Tips For Youth To Overcome Hurdles In Life We Can All Use

Sadhguru answers five questions from young people across the world, and looks at how we can make even the most trying situations into opportunities for growth. There is always an opportunity for growth when you choose to see it.

Transcript

I want to know what is that one hope a person can cling on to even when he is fully shattered from within.

Marijuana,

Alcohol,

Bad habits,

It's pushed onto us from pop culture.

What do we do?

We still lack that feeling of belonging to somebody.

How should we deal with that discontent and loneliness?

We come across crossroads where we are compelled to choose between two options.

When I am at such a stage,

What should I be doing?

Sadhguru,

When certain youngsters face problems or difficulties like failures,

Breakups,

Loss,

Etc.

If you go for drugs or alcohol,

Instead of solving the problem and finding solutions,

So I want to know what is that one hope a person can cling on to even when he is fully shattered from within.

So many broken hearts here who are clapping their hands.

So,

When he is fully shattered,

What can he do?

The question is,

Do you want to allow yourself to be fully shattered?

That's a question.

And many things that don't work out in your early life,

You will see later on,

It is a great blessing.

There are many ways to look at this.

Let me tell you this.

This happened in 1941.

This is just when the Nazi movement was building up in Germany and in some parts of Europe.

So one day in Austria,

A bunch of German soldiers came,

Broke into the homes.

The Jewish family,

A rich family,

They broke the home and took away the adults,

Took… everything was robbed.

And these two children,

A twelve-year-old girl and a eight-year-old boy were taken away.

They were taken to a railway station.

Everybody got in and the little boy and the girl also got in,

But the little boy forgot to wear his shoes.

He left his shoes outside and they pushed him into the wagon.

So without shoes he came.

His sister,

A twelve-year-old girl saw her kid brother coming without shoes and she got mad with him.

She held him by the ear,

Boxed his ears,

Scolded him nicely,

Slapped him.

She said,

You idiot,

Already we are in enough trouble,

Now you come without shoes.

Because in Germany in winter,

No shoes means you may lose your feet.

So she is angry about that.

In the next station,

The boys and girls were separated.

After four years,

After the war was over,

She came out of the concentration camp to find seventeen members of her family,

Including her little brother.

All had vanished.

No records,

No sign of them,

They just evaporated.

At that time,

The only thing that bothered her was the last few things that she said to her little brother.

She loves her brother,

But the last few things that she said to him were such terrible things,

It rang in her mind and troubled her.

So she took a vow,

If I speak to anybody in my life,

I will speak in such a way,

If this is my last word,

I will not regret.

This one thing transformed her life in such a way.

She went on to United States,

She died in 2006.

She did some phenomenal work,

Built a hospital somewhere near Chicago,

I think.

She lived a fruitful life.

I'm saying,

Even if you put through the most horrible situations,

Either you can come out using that experience as a better human being,

Or you can use the experience to become a horrible mess.

So whenever something hurts you,

There are two options.

You can either become wounded,

Or you can become wise,

This is the choice.

The more things hurt you early on in your life,

The wiser you should have become,

Isn't it?

But unfortunately,

Most people become wounded.

This is simply because they just need an excuse to turn their own intelligence against themselves,

That's all.

Especially if the world around you turns against you,

Is it not very,

Very important that your intelligence stands up for you?

By being in this hyper-competitive environment,

I sometimes question myself,

Should I be more competitive?

Those who do not have any sense of their own competence will become competitive,

Because their only pleasure is being one step ahead of somebody else.

Because why I'm saying this to you is,

Being better than somebody,

If it's a pleasure for you,

You enjoy other people's failures.

I call that sickness.

This is not such a… You,

As a life you want to be at your fullest,

You have a right to be.

Every life in creation,

From a worm,

Insect,

Bird,

Animal,

Even a plant and tree,

All striving to their best,

Isn't it?

You also.

But why are you concerned whether somebody is behind you?

Why is that so pleasurable for you that somebody else is less than you?

