Question : We live in a very dark era, which also has its bright side; but politically and socially it is dark. Do you think we have much hope of getting out of this end of century and of millennium crisis?
Eric Baret : I hope not, because in the end, what is dark is the so-called spiritual quest. What is dark is to see yoga teachers on every corner. What is dark is channelling. What is dark is modern spiritual quest, that kind of running away from the moment. On the other hand, what is auspicious is the approaching war, it is the coming cataclysms, because they deeply question the human being, they make him ask the real questions. Everything else makes him sleep. So, it should be very clear that the state of the world is its chance. If the gods want the world to benefit from these movements, it is the supreme gift. Unfortunately, there are times when a cataclysm is the only way to bring about a questioning. In their generosity, I think the gods will help us more and more in that direction. All this romanticism of yoga, of the East, of spirituality, all these spiritual techniques of progression, of purification, they belong to the dark ages. They really are a waste of money and energy. One day they will completely disappear, and maybe that day we won't need cataclysms to wake up.
Q: With these words, you could create a scandal…
E. B. : The scandal is to make people believe that through some exercises they will be better and their deep questioning will be satisfied. It is to make people believe that by following this therapy, by adopting that concept, by wearing that particular color of clothes, by hanging on their wall or to their neck the picture of a popular guru, it will bring about a profound questioning. That is charlatanry.
Real life is facing the moment. The different possibilities of conflict express themselves in the world: you face them, you look at what is touched in you, you look at what is death, destruction. In this way, you realize what you are. When your house is destroyed, when your body is broken, when your family is wiped out, you realize to what extent you are free or not from yourself. But to sit in a room to do yoga, to chew hundred times a mouthful of brown rice... of course, you feel good, but there is no questioning. It's a real calamity.
