Drug Addiction, Introspection, & Balance – Sadhguru

In December 2022, GL Bajaj Institute of Technology and Management hosted Sadhguru at its campus in Noida, where students asked Sadhguru their burning questions, ranging from drug addiction, and introspection, to inspiration, and the Save Soil movement.

Transcript

Sadhguru chants Kalo Najaanati Tava Jananam Kalo Najaanati Tava Samapanam Dhrishtu Mayatava Mahakaaraha Yogeshwara Kaala Kaala Namaskaram,

Namaskaram all of you.

I said Namaskaram.

I thought you are not on talking terms with me.

Namaskaram all of you,

Please.

Sir,

We have a few questions for you,

Which we feel that are related to us as well as the youth.

And so,

Shall we begin?

How old are you?

I am nineteen years old,

Sir.

But why did you leave yourself out of the youths?

It's related to us,

Sir.

Okay,

Okay.

You and the youth.

It's all right.

Sir,

I have observed that there is a lot of influence of substances and drugs around in my surroundings.

And when I hear the experience and stories of these things,

I also feel the need to try these things and you know,

I don't want to miss out on anything and regret it later.

So,

What should I do and how should I stop such negligence?

Look at my eyes,

I'm always toned.

You must try.

But I'm asking you a simple question.

Even if it is very sophisticated pharmaceuticals,

Still they are very simplistic chemicals.

What people are buying in the back street are horribly simplistic.

Is it true that this human system is the most complex chemical factory on the planet?

Most sophisticated?

So,

If you know how to manage this,

You could create just any chemical that you want within the system.

But if you're a lousy manager,

Then you're creating negative chemicals within you which causes misery.

When I say chemicals which cause misery,

Well,

The very fact that somebody is trying chemicals to make themselves joyful,

Peaceful,

Ecstasy or ecstatic,

Essentially means human experience at one level is determined by the chemical structure of who you are.

When you have the most complex chemical factory,

Should you learn to manage that well so that always you're blissed out?

Or should you buy it in the back street?

Tell me what's the choice.

If you are an intelligent human being,

You will learn to produce your own chemistry of blissfulness and ecstasy.

If you're a bloody fool,

What can I do?

It's not a crime to be stupid,

All right?

There's no law,

There's no IPC against foolishness and stupidity.

Because it only costs your life.

You're not taking anybody's life,

You may,

But it costs your life.

And that much freedom has been given to you,

Your life is your business.

So if your life is your business,

Making this work in the best possible way is your business.

When I say life,

I'm not talking about your education.

I'm not talking about your profession.

I'm not talking about the things that you may or you may not do in the world.

I'm talking about this,

Keeping this in a most pleasant manner.

And if possible,

In a profound manner.

Is it not your business?

So,

Somebody is going after alcohol,

Somebody is going after drink,

Somebody goes to the temple,

Somebody meditates,

Somebody wants to go to heaven.

Fundamentally,

The goals are same,

Isn't it?

They want very pleasant and if possible,

A profound experience of life.

Is a goal simple?

Is the goal same?

The man who goes to the bar and man who goes to the temple,

The goals are same.

The question is,

What is the impact of that upon you?

Is it sustainable?

Today,

Sustainable is a fashionable word.

So I'm asking,

Is your joy,

Is your pleasure sustainable?

I found a way where my pleasure,

My ecstasy is always sustainable.

Doesn't matter what is there,

What is not there.

I'm always blissed out.

Look at my eye sensing.

So,

If you're interested,

We can teach you the technologies of ecstasy instead of tablets of ecstasy.

How's that?

The reason why… Well,

She's fashion,

You're journalism,

She's technology.

All right?

Where is the need to have a technical education is to systematize these miracles.

See,

One man's engineering is another man's magic.

If you don't know how an airplane flies,

It's magic,

Isn't it?

If I built the first airplane and said,

See here God has come or I am only God,

Here it flies,

Chum,

It flew.

You don't even have to that much,

A light bulb will do.

Thousand years ago,

If you had a light bulb which lights up,

You could claim you're God,

His messenger or son or whatever the hell you want.

Yes or no?

So,

This is engineering I'm talking about.

You can… what you can cause in spurts by accident,

You can engineer it in such a way that it's a sustained process.

The idea of engineering is,

Whatever we did well at one time,

We want to sustain that,

A sustainable way of doing it.

So,

Essentially on one level,

Because engineering is such a big part of today's world,

In the last hundred years,

We have engineered the outside world in so many ways for our comfort and convenience.

Out of this,

Is it true that today,

Compared to any other generation ever in the history of humanity,

You are the most comfortable generation ever physically and most amount of conveniences that other people could not even imagine even a generation ago.

Yes or no?

But can you also claim that you are the most joyful,

Peaceful,

Blissful,

Loving?

No,

We're… mental health issues.

So,

Obviously we don't know what the hell we're doing with ourselves,

Isn't it?

See,

If you don't know what to eat,

If you eat whatever is available on the street,

Is it true physically you could fall sick?

Hello?

Hello?

Hello?

Just about anything that's on the street you eat,

Possible you'll fall sick,

If not in one day,

In a few days.

You must understand,

Both your body and mind are built with certain consumption.

What you consume physically,

If it can make you physically sick,

What you consume mentally can also make you mentally sick.

So,

What are we consuming?

How are we consuming?

All this matters,

Isn't it?

But there is no understanding about anything.

We want to know how the computer works.

We don't want to know how this works.

If you don't know how this works,

Even the computer,

The phone,

Whatever you have,

These are all tremendous instruments,

All right?

But all of them are bringing misery because you don't know how to handle this.

When you don't know how to handle this,

Everything will bring misery or death.

You're driving a car,

If you don't know how to handle it,

You may bring death to yourself or to somebody,

Isn't it?

Or it can take you places.

So,

This is the whole thing with the world.

World is the way it is.

Every situation can be made into something beautiful and creative if only… if you know how to handle this one.

