I don't compare myself with anybody. Why compare myself with sages, saints and saviours? It would be the biggest tragedy of my life, wouldn't it? I don't compare myself at all. What I am saying is not the same thing that has been said before. No. How do I know? You see, you are trying to fit me into that framework. You have necessarily to do that. If you don't do that, you come to an end — that is a dangerous point. So you have to reject me totally, saying "He is talking some nonsense, rubbish, bosh!" or you have to fit me into whatever particular background you have, or into somebody else's framework, and say "He is saying the same thing" — otherwise the tin gods you have created out of somebody's teaching will collapse. You have necessarily to do that — either one or the other.
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Q: Sir, what is your message?
UG: It is quite simple. You are not going to get anything here. You are wasting your time. Pack up and go! That is my message. I have nothing to give; you have nothing to take. If you continue to sit there, you are wasting your time. The one thing you have to do is get up and go. If you still think I can give you something, you'll have to sit there until kingdom come. I have nothing to give. There's nothing to be given.
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The 'holy business' — I am not in it. I don't want a thing, I have nothing to give, so there's no breach of contract here. Nothing — I don't want anything. You may think that I am talking for self- fulfillment — if I do, that will be my tragedy, my misery — so you are out; you are not interested in involving yourself in my tragedy.
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Q: Are you here for lokasangraha (uplifting the world?)
UG: I am not here for lokasangraha; I do not give a damn for you; I know you are doomed. If you think something is going to happen, and sit here day after day, week after week, year after year, waiting till kingdom come, even then no kingdom will come. Go where you will, and do what you want! I tell you very clearly, loud and clear, in clear, unmistakable language, that there is nothing to be communicated now or at any time. I am really surprised — in spite of that assertive statement, you hang on here. It is your funeral. You are chasing something which does not exist. There is nothing to be transformed, nothing to be changed, nothing to be understood . So long as you want to be like me, you will remain what you are, asking the same questions. You will get the same answer — the one answer for all questions is "Stop asking questions!"
Q: How do you think people should be?
UG: They can't be any different than what they are. A murderer will remain a murderer — of course he has to pay the price. You have outlawed murder, and still it is on the increase. I see a murderer lurking in you. If you can't get what you want, and someone stands in the way of what you want, and you want it that badly, then you will not hesitate to remove that person by any means — that is all. All your talk of culture does not mean a thing to me. The whole culture is built on the foundation of kill and get killed — they are even teaching that in the universities. I am not afraid of you. You can murder me — it is your privilege.
You can't be other than what you are. Whatever you are trying to do to change, you will not succeed. Stop running away from yourself! What is the good of my saying so? There is no use my telling you that, because you are not going to stop it. I am telling you to stop it. You are not certain of it: "Maybe there is something that can be done." I am certain that you have no freedom of action. In that sense I go a step further and say that you are genetically controlled. Naturally you will say that that statement is a theory. You have a hope that you can do something. There are many people in the 'holy business' who assure you that you can do something, so you will go there — as simple as that. My certainty remains. You call it a 'theory.' All right, you can go and try your luck. In the end you will find out for yourself and by yourself "That chappie is right!" I'll sing my song and go.
On my side it is very clear. There are so many people who have said they can help you — you would do well to go there and try your luck. But I want to add this statutory warning (like the one you have on the cigarette packs): You are not going to get anything from anybody, because there is nothing to get. That is why I say that since there is no such thing as enlightenment, the question whether X or Y is enlightened or not does not at all arise. You are all like-minded people who are after such things, that is all. That is your projection, your ideation about those people, that is all that I am saying. There may not be anything there other than what you have projected on them.
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Q: Is a person in the natural state compassionate?
UG: That is your projection; they are callous, indifferent, unconcerned. 'Compassion' is one of the gimmicks of the 'holy business', sales talk. Do you think this individual is conscious that he is full of compassion? If he is, it is not compassion. You are giving the names. How does it operate? You tell me. What kind of compassion do you see in him? It is your assumption that I am compassionate.
This is not a thing to be talked about and praised. If you start an organization, ninety per cent of what they collect will be used be used up by the administration. So many organizations are there in America — all the rich, social women go and collect funds, and ninety per cent of the funds are used up in administration. That is all you can do; you are not going to change the world. You are not called upon to change this world.
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I am not interested in changing the society. What I am saying has absolutely no social content at all. What is wrong with this world? Why do you want to change the world? This is an extraordinarily beautiful world! You want to change this world so that you can live in a world of your own ideas. The real problem is that you want to change yourself, and you find it's impossible, and so you want to change the world so that you can fit the world into your own pattern.
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Q: Is there no social content there? They talk of lokasangraha. They mean that the presence of a realized man purifies. He gives out pure vibrations, and the atmosphere is cleansed.
UG: Has it? Has it really? More blood has been shed in the name of the man who talked about loving thy neighbor as thyself, than in all the recent wars put together. Do you call that 'social content'? They are all fighting, quarrelling. How can there be any social content? You want to be a good man, a nice man, an innocent man and all that stuff; you want to be something different — always tomorrow or the day after — but even then you will say exactly the same thing — the next life. That is what all the teachers promise you (and they just promise you) — next life. Till then he is in business, he is assured. If he says there is nothing, you leave him. That is why I do not have to bother: you are going to leave in any case, because what brings you here will certainly take you somewhere else. You are interested in getting something. You are not going to get it. There is some kind of a false hope or promise. I don't give false hopes or promises. But they have created some hope, so you go on and on and on — like riding a tiger, you can't get off.
There's no journey. Both are kidding themselves — those who take or pretend to take you on the journey, and those who are trying. You can't walk with me. How can you walk with me? You are so frightened of the thorns there, the stones, you want a trained guide. I myself don't know the terrain. Have you never heard of the proverb that warns you never to walk with a man who has sandals, because he always walks on thorns? You will get into trouble. I myself do not know the terrain; I am just going.
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You can talk of so many things — home truths, "Be good.