factor called recognition, which consists of superimposing something over the natural sensory functions. The thought structure seeks continuity at all costs. If you go into deep sleep long enough, 'you' disappear. The body goes through clinical death, and, in some cases, renews itself. At that point the entire history of the individual located in the genetic structure of the body no longer separates itself from life and the person falls into his own rhythm. That is to say, the genetic potentiality has been allowed to be expressed without his interference. This genetic expression is innate.
So long as motivation exists there is self-centered activity. The more you are engaged in it, the more you become selfish. We will never be free from selfishness, though we are encouraged by saints to be selfless. Selflessness is an idea we use to protect ourselves in our selfishness. The so-called selflessness does not exist, but exists only in the future—tomorrow or the next life. Just as the limitation of the eye creates the illusion of a horizon, selflessness is an illusion created by our thought. Selfishness is in our genes. Selflessness is a commodity sold by priests and moralists so they can become rich.
The search for happiness is in no way different from spiritual purification. All spiritual purification is unnatural. That is why we are eternally unhappy. The search for happiness makes us unhappy. Thus spiritual and religious activities are basically selfish. All spiritual and religious expositions should be challenged not on the authority of holy books like the Gita or Upanishads, but on your own authority.
A great sage like Gowdapada can speak of the Upanishads, but he is not here today; so you do not look in them for solutions to your problems. Identify the problem and you will find that the problem is the solution. If anyone says there is a way out he is a dishonest man. He simply wants to market his product by convincing you of the superiority of his product over all others. Another fellow sells his own product. Thus it becomes a chase of your own shadow. Yet we cannot remain where we are. That is the problem.
Now the conclusion appears to be that the situation is hopeless. And this can create more hopelessness, because we do not want to be free from our fear, envy, jealousy, and selfishness. That is why the situation becomes hopeless. Selfishness gets strengthened by the cultivation of selflessness.
We have lost the desire to question what others say. We have been subjugated by religious teachers not to ask but merely submit ourselves. You have the full defensive armor with Brahmasutras as your bullet proof vest, Gita as your jacket and Gowdapada as your gloves. Nothing can penetrate you. There are only a few saints and seers, but the rest are technocrats. Now with the development of drugs, saints are dispensed with. You can take a drug and control your thoughts.
Our tradition tells us that life is transient. Tradition means no change. Thus our life is a denial of the reality of change. We only speculate about death. Living people do not bother about death. The memory in you wants to know whether it will continue even after what it imagines as death occurs. Death is the finality. There is no solution without death. The death of the individual is necessary for the survival of the species, since without death there is no turnover of genotypes to create variability on which natural selection acts for purposes of evolution.
You can only help yourself. No outsider can help you. You should ask yourself: is there anything that can be attained? The physical wants are understandable. The object of search is born out of our thought. Freedom exists not in finding answers but in the dissolving of all questions. Unfortunately, we are not interested in this.
Thought control is not possible without becoming a neurotic. Just as a well-fed man is not in search of food, a happy man is not interested in seeking happiness. So long as you search for happiness, you are unhappy. Society is so organized along with limitations it places on all of us that we have to accept it as it is. The real individual is he who is free from the accumulated tradition and knowledge of mankind. Such an individual, however, is a threat to society, just as U.G. is a threat for the existence of society.
You have a desire to change yourself and society. But you cannot change them. You want to change the world, so that you can live happily, full of compassion for mankind. So long as you desire a change in society, you remain discontent and want the world to be different. When the inner demand to be different comes to an end, you are in harmony with the society, including tolerating its brutalities, starvation, and poverty. All attempts to change the brutal society will only add to its momentum. Unless you are at peace with yourself, there cannot be any peace in the world.
As long as your interests do not clash with others' interests your relationship with them is perfect. We all demand happiness to be a permanent feature of our lives, which is impossible. In nature there is nothing like permanence at all. Everything is in a flux. Because we cannot face impermanence in our relationships, sentiment, romance, and other dramatic emotions are created to give the relationship a continuity. Therefore, we are always in conflict emotionally.
You need not impose any meaning on life. The problem is that, instead of living, we are obsessed with the question of how we can live. Society has created in us the need to do something to live better and nobler.
We have powerful instincts. The conditioned mind cannot be deconditioned. Gurus propose the deconditioning of the mind. It is another sales gimmick. Conditioning is intelligence; it is the ability to respond adequately to our environment. It is in no way related to our fantasies, ideations and mentations.
U.G. discovered for himself that what has been fed to him about freedom and enlightenment is false.
Society is a jungle created by us. U.G.'s exposition takes you to the questions of untouchability in India, and suffering and despair everywhere. There is no future for man. Anything that is born out of the division in man will eventually destroy mankind because of the inevitability of the war inside. The so-called military war is an extension of what is going on all the time inside of you. It occurs because of our search for peace. The instructions we are using in our attempts to be at peace with ourselves is war. There is already peace in us. It needed not be sought. The living organism functions in an extremely peaceful way. Man's search for truth is born out of the same search for peace. He disturbs the peace in the body the moment he starts searching for peace.
What keeps people together is terror, not love. Man's instinct for survival is deep-rooted. The terror of mutual extinction has a strong influence on man. But there may be no guarantee of his survival. Now we have reached a higher level in technology. By neutron bombs we can not only annihilate man, but also the entire life on the planet.
The day man felt self-consciousness, felt that he is superior to all the species on the planet, that day he laid the road for total self-destruction. Destruction may not occur through man; lack of resources, economic slavery, or poverty can also cause it. But man will take everything with him when he destroys.
The urge to become a master of the planet stems from religion which says that man is the center of the universe and that everything in it is for him. That is why he has plundered the planet.
Thought is born out of the divisive consciousness in man. Ultimately it will end up defeating the very cause men are working and dying for. The people around Mother Theresa are capitalizing on her fame. All they are interested in now is money to carry on her work. Why should all these things be institutionalized?
You corrupt the feeling of that immediate response—which is not just a thought or petty emotion—when you attempt to institutionalize generosity and empathy. It is the immediate response to the situation that counts. Institutionalization dulls the natural sensitivity...
"The world does not owe a living to me. If I wish to enjoy the benefits of organized society, I have to contribute something." Thus, in enjoying its benefits we also contribute to the status quo maintenance of its continuity.