When I say this one,

At least your body and mind,

There are deeper aspects to who you are.

Leave that alone now.

Just on the surface,

If you do not know how to handle your thought and emotion,

You being miserable,

Is it an accident?

Hello?

Is it an accident?

It's an obvious situation,

Isn't it?

So,

You can experiment if you want.

Take these two fingers and poke your eyeballs like this.

Why do you laugh?

You've never had such an experience,

Right?

Maybe it'll be good.

No,

Because you're talking about experimenting with chemicals.

Maybe this will be good.

Just take this,

Poke it like this and see.

Maybe your third eye will open.

So,

I'm saying these kind of silly things are passing as experiments.

What is experimental about it?

Generations of people have done it and suffered.

And you want to experiment once again?

It is,

You must understand,

People who are giving it to you,

They are not giving it to you out of their love for you.

They are making money out of it,

Like in no other business,

All right?

So,

You must understand,

When you get this stuff,

You are not some great experiment.

You are a victim of somebody's greed and avarice.

Okay,

So Sadhguru,

Introspection in me has led me like to various thoughtful conclusions in my life.

But how would I know that where my introspection starts shifting towards overthinking?

And how do I protect myself from being an overthinker?

Because it leads to a lot of procrastination sometimes.

Oh,

It's a popular question.

See,

Suppose you're driving,

Instead of looking through the windshield,

If you go on looking at the mirror,

Rear view mirror,

I think you should be on the reverse gear,

Not on the top gear.

Hello?

So,

All this introspection nonsense has come to you from English people.

They brought this.

In this country,

We don't believe in introspection.

Because… See,

You are trying to analyze your own mess.

It's not going to work like that.

If you hold it at a distance,

You clearly know what it is,

You don't have to think about it.

It's like this.

Let's say tonight,

You want to fly from Delhi airport,

You are going.

Then your flight time is coming,

But there's a huge traffic jam.

How do you experience a traffic jam?

Oh!

Deep suffering,

Though you may be sitting in your dream car,

All right?

Now somehow you got to the airport,

Got into the airplane and it flew.

Then you went up,

Then you looked down,

Still the traffic jam was on.

It looks so beautiful.

White lights and red lights,

String of them,

Really beautiful.

Have you seen this?

Yes.

All that happened is little distance,

Isn't it?

Once there's little distance,

That's no more a problem.

You know how to deal with it.

And major realizations have happened like this.

See,

Even now,

I know you are an engineer,

But if I ask you to walk up and down this stage,

And determine whether this planet is round or flat,

What is your experience?

It's flat.

It's flat.

This argument would have continued for another thousand years.

It got settled because we started traversing the oceans.

Then we could see,

It seems to be round.

Then we started flying.

Clearly,

The shape was very obvious.

Then we went and stood up,

Stood on the moon and looked down.

One hundred percent clear.

Something so simple,

We couldn't see when we are walking on the planet,

Isn't it?

This is the same thing.

The nature of your mind,

The nature of the instruments of life,

Which is the body and the mind.

In yoga,

We don't see body and mind.

There is a physical body and there is a mental body.

Because mind means,

Unfortunately,

The European idea of a mind is it's sitting here.

No.

Essentially,

You call something mind because there is a certain volume of intelligence and memory.

That's what you're calling as mind,

Isn't it?

Do you remember five generations ago,

How your great-grandmother looked like?

No.

But her nose is sitting on your face.

Yes or no?

A million years ago,

How your forefathers were,

Still your epithelial cells remember what was the skin tone.

Yes or no?

So,

Every cell in your body carries a trillion times more memory than your brain can ever process.

Yes or no?

Now we were talking about most complex chemical factory.

If you look at what one molecule of DNA performs in a minute,

All the factories on the planet cannot do… all the computers on the planet,

Supercomputers on the planet cannot do that many functions.

That's how it's functioning.

So,

Both in terms of intelligence and memory,

Is it spread right across?

Yes or no?

At least your neurological system is spread right across,

You can see that.

So,

Mind is not in one place.

There is a body of mind,

There is a body of memory,

There is a body of physicality,

There is a body of energy.

So,

If you just look at one part of who you are and try to meddle with that constantly,

If you don't know how to make the other things function and other things are functioning by accident,

It's like somebody is trying to drive with a handbrake on.

Lot of people do this.

They don't realize,

They think press the throttle,

Press the throttle,

It'll go.

No,

It may catch fire.

A car can catch fire if you drive with brakes on.

Right now,

Most people are like this because they have come to a school or a college,

Now little bit of intellect has been fired up with all kinds of outside information.

With this,

They are doing all kinds of things and introspection.

Who is introspecting whom?

These are all western ideas which has brought enormous suffering to human beings,

Enormous.

Psychological process is a consequence of the type of data that you have gathered and how you process it,

Isn't it?

If you keep it little aside,

It has no impact on you.

When you want,

You should use it.

When you don't want,

You must keep it aside.

But right now,

People think they are thinking all the time.

What you are calling as introspection,

I am sorry if I am in any way insulting you,

I don't intend that,

You know that.

It is a kind of a mental diarrhea.

It's just going on.

You giving it all kinds of names.

But essentially,

See,

Thinking means consciously you use your thought process to go in a certain direction.

That's thinking.

If it's simply running all the time,

That's diarrhea,

Isn't it?

So,

You must differentiate between the two.

Is this a conscious thought process or is it simply running wildly?

This is very important.

So introspection means rear view of the life.

You are still a young woman.

But if you do introspection,

You will already feel you've lived too long.

Yes.

The most intelligent thing,

People think,

You know,

Shakespeare came up with this,

To be or not to be.

This is supposed to be the most intellectual question.

Tell me,

If you are blissed out,

Will you think to be or not to be?

Only if you're miserable,

Only if you're finding life to be burdensome,

Only then you will think to be or not to be,

Isn't it?

So in many ways,

Your introspection,

Whether you're doing it in small proportion or big proportion,

It is the basis of mental illness.

