Public Talk 1, Bombay, 28 January 1968

It seems to me the first thing to understand, in this chaotic and rather mad world, is how to listen to all the conclusions, descriptions and analyses that people are making with regard to the innumerable problems that we have. We have many problems; not only in this deteriorating country, but also throughout the world, human beings are faced with extraordinarily complex problems. And the experts, the intellectuals, the gurus, the theologians, the priests, are explaining according to their particular conditioning, according to their particular belief, giving descriptions, analyses and so on. The more one is confused, the more one is in sorrow, the more one seeks, the more one wants comfort, security, clarity, and there are those who offer this clarity, this security, and I think it is wise to learn how to listen to all these explanations, conclusions, descriptions and analyses. How to listen, not only to them, but also to the speaker because we are so gullible, we want to accept, we want to be deceived, we want to be hypnotised by words, we want an easy way out of this very destructive world and we are eager, most unfortunately, to accept, and specially when there are those who, according to a formula, explain how to meet this crisis throughout the world. And these formulas vary according to their conditioning, according to the culture in which they have been brought up.

If you are a Hindu — and I hope you are not — if you are a Hindu you have the Gita, the Upanishads, the ancient teachers with their formulas; and these yogis, experts, swamis and all the rest of them give explanations, words, and if they are very clever they introduce modern ideology, modern words. And we think by listening to them the problems are solved — but unfortunately they are not. The Christians with their formula, the Hindus, the Muslims and so on. Please do realise that the world is in a great crisis; not only India. And this crisis, this challenge, cannot be met at all, at any level, through any formula, through the Gita, through the Upanishads, or going back to the past or by becoming more and more traditional. You have to meet it not as an Indian, not as a Parsee, Muslim, Christian, Communist, but as a human being. The human consciousness is in a crisis, that is you, as a human being, living in this chaotic, destructive, brutal world, you have to meet it. And you cannot possibly meet it if you are thinking, acting in terms of formulas, concepts and ideologies. Because ideologies, however pleasant, however ancient, have produced this chaos; the division of people, of human beings into religions, into political, geographical divisions and these divisions have brought about this frightful mess, this immense, deep crisis, confusion.

So one has to learn anew how to listen; how to listen not only to the challenge, to the crisis, but also how to listen to the experts, to the brilliant articles that one writes, to the propaganda that is going on — to the explanations according to the Gita or to the Upanishads and so on, which are all rather infantile. When the house is burning, and the house is burning whether you are willing to look it at or not, it is no good discussing who set the fire, whether it was a Hindu, a Christian, a Communist a Socialist; but what is important is to put the fire out. But you cannot put the fire out if you are thinking, living, acting, according to a concept, a formula. Do please realise this. We are facing a very great crisis which cannot possibly be solved through any formula, which is through the formulas which have been established for thousands of years by Shankara, by the various teachers, past and the present. They are theoreticians. They invent a new formula, a new concept and human beings throughout the world have been conditioned according to these formulas, to these concepts and therefore when life — which is a movement — when life demands your total attention to it, when life is action, relationship and you cannot meet it if you are functioning, and thinking according to a formula of Shankara, or Marx, or Lenin, or the latest guru that you have.

So one has to ask: why is it that human beings throughout the world, why do they live in formulas? I do not know if you have asked yourself this question: why you live at the conceptual level — concept, that is formulate an idea, an ideology and live at that level, think at that level; whereas actuality is something entirely different. Actuality is the daily living which has nothing whatsoever to do with concepts with formulas however ancient or modern. That is the first thing to realise that one has to scrap completely all the formulas, all the methods whether it is the Socialist, the Communist, the various political parties; one has to re-think about the whole thing anew. Which means you can no longer be a nationalist, you can no longer be a Hindu, a Christian, a Buddhist, a Muslim who always function according to a formula. So, that’s the first thing to realise, whether you, as a human being, living in this country, in this dreadful town with all its miseries, squalor, dirt whether you are thinking in terms of formulas, or you are living not in separation, not fighting for your own little family but whether you are living a life that is complete, total, every minute. Because, you know, life, the living is relationship; there is no life without relationship whether you live in isolation in some cave, or live in the middle of this town, living implies relationship. And you cannot be related to another according to a formula. You understand? It’s very simple. You have to live, you have to go to your offices, factories, labour, strive; but if you live according to an image established by your ancient people, by your ancient teachers, according to their formula, you are not living, you are not related at all. You are living according to an idea. It’s like the Communist state; they have established an ideology, a tyranny, and they condition the people — as the Christians have done, as the Hindus have done — condition by words, by propaganda, by incessant repetition. So that your mind functions at an ideological level, at a conceptual, abstract level. Whereas living is the daily contact, the daily sorrow, misery, loneliness, despair; that is what we have to understand, not the abstraction, not the clever writers writing brilliant articles. What we have to understand is our daily life, not according to a pattern. But when we are so conditioned by a formula, when you are so heavily closed in by ideologies, the daily living becomes shoddy, confusing, meaningless.

