Inner Management

Delivering a convocation address at a premier management institute, Sadhguru talks about the need of another kind of management, an 'Inner Management' through which one can become the master of his own destiny.

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

If we want to live well,

Both externally and internally,

How well we live here simply depends on how well we manage our surroundings and how well we manage ourselves.

Fundamentally life is management.

If you don't know how to maintain your body,

Your mind,

Your emotion,

Your situations,

Your life in general,

Your home,

Your communities,

Nations and the world,

The quality of our life is just how well we manage things with ourselves.

But generally we are thinking of management,

We are applying ourselves to management only in terms of business management or industry management or… Generally we are talking management only with economic situations,

Not life as a whole.

In many ways it's unfortunate that today the most predominant factor that rules the planet has become economics.

The other aspects of life have been totally pushed to the corner.

When economics rules,

When economics is the only thing that we are thinking about,

We will tend to become very gross and unhappy in so many ways.

What I see is,

You know we are conducting various levels of programs to very top level executives in some big corporations in the world,

Major corporations in the world.

What I see is people who have failed in their lives,

They are suffering their failure.

People who have succeeded in their life,

They are suffering their success.

If you suffer your failure,

It's okay because failure comes easy.

If you suffer your success,

That is tragedy because success doesn't come easy.

So something that you worked for,

Something that you always longed for,

Something that you wanted to create in your life,

When it happens,

If you start suffering that,

That's real tragedy of life.

But a large number of successful people on the planet are suffering their success.

And I say suffering their success.

If you look at people,

Look at yourself and see you are still young people,

Most of you.

When you are five years of age,

How happy you were and today how happy you are.

If we make a chart out of it,

A graph out of it,

Is it moving upward or downward?

In twenty-four hours' time,

How many moments are you really happy?

If you look at this,

Is it going up or down?

Is it going up or down?

Down.

So that means you are a bad manager.

Because after all,

Everything that you did in your life is in pursuit of happiness,

Isn't it?

All that you are doing in your life,

You are doing it because you believe that is your happiness.

You educate yourself,

You pursue careers,

You build families,

You run after your ambitions.

So many things you do because somewhere you believe fulfilling those things will bring you happiness.

After doing all that,

If happiness is not multiplying,

It is going down.

That means you are a bad manager of yourself.

If your bad manager is not managing your own body,

Who does not know how to manage his own body,

His own mind,

His own emotion and his energies,

If he's managing outside situations,

He's only managing them by accident,

Not by intent the way he wants it.

Because if you do not know how to manage your mind,

How to manage your energies,

How to manage your interiority,

Managing the outside is bound to be accidental.

You exist as an accident.

When you exist as an accident,

You are a potential calamity.

When you exist as a potential calamity,

Being anxious all the time becomes a natural part of life.

Anywhere you go today,

People are talking stress management.

Especially a few years ago,

When I first went to United States,

Wherever I go people were talking stress management.

I could not understand why anybody wants to manage his stress.

I can understand you want to manage your business,

Your finance,

Your family,

Your property,

Whatever,

But why would you want to manage stress?

It took me a while to understand these people have come to the conclusion that there is no other way to live.

Somehow people have come to the conclusion that if you do things in the world you are bound to be stressful.

One is not stressful because of what they are doing.

One is stressful because he is a bad manager of himself.

He doesn't know how to manage his own systems.

That is why he is stressful.

It is not the nature of the job which makes one stressful.

You ask a chaparasi,

He is also stressful.

You ask the top executive,

He is also stressful.

Everybody believes their job is stressful.

No job is stressful.

If you have no control over your own systems,

You will be stressful.

Whether you do something or you don't do anything,

Isn't it so?

See management means… Fundamentally management means we want to decide the course of our destiny.

That's management,

Isn't it?

We don't want to live here by accident.

We want to take our lives where we want to go.

That's management,

Isn't it so?

If you are managing by accident,

You are not a manager.

Without you,

Things will run better.

So once you say,

I am a manager,

That means somewhere you have decided that you want to go in a particular way.

You want to have a certain kind of situation,

Both inward and outward.

So everybody is a manager in his own capacity,

But in different levels and different types.

Whether you manage a kitchen where you cook for four people or you manage a large industry where 10,

000 people work,

Fundamentally if you want to have a good kitchen or a good industry,

You must be a good manager of that situation,

Isn't it?

So whether you are managing a little kitchen or a large industry,

If you want to manage outside situations,

Generally you will have to manage material and people around you.

If you have to manage 10 people or 10,

000 people around you,

You have to manage 10 minds or 10,

000 minds around you.

But if you have no management over your own mind,

You managing 10,

000 minds is going to be a disaster.

In the process of doing something,

If we are destroying human beings,

Which is happening right now,

In the process of managing a situation the man is broken,

Then this kind of management is no good because after all every management that we do is only for human well-being.