Because you're trying to find solutions in a garbage bin that you have,

Which you call as your mind.

What is there?

Only what has come to you through five senses is there,

Nothing more.

If you're looking for something new,

Let me tell you this,

You're a computer engineer now,

On the way,

Right?

Already is.

Okay.

Can your computer function beyond the data that you have fed in?

The same is true with your mind.

What… It is a computing process,

Maybe far more complex than the computers you're operating,

But essentially it's a computing process.

Without data,

It doesn't function.

So if you know the data,

If you have written the software,

You know the data,

You know what it can do and what it cannot do,

What is there to introspect?

So am I overthinking or introspecting?

Both are not needed.

You need more clarity of seeing things.

If you see something,

If you can just see it clearly as it is,

Then there is no need to introspect anything.

Oh,

Once again I'm reminding you,

You're a young woman,

But… Is it okay?

I'm not saying you're a baby,

I'm saying a young woman,

Though I see you as a baby.

So I'm… I'm just telling you this.

See,

How long one's life is simply depends upon… in terms of your experience,

Not in terms of your age.

Have you noticed this?

On a certain day,

You're very joyful.

Twenty-four hours,

Went off like a moment.

Is it true?

Another day,

You're little depressed.

Twenty-four hours feels like thousand years.

Yes?

So only miserable people can live a long life.

If you're joyful,

It gets over before you know what's happening.

Before you figure out what is this about,

Funeral.

Yes,

I feel like I was… I feel like I was born day before yesterday,

Look at me.

So,

The issue is this,

We are trying to fix life with introspection,

Morality,

Ethics,

Ideas,

Philosophies,

Opinions,

Role models,

This,

That.

No,

That's not what is needed.

What is needed is this life should happen in an exuberant way,

In the highest pinnacle that it can happen,

It should spark.

If you spark all the time,

Physically you will be fine,

Your genius will spark,

Everything will happen.

Well,

In the world will everything happen?

No.

World will never happen hundred percent the way you want it.

Because you're… all three of you are young,

I'm telling you and many of them are young,

I'm telling you because lot of you are in this dream,

You will find that ideal person,

Perfect person in your life,

Man or woman or whatever.

I'm not trying to destroy all the romance,

I'm just telling you,

You will be deeply disappointed because lot of people are saying they are from Mathura.

Krishna,

Tch,

Most fantastic man but his wives were constantly complaining.

Not because there's something wrong with him because in the very nature of existence,

Nobody in this world will happen just the way you want them.

Yes or no?

So there is one option,

This one person,

You can make this person happen the way you want.

If you do that one thing,

Where is the need for all this?

That's what you need to do.

You're an engineer,

You must do little engineering,

Inner engineering,

So that this one will work just the way you want.

World,

We will do our best.

So Sadhguru,

When I was younger,

Extra… What do you mean?

How old are you?

Then what I am now.

Okay.

Extracurricular activities were a huge part of my life and I would take part in everything that was offered to me or I had access to.

But as high school and college came,

My free time decreased and hobbies took a backseat or they became too much for me to manage.

So how can I strike a balance between my hobbies alongside my academics and yet not drain them?

See,

There are times in our lives when we have to focus on certain things to fulfill that.

If we think we are all rounders every day of our life,

Then we'll be a disaster.

Okay?

There are certain times when in a focused way we have to do certain things to cross certain lines.

If we don't do that,

We'll be just all over the place,

We will not get anywhere.

So if this is your time for academics,

Whatever you must decide,

Whether your academics is one year,

Two year,

Three years,

Five years,

What it is,

You decide and get there.

After that you have plans as to what are all the things to do,

That's fine.

The same goes for even your economic well-being in future,

I'm saying.

See,

What is the idea that individual human beings want to achieve affluence or societies want to achieve affluence or nation wants to become affluent?

What is the purpose of this?

Initially,

When there is poverty,

Affluence means assured nourishment,

Variety of nourishment.

That's what it is.

When nourishment is fulfilled,

It is the choice of lifestyles that you can choose.

This is why people are on.

But as societies become more and more affluent,

They start eating more and more horrible food.

Poor people… See,

You do one thing.

I will get you invited today evening for some dinner party in Delhi where affluent people are there.

Just go there and see.

They may have forty to fifty items,

But all of them have been cooked and kept in the afternoon and being reheated,

Reheated,

Reheated,

Reheated and then they're eating this.

And they take fifty items or at least twenty items or at least ten items on their plate at once and eat all mixed up.

You go to the local village,

They may just have roti and one thing.

You just taste it and see how it is.

They're eating good food.

Your doctor will tell you they're eating better food.

Your tongue tells you they're eating better food.

But with affluence,

Instead of choosing better food,

We're choosing worse food.

Lifestyles also,

Are they becoming more healthy,

Better?

Some people have,

But a whole lot of people,

Affluent societies have gone to negative lifestyles,

Isn't it?

It's the affluent people who are having mental issues.

The poorest of the poor,

Farmers are not going crazy,

Very rare,

I'm saying.

It is affluence which is bringing.

I'm saying instead of using affluence as an empowerment,

We are poking ourselves.

Nothing wrong with affluence.

I want the whole world to become affluent.

But if you don't know how to use it,

You will cause suffering to yourself.

See,

Tell me one thing,

You're all in the educational institution,

This I'm not against education,

But tell me are educated people more miserable or illiterate people more miserable?

Who is having more mental issues?

See,

Education should be a solution.

Why is it becoming such a problem?

Obviously,

We don't know how to handle it,

Isn't it?

So,

First thing is,

Are you educating yourself to know something or to get something?

This is something you must settle.

Well,

I… you can't change it overnight.

So many things have gone… taken wrong directions in education in the world,

Not just in India,

Everywhere.

You can't fix all of it.

But as a generation,

You must start thinking.

Only if you think today,

Tomorrow the narrative will change,

Then the action will change.

We don't know how long it will take.

But the striving will be there to make the change.

Education is about expanding the horizons of your life.

