How Can We Ensure This Is The Last Lockdown? - With Sadhguru In Challenging Times (2 May)

Don't miss this rare opportunity to join Sadhguru Darshan, live from Isha Yoga Center last 2 May 2020. 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.

Transcript

Sadhguru, Namaskaram to all of you. Well, As you know lockdown extended. What this essentially means is, We did not lock down tight enough. That's why the extension. Otherwise, If entire world did cooperate, Every human being, Fourteen days lockdown should finish it. But when everybody is doing it, There will be one free radical will be there, Who wants to exhibit how compulsively free they are. And they will go about doing something. Because of this, Few people locked down assessment of the situation and again locked down and again locked down. If everybody went boom, Fourteen days, It should be over. Well, Because we are still working on our evolution, From being creatures to beings, We're still working on that. Because of that, One more lockdown. Well, I'm sure there is much frustration among people who are economically stressed on one level. Others who do all the stress in their head only. Variety of people but in different kinds of stress. So there is a certain amount of unrest naturally in people. Because particularly in India, Probably compared to any other nation, We must say the citizens of this nation has done better than anybody else in terms of lockdown effectiveness. Right now, The whole infection is very limited to few parts of India. Almost twenty percent of the whole statistical aspect of what the virus is doing, Both in terms of infections, Number of infections and fatalities, Twenty percent is just in Mumbai. Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi, If you put it together, It's sixty percent. In a handful of districts, If you take maybe about fourteen districts or so, Nearly eighty-five percent, Rest of the country is largely free. That means they've done a good job of lockdown. Thanks to the police, Thanks to the doctors, But above all, Thanks to all the citizens who maintained that discipline and did not allow it to spread in a huge way in such a massive population. But still, This most unpopular decision, The government has to take which is both socially, Politically and economically, A very damaging decision. But they have to take this because now if you let these few cities where it is maximum, If you let them lose, They will infect the whole country in the next month or two. So, We are again going into this process. It is painful for the people, Very painful for the country. In spite of that, We're doing this. And I have to appreciate this where, Largely we've always been complaining in this country that governments take populist decisions, Even if it's long term bad. Fortunately, With this virus, They are taking absolutely sensible decisions, Which are definitely not populistic and not even popular. But they're taking these decisions, Both the union government and almost every state government. And the best thing is down the line at the district level, Taluk level, Village level. Even at that level, The leadership and administration seems to understand this perfectly well, And they're doing a great job, Which is really wonderful. In terms of percentages of population, I think India has done the best for the volume of population we have, What infections we have, And what fatalities we have, Right now we are the best. We need to stay there and that's why lockdown. Well, I know many dreams of celebration on 4th of May are gone. Anyway, Even on 17th or 18th, You should not think of such celebration. You must think of clapping your own hands. This is nice celebration. You can do it this way, This way, This way, Whichever way you want. You can do. No celebration in your usual sense of going to your party, Hugging, Kissing, Greeting, All these things. No, This needs to stop for some time. For quite some time, I would say, Maybe another six months or nine months. Or maybe twenty-four months. You've done it all your life, What's the problem? A little bit. These are all things that you just build up in your head and think something is going wrong. Nothing is going wrong, You will be healthy, You will be well. Even spiritual sadhana establishes itself very well, If you keep physical distance from people. It's very good for a spiritual seeker that there is distance, Very nice. Because one dimension of spirituality is to organize your own energies, Like it's like a cocoon around you, It travels with you wherever you go. Because this is not just about contracting virus or not, This is about you don't want to pick up any new runanubandha. You don't want to pick up unnecessary karmic substance from all over the place. So, Those of you who are in spiritual pursuits, And those of you who don't have any, It's time to do that. Because spirituality is not about going to heaven, But about turning inward. If you turn inward, What do I get? Everything. Because