Alchemy of Ecstasy

Most of us are so busy with survival, trying to keep death at bay, that we forget to live life. Sadhguru tells us that one who does not embrace death does not know life at all. Shiva – who has been symbolically associated with the Third Eye, the phallus and being ash-smeared – embodies an awareness of the simultaneity of the processes of life and death. The truth, says Sadhguru, lies beyond the easy oppositions of life and death, this and that.

Yogi, mystic and visionary, Sadhguru is a spiritual master with a difference. An arresting blend of profundity and pragmatism, his life and work serves as a reminder that yoga is a contemporary science, vitally relevant to our times.

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Transcript

This utterance,

Shiva,

Is the most intense form of life at the same time.

It is one step into death and one step into life.

This is the… in many ways this symbolism has been to express the nature of what disease,

Innumerable stories and symbolisms have been set up.

A very alive,

Virile looking.

The most athletic of the gods on the planet is Shiva.

The very symbolism that's used for him is of life.

On the physical plane,

A life-generating phallic symbol has been used to represent Shiva in so many ways.

In every way,

A very physical representation of life,

Because that's the only thing one can see.

If he's alive in some other way,

You cannot see.

To show that he… you… he's alive in many other ways.

That's why the symbolism of the third eye.

The third eye and the phallus have been the symbols of Shiva to show you both physically and in the innermost possible way,

In the deepest possible way,

He's alive to its fullest level.

At the same time,

He's always ash-smeared.

This is to indicate that he is one step intensely involved in life,

Another step intensely involved in death.

Because this is a way,

Life is happening even now.

Death is not something that happens to you sometime in future.

It's happening to you all the time.

If you're unaware,

You're ignorant,

It comes to you sometime.

You do not know when,

But it'll come.

If you're aware,

In every moment,

Both life and death are involved.

If you as much as breathe little more consciously,

You will notice with every inhalation there is life,

With every exhalation there is death.

If you're not getting the point,

Just do the next inhalation and do not… next exhalation and do not take the next inhalation,

You will get the point.

Every moment,

Even beyond the breath,

Every moment it is happening.

It's like the ticking of the clock,

Life and death,

Life and death,

Life and death.

It's all the time happening.

One who is aware of this will naturally become aware there is no such thing as life and death.

Death is death and death is life.

They are not different.

It is only a question of the womb,

The crawling out,

Growing up,

Taking the loan from the planet and putting it back,

But it's just life or it's just death.

We need not have invented two words for this.

It's just one thing.

We can call it the life because they are not two different things.

It is out of a very gross sense of unawareness about the life process.

Because the wonderful gifts that have been showered upon humanity,

We are using them like toys.

It feels this way.

This mind,

This brain,

Capable of incredible things,

But we are using it like a toy.

No.

I think people enjoy toys,

Isn't it?

A large percentage of humanity is so suffering the mind that slowly it has become fashionable to teach you to become no mind.

Took millions of years to evolve to this state of mental capability.

Now we are talking about no mind because a no mind is better than a crazy mind.

But a conscious mind is a fabulous thing.

Why would anybody want to give this up?

Because they do not know how to handle it.

If you knew how to handle it,

If you knew how to handle it,

You wouldn't want to get rid of this.

People are seeking peace.

I don't know if you walk straight on this pathway through the school and beyond,

There we have some very peaceful creatures.

Did you see them?

You didn't see the ashram cows?

No?

Please go,

You must see them.

They are really peaceful,

Especially at this time of the day,

They are munching what they ate through the day and very peaceful.

More peaceful than lot of saints.

Just a full stomach,

So much peace.

Just grass.

Tch,

See this is all you have to do.

Because not much of a mind,

Even to create turmoil,

You need a mind.

It's certain capability.

So this mind has become a problem only because of so many silly assumptions we have made about life.

So many kinds of camouflages we have put upon life,

Not seeing it just the way it is,

All kinds of inventions about it.

Too many philosophies,

Too many ideologies.

Oh,

I'm going too far.

Lot of people are just living by some silly slogan that they read somewhere.

Death is like this.

You don't know which way it will get you unless you have become aware that what you call as life and what you call as death are not two separate things.

One who does not embrace death will not know life at all.

If you sit here,

I don't want to die,

I don't want to die,

I don't want to die,

All that will happen is you will not live.

You will anyway die,

But you will not live for sure.

It's not that I want to die today,

But if I do,

It's all right with me.

I'll do everything to protect myself,

To nurture myself,

To take care of myself,

But if I have to die today,

It's okay with me.

Now I can step out and live,

Otherwise I cannot live.

Basava,

A Kannada saint,

A great poet,

A fabulous devotee,

A very beautiful devotee,

A sage and a mystic,

Wrote hundreds of poems,

But constantly he treaded.

Many many things he wrote about death,

Lot of things about life,

But many things about death.

This is a translation,

It loses its some of the beauty of poetry,

But you get the meaning.

Basava said,

Sacrifice a lamb,

Brought to the festival,

Eats up the green leaf,

Brought for decorations.

