Svetaketu and the Cows

Sadhguru tells us the story of sage Svetaketu, and how he came to realize himself in the company of cows.

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

There was a boy whose name was Swetaketu.

Swetaketu means a white comet.

Swetha means white,

Ketu means like a comet or a streak.

Swetaketu was born in a certain family of Brahmins.

Today it has just reduced itself into a certain sect or a caste,

But fundamentally a Brahmin means… Brahman means the ultimate.

A Brahmin means one who is in touch with the ultimate.

Today somebody is Brahmin by birth,

It doesn't mean anything.

If you are a Brahmin out of your awareness,

That's everything,

You know.

So this is a family of Brahmins,

Not only by birth,

But they truly exist as Brahmins.

This boy when he reached twelve years of age,

He was sent to a certain master to study.

Twelve years he studied.

A brilliant boy,

He grasped everything well.

All the Vedas,

The Upanishads,

The Brahma Sutras,

These what I am referring to,

They contain everything that can ever be said about a human being.

Anything that can be said about man and his beyond is said in the scriptures.

That's why they're so dangerous.

He learnt everything.

Twelve years of study.

Being a brilliant boy,

He grasped everything.

After twelve years,

The master said,

There is nothing more to learn for you.

You have learnt everything that is there to learn.

I think it's better you go home.

The boy went back home.

He entered the house.

The father who was sitting there looked at him and he said,

You have come as an ignorant fool.

No,

I learnt all the Vedas,

The Upanishads.

If you want,

I can recite them backwards if you want.

He says,

I know everything that can be learnt you have learnt.

But that which learns,

About that you have not learnt anything.

The very way you walk,

I know you know too much.

I can see that now you know too much,

But you do not know that which knows.

So you are very ignorant.

We are true Brahmins.

We are not just Brahmins by birth.

If you want to be here,

You must know the knower,

Not that which can be known.

You go back to your master.

The boy came home.

You know,

Twelve years he's been out for study.

He comes home with graduation.

You're supposed to set up a party for him.

But this father just turns him out of the house.

The boy goes back to the master and says,

My father says I'm ignorant.

I know all the Vedas,

Upanishads,

Everything that you taught me I have learnt sincerely.

But my father says I'm ignorant.

He says I must know the knower.

So the master said,

Oh you want to know the knower?

That's good.

These twelve years you are only interested in that can be know… that which can be known.

So we taught you all the nonsense that can be known in the world.

You learnt all that,

So I sent you back.

Now you're saying that you want to know the knower.

Let me see.

You do one thing.

Take this herd of cattle.

In the ashram they have cattle.

Take this herd of cattle and go into the forest.

There were four hundred cattle.

He said you take it and go into the forest.

Just be with them.

When they become one thousand,

You come back.

You know,

Four hundred to become one thousand,

How much time it's going to take.

Whatever time it takes,

When it becomes one thousand,

You come back.

Shwetaketu couldn't believe this.

He's gone through the full scale of education.

It's like you went to the university,

Studied for twenty years,

Got a PhD,

Then they say you have to be a cowboy.

You have to just graze cattle.

He went.

Initially there was turmoil,

Struggles and what is this?

Everybody rejected me and my master gave me this and so many things.

A few weeks and months the mind ran.

See for your mind to run continuously,

You need input.

You know,

Without fuel it cannot go on.

Constantly you're giving that input to it,

Isn't it?

So he just went into the forest,

Just the cattle.

Slowly,

You know,

He forgot about what's happening in the ashram,

At home.

These Vedas,

Upanishads,

This knowledge is powerful only if there is somebody to listen to you.

Okay?

All knowledge is powerful only if there is somebody to show it off to.

With the cattle,

The cows won't listen to your Vedas.

They will just go chomp,

Chomp,

Chomp,

Chomp,

You know.

So slowly this chomp,

Chomp,

Chomp just sank into him.

Slowly his Vedas,

His Upanishads,

These twelve years of learning the scriptures,

Slowly they fell apart over a period of time.

He just became like the cows.

When he's hungry he eats,

Otherwise he just sits there.

They say the shape of his eyes changed.

They became like the cow.

He became so much like the cow,

But truly existing.

No more a slave of his mind.

When he sits,

He sits absolutely.

If he's with a cow,

He's a cow.

If he touches a tree,

He's a tree.

If he's sitting on the earth,

He becomes the earth.

He just became an absolute presence because there is no input to the mind,

No nothing to go on,

Simply sitting.

Then he forgot the language,

Then he forgot the numbers,

Then he doesn't know whether it is thousand or ten thousand.

He's simply there.

Then the cows came to him one day and told him,

We are one thousand,

Let's go back to the master.

So he just went with the cows back to the ashram.

He just came,

All the cows entered the ashram and stood there.

He also stood.

The ashram has grown big.

The number of disciples has multiplied many fold.

But he just stood along with the cows.

Then all the disciples,

Full excitement,

They all came and said,

Svetaketu has come back.

Let's count the cows,

Maybe whether he may not have thousand,

Let's see.

They counted.

It was one thousand.

Then they told the master,

It is thousand,

He's come back.

Master said,

No,

It's not thousand,

It's thousand and one because Svetaketu has completely lost his person now.

He's just become an absolute presence.

So don't make everything into an input.

Gathering,

Gathering,

Gathering.

We gathered enough on this planet,

We are going to gather more and more and more.

It doesn't matter how much you gather,

You will not know the absolute,

You will not know the ultimate.

Only when you throw away the gathering and without anything,

If you can be here,

It does not mean getting rid of something.

It is just that if all impressions that you have gathered in the form of knowledge,

In the form of everything that's gone into you,

If that is kept away,

Then you will see that which is knowing everything,

That which is the basis of knowing becomes present in a huge way.

Huge is the wrong word because it becomes absolute and unbounded.

Reviews

🙏🏼🤍💫

Yes. Namaskaram. 🙏

A powerful lesson on the connectivity one hopes to find in ‘being.’ A lesson connected by the sacred cow.

Thank you - words don't do justice.

Great reminder! Thank you

A beautiful, meaningful parable. Thank you.

Love the complex simplicity of wisdom felt in your voice 🙏

Love your stories and wisdom expressed in different shapes and format of teaching. Thank you this one on presence.

This is a wonderful story. I loved the story tellers voice. It was told masterfully.

Wonderful. Thank you 🙏🏽

Very sweet story. Sadhguru is a master storyteller and is a pleasure to listen to.

Wonderful story with a strong message.

Meditation; when one observes everything like a person looking into a mirror. Oneness; when one becomes the mirror.

Thank you 🙏 for loosening the furrow in my brow 🦋

Simple. Helpful.

Fantastic story! Would like to find a way to achieve this in regular daily life - with responsibilities.....I have only some success😄😵

I love this story

Wonderful. Thank You.