everything that you've ever known, Your joy and misery, Your pain and pleasure, Your agony and ecstasy, Anything and anything has only happened within you. If heaven happens, Only if you experience within you, It exists. Otherwise it doesn't exist for you. What you don't experience does not exist for you. It's as simple as that. So, This is about turning inward and taking to its. . . Taking this one to its fullest. If you take this to its fullest, What do I get? You will get to live. Otherwise, In this composition, In this body, Where both life and death happens at the same time, This is a living death, Whether you experience this life as death or as life, This is determined by how much enhancement of life energies have happened within you. When I say how much you experience as life or death, What it means is, You're in fear. It's a kind of death. Anxiety, Another kind of death. Stress, Another kind of death. Are you dying most of the time or are you living most of the time? This you can determine. What more to give you? You want a gold medal? Well, You can have a gold medal if you want, But you will have to carry it. So I'm thinking of making. . . At the end of this, If all of you do this lockdown really effectively, I'm thinking of making a gold medal for all of you. Only thing is, All of you must wear it all the time. Because you know I'm generous. I'm not somebody who gives you this kind of medal. Twenty-five kilogram gold medal, Pure gold. Pure gold, But you must always wear it. You will see the pain of gold. I'm saying our priorities have been so totally off. Somebody was telling me three days ago, Oh, Sadhguru, This person, Golden heart. I said, I don't like that. I like a beating heart. I don't like a golden heart. What do I do with a golden heart? No Sadhguru, You have a golden heart. I said, No. I don't want to be a monument with a golden heart, Which it doesn't beat. I like a muscular heart which is beating well, Steadily, Easy. I like this heart. I don't want a golden heart. So we have our things totally screwed up in our heads. If a child is born, Even in Tamil Nadu it's very prevalent, Tungamee, Tungamee. That means my goldie, My gold, Gold, Gold. So you were thinking of delivering a lump of gold, But you got a lump of flesh. But the good thing about the flesh is it grows. Gold, You will melt it. Because what will you do? Suppose you deliver a baby, Which is made of gold, What do you do? Ah, Somebody will break hands, Legs and melt it. You may not melt the whole thing at once, You will do it in parts. This happened. Ah, There was a man in Louisiana. And one day he had a guest at home. And he saw a pig inside the house in the sitting room. But one of its four legs was missing. And it was there. And when the phone rang, The pig went and attended the phone. She said, No, Mr. Johnson is busy. This is kind of. . . What? A pig attending to the phone? I said, Yeah, Yeah, He can speak very well. He even takes care of my income tax returns. He's very good. He's very capable. Really? My God, A pig does your reception work, Does your secretarial work, Takes care of your account. Takes care of your, You know, IRS returns. Wow! This is a miraculous pig. But how come? He's lost one leg. He said, Come on, Such a precious pig, Who'd like to eat the whole of it at once? So you have this habit of creating a false value to something, Which is also happening. People are going crazy about economics. Yes, There is pain, Economic pain is there. But you don't have to go crazy. At least your business is not burned down, Your house is not bombed, Your office is not down on the ground. Everything is intact. Only you are not there. The birds are enjoying it. After thousands of years of living here, Six weeks if we are not there, If everything that we have built is going to go down to the ground, The very civilization that we have built, Then what a lousy civilization have we built, I'm asking. After thousands of years of existing here, In six weeks everything we have created is going to vanish, What will happen? The world will never be the same again, These debates are going on everywhere. No, No, It will be, Literally. We've always been doing it, For us no change. Well, We can't do big programs, Eight thousand, Ten thousand, Twenty-five thousand people can't gather. It's okay. Sometime it's all right. We'll have to modify many things, Which we are in the process of doing. So everybody has to modify similarly according to their businesses. Will we go through economic pain? Very much. We, Here also will go through a lot of economic pain, Because there are many responsibilities we have to fulfill no matter what. But there's no revenue from any direction. This is true for various institutions, Educational institutions, Businesses, Small businesses, Large businesses and the government itself, No revenue. So, One important thing is to keep the agriculture going, So that even if we don't have money, We have food. We have food to eat. Once