Life Tips For Students

As part of the Youth and Truth movement, Sadhguru interacted with youth at universities and colleges across the world, answering questions they had on a range of subjects – no restrictions. Watch Sadhguru answer some of the most popular questions asked so far!

Transcript

Being a college student,

We live in dorms and hostels and we are surrounded by people day in and day out.

And with people comes opinions and ideas.

So for instance,

Let's say I got up in the morning and I got ready for class and I'm about to leave and one of my friends joins me and she casually comments that your hair doesn't look very good today,

Like what's wrong with it?

So some of us are out of the time that we will rush back to our rooms and just fix it somehow might mean… that might even mean that we are late for class.

But let's say I didn't even do that,

Let's say I didn't even do that,

But that thing would keep going in my mind,

Like throughout.

I would be in the class but I would be thinking about my hair.

So it is… Others opinions and ideas have a very deep effect.

Although it varies from person to person,

The amount of effect it has,

But how do we take the good out of it and still not lose our individuality and uniqueness in the process?

Sadhguru Now,

In this world,

More money,

Probably ten times or even hundred times more money is being spent on hair products than on the brain products.

So it looks like a whole lot of people don't care what is inside,

They only care what is outside.

So for those people who are in a certain state of their life where they need to intensely focus on something,

Very intensely,

Where they need undivided attention to achieve what they want to achieve,

Normally we shave their heads,

You know,

So that they don't have to stand in front of the mirror every day.

See I don't have to stand in front of the mirror,

Every day I look the same.

So I don't have to check how am I looking today.

So when you're focused on something else,

Certain things get less significance.

How we look,

Is it important?

Yes it is.

To some extent it is important in our lives.

But right now,

You're not going to walk the ramp,

You're going to the class,

Okay?

So all you have to do is bundle up your hair,

Tie it up on top of your head so that they can't see your hair,

They can just see the knot and they can see the size of your head,

That's a good thing.

It is not that one should not be concerned about their appearance,

Of course it matters,

But where does it matter,

Where does it not matter is something we have to decide.

If it matters too much everywhere,

I've seen people about twenty-seven times in a minute,

If you're adjusting your hair half the time in your life,

What the hell are you going to do of any significance?

I'm not saying you should not have hair,

I'm not saying you should not keep it well,

But if you are so concerned about your appearance,

Obviously you're bit empty inside.

There's some more stuff within you.

You wouldn't be so concerned about your appearance.

Taking care of our appearance to a certain extent is important.

Well if you're going into the films or you're a model or something,

You have to take care of it much more maybe.

But for an engineer,

If you're presentable,

It's fine,

Huh?

It's not… it doesn't end at the appearances,

It's about the general opinions of life and about ourselves.

Let's say anything about us that they have,

That people have,

They somehow… Whatever kind of opinions.

Maybe behavioral traits,

Like somebody tells me,

You speak very loudly,

Maybe.

You speak very loudly all the time,

Why do you do that?

Maybe I mean,

It hasn't happened with me,

I'm just giving an example.

So how do we take… I was about to tell you your trousers are torn,

But I didn't tell you.

There was a time when I lived in denims,

Nothing but denims,

Okay?

Only Levis.

And because of motorcycling and all kinds of things,

They would get torn.

We had to get it from United States,

Otherwise they were locally not available in sixties.

So we used to patch it up,

But now people are tearing it up and then wearing it.

So obviously,

Obviously the message is you don't care a hoot what other people think about you.

Let that come into every aspect of your life,

You don't really care what other people saying about it.

That's the idea,

Isn't it?

The idea of tearing up a new pant and walking is you don't really care,

But that's not the truth of the whole lot… whole lot of people.

How is it torn?

Your pant is torn better than mine.

So we've gotten into this mess essentially because we have not delved into what this is.

There is no profound experience of yourself.

Who you are is a bundle of opinions that other people have given.

You are… if ten people say you are good,

You will become very good.

It's like this.

You went outside,

Somebody told you,

Oh you are the most wonderful person on this planet.

Then you are floating on cloud number what?

What is nine,

Huh?

In Tamil Nadu we do eleven.

So you are floating on cloud number whatever and you came home,

They told you who you really are and suddenly it'll crash the cloud.

Floating on a cloud is not a wise thing,

You are bound to crash,

Isn't it?

Hello?

Floating on a cloud is not a safe thing to do,

You are bound to crash.

So whatever this floating on cloud number whatever is not a good thing because somebody blows you up.

I must tell you this,

If you have to settle this within yourself,

One important thing is – this happened to me in a certain way.

My daughter started traveling with me when she was three-and-a-half months old alone.

So I'm driving my little Maruti all over the country,

This is the time when I'm building Isha Foundation and my right leg is always heavy.

So I keep one hand on this little baby and drive full on,

On the highways,

Going from town to town,

Various programs and stuff.

So she grew up in many people's homes,

Every… every week she is a new home.

I made one rule to all of them – never teach the girl anything.

You are not going to teach her ABC,

You are not going to teach her one,

Two,

Three,

You are not going to teach her Mary had a little lamb,

Because I don't care whether Mary had a lamb or not.

Nobody teach her anything.

So because nobody is teaching her anything,

She is all eyes and ears.

By the time she is eighteen months,

She is speaking three languages very fluently.

Nobody taught her anything.

I said no rhymes,

No one,

Two,

Three,

No ABC,

Nothing.

She grew up like this and I wouldn't have sent her to school but my schedules were crazy,

Plus no company of that age group around,

She is the only girl.

So I put her into school.

Then she was around twelve.

One day she came home little disturbed because of what happened at the school and she said,

You are teaching so many things to everybody,

You are not teaching me anything.

I said well,

I am not known to do these things unsolicited.

Now that you have come,

We could try something.

I said see this is all you need to know.

You never look down on anybody,

Nor do you ever look up at anybody.

Then she looked at me like this,

What about you kind of thing.

I said see if you look up to me,

You will miss me completely.