Sacrifice a lamb,

Brought for the festival,

Eats up the green leaf,

Brought for the decoration,

Not knowing a thing about the kill,

Not knowing a thing about the kill.

It wants only to fill its belly,

Born that day,

To die that day.

But tell me,

Did the killer survive,

Oh Kuralasangamadeva?

It is just that for the ignorant,

Death comes.

For those who are aware,

Death doesn't come,

Death is.

As life is,

Death is.

And one becomes aware of this.

In this awareness,

That is life in its highest form,

In its most intense form,

You just walked… If an elephant came in front of you and if you look into eyes,

Don't think he looks gentle like a Ganapati,

He is… You look into his eyes,

The wild elephant,

The tame elephants look like cows.

You look at the wild elephant,

His eyes,

They are burning with something else that's indescribable.

And the moment he makes his trumpeting noise,

You will see your legs will become like rubber.

You had all great ideas in the elephant comes,

How he'll run and climb the tree and do this and do that.

But when you hear the sound and when you see him coming,

You will see your legs will turn into jelly and your locomotion capabilities are totally gone and you have very leaky fundamentals.

But you will become super alert.

Suppose you did not get killed.

You did not get killed but then your whole life you'll remember that moment like alive.

Just think about it.

All the hair on your body stands up,

Goosebumps will come.

You live for fifty years,

Sixty years after that event but just the thought,

Everything becomes alive.

But one few seconds of life,

Somehow you're far more alive than any other moment in your life.

You forgot when you got married but the elephant and the trumpet you won't forget because you were there,

Life and death together.

The only problem in that moment is you're unaware.

If you could be aware,

Elephant could enlighten you right there.

Moments of danger are moments when both life and death are together at the same time.

If you can only manage to be aware,

That's it.

You know Krishna,

When Arjuna asked,

What is the point slaughtering all these thousands of people,

He said,

If you can attain,

It doesn't matter killing 10,

000 people.

That's the standard he's setting.

If you can be here,

Being aware of life and death at the same time because both are here at the same time.

They are not two separate things.

That's all it is,

That's vichaya.

At the same time,

So study.

These are one inside the other.

Life is all packed like this,

Creation and the creator,

Life and death,

Everything packed one inside the other.

It takes attention.

It takes a lot of attention if one has to see what it is.

Otherwise one just lives on the surface,

Half alive.

If you do not know life and death at the same time,

You know only one half of life.

Being half alive is torture,

Always.

So when we say Shiva,

We are uttering this so that this dimension of life and death being together at the same time happens to you,

That the polarities are gone.

There is no life and death.

That is just this.

For this,

There is no name yet because if you give it a name,

Somebody will invent the opposite.

It's just this.

But there is that.

There is no that.

There is just this.

There is no this and that.

There is just this and this.

There is no yes and no.

There is just yes and yes.

If you want to… see,

Every aspect of life has this.

If you want to fall in love,

If you are in love,

Love does not need polarities.

Love does not need an opposite.

Because for most people,

Love starts in their heart and sinks into their genital,

An opposite is needed.

For sexuality,

You need the opposite.

For love,

You don't need the opposite.

What you thought is you and something has become just this,

For example,

On many levels.

Starting in the yogic terminology,

If you want to look at it,

Starting from the Mooladhara,

Where it is about food and sleep,

There is that and this.

If you eat it,

Everything becomes this.

Now you are mentally alert,

You are looking at things,

There is you and the other.

If you fall asleep,

There is just this.

There is no this and that.

So this is on all levels.

If it happens in the lowest chakra,

Low is not the word.

When I say low,

We are not talking high and low,

We are talking geographically – Sadran Chakra.

When it happens at the Mooladhara,

It happens as food and sleep,

But the same unity.

If it happens at Swadhishthana,

It happens as sexuality,

But the same unity.

If it happens at Manipuraka,

It finds expression as ambition,

Greed,

Conquest,

But the same thing.

If it happens at Anahata,

It happens as love,

But the same thing.

But now from Mooladhara to Anahata,

You have natural access.

You are naturally capable of these things.

Even a child is capable of this,

Even a dog is capable of this.

He can ingest,

Digest and assimilate.

He has his sexuality.

We have already looked at this,

Dogs are loving for sure.

We don't know about God.

We are not so sure about the human beings,

But dogs we are dead certain.

Yes?

Yes or no?

Yes.

Hmm?

There is no question about dog's love.

God's love,

We don't know.

Man's love,

Woman's love,

We are not sure.

Sometimes it looks real,

Sometimes we don't know.

Dog's love,

Dead certain we are.

So from Mooladhara to Anahata,

It's open to every creature actually.

This comes naturally.

This is a gift from nature.

But if you want to go beyond this,

If you want to know the union that the Vishuddhi brings about,

The union that the Agna brings about,

The highest possible union that can happen at Sahasrara,

This will not happen unless you strive for it.

If you want to live here as just another creature on this planet,

Nothing wrong.

This absolutely nothing wrong.

