Sadhguru With Sustainability Entrepreneur & F1 World Champion Nico Rosberg

Sadhguru talks with Sustainability Entrepreneur and F1 legend Nico Rosberg about how people can cope with the current COVID-19 pandemic. 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,

Thank you so much.

It's such a honor that you're taking the time to talk to me here on my Leaders for Good series.

And of course,

In this situation,

You have an incredible power to be able to help people because as we know in the world,

There's so much more suffering at the moment due to this corona crisis and many other crises,

So it's a terrible time.

How are you doing personally?

Sadhguru – Actually,

I'm too busy,

Lot of things happening.

One thing is,

Because we're in,

You know,

Reasonably remote rural part of India,

Lot of migrant labors are stuck here without any work.

So we are providing food and other things for them.

We're also working with the state governments in setting up quarantine hospitals and all this stuff.

Plus,

We have nearly 3000 people here living in the center.

So every day,

I'm on the web between six and six-forty.

Plus,

We are on the television series and various other interviews.

More than anything,

Giving out this message that,

Well,

You know,

Every generation faces some kind of situation.

At least we are not facing the third world war.

It's just a virus.

We can deal with it.

At least nobody is bombing our homes or shooting at us.

If we are careful,

If we are conscious,

We can come out of this stronger and better.

Above all,

When is the last time for many people,

They got nearly six weeks of break from what they're doing.

So this can be a tremendous time if people use this as a way to turn inward,

Upgrade themselves in some level.

If everybody strives to,

Let's say physically,

Mentally,

Emotionally,

And in whatever they're doing in terms of their competence,

Ten percent improvement if they do during this lockdown period.

Well,

We will all come out as really wonderful human beings.

That's what we must do.

Let us not allow a virus,

I know it has its power,

But we shouldn't allow it to pull us down.

We are much more evolved creatures.

We should be able to come out on this top of it very soon.

That's really powerful to hear from you that you're also spreading some optimism and giving us all personal hope as well.

Can I just ask you,

Do you remember how we first met?

Yes,

I met you in Singapore.

That was a one way meeting though,

I didn't meet you.

I wanted to see you zooming,

But you didn't start that day.

And I saw you jumping in front of that car.

I was fighting for the world championship and my car didn't get off the grid.

I was stuck on the grid being on the first row.

I was in the wrong paddock,

I was in the Ferrari paddock.

Oh,

How dare you do that?

Because you guys didn't take me.

Well,

The next time is in the economic forum in Davos,

Of course.

Yeah,

I was so honored.

I walked up to you in the economic forum,

I thought,

You know,

You're never going to know who I am or anything.

And you said,

I remember you from the grid in Singapore.

I was so honored that you had watched me race even,

You know,

So that was really.

.

.

Thank you so much for that.

I even watched your father race,

Niko.

That's amazing.

I've been into racing since 70s,

So.

.

.

Okay,

So next time I come to India,

We have a little race each other.

Oh,

Yeah,

But these days I'm on the motorcycle,

I hope you can balance.

Oof,

That's sounding a bit dangerous.

I like four wheels usually.

I'm riding a Multistrada,

So it's pretty good.

Sadhguru,

If I may,

I would like to jump right into an area where hopefully,

With your insights,

We can create a little bit of help to everybody,

All of my followers who are following at the moment and who may be.

.

.

I thought you're too fast to be followed,

What the hell is happening to you?

Well,

No,

I'm slowing down for this purpose now.

So I would like to.

.

.

I've listened to so many of your talks over the years,

Even back in the years when I was fighting for the title,

I was listening and listening to many of your talks,

So they always supported me as well.

And you talk a lot about depression sometimes,

And I'm sure many people unfortunately are struggling with symptoms of depression at the moment.

And yet you say that most of it is self-caused and self-inflicted,

And only a minority is really pathological,

Where it's really a disease.

So for the majority,

We can control it ourselves.

And what you say is that we need to learn and practice to keep myself.

.

.

To keep ourselves more joyful.

And I would like to ask you for a quick insight on what you recommend we can do to keep ourselves more joyful in the everyday moments at this period that we're going through.

See,

Essentially,

We give it various names.

We call this misery,

We call this anxiety,

We call this anger,

We call this resentment,

We call this hatred,

We call this many things.

