Yogi, Mystic, and Visionary offers an array of powerful Yoga programs, tools, methods, techniques for human transformation and wellbeing.
By Phyllis King
Edited by Dina Morrone
Sadhguru has often said that “society is overripe for a spiritual process.” His fundamental vision is to offer the science of inner well-being to every human being – a science that helps a person realize the ultimate potential within. From this vision stem a multitude of projects, programs, and methods, all towards the same aim: to raise every human being to the peak of their potential so that they are exuberant, all-inclusive, and in harmony within themselves and the world.”
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Sadhguru, thank you so much for your time. It is an honor to sit with you today. Please tell us, how did your life prepare you to become a guru?
Sadhguru: As a child, one thing I realized was that I was utterly, absolutely ignorant. I did not know anything at all, and because of that, I had to pay enormous attention to everything. My sense of awareness became like this – if I saw a leaf, I could sit there looking at this leaf for hours. If I sat up in my bed just staring at the darkness, I could do this for the whole night. This attention brought a different level of involvement and interaction with just about anything and everything around me, animate and inanimate.
Later, on a certain day, I went up Chamundi Hill in Mysuru, India, on my motorcycle. I parked my vehicle, went to a particular rock, and sat with my eyes open. Until that moment, like most people, I had always believed that this body was “me” and that is “somebody else.”
But there, for the first time, I did not know which was me and which was not me. Suddenly, what was “me” was all over the place. The rock on which I was sitting, the air I breathed, the atmosphere around me – I had just exploded into everything. This, I thought, lasted for 10 to 15 minutes, but when I came back to my normal consciousness, I had been sitting there for about four-and-a-half hours – I was fully conscious, eyes open, but time had just flipped in my experience.
I have always been peaceful and happy – that has never been an issue. But right then, every cell in my body was bursting with a new indescribable level of ecstasy. I had no words for this. I did not know what to say, but something phenomenal was happening within me.
Ever since, there has been no looking back. My life has been an effort to rub this bliss off on people because every human being can know this. When it comes to external situations, each human being is differently capable. But with interiority, all are equally capable. My effort has been to create mechanisms so people can experience this.
Why are human beings so focused on being right?
Sadhguru: In the Yogic understanding, there are 16 dimensions to the human mind. These 16 dimensions fall into four categories: buddhi, manas, ahankara, and chitta.
Buddhi is the intellect – the logical dimension of thought. The intellect directly connects with the dimension of your mind called ahankara. Ahankara is sometimes translated as ego, but it is much more than that. Ahankara gives you a sense of identity. Once your ahankara takes on an identity, your intellect functions only in that context.
The moment your intelligence gets entangled with identifications, it does not show you things the way they are. It will distort everything depending upon what types of identities you have taken. Whether it is of gender, race, religion, nationality, or being rich or poor, inevitably, our intellect will work only towards protecting our identity. You will not even know what you are doing. Even if everyone thinks you are a fool, you think you are doing the right thing because your identity makes your intellect function that way.
The whole spiritual process is to take an individual from a limited identity to an all-inclusive possibility, not just intellectually but experientially.
How do we learn to flow with life rather than control it?
Sadhguru: In your perception of life, there is you, and there is the world – so, it is you versus the universe. “You versus the universe” is a bad competition to get into. Do you think you have any chance of winning this competition? Don’t compete with the universe.
This is why we found a way called Yoga. When I say “Yoga,” people immediately think of twisting the body into some
posture. No, the word “Yoga” means “union.” Yoga, or union, means you consciously obliterate the boundaries of your individuality, so there is no such thing as “you and the universe” – it feels like one. You need to do a little Yoga; otherwise, your mind will get twisted out with all kinds of ideas, emotions, and opinions.
If you open it up a little bit. If you obliterate the boundaries of your individuality, it becomes very easy because you see the other person as a part of yourself. You have no problem whether it is a man, woman, child, or animal. You will communicate with everything absolutely because you have opened up your boundaries. It is only when you have concretized your boundaries that you will always have a problem.
It is time you work on bringing yourself to ease with life. If you are not at ease, you will never realize your full potential. There is a certain genius in every individual, but 99% of people live and die without ever opening up this genius within themselves. If the true potential within you has to open up, your life should come to ease.
Why do human beings find it so difficult to have peace? How can one align the mind, body, and soul to hold the three together in complete balance?
Sadhguru: Generally, for most people today, Yoga means asanas. Asanas are just a small preparatory aspect of Yoga. Yoga is not a practice, a particular action, or a posture – it is a way of being. As I mentioned, “Yoga” fundamentally means “union.” When you begin to experience everything as a part of yourself, you are in Yoga. Intellectually, whatever we say about it at the most will make you curious to know more about it or inspire you to walk the path of Yoga. We can never say what Yoga is in words, but if a person is willing, experiencing Yoga is very much possible.
When the physical dimensions of Yoga were first taught, it was expounded as to how to align this human system to cosmic geometry. If you get it perfectly aligned, all the friction is taken away.
Internal friction means you are working against yourself; you are an issue by yourself. When you are an issue yourself, what other issue can you handle? – everything is stressful. As you take on more activity in the world, the challenges will multiply endlessly. That is why your own body, mind, emotions, and energy should work for you, not be stumbling blocks in your life. The only way for that to happen is through Yoga.
If your body, mind, emotions, and energy are properly aligned, the body and mind can suddenly do things you have not thought possible in your wildest dreams. People will think you are superhuman. But, whatever you do, you will do it with a certain level of efficiency and competence. This is because, essentially, somehow, either consciously or unconsciously, you found the geometry of existence.
Are you optimistic about the future of people on the planet?
Sadhguru: People keep asking me, “Sadhguru, where do you think the world will be in fifty years? What do you think will happen in the future?”
I ask them, “Do you want a prediction or a plan?”
All those who are incapable of a plan are looking for a prediction. The very fact that creation gave you such big brains and the possibility to create many things means that you are supposed to have a good plan rather than wait for a stupid prediction.
I think the present situation neither needs optimism nor pessimism; what it needs is realism, which is always a necessity.
Today human intellect is sparking like never before. Never before have this many human beings been able to think for themselves. A priest, a pundit, a scripture, or something else thought for you, but now human beings are beginning to think for themselves. Whether they are thinking straight or not is another issue, but at least they are thinking something. So, once human intellect begins to fire like this, even if God comes and stands here and speaks unless he makes sense, people will reject him. So, once they reject this, it may so happen that the heavens will fall down.
Heavens may crumble, but human longing to experience something more will not go. The human longing to experience something will always be there. If you take away the hope of heaven that somewhere else, glorious things are going to happen to you, people will start seeking solutions here.
If you do not show them a logically correct and scientifically ascertainable way where they can take charge of their inner experience to create the kind of experience that they want – if you do not give them the technologies for inner wellbeing – then I would say in another 60–80 years’ time, 90% of humanity will seek chemical solutions; they will be either on drink or drugs.
Ninety percent of people being on drink or drugs is not a moral issue for me. But one fundamental responsibility we have as a generation of people is that when we leave, we should have left a generation that is at least one step better than us. But if 90% of people are on drink and drugs, we will leave behind a generation that is worse than us. This will be a complete failure of who we are. Everything that we have worked for, the development of civilizations, will go to waste.
At the same time, never before in the history of humanity have we had this ability to communicate with each other. Technology has offered us this phenomenal possibility that you can sit in one place and speak to the whole world. So today, when people are willing to load all kinds of rubbish on the internet and reach people, I don’t see why the spiritual process should not reach everyone online. The most important thing to be done right now in the world is to raise human consciousness. With the kind of technologies, capabilities, and empowerment available to us, we should see that this becomes mainstream.
Our time on the planet is now. It is in our hands to make this the best time ever or the most irresponsible time. Both are in our hands. I wish we could make this the most responsible and wonderful time on the planet. For this to happen, you need to empower human beings beyond their body, and beyond their mind. Something bigger needs to touch them. That is the basic effort of what we at Isha are doing.
To read the entire interview with Sadhguru, please read our digital version or support The Eden Magazine by purchasing your personal copy.
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