The fundamental features of a living organism are to survive and reproduce one like itself. Survival needs food. After satiation of hunger, reproduction plays a greater role. Talent is not necessary for reproduction but is essential for survival. Thus survival is linked to talent. The end result of survival is reproduction. There is nothing like mind or consciousness. Thought builds up an experience and creates a desire for ultimate happiness devoid of pain. Thus thought-derived self-centeredness maintains and perpetuates itself even at the cost of the destruction of the world. This can also lead to self-destruction for the sake of even a silly idea, as witnessed in wars.
But what is the way out? U.G. says there is none. Because of the repeated attempts you make to get rid of this thought bondage, thought further perpetuates and strengthens itself, thus entrenching itself more deeply. Any attempt by way of meditation, spiritual purification, use of religion or social reform, or even by revolution of any kind, will only strengthen the thought bondage, thus strengthening the self. We are, however, unable to get out of this self-slavery. But in some individuals, that too in a unique individual like U.G. (how many of them are there?), a change occurs, which he calls "mutation" (not in the genetic sense, but in a physiological sense), and the organism becomes free from the bondage to thought.
When it becomes free, the organism returns to its original natural biological condition. Thought then falls (how?) into a natural rhythm in which the activity of thought becomes limited to the given situation. This cannot be caused by your effort or volition. The congenial condition for this change to happen is to remain effortless. Thought comes into action when the situation demands. But how? Unless you attain that change, it is not possible to experience the situation. We can see several analogies.
We sometimes do act spontaneously. We do not always think first, and then act. U.G. perhaps acts spontaneously without thought and that condition of his is sustained. Then how to get the situation-oriented thought?
In U.G., knowing and unknowing occur in the same frame simultaneously. He has nothing to know or understand, but at the same time he cannot communicate with us. How does he know that he is in a state of unknowing? We cannot understand that.
U.G. says that you and I are not separate or different from each other, though we think we are. So it becomes impossible to prove or disprove some of his teachings. His memory is tremendous and baffling. He appears to live in a discontinuous state of memory. But how can we have that state?
Beliefs are relative. U.G. employs one belief to combat another, and uses a third belief to combat the first, thus indicating an inconsistency in his position.
According to U.G., the driving force for human action is power, not rationality. Knowledge is power. It is technology that is the driving force. The rationalistic approach is based on faith in the ability of thought to transform the human condition. U.G. says that this is a misplaced faith, because thought is divisive and tries to perpetuate itself, thereby leading us to destruction. Intuition, he claims, is refined thought, just as faith is without any foundation. Everything that is born out of thought is destructive and harmful one way or the other. U.G. says that the innate natural intelligence of the organism is the one we have to depend upon. The acquired intelligence is no match to it.
According to Finklestein, the language of mythos, a language which alludes to experience but does not attempt to replace it, is the true language of physics. This is because not only the language we use to communicate our experiences in daily life but also mathematics follow a certain set of rules (as the rules in classical logic). Experience is not bound by these rules. It follows a much more permissive set of rules (viz., quantum logic). Quantum logic is more real. It is based not on the way we think of things but on the way we experience them.
When we try to describe an experience with classical logic (the way we have been doing since we learned to write), the logic imposes certain restrictions, and also introduces distortions. These restrictions are the set of rules in classical logic, where the rules are well defined and simple. Unfortunately, they do not correspond to experience. The most important difference between classical logic and quantum logic concerns the law of distributivity. The distributive law which is the foundation of classical logic does not apply to quantum logic. (van Neumann, 1955 and van Neumann and Birkoff, 1936).
The above authors have demonstrated mathematically that it is impossible to describe experience with classical logic because the real world follows different rules. The rules that experience follows constitute quantum logic whereas the rules that symbols follow constitute classical logic.
Pure experience is never restricted merely to two possibilities. Our conceptualization of a given situation may create an illusion that each problem has only two solutions; but this illusion is caused by assuming that experience is bound by the same rules as symbols. In the world of symbols everything is either this or that, but in the world of experience there are more alternatives available.
Let us take an example. A judge has to try his son in a court of law. The law allows only two alternatives, viz., a verdict of guilty or a verdict of not guilty. But for the judge there is a third verdict possible, viz., "He is my son." The very fact that judges are prohibited to try cases in which they have personal interest is a tacit admission that experience is not limited to the categorical alternatives of guilty or not guilty. Only in the reality of symbols the choice is clear.
The recognition of this quality of experience is an integral part of quantum logic. Van Neumann's discovery that our thought processes (which occur in the realm of symbols) project illusory restrictions on to the real world is essentially the same discovery that led Einstein to formulate the general theory of relativity. Einstein disproved the universality of Euclidean geometry which had been accepted as the underlying structure of the universe. Until now classical logic has been accepted as a natural reflection of the nature of reality.
A powerful awareness lies dormant in these discoveries, an awareness of the hitherto unsuspected power of the "mind" (brain) to mold "reality," rather than the other way around. If Buddhism is the philosophy of enlightenment, then the philosophy of physics is becoming indistinguishable from it.
In nature things are as they are. Correlation is a concept which we use to describe the connections we perceive. The word and concept of 'correlation' have no significance apart from people. This is because only people use words and concepts. Correlation is a concept. Subatomic particles are correlations. If we are not here to make them, there would not be any concepts, including the concept of correlation. The same is true of particles: if we were not here to make them, there would not be any particles.
From a pragmatic point of view nothing can be said about the world 'out there' except via our concepts. Even in the world of our concepts particles do not have a separate and independent existence. They are represented by wave functions (Schrödinger's wave equation); and the meaning of the wave function lies only in the correlation of other macroscopic things. Since the wave function is thought to be a complete description of physical reality, and since that which the wave function describes is an idea as well as matter, the world cannot be as it appears.
A macroscopic object like a table or a chair has an experienced meaning. That is, we organize our sensory perceptions directly in terms of it. These experiences are such that we can believe that the object has an existence and a well-defined location in space-time that is logically independent of other things. But the concept of independent existence evaporates at the subatomic level. If it has an idea-like aspect, the physical world cannot be substantive in the usual sense of the word. One hundred percent matter is one hundred percent idea.
The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics states that the physical world is not what it appears to be. It states that what we perceive to be physical reality is actually our cognitive construction of it. This cognitive construction may appear to be substantive, but the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics leads directly to the conclusion that the physical world itself does not exist. This claim appears preposterous and far removed from our experience; and our inclination is to discard it as a foolish notion. But there are several reasons why we should not be so hasty, since quantum mechanics is a logical system which is self-consistent and consistent with all known experimental results. The experimental evidence is not compatible with our ordinary notions of reality. Not only physicists but most Hindus and Buddhists hold a similar unconventional view of reality.