If you look up to me,

What will you do?

You will take my picture and nail it into the wall.

You will miss who I am.

The value of who I am will be completely missed if you look up to me.

You have to just look at me for what I am,

For everything that I do.

Not look up to me.

If you look up to me,

You know,

Nailing is all that will happen.

So this is a simple thing.

Never look down on anybody,

Never look up to anybody.

As simple as it sounds,

This means you have no judgment in your head as to what is good,

What is bad,

What is high,

What is low,

What is virtue,

What is sin.

You are willing to look at life just for what it is.

If you see life simply for what it is,

You will effortlessly navigate through life.

All these things will not even be a issue in your life.

Questioner 1 – Sir,

So now I have a very trending question that everyone wants your perspective on.

Sir,

How do you know that the person you are with is the right person for you?

Sadhguru – Whoa,

Popular,

Eh?

Can I tell you a joke?

Can I tell you a joke?

Questioner 1 – Sure,

Sir.

Sadhguru – Because you are in the clothing… Questioner 1 – That is why I am sat like this,

That is why I am sat like this.

Sadhguru – It's good you asked the question before the event.

It once happened,

Shankaran Pillai was at the family dinner and when everybody settled down for dinner,

He stood up at the table and announced,

I am going to marry Lucy who is just across the street.

I hope that's not the name.

Then the father said,

What?

You are going to marry Lucy?

She has nothing.

She is like a tramp.

You are going to marry that Lucy?

Mother said,

What?

You are going to marry that Lucy?

She has no inheritance,

She has no family.

The uncle,

Uncles always pitch in in these kind of matters,

You know.

He said,

What?

You are going to marry that Lucy?

Have you seen her hair?

It looks fake.

The aunt,

What?

You are going to marry Lucy?

She is… she is always painted.

You are going to marry the painted woman?

The little boy,

The nephew can't be left out.

He said,

You are going to marry Lucy?

She is a… doesn't even know what is cricket.

How can you marry her?

Shankaran Pillai stood his ground and said,

Yes,

I am going to marry Lucy.

Everybody asked in one voice,

Why?

He said,

Because she has no family.

There are no many opinions to battle with.

So who is the right person?

I don't want to take away all the romance from your life.

But let me tell you this,

There is no right person on this planet.

If you put your heart into something,

Something may become wonderful.

Is it the right thing?

There is no right thing.

Nobody ever found the right person anywhere,

Okay?

If you get into that kind of unrealistic mindset,

I have found the right person.

Oh,

You will be soon disappointed.

You must understand,

There is no right person.

First thing is to see whether I am the right person.

Yes,

Am I the right person?

Instead of seeing this,

This is the right person.

Am I the right person?

First of all,

And there are no right people on this planet.

If you understand,

You have your nonsense,

They have their nonsense.

We can adjust nonsense to nonsense.

Go on.

We must understand relationships are formed for various needs.

There are physical needs,

There are psychological needs,

There are emotional needs,

There may be social needs,

There may be financial needs,

Various kinds of needs.

So when you are going to somebody with so many needs,

You are going as a beggar and a beggar cannot choose.

Hello?

Beggar is what comes its way,

Isn't it?

He cannot choose.

So if you really want to make a choice in this world,

First and foremost thing is you bring yourself to a place.

I am again going back to the same thing,

Where your experience of life is just pleasant by yourself.

You are wonderful.

Now let us see what gets drawn to this one.

If you are really wonderful,

Things will happen in every way,

I am saying.

In terms of career,

In terms of marriage,

In terms of relationships,

The best will happen to you because you made yourself like this.

Instead of trying to work on somebody and fix them,

If you work upon yourself and make you so wonderful that everybody wants to be with you,

Then there is a choice.

Right now when you are going out of your compulsive needs,

You are a beggar.

Beggars should not choose,

They must eat what comes their way.

And this whole thing is an American thing that there is a soul mate somewhere.

God made just one more person just for you.

But these days every two years he keeps making one more person just for you.

Obviously God is making too many mistakes with you.

Now this soul mate business,

First of all I don't like to use that word but now we have uttered the word.

See body needs a mate,

Understandable.

Maybe psychologically also you need a mate,

Understandable.

Emotionally you need a mate.

A soul cannot need a mate.

Even if your soul needs a mate,

It needs evolution,

Isn't it?

So soul doesn't need a mate,

Nor was some person made perfectly for you,

Okay?

This creation makes all kinds of unique idiots.

If you understand you are one kind of idiot and the others are different kind,

You will be… you will understand their nonsense because you know you got your stuff.

If you think you are perfect and God has chosen you and he has made another person perfect somewhere else,

You are heading for a disaster,

Okay?

There is no such thing.

Even you know people today after 5000 years people are still adulating and worshipping Krishna as the greatest lover but his wives are dead unhappy with the guy.

Yes.

So you are not going to find any perfect person.

If you invest a deep sense of involvement,

Something wonderful may happen.

It's because of your involvement,

Not because the other person is fantastic.

No.

Even if you choose a fool,

Actually it's easy that way.

If they are not stupid,

Why would they come to you first of all?

No,

No,

No,

I'm just being nasty.

So even if you choose a fool,

It doesn't matter if you involve yourself,

It can turn out very beautiful.

You chose the smartest person in the universe,

It could be a disaster.

So do not think in terms of,

You know,

Whatever this made for each other,

Nonsense.

No.

You choose the opposite actually.

The genders are opposites.

You choose the opposite because you don't want them exactly like you,

You want them some other way.

The reason why a boy is attracted to a girl and a girl to a boy is because they are different.

But after some time,

After a little bit of time,

You slowly start expecting they are just like you.

This is a serious mistake.

Because if one more person becomes just like you,

You won't be able to bear with them for two days.

Hello?

Please tell me.

If there is one more person just like you at home,

Could you live there?

You're glad they are different.

It's wonderful,

Nobody is like you,

Isn't it?

Nobody is like you on this planet.

Try and see.