So, what one has to do is to be aware of your conditioning — just to know that you are conditioned, that you have been conditioned for centuries. And if you do not realise it, then you will create great confusion and great misery for others and for yourself. So, we have problems — actual human problems, not theoretical problems because our first problem is we do not know what love is; we don’t love, we have become brutal, callous, indifferent, ruthless. And without love you can solve nothing. Have you ever wondered, have you ever asked yourselves why it is that you have no love at all? You know what I mean by love? — just to be kind without any motive; just to be generous; to feel for others; to feel the ugliness of a filthy street, to feel the poverty; to see this explosion of population going on throughout the world, to feel it, to find out why, to cry, not over your miserable little family, or a little death of someone whom you like, but to cry for the complete chaos of this world. We have lost all feelings because we have become very clever. Cleverness is worldliness. Do realise it. When we are clever we are really worldly; we have become clever through education; we have become clever because of over-population. We have to struggle so hard to live, compete, drive out others by our cleverness; by passing exams and getting a job. And also we have become clever through the desire of mere survival. You watch yourself. You never discuss realities: how to end war, how to be kind, how to be generous — you are always willing to discuss abstract things.

I mean by love, a quality of mind that knows no separation. You understand? Because when there is separation there is conflict, there is envy, there is jealousy, antagonism, the desire for power, position; the desire for position, jealousy are the results of our clever worldliness. And when there is separation between you and another there is no relationship, though you may be married, have children, have sex, when you feel separate from another you have no love. And without love you will not be able to solve this problem of this world or any problem which you are facing. Do please realise this fundamental issue because you have no love, and why haven’t you got it? Why isn’t it bubbling in you when you see the beauty of sunset, a tree, when you see sorrow, misery, confusion, the agonising existence of man? Why haven’t you got it? That is the fundamental question; not whether God exists or not, not what is going to happen to you when you die; we will discuss that later but why haven’t you, as human beings, why haven’t you this quality of mind that goes beyond all separation, that goes beyond all nationalities, all the religions and their beliefs, their dogmas, all the stupid inventions that man has brought about to protect himself. Why? Do ask it please. This is really a very important question — don’t brush it off.

Why is it that you, as a human being, who are so capable, so clever, so cunning, so competitive, who have such marvellous technology, go to the moon, go under the earth, live weeks under the sea, invent extraordinary electronic brains, why is it that you haven’t got the one thing that matters? Because without it you become bitter, without it you are afraid, without it all relationship is conflict. And I do not know if you have ever seriously faced this issue: why your hearts are empty. This is not an emotional, sentimental, gathering. Love is not sentimental, nor emotional, it has nothing whatsoever to do with devotion, or loyalty. So, one has to find out why, and in finding out perhaps you will come upon it. Because you cannot cultivate love, you cannot practise through a method achieving love. A method can only give you a mechanical repetition of something through which you hope to achieve something. But love cannot be achieved, love cannot be practised, there is no school you can go to and learn and pass an exam and say ‘I know what love is’. And without that — do what you will, go to all the dirty temples in the world, read all the so-called sacred books — without that your life will be in confusion, your life will be in sorrow.

And what your daily life is, your society is. You understand, sirs? The society is not different from you: what you are, what you have been, that is the community in which you live. The social disorder exists because you are disorderly in your life. And this order cannot come about through intellectual organisation, through a plan — we have tried all these things thousands of years ago. Every human being has endeavoured to create a new society, a new community, a new way of living, and they have all failed, and they will always fail, because they are built on a formula, on a concept, on an ideology. So, why is it that you, who are educated, go to the office, have become so clever in technology, why is it you haven’t got this flame? You cannot answer it. First of all, you’ve never thought about it. You’ve never given your heart to find out. And perhaps if you will listen rightly, you may come upon this flower, this flame. This flame has nothing whatsoever to do with the family. You may say ‘I love my family’, you don’t. ‘I love my children’, you don’t. If you loved your children, your family, there would be no war; there would be right education; there would be no competition; no brutality. So you don’t love your children, your family nor your gods, because the gods whom you worship are the images made by hand or by the mind out of fear.