The uncertainty principle of Heisenberg brings us to the realization that there is no "my way" which is separate from the world around us. It brings into question the very existence of objective reality as does complementation and the concept of particles as correlations. Science at the level of subatomic particles does not see any distinction between the objective and the subjective portals through which the universe manifests itself. The unchanging, absolute aspect of presumed reality depends upon the experiment process as per the special theory of relativity which tells us that space and time are not separate entities, just as mass and energy are not. The mass of the object increases and its length decreases with velocity and show down time. Reality varies from frame to frame of reference. According to Einstein, there is no single time which flows equally for all observers. In other words, there is no absolute time.
There is speculation and some evidence that consciousness (awareness of surroundings, recognition, etc.) at the most fundamental level is a quantum process. The eye adopted to the dark, for example, can detect a single photon. If, at the quantum level, the flow of time has no meaning, if consciousness is fundamentally similar to the quantum process, and if we can become aware of this process by something like chemical inhibition in ourselves, then it is also conceivable that we can experience timelessness. In fact, LSD trippers report time distortion and timelessness.
If we can experience the most fundamental functions of our psyche, and if they are quantum in nature, then it is possible that the ordinary conceptions of space and time might not apply to them at all, as they do not seem to apply in dreams. It is difficult to explain this rationally.
The mind is such that it can only deal with ideas. It is not possible for the mind to relate to anything other than ideas. Therefore, it is not correct to think that the mind can actually ponder reality. All that the mind can ponder are its own ideas about reality. Therefore, whether or not an idea is true is not a matter of how closely it corresponds to the absolute reality, but how consistent it is with our experience. Even the Copenhagen interpreters of quantum mechanics were forced by their own findings to acknowledge that a complete understanding of reality lies beyond the capabilities of rational thought. Einstein did not accept this. Instead, he stated that the most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.
Death is only an intermediary step in the continuous cycle of organic processes in nature. In other words, death is a process of recycling matter. Death is essential because without the turn over of genotypes there would be no variations on which natural selection can act. If there is no action of natural selection on variations created in each genotype, there can be no evolution. This is a fundamental truth about nature. Without evolution there is no betterment of species.
After death the body is reduced to various chemical elements and in the soil enters the process of recycling which supports the growth of plants, animals, and eventually man. Thus, we have rebirth in this fashion, i.e., through the reconstitution of elements. There is nothing to be reborn in this body, as has been envisaged by Hindu philosophy.
If we go to the fundamental level, there is continuous creation, transformation, and annihilation at the subatomic level. Thus what we see are patterns changing from one level to other levels, as, for example, from subatomic particles (themselves energy) to atoms to molecules to cells and finally to organisms. Patterns change, but not the process. The process continues in space and time. Then where is death?
Science no longer holds any absolute truths. The principle of uncertainty holds true. As a consequence of scientific advances it is true that mankind has been benefited immensely, but it is also true that these advances have brought innumerable miseries. The main undesirable features of the modern civilization are:
Production of mass destructive atomic, chemical, and biological weapons.
Destruction of the planet leading to its degradation.
Mass production technology replacing crafts and satisfying work.
Excessive urbanization and high-density crowding associated with industrialization.
Dehumanizing effect of computers in administration.
Genetic engineering to replace genes.
Creation of new species, thus crossing the species barrier, as for example, the cross between sheep and goats by manipulation of the embryo.
In vitro fertilization.
Manipulation of the human embryo.
Surrogate motherhood.
Accelerating lifestyles and destroying traditional customs, causing instability, such that people have a feeling of insecurity and unhappiness, as, for example, when are they are struck by heart disorders, hypertension, cancer, and the like.
An unimaginable brave new world of tomorrow.
Can we face these revolutionary changes? U.G.'s view is that we have to face reality, since you cannot change the world around, much less yourself.
U.G. says there is no future. You are stuck in a cul-de-sac, and you cannot get out of it. Hence we face the world as it is? Do not try to change it, since you will face annihilation. The acceptance of limitations is intelligence. You are trying to be free from these natural limitations. That is the cause of sorrow and pain. Your action limits the next action. Saints and saviors have succeeded in making your life miserable.
Love and hate are both the same. Both resulted in murder, massacre, wars and genocide. Buddhism brought wars in Japan. All the political systems stem from a religious basis. The field of psychology has dislocated the thinking of man for hundreds of years, and we now know that Freud is the greatest fraud of the twentieth century. The spiritual people are dishonest. They created a human jungle. The men who claim to be virtuous are the men of vice. All men "will be virtuous tomorrow." Your virtue always exists in the fictitious future.
Spirituality is an invention of the mind and the mind is a myth. The absence of peace of mind is due to sadhana. Since you are told that life has meaning it makes you feel that life has no meaning. If you drop the idea of meaningfulness, then you see the meaning in daily life. It is impossible to be selfless, since selfishness is in your genetic makeup. You sit in meditation when the battle is raging in you. The state of samadhi comes after the ending of all you have ever known, that is, at the time of death. The body has to become like a corpse before that knowledge, locked up in every cell, ceases. The stopping of doing is courage, when authority and fear are thrown out of the system.
There is nothing to incarnate after death. What is there even when you are alive? Is there anything beyond the totality of knowledge which exists inside of you now? So, is there death? Can you experience death? No. The body recycles itself into organic and inorganic systems.
What you call the act of knowing is an accumulation of memory. You have added to and modified your knowledge. Essentially knowledge does not belong to you at all. It is an external input into your memory.
The body or organism is not interested in spiritual matters. It only aims at survival and reproduction. You are born and you die with every breath. That is what is meant by birth and death. Yet thought denies the reality of death. Nowadays you can substitute drugs for yoga. The problem with man is not memory, but your tendency to further your spiritual thought. Freedom from memory is death. Enlightenment does not exist in finding answers. The real individual is one who is free from the accumulated tradition and knowledge of mankind, and he is a threat to society.
Understanding yourself is one of the greatest jokes perpetrated on the gullible and credulous people everywhere. Conditioning is intelligence. It is the ability to respond to the environment adequately. Unconditioning and deconditioning of the mind—such trade jargon has no meaning.
There is no such thing as reality at all. Reality is imposed on us by culture, education, and society. Man's search for truth is born out of the same search for peace. It only causes further disturbance in the already present peace. It is mortality that creates immortality, known the unknown, time the timeless. It is thought that creates the thoughtless. It is perception in terms of dualism that drains you.
Human beings are essentially helpful to each other. The institutionalization of charity, on the other hand, dulls your natural sensitivity. It is not compassionate.