But essentially,

All that's happened is,

Your intelligence has turned against you.

Once your intelligence turns against you,

Then no power in the world can save you.

It doesn't matter where you are,

You may be in the best possible situations,

But misery is inevitable,

Because your mind has turned against you,

Your own intelligence is working against you.

This is like,

Suppose right now.

.

.

Show me your right hand.

Suppose it starts beating you in the face,

What will you do,

Those Ruben and whoever else around you,

They will.

.

.

Initially they won't try,

You know,

Dare to touch the ACE driver,

But when he starts bleeding,

They will come and hold you.

They don't want to let you go.

What are you doing to yourself?

But you won't listen,

You start smashing yourself up,

Then what to do?

Tie up your hand towards the chair on which you're sitting.

But that also did not help,

Then what to do?

If it goes to the extreme,

If it becomes too damaging,

Somebody will have to amputate that hand,

Which is causing so much damage to you.

So when you do it with your hand,

It's very obvious.

When you do it with your own thoughts and emotions,

You think there is some exotic name to it.

No,

All you're doing is you're thrashing yourself with your own thoughts and emotions.

Everybody has an excuse,

Why I do this?

Ah,

Because my car didn't start,

Because my wife is like this,

Because my husband is like that,

Because my job is like this,

Everybody has some excuse.

Right now everybody's excuse is,

Because I'm not able to meet my boss,

Mother-in-law,

Everybody is stuck somewhere else,

I'm just stuck at home with my loved ones,

And that is the problem.

Can you believe it?

All these days people were complaining going to work.

Today they're complaining they cannot go to work.

So I'm saying the problem is just this,

That your own intelligence has turned against you,

Because the nature of human intelligence is like this.

It's on many different levels.

One aspect of it is intellect.

If you ask anybody,

Do you want your intellect to be sharp or blunt?

Of course,

They will say,

I want it sharp.

So we gave you,

Let us say,

A very sharp knife,

It's a cutting instrument.

Now,

The hand in which you're holding the knife is not steady.

So you started doing this and started cutting yourself.

Now you think knife is the problem.

Knife is not the problem.

The hand that holds is the problem.

So we have done nothing about stabilizing our systems.

We have been given an intelligence and an awareness,

Which is way ahead of any other creature on this planet.

You know,

This Charles Darwin is an English guy,

You've heard of him.

So he's.

.

.

He said,

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

A pig could have become an elephant over many more million years,

But a monkey became a man rather quickly.

How quickly means,

See,

The DNA difference between a chimpanzee and a human being is only a 1.

23%.

1.

23% is not a very big difference,

Isn't it?

Ah,

1.

23% difference.

So physiologically,

That is how close to a chimpanzee or gorilla we are.

But in terms of our intelligence and awareness,

We are worlds apart.

Right now,

This is all our problem is,

We have an intelligence for which we don't have a stable enough platform,

So it begins to work against ourselves.

Now,

The most important aspect is to create a stable platform,

To create a body,

To create a chemistry,

To create a balance within ourselves so that this intelligence will work for us.

And it'll be a solution,

Not a problem.

Everybody knows that intelligence is a solution,

Not a problem.

But most people are experiencing their intel.

.

.

Their own intelligence as a problem.

All the suffering that you see on the planet,

Except the physical things that happen to people,

Unfortunately,

Here and there,

Injuries will happen,

Accidents will happen,

Wars will happen,

Leaving those aside,

Rest of the human suffering is one-hundred percent on self-help mode.

And can you give me like for the rest of my day,

For example,

Something.

.

.

Something very specific to create this more stable platform that you're talking about?

Is there one.

.

.

One.

.

.

Like one piece of advice for my day to day that I could try and see if I.

.

.

If that practice,

If I enjoy that?

Sadhguru Well,

I know a little bit about your thing.

At the age of six,

You started driving something,

All right?

Later on,

By the time you got onto the Formula One track,

You were twenty-one years of age.

From then on,

I'm sure twenty-one,

Maybe you had more bravado,

But by the time you got little mastery over the car,

It took another six,

Eight years before you really have something.

Well,

Formula One car is a complicated machine,

All right.

But tell me,

Isn't this human mechanism the most sophisticated machine on the planet?