But right now,

Because of maybe hundred,

Two hundred years of extreme poverty in the country,

Education is just a tool to earn your living.

Most people are studying something for which they may not have aptitude.

Most people are in places where they may not have the necessary competence,

But they're trying to be like somebody else.

Yesterday,

I was in… in a group of very influential people in Delhi.

So,

This lady was saying,

They're running a large school.

Parents are coming and demanding,

Why that girl can sing so well,

My daughter is not singing that well.

Oh!

Oh!

What do you do with this?

So,

I want my daughter to sing as well as somebody else who is accomplished in that,

Who is talented for that.

So,

Somewhere your whole thing,

Education unfortunately has become a commodity for prestige and earning a living or throwing yourself around,

Throwing your weight upon other people.

No,

Education,

If you really acquire knowledge,

It is humbling always because you… as you get to know things,

You will realize what you know is such a minuscule of what could be known.

And if… if you go to the end of your life,

Still you will not know much,

That is the nature of life.

So,

Education instead of bringing that,

It is bringing arrogance,

It is bringing illness,

It is bringing misery,

It is bringing endless consumption,

All this simply because anything that's given to us,

We are handling it wrong and getting more fundamental than that.

If I ask you a question now,

Would you want your intellect to be sharp or dull?

You must choose,

I'm going to bless.

Only a few people chose,

All the best.

Sharp or blunt?

Okay.

So,

If we give you a sharp instrument in your hands,

It's extremely important you know how to hold it and you're conscious.

Ah ha ha ha ha ha intestines will come out.

Hello?

Why we do not give a sharp knife to a child's hand?

Because the child is not steady enough,

Not conscious enough,

He may hurt himself or hurt somebody else.

So,

If you have a sharp intellect,

You take it and poke every day and you say,

I have a mental issue.

Yes,

Of course,

You have.

So,

If I give you a sharp knife,

I gave it like this and you held the blade side of it and it's hurting and it's bleeding.

Oh,

It's hurting and I hold it really hard.

Well,

It'll cut through your hand.

So,

If you have something sharp,

You should know how to hold it,

How to use it,

When to keep it in the sheath,

When to bring it out.

The same goes for your intellect because it's a sharp instrument.

I'm not saying you're the sharpest person on the planet.

Compared to other creatures,

You're sharp.

That's what evolution means.

All right?

With this sharp instrument,

You're poking yourself all the time.

Why is such a problem there with the human beings?

Why this mental health?

I know I'm going to be trolled like crazy if this is going out.

It's okay.

Obviously,

They have issues.

See,

According to genetic scientists,

The DNA difference between you and a chimpanzee is only 1.

23%.

Is 1.

23% a great percentage?

Would you pass in your college with 1.

23% mark?

No.

1.

23% is not much of a difference,

Isn't it?

Hello?

So,

Physiologically,

That is how close to a chimpanzee you are.

But in terms of intelligence and awareness,

You're worlds apart.

And this is your problem.

You have an intelligence for which you don't have a stable enough platform.

This is why in engineering,

This is why yoga,

If you sit here,

Everything is buzzing with least amount of friction.

Now,

Whatever you do,

If you do what somebody is doing,

If you do hundred-fold work,

Still there's no friction.

If there is no friction,

Would you call it good engineering?

Any machine?

If there is no friction,

Is it a good machine?

Best machine,

Isn't it?

So,

Essentially,

It is about this.

You have not done anything about the body because there is an evolutionary lapse that it happened too quickly.

So quickly,

That anthropologists think there must be a missing link somewhere.

Because from monkey to man,

The jump has been very quick.

See,

Charles Darwin goes about saying something,

I'm making it simplistic.

It's like this.

A goat could have become a giraffe over a million years.

A pig could have become an elephant over so many million years.

Like this,

There are explanations.

But a monkey became a man rather too quickly.

If you get double promotion,

Should you enjoy it or suffer it?

If you make yourself competent,

You enjoy it.

If you are not competent,

You will suffer it,

Isn't it?

So,

This is just that.

We got a little jump and now we are suffering.

We have an intellect,

We have a intelligence.

If you don't create a stable chemistry,

Stable energy system,

Stable body,

This intelligence is going to drive you crazy.

And that's happening at a pandemic level right now.

Thank you so much.

Now it's time for the question-answer session.

Questioner 1 – Pranam Sadhguru.

I have a question.

Like we have inspiration souls,

There are teachers,

There are you,

Or there are some other souls.

Who is your inspiration soul?

Who is your inspiration soul?

Sadhguru – I'm not inspired.

I'm… I'm… I'm essentially lazy,

Just fooling around a bit.

Why I'm saying this is,

People who think they are in a mission mode,

They have always done the worst blunders on this planet.

Criminals have not destroyed this planet.

Let's look at this clearly.

Criminals are just interested in taking something from you.

They may kill one or two people unfortunately.

But people who think they are on a mission,

They have committed genocides,

They have eradicated cultures.

Hello?

Yes or no?

So,

Don't get into a mission mode,

I'm inspired and I'll do this.

You allow… See,

This is the reason,

Otherwise there would have been something that you are born like a little baby and the moment your mother breastfed you,

Boom,

You stood up as a grown-up man.

It would have happened.

For lot of animals,

It happens very quickly.

For a human being,

It's happening slowly because as a human being,

You're largely coming unformed.

If we have to put a proportion,

It's not exact proportion,

But I'm saying off-the-cuff numbers.

See,

Most creatures are made in such a way that ninety percent of who they are,

What they are,

What they can do,

What they cannot do is fixed by nature.

Ten percent latitude is there to express individual characteristics.

If there are ten tigers,

Ninety percent they are all the same.

Ten percent characteristic differences may be there.

But if there are ten human beings,

Are they same?

Because only ten percent was determined by nature,

Ninety percent is left in our hands.

Is this a great privilege or a problem?

No,

If you are having this problem,

It means you are thinking this privilege has become a problem.

You need to form yourself.

