The Corrupted Word “Spirituality”

Yogi, mystic and visionary, Sadhguru is a spiritual master with a difference. In today's talk, Sadhguru speaks at a Youth and Truth event in North East Hill University, Shillong, Meghalaya. This is the comprehensive and fascinating response he gives to a question about balancing the material and spiritual world. Sadhguru talks about what spirituality really is and how in fact, there is no need to balance anything.

Transcript

First of all,

There is no such thing as material and spiritual.

Even if you're spiritual,

You're walking on this planet,

Isn't it so?

Somebody read something and they think they're spiritual.

You're reading something,

You're reading a book.

It's called literacy,

Not spirituality,

Isn't it?

See,

Today when people use the word life,

You have to sift through that because they may be talking about their job,

They may be talking about their family,

They may be talking about their dog,

They may be talking about their wealth or business.

So we gathered all these things only to enhance this life,

But this has been totally forgotten.

So if this comes into your attention,

Then we use this most corrupt word called spirituality.

You have mentioned on a number of occasions that we cannot ignore the materialistic body that we have been given and that we have to live with it.

But how do we find a balance between the materialistic world and the spiritual world?

Where exactly do we draw the lines of guru?

See,

First of all,

There is no imbalance.

The imbalances come simply because of ridiculous teachings.

First of all,

There is no such thing as material and spiritual.

Even if you're spiritual,

You're walking on this planet,

Isn't it so?

Is that material?

Or will you go in space?

Is this material?

So how do you separate these two things?

These sort of teachings and these kind of sayings,

These kind of confusions have been generated by people who are not spiritual in their experience.

They're spiritual because it is a… what to say,

It's the… it's a cultural fad.

Somebody read something and they think they're spiritual.

You're reading something,

You're reading a book.

It's called literacy,

Not spirituality,

Isn't it?

Oh,

I read this book,

So I've become spiritual.

There's no such thing.

All I'm asking is,

Let us take off this word because it's the most corrupted word.

If you say spirituality,

Somebody is thinking of heaven,

Somebody is thinking of god,

Somebody is thinking of a egg shaped something floating.

Leave that word.

You have a body for sure,

It's visible.

You have mind,

Yes?

You have emotions.

But there is also life energy behind this,

Isn't it?

There's a life.

Are you alive?

It's a question.

You are alive.

So let's not give it any other name.

There is life.

All physical material that you gathered,

You gathered from outside,

Isn't it so?

This is just a food that you've eaten.

Yes or no?

What you call as my body is just a food that you've eaten or it's just a piece of the planet.

What was soil became food.

What was food became flesh and bone.

Now we're sitting here.

We gathered this body for a period of time.

You were not born like this.

You gathered it slowly piece by piece,

Isn't it?

Little by little.

Similarly,

Whatever is in the content of your mind,

Whatever the content of your mind,

Also you gathered from outside,

Isn't it so?

So this is a heap of food,

This is a heap of impressions.

Anything that you gather,

Anything that you ever gather,

You can claim it is yours.

But you can never say it is me,

Isn't it so?

Hello?

Right now,

As I'm speaking,

I'll take this vessel.

It's become very famous,

This vessel.

This is my vessel.

If I say this is my vessel,

You will think,

Oh,

Sadhguru has got some problem.

But let's listen,

Everybody says he's wise.

After some time,

I say this is me.

Then you say,

Let's go home.

I did not say it,

Ma'am.

I was only suggesting,

I was not saying it.

Because the moment I say this is me,

You know this is a bad case.

Yes or no?

The moment I say I'm the vessel,

You know this is a lost case,

Isn't it so?

So,

This is happening to you every day.

Food appears on your plate,

You say this is my food,

You eat it,

Then you say this is me.

Case or no?

Hello?

So,

Definitely you understand what you gather can be yours at the most,

But never ever can be your… you,

Isn't it so?

This is understood?

So,

Everything that's material about you is gathered from outside,

Isn't it?

But to gather all this,

There must be something fundamental which gathers all this.

Let's not give it a name,

We'll just call it life for now.

You are a life,

But you gathered a body,

You gathered information and became like this.

Now,

If you're only experiencing what you have gathered,

That is your physiology and your psychological structure,

That means you're going through life,

Life process without touching life ever.

Just the surface aspects that you gathered.

You are only experiencing the accessories of life.

See,

Today when people use the word life,

You are… you have to sift through that because they may be talking about their job,

They may be talking about their family,

They may be talking about their dog,

They may be talking about their wealth or business.

When they say my life,

You are supposed to understand what the hell they're talking about.

They're not talking about life.

Yes?

They're talking about many things.

Accessories.

Accessories don't make the real thing,

Isn't it?

This is like for the sake of aesthetics,

If you have a skirt,

You will add frill to it.

Now many times it's happened in societies,

It's happened to many,

Many people.

They went on adding frills.

Frills became so much of their attention,

They forgot to wear the skirt.

