The Greatest Virtue

Debating about morality, virtue and sin, Sadhguru says, is just a circus invented in the human mind to fill the empty slot when a connection with the Divine is missing. He explains that the greatest virtue is not in morality, but in becoming in tune with life.

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

Human mind,

Because it wants to fix one thing,

It invents too many things.

Because one fundamental ingredient is missing,

Instead of getting to it,

It tries to invent so many things.

Various types of moralities,

Various ideas of virtue and sin,

All these things have been invented by human mind just to fill that one slot which has not been filled,

That is to be in connection with the divine which is throbbing within us.

Because that one thing is missing,

We are trying to make it up with so many things.

What is virtue,

What is sin,

If you go about debating,

I'm sure each individual have his own sense of what is virtue and what is sin,

Of course according to his convenience,

No?

All this is just a circus that the mind is doing simply because the conscious contact with that which is the basis of who you are has not been established because to cover that one lacking,

We have invented so many things.

On a Sunday morning in a Sunday school,

The Sunday school teacher was very enthusiastic and he wanted the little tiny tots who were before him to get something that day.

So he was talking about virtue and then he said,

Today as I was coming to the church,

I saw two people beating up a donkey,

Very badly.

I went and saved this donkey from the beating.

What virtue is that?

So a little boy in the back row stood up and said,

Brotherly love.

So your ideas of virtue can always be twisted and turned in so many different ways from generation to generation.

Ideas of morality,

Ideas of virtue and sin are twisting and turning,

Isn't it?

Whichever way it's convenient for today,

Accordingly we'll twist it.

And always there's a debate as to which is virtue and which is sin.

From society to society,

From generation to generation,

From individual to individual,

Within the house if there are four people,

Four people have four different standards of virtue,

Isn't it so?

No?

All this just a cover-up job.

To being… being moralistic means… to be in morality means you are in pretension of spirituality.

What should have naturally occurred,

You are trying to act it out.

If you were a flower that blossomed,

Fragrance would naturally come because you're a plastic flower,

Now you're trying to spray.

You spray today,

In an hour's time again it's gone.

Morality is a big circus.

With great difficulty people are being moral,

Isn't it?

No?

With great difficulty.

And those of them who are successful in being moralistic,

Those of… those people who are one-hundred percent correct in their morals,

One thing that's happening with them is nobody wants to be around them.

They don't mind being around somebody who is immoral,

But they want somebody lively,

Isn't it?

Totally moral and lifeless,

Nobody wants to be with them.

Please see,

The more an individual person thinks that he is a good person,

I am good,

I am good,

I am good,

Nobody wants to be with him.

Because this idea of what is morality,

What is virtue,

What is sin,

Is essentially coming in comparison with somebody else.

How do I come to a conclusion that I am a good man?

He is not okay.

Yes?

Not okay.

She is not okay,

He is not okay,

She is not okay,

He is not okay,

He is not okay,

He is not okay.

Compared to all these people,

I am a good man.

If I do not make any judgments about any of these people,

Then there is no basis for me to call myself a good man or a bad man.

The more good you think you are,

The more you will find nobody is okay.

Have you noticed this?

People who think they are very good in their eyes,

Nobody is okay.

If nobody is okay,

It's not a question of virtue,

It is a question of madness.

The first sign of psychological disorder is you start thinking nobody is okay.

Do you know this?

Even medically,

The first sign of psychological disorder is you start thinking nobody is okay.

Some American author said this,

I forget his name.

He said,

Everybody in the world is queer except you and me.

You also seem to be little queer.

So nobody is okay except you.

If nobody is okay,

It is a clear case of madness.

It is not a question of morality or virtue.

So virtue is not about practicing a certain morality.

The greatest virtue is that you are in tune with life.

You have become life.

Am I not life?

No.

You become too much mind.

You become too much emotion.

You are not life.

And when I say you become too much mind,

The content of your mind is not yours.

If you carefully watch your mind,

You will see your father is sitting here,

Your mother is sitting there,

Your teacher here,

Your friend somewhere else,

Your enemy somewhere else,

Just a whole crowd of people sitting inside and doing crazy things.

Yes?

When such a crowd of people are there,

There is no question of consciousness.

A crowd cannot be conscious.

Only an individual human being can be conscious.

If you carry a crowd of people in your head,

The chances of you being conscious are super remote.

So the whole process,

The spiritual process is about shifting from being a mental activity to being a life process.

Are you a life with a mind or you a mind with life attached?

Let's decide this.

Are you a life with some mental capabilities or are you a mind with a little bit of life attached?