It is far more complex and sophisticated than a car,

Whatever kind of car.

So,

When you take so many years just to get a handle on a car,

Why do you ask me,

Tell me some tip that by this evening I will be fine.

Over this machine,

Why?

We need to start.

.

.

We need to start something.

Ah,

That is okay.

Can I get started?

Can I get started because there was a starting problem I saw?

That's why I had enough.

I didn't want to give you the solution for all of us,

So that today we could just all become joyful.

It's just give us one.

.

.

Give us one starting point,

Potentially in a meditation or something,

Where tonight just before going to sleep,

We can do one practice inspired by Sadhguru,

Which might be.

.

.

That we will do.

No,

But I'm saying,

This is a problem that everybody has.

Sadhguru,

Give me one tip so that everything will be fine with me.

This is a very,

Very sophisticated machine.

This needs much more attention.

And this is made in such a way,

If you pay attention for an entire lifetime,

Still it goes on.

As you explore,

It gets more and more profound,

More and more fantastic,

You know,

And your ability to use it can be greatly enhanced.

How do I start?

Well,

The simple way is just this.

The most fundamental thing,

The most fundamental misunderstanding people have is,

I'm sure in some of the videos you might have heard,

But for your audience,

I will not call them followers because I don't want anybody following a Formula One racer.

I'm very careful Sadhguru,

I'm very careful.

So,

For them,

The simple thing is this.

You as a human being,

As a life exist,

This is there in everybody's experience.

They know they exist.

But right now when you're here,

You think,

This body is me.

My thoughts,

My emotions is me.

But is it a fact that you were born only this much and now you became a full grown man?

That means slowly you gathered this body.

How do you gather this body?

From the food that you eat.

Where did the food come from?

From the earth.

So the soil that you walk upon and the body that you call as myself are not different.

It's the same thing.

Most people do not get it till you bury them.

You know,

At that time they'll get it but it's a little too late.

But as you.

.

.

I sit here and as you are there,

It is a fact that we are just a piece of this planet.

We gathered this from the earth.

What we gather can be ours,

Can never ever be us,

Isn't it?

See,

Probably when you're driving this car totally involved,

It's almost like an extension of you.

It's not really a car,

It's you.

But you.

.

.

You get off the car,

You get out of the car,

So it is okay.

Now the problem with the body is,

You're into it and you never get out of it.

Only once you get out of it,

By then it's too late.

So this is the essential problem,

That people are stuck in their car.

This is a vehicle.

If you see this as a vehicle,

They're stuck in this vehicle,

They never get to see that vehicle and them are two different things.

As it is with body that it's an accumulation,

So is the content of the mind.

We accumulated it over a period of time.

So what you accumulate will always be yours,

But never you.

So this much they have to get that what is me and what I have are two different things.

Like my clothing is,

My body is,

I've gathered this,

I've gathered that.

If this distinction comes,

This is the end of all suffering.

Because there are only two kinds of suffering in human life,

Physical suffering and mental suffering,

There is no other suffering.

If you create a little distance between yourself and your body,

Between yourself and your mind,

This is the end of suffering.

So when will I have this?

Well,

We can do it right away.

Well,

You should download an app that we have.

It's a free app,

Anybody can download.

It's called Sadhguru app.

Here there is a practice called Isha Kriya.

This is a simple way of bringing awareness to what is your body and what is you,

What is your mind and what is you.

Once there is a tiny little bit of space between you and your body,

Between you and your mind,

This is the end of suffering.

Well,

When you do it,

It may be there for a few seconds and then when you open your eyes again,

You're stuck in it.

But daily practice if it happens after some time,

If you sit here,

You're conscious that what is you and what is your body are separate things,

Then this is the end of suffering.

A new level of balance will arise in every human being.

Without balance,

Whatever competence we have,

Whatever capabilities we have,

Whatever intelligence we have,

We'll only work against us.

So Sadhguru,

If I may try and interpret that a little bit,

I would suggest as well to my audience to take some time to sit down peacefully and start practicing this.

And if I may say then maybe we can look at the racing car,

My racing car where I'm sitting inside,

Being like my mind that is in my head.