You don't come ready-made.

Hello?

You don't come ready-made.

Only ten percent has been done by nature,

Ninety percent,

You have to build this human being.

So this is why the time is important,

How you mature,

How you become either a fragrant,

Wonderful human being or a nasty human being is your choice.

Both you have experienced in your life,

Isn't it?

Some moments you have been very wonderful,

Some moments you have been nasty.

Yes or no,

All of you?

Everybody.

Now if you look back on the wonderful moments of your life,

That means you are capable of being wonderful.

Yes?

Only thing is you are demanding ideal conditions to be wonderful.

If I have to be wonderful,

All these people must behave like this.

You know,

We are running a volunteer organization with over seventeen million volunteers.

It's a… No,

No,

Don't clap.

I'm telling you my problems,

What are you clapping?

Running a volunteer organization means nobody is qualified for the job,

But they are enthusiastic and they will be doing this work without any warning,

Tomorrow morning they are missing.

Not because you fired them,

You can't fire them because they are volunteers.

They are doing something inefficiently,

You can't fire them because you did not hire them.

All right?

So it's a lot of circus,

I don't want to tell you the whole depth of the problem,

But it's lot.

But they are doing a fantastic job because constantly it is being curated and managed in a certain way.

So people keep coming to me and say,

Sadhguru,

I can't work with her,

She is so horrible,

He is impossible,

She is not even human,

Like this.

No,

No,

I'm not telling you,

I'm just saying.

This kind of thing.

I say,

See,

In this world only such horrible people are there.

This kind,

This kind,

This kind.

These are the kind of horrible people.

But if you want to work with ideal people,

You must go to heaven and today.

Hello?

You want to work with ideal people,

You must go there.

In this world only such people are there.

Will you… Because every one of them,

At moments they have been fantastic,

At moments they have been a disaster.

Will you get the fantastic nature of this person when they are with you or will you get the disastrous side of them to you is your choice,

Isn't it?

Hello?

But if you are very inspired,

You won't see what is in front of you.

You need insight,

Not inspiration.

First insight,

Then inspiration.

But first you have a role model.

This is a serious problem.

People ask me,

Sadhguru,

This is the same question but put in a more different way.

Sadhguru,

Who is your role model?

I say,

I don't roll with models.

Because this whole thing is coming from that human beings are carbon copies of somebody else.

This is a disaster.

The very idea is a disastrous idea.

A human being is a unique possibility.

Each one can blossom in their own way.

These things are coming.

I'm sorry,

I'm an educational institution but I'll go further,

School education.

From there it's happened.

That school… education system in the world,

Not just in one place,

Has become an extruder system.

Whichever way you go in,

When you come out,

All of you must be the same shape.

This is a disaster.

A human being is a valuable life.

It needs to be cultured,

Cultivated,

Nurtured so that it blossoms into this.

But how is it possible when you have millions and millions and millions of children?

Just now we crossed eight billion population,

Just a few days ago.

How can you do it?

You cannot do it.

But somebody told you,

All of you must have children.

That they told you,

When your forefathers were living on the land,

If a woman bears eight children,

Only two,

Three survived and we needed free labor to work on the land,

Children were always natural,

Unpaid slaves.

Hello?

I'm making it ugly,

But that's not my intent.

But I'm saying,

Essentially you're looking for free labor because everybody was working on their own land,

There was no such thing as labor.

Unless there was a community functioning,

If you had land,

If you don't have children,

Only you have to do the work.

If you had five children,

You will become prosperous.

If you don't have children,

As you age,

There's nobody to work your land,

All right?

There was no labor to be hired,

I'm saying,

At one time.

So from those days,

Whatever they said,

We are inspired by those words and still having same number of children endlessly.

Now we have educational institutions where you cannot nurture a child.

You just have to put them through the extruder system and get them to earn a living somehow.

So we need to look at the entire thing.

But it is not an immediate solution.

But you want to be inspired because you understand unless you have a spark in you,

You,

All right?

I'm saying there's another way.

When I was doing farming many years ago,

Somebody came and they had invented something fantastic.

Innovations are not new just to you.

Even then in seventies,

Early seventies,

Innovations were coming.

So somebody comes from North India and I'm in my farm and they come and say,

I have a mango farm.

They say,

I have some kind of a spray.

This spray is not about putting,

You know,

It's not a fertilizer spray but not to the roots,

To the fruit if you spray,

It'll become big.

I have a certain sense about plants,

How they work,

What they do.

I've lived on the farm.

I don't just live on the farm,

I live with the life there.

So I know what they want,

How they behave,

What… what they do intrinsically.

I said,

Why don't you try spraying this on your brains?

Let me see if you get a bigger brain,

All right?

No,

It doesn't work.

Only on my mangoes it'll work,

I don't want that,

All right?

I'm saying this is inspiration.

From outside you think you will do something.

No.

Nourish this well,

Remove all the obstacles that you have created,

This will naturally grow into a tremendous possibility.

Will you be as good as somebody else?

Nobody is as good as anybody else.

Everybody is unique.

Possibility,

If we don't explore that possibility,

There is no point of humanity,

You can start a zoo.

Questioner – Sadhguruji,

Pranam.

Sir,

I have a very strong theory which has been troubling me from inside from past few days that in our holy scriptures or we could say history,

And we have seen instances when Shiva is so angry that he kills people out of his anger,

Out of the fire of his anger.

So I would like to ask that if Shiva,

Being a brand ambassador,

Being a brand of doing meditation,

Couldn't control his anger,

Whereas Vishnu sleeping all the day could control his anger,

So what's the point of doing meditation?

Sadhguru – So,

It is trembling within you.

Well,

See,

When profound aspects of life,

You try to tell children through a story,

It will become simplistic.

Making things simplistic could be a bit dangerous sometimes.

Hello?

It is like a child who's just learnt alphabets and twenty-six alphabets and up to… he can count up to ten.

If you show him a formula,

Let's say E is equal to MC squared.