you've eaten well, There's nothing to crib about. Yes, In this culture, In Tamil Nadu if you go to the village, They won't ask you, How are you? They will ask something, Hmm? That means have you eaten? Because if you've eaten, What other problem can you have? Rest is all in the head. Once you've eaten, What other problem do you have? This is the only existential problem. Rest is all psychological cases, Different kinds. They will all find their own numbers. If hundred. . . One kind of psychological cases gather in one place, They will all make it into a big movement. All nut cases, Big movement. You can call this by many wonderful names, But essentially, Nobody's shooting a bullet at you and stomach is full. Those people who cannot fill their stomach, Even that they don't have means that we must take care. There's no problem if you grow food, Government can buy everything from the farmer on credit and distribute on credit, You pay later. Eat today. Eat today and pay after one year. Or eat today and forget about payment, For the farmers alone you pay what they need because they're providing food for you. Rest of us just eat, Meditate, Do whatever we have to do as I said, Fifteen days extra you got every one of you. You must become ten percent physically fitter, Ten percent mentally more capable, Ten percent emotionally more stable, Ten percent more competent in whatever the hell you're doing with your life. Wow! What a country and what a world we will have. Ten percent, Do you know what it will do? Tremendous things will happen. So there is no need to crib. This time, These fifteen days, We must do this really well. But the problem is who should do it. Shankaran Pillai went to Texas and married a Catholic woman. So, Lockdown. Otherwise he was going to work, He stopped at the first Starbucks and got his coffee and went to office early before she got up. Now he's at home. So, This debate came late evening, Who should do the coffee in the morning? So I said, You get up earlier than me, You do the coffee. Shankaran Pillai said, No, No, That's not how it is from. . . I come from a culture where it's woman's duty to go and first light the stove in the morning. A man should not do it. This is a tradition. She says, I don't know any tradition. You get up earlier, So you do your coffee. Then they got into an argument. Then she said, Well, I will let me tell you this, This is not just my opinion. Even in the Bible, It says you should do it. They're what? Nonsense. How can Bibles tell me that I should brew the coffee? I don't believe this, Show it to me. So she brought the Old Testament and showed in many pages on the top, It was written, Hebrew. So Hebrew. So now, Who should make the lockdown work? Should the Prime Minister do it? Chief Ministers do it? Local Police should do it? No, No, You and me must do this. You must make sure there should be no need for further lockdowns. We must make this so absolute. The goddamn virus should have no place to go. Yes. Whatever inconvenience we have, We must make sure virus should not move from one person to another. If we do this lockdown absolutely, It'll be gone. All the time we're thinking human beings won't do it. Well, For once, Why don't we show that we can do it? If we do it, Well, We can get back into our activities as quickly as possible. Build back whatever we have lost, Make the place worth living. Above all, If we just do this one thing, Our lives will change. The way we live will change if we can effectively implement the lockdown, Every citizen, Absolutely. Ensuring if you have the virus, I don't get it. If I have it, Nobody else gets it. This is all lockdown means. Lockdown does not mean you have to shut your mouth, You can still speak. Hello? If you come to the yoga center, We'll shut this also. Now lockdown does not mean you have to shut your mouth, You can blabber as much as you want, Anyway you have a phone with you and virus doesn't travel through the phone, Is guaranteed. Only thing is, If you have it, I should not get it. In case I have it, Nobody should get it, That's all. This is all lockdown means. Don't think it is some great mechanism happening. This is all it means that the virus should not get transportation from you. If every one of us just take this up absolutely, It's done. Fifteen days. Everybody who's reasonably even doing a small level of job will have food for fifteen days. Ration is being given. If somebody really doesn't have a whole lot of people, Including us, Whole lot of people on a much larger scale across the country are providing food. So nobody need to go really hungry in twenty-first century. Because there is transportation, There is reach and there's communication, We can ensure nobody goes hungry. So once stomach is full, Saptingla? Adikaprena? Utamadara? This is all, Because food is an existential issue. Once that is taken care of, Rest is just psychological nonsense. Learn to deal with it, These fifteen days can become a phenomenal time for you that