Karma has no foundation. There is no natural law called karma. The whole concept of reincarnation is built on the foundation of belief. What is there to reincarnate? We have in our midst enormous poverty, starvation, and degradation attributable ostensibly to the actions in the past birth. It is comforting to believe and to take shelter in that belief in order to reconcile oneself to a given situation. A child with a birth defect is believed to be born so due to its past misdeeds. But we know that these are developmental anomalies during embryogenesis due to exposure to viruses or chemicals or radiation or due to chromosome defects in parents.
Communism at least succeeded in providing for the basic necessities of life like food, clothing, and shelter, but as a political ideology it failed, because there cannot exist a classless society in nature. Any society tolerates dissent only up to a certain point. No society will tolerate a threat and will tend to maintain its status quo. Any attempt to change this status quo will end up in violence. The reality of the capitalist society today, despite its inhumanness, has to be tolerated for survival reasons.
Communism is dead. Maoism is dead. Democracy will decay because of the rule by criminals and the affluent. Human desires multiply. The rich rob the poor and the state robs all. The state stands by the rich. It is the rich, that is, the state, that will dictate the policies. The poor will be dispensed with, for there is no hope for them. Democracy promises profuse and abundant freedom without food, shelter, and clothing. You survive or perish. Push or perish is the philosophy. Politicians thrive on cheating with false promises. Governments thrive on untruths. They promise something which they cannot deliver, as for example, employment.
The anti-atomic bomb movement is regarded by U.G. as a hoax. The bomb culture is only an extension of the protection of collective property or nation from perceived threats. You cannot justify police and law and order and at the same time oppose the necessity for the bomb to maintain international law and order. The atom bomb is a deterrent. We have to maintain peace by war threats.
The present day ecological crisis is due to the Judo-Christian belief that man is superior to all others and he can exploit nature mercilessly for his survival. It is due to the belief that man has the license to dominate and subjugate nature. Several plants and animals have become extinct because of man. Hinduism and Buddhism also share the view to some extent, namely the view that to be born as a man is a great boon and a virtue, thus arrogating superiority to the human species. A belief is widely held that even gods have to be born as humans in order to attain enlightenment. The human species was not created for a specific purpose by any force. Man is just like any insect or animal.
Inorganic evolution has resulted in the formation of elements. This was followed by organic evolution which resulted in the origin of life just as a matter of chance and not by the will of anyone. The origin of life is believed to be synonymous with the origin of the genetic code—an association of nucleic acids with proteins. Thus primitive organisms arose from which, by a process of natural selection and mutation, complex organisms arose. Our superiority gave us power to exterminate all of them; and this justification resulted in the ecological crisis. The superiority is now due to the technology and economic system we have, and it is the structure of belief and values which drive the technology and economic system. Hence the problem is not that the planet is endangered but that it is we who are endangered. It is absurd to think of saving the earth or the planet. We have to save ourselves.
We can use genetic engineering to change a man's diseased state. But the state control of genetic engineering is dangerous, as it would impose its dominant pattern. We function as per our gene culture. That is the greatest problem for us. This is a formidable achievement and a great leap for mankind to get out of the shackles of millennia of culture seeped in spirituality, imbibed in religious stink, and fortified by the malignancy of a thought-perpetuating system.
War is love, since war making and love making spring from the same source, viz., the separative structure of thought. There is nothing to a loving relationship which springs from a sense of isolation created by thought. One wants to fill this void with someone. Thus love is self-fulfillment or self-gratification. Unfortunately we do not acknowledge this sordid truth. That is why we have invented fictions like 'loving care' to deceive ourselves.
We have to find answers to our problems by ourselves and for ourselves. No one can help us. Because of society we have no way of asserting our individuality.
Money has become the most important factor in our life. They say money is the root cause of all our troubles. But it is not. It is the root cause of our existence, our survival. It is better to worship the money God. Even the holy men talk about money and want money. It is easy for the religious people to get money because others deny money to themselves to enrich the holy.
(In U.G.) the goals and needs are the same. U.G. has no goals beyond his needs or beyond his means. For him there is nothing wrong with this world.
The positive and the negative do not exist at all. If they do, they exist in the same frame. There is order and disorder (chaos) in the universe 'in the same frame'—i.e., simultaneously. That is the way the living organism operates. The moment thought is born, it cannot stay there (in U.G.). Thought is matter. When once the matter that is necessary for the survival of the living organism is created, the matter becomes part of the energy. Life and death are simultaneous processes.
Except on the level of mutual gratification there is no relationship. The value system demands security and mutual possessiveness. You want to possess the other individual. When you hold on to the other, the other becomes weak and your relationship wears out. That is why the relationship between a man and a woman is based on the images that the two create for themselves and for each other. When everything fails the last trump card is love, with all the marvelous romantic ideations around it.
Even animals have been spoiled by our making them pets and conditioning them. India is called a non-violent country. It is a joke. Where is a place where there is no violence, whether in the mind or in the society or in the state?
The basic issue in the world today is its resources. The fear of extinction brings us together, not love or brotherhood. The biological instinct is very powerful, and it is the fear of extinction, not love or compassion, that will probably save mankind.
Modern man is the product of evolutionary symbiosis. Life in its emergence from the "primordial soup" has given rise to simple forms of organisms which over millennia evolved into more complex forms. Modern man with his specially developed cortex (the human brain) has been able to develop communication skills like language which enriched his culture. He extended his domination over the subhuman sphere and became supreme. Now dominating his environment, man has no serious adversary to face other than his own kind. Then came strife among men—the dance of death. Wars broke out. War became the principal factor of selection in the human species. In the evolution of animals this phenomenon is rare. Among larger animals even a single combat does not end up with death.
Thus, in animals Spencer's struggle for life does not appear to have an appreciable effect. It played only a minor role in evolution. This is not true with mankind. Tribal and racial warfare emerged as an important evolutionary factor in the development and expansion of mankind. It is believed that the mysterious disappearance of Neanderthal man was the result of genocide committed by the ancestors of Homo sapiens. There are several such instances in history.
Then in what direction has this selective pressure pushed human evolution? It favored the expansion of races and cohesion of tribal law, and manifested itself more in collective aggression than in individual aggression.
During the past thousands of years cultural evolution affected physical evolution. It is behavior that orients selective pressure. Once the behavior ceased to be automatic and became cultural, cultural traits exerted their pressure on the evolution.