He looks at E,

MC two.

I know this.

Hello?

He knows all of it.

He knows the alphabets,

He knows number two also.

So he knows E is equal to MC squared.

No.

Someone with these simple alphabets trying to explain the nature of the universe itself.

Hello?

So don't come to such simplistic conclusions.

But you did not read the further story.

Whenever Vishnu or his manifestations came,

They always went and bowed down to Shiva for whatever reason.

Maybe they didn't have sense.

No.

There must be a good reason,

Isn't it?

Hello?

They must have a good reason.

Krishna never started his life without daily Linga puja.

You know Rama won the war and he set up Rameshwaram and came.

So obviously they knew better than your understanding of this whole thing.

And some other day when we have… because they have said already fifteen minutes,

I can't go into Purana now.

So we'll look at that some other day.

But I want you to look at it little more profoundness.

If the man who seems to be no good is being worshipped by the people who you think are very good,

There must be a good reason,

Isn't it?

I have been trying to concede her but it is so hard to say.

I couldn't say anything about her and how can I become her?

Become her?

Become like Shiva?

So So I want to surrender.

What do you want to surrender to?

What is your idea of surrender?

See,

What… These are all words floating around.

The problem with our country is this.

There was a time when this culture was steeply,

Seriously invested in a spiritual process where significant segment of human… of human beings living in this country or in this region were invested in spiritual processes to tell you what is spiritual process.

It is not about looking up and looking down,

It's not about prayer,

It's not about going to temple and this and that.

Spiritual means you are beginning to experience something beyond the limitations of your physiological and psychological stuff.

Right now,

Most people's life is limited to the boundaries of their physiology and their psychological space.

If one is experiencing something beyond that,

Then that is called spiritual.

What is the point of this?

As we've already gone through this to some extent,

I'll skip through this a little bit,

That essentially it means… See,

There are only two kinds of suffering in human life – physical suffering,

Mental suffering.

Do you know any other kind of suffering?

What is that?

Well,

You… What you call as emotion is just juicier part of your mind,

All right?

Thought is dry,

Emotion is juicy,

But it's mental,

Right?

The way you think is the way you feel,

Isn't it so?

So,

I had a very nasty joke,

But you know,

All the young people are there,

Let me not tell,

Right?

So,

Now,

I want to surrender means there is you and you want to surrender.

To whom?

To whom?

To Shiva?

Hmm?

Okay.

See… See,

Freedom is a very vague idea.

Bondage is a… a very clear idea.

Suppose… I won't do this.

Suppose I tie you up to this chair now with a rope.

I want to become free,

I want to become free like a bird in the sky.

It's not going to happen.

You just have to figure out how to undo these knots or how to cut this rope.

But freedom is a vague and wonderful idea which doesn't take you anywhere.

If you understand what is binding you,

If you undo that,

You will come to a little better level of bondage.

You understand?

If you undo one bondage,

You will come to a higher level of bondage.

If you undo that,

You will come to a higher level of bondage.

If you keep on undoing various things which bind you,

One day,

Maybe,

They will run out of stock.

When they run out of stock as to how to bind you,

Then we say,

Ah,

You are in mukti,

Tch,

You're free.

These ideas of surrender,

This,

That,

All this have come because the tradition of spirituality,

Ah,

It was common language to use these things.

But now,

That experiential aspect of spirituality is gone.

Only vocabulary is there.

What do you do with vocabulary?

You can bullshit other people.

Vocabulary is not going to solve your life.

With vocabulary,

You can override other people.

You cannot do anything with vocabulary.

Vocabulary is only useful socially,

Isn't it?

Within myself,

What is the use of my vocabulary?

There is simply no use to that.

So,

Do not come up with all these ideas,

I want to surrender,

I want to get enlightened,

I want to do this.

I'm saying,

People who get into those ideas seriously usually do the most stupid things in life.

Don't do that.

See,

Your intelligence,

I'm not saying your intellect,

Your intelligence is the highest aspect of your life.

This is a serious problem in the world that people say,

If you,

You know,

If you say love,

People say,

God is love.

Hey,

How do you know he needs to love?

You need love.

How do you know he needs love?

Maybe he's free from that.

Hello?

No,

No,

God is love,

God is love,

They will repeat.

If you say bliss,

You say divine bliss.

If you say peace,

Heavenly peace.

Everything that human beings are capable of has been exported to heaven.

And I want to surrender,

I want to do this,

I am Atman,

Paramatman,

This one,

That one.

See,

With this,

You will become multiple personality problem.

That is also one of the categories.

This happened one day.

Shankaran Pillai went to Oh!

Went to a psychiatrist.

And the psychiatrist spent a couple of weeks of,

You know,

Consultation.

And then he said,

See,

I've figured out what is your problem.

After all this study,

Your problem is you have a split personality.

That means you're schizophrenic.

That means you're two in one.

You're Atman,

Paramatman,

This one,

That one,

You know,

So many things,

I'm ego,

I'm this,

That,

You know,

People are using this without understanding what they're doing to themselves.

So,

After all this,

And he said,

See,

I've all spent so many hours on you,

So the fee is 10,

000 rupees.

Shankaran Pillai looked at him,

Put his hand in his pocket,

Pulled out a hundred rupee note,

Gave it to him and said,

Get the rest from the other guy.

So,

Do not get into spiritual jargon.

It's very important.

It's very important.

In your mind,

Your articulation is not unnecessarily causing confusion to yourself.

How do I surrender?

How do I surrender?

Obviously,

You don't know the front end or back end of what a surrender means.

Because you cannot surrender by will.

If you have a will,

How can you surrender?

I want to surrender.

How can you surrender?

If you simply sit here and don't do anything,

You have surrendered.

I'm telling you,

Are you breathing,

All of you?

I'm just checking.

Hello?

You're breathing.

In many ways,

You have surrendered to the bubble of this atmosphere,

Isn't it?

Can you say,

No,

I'm not going to breathe.