you must become competent to handle any kind of damn situation that comes in our lives. It's a good time to learn that. It's very important. Don't try to orient the world towards your needs. You become in such a way whatever is happening in the world, You still do well. Making yourself like that, That you're fit for this world is more important, Rather than trying to reshape the world to be fit to you, So that it should fit into you. That's never going to happen. You must become in such a way, Whichever way the world is you will fit in and still do your best. This is a good opportunity to learn. It's a soft learning. We're calling it a war, We're calling it warriors. Now Prime Minister has gone out and named every citizen as a COVID warrior. A warrior means who's constantly facing mortality. That's why everybody bows down to him because he consciously steps out there and risks his life. He may die any moment. That's what war means. If it was like Hindi cinema or any cinema that we could fight a war, We could kill all of you and at the end of the movie you will all get up and walk. War is a great thing, You know. Only problem is people lose their lives. That is what is terrible about it. So here, There is a war, Nobody's shooting at you, Your home is not going to be destroyed, Nothing is going to happen. All you have to do is keep six feet distance from any other human being for fifteen days, Ensure you don't get it. In case you get it, Ensure nobody else gets it. That's it, Lockdown, Over. Let's make it happen. This question is from Ashok Kumar. Questioner 1 – Namaskaram Sadhguru, I want to know why this creation was created in the first place? Sadhguru – I didn't do it. Is he blaming me? Questioner 1 – And also why the one who's created is not even given the liberty to know the nature of its own existence? Sadhguru – One who is created? Oh, Created, Not the creator. Okay. If there was no possibility of you knowing the nature of your own existence, Why would I waste my life with you? Because if there was no possibility, What is the point? It doesn't matter what kind of a fool you are, Still there is a possibility. That is why the effort. Otherwise, What's the point? This is what spiritual process means, That you have not written off any life, Because every life is a possibility. Somebody is like this, Somebody is like this, Somebody is like that, Somebody looks stupid, Somebody looks smart, It doesn't matter what society is making these judgments. But as a life, It has enough intelligence to exist. Because to exist, It needs a lot of intelligence. How many things are functioning? Not one or two things. A millions and millions of things are happening, If you have the intelligence to exist, You have the intelligence to know. But you're a little distracted. You who have not learnt how to harness your intelligence, So it's giving you a little headache. You're getting a headache. When I say headache, Not just the virus headache, I'm talking in terms of you know, Something troubling you. That means you have enough intelligence to trouble yourself. If you know how to create a problem, Which does not exist, Tell me, Creating something is more effortful and needs more substance, But not creating anything needs more substance, Obviously creating something. Creating all these falsehoods in your mind takes a lot of intelligence and effort. But this is a way, If I give you a screwdriver to do some simple job here, You put it in your ears, You thought it's a good way, It'll work for some time. And then you thought that also you do. But then one day you eyeball something is happening. Well, You know, That's all that's happening to you. It may sound so ridiculous, But that's how ridiculous it is. That is all you're doing to yourself. Repeatedly I've been saying this. If you remove half your brain, You won't need any spirituality, You'll sit peacefully. Mouth may open a little bit, But what's the problem? But you will become peaceful. So your problem is not that you don't have enough intelligence to know, Your problem is you've not harnessed it. So, Why can't the Creator harness it also for me? How is this? We gave you horse and we gave you two legs to ride on it. No, No, Why can't you ride it for me? What is the answer? That you can do if you remain unborn. Creator will take care of everything. The source of creation takes care of everything if you're not here. Because you're here, You've been given a role to play. Even a little ant, This ant is a problem, Some people are commenting about my ant and human being example. Because there are people who take examples literally. If I say an ant and an elephant, What is he talking? How are ant and elephant related? They're not the same species. What is he talking? I didn't say they got married. So, Even if you take the smallest creature, There are, You know there are much smaller creatures than ant, There is a virus of course. But normally, In a language, Ant means, Because it's a common thing