Nobody is like you and that's good.

Don't look for sameness,

Not necessary.

It's a difference which makes the… because of the difference you tango,

Not otherwise.

Questioner 1 – Naskaram Sadhguru.

I want to know that when a student steps into college,

All of a sudden he gets… he or she gets access to a huge amount of pornographic material which so far was off limits for him or her.

And in the process,

He or she enjoys that and as we said,

He experiences… she experiences heaven on earth.

But… and we even have nicknames for those people who overdo it,

They masturbate.

We overdo it sometimes.

So how do we know how much of that is good or bad?

And so can we have the truth about masturbation?

Sadhguru – Oh,

Looks like a popular question.

See,

We have a biology,

We cannot put it under the carpet,

It's there.

It's best we address it for what it is.

But right now the problem in the world is,

Because certain religious institutions in the world took this attitude that the very biology of the human being is wrong,

Because of this,

Culture started hiding it under the carpet.

Well,

In this culture,

We never had it,

But after the British came and left,

We became more prudish than the British.

But before that,

If you look at our temples,

All the outside temple art is all pornographic,

If that's what you want to call it.

But we don't call it pornographic.

We are only talking about the various dimensions of human biology,

Because we don't see it as wrong,

But we see it as the periphery of life.

If you stay there only,

You will stay on the physical dimension forever,

You will not explore anything else.

So in the temple always it's the periphery.

You are supposed to look at that and understand it's the periphery of life and try to make an attempt to go deeper,

But at the same time not to be in denial of it.

Not to glorify it or not to be in denial of it is the most important thing.

But in your college,

Watching these things on the whatever,

Your internet or whatever,

People tell me that… Somebody told me,

I don't know if these percentages are correct.

When I was asking,

What is the content,

I was trying to understand the internet and its content,

What is the real content on the internet?

They're telling me,

You should know,

They're telling me seventy percent of the content on the internet is pornography.

Is it so?

Is it so?

You must be the expert.

Is somebody doing PhD on it?

They told me seventy percent.

I said seventy percent is unreasonable and sick levels of pornography.

If it occupies a small percentage,

It's okay.

Seventy percent of a technological platform which could do millions of things unfortunately is pornographic.

Consciousness biology of life is very unfortunate because once you come as a human being,

Your biology is not the front end of your life.

It is one part of your life.

This cerebral capability came so that your intelligence becomes the front end of your life and if you become conscious,

Your consciousness becomes the front end of your life.

Biology is the front end of a bull.

It's okay for him,

That's all he knows.

But biology should not be the front end of a human life.

It is part of our life.

We are not denying it.

So at a certain stage in your life,

It's like this.

A ninety-five year old man went for a medical checkup with his doctor.

The doctor did a thorough checkup and said,

Hey old boy,

You're doing great for ninety-five,

No problem with you.

Then the old man asked,

Doctor,

But what about my sex life?

Then the doctor looked at him and asked,

Thinking about it or talking about it?

So at different stages of life,

There are some times you only think about it and talk about it.

There are some times you indulge in it.

These are passing phases of life.

How much of it is needed for you,

You are the best judge.

But at the same time,

You came here not to explore your biology.

At least you should have gone to M.

S.

E.

In biology.

You shouldn't be wasting your time in a technological institute exploring biology.

Does it mean to say you don't have biology?

You don't have biological needs,

You have,

It's fine,

But it must be on the periphery.

It should not become the core of your life because it will reduce you in the sense,

A creature which was purely biological evolved into a place which has an intelligence of its own beyond its biology.

See,

Animal intelligence works for its biology alone.

How to get its food,

How to get its mate,

This is all.

Its entire life is.

If human intelligence also functions like that,

You are bellying the evolutionary process.

You are seeing how to go back,

Take the evolutionary process backward,

Not necessary.

This does not mean you do not have a body.

Body has its needs as it… as there is physical hunger,

So there is sexuality.

You have to address it in some way.

But to what extent is your choice,

But definitely it should not be the front end of your life because you're rolling back evolutionary scheme of putting your intelligence and consciousness in the front.

Instead of that,

You're putting your biology in the front.

How to overcome laziness and stop procrastinating,

By Girishnathan.

See if you're postponing something,

You're obviously doing something that you don't want to do.

If there is something that you really want to do,

Will you postpone it or pre-pone it?

Hello?

Do you see somebody is waiting for someone they badly want to see?

Only ten minutes.

In the ten minutes they will look at the watch twenty-five times.

Why they want to pre-pone it?

You're doing something that you don't want to do,

So you want to postpone it.

I'm asking why the hell are you doing something that you don't want to do?

No,

Because if I do this,

I will get that,

I will get that.

That's not the point.

There's nothing to get in this life.

There's really nothing to get in this life.

Either you lived this life in a profound and intense manner or you did not.

What will you get in the end?

If somebody dies in the agricultural college,

Do they bury them or fire them?

How is it?

What's the tradition?

Burying is good for agriculture because human beings make good manure.

So in the end what will happen to you and me?

They will either bury us or burn us.

That's all will happen in the end.

You think something else,

They'll give you a price.

Nothing will happen in the end.

Only thing is the process of life,

How wonderfully did you live.

That's all there is.

So if you're doing something really wonderful,

Do you want to prepone it or postpone it?

Hmm?

Prepone only.

So you must find what is it that you really want to do.

If you find that one thing,

You will always prepone everything,

Not postpone.

Despite being surrounded by so many people,

We still lack that feeling of belonging to somebody,

Being accepted by somebody,

Being loved by somebody.

How should we deal with that discontent and loneliness?

On one level,

Many questions are aimed towards,

How can I be free from this and that?

Another level you're asking,

How can I bind myself to something or somebody?

You must decide,

What is the highest value in your life,

Freedom or bondage?

Please,

I would like to hear that word,

Huh?

Oh,

Freedom!

But if you're free,

You feel lost.