I don't want to surrender to the waves of the air.

I'll simply sit here.

Possible?

I'm saying,

If you pay attention to the nature of your existence,

It is a deep surrender.

There is no way you can exist for a moment here without all these things which we don't even know from where they're working,

How they're working.

They're all working for us.

Hello?

The planets,

The sun,

The moon and the galaxies,

Everything and the empty space,

Everything working for us,

Isn't it?

You think you can understand this and make it work?

So when people look like this,

Usually I say,

Hey,

Are you a planet spinner?

Because it looks like you're the one who's spinning the planet every day and you're depressed and you're miserable,

All this as if you're spinning the planet.

Life is happening free to you.

You just have to keep yourself in the right way to receive the bounty of life.

Survival is the only issue.

That doesn't take much intelligence to handle.

Every worm,

Insect,

Bird,

Animal handling their own survival.

With this much brain,

You can't handle it?

No,

No,

They're making a big fuss about it.

Not because you cannot survive.

The problem is you want to survive better than her.

That is the problem.

Namaskaram Sadhguru.

My question is this that why we need to have balance in life all the time?

Why we can't live free?

Balance is freedom,

Sir.

Balance… Yes.

But… No.

Balance is freedom.

See,

There was a… Maybe you're not introduced to these aspects of the world sport.

There was a motorcycle rider called Kenny Roberts.

Kenny Roberts won five world championships.

Sixteen races are there across the world.

Winning this five years consecutively is almost superhuman.

You cannot do it.

Because the best machines… Everybody has the best machines.

Everybody is fully into it.

Everybody is talented.

Five years anybody winning was unheard of.

So,

When some media asked him,

How do you do this?

What is it?

This is almost magical.

How do you do this?

So,

Kenny Roberts said,

I go out of control with control.

This is me also.

Always out of control but with control.

If you're fully controlled,

You'll become constipated.

If you go out of control,

Probably you will be dead.

You must be little on the edge out of control but in control.

Isn't that dangerous?

Yes,

It is.

Because life is very dangerous,

Because you will die.

Hello?

You know this?

You know this or no?

You know you'll die.

So,

You're only trying to postpone your death.

You're not trying to avoid your death,

However young or old you are.

Is that clear to everybody?

We're only trying to postpone death.

Is anybody trying to avoid death?

Only a fool will try that,

Isn't it?

We're just postponing it.

We would like to postpone it as much as possible,

Fine.

We'll bless you with a long life.

But you're not trying to avoid life.

So,

What is it that you're making such a big fuss about?

See,

In Southern India,

It may be here also,

But in South Indian languages,

In rural Southern India,

If you are in Karnataka,

Tamil Nadu or somewhere,

In the village,

If somebody sees you,

They ask,

This means,

Have you eaten?

They're not asking you,

How are you?

Are you depressed?

Are you joyful today?

How are you doing?

No.

Have you eaten?

Because if you've eaten,

What other problem can you have?

Rest of it are all self-made problems.

So,

Because you have eaten without really working for it,

Now you're inventing problems.

You want some problems,

But I want you to understand,

You're not looking for problems.

You're looking for something profound.

But because you don't know,

You don't have an access or you don't have a tool to go little profound into your life,

You're inventing problems and making it look profound.

Because troubled people look more profound than joyful people,

Isn't it?

Hello?

So,

Sadhguru,

As mentioned,

We were closely following your safe soil journey that you took across three thousand kilometers and over hundred days on a single motorcycle and even from the videos we could see that… A man can ride only one motorcycle at a time.

So,

From the videos we could see that the conditions you were driving in were extremely harsh.

So,

Could you tell us a little bit about what it took to embark on a journey like this?

See,

I've been talking about soil for over thirty years.

I've spoken to ordinary people,

I've spoken to thousands of farmers,

I've spoken to officials,

Agriculture ministers,

Many heads of state,

Environment ministers.

Everybody,

Whenever I speak,

They say,

Sadhguru,

This is fantastic,

What you're saying is so important.

And it looks like that night they're using my talk as a pillow to sleep upon because thirty years nobody did anything.

On ground we are doing so many things and putting it up and making them see,

See this is the situation.

But including these millions of volunteers who are with us,

They also say,

Sadhguru,

Wonderful,

Sadhguru and sleep.

So,

I knew I had to do something.

What do I have to do something?

I don't hold any official position.

I'm not a minister,

I'm not an officer,

I'm nothing.

The only thing that I have is,

I have the goodwill and love of people.

I thought,

Let me play with that.

So,

Suppose I start walking from London to Cauvery,

I know it's sure death.

Suppose I want to cycle,

At this stage in my life,

That is also death.

So,

I took the motorcycle,

Which is many number of times,

In those hundred days I could have died because on an average,

I'm driving,

Riding like,

You know… See,

If you take an average,

Because hundred days,

You ask young people who ride,

If there are any riders who've ridden long distances,

How many of them would choose to stay on a motorcycle hundred days,

Covering an average of three hundred kilometers per day?

That means many days I'm covering because I've done six hundred and ninety-one events on the way.

So,

On an average,

Seven events per day.

So,

Many days I'm riding eighteen to twenty-four hours sometimes,

Through the night I'm riding.

So,

People saw,

Oh,

Sadhguru is trying to kill himself and everybody woke up and they made so much noise around the world,

It touched 3.

91 billion people.

So,

All these people could only wake up if I'm going to die.

If I live,

They will sleep.

This is the tragedy of the world.

But what to do?

We have to work with the world in which we live.

We can't ask for an ideal world.

There is no such thing.

So,

The movement caught up in a huge way.

What does it take to do this?

It's sheer madness.

Because if you don't know,

You know,

I'm sixty-five years of age.

To ride a motorcycle for hundred days,

Through all kinds of weather,

To do all these events,

It's… it's asking.

It's a suicide,

Literally.

But we successfully did that.

What makes it successful?

Is it some enor… Do I look like such an enormously strong hello,

Muscular man?

No,

I'm not.

