This question is from Arundhati.
Namaskaram Sadhguru.
You were speaking against belief system yesterday,
But someone who believes in a particular god may have a wonderful experience of life because of that belief.
How is this any different from someone experiencing life wonderfully because of a deity created as a yantra?
See,
Because you believe something,
When you believe something,
It brings you lot of confidence.
That's the reason why we believe.
Well,
We started with believing God,
These days it's become fashionable to say,
I believe in myself,
I don't know what that means.
How can you believe in yourself?
No,
No,
I believe in myself.
All you're trying to do is confidence boosting exercise.
Confidence is a dangerous damn thing.
Most stupid things in the world are done because somebody is confident without any clarity about it.
Most idiotic and disastrous things are done by people who have confidence without clarity.
And they're usually believers.
Either they believe in that or this or that or something.
Essentially belief means you're fundamentally dishonest.
You're not willing to see I do not know.
Well,
Somebody believes and their life is wonderful,
Their life may be wonderful because they're devoted to something.
It may be a deity,
It may be the temple.
Usually devotees are not really doing much with the deity.
They're sweeping the temple,
They're cleaning the temple,
They're washing this and that,
They're washing vessels in the temple,
And it all feels wonderful because they're devoted.
It is like,
You know,
Someone has a child,
Little baby.
Oh,
They're so devoted to this little child.
Everything is beautiful.
Take changing the diaper is beautiful,
Wiping the shit is beautiful.
Everything is beautiful.
Yes,
It is.
Not because shit is beautiful,
Simply because you're devoted.
That's why everything is feeling beautiful.
That is the nature of devotion.
Whether it's a child or a temple or a god or a deity or a tree,
It doesn't matter what.
If you are devoted,
Your devotion will make everything beautiful,
Because devotion is the sweetest emotion you can nurture within yourself.
When your emotion is so sweet,
What does it matter?
You ate well,
You did not eat well,
You slept well,
You did not sleep well,
Nothing matters.
Everything is beautiful.
This is the power of devotion.
So with belief system,
If you're trying to build devotion,
Fine,
But devotion is just one step.
There is no need to create another intermediate step,
Because that intermediate step can be hugely misleading.
When you believe you become right,
Others become wrong.
A devotee never thinks like that.
A devotee is never right.
He knows he doesn't know a damn thing.
But he just knows I'm devoted,
That's all.
And that is the power of devotion,
That you transcend all the limitations of your own logic,
Simply with the power of devotion,
And life becomes extraordinarily beautiful.
It is not that you know a thing,
You may not know a thing,
But it doesn't matter,
Because the power of devotion is beyond the power of knowledge.
It is.
So that is not coming from your belief system.
That is because your heart has melted for something.
Doesn't matter what it is.
It may be a child,
It may be a husband,
It may be wife,
It may be a tree,
It may be a cause.
It may be anything.
But you're devoted to something.
And it is best that you devote yourself to something,
Which doesn't change much shape and form.
See,
You just got married,
You were very devoted,
But after three days.
Because what you devoted yourself to and this creature are two different things.
So that is why it is best to devote yourself to a deity unchanging.
Yes,
It's a fantastic tool.
I'm not making a joke out of it.
It's a fantastic tool,
Because it fixes one significant dimension of who you are.
That is your emotion.
People think they're intellectual,
They are not.
They're largely emotional.
Emotional means they may not be dripping with love.
They're angry,
They're anxious,
They're agitated,
This is all emotion.
Emotion gone bad.
If you just become devoted,
All these things are gone,
Just sweetness of your heart all the time.
So devotion has that power.
Do not misunderstand devotion to believing something.
Believing something means you made up something in your mind and make it like a reality.
No,
That's not devotion.
That leads to fanatism.
What is the difference?
There is a big difference.
One happens in your head,
Another happens in the level of your emotion.
One is made up in the thought process.
Another is not made up in the thought process,
It's just the way you feel.
It need not be right,
It need not be wrong.
Devotees don't care whether something is right or wrong.
All they know is they're devoted.
This gives them a sense of freedom and lets them fly over all the bad terrain in their life.
Yes,
They don't touch any aberrations,
They just fly over everything,
Simply because the sweetness of emotion has the power to do this.
And even today,
Though people think and claim that they are very intellectual,
Still emotion is the strongest dimension in most human beings.
Maybe it's not finding expression.
It's gotten constipated in expression,
But inside,
It's roiling them all the time.
They're not experiencing sense of absolute love towards everything.
But they're angry towards everything,
They're anxious about everything,
They're tense about everything,
These are all emotions.