From early kindergarten levels,

This sickness has been brought into human mind,

Which is causing so much unpleasantness on the planet,

Such ugly situations everywhere,

But we don't seem to learn.

We call this education,

We call this competition,

We call this society.

No,

Very stupid way of handling things.

Because the important thing is,

For what you have come with,

Will you blossom to the fullest human being or not?

This is the only question.

This doesn't need anything other than constantly nourishing the atmosphere,

Not even the person.

If you want a plant to grow,

You don't do anything to the plant,

You just take care of the soil,

The atmosphere,

The ambience.

That's all that needs to be taken care of even for a human being,

That you need to take care of the atmosphere so that everybody finds the fullest expression for their life.

This is the most common thing amongst us young people,

Marijuana,

Alcohol,

Bad habits,

It's pushed onto us from pop culture.

What do we do?

This question is everywhere.

Youth in India are asking me all the time,

Sadhguru,

You have influence in the government,

Why don't you make marijuana legal for us?

I said,

Why marijuana?

I'll make cocaine also legal.

You want meth?

We'll make that also legal.

What's the problem?

The problem is just this.

So I asked them,

See,

Let me take you,

You know,

I'm a licensed pilot.

So not me,

But we'll get another pilot for you.

On a small plane,

We'll take you on a nice ride.

But the pilot comes smoked up.

You want to fly?

No,

They don't say no.

They say,

Aahh.

Because they think by smoking they're flying.

Then I say,

Okay,

You're not getting it.

You need a major surgery.

And the surgeon comes really smoked up.

You want this surgery?

Oh,

No.

So you understand it lowers your faculties.

If you lower your faculties,

Your life gets lowered or high.

Lowered.

So never use the word high again.

You say I smoked and I'm low.

This is not a moral issue for me.

I have no morality in me.

But life should work,

Isn't it?

Suppose my eyes become dim.

Do I live better?

I'm asking.

Hello?

If my mind becomes dim,

Do I live better?

Why do people think by lowering faculties,

Life gets high?

No,

It doesn't.

It's just giving you an illusion like that,

For which you will pay a price.

At this stage in your life,

You must look for those things,

Which will heighten your faculties,

Not lower your faculties,

Isn't it?

If you're interested,

You come.

I'll show you a way.

Look at my eyes.

I'm always stoned.

Yes,

Look at me.

Never touch the substance.

Because the greatest chemical factory on the planet is here.

Hello?

The question is only whether you're ecstatic or anxious is determined by,

Are you a good manager of this one or are you a lousy manager?

That's all that is determining this.

If you're a lousy manager,

You're importing chemicals from outside.

If you're a good manager,

You're conducting this the way you want and blissed out all the time.

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?

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.

Right now,

Let's say you're 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.

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?

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

You have not learned 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.

Very often in lives,

We come across crossroads,

Where we are compelled to choose between two options,

Which were equally pleasing.

When I'm at such a stage,

What should I be doing?

See,

We must understand this.

People are always thinking when it comes to education,

Career,

Choice of partners,

Marriage,

At various points,

What is the best thing to do?

Let me tell you,

There is no best thing to do in the world.

Really,

There's no best thing to do.

Even if you take a very simple thing and put everything that you have into it,

If you throw yourself into it,

It could become a great thing.

Is it the best thing?

No.

There is no best thing,

Because how do you decide what is best?

What I'm doing is best or what you're doing is best?

There's no such thing.

Is spiritual process the best thing or chemical engineering the best thing?

It'll be foolish even to ask that question,

Isn't it?

It is just that if you throw your life into something,

It can become a great thing.

So don't look for best things because you'll waste your life always wondering what's the best thing.

People come to me,

They've been married for thirty-five years,

Have three,

Four children.

Sadhguru,

I don't know if I made the right choice.

I said,

Well,

It looks like you've been not been thinking,

You've been acting four children.

So till the end of your life,

You can go on thinking what is the best thing,

What is the best thing.

There is no best thing.

Whatever we put our heart and soul into and do it,

It's a great thing.

It may be a simple thing in somebody else's eyes,

But in our experience it's a great thing and that's what we should do.

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