And if I'm able to take a step outside of my racing car and observe my racing car,

Which again is my mind,

My ego,

My desires,

My sufferings,

My thoughts,

And if I take one step outside and I observe my racing car,

But I keep appreciating it,

But I'm aware.

I'm aware of what the racing car is thinking,

Is desiring,

Is trying to possess and all of that,

That is the kind of distance that you're saying we should practice.

So being aware of thoughts and ego and all of that.

Sadhguru See,

If you want to fix your racing car,

You have to get out of it,

Isn't it?

When it's working well,

It's fine.

If you have to fix it,

You have to get out of it.

I saw you getting out of it that day,

But you didn't fix,

You danced in front of it.

Dr.

Yosvain Ben-Shaw That's true.

I didn't take it so quickly.

It would have taken me a whole journey of life to fix that one.

It's a very complicated machine.

Sadhguru I know.

Dr.

Yosvain Ben-Shaw Okay,

Well,

Thank you very much.

And I wanted to.

.

.

I wanted to touch on one more thing.

You used to be a businessman,

Ten.

.

.

Ten years ago when you were twenty-five years old,

You used to be a businessman.

Sadhguru Thank you.

Thank you for that ten-year compliment.

Dr.

Yosvain Ben-Shaw How did this transformation that you undertook for yourself,

Turning your life into a life of service,

Practicing yoga,

Teaching yoga,

Meditation,

How did it transform your inner self,

Possibly exactly in this awareness that you've gained now?

Can you explain that a little bit to us?

Sadhguru Now,

You want me to share my great failures in my life.

See,

This happened to me.

Yes,

I was in business.

For those days,

I'm saying,

Not like today,

Some guy starts a Facebook and makes a hundred billion dollars in two years,

Not that kind of success.

But for those days,

Where I was,

It was considered a big success in five years' time.

Everybody said,

Oh,

He's doing fantastic,

Whatever.

Well the.

.

.

My idea was not to do fantastic.

I just want.

.

.

I crisscrossed India on my motorcycle at that time.

And I realized that my problem was I couldn't cross the India.

.

.

Indian borders and ride on because of various things.

So I decided,

I will start some business,

Make some money,

And then ride away.

But then success came.

Success is a trap.

You.

.

.

Once it's successful,

You can't get out.

You did a wise thing.

When you got the world championship,

You got out.

That's a very wise thing.

But success is a trap.

When you become successful,

You can't get out of it.

I thought two years' business and then I'll ride away.

Then it became fool.

.

.

Then it became.

.

.

Then it became four years,

Five years,

Became very successful,

Over half a dozen businesses,

All kinds of things happening.

So one afternoon,

I just went and sat on a hill.

Suddenly I did not know which is me and which is not me.

What was me just was all over the place.

Were you suffering?

No.

I was very successful and happy.

And was it true happiness?

What is true?

I was happy.

It was true to me.

Maybe others were not happy about me.

I don't know.

When you're unhappy,

Always somebody is not happy,

You know what to do.

There are some people who become miserable simply because others are happy.

There are a whole lot of people like that,

Unfortunately.

So I.

.

.

Interviewer – On the hill,

I interrupted you,

Sorry,

On the hill.

Sadhguru – Tell me,

Tell me.

Interviewer – You were speaking about how you were on the hill,

Reflecting.

Sadhguru – Yeah.

So I sat there and,

You know,

Like,

I thought it's just ten minutes.

I had my eyes open.

For the first time in my adult life,

Tears were flowing,

Which was impossible with me.

I lived like that.

But tears were flowing and four-and-a-half hours passed away,

And I was dripping ecstasy,

Every cell in my body.

Then I had no explanation for this.

I was such a super skeptic about everything.

I thought maybe I'm going off my rocker.

Really I'm losing it.

Because if I look like this,

I don't know where is me,

Where is not me,

Everything looks like me.

I just couldn't come to any.

.

.

For everything I had to have a logical explanation.

For the first time,

My smart logic felt like a dumb idiot,

Which I didn't like,

But it was too fantastic.

I was just dripping ecstasy.

So when I.

.

.

Naturally when this happens,

Because I did not grow up in any spiritual backgrounds or that kind of traditions,

I just grew up completely different.

So only thing is I had to ask my friends,

What do you think is happening to me?