If we are doing management for human well-being,

In the process of doing something,

In the process of managing situations,

It is not only about producing something or making profit,

Human beings should rise to their full potential.

If we manage a situation properly,

In simple process of working,

You and the people who are working with you should be able to raise to their full potential.

When I say rising to full potential,

Not just work potential,

But as human beings they must be able to rise to their full potential.

If people work together,

Then people should be able to rise to the peak of their love,

Peace,

Compassion within themselves.

If this doesn't happen,

Then it's bad management because all management,

The basic intent is human well-being.

If that is not happening,

You are just producing something,

You are making little profit,

But human beings are getting broken in the process,

It doesn't mean anything.

So if this kind of management has to happen,

That just in managing a business,

You find people around you raised to their peak,

Then you have to spend a certain amount of time in focusing on your inner management.

If this doesn't happen,

You will only manage situations by accident.

Lot of people have understood management as a way of throwing their weight around.

Can I tell you a joke,

Are you okay?

On a certain day,

A lion was really feeling great within himself.

He just was walking and a little rabbit was going,

He caught him and roared at him,

Who is the king of the jungle?

The little rabbit terrified,

Said,

You,

You,

Of course you.

He let him go,

Swaggered around a little bit,

Then he found a fox,

Caught him,

Who is the king of the jungle?

Oh my lord,

It's you,

Of course,

Nobody else but you.

Then he swaggered around a little bit,

Caught a few more animals,

Everybody screamed out of fear,

You are the king of the jungle.

Then he was in full swagger,

Like a manager,

King of the jungle.

Walked into a clearing in the jungle,

There there was a huge tusker standing.

He went,

Stood in front of him and asked,

Who is the king of the jungle?

The tusker took his trunk,

Rolled him up,

Picked him up,

Twirled him around,

Smashed him to the ground.

His back broke.

Then the lion said,

You could have just told me.

But the tusker said,

You see,

I had to make my point.

So,

Lot of people generally are thinking management means just throwing their weight around.

Throwing your weight around is not management,

Any fool can do that.

If you manage a situation,

Not just things happening there,

People should feel elevated,

Just being in that space,

Otherwise it is not management.

Above all,

If you go to your place and you manage a situation,

You must feel wonderful being there.

If that doesn't happen,

You are not a good manager.

So,

If this has to happen,

You need an inner dimension.

When I say inner dimension,

What is inner dimension?

When I say inner,

I am not just talking about the body or the mind,

Because both this body and mind you gathered from outside in certain ways,

Isn't it?

For example,

This physical body,

When you were a child,

This body was only this much.

Now it's become this much.

How did this happen?

How did this happen?

That's a question.

How did this happen?

Hmm?

You grew up… How did it happen,

I'm asking?

Hmm?

I'm sorry?

How did it happen?

How did all this body happen?

Food that you ate,

Isn't it?

What you call as my body is actually a heap of food that you gathered.

What you call as food is just a piece of earth that you convert into food and make it into body,

Isn't it?

So,

This body is just a heap of food that you gathered over a period of time.

What you call as my mind is a heap of impressions that you gathered from outside.

Now you have a heap of food and a heap of impressions.

If this much gathering has to happen,

Something more than this must exist,

Isn't it?

If you are capable of gathering such a large body and so much mind,

There must be something more fundamental than this,

But that never comes into your experience.

You are just lost in these two heaps,

Trying to make some sense out of it.

Now,

As there is a science,

As there is a management science for external well-being,

There is a management for science for inner well-being.

It is just that most of the time we have not approached it scientifically.

We are just believing by doing something somehow everything will be okay.

Right now people are thinking by educating themselves they will live happily ever after,

Which you will discover after some time,

It's not so.

By getting a job they think they are going to be happy ever after,

Which you will discover it is not so.

By making money you think you are going to be happy ever after,

You will discover it is not so.

Somebody thinks by getting married they are going to be ever after and they know it is not so.

So you are trying to somehow fool yourself into believing that by doing something everything will be okay.

Though repeatedly it has let you down,

Still you believe that something else,

Some other miracle will make everything okay.

It will not be okay.

It once happened,

On a certain day a bull and a pheasant were grazing on the field.

You know a bull?

A pheasant,

A bird.

The bull was grazing on the grass,

The pheasant was picking ticks off the bull,

They are partners you know.

Then the pheasant looked at a huge tree which was at the edge of the field and very nostalgically said,

Alas there was a time when I could fly to the topmost branch of the tree,

But today I do not have the strength even to fly to the first branch of the tree.

The bull very nonchalantly said,

That's no problem,

Eat a little bit of my dung every day,

You will see within a fortnight's time you will reach the top of the tree.

The pheasant said,

Oh come off it,

How is that possible?

The bull said,

Really please try and see,

The whole humanity is on it,

You could try too.