If you go into the mountains and you're totally free,

That is nobody around,

Nothing around,

You're just in the empty space of the mountains,

You don't feel free,

You think you're lost.

So to handle freedom,

It needs a certain clarity and strength.

Most people cannot handle freedom.

They are always trying to bind themselves,

But only talking,

Mouthing freedom all the time.

If you really set them free,

They will suffer immensely.

So this is a evolutionary issue.

In the sense,

Human beings are right now like this,

A caged bird,

If you keep a bird caged for a long period of time,

And then one day you took off the door of the cage,

Still the bird won't fly.

From inside it will protest that it's not free,

But it will not fly.

Human condition is just that.

For all other creatures,

Nature has drawn two lines,

Within which they have to live and die and that's what they do.

But only for human beings,

There's only bottom line,

There's no top line,

And that's what they're suffering.

If their life was also fixed,

Like every other creature's life,

They wouldn't be stressed,

They wouldn't be anxious,

They wouldn't be struggling how to handle their own intelligence.

And that is what you're seeking unknowingly.

You may seek it in the form of relationships,

You may seek it in the form of profession,

You may seek it in the form of form of nationality,

Ethnicity,

Community,

God,

Heaven,

Hell,

All you're trying to do is draw an artificial line which does not exist.

Because freedom needs courage.

Freedom needs a certain madness.

If you're very sane,

You cannot be free because you will go between the two lines of logic.

To be free,

It takes lot of strength that if you… First of all,

What needs to happen if you want to be free is,

Do you understand that all human experience has a chemical basis to it?

Hello?

What you call as joy is one kind of chemistry,

Misery is another kind of chemistry,

Stress is one kind of chemistry,

Anxiety another kind of chemistry,

Agony one kind of chemistry,

Ecstasy another kind of chemistry,

At least ecstasy you know it's another kind of chemistry.

I hear.

So your experience of life has a chemical basis to it.

This is the most superficial way of looking at it,

There are other dimensions to it but for your understanding.

Or in other words,

What you call as myself right now,

You're a chemical soup.

The question is only are you a great soup or a lousy soup?

Yes or no?

Right now,

If you have a chemistry of blissfulness,

If you close your eyes,

It's fantastic,

If you open your eyes,

It's fantastic,

If somebody is here,

It's fantastic,

Nobody is here,

It's very fantastic.

Yes or no?

But you have a lousy chemistry.

If you look at them,

If they smile at you,

It's nice,

Not fantastic.

If they look at you like this,

Suddenly it's a problem.

If these people are happening just the way you want,

Your chemistry is reasonably balanced.

If they do something that you don't like,

Boom,

It goes somewhere else.

So essentially,

You have not looked at this mechanism,

What is the basis of this,

How it functions,

How I can make it function at its highest level.

Right now,

Let's say you really blissed out like me.

Do you care who is around,

Who is not around?

If they're around,

It's fantastic.

They go on,

Fantastic.

Yes?

Yes.

Because your experience of life is no more determined by what you have and what you don't have,

Whether it's people or things or food or this or that,

It is not determined by that.

Once your way of being is not determined by anything outside of you,

Then there is no such thing as loneliness.

But you will enjoy your aloneness because whether you like it or you don't like it,

At this young age,

It's a little difficult to understand this,

Whether you like it or you don't like it,

Within this body,

You're always alone,

Isn't it?

Whether you do interaction or intercourse or whatever,

Whatever,

Whatever,

Still you're alone in this body,

Yes or no?

Hello?

Yes.

If you don't learn how to handle this aloneness,

You have not learnt anything about life.

This is the most beautiful thing.

The most beautiful thing about life is nobody can get here,

It's just my space.

Yes or no?

Isn't this the most beautiful thing?

Nobody can invade me.

They can capture me,

They can torture me,

They can do so many things,

But they cannot invade me because I have a space which is just my own.

Isn't this the most wonderful aspect of your life?

Don't suffer that,

That is the most beautiful thing.

What are the songs,

Popular songs?

Pining for somebody.

Without you I cannot exist.

Most of the songs are that way nowadays.

Sing one song,

No?

Older ones,

Older ones.

I'm horrible at singing.

Just tell me the words I will sing.

I think… Say it on the microphone.

You sang it to me?

Okay,

I got it.

Shirdam is a singer.

Shirdam?

That song,

What he is saying?

See,

All the boys must learn songs like this,

Otherwise you can't floor the girls.

But the girls should understand the guy has a need and he is doing this.

It's not really true,

But let's enjoy the game right now.

Because what we do is just a certain… it's a certain game,

Life is,

Because it comes to an end.

But the important thing is how are you within yourself?

If you are here in such a way that you are only driven by your needs,

You will live a very meager life.

But if you can sit here without any need,

But you will do whatever is needed,

Then you will live a magnificent life.

It's my wish and my blessing.

Every one of you must have a fantastic life.

Make it happen for yourself.

So one Pradeep asks,

We are often reprimanded for using swear words.

It is nowadays used as colloquial slang.

What is the big deal with using slang words when I casually use it without intent?

See,

This happened.

A nice Catholic girl got married and went.

After three days,

She called her mother and said,

Mama,

I can't be here with this guy.

All the time he is using four-letter words.

Then the mother asked,

What kind of four-letter words is he using?

She said,

He is talking about cook,

Clean,

Wash,

Iron.

So what is wrong in using words?

Actually what you're calling as swear words is largely today.

We have our own swear words,

Which are very generic to our languages and some are vulgar,

Some suggest certain intentions,

Some refer to our families and some are just simply poking fun at each other kind.

But largely your swear words in English language that you use today are essentially picked up from America,

It's either toilet or bedroom.

Okay?

I must tell you this,

This is way back many years ago,

Someone,

A guest came from Australia.

I'm talking about nearly forty years ago.

A guest came from Australia and I'm supposed to take this person around in Mysore,

You know Mysore is a touristy place,

You're from Bangalore,

Huh?

It's a touristy place,

There are many places to see,

So I'm taking this person on my motorcycle.