In modern societies selection has been relaxed to a great extent. There is no longer natural selection in the Darwinian sense. Selection does not operate in favor of the survival of the fittest—that is to say, the genetic survival of the fittest through more numerous progeny. Intelligence, ambition, and courage are the parameters of success in modern societies. But the success is personal, not genetic. What matters in evolution is genetic success. We know the negative correlation between the intelligent quotient (at the cultural level) and the average number of children per couple. Also, we see a high positive correlation between the intelligence quotients of marital partners. This situation is dangerous, since it leads to a gradual drain of the highest genetic potential into an elite which is shrinking in relative size.
The situation gets further aggravated by the absence of the weeding out of the physical and mental unfits most of whom would otherwise have been eliminated automatically under natural selection before they even reached their puberty. Today many of the genetic cripples not only survive but marry and produce progeny, thereby increasing the number of genetic cripples for future generations. This is due to the great medical advances that enable genetic cripples to survive. Thus the natural mechanisms whereby genetic cripples were once eliminated stand suspended today (Monod, 1970).
Molecular biology has shown a way to improve the genetically affected children, but only with regard to the individual child. It has not shown any way to repair the genetic flaw in the germ cells like spermatozoa or eggs. The present knowledge rules out such intervention.
Thus the only way that we can improve the human species is to introduce deliberate selection. But who can do this? Can the governments do it? Perhaps only a country like China can. They have already prohibited the marriage of genetic cripples.
The present-day conditions in advanced societies pose a greater threat to the species. But it would take about 20 generations to increase the number of genetic cripples. Can the state afford to keep them healthy? And for how long?
We face today the much more burning problem of population explosion which has resulted in the death of the natural environment and scarcity of natural resources. This is further complicated by a much more deep-seated spiritual sickness.
The social organization of mankind is seen again only in ants, termites, and bees. Social behavior in them is innate. But man's social institutions which are cultural in nature cannot attain such stability. For his survival man needed the invention of religion and philosophical systems—a price he had to pay to survive as a social animal. But cultural heritage alone is not enough to hold social structure. It needs genetic support to provide something essential to mankind. That is why the religious and philosophical ideologies keep recurring in some form or other. We have yet to see how mankind will tackle the degradation of its own species. Tampering with nature has brought enormous problems, as can be witnessed in the case of natural resources.
Tampering with the heredity of man is fraught with grave danger. Survival or annihilation appear to be the only choices left for mankind.
Human nature is the same irrespective of the country where it occurs. Human problems are the same. Selfishness extends from individuals to nations. The nations enjoying the monopoly of using global resources will not tolerate if they are threatened to be dislodged. The destructive weapons invented by them will be used to protect their monopoly. That is to say that nations, like individuals, preach love and brotherhood. This is the height of hypocrisy. All ideologies—legal ideologies, and the institution of marriage—are the warty outgrowth of religion, all having their common origin in religion. There is a tendency to replace one belief by another, one value system by another, and one illusion by another.
Millions of people starve today in the world. Millions died in wars. Violence has become part of man because thought is violent. That is how man functions. Thought is interested in its survival. Take even the elementary unit of life—the cell. Millions of cells form the body. There is cooperation among cells. They recognize each other and coexist because the destruction of a neighboring cell will destroy the cell itself. Coexistence is a survival mechanism.
The value system has only brought malady, misery, and tragedy forcing everyone to fit into a single model. Even those who rebelled against religion only created communism. The communist society has only created another value system. Revolution is only a revaluation and replacement of the current value system.
The main question is what kind of a human being do we want? We do not know. Every being is unique—a unique molecular print out. If at all any change occurs, it should come from the biological level. Biology can bring about change, genetic change by genetic engineering, but the state will misuse it.
People often indulge in a utopia in the lines of Western civilization where countries are affluent, where the rule of law, respect for human rights, free market, and economic freedom of expression are unparalleled. But as a source of happiness such a utopia is false. What is the use of freedom of speech, freedom of worship or freedom of the press for a starving stomach? Many people do not even read newspapers and are ignorant. At least in the communist system people were fed, clothed and sheltered, though not to the fullest extent. Corruption and selfishness crept into that system leading to destruction in Russia. There is tremendous unemployment in the U.S.A. Economic growth is down. They want trade barriers. The exploitation of global resources by some nations has increased the disparity between the rich and the poor, the North and the South.
Take the laws. The judgement delivered by a judge is backed by force. We submit to the judgement lest we be punished. So all the gangsters get together and create a legal structure favorable to them. See the application of law and the consequent destruction in the wars of Grenada and Iraq. America attacked. Grenada is a small nation. Nobody objected. Iraq attacked and occupied Kuwait—a small nation. But then America sent its forces using UNO as a legal shelter and waged a war for the deoccupation of Kuwait. It imposed economic sanctions against Iraq. Hungry and emaciated Iraq lay prostrate with no support or sympathy from any country. Morality is what the rich and powerful nations prescribe and UNO puts its seal on.
Let us take morality at the individual level. The institution of marriage will not disappear so long as we demand relationship with each other. In other words, we would like to be possessive. Women tolerate drunkard husbands—why? It is because of their possessiveness. The institution of marriage is so complicated with children and property, and it will not disappear. Unmarried couples in Western countries are more miserable than married couples.
Thus we are maintaining this superficial, artificial, and non-existent duality, the division between our life and the life around us. And there is conflict between the body and the mind.
Thoughts are not self-generated or spontaneous. Thought is a response to sensory stimuli. The brain is only an instrument like a computer which takes care of the needs of the biological organism maintaining its sensitivity. But thought by its constant interference is destroying the very sensitivity the body is endowed with. Thank God we cannot destroy the sensitivity of the immune system or the workings of the heart. They go on unmindful of what we indulge in. Thus there is a conflict between the needs of the body and thought-induced sensual activity. The activity of the body is to react to sensory stimuli, whereas the mind's activity is primarily sensual.
The mind does not exist as an entity. It only exists as memory in structural neurons. The brain, the seat of the computer, is interested in maintaining the survival of the organism. It is only meant to do so. It is not interested in your political, spiritual or sensual pursuits. Happiness is something that the body is not interested in. It cannot take it for long. The body does not know what pleasure is. Happiness is a cultural input. It is the common desire of everyone in every part of the world. It is like any other sensation. Any sensation, even an extraordinary one, is rejected by the body. Keeping the sensation going on for a long period of time destroys the sensory perception and sensitivity of the living organism. If we do not know what happiness is, we will never be unhappy.
We are like any other animal. No one created us nor is there any purpose behind creation. We differ from animals with respect to thought. It is thought that separates us. Because of our thinking we could exploit nature to satisfy our demands and live longer.
