[MUSIC PLAYING]
[APPLAUSE]
JONATHAN BERENT: Good
afternoon, everyone.
My name is Jonathan Berent,
and I'll be your host today.
Thank you so much for coming.
Thanks to those that are on
the livestream today as well.
We live in dynamic times.
Never before has a generation
been so assaulted by the images
from the media, stories
from the internet
that seem to touch a
nerve in us personally.
Seems like every week, whether
you are black or white,
straight or gay, from
a rich background
or a poor background,
there's a story
that elicits a reaction in us.
But there is hope.
As long as the human spirit
is alive on this planet,
there will always be hope.
We only have to think of names
like Mahatma Gandhi or Mother
Teresa, now Saint Teresa, Anne
Frank or Martin Luther King,
to know that it just takes a
single, passionate individual
who has the courage to
risk it all to bring
the light into this world.
If you would, picture one of
their iconic faces in your mind
right now.
Just take a moment.
Bring one to mind.
What do you notice inside?
Is it courage,
inspiration, love?
Before them, there had been
numerous beacons of change
that have walked from
all walks of life.
Milarepa was a Tibetan monk
who was very revengeful
in his youth, but
then he became one
of Tibet's most loved and
cherished figures of history.
Saint Francis of Assisi was
a rich, disillusion young man
who left it all to pursue a life
of compassion and generosity
towards everyone.
The prophet Muhammad was
also born into a noble family
and grew up to be rich but
then turned contemplative.
What these three individuals
have in common is they
all had the courage to
do the inner work first
before they brought
outer change.
Let's stop there for a minute.
Speaking of inner
work, how many of you
might have had a little
twinge of emotion
when I said one of these names?
Why?
Well, these names,
these last three ones,
are associated with
world religions.
And some of these religions have
been associated with violence.
We're not talking
about religion today.
We're not talking about
spirituality today.
You can all breathe
a sigh of relief.
We are talking about taking a
moment to reflect on the times
that we live in and what
they require of us, what they
require of us as an individuals
and what they require
of us as a company, one of
the most influential companies
on the planet.
If you felt a twinge
of emotion when
I mentioned one of these names
or even the word "religion,"
that's normal.
If you feel outraged by
the things you see on TV
or read in the
newspaper, that's normal.
If you have passionate feelings
about the election that's
coming up in a
month, that's normal.
In fact, if you don't have some
of those passionate feelings,
I'd say that's not normal.
[LAUGHTER]
However, we have to learn
to deal with these emotions.
We have to learn
to find ways that
integrate our thoughts and our
emotions more constructively
so we can more skillfully
navigate these dynamic times
so we can have impact.
Today we hope to give you both
the permission and the tools
to do just that.
Sadhguru is a realized
yogi and mystic.
He's a man whose passion spills
into everything he touches,
including, I learned
yesterday, golf.
With a keen mind and
an unbounded heart,
his presence alone
gives you a taste
of what the natural
state of the mind
can experience in terms of
love and joy and freedom.
Sadhguru's vision to
transform the world
has been unfolding
over the last 30 years.
The Isha Foundation,
which he started,
has numerous programs to
promote inclusive culture
and establish global harmony.
Named one of India's 50 most
influential individuals,
he has deeply touched the
lives of millions worldwide.
He has spoken at forums
like the United Nations
and humble villages
throughout India.
He's equally known for his
transformational yoga programs,
as well as his large-scale
social projects.
The projects address things
like quality education
for the poor, environmental
stewardship, holistic health,
peace, and well-being.
Sadhguru says joy is our
nature, misery our own making.
This is a provocative
statement that he addresses
in his new book, "Inner
Engineering, a Yogi's Guide
to Joy," which there will
be a few copies for sale
in the back.
Sadhguru.
[APPLAUSE]
SADHGURU: You don't
mind if I cross my legs?
JONATHAN BERENT: No, please.
SADHGURU: My brains don't
work if I don't cross my legs.
JONATHAN BERENT: Your
brain doesn't work?
SADHGURU: Yeah. [CHUCKLING]
JONATHAN BERENT:
Yeah, all right.
SADHGURU: [CHUCKLING]
JONATHAN BERENT: Thank you
so much for joining us today,
Sadhguru.
I think the audience is
very interested in what
you have to say.
I guess to start, they define
inclusive consciousness.
I'd love to hear
your thoughts on--
SADHGURU: They
did not define it.
JONATHAN BERENT: They did not.
OK, well I was just going
to ask you what's missing.
[LAUGHTER]
So you can start.
SADHGURU: With all due respect,
they spoke about intent,
right intent.
They spoke about the
right kind of thoughts,
Emotions, attitudes, and
to some extent actions.
There is no
consciousness in this.
If we are understanding
that the way we think,
feel, and act is of
a consciousness, no.
It is lie.
We are mistaking a plant.
We are mistaking the
flower for the soil.
We are mistaking
expressions for the source.
This is something that's
happening everywhere,
not just here.
People think by
changing attitudes,
their consciousness will change.
No.
By changing attitudes,
certain actions
will change-- yes,
positive, beneficial.
But it is not truly
transformative.
Change will happen.
Transformation will not happen.
If I have to define a
distinction between change
and transformation, change
means the residue of the past
will still remain.
A transformation means
nothing of the past
will remain, which is
what is needed today
if you want to
create a new world,
if you want a new generation
to have a fresh life.
It's been expressed
in so many ways.
Being in this part of the world,
what their family are with,
generally, someone said,
leave the dead to the dead.
It's very significant.
This is not coming
out of recklessness.
This is not coming
out of unconcern.
But this is coming
with the concern
that you must be a fresh life.
You can learn many
things from the past
about how to conduct yourself.
But there is nothing to learn
from the past about how to be.
Because you are a
complete life by yourself.
You don't have to learn how
to be a life from the past.
Maybe you have to learn
how to be a good engineer.
Maybe you have to learn
how to be something else
in the society from the past.
But you don't have to learn
how to be a life from the past,
because past has
nothing to do with this.
This is a fresh life, and
this is a complete life.
Consciousness is that
dimension, which is
the very source of who we are.
Our intentions, our actions,
our thoughts, and our attitudes
are a consequence of that.
Or in other words, we are
trying to fix the consequence
without fixing the source.
Now all these distinctions
of variety of things
that they said, gender
discriminations,
racial discriminations,
every kind, OK?
Somebody is Hindu,
somebody is a Muslim,
somebody is a Googler--
it becomes a religion
after some time, believe me.
[LAUGHTER]
Second generation, they
will become a religion
by themselves.
Yes.
I'm saying you will see a
football match going on.
It's like a religion,
two different clubs.
They're willing to fight
and kill each other.
Just a game. [CHUCKLING] So
where does this come from?
See, the nature of
being human is this.
If you give me two minutes.
There are four
dimensions of our mind.
In modern societies, the
nature of our education
has constipated our
mind in such a way
because we are just largely
using just one dimension,
which we call as the intellect.
The other dimensions
of mind, if I
have to use Indian
terminology, it