“The Upanishadic vision is that the universe is a totality, indivisible; it is an organic whole. The parts are not separate, we are all existing in a togetherness: the trees, the mountains, the people, the birds, the stars, howsoever far away they may appear. Don’t be deceived by the appearance, they are all interlinked, all bridged. Even the smallest blade of grass is connected to the farthest star, and it is as significant as the greatest sun.

“Nothing is insignificant, nothing is smaller than anything else. The part represents the whole, just as the seed contains the whole. The seed contains the past because all the trees that preceded it are contained in it. And the seed also contains the whole future – all the trees that may happen through it are potentially there. And of course the seed contains the present. The seed looks so small, but it is not as small as it looks. If you dissect it, you will not find the flowers and the colors and the fragrance, and you may decide that the seed is empty, but in fact your method is wrong.

“That’s what science has been doing with reality – dissecting it, analyzing it. Analysis is destructive. What is needed is a unifying vision, a synthesis. And that is the Upanishadic approach: the part becomes the whole, the whole becomes the part. There is no hierarchy in the Upanishadic vision of life. Nothing is lower, nothing is higher, nothing is mundane and nothing is sacred – all is one.

“This vision remained the vision of a few mystics. It never became part of human consciousness. That’s why there is so much misery in the world, so much ugliness, insensitivity. People are not flowering; their hidden splendor, their imprisoned splendor is not freed. People are living imprisoned lives, chained. They contain infinity in them but they are not even aware of it.

“First the so-called religions, the organized religions of the world, destroyed humanity. Then came science. Science is nothing but an organized materialistic approach to life. Just as religion is an organized approach as far as man’s subjectivity is concerned, science is also a church, a priesthood, and as superstitious as any religion has ever been. Of course, the dimensions are different; religions are organized superstitions about the inner, and science is organized superstitions about the outer.

“The Upanishad and its approach is individual. The word upanishad means sitting in deep communion with the master. It has nothing to do with the church. No church can ever be religious, all churches are basically political. You have to understand the definition: politics means society, collectivity; religion means individuality.

“Religion is a rebellion against the collective. Anything that depends on the collectivity, on tradition, on dogma, on ideology, is bound to be against the individual. And the individual is the only reality, the collective is only a word. You never come across the society, you always come across the individual. You never come across humanity, you always come across human beings. You never come across love, you always come across two lovers. You come across loving but never across love.

“But we have been conditioned to live with abstractions: society, humanity, love, God. These are all abstractions, empty concepts with no concrete reality behind them.

The Upanishad is very realistic, very pragmatic. It is communion from heart to heart. That’s the meaning of upanishad, a very strange meaning – sitting by the side of a master, just sitting by the side of a master and then something transpires. Something like a flame jumps from the heart of the master to the heart of the disciple.

“The master has come home, the master has experienced the truth. The disciple is seeking, but the seeker has to be silent, utterly silent. It is not a question of asking questions because the ultimate questions can neither be asked nor answered; they are only transmitted – without asking, without answering. That transmission beyond words is the meaning of the word upanishad.”