Death is the end of illusion, end of fear, and end of knowledge. The intelligence that is necessary for survival is already there. But we have acquired what is called the intellect through the constant use and reshaping of thought. The intellect helped us build the modern civilization. The demand to bring about a change in us is due to the cultural input.
The heart does not know it is purifying blood; the kidneys do not know their own function. The body just functions. It does not ask questions.
There is nothing like consciousness of the body. The one thing that helps us become conscious of the nonexistent body for all practical purposes is the knowledge that is given to us. Without that knowledge there is no way to experience it. We become conscious of it through the knowledge we have of it. The touch does not tell us anything except when we translate it within the framework of knowledge. Otherwise, there is no way of experiencing touch at all. We feel that the surface of something is hard or soft. The touch sensations reach the brain, our memory sorts them out by the previously stored experience, and with the help of that knowledge we can tell that the surface is hard or soft.
The senses operate entirely differently from the way we are made to believe. The eye looks at your moving hand. Except observing it, it cannot say anything.
People call U.G. an atheist. He says God is irrelevant. But that does not mean he is an atheist. He says that there is no use in wasting our energy thinking about God.
The whole culture of our civilization is built in external violence, killing, and getting killed, first in the name of God as symbolized by the church, then by religious institutions, and finally, in the name of political ideologies as symbolized by the state. Killing is basic to our culture. Our culture is not based on harmony with nature.
The human brain is interested in the maintenance of the organism. It is not interested in what culture has superimposed. It is interested in safeguarding the body in its smooth functioning. The brain, the wonderful computer, translates the input sensory signals. It is not interested in religiosity or spirituality. Religious experience is sensual in nature. It is the mind's memory that you have recorded that longs for sensuality. Life is creative, in the sense that it does not use any model.
Nature does not copy. Different forms of life arose due to the action of natural selection on genetic variability. If nature has copied, it would have uniform organisms. Genetic diversity arises from the gene combinations in a species. The more the genetic diversity, the more the chances for new types of organisms that would emerge. Man has evolved from a unicellular organisms by a process called organic evolution that has taken millions of years. Nature has never copied; yet in nature life has diversified itself into a multitude of varieties.
Every cell in the body has all the information—genetic information. Everything is genetically controlled. You cannot change your genetic structure. We only live in hope and die in hope.
Nature is interested in creating perfect species and not perfect individuals. Perfect individuals are created by the religious thinking of man. If all of us were to be Jesus or Buddha, you can imagine the story.
It is not possible for animals to have sex at any time. Unless the female is estrous, i.e., in heat, it would not receive the male. Males detect by olfaction (their sense of smell) that the female is in heat. But in the case of humans, somewhere in evolution, the female came to accept the male all the time even though she is not estrous. It is a remarkable phenomenon that gave vent to biological urges everyday, thereby increasing the thirst for sex. The religious people imposed control over sex. The psychologists have turned it into something extraordinary. All commercialism is related to sex. We have come not to appreciate even commercial ads without sex. Nowadays sex has become a major part of life. That value system has created you, and there is no way to free yourself from that. Anything you do to free yourself only adds momentum to that.
The capacity to learn is genetically determined. Thus we end up with genetic limitations. Unless the genes function we cannot. A tendency like alcoholism is due to the genes. Manipulating genes will give a substantial edge in making man the way we want him to be. Education and preaching morality will take a long time, but gene manipulation is by far the shorter route. Man is the captive of his genes. This is the determinism of his life. He has to function within the radius of gene-imposed reactions.
We have been brainwashed for centuries that the end-product of human evolution is the creation of perfect models such as the great spiritual teachers of mankind with their special behavioral patterns. But nature is not interested in creating a perfect being, only a perfect species. It is only interested in making a species more adaptable to changing environment. Nature does not use any models. The creation of the human species is an unparalleled event. But culture is interested in fitting all into a common mold, since it wants the status quo of its value system. Thus we find in U.G.'s philosophy a profound sense of nature, a profound sense of the absolute and primitive reality of life which is an extraordinarily positive force.
Humanity somewhere made the mistake of experiencing separateness from the totality of life. This self-consciousness separated man from the nature all around him which culminated in an isolation that frightened him.
The longing to be a part of the totality of life around him created the tremendous demand in man for the ultimate. Then he thought that the spiritual goals of God, Truth, or Reality will help him become a part of the whole again. This very attempt to become one with or become integrated with the totality of life has only kept him separate. Isolated functioning is not part of nature.
When a void is created, when all systems failed, religious concerns creep in. But our experience is that religion has created schemes causing tremendous destruction of life and property. It is most unfortunate. Religion has failed in its purpose. We live and die in the hope that somehow the very same thing that has failed us will one day rescue us. You cannot conceive of the impossibility of creating a harmony between humans and the life around through thought.
First of all this question is born out of the assumption that we know something about life. We do know about the biochemistry, the physiology, and the anatomy of life. However, scientists have not discovered any purpose for life. Life arose spontaneously from the primordial soup, and it took ten billion years to make us. There is neither a direction nor a purpose for life. But what we are concerned is about living not life. Living is our relationship with our fellow beings, with the life around, for material benefits. Is the acquisition of material benefits the end of it? There you have a problem. You not only ask this question, but pose others, as if they have answers. Even if we know the meaning or purpose of life, how does it help us? Will we change according to its dictates? It is a futile attempt to try to find the answers, but we go on asking these questions.
The demand to bring about a change in ourselves is the cause of our suffering. There is nothing to be changed. Revolutionary teachers, however, want to bring about a radical revolution in man, assuring us that there is such as thing as the soul, spirit or the 'I'. But the reality of the world is as it is imposed on us. And we also know that thought is merely functional and cannot help us to become something which we are not.
The recognition of ourselves as an entity is possible only through the knowledge we have about ourselves. We start the process as children with identification of teeth, nose, mouth, hands, name, and so on. That is the origin of our identity. The constant use of the knowledge about ourselves maintains that identity. We do not want it to come to an end. We do take steps to maintain and perpetuate it. But the immense effort we make to maintain it wears us out. Ultimately we reach a point where we have to give it all up—the value system. Then we are branded as crazy.
Our identity is destroyed by the loss of memory. In Alzheimer's disease there is a total loss of memory. The disease is genetic, but the way it is spreading is alarming. The incidence is one in three in the 60 year age group and one in two in the 90 year age group. It appears to be much more dangerous than AIDS. About a hundred thousand people have been reported to have been affected in the world so far. Is it nature's way of turning mankind into vegetables? Is the over use of memory responsible for the destruction of memory?