Very hesitantly the pheasant started pecking at the dung and lo on the very first day it reached the first branch of the tree.

In a fortnight's time it reached the topmost branch of the tree.

It just went and sat on the topmost branch and just looking at the scenery enjoying it.

The old farmer saw a fat old pheasant on the top of the tree,

He took out his shotgun and shot him off the tree.

So the moral of the story is,

Even bull shit can get you to the top,

But never lets you stay there.

So if you are seeking,

If you are seeking a life of fulfillment,

If you are seeking a life of joy and peace and well-being within yourself,

Don't try to bull yourself in some way,

You must do the right thing,

Otherwise it won't work.

Now that you are managers or to be managers,

Probably definitely I hope they have taught you that unless you do the right thing,

It doesn't work with outside.

The same goes with the inside,

Unless you do the right thing it just doesn't work.

You may just bull yourself to believe that this will make me alright,

That will make me alright.

Yes for a moment,

But the next moment you crash.

Please see,

Successful people,

Unsuccessful people,

Just look at their lives and see in twenty-four hours how many moments are they really joyful,

How many?

You go on the street and see how many joyful faces do you see on the street?

Very,

Very few,

Isn't it so?

Yes,

If you see any,

Usually they are young faces.

Over thirty faces are all long faces.

What's happened to them?

For most of them their lives have worked out far better than they ever imagined.

If you look at yourself as a generation,

Never before another generation of people have been this comfortable and this well physically as you are right now,

Isn't it?

Isn't it so?

We are the most comfortable generation.

No other generation has known these kind of comforts and conveniences,

But still are we any happier than what people were?

This is simply because we did not do inner management.

We just did external management,

No inner management.

In the process of creating what we want,

The very source of our life,

This planet,

We are just destroying,

Isn't it?

In pursuit of our happiness,

We are just making a bonfire out of this planet,

But still we are not satisfied,

Nor are we any more joyful than what we were five hundred years ago as people were,

Isn't it?

So somewhere we have neglected the interiority.

So to turn inward,

What is needed?

One reason why most young people here have never made any effort to turn inward is because today any thinking person,

The moment he can read A,

B,

C,

Speak English,

And he has extra alphabets next to his name,

He develops an allergy towards anything spiritual.

This is not your fault.

These so-called spiritual people have made such jokers out of themselves.

They have presented spirituality in such terrible ways,

Ridiculous ways,

That anybody who has any sense doesn't want to go anywhere near it.

See,

Spirituality means to know something which is beyond the physical.

Right now if you exist as a physical entity,

As a body,

As a mind,

Because both these things are accumulations from outside,

Whatever happens outside will happen inside.

If what happens outside begins to happen within you all the time,

Then you being peaceful and happy is always accidental,

Because it doesn't matter who you are,

How powerful you are,

How great a manager you are,

External situations will never be hundred percent in your control.

That's the nature of the life.

Even if you are just two people in the family,

Still you don't have absolute control over the situation,

Isn't it so?

As the scope and play of your life increases,

You have less and less control over the situations in which you live.

That's the reality of life.

So if whatever is happening outside is happening within you,

You being peaceful and happy in your life is a far away thing,

It's never going to happen.

Only when a person begins to experience a dimension beyond the physical within himself,

Then he can play with the physical world whichever way he wants.

He can do the best that he can do with the outside world,

But the interiority is undisturbed always the way you want it.

The outside world will not happen the way we want it hundred percent.

At least the inner world should happen the way we want it,

Isn't it so?

Isn't it so?

The outside will never happen hundred percent the way we want it.

That's the reality of life.

But at least this one should happen the way we want it.

If this is also not happening the way you want it,

If your body,

If your mind,

If your emotions,

If your energies are not functioning the way you want it,

Then this is the worst kind of slavery because somebody else decides what should happen within you.

If somebody else decides what should happen around you,

That itself you call it slavery,

Isn't it so?

Yes?

Are we in talking terms or no?

Oh,

That's fine.

If somebody decides what should happen around you,

That itself you call as slavery.

But if someone decides what should happen within you,

Is it not a more horrible way of being a slave?

But please see the whole world is in it.

The only consolation is everybody is like this.

Now that you're learning management as a science,

I would like you to understand there is a whole science of inner management.

If you don't learn that,

You may manage businesses,

You may manage industry,

But still you will not live a life of fulfillment and well-being.

If you want to live a life of fulfillment and well-being and offer the same to people around you,

It's extremely important you know what it means to manage your interiority.

I really don't know how you feel today going out of probably the last step of your education or at least one step of your education,

A major step of your education,

Because when I studied in the university,

I was… I did not go to my convocation.

Somewhere right from my childhood… Are you okay for a story?