They said,

Come on,

What did you drink,

What did you pop?

This is all they could ask me,

Because there was no context for what was happening.

After a few weeks,

I knew I have hit a gold mine,

Something fantastic I've hit.

Then I saw all I have to do is if I sit here without messing with my mind,

I'm just ecstatic.

Then I thought this is it,

I found it.

And I sat down and made a plan.

On that day,

The world's population was 5.

6 billion people.

I sat down and made a plan,

In two-and-a-half years' time,

I will make the entire world ecstatic.

That's thirty-nine.

.

.

Thirty-nine years,

Working incessantly,

Seven days of the week,

Three-hundred-and-sixty-five days.

Well,

People say we've touched over one.

.

.

One billion people today,

But that's not my idea of the world.

So I was just about to tell you,

Now I'm condemned to die a failure,

But a blissful failure.

I know,

Because people are so invested in their miseries,

They're not going to give it up.

Even if it's horrible,

They won't give it up because it's their.

.

.

Their horrible nonsense.

So getting them out of it takes lots of work.

This is why I structured this program called Inner Engineering and started offering this in many ways.

Essentially this is an effort to rub off that blissfulness within me upon everybody else.

Well,

Like,

You know,

A few million people are like this today,

They close their eyes in the morning,

Tears of ecstasy are coming out of them.

It's wonderful.

Actually,

Recently,

You know,

A journalist in America asked me,

Sadhguru,

If there's one single achievement in your life,

What is that?

I said,

Tears.

He said,

What,

Tears?

I said,

Yes,

Tears,

Because every day,

Wherever I go,

Whichever part of the world,

Every day,

I see tears of love and ecstasy around me.

I think this is the greatest achievement I have.

People melt.

That's wonderful.

They are not like hard rocks.

Speaker 3 – Sadhguru,

Thank you.

Thank you so much for your.

.

.

For your very,

Very kind work.

And I'm wishing you lots of.

.

.

Lots of.

.

.

That you're able to support many,

Many millions of people with your Isha Foundation,

Particularly now in this.

.

.

In this corona times where you have so many thousands of volunteers who are delivering food and everything.

So I really hope that you're able to successfully help so many millions of people.

Sadhguru – Yeah,

We're in the process of.

.

.

You know,

Mainly food has become an issue because I want to make sure in this region that,

Well,

The viruses,

The threat is always there,

But I don't want people to die of starvation.

So we are mainly focusing on providing food for those people who have no livelihoods and moving in that direction.

Many things are being done.

Our volunteers are on the ground doing fantastic work.

I even took time to paint something and it looks like it's going to sell for a pretty good amount.

Speaker 3 – It's 50,

000 I saw,

Which is.

.

.

Which is fantastic.

Sadhguru – It's still going till.

.

.

Till thirtieth they're bidding,

Let me see.

Come.

.

.

Come to India sometime,

Niko,

It'll be interesting for you.

Speaker 3 – I would love to together with my wife,

I would love to.

.

.

Sadhguru – Yes,

Both of you should come.

We have a beautiful center here at the foothills of Velliangiri Mountains.

Our backyard is over 10,

000 square miles of rainforest.

Speaker 3 – Wow,

Beautiful.

Sadhguru – With wild animals,

Everything.

Come sometime with your children,

It'll be fantastic.

Speaker 3 – With great pleasure.

Okay,

Sadhguru,

It was a long way.

Thank you very much.

Sadhguru – No handshaking,

Okay.

This is what you do.

This is what you do now on.

No,

Not even that,

This is good.

Speaker 3 – Everybody follow Sadhguru on YouTube as well.

It's an incredible channel you have there.

Super,

Super inspirational talks and videos.

Sadhguru – Well,

Niko,

I will do one thing to you.

I will send a Inner Engineering online link for you.

I want you to experience that you and your wife can go through this.

Niko – Okay,

Thanks so much.

I will definitely look into it.

Thank you.

Sadhguru – We will send it to you.

Thank you very much.

Reviews

Namaste! So helpfil today. My mom is in hospice and I can't see her. So much misery and complaining even though I know better! Must tane the mind to work for me not against me!

Always insightful. Thankyou 🙏

An honor to listen to such an Amazing and uplifting human being! Thank you for your work in this World