That's an embarrassing way to live,

Isn't it?

That's all that's happening to humanity right now.

They gathered so many things.

Now they've forgotten.

What is the basis?

Only to facilitate this life to happen better,

We gathered all these things,

Isn't it?

Yes or no?

Everything that we gathered,

Including our education,

You are educating yourself because you believe,

If I'm well educated,

My life will be good.

You will get married.

Why?

Because if I'm with somebody that I like,

My life will be good.

You have children,

Why?

Because somebody convinces you,

If you have children,

Life will get better.

You have a dog,

Why?

Because you understand if you have a dog,

Maybe life will be better.

When nobody else is reliable,

Dog will be there.

Yes.

It's not only man's best friend,

It's a woman's best friend also these days.

So we gathered all these things only to enhance this life,

But this has been totally forgotten.

So if this comes into your attention,

Then we use this most corrupt word called spirituality.

That means you started experiencing something more than the physical.

Why I'm saying this is,

Right now your entire experience of life is limited to seeing,

Hearing,

Smelling,

Tasting and touching.

This is the way you know there is a world.

This is the way you know that you are existing right now.

If you… if you just doze a little bit,

First thing is I will disappear in your experience.

Yes or no?

A little more means everybody will disappear.

Then you also disappear,

Isn't it?

Yes or no?

See you're alive,

Heart is beating,

Even brain is functioning,

Everything is functioning,

But in your experience there is no you,

There is no world,

There is nobody,

Isn't it?

All that's happened is the five sense organs shut down,

That's all.

So right now your whole experience of life is only through these five senses.

So these five senses in the very nature of things can only experience that which is physical.

See you can see only those things which actually stop light,

They must be opaque,

Not only physical,

Even the air is physical,

But you don't see it.

Simply because only if it's opaque,

If it stops light,

Only then you see this.

Suppose my hand doesn't stop light,

You don't see it,

Isn't it?

Do you see my other two hands?

No,

Because they don't stop light.

Anything that does not stop light you don't see,

But isn't air vital to your life?

Hello?

Just because you don't see it,

Can we dismiss it?

Is it very important?

Vital.

Similarly,

The life that you are is not visible to those two eyes,

But it is the most vital thing,

Isn't it?

So there is no need to balance.

They are all perfectly balanced,

That's why you are alive.

Spiritual process does not mean you are going to invent something.

Always spirituality was referred to as realization.

Realization means what?

Something that has always been there and I was stupid enough not to see it,

Today I saw it.

I did not invent anything,

I did not create anything.

Something that was always there,

I saw today.

Though it is all the time here,

I did not see it,

Only today I saw.

This is realization.

This is not an attainment,

This is not an acquisition,

This is not something else.

This is just realization.

So realization does not change any dynamics of life.

It's just the way it is.

But because you realized,

Suddenly you are empowered.

Just because we realized the planet is round at one time,

It has empowered us in so many ways,

Isn't it so?

If we thought it's flat,

Which as we did some time ago,

No,

But we just realized we didn't make it round.

It was always round,

But we thought it's flat.

But one day we realized it's round,

How it's changed our life,

Isn't it?

Similarly,

Spiritual process means just this,

You are not doing anything.

You just started seeing everything the way it is,

Rather than imagining it some other way.

And seeing things the way they are is the biggest empowerment you can have,

Isn't it?

In your life,

Whether you want to engineer or you want to run commerce or you want to do biology,

First and foremost thing is,

You see it the way it is,

Isn't it?

If you don't see it the way it is,

Everything that you do will be wrong,

Not one thing.

Everything that you do will be wrong.

Suppose we thought the earth is flat and made a thousand calculations about this planet,

Everything,

Not one thing,

Everything will be wrong,

Isn't it so?

So without realization,

Not one thing,

Everything is wrong with life.

Reviews

Right now I'm living on a flat world, this helps me to recalculate.
Thank you

Really great wisdom, thank you 🙏

Sadhguru's words are always able to tweak my perception for the better (and the simpler).

Always insightful 🙏🏾

always insightful

Wisdom and lighted hearted humour to make the mark! Thank you! ❣️🌅🙏

Simple and freeing, just so easy to forget!

I love his gentle humor.

Sadhguru. Always a favorite 🙏🏻

So very true. Thank you

Wonderfully clear and beneficial message gracefully told. Love this. 💞 Thank you.
Namaste

Realization .. awareness . With it everything is right about life.. and vice versa. Love this wisdom . 🙏🏼Namaste 💫

Thank you for your beautiful wisdom and your enjoyable way of sharing it🙏🏻🦋💫🌎

Excellent. Clarifying. Thx!

Very inspiration and I need to listen more to totally hear your truth through the accent. I missed many words so wil listen again until I hear and understand it more.

Love you Guru ji:)

Essential! Simply wow. I will listen to this often, surely. It puts a smile my face because is so simple and true :) :-)