So we are going to find out, if we can, whether we can give our heart to solve this problem of existence. And you cannot solve this problem of living, the daily torture of living, the daily misery, the daily confusion, the passing joy, the passing pleasure which is called life. And to understand it is to love it and you cannot love if you do not know what is involved in separation, what relationship means. And we are going to examine that, not intellectually, not verbally, but actually. Which is, to look, to observe and see what your actual relationship is — daily relationship with your wife, with your family, with your boss, with your neighbour — and whether it is at all possible to go beyond this separative, narrow existence. We are going to do it.

First of all, don’t be caught by words. You understand? The word is not the actual thing, the word ‘tree’ is not the actual tree. Right? That’s simple. The word will not help you to touch the tree; you have to touch it, come into contact with it, put your hand upon it and to put your hand upon it, the word will not help you. But we are a slave to words, slaves to ideas, to images and to symbols; so one has to first realise that to come into touch with something directly, to touch it, the word must not interfere. So one has to learn the art of seeing and listening, the art, how to look; how to look at the world that is the world in which you live; how to look at a tree, at a cloud, at the beauty of the sunset. To see something very clearly you must be sensitive. You understand? To be sensitive. If your hands are hard, brutal, cruel, you cannot touch the tree. If your eyes are blind with your worries, with your gods, with your wife, with your sex, with your fears, you cannot see the cloud, the beauty of the sunset.

So, one has to learn how to look, how to see. Now, we are going to do it together, how to look. And this art cannot be learnt from another, you have to do it yourself. And when the speaker is explaining do not be carried away by the explanation, but actually do it. Don’t say, ‘I will try and do it’ — that’s one of the most dreadful statements you can ever make — ‘I will try and do it’. Either you do it, or you don’t do it — there is no trying, doing your best. Now we are going to look together at the tree, at the leaf — you are going to do it.

When you look at a leaf, how do you look at it? You obviously look at it with your eyes, but also you look at it with your mind — the mind which has its own memory of that leaf, the botanical name of that leaf or the name of that particular cloud. So you look with your eyes, and also you look at that leaf, at that cloud, at the wife or the husband through the memory of that, through the memory, through association. Right? So there is a dual process going on. You see it with your eyes and also you see through your memory, through the image that you have about that leaf or about that wife or husband, or about the cloud. Right? I hope you are doing it. And this becomes extraordinarily difficult and complex if you don’t begin very, very simply. We are beginning very simply; and as we go along you will see how extraordinarily complex it becomes; but you cannot reach that complexity and go beyond it, if you do not know how to look very, very simply.

When you look at that leaf, or look at your wife or husband, if you have ever done it and I doubt it very much if you’ve ever looked at your wife or your husband or your neighbour, when you look what actually takes place? Actually, not theoretically, not ‘what should take place’ but what actually takes place. What takes place when you look at your wife or husband? As, what takes place when you look at the beauty of a tree with that lovely foliage, the shape of it, the depth of it, the quality of the leaf when you touch it, what takes place? You are looking at that tree through the image that you have built about trees. Right? Though you see that particular tree, you see with the mind or with the memory you have about trees, with the knowledge you have and so you are not actually looking, coming into contact with that tree but with the image you have with the tree. Right? You are following all this? So you are not directly touching the tree and therefore you are not related to the tree. Right? Now, when you look at your husband or wife, what takes place? You look at her or him with the image that you have — the image that you have built through many years, of the images of sex, of pleasure, of irritation, of nagging, of angry words, of comfort and so on; you have built the image about her and she has built the image about you. Right? That’s actual fact. Now, these two images are related. Right? You have the image about her and she has the image about you. These two images are related and you have no relationship at all, so there is a separation. You are following? When you have an image about somebody and that somebody has an image about you, there must be a separation and hence conflict, and hence the total absence of love.

