OUR GREAT HERITAGE-----U.G.

OUR GREAT HERITAGE-----U.G.

Q: That doesn't mean that our heritage is false or that our values are false.

UG: What consolation is that to us? What good is that?

That's like saying "My grandfather was a very rich man, a multimillionaire: when I don't know where my next meal will come from. What is the good of telling myself all the time that my grandfather was a multimillionaire?

Likewise, India produced great saints, spiritual giants, and we don't have even one in our midst, you see -- so what is the good of repeating all the time that our heritage is so tremendous and so great, or telling ourselves, or talking about or praising the greatness of our heritage?

What good is that?

It must help this country.

So why don't you question that?

There may be something wrong with the whole business.

Why I say that is: in spite of the fact that the whole culture of India is supposed to be something extraordinary, a great culture, in spite of the fact that everybody talks of spirituality, dharma, this thing or the other, India has produced only a handful of great teachers, and they have not produced another teacher like them.

Show me another Ramanujacharya. Only one Ramanujacharya, only one Sankaracharya, and only one Madhavacharya, only one Buddha -- uh? -- only one Mahavira. They can all be counted on one's fingers.

We're not thinking in terms of these gurus, because these gurus are like the priests in the West.

India has this freedom, so everybody sets up his own tiny little shop and sells his own particular wares.

That is why you have so many gurus in India, just the way they have priests in the West.

In the West organized religion destroyed the possibility of individual growth, you see -- they destroyed every dissent, they destroyed every possibility of individuals blossoming into spiritual teachers as in India.

But luckily India had this kind of a freedom, and it threw up so many.

But in spite of all that, in spite of the fact that the whole atmosphere is religious (whatever that word means; to me the religious thing you are talking about is nothing but superstition; celebrating all these fasts, feasts, and festivals, and going to the temple is not religion, you see), those teachers have not produced another teacher.

There can't be another Buddha within the framework of Buddhism.

There can't be another Ramanujacharya within the framework of that school of thought.

They have left behind -- either they have left behind, or the followers have created -- these small, tiny, little colonies.

And so all those colonies are fighting all the time -- whether you should have the "U" nama or the "V" nama, fighting in the courts whether the elephants should have a "V" mark or a "U" mark.

The whole thing has degenerated and deteriorated into such a triviality nowadays.

So, "Is India able to produce an outstanding giant like those people?" is the question which everybody in this country should ask himself or herself -- that is number one.

Number two: Does this religion, the heritage that you are talking about, operate in the lives of the people?

And the third question is: Can it be of any help to solve the economic and political problems of this country?

My answer to all these is "No" -- to all these questions.