When I say a cow,

A dog,

An elephant,

A snake,

I am not speaking in any derogatory term.

I know it's a very derogatory thing to say you're a dog.

I don't know why.

They're more steady.

More people trust dogs than human beings and the numbers are increasing by the day.

But still a dog is a derogatory term for some reason.

So I am not speaking of these creatures as in any derogatory sense,

But limited for sure,

Isn't it?

The possibilities of life are limited in these forms.

We are just talking about boundaries because the basic concern of a human being is to go beyond his boundaries always.

So if you want to go beyond these four levels of union that one can know,

Then it needs a little more awareness,

A little more devotion,

A little more push.

If your energies rise,

If you become aware or if you experience the union in your Vishuddhi,

You will become stupidly devotional.

I'm saying stupidly devotional not because devotion is stupid,

But generally devotees are perceived as idiots by the well-educated world because they don't stand to their reason.

Anything that does not agree with your way of reasoning seems stupid to you.

But it doesn't matter how stupid you think they are,

They're experiencing lot more pleasantness than you do.

Maybe they're not so stupid at all.

It is just that they have moved their life from simple one plus one equals two to a different kind of arithmetic within themselves.

Where there is no plus or minus,

It's just one,

Always one.

You must understand,

Without one there is no number system,

Just always one.

If you know union on the level of your Vishuddhi,

This is what happens,

Tremendous sense of power because this union is a different kind.

If the union is on the level of Agna,

Then this brings absolute awareness and knowing.

Now once someone has attained union on the level of Agna,

Suddenly the intellectual types look stupid in front of him.

You've heard of Adi Shankara.

This is the most argumentative Indian ever.

He went about walking across the land looking for arguments,

Such unbeatable logic.

People were defeated and defeated and defeated in hordes.

All kinds of people came to argue with him.

Whoever argued with him,

They're bound to lose.

Because there is nobody else with that kind of logic because a certain union that you have experienced in the Agna gives you a completely different kind of logic.

You saw the unbeatable logic of Isha Yoga.

Suddenly you were quite good before you came to this damn program,

Suddenly it makes you feel stupid.

You don't seem to know anything.

If you're an energist,

If you find union at your Sahasrara,

You're ecstatic beyond anything that you know.

Shankara used to be like this,

He was so argumentative and defeating people all the time in his arguments,

Every day picking up arguments with all kinds of people,

But suddenly he would go into a temple and weep and dance like a madman.

People would be shocked.

We thought you're a man of reason.

What are you crying?

Like this.

Like those buffoons who call themselves devotees,

Like them you're crying.

We thought you're a man of true intellect.

He would say,

That's for the world,

My logic is for the world,

This is for me.

So this is a simple step one needs to take.

In your awareness,

If life and death are at the same time,

If they are not two separate things,

Then you have set the fundamentals for the highest union possible.

You got the right foundation.

You want to live,

You don't want to die,

You're on a very wrong foundation.

You're on an extremely wrong foundation,

The more you build on this wrong foundation,

The more you're asking for a disaster.

Suppose we made a mistake with the foundation,

The best is to build a minimum possible building,

Isn't it?

Suppose we've done a mistake with the foundation work,

Even in a construction site,

The best thing is to build a minimum possible building.

The more you build,

The more you're putting yourself to risk.

That is why they talked so much about renunciation,

Because they said you got a wrong foundation,

Don't build too much.

The more you build further away from truth,

You will go,

Keep it minimum,

Because the foundation is wrong,

Till you fix that,

Don't build too much.

Reviews

What a great talk about life-death!

To embrace LIFE FULLy is a gift with each inhale intertwined with the non-duality of death with each exhale. Sadhguru’s Honesty, OpenheARTednes and Willingness (HOW) to share how we can be of maximum service, JOYfully in each moment as we embrace ALL of LIFE (Living Integrated, FULLy Embodied, www.living-compassion.org) is inspiring! In gratitude, ahimsa

Thank you! A great reminder💫

Wisdom I Am ever so grateful for each and every day💜

Thoroughly enjoy Sadhguru, his insight and humor resonate with me.

Thank you 🌷namaste

I've listened to many talks etc by sandghuru, and every time I find the subject matter, quite interesting and very thought provoking.

Thought provoking as always. It seems to end a bit abruptly. His talks help you learn to consider things in a way you may not have even if, like me, you don't have knowledge of the dieties or people he mentions.

Thank you. Must listen again and again. Thank you. 🙏🏻

Love this longer post, thank you!

Have to listen again and again and again

Seeing life and death in the same light and not as opposites or something to avoid or become too attached to. Quite profound.

Exceptional wisdom. Many thanks.

Always wisdom and knowledge

Wise words on death and life, relationships, and union/oneness, and how these are all connected. ❤️🙏

‘My logic is for the world, this is for me’ arguments for the masses, ecstasy for me

A message I can chew on all day from a man with a voice that reflects joy in his heart and a twinkle in his eye😊🙏🏻🍃♥️

Build foundation and go beyond our boundaries