It's just this.

Everything that comes your way,

Whatever situation,

Physical hardship,

Challenging situations,

Anything,

Anything,

You can either carry it lightly or you can make it million tons on your head.

Mental health,

I'm saying.

Anything,

If you can carry it lightly,

Because it's not sitting on your head,

It's up to you whether you want to put it on your head or you can… Your problems will follow you like a cloud wherever you go.

Why should you carry it,

I'm asking?

Hello?

Do you have to carry your problems?

They come with you.

So where is the need to carry?

But people carry as if their problems will go away.

They're not going to go away,

They're coming with us.

Hello?

Why carry it?

So I don't carry the thousand problems around me.

When you do a campaign like this,

There are all kinds of issues,

Political issues,

Religious issues,

This issue,

That issue,

Controversies,

Nonsensical stuff,

People who have no… nothing else to do other than commenting on other people's lives.

There are so many of them invested in that,

All this stuff.

And there is a war and there is this and that happening.

What does it take is just this.

See,

If you operate as a physical body,

It has its capabilities but it has severe limitations.

If you don't eat one meal,

You'll collapse.

If you don't sleep one day,

Next day morning you collapse.

If you operate as a mind,

Mind has a little more tenacity compared to body because it's not hardware,

It's more software.

But that'll also,

Beyond a… if you stretch it beyond a point,

It'll collapse.

It's a fact that both this physical aspect of who you are and the psychological aspect of who you are,

You gathered it from outside,

Isn't it so?

One by eating food,

Another by the impressions that you have taken.

If you carry these two things little loosely,

When I say loosely,

See suppose your clothes are loose,

Always you're conscious that this is my clothing.

Suppose you wear skin-tight nylon clothes,

After some time you don't know which is your skin,

Which is your nylon.

Yes or no?

Simply because there is no space.

This is the same thing.

If you carry your body and your mental structure little… with little distance from you,

You can do things that other people think is superhuman.

But this is not about being superhuman.

This is about realizing being human is super.

It's very important.

It's very important we realize being human is super.

None of you science known?

Okay.

Not that kind,

Huh?

You know something about evolution.

You heard of Charles Darwin at least.

Well,

As per the evolutionary theory,

You're the flower of evolution.

You're the peak of evolution on this planet at least.

That means you're on top of the world.

But how many human beings are feeling like they're on top of the world right now?

No,

No,

They have to sit on top of your head.

Then only they will feel top of the world.

You're on top of the world,

Isn't it?

We are the most evolved creatures on this planet and you are the only one who is called a being.

There are more beautiful and ferocious animals and capable animals.

There's a tiger.

We don't call him a tiger being.

Elephants,

We don't call him an elephant being.

Only you is a being.

What does it mean?

It just means you're the only one who has a choice as to how to be.

All those other creatures are unconscious,

Compulsive,

Instinctive reactions to the situations in which they exist.

This is one who knows how to be.

If you know how to be,

Would you keep yourself blissful or miserable?

Choice.

Huh?

Blissful,

She's saying it just to me.

I'm asking all of you.

If you had a choice between blissfulness and misery,

What's your choice?

See,

From now on,

I'll ask you some questions to the audience.

If you say yes or no or silence,

I'll just bless you.

It's up to you.

Blissful or miserable?

It is not a conditioned response,

I want to be blissful.

It is not a philosophy.

It is not an ideology.

It is a natural,

Intrinsic need that if you can experience life in the highest level of pleasantness,

That's how you would like to do it.

Yes or no?

So when this is the case,

Why such a simple thing is not happening?

If you're blissful,

Your body is aching.

Does it really matter?

Hello?

You're really blissed out.

Something is hurting,

Does it matter?

Yes,

We will attend to it,

But it doesn't stop you from doing anything.

If you're miserable,

Oh!

If somebody as much as touches you,

It will go into whole creation of hell.

Do you design?

Did you design hell?

No.

No,

Because you're a designing student,

I'm asking.

No,

Because I do not know what all is there in heaven because people have given a very descriptive detail of how is hell.

Maybe it was designed by them because they know so much detail about how it happens.

And some people want to go to heaven,

They think that is better.

No,

Because they've made a hell out of themselves,

They want to go to heaven.

And the simple question is,

I'm asking all of you,

Do you have any proof that you are not already in heaven and making a mess out of it?

Do you have any proof?

No.

Because that's the reality,

You are in heaven making a mess out of it.

If you stop doing that,

You will never have to talk this nonsense about mental health.

So,

Because on the motorcycle,

There are physical issues.

There are issues.

People told me,

You know,

Big riders who have done intercontinental rides,

When they heard my schedule,

Sadhguru,

You could die.

Hundred days on the motorcycle,

You could die.

If you don't die,

At least you will have a broken back for sure.

You're right?

Back is good,

Still alive.

Not because… I want you to understand,

This is not because I'm some kind of superhuman.

Because there is an element in a human being,

Which is beyond one's body and mind.

If you don't touch that,

You never know life in its depth.

You know life only on its surface.

You know only what your… Suppose I know only your clothes,

I don't know you.

Can I say I know you?

No.

Right now,

Clothes is something that we put on.

Body is also something that you put on.

Whole heap of mind also is something that you put on over a period of time,

Isn't it?

If you cannot distinguish between what you wear and what you are,

Then there is a mental issue,

Isn't it?

Mental health.

Not a mental case,

That's why I can do what's needed.

This is what we want to change,

That we want to create a conscious planet,

Where being blissed out and being profound is possible at the same time.

Let's make it happen.

Thank you.

As a part of the Save Soil movement,

Because this is a footballing season,

We have kicked a ball,

Which is going to roll around the world in the next month.

Will you also kick this ball?

I keep this message of Save Soil going,

All the young people,

Your future depends on this,

Not just your education.

Le,

Le,

Le,

Le,

Le,

Le.

Reviews

Amazing! Look for what’s profound and not for problems. That in and of itself is a simple strategy toward bliss.