Right from my childhood,

The education that I received,

Though they sent me to the best possible schools around,

It didn't mean anything to me because my sense of listening and looking at people was such,

When the teachers were talking whatever,

Chemistry,

Biology or mathematics,

One thing I could clearly see was whatever they were saying didn't mean a damn thing to them.

And I was not willing to listen to anything from somebody who is talking something which doesn't mean anything to him.

So I always looked at the teacher,

If he put his heart into it,

I'm willing to be there,

Otherwise I'm out.

Because somewhere I'm… I have so many things on my agenda for the day,

Twenty-four hours are packed with too many things.

I'm not willing to spend an hour or even five minutes listening to someone who is talking something which doesn't mean anything to him.

Even if he's talking nonsense,

It doesn't matter.

If it means something to him,

I'm willing to listen to it.

But if he's talking great things which don't mean anything to him,

I'm not willing to listen to him.

So as a part of this,

I spent… Your education is over so I can talk.

I spent almost ninety percent of my college hours outside,

Only ten percent inside.

Only when I saw somebody who is talking something with passion,

I'm there,

Otherwise I'm just out.

Now,

This education,

I'm repeatedly telling Dr.

Majumdar and a few other people around here,

I'm happy to see somebody is talking with some passion about what they're doing.

Somebody… It doesn't matter what they're doing is right,

Wrong,

Okay,

Perfect or not,

But someone has put his heart into it,

It's okay because human lives becomes beautiful not because we do the right things.

Human lives become beautiful because we put our heart into what we're doing.

It doesn't matter what we're doing.

Whether we're sleeping the floor or managing the country or what we're doing,

If we're putting our heart into what we're doing,

It's beautiful to be doing that activity.

So I think it's a fortune that… I've just seen a few people,

I hope everybody here is putting their hearts into what they're doing and living in an atmosphere where people are passionate about what they're doing itself is highly enriching.

Now that you're stepping into the world,

Not that you don't know,

But anyway,

Now you're stepping into the world in a different dimension than the way you have been till now.

Once you step into the world,

There's going to be lot of filth.

There is corruption,

There is nonsense,

There is so many things happening everywhere.

There are some set of people,

A certain set of people who will develop an allergy for this filth.

They can't stand it.

They usually run to the Himalayas because they're allergic to filth,

They can't take it.

They want everything pure,

But such a thing will not happen because the filth of the world has one way or the other has entered our minds.

Whether we empower that filth or not is all the option that we have,

But we cannot avoid filth.

It is there.

All the nonsense that can happen in the world,

You know in your head,

Isn't it?

So one set of people develop allergy and try to run away,

Which they can never do really.

Another set of people,

A large segment of people unfortunately have come to their own kind of philosophies.

Anyway there is… world is full of filth,

Let me also become filth.

So they have joined that,

They have merged into the filth.

What we call as filth can also be great manure,

You know.

Indian spirituality has always used lotus as a symbolism.

A lotus flower has always been the main symbolism for Indian spirituality.

Why a lotus flower is?

A lotus flower grows best where the filth is thick.

This filth which is stinking,

Which you can't bear,

Has transformed itself into a fragrant beautiful flower.

This option also is with us every moment of our life.

If the atmospheres that we live in make us,

We cannot call ourselves managers.

If we make the atmospheres that we live in,

Only then we can call ourselves managers.

Being a manager means that we are going to create whatever we see as the most beautiful thing to happen right now.

Allowing situations to create you is not management at all.

Creating the situations that we want is management.

Reviews

So good. Listening again right now. With little effort comes peace. Thanks

I had to pause a few times to reflect during this speech. Wow.

love the opportunity to follow Sadhguru anywhere...such an enlightened being 🧘🙏🌈

You share so many nuggets of wisdom with us. I am grateful and appreciate that you do. Namasté

Dear Sadhguru, thank you for sharing so frankly! I have never before thought of myself as a manager—that word has frightened me until now.

If we become willing to learn better management of ourselves—our inner well-being—many things will change fir the better.

Spirituality—the art of making good choices for myself from a position of willingness to understand, with total, passionate commitment!

Excellent talk on the necessity of inner management & how it affects our success or non-success of managing others.

Inspiring and affirming = fabulous combo!
In gratitude,
ahimsa

Great and inspiring. Listen to you is such a blessing. Thank you. Namaste 🙏

Very insightful, as always 🙏🏽

Thank you 😊🙏🦋

I like the start, “all of life is management”

Never disappoints! Always meaningful teaching. ❤️🙏🏽❤️

Once again, he just nails it. Thank you🙏🏻

Profound words as always. Love.

He speaks so much truth!

A wonderful lecture! Namaste! 🙏 🌺

Habits of love habits of success

Loved it ! Thank you 🙏🏽

The first talk is amazing, informative and inspiring. The second one feels a but disconnected from the first, but it is still very interesting. Thank you!

Excellent talk 🙏