So as long as you have not learnt the art of seeing how the image is put together, if you are not aware of the mechanism, of the structure and the nature of the image, then you will never be free of it and therefore you will always be in conflict. You know what co-operation is. Because the world needs co-operation — this country needs it desperately. This country, which is dividing itself so catastrophically through linguistic division, through petty national division, and so on, there cannot be co-operation through division and we must co-operate to live at all. And how can you co-operate with another if you have no love, if you are merely functioning, using that word ‘co-operation’, when you are ambitious, separative, competitive, dividing yourself by words, by beliefs, by dogmas. And when you know how to co-operate really, then you will also know how not to co-operate — because you must know both. But when you know the meaning and the depth and the significance of co-operation then you will know the moment, the right action of non-co-operation. But first one must know how to co-operate, and there can be no co-operation if there is separation. And separation will always exist — though you live in a family, though you sleep with your wife or husband — if you have an image. You with your image of ambition, greed, envy and success, she with hers. So though you may live in the same house, beget children, you are not co-operating because both of you are separate. And co-operation can only come when there is love; love which is not sentimental, which has nothing to do with emotionalism. Love is not pleasure, love is not desire. And to come upon this extraordinary thing, this beauty of it, one must learn how to look, to look at the tree, to look at your wife and children.

Then you will see, if you do know how to look, then our problem is why have human beings come to this extraordinary crisis, this crisis of total disorganisation, not only in themselves, this disorder, this confusion within oneself which is expressed outwardly in society — why has man who has lived for so many thousands and thousands of years, lived in misery, conflict, why now this chaos has become so frightening, what is the reason of it? You understand the question? You will say it’s the over-population — twelve and a half million people are born every year in India, which is already over-populated. You will say it is the morality that goes with technological knowledge. You will say it is the lack of communication. These are the slick, easy answers. And when you find an easy answer you won’t find the depth, the truth of the matter. So distrust completely everybody who puts forward easy, cheap answers. Why is it that you, in this country, who have lived for so long, with your teachers, with your Shankaras, Gitas, Gurus, with the immature saints — and all saints are always immature — why is it that you find yourselves now actually in this state, in disorder, in this confusion — why? If you put aside the easy explanation of over-population, lack of morality which goes with technological knowledge and this lack of direct communication, which may be true but they do not give you the fundamental reason, the fundamental cause of this misery — why? Why a country like this, that has had tradition of goodness, kindliness, of not to kill, not to be brutal — tradition, not that you lived it — why, when you have had all these teachers, why is it and when is it that something has totally gone wrong? You may say ‘It has not gone wrong’, you may say ‘We are not in confusion, we have marvellous leaders, only we don’t know how to apply the teachings of the past and therefore we are miserable’. Again a very superficial answer. ‘We don’t know how to follow the right leader’ — there is no leader and no follower; there is no teacher and no disciple; there is only the human being; you, who have to be both the teacher and the disciple; you have to ask now why is it that you have come to this fearful, destructive state.

To go into it you must examine very closely; and to examine you must not be prejudiced; you must be free to examine and unafraid to find out. We are going to find out, that is, find out the cause; but the discovery of the cause is not going to help you to be free of the cause. Please do understand this. You may know that you have cancer but knowing that you have cancer does not free you from that disease, you have to operate; you have to cut yourself off; you have to surgically be operated. So, similarly, you may know the cause of it, which we are going to find out, because it’s very important to understand it, but the understanding of the cause does not free you from the effect of it; what frees you from the effect of it is the immediate understanding of the cause and surgically operating it, which means that you have to look, you have to examine what this cause is. Therefore to examine it there must be freedom. And you might be frightened, because freedom implies total negation of the past, total negation of your gods, your beliefs, your rituals — total denial of all that. So most people are frightened to be free, and therefore it’s only the free mind, the eager mind, the mind that is awake that can really find out how this calamity, this immense sorrow has come upon this human being.

So to take the journey the first thing is to travel lightly, to travel lightly, not with all your burdens, not with all your prejudices, not with all your worries. And that’s what we are going to do because we have to totally bring about a revolution in ourselves; a total mutation of the mind must take place; and that cannot take place if you are not free to find out, therefore not afraid of what happens.

I am sorry it is time. We will continue with this next time we meet. But what is important is to examine your life not according to the Gita, to Shankara who laid down formulas, and if you live according to them, you are not living your life, you are living some other people’s lives. So you have to live your life, your life which is so chaotic, so unfortunately miserable, your life that is so in despair, in agony. That’s what we have to understand, bring about a deep mutation in that. And you will if you are lucky enough, and find out how to listen, how to see, then you will see for yourself that there is a benediction in the very act of seeing, in the very act of listening — not benediction from a God, there is no benediction from Gods, there is no benediction from prayers, none from the temples — that benediction only comes when you know how to love.