Stopped In Our Tracks
Stories of U.G. In India from the Notebooks of K. ChandrasekharTranslated and Edited by J.S.R.L. Narayana Moorty 2d/3d Series
Your Life Is Centered Around Eating
Q: I think that your talking carries your message.
U.G.: No, the talking is always emphasizing that there is no message. That is the talking. If that is what you call a message, then yes. The message is that there is no message.
Q: Is there any conscious effort on your part in giving expression to...
U.G.: How can there be any conscious effort? Whatever comes out of me is the expression of that state. There is no conscious effort at all. I am not conscious of anything at any time except when there is a need for it.
Q: There is this Charvaka Siddhantam (the Charvaka doctrine) that you have only to eat and be merry.
U.G.: ...and borrow money and never repay. The Charvaka emphasizes the reality of the world. Here he is something like a revisionist. But I say this reality which you have taken for granted is not so real as it appears to be. Quite the opposite, I am not recommending that you should drink, eat and be merry.
Q: Do you mean to say that anything one does is a waste of time?
U.G.: Eating is not a waste of time. The whole of your life is centered around eating, Sir! Your working there in the office for eight hours and making money—the whole thing is centered around eating. Your education, your marriage also—so that somebody could cook for you, your children, so that they can maintain you in your old age—everything is the extension of the same activity.
Q: All activities, then, are for the sake of nothing but eating...
U.G.: That's all. How much can you eat? Why do you want such a huge bank balance? You want your children, great-grandchildren—all of them to be secure. Ultimately, your house, your food, your pleasures—that is all you are concerned with.
U.G.: No, the talking is always emphasizing that there is no message. That is the talking. If that is what you call a message, then yes. The message is that there is no message.
Q: Is there any conscious effort on your part in giving expression to...
U.G.: How can there be any conscious effort? Whatever comes out of me is the expression of that state. There is no conscious effort at all. I am not conscious of anything at any time except when there is a need for it.
Q: There is this Charvaka Siddhantam (the Charvaka doctrine) that you have only to eat and be merry.
U.G.: ...and borrow money and never repay. The Charvaka emphasizes the reality of the world. Here he is something like a revisionist. But I say this reality which you have taken for granted is not so real as it appears to be. Quite the opposite, I am not recommending that you should drink, eat and be merry.
Q: Do you mean to say that anything one does is a waste of time?
U.G.: Eating is not a waste of time. The whole of your life is centered around eating, Sir! Your working there in the office for eight hours and making money—the whole thing is centered around eating. Your education, your marriage also—so that somebody could cook for you, your children, so that they can maintain you in your old age—everything is the extension of the same activity.
Q: All activities, then, are for the sake of nothing but eating...
U.G.: That's all. How much can you eat? Why do you want such a huge bank balance? You want your children, great-grandchildren—all of them to be secure. Ultimately, your house, your food, your pleasures—that is all you are concerned with.