Thoughts are outside the field of the body. The brain has nothing to do with creativity. The brain is just a reactor. The question of the self haunted U.G. for years. Suddenly he realized one day that there is nothing to realize: "...as it occurred to me like a lightning leading to the shattering of thought, leaving the living organism with its innate intelligence, with its pulse, beat, and throb of life."
The very fact that we assume that something meaningful must be there, and that we have to do something to become a part of the whole thing is born out of the fundamentally mistaken assumption that we are a special creation with a great purpose. This assumption is intensified by our culture which has led to an enormous belief that the whole of creation is meant for man. The demand to use and plunder nature and its resources has created problems of enormous magnitude, causing pollution, ecological problems, and devastation. Thus we have reached a crash point from which we cannot retrace our steps. U.G.'s logic in this context is absolutely consistent and unassailable.
The problem with man is that he wants to be something other than what he is. That is the culture-imposed personality. Such an idea is driving him all the time. That is schizophrenia. So, U.G. says, "What is here is the opposite of what you would like to be." Thought can never conceive the possibility of achieving anything except in time; thought is never new. The brain cannot create answers. Our memory is not that fast, due to the activity of the stimulus-response sensory system. There is the illusion that memory is operating all the time and trying to capture everything within its framework. But the illusion is created by the mind in order to maintain the continuity of our identity.
Man has to be rescued from the state of intellectual, moral, and physiological atrophy brought about by the modern conditions of life; he should be reestablished in his unity with nature; and he should be induced to express his genetic potential and break the shell in which education and society have succeeded in encasing him. We have to intervene in the fundamental organic and mental processes. But man has no independent existence. In order to remake him we have to transform the world. Our social frame, and our material and mental background will have to be rebuilt. Since society is not plastic, its form cannot be changed instantly. Each individual has the power to modify his way of life and create an environment around him different from that of the unthinking crowd. He is capable of isolating himself in some measure by imposing upon himself certain physiological and mental disciplines.
Revolutions often start with a lone individual. Thus the new renaissance must start with a few people. Culture without comfort, beauty without luxury, machines without enslaving factories, science without the worship of matter are likely to restore man to his intelligence and lead him to the summit of development.
U.G. does not believe in transformation. Hence he uses the term 'mutation'. A mutation precipitated a profound change in him; it was rather a physiological mutation—a glandular change mediated by the hypothalamus.
Hailing from an orthodox Brahmin family on 9th July, 1918, he had his young days spent with his grandfather, a Theosophist, whose house was a religious center where endless discussions on philosophy, comparative religions, occultism, mysticism, and metaphysics took place. His formative years were seeped in religious lore and saturated with spiritualism, with gurus, mahants, swamis, and saints. Thus his early life came under the culture of spiritual personages for which he took great fascination. He traveled to all the holy places and centers of learning, and even spent seven summers studying classical yoga with Swami Sivananda.
During these years U.G. began feeling that something went wrong somewhere in the religious traditions in which he had been immersed since his childhood. Swami Sivananda's behavior of devouring pickles behind closed doors while at the same time preaching eating ascetic (bland) food to his disciples made him realize that if there was anything to these holy men, it was only unadulterated hypocrisy. Thus skepticism arose in him concerning spirituality. There was a strong inner urge in him to have his own way of thinking and acting. Breaking established Brahmin traditions, he threw out his sacred thread, the symbol of religious heritage, and became a rebel rejecting all conventions of his culture. He started questioning himself. He was beginning to lose his respect for religious institutions and traditions which were the hallmark of his family. It struck him that the holy business was unholy. His attitude made his grandmother remark that he had the heart of a butcher, testifying to the fact that he had enormous determination and courage to disregard everything that represented the embodiment of Hindu heritage. Thus with one stroke he swept the entire psychological content of his past.
It so happened that U.G. once visited Sri Ramana Maharshi in 1931 at the latter's ashram at Tiruvannamalai near Madras. Ramana Maharshi was supposed to be a realized saint. But the realized soul did not make much impression on U.G. With great trepidation U.G. asked Ramana Maharshi three questions:
"Is there anything like enlightenment?"
Ramana's answer was: "Yes, there is."
"Are there any levels to it."
Ramana replied: "No, no levels are possible. Either you are there, or you are not."
"Can you give it to me?"
Ramana answered: "Yes, I can give it. But can you take it?"
U.G. was stunned by Ramana's reply. "What is it that he can give and I can't take?" And he abruptly left the ashram. He never went again to Ramana Maharshi who subsequently died of cancer in 1951.
By the age of 21 U.G. almost became an atheist while studying philosophy and psychology at the university of Madras. At that time he wanted to be on his own in his quest.
Meanwhile, around his 25th year, he developed sex problems. He wanted to be celibate, but soon realized that sex was a natural drive, a biological urge, and that it was not wise to suppress it while the institution of marriage was available to fulfill the urge. He reluctantly got married to Kusuma Kumari, a charming and beautiful Brahmin girl selected by his grandmother. He was to say later about his marriage: "I woke up the morning after my wedding night and knew without doubt that I had made the biggest mistake in my life." That was his instantaneous reaction after his first night. He led his married life for 17 long years and fathered four children—two sons and two daughters. His eldest son Vasant came down with polio, and U.G. decided to move to U.S.A. to seek medical treatment for him, thus spending all the fortune he had inherited. He also planned to get higher education for his wife. He wanted her to get a job which would make her financially independent. She refused to work and U.G. sent her away to India against her will. His spiritual quest drove him to the point of deserting his family. The letter he wrote to his wife was perhaps his most poignant. Her mental trauma (which he described in the letter) was immense and she eventually became a mental wreck.
His family became a problem for U.G. In his early 40s (around 1960) he was financially broke and wandered aimlessly after his family was sent back to India. He went to various places like New York, London, and finally to Geneva. He went to the Indian consulate in Geneva and requested the consul to give him a lift to India. After looking at the credentials of the man whom the then-President of India, Dr. Radhakrishnan, praised as a great orator, the consul gave him time to get some money from India. It is at that historical moment that an employee of the Indian consulate, the sixty-year-old Valentine de Kerven, came into contact with him and helped him settle down in Geneva, thereby dissuading him from going back to India. This was the turning point in U.G.'s life. History was yet to be made, but the time had come.
