Allowing Life to Touch You

Renowned cardiac surgeon ​Dr. Devi Shetty​ asks Sadhguru about the significance of human touch in diagnosis and treatment. Sadhguru explains that touch is very significant, and it not need just be physical touch. He speaks of the importance of being touched by life and being absolutely involved with life.

Transcript

Today the medical science has reached a level,

Sadhguru.

We really do not have to touch the patient.

When I see a patient in my office,

He would have undergone all kinds of tests,

Everything is done,

All the images are displayed,

History is written,

Everything is planned.

Technically,

I can see the reports and tell the patient,

Okay,

You need a bypass or you need valve replacement.

But I always make it a point to take my stethoscope,

Put on the chest,

Listen to the heart,

Look at the patient's eyes,

Put my hand around on his shoulders,

Touch the patient and then explain to them what is going on and talk to the family.

I personally feel that touch is the… has the most healing power than anything else what we have invented.

Do you believe in that,

Swamiji?

So,

What is not understood is,

Yes,

One part of us is mechanical,

But there are other dimensions.

Most of the time,

The mechanical part has gone wrong because we have not tended to the other dimensions.

So,

What is lacking in their life is their life is not touched.

Not necessarily a physical touch,

It's just a manifestation.

Essentially their life is not touched by anything.

When I say touched by anything,

It need not necessarily be a relationship.

You can be touched by so many things.

I don't know how many of you… when is the last… how many decades ago did you watch a sunrise or a sunset or a moonrise?

I'm saying not touched by anything.

When was it the last time you waited for a flower to bloom?

No such thing.

When is the last time you paid an attention to a butterfly or a leaf or a flower or another human being?

Or of course,

You don't like faces,

You like the face book.

I'm saying contact with life,

Whether it's human,

Animal,

Plant life or just elements around you,

Just that.

How many people even take a moment to even look at the food that they're going to consume with a little bit of involvement or are they touched by it?

No.

So,

At last either a doctor has to touch it or in the end undertaker will touch you.

You know,

Somebody will touch you,

Things gone bad,

Somebody has to touch you.

So does touch have a relevance?

Tremendous relevance.

Touch need not always be physical,

It can be in so many different ways.

If you are not touched by life,

You are a dying life,

You're not a living life.

It may happen to you after some time,

But it's happening.

You're in progression.

Because what you call as life,

Even in the physical level,

It's a… it's medical knowledge for everybody now,

The number of cells you have is more than the number of stars in the Milky Way,

Okay?

Every day over six-hundred million,

Billion cells are dying and new cells are being born.

That means every second ten million cells are dying and ten million new cells are born in your body.

If you just take… leave the old… old guys.

If you just take charge of this new ten million cells every… every second that's coming up in your body,

If you structure them properly,

Create them properly,

If you have some say in how they will happen,

If you have some influence as to how these fresh cells are born,

Your heart should be fixed,

Your brain should be fixed,

Everything should be fixed because that is the level of opportunity you have to rejuvenate your life second to second.

But because you're totally oblivious to life.

When I say oblivious to life,

I want you to look at this.

Right now you cannot even call yourself as a living being because most of the time what is happening with you is just thought and emotion.

Thought and emotion is just psychological drama.

It has no existential relevance.

Here a thousand people can sit here and live in thousand different worlds right now.

That means nobody is in reality.

Nobody is living.

Nobody is thinking about life.

Psychological space what happens has unfortunately overtaken the existential process of life.

You do not experience life.

You're only thinking and reacting to situations around you.

Thought and emotion is dominating everything.

So right now,

Today morning sun came up on time.

You don't think much of that.

Okay,

So what?

You need to understand if sun does not come up tomorrow morning,

Within eighteen hours all life on this planet will largely cease as we know it.

So I'm telling you sun came up on time today morning.

I want to hear appropriate noises.

Yeah.

None of the planets in this solar system collided today.

In the whole universe no accidents.

In this endless cosmos no accidents,

Everything going right.

But you have one nasty little thought crawling in your head and it's a bad day.

I'm saying you completely lost perspective with life.

You lost perspective as to who you are.

It's a kind of madness.

So once you lose perspective as to who you are and what is your… what is your space and status in this exist… existence,

You are a sickness by nature.

It's not the doctor has to diagnose you.

It's already on.

One day it will manifest to a point where his instruments or his touch will tell him,

But it's already on.

The process is on.

When it goes beyond a point,

He'll give a prescription or a surgery.

But the process is on,

You're working hard towards it.

Reviews

Such simple profound wisdom. Getting quite sick some years ago slowed me down to where all I could do was watch, listen, and notice. This was a gift to me. Many hard things and losses came to break my heart wide open. This, too, was a gift to me. I cry more now, not from sadness, but because my heart allows itself to be touched with wonder, joy, and beauty. And this is an amazing gift to me! If you are struggling, do not fear. It gets better. Much better!

Thank you for sharing your wisdom and humor, Sadhguru, many thanks and may you be well.

So real, so relevant! Such a relief to explore alignment with well BEing!www.gratefulness.org, ahimsa

Always brings awareness to the simplicity of life and how we can be live a fuller life through this awareness.

Enlightening! One’s perspective on life hit the point home for me. Gratitude 🙏!

Simplified but touching explanation of Gratitude, and so so true.. . 🙏🏼🥰🌈🌎

Thank you 🙂

Thank you! This was a wonderful talk. I love everything that you said Sadhguru. I’m going to put my focus on my cells and tell them I love them and that they are perfect in every way! Thank you. 🙏🏾🌸🙏🏾

I Love SADHGURU, it is Truely inspiring, subtly in humour & wise with words that Guide and have helped tremendously in my Healing journey, stepping forward into and thru Every Day, Thank you for sharing 🙏😌❤️

This is what we speak of in Ayurveda! The entire point of Ayurveda. It’s not about throwing herbs at people and now they are healed as many think. It’s much much deeper than that. Thank you for this guidence and shining light on the whole point of our exsistance!
Namaste 🙏🏾

This was the perfect thing to listen to this morning. I have a whole new perspective

A wonderful short talk with a powerful reminder to live your life in this moment!
Thank you for sharing this simple and true wisdom.
🙏🏻

What a touching talk given with clarity and compassion and humour.

Thank you. You show how even a brief meditation or pause can be highly influential.

I’m really enjoying listening to your talks. Thank you for the wisdom, and bit of laughter as well!

I love listening to such wise words to help me engage more fully in my life each day. Thank you. 🙏💖

Living with a grateful heart 🙌❤The sun came up this morning.

Sadhguru your reminders about living is always enlightening. Thank you.. everyone should hear this. Namaste

Thank you for this. It helped stimulate great thought for me.

Always so relevant
Always so enlightening
Thanks so much for sharing
Namaste 🙏🏽
June B

Gets my priorities straight first thing. Perfect.