If I ride hard,

I hear in my ears,

Shit.

I think what,

If I brake,

Shit.

They see something beautiful,

Shit.

If the food is very spicy,

Oh shit.

I was thinking why this person whole day chanting shit like mantra.

I thought maybe constipated trying to invoke.

What should be done in the morning whole day,

Why are you dragging me through the day?

Then I observed they're getting angry,

Shit,

And they become little calm.

Oh,

Then I thought,

Oh,

It's working for them,

I should not disturb this,

Because I don't believe in disturbing anything that's working for anybody.

If it's working,

Let's leave it.

So I just thought through this.

See,

We have looked at the whole science of uttering sounds in a powerful manner,

What it can do to your consciousness,

What it can do to your body,

What it can do to invigorate your energy,

Many,

Many aspects of this.

And then we say Shiva,

With the necessary preparation,

If I make you utter this one sound,

You don't have to believe in any god or anything,

Just the sound,

It'll blow your brains out.

I can show you this.

Then I thought,

Shh,

Shh,

Shiv,

Oh,

We arrived at it scientifically,

They somehow got it.

Even in Shiva,

It is only she,

Which is the powerful part,

Va is a dampener,

So that people don't blow up too much,

It's like to balance.

Va instead of va,

They put tea.

I thought it's okay,

It's working,

So why?

Because usually when they say… when they keep saying too often,

The tea doesn't come,

They say shh.

So even me,

When I say Shiva,

The va doesn't really come out,

It's just shh.

So I thought it's okay,

What does it matter?

Then immediately some people got very… this thing,

Sadhguru,

You are saying Shiva and shit are same,

Highest and the lowest.

I said,

See,

This high and low is all your business.

But as far as your mind is concerned,

In case your vocabulary is stored in an alphabetical order,

Shiva and shit are close together.

You cannot store Shiva here and shit here,

You don't have such a capability.

I don't know how it is stored in your mind.

Suppose it's alphabetical,

They are right next to each other,

So you can't separate them.

So the question is not about what is good,

What is bad,

What is right,

What is wrong.

The question is,

Will it work everywhere?

If you keep shitting all over the place,

Is it going to work for you?

That's a question.

So it's all right among young people,

You're saying shit,

Shit everywhere.

But now it's come to a… in United States it's come.

Even the top administrators are uttering these words,

Just like that.

In the international community,

When they utter such words,

It's finished in many things… in many ways,

Okay?

Not because of anything else,

Simply because people are… you know,

If you watch this,

Some of these American movies and stuff and stand-up comedians,

They are making the whole sentence with one word.

Yes?

Whole sentence is just one word repeated in many different ways and they're eulogizing that.

I'm saying to develop or to evolve a complex language,

It took such a long time,

It's taken thousands of years for human mind,

One of the most complicated things that we have come up with as a civilizations in the world is language.

Language is not a small thing.

That way in India,

We have thirteen-hundred languages.

How much genius must have been there that right here you're speaking Marathi,

Somebody's speaking Telugu,

Somebody's speaking Kannada,

Somebody's speaking Konkani and for thousands of years though you lived side by side,

You maintained your literature,

They maintained theirs,

Like this they managed.

This takes a certain level of genius to develop the language.

Now a language which had hundreds and thousands of words,

You want to reduce everything to one word and you think it's a forward step,

I'm sorry.

Sadhguru,

How do you suggest that we appropriately question authority without being disrespectful towards them?

Because from our very childhood we've been taught to obey our elders because they know better and they are right.

But they're only humans and it's possible that they are wrong or they make an error in judgment.

So do you think… so I'm not talking just in context of parents,

It could be political leaders,

Scientists,

Experts.

Sadhguru – May also,

May also.

Questioner – Spiritual leaders as well.

How do we question them to look beyond their traditional paradigm?

Sadhguru – Just the way you're doing it right now.

Questioner – Without being disrespectful.

I do,

I understand.

But it is possible that they take it as challenging their authority.

So see respect,

You use the word respect.

Respect is not something that you ever demand in your life.

Please don't ever do such a vulgarity that you demand respect.

You can only earn it.

You cannot demand it.

The moment you demand it,

It becomes vulgar.

Yes or no?

So you stand one step higher than somebody and you demand respect.

Or the only stupid thing that you did is you came here a few years earlier than someone else and you demand that I'm senior.

It must be happening in the college also.

One year senior I am.

You better respect me.

Just one year ahead I joined the college and now I'm senior,

Okay?

So this is an unfortunate reality that's well established in the world that in the name of religion,

In the name of authority,

In the name of parenthood,

In many different ways,

We have been trying to establish authority is the truth.

No,

Authority is not the truth.

Truth is the only authority.

This is why,

Youth and truth.

Truth is the only authority.

Nothing else is the authority.

So if I ask a question,

Somebody freaks.

See if you ask a question,

Somebody freaks because they don't know the answer.

Suppose you go sit in an examination and look at the question paper,

You don't know a damn thing,

Don't you freak?

Just like that they're freaking.

Why don't you understand?

Hello?

See you… they gave you a question paper,

You have no clue,

Do you freak or no?

So they are also freaking.

So you must understand and be little compassionate.

When you ask a question,

Somebody freaks means obviously they don't have an answer.

So you must be compassionate,

Considerate because they're your seniors.

They came ahead of you,

But they are no better than you,

So they're freaking a bit.

Please make way for them and let them know what to do.

They grown little bigger than you.

But at the same time,

There is no need for anybody to succumb to that.

It's all right,

There is no need to confront people.

A question first of all.

See a question is a tool.

A question is a tool to dig little deeper,

Isn't it?

Hello?

But somebody is asking a question to prove a point,

That's not good.

So don't ask a question to your parents or to somebody else,

Just to prove your point.

No,

Ask a question because it's a genuine question.

So people were asking me,

Sadhguru,

What kind of questions can we ask,

What can we not ask?

I said,

Even the dumbest question you have,

If it means something to you,

It means something to me.