You are a life,

Isn't it?

A very enthusiastic biology teacher saw a very unenthusiastic classroom full of children,

So he wanted to do something.

So he went,

Stood on his head in the class on top of the table and he stood there like this on top of his head and children got interested and they were all looking.

Then he said,

Staying on his head,

Can you see my face is getting all red?

They said,

Yes.

Then he got off and then he said,

See when I stand on my head,

My… all the blood moves into my head region and my face gets red.

But when I stand on my feet,

It does not happen.

Why?

Why one little boy stood up and said,

Because feet ain't empty?

If you perceive things wrongly,

Upside down,

You could be in deep trouble.

I want you to understand,

Life can get poisoned simply because you have a wrong thought or a wrong emotion or a wrong idea or a wrong philosophy for yourself.

So how do you know a particular thought is wrong or right?

How do you know a particular philosophy is wrong or right?

You do not know.

The only way to find out whether something is poisonous enough or not is to drink it and see.

After that we will know,

You will not know.

Yes,

We will know it works,

You will not know.

So what works and what doesn't work,

If you find out like this,

It's going to be very expensive.

The best thing is to allow the intelligence of the life to function,

Not taking inputs from too many people and too many things.

This life,

Is it a complete life by itself or is it a half a life?

What do you think?

Hmm?

Is it a complete life?

Is it a complete life?

Yes.

But all the priests,

Pundits,

Teachers believe it is not a complete life.

They think they have to fix you.

The moment a child is born,

Everybody is trying to tell him what is good and what is bad because somewhere they believe essentially all children are born bad or they believe creator has made a mistake and they are going to fix it.

You think creator has made a mistake with you?

You think creator has made a mistake with you and you need to fix it?

No.

You just have to become the way he intended,

That's all.

If you allow this life to function just the way he intended,

Everything is fine with this.

Now you've gotten twisted out as your society expects you or your own some stupid philosophy that you gathered from somebody.

Just to throb here as life.

Oh,

Is it enough if I am just here as life,

I may become immoral,

I may kill this person,

I may rob this person,

I may do harm to this person.

Yes,

If you sit here just as a body,

It is very much possible.

The moment you get hungry,

You may pounce on the person next to you and start eating him or her.

Possible.

If you sit here just as a body,

It is possible.

If you sit here just as a mind,

It is very much possible.

Depending upon what kind of content you have taken into your mind,

Accordingly you may do so many things.

But if you sit here and reverberate as just life,

The question of harming another life will never occur to you.

Nobody has to tell you,

Do not harm,

Do not do this,

Do not do that.

Only if you are here as a body or as a mind,

Then somebody has to tell you,

Don't pounce on somebody.

If you are here as a piece of life,

If you throb as life,

You will see you will not need any morality,

You will not need any teaching,

You will not any need,

Virtuous input into you.

If you sit here,

You are perfectly fine.

What this life has to do,

You will anyway do.

What it should not do,

You will anyway not do.

And if you reverberate as a piece of life,

You will clearly know that your life is not individual.

It is connected with everything in the universe.

There is no way you can miss that point.

Only if you are too engaged in your head or too involved in your body,

You will be a separate happening.

If your involvement is with the life process,

Not with the physical process,

Not with the psychological process,

If you are not identified too much with the physical process and the psychological process,

If you are simply sitting here as a life process,

You cannot miss the point that there are no borders for your life process,

It is happening from everywhere.

Reviews

Sadhguru brings sense to the nonsense world of human beings.

A very good conversation to meditate on.

How are you so enlightened? !! This one will set you straight if in a muddle. Which I was... will listen to it again and again as needed x

Every single time I listen to one of these talks I understand a little more about myself.

Is it magic 🤔😊?

I see the light 💡
Thank you Sandhguru 🙏🏽

Thank you. I am life. I observe. I am the watcher

easy to understand wisdom. Sadhguru has a unique method of storytelling that brings one closer to enlightenment

Every rime again his words blie away the layer if dust accumilating on life itself🙏

Loving it, as always. Namastè 🙏

Man.. That's powerful.. So simple but pure Truth.. thank you.. wisdom.. # enlightenment

Always interesting talk & insight.

Your wisdom is so enlightening 🙏🏽

As always I enjoy listening to your wisdom! Thank you. Namasté 🙏❤️🙏

Such great wisdom. Thank you

Excellent as usual and he is always fun to listen to!

I was WRONG! Lol 😂😄😄🤣

Agree with Kelly, adding these talks to my life has strengthened me.

So far he has to be my favorite speaker.