Right from his 35th year U.G. used to suffer from recurring headaches which were not relieved by aspirin and coffee. He began to grow young and looked like a boy in his teens. He was feeling as if he was headless and developed occult powers (which U.G. calls man's natural powers and instincts). He could see a person's entire past history. He could discern from a stranger's palm his entire destiny. These powers came to him after his 35th year, but he never used them. He never told Valentine about all the bizarre happenings, lest she might suspect him to be mentally ill.
U.G. was approaching his 49th birthday. He suddenly decided with a friend to hear J. Krishnamurti lecture on the outskirts of Saanen where he and Valentine were living. He did not have contact with J Krishnamurti for many years then and so longed to hear him and refresh his memory. But midway through the talk U.G. realized that the state which J. Krishnamurti was describing was the same as he was in. "Why the hell am I listening to someone describe how I am functioning?" He realized that the way he was functioning was that real state. He left the tent in a dazed state of mind, went to the other side of the valley and rested on a bench overlooking the beautiful river and the mountains of Saanen valley.
At this moment U.G. was contemplating about enlightenment and the search for it—how it was the search that choked him and kept him out of the natural state. He realized that there is nothing like spiritual or psychological enlightenment, as there is no spirit or psyche at all. At that moment all his questions disappeared and he ceased to act through the thought structure that separates. There was a collapse of the entire thought structure, and along with it, the separate self and an opposing society. He calls it the 'calamity'. The physiological change must have touched him at the very molecular levels.
He was flabbergasted at his identification of himself in his own mind as a full-clothed monkey. The slate has been wiped clean of the self. What was left was a simple and gracefully functioning organism. U.G. refers to the changes that occurred then in purely physiological terms: within a few hours he felt constriction at various locations in his body and head. Large swellings appeared at various sites like the anterior surface of the throat and the center of the forehead; also there were changes in the hypothalamus, pituitary, pineal, and thymus glands. The eyelids stopped blinking and tears were rolling down, cleansing and lubricating the eyes in a new way. Energy seemed to flow upward from below, analogous to the kundalini energy. Temperature used to rise and the body used to get covered with ash. His body temperature would drop to low levels barely enough to sustain life. Then his pulse would quicken and temperature would rise. The body would start with slow arching movements and eventually return to the normal state. Thus U.G. went through a series of death states with his heart beat intact.
It was a tremendous shock to the body to have its separative psychic structure collapse and disappear. There was no psychic coordinator collecting, comparing, and matching all the sensory inputs so that it could use the body for its purposes. Events became disjointed and unrelated. The senses started functioning independently. Thought was in the background but came into operation only when there was a demand for the functioning of the organism. U.G.'s memory became extraordinary after the event.
U.G.'s hands faced backwards. The body became functional and bisexual—hermaphroditic. His right side responded more to women, and left more to men. (At the time of marriage and other Hindu ceremonies the wife always sits on the right side of man. Is that a coincidence?) U.G.'s energy otherwise utilized by thought started to flow from his spine to the top of his head. U.G. had only one sensitivity, that is, biological sensitivity. It became magnified. Celestial bodies like the moon had a strong effect on him.
These incredible physiological changes continued for years. U.G. was so bewildered, yet he never told anyone, lest they would brand him mad. He never even spoke for a whole year after the change. He had to relearn practically everything, just like a baby. After a year or so he regained most of his communicative powers, yet he did not utter a word about these changes to anyone. What is there to say? One day the answer came to him like a flash: "I will say exactly the way it is."
U.G. does not regard this as a new way of living. He has no basic survival or reproductive objectives. Desires have disappeared in him. Thus his disarming message is that all psychological and spiritual wants are without any foundation. There is no message he can give or technology he can offer. He has no disciples, no teaching, and no sadhanas. His message is that he has no message for mankind. He cannot save us from our basic dilemma or from our self-deception. Yet he says, "If I cannot help you, no one can."
It was on his 49th birthday in 1967 that U.G. experienced some profound changes in himself, not because of, but despite everything he had done before in his life to cause them. The changes had no cause. The transformation was acausal, like a thunderbolt or lightning. At that moment he was dead and what was left after that is not known. Did anything happen to him? What he found was that the very thing he had been searching for all his life was shattered to pieces. The goal that he had previously set for himself was self-realization or God-realization. Now, on the other hand, transformation or enlightenment were all figments of imagination. There was nothing to realize. The very demand to be free from everything, even from the physical needs of the body, disappeared. But after the change something extraordinary happened. Everything that man had thought, felt, and experienced—the entire cultural milieu—was purged out of his system.
People are curious to know how it happened. They are interested in the cause of the transformation, when he says it is acausal. Then they get disappointed. Their interest is to ascertain the cause and induce such changes in themselves.
People claim that this state of his has resulted from his hearing J. Krishnamurti's talk. This is highly erroneous and not based on facts.
U.G. was listening to J. Krishnamurti. It suddenly dawned on him: "Why the hell have I been listening to this man? From his description I feel that I am in that state." He then walked out with the whirling thought that he was familiar with Krishnamurti's description of the various states. So the question went on and on in his mind, and suddenly the question disappeared. Then he said to himself that he is not grateful to anyone for this state, because it was in him. Whatever happened to him happened despite listening to all the teachers. "The happening or event that precipitated a profound change in me is something which I cannot communicate or give that feel to anyone."
Freud said birth is traumatic. But no one can experience his own birth. In the newborn baby there is no experiencing structure at the time of the birth, and even if it is there, when it comes into operation is not known. The experiencing structure is genetic in its origin and expression.
Since every human being is unique by virtue of his molecular (DNA) printout, the code of enlightenment, if there is any, would be unique to each. Hence we cannot produce enlightened people on the assembly line. Even India, the great spiritual country, can boast of very few enlightened people. But claimants are many because of the market demand. An enlightened man, if there is one, will not be interested in enlightening anybody, because he has no way of knowing that he is a free and enlightened man.
U.G.'s encounter with Ramana Maharshi and the traditional answer that was dished out by all the spiritual teachers hurt him. He felt that, "If there is one in the whole world who can take it, it is me." Thus he walked out to lead another phase of his life studying religion, philosophy, psychology, and science. His basic, oft-repeated question was, "What is mind?" "Finally I came to know there is nothing like mind."
U.G.'s life appears to be peculiar since a seven year cycle repeats itself with significant events.
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Quotes from U.G. are taken from tape recordings of U.G.'s conversations made by Prof. O.S. Reddi in March 1994 and from the various published works of U.G.
Dr. O.S. Reddy
Centre for Molecular Immunology
265, Road No. 10, Jubilee Hills
Hyderabad, A. P. 500 034
India
