06:56

Work Hard or Work Happy?

by Sadhguru Jaggi

Rated
4.7
Type
talks
Activity
Meditation
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Everyone
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9.4k

In this conversation, Piyush Pandey wonders how Sadhguru manages his time between global travel, golf, motorcycling and much more. Sadhguru shares that most people in the world are not really busy, just preoccupied with their thoughts and emotions. He explains that if your body and intelligence are working for you, you can work joyfully and stress-free. 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.

WorkHappinessIntelligenceMindfulnessProductivityEaseAnxietyPurposeYogaIntelligence UtilizationMind ControlPreoccupation Vs ProductivityAnxiety ReductionLife PurposeSpirits

Transcript

So let me start off Sadhguru by asking you that you probably are the biggest multi-tasker that I have met in my life.

You are into sharing wonderful things with people,

Millions of people and you find the time to play golf and you ride a motorcycle like a champion.

I don't know what all you do.

How do you manage your time?

Because… That last thing was not a good thing.

I don't know what all you do.

Not a good thing.

No,

That… That is the sense of amazement.

And there are people who are very busy people and so we believe we are very busy people.

We would like to know as to how you manage your time and what is the kind of advice you would like to give us so that life beyond work is a lot more meaningful,

At least a little more meaningful than what we lead,

A little closer to the kind of meaningful life that you lead.

And what I observe from people as I travel more and more,

Meet various kinds of people in business,

Academics,

Science and regular people all over the world,

What I see is most people in the twenty-four hours that we have per day,

They are more preoccupied than busy.

That is,

Their own thoughts and their own emotions are such a big issue that most of their time is spent dealing with that.

They may be working but in their work,

A lot of struggles are within themselves.

If you are in any kind of sport or any creativity,

You would know that a little struggle means your ball will go somewhere else,

Your ragam thalam will go somewhere else,

Your painting will go somewhere else,

Nothing will happen properly.

Or in other words,

What could happen very simply,

Unfortunately happens with lots of difficulty.

This is mainly because they have been given a phenomenal gadget or a phenomenal machine,

Which is the human mechanism,

Above a phenomenal dimension called the mind.

They are trying to operate this phenomenal machine or a gadget or a computer if you like to call it,

Without reading the user's manual.

Every day struggling with their own stuff and it doesn't get solved before they are twenty or something.

Till their last day on their deathbed,

They are still struggling with the same things,

Their thoughts and their emotions.

If they learn to sort this out very early in their life,

I'm sure they can work half the number of hours that they are working and be a lot more productive than the way they are right now.

My effort is to bring this possibility to people's lives that you can live… live life with ease,

Not with struggle.

One thing is when we say work,

It's a… many young people,

Wonderful people who are getting recognized for whatever wonderful things they have done,

Leaving them apart but generally work means always been people have been taught that they must work hard.

Nobody told them they must work joyfully.

Nobody told them their work should be an expression of their joy or their love.

They have to work hard.

If you work hard,

Life will be tedious.

How will it… how else will it be?

You will do something hard only because you don't know how to do it.

If you know how to do it,

You would do it with ease.

So without learning how to do something,

If we try to do it,

Without investing enough time in perception,

If life is all expression,

Then life becomes a big struggle.

Most people are not doing anything except earning a living,

Maybe reproducing and dying one day.

Nothing more.

They may believe they're doing many things but this is all they're doing.

Eating,

Sleeping,

Reproducing,

Dying one day.

That is such a big first.

Every other creature is able to do this from an earthworm to an insect to anything and anything.

Everybody is doing this.

They all earn their own living,

They eat,

They sleep,

They reproduce and they die.

With one millionth of our brain,

They're able to do it.

With this big brain,

Human beings are struggling not with the things that they're doing,

They're struggling with the brain itself.

Their own intelligence has become a serious problem.

What is the biggest boon in our life?

What is the greatest benefaction in our life,

Which is our intelligence?

This has become a problem because they don't know how to hold it,

They don't know how to use it,

Constantly it works against themselves.

When I say it works against you,

People may call all kinds of names,

May use all kinds of words to describe this.

They may call it stress,

They may call it tension,

They may call it misery,

They may call it depression,

They may call it anxiety,

They may call it madness.

Essentially,

It's your intelligence turned against you.

Your intelligence is not working for you,

It's working against you.

So my fundamental work is this,

That at least your body and your mind should work for you.

Nobody else may work for you,

It doesn't matter.

At least your body and your intelligence must work for you.

If this one thing happens,

You living blissfully,

Gracefully,

Effectively is a natural consequence.

Meet your Teacher

Sadhguru JaggiMcMinnville, TN, USA

4.7 (1 221)

Recent Reviews

David

March 10, 2023

The words of Sadhguru are always informative and useful. I always find them to be true.

Len

January 1, 2022

Great topic. I would like to hear more about strategies to make work more happy by using the intellect.

Ahimsa

December 21, 2021

Fabulous, inSIGHTful and inspiring! www.gratefulness.org, ahimsa

Gabrielle

April 14, 2020

Loved this talk! We must allow our intelligence to work for us not against us!

Janet

August 28, 2019

Thank you 🙏 Sadhguru!

Katie

February 7, 2018

Great advice. Doing work that is joyful, not drudgery.

Sandra

December 19, 2017

Great insight- thank you 🌺

Arindom

December 15, 2017

The best few minutes for me in today.

Chris

December 15, 2017

Great knowledge as always

Louisa

December 15, 2017

Yessss!! This is what I want to pass onto my kids (and fully learn myself), so that we can live with bliss and ease. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom.

Liz

December 15, 2017

Five minute diamonds❤️

Shamatian

December 15, 2017

So true! A powerful talk which can wake people up! Love it!

Uwak

December 14, 2017

So there's another ball in the park, we knew 'work hard' and 'work smart' now we know 'work happy'

Archie

December 14, 2017

Sadhguru is "Spot On" as usual !!

Kiné

December 14, 2017

Quick teaching but truly powerful. Take a few minutes to listen and I’m sure you will walk away with something.

Jess

December 14, 2017

Very good. Really made me think and prioritize. Thank you.

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