ChatGPT, GitaGPT and GuruGPT || Acharya Prashant, at IIT-Guwahati (2023)

Question: Sir, an Indian origin developer from Google recently released a version of ChatGPT called GeetaGPT, where the AI (Artificial Intelligence) basically acts like a God. And you could ask questions based on spirituality or philosophy, and it would answer as if it’s coming from Shri Kṛṣṇa himself. So, my question for you is, do you think that it’s an end for spiritual gurus in India?

Acharya Prashant (AP): When you ask a question to ChatGPT or GeetaGPT, can it choose not to answer? The guru, if real, can choose not to answer. And sometimes, silence is the best answer; nobody can teach AI or a program to do that. Do you get this?

Also please understand, ChatGPT will provide the same answer irrespective of who the questioner is. You type a question, doesn’t matter who you are, the answer will be the same. If the teacher or a friend—whosoever it is—is actually wise, he never answers the question; he answers the questioner, and that’s a great difference.

An arrogant spoilt lad gets up and asks me, “Sir, is not freedom important?” I will have an answer; a meek looking girl, underfed, coming from a small town gets up and asks the same question, “Sir, is not freedom important?” I will have a totally different answer to give to her; no computer can do that. Answers simply continue the question; answers are based on the assumption that the question is valid. Stay with me, it might get little dense hereon.

The thing is that the question is the reflection of the questioner, right? The question is simply an extension of who the questioner is. Correct? If I am a violent person and I ask you, “Where do I get knives?” You know that where the question is coming from? That question is coming from my violence, my violent self is what is giving rise to the question. So, the question is simply a continuation of the questioner.

When you answer a question, you are reaffirming that the question is valid; otherwise, why would you answer it? Right? And by taking the question is valid, you have certified that the questioner is valid. The matter is that the questioner is the ego. By just answering the question, you have certified the ego, you have enforced the ego; and that’s no good, that’s not beneficial at all.

If the teacher is real, his job is to not answer the questions; his job is to dissolve the question. If the teacher is real, then you will forget the question in front of him. In front of ChatGPT, you will never forget your questions. The job of the teacher is to dissolve your questions, is to make you realize that your questions are stupid.

Drop these questions, they do not matter. These questions are just shadows of my ego, these questions are actually irrelevant; I don’t need to ask them. The teacher helps you go beyond your questions; the teacher does not really answer your questions. With the teacher, you do not play the question-answer game; for that there could be a compilation of FAQs and that should suffice. That does not suffice.

Remember the real deal is not in getting an answer; the real deal is in seeing that all questions are actually unnecessary, invalid. You are bigger than your questions. You do not need that question. You can go beyond your questions. Your questions deserve to be forgotten.

But that’s too much. For now, please remember your questions and keep asking.

Q: Namaste Acharya ji. My question is, does spirituality need a Guru?

AP: See, what you call as Spirituality in English, is not the real thing. Spirituality as most people know it— Bhūta-preta (Ghost-spirit), this and that, magical beings, disembodied beings, fancy stuff in the air; that’s what people take as spirituality. The real thing is self-knowledge, Ātma jnyāna. If you are really interested in wisdom, it’s not spirituality but self-knowledge that you should be seeking.

Now, what is self-knowledge? Self-knowledge simply means moving from ignorance about the self (self—meaning myself) to realization of the self. Knowing who I am, where do my thoughts, instincts etc. come from; that’s what self-knowledge is. So, self-knowledge is a movement, it’s a movement from ignorance to realization. Now, in this movement you have to remember, why first of all the movement is required? The movement is required because we are born ignorant, we are born thinking that we are beings in this world; and that is ignorance.

How does one move to realization? By making good use of stuff in the world itself. Now, most of the stuff in the world is not usually of a kind that you can utilize to move towards realization. But it depends on you, there can be stuff that you can use to know yourself; that is what called as the teacher. So, the Upaniṣads would say, "Tamaso mā jyotirgamaya," and that is also captured in the little word Guru. Tamas , darkness is represented by Gu —stands for ignorance; and Jyoti , brightness, realization is represented by *Ru*—and it denotes understanding.

So, does one need a Guru? No! No! Your very movement from ignorance towards realization is the Guru. The very urge to not be an ignorant is the teacher. And when that urge is there, then you will keep finding suitable teachers at all places, everywhere at all times. That’s the reason why it is famously quipped that when the student is ready, the teacher appears. The teacher is not an entity outside of you; the teacher is your own urge to not remain a fool. And there are a lot of people who are very content remaining fools, they will not get a teacher even if an established kind of teacher stand in front of them; they will still not get him.

When Kṛiṣhṇa was lecturing the Bhagavad Gītā to Arjuna , was Duryodhana running to Kṛiṣhṇa , “Kindly teach me as well.” Two entire armies were assembled there, were they rushing to Kṛiṣhṇa to be taught? Yudhiṣṭhira is called as Dharmarāja , was even he coming to Kṛiṣhṇa , “Please tell me something.” No! So, if you do not have the urge to learn, then no teacher can help you, even if the teacher stands right in front of you in the form of Kṛiṣhṇa.

The teacher is not something objective, the teacher is not really somebody outside of you; the teacher is just an external manifestation of your own deep desire to break your bondages.

If you have that desire, the teacher will come in whatever form, probably in several forms—sometimes in the form of a book, sometimes in the form of an incident, sometimes in the form of a person, sometimes in the form of a place; and the teacher will keep coming in several myriad forms. Do you get this, please?

See, spirituality (self-knowledge) is not so much like history, or science, or mathematics; where somebody can stand and provide with knowledge. The ones we have encountered in school and college are knowledge providers, right? They can stand in-front of you and deliver a lecture and you can record what they are giving you, and that would suffice.

The real teacher, the Guru that you are talking of is a totally different thing. He is not outside of you; he is within you. He is within you in the form of your love for freedom. If you want to break-free of your bondages, you will have the teacher in unpredictable ways and in unpredictable forms. If you do not want to break-free of your bondages and limitations; no teacher for you.

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