If it doesn't mean anything to you,

Don't ask such stupid things because it doesn't mean a damn thing to me either.

But if it means something to you,

Maybe it's a stupid question,

Somebody thinks it's a stupid question,

But it means something to your life,

It means a lot to me.

So please make sure your questions are genuine,

Whether you ask a parent or a political leader or a spiritual leader,

It doesn't matter who the hell you ask a question.

When you ask a question,

You must understand the purpose of asking a question is to expand yourself from what you know to enter a territory where you do not know something.

That's the idea of asking a question.

But you ask a question to prove them stupid,

Then maybe they're getting mad.

See,

You're entering their territory now.

But you have to make sure in your life,

Because your life is not just about your life,

How you conduct your life will determine the nature of this world,

Isn't it so?

When you have such a responsibility,

You have to ensure that truth is the only authority.

Authority is not the truth.

It doesn't matter whether it's parents or teachers or spiritual teachers,

Political leaders or God himself came down and he said something stupid.

You must be able to question him.

That is the nature of this culture.

See,

Even when those entities which we considered divine came,

In India all we did is ask questions,

Endless questions.

When Shiva came,

His wife Parvati freaks him with a million questions.

When Krishna came,

Arjuna asked thousand questions,

Questions and questions and questions.

I must tell you this.

We were trekking in Tibet,

A group of people almost from forty-two different countries.

So an Indian man who settled in United States was… wanted to ask a question.

I said,

You can ask questions,

Immediately he raised his hand and he stood up.

He asked a question which lasted over eight minutes and it was going on.

I said,

See this is too long a question.

Then I told others because they were all looking like this,

Because they are from different nations,

They can't understand this question.

I said,

See this is a very Indian question.

Question inside a question,

Inside a question,

Inside a question,

Inside a question.

Indians are experts in this because they have fifteen thousand years of culture,

They have crafted questions like this.

It doesn't matter Shiva comes,

Krishna comes,

They want to bowl or Google it to him.

That's the whole intent.

So I said,

See this is an Indian question and I tried to explain to them what is an Indian mind and why it asks such questions,

So much of culture.

Then one Chinese lady,

She said,

Sadhguru,

I was working at the United Nations,

Even there only Indians ask questions.

We never ask questions,

Only the Indians were asking questions all the time.

I said that is India.

So one of the questions that keeps popping up in everyone's mind is how do you define the clarity of purpose in your life?

And that's something that you've probably been asked multiple times before,

But this is something that we still struggle with and we easily get influenced by people around us and get distracted from what we truly are passionate about.

How do you recommend today's youth to be focusing on building true passion and also developing a clarity of purpose in life?

See,

This idea that a human being has a purpose to his existence is a very tyrannical idea.

The moment you have a strong sense of purpose,

You're a natural tyrant.

The question is only a question of competence.

There're lots of tyrants all over the place.

There are lots of Mussolinis and Adolf Hitler's all over the place.

Fortunately they're important and incapable.

This… There're lots of them,

Don't think only one was born.

There're lots of them,

Fortunately nobody has the capacity or the competence that those tyrants had.

Otherwise there're whole lot of people with same intention of wanting you to be something other than who you are right now.

So if I have a purpose to life,

If it gets organized,

It becomes a mission.

Who the hell are you to have your own mission?

You're here,

You're just a pop-up on this planet,

All right?

You pop up and you pop out.

Here instead of doing what is needed most right now for maximum number of people,

You have your own purpose,

Maybe god-given purpose.

Whenever people say they have a god-given purpose,

They have done the most terrible things on the planet.

You don't like it,

It's okay.

But have they not?

Whenever people said,

God spoke to me,

Terrible things are coming.

You can be sure about it.

You… You heard these statements because you are trying to endorse your nonsense with some other authority from elsewhere.

Why do you need a purpose?

Life is a phenomena beyond your understanding.

You're here to experience it and enhance it for yourself and everything else around you.

That's about it.

What is there for you to have a purpose of your own when you've not even figured out where it begins,

Where it ends?

When you have not even figured out where this cosmos begins,

Where it ends,

Where you come from and where the hell you will go?

How come you have a purpose of your own?

You don't need a purpose,

You just need sense.

You need sense and sensitivity.

And sensitivity will naturally come if you look at life as a more inclusive process.

Right now some studies in the last two days creating a flutter,

I've been talking about it for last twenty-five years.

Some studies say that in the next five years,

The insect population is going to go down so dramatically that all agriculture on the planet could be seriously hit and food could become a great crisis.

I've been talking about this continuously for last twenty-five years.

Simple thing,

Worms and insects are no good.

But I'm telling you once again,

If all the worms die right now,

In the next fourteen to eighteen months,

There'll not be a single life on this planet,

Including you and me.

If all the insects die,

Within the next two-and-a-half to four years,

Not a single piece of life will exist on this planet.

But if you and me die,

Planet will flourish.

Yes,

This is a fact of our existence or no?

Hello?

Whatever nonsense we think about ourselves,

Without human race,

This planet will do great.

But without worms,

Insects,

Microbes and various other creatures,

This planet cannot exist as a life.

So our idea,

The most destructive idea that's been put into human minds in the name of religion,

Philosophy and nonsense is that creation is human-centric.

Creation is not human-centric.

You are just a speck in this creation.

You're really nothing.

As I said,

You're like,

You know,

On your computer screen,

There are pop-ups?

You pop up and you pop out.

You think so much about yourself,

But actually before you and me came here,

Countless number of people who all thought they're great people came and went.

Where are they now?

All topsoil.

Yes or no?

Worms are feasting on them,

All right?

But human beings,

This is all it is.

In this vast cosmos,

This entire solar system is a tiny speck.

In that tiny speck,

This planet earth is a micro speck.

In that micro speck,

Detroit city is a super micro speck.

In that you're a big man.

This is a serious problem.

That is,

This is all because of our learning.

Do you understand?

This is because of our learning.