everywhere, Maybe people who are living in apartments have not seen an ant, So they're thinking I'm talking about some creature, But otherwise those who lived on this planet, Ants are everywhere. So a small little creature and you, If you look at it, Ant also wants to do his own thing, In his own way, For whatever little brain he has. He wants to do his own thing. He's going somewhere, You block his way and see. I spent months trying to understand these ants. And I was amazed at their intelligence and their sense of survival. How they manage things is quite incredible, And they traffic sense. All the people in Bangalore, They need some ant training. Simply they're going like this, Nobody hits each other, They're just going like this, Okay? So I was so amazed, I spent so much time, You just put your hand there. He wants to go his own way. He will not change his way and go away somewhere. He will like this, Like this, Like this, He'll go on, Again come here and go. Because he wants to do his own thing. So this is the nature of life. Not only that, Every one of the creature is. . . It's a magnanimity of creation. It's given you an individual experience. Just imagine, If you didn't have your neurological system, Nothing. Most probably the virus doesn't have an individual experience because he doesn't have any neurological system. We do not know but I'm assuming. Maybe he does not have an individual experience, They are a collective existence probably. But we have individual experience. All of us came from the same soil, But we have individual experience as we sit here. This is not a small thing. This is a fundamental value of our life that we have an individual experience. When you have an individual experience, Is it not your business to handle or to harness your intelligence to know? Do you have the needed intelligence to know? Absolutely. As I said, If you have the intelligence to exist, You have the intelligence to know. But you're. . . Because people have told you, You will go to heaven, You are saving it to use it elsewhere. But we even burn your brains when we take you to the crematorium, At least in the Isha crematoriums, Even the brains are burnt. So if you're saving it, To take it there and use it, Now we'll burn it up here. There we don't know whether they'll give you a brain or not. Yes. Because here yours is not working, That is why you want to go somewhere else. It's time you make your body, Brain, Energy work here to its fullest and hold it in your hands and direct it the way you want. Right now it's just spilling around. Your intelligence is just spilling around and causing havoc to yourself and to everybody around you. Yes. So it's not that creation has not given you the means. Means are there, You must use it. If you're not using it, You're using it against yourself, Lockdown, Lockdown, Lockdown and you're poking yourself right now. If you really look at it, Lockdown is the greatest thing that's happened to you in your life if you ask me. Because six, Eight weeks, When did anybody have a vacation like that? Oh, I can't go anywhere. That's not the point. You have time, How many things you could do? How many things you could do with yourself and what's around you, The people around you. Today I was talking to some police officers, You know, It's a kind of a conversation. They were saying, Even in Chennai, The number of what is this domestic violence cases are going up. Because you don't know how to be, You're beating up each other. Just nonsense. These are the people that you call your family. All the best. If this is how you manage your family, All the best for you. Your loved ones there, That's why they're. . . Tuppad. Your loved ones, You're smashing them up, This is your loved ones. Then maybe mosquito also is your family. Must be, That's why you keep slapping them. It's time you learn to deal with yourself. You got fifteen, Sixteen days, Lot of time. Please at least if you don't know anything else, At least do Inner Engineering online. At least learn to handle your thought and emotion. If you don't learn to handle your energy which may take a little more, At least your thought and emotion the way you want it. If you don't do this, How do you expect your life to be worthwhile in any sense? Your only sense of worth is you have the gold medal I'm going to give you today. Your gold medal is five hundred grams, Little heavier than somebody else's. You got five hundred grams more gold than the person next to you and you feel great. This is all the perversion that's been cultivated unfortunately. It's time you learn how to handle your intelligence. Then everybody has enough intelligence to know how to live. This is the last time you learn to handle your intelligence. This is the last time you learn to handle your intelligence. Shambha Shambha Mahalevaya

Reviews

“Spiritual process means that you have not written off any life because every life is a possibility.” 🙏🏼

Brilliant with a saving sense of humour to help soothen