Because we've lost our sense of perception.

We're not seeing things as they are.

We're making up things in our mind in the name of education.

It's time we come to reality.

Once machine learning comes,

Your nonsensical learning will not mean a damn thing.

Just because you read a book,

You're acting superior.

No,

A five-year-old kid will turn on his machine and tell you,

Here.

It's a great time.

Hi,

My name is Abirami and I'm pursuing my first year in bachelor's in computer science here at CG.

So my question is,

I actually,

All of us here have been through more than fifteen years of education,

But I haven't found an application or use for many of the things I've learned.

So why do I find some of the things I learned pointless?

Sadhguru – No,

No,

That should not be happening in an engineering college.

I can understand that in a high school.

Most of them are pointless.

But in a technical school,

That shouldn't be happening.

But the important thing is our education system.

I wouldn't say that so much about the technical schools like this,

But largely our education system was created just to provide clerks for Her Majesty's service.

There was no imagination behind it.

Science was the most important aspect of our education system.

This is why you have to just mug up a whole textbook and puke it there.

And that's what's supposed to be excellence in education.

I wouldn't say that about technical education,

I think it's different.

So right now,

We wrote a policy on textiles in India,

We wrote a policy on the rivers and agriculture.

Right now we are busy writing a policy on education.

Of my constant push,

Recently government announced that in future,

In the schools,

Only fifty percent of the time in school should be focused towards academics,

Rest should be focused towards sport,

Art,

Music,

Craft and variety of things.

If you… if you do not know this,

This was announced just about a month ago.

But announcement is fine,

But the schools are not equipped to shift.

Our schools are made like this.

There is a whole lot of… I always said,

As much as math and science,

There must be that much of music,

Art,

Variety of other things,

Our schools are managed like this,

But that's a small number.

Right now,

We have convinced the government and government is announced,

Central government has announced this,

But to implement it on the ground,

It is… it's still far away because it needs infrastructure,

It needs human infrastructure,

It needs physical infrastructure,

Training and various things which are yet to happen in this country,

It'll take time.

But at least that intention has come.

And we are seeing how schools,

Academic part of the school for a whole lot of children should not be more than three to four hours a day max,

Three-and-a-half hours is all I'm thinking about.

Rest of the time,

They must learn other things.

Right now,

We have created a nation where if a farmer's son goes to the farm with his father,

Father can be arrested for child labor.

Yes.

Really,

If you take your child to the farm and both of you are working on the land,

People can come and arrest you because you're doing child labor.

There is something very dangerous growing in the country.

We've looked at this,

We've kind of asked so many people.

Today,

If you ask the farmers in the land,

Are there people who your parents are from the farming community?

Are there children?

Only one or two?

If you ask any farmer in the country,

How many of you want your children to go into farming,

It's just two to four percent.

So in another twenty-five years when this generation passes,

Who is going to grow food in this country?

I want to know.

You may have technical knowledge,

You may do an MBA,

You may have various things.

Do one thing,

Go on the land and take out one crop,

Let me see.

It's too complex.

We think farming is for the illiterate.

It is not so.

It is a very complex meticulous operation.

Just because he doesn't have formal education,

It doesn't mean that he has no brains.

It doesn't mean he doesn't know something.

He knows something very vital because of which all of us are eating right now.

Yes?

Our stomachs are full.

But this nation has the danger.

This nation has the danger of not being able to grow its own food in the next twenty-five years.

So we are looking at how only a certain number of children need to go into academic education.

Others need to learn other skills and variety of other things to do in the country.

For their own well-being,

Not everybody's brains are made for academics.

They simply suffer their academic life,

A whole lot of them.

Some of them have great joy in academics.

A whole lot of them suffer their academic thing and the examinations and studying.

How people are suffering,

I'm seeing.

These people should not be doing academics.

They should be learning some other skills where their aptitude is.

There is nobody to identify what is your aptitude,

What is it that you could do well with joy.

This needs to happen at an early time.

In the ages of ten and fifteen,

We must have a process in the education system where people can choose.

And above all,

It should be made… You know,

Right now the problem,

One reason why everybody wants to go to medicine or engineering is because there is a social prestige nonsense.

An electrician or a carpenter must have the same prestige that a doctor or an engineer has.

Only then education will get leveled out.

Above all,

A farmer must have a higher place in this society than any of us.

He is feeding us.

I don't have a steady mind and I can't focus at one thing.

Even if I try a lot,

Even mobile is a very big distraction apparently.

So how do I focus on one thing at a time?

I fear that if I give too much time to one thing,

I might lose or lack in other things.

See the nature of human intelligence is such that it can do many things at the same time as a process.

When I say intelligence,

Most people are misunderstanding intelligence as intellect.

Intellect is your thought process.

Thought is just one dimension of your intelligence.

Thought is only happening because of the data that you have gathered in your mind.

You cannot think about anything for which you have no data.

Isn't it so?

Isn't it so?

Isn't it so?

So human intelligence is made like this.

We in the yogic way of looking at life,

We look at human intelligence as sixteen parts.

Out of these sixteen parts,

We can for the sake of understanding,

We can see it as four segments.

These four segments are buddhi,

Ahankara,

Manas and chitta.

Buddhi means the intellect.

Intellect,

When it comes to intellect,

Would you like a sharp intellect or a dull intellect?

You must choose,

I'm going to bless you right now.

Sharp intellect.

So obviously,

Intellect is a cutting instrument.

It's like a knife.

It's a scalpel.

It's good for cutting.

If you want to dissect something,

You need a good sharp intellect.

But suppose you want to sew something,

All you have is a knife.

If you sew with a knife,

You know what will happen?

You will leave everything in tatters.

But right now,

This is the way we are going about because our education systems are focused,

Just purely intellectual basis.

This is a cutting instrument.

If I want to really know you,

Shall I dissect you?

Hello?

I want to know you,

So shall I dissect you?

Well,

Some of you in your maybe pre-university studies,

You dissected a frog and you were very excited how the heart was beating.

The frog was not excited,

Believe me.

It was looking at you,

What's wrong with you?

Yes or no?

So intellect is a certain instrument.

It is a cutting instrument.

It can be used for certain aspects of life.

But unfortunately,

We are using it all pervasive,

Because other dimensions of intelligence have not even been touched.

The next dimension of intelligence is called identity.

The next dimension of the mind is called identity or the ahankara.

Identity means,

Depending upon what you're identified with,

That's how your intellect will function.

This is a knife in the front.

This will always try to protect what you're identified with.

You say I'm a woman,

It'll try to protect your gender.

You say I'm an Indian,

It'll try to protect your nationality.

You say you're some religion,

It'll try to protect that.

Whatever is your identity,

Your intellect is always working to protect that identity.

So how we establish this identity consciously is a very important part of education which we have completely ignored today,

For which we are paying a huge price.

In the traditional education,

From zero to twelve is balavastha,

That means just to play,

Eat,

Sleep,

So that the body and the brain should grow till they're twelve years of age.

You should not try to teach anything,

Extract anything.

From twelve to twenty-four is focused learning.

This is called as brahmacharya,

Discipline of how to learn.

Learning is not just learning other disciplines,

But above all learning about the nature of my own human mechanism,

My intelligence,

My different faculties,

How they function,

Because if I don't understand this,

I cannot really apply myself into anything.

So we always establish this.

You might have heard of this,

There is something called as aham brahmacharya,

The age of twelve.

This is taught to a child before we initiate a child into education.

First he must take a universal identity that my identity is the larger universe.

Maybe today I'm an Indian,

Maybe today I belong to this religion or that religion,

Maybe I belong to this caste,

Clan or whatever,

But my larger identity is with the universe,

Because education was seen as an empowerment.

We don't want to empower you when your identity is narrow,

Because all the crime on the planet,

All the corruption on the planet,

All the horrendous things that people do to each other is only because of limited identity,

Isn't it?

I can do it to you,

But I can't do it to myself because this is me,

Isn't it?

I can't do it to my own child,

But I can do it to somebody else because this is mine and that is not mine.

So before you are empowered with education,

Which we've seen as a powerful tool for life,

First thing is take a universal identity.

Unfortunately we've neglected because of this.

Today if you see,

The cutting edge of technology and science always goes first for military use.

Yes or no?

So how to kill people,

How to dominate somebody,

How to destroy somebody,

This is where our knowledge is going simply because we did not establish a universal identity before education came to people.

So the third dimension of your mind is referred to as manas.

Manas means it's a silo of memory.

When I say memory,

It's not just what you remember,

Your entire body is memory.

There is evolutionary memory here,

There is genetic memory here,

There is karmic memory here,

There is articulate and inarticulate levels of memory,

Conscious and unconscious levels of memory,

Various dimensions of memory,

We identify eight different forms of memory.

Right now,

You may not remember how your great-great-great grandfather looked like ten generations ago but his nose is sitting on your face,

Body remembers.

Yes or no?

Body absolutely remembers everything.

So this memory is the basis of your intellect.

If we take away the memory or de-link the memory from your intellect,

Your intellect will become without activity.

This is one important dimension of yoga that we understood that if we… see,

If you want to continue the knife analogy,

The intellect is like a knife.

The hand that holds the knife is identity.

Knife is useful or dangerous depending upon not on the knife's quality but the hand which holds it,

Isn't it?

If you are identified one way,

This knife will poke you.

If you are identified in a different way,

This knife can save your life.

So the same knife every day saves lives and sometimes takes lives depending upon who holds it or which hand holds it.

So we de-link the menace with the intellect.

Now intellect simply there without intention.

So essentially yoga means this,

To build an intensity within you without intent.

Right now I want to become an engineer,

I want to become rich,

I want to make money,

I want to be this,

I want to be that,

You become goal-oriented.

This is the fundamental flaw in the education system,

We've become goal-oriented.

Because we want to get there,

We are doing all this,

We are like circus monkeys.

Circus monkeys are like this.

You show a banana and say,

You do all those tricks,

I'll give you a banana.

So it will do all the tricks,

Banana.

No banana,

You will simply sit there.

So once you become human,

You should not behave like a circus monkey.

It is not because of a carrot and stick that you're driving yourself because you're seeing that what you're doing is of some consequence to you and to the world around you.

That's why the action.

So if you delink the knife and the hand and the silo of memory,

Then your intellect will shine with sharpness.

It will not be rusted with memory,

It will shine with sharpness.

See,

It's like this.

There are some people who are… when you go to restaurants,

You will see and maybe in some homes also,

You ask them to cut a mango,

They will use the same knife with which they've cut onion and they cut the mango and give you,

You can't keep it in your mouth,

The sweetness of the mango is gone.

If the residual impact of whatever the knife has touched is there in it,

Slowly it will lose its purpose,

Isn't it?

The same goes for your intellect.

If the memory sticks to your intellect after some time,

It will become a useless intellect because it becomes a highly prejudiced intellect.

So the entire yogic system is about this,

To dissolve your identity and simply sit here so that your intellect will shine like a razor without any intent,

Intensity without intent,

If it comes into your intellect.

You can do twenty-five things at the same time,

Just like that,

Okay?

People keep asking me,

Sadhguru,

You… you have been busy the whole six months,

Not a day's break,

Then how did you write this poem,

How did you think about this,

How did you come up this plan,

How did you design this one and that one?

I have twelve,

Fourteen tracks running all the time,

I just initiate and leave,

They will run by themselves.

See,

When a computer is able to process something,

If you feed and leave,

It processes,

Isn't it?

Isn't this a better computer than anything that you have ever used?

Hello?

Only problem is you did not read the user's manual for this one.

You must read the user's manual.

So just listening to videos is no good.

We can teach you a simple practice.

You start the practice of delinking the intellect from the memory,

At least for a few minutes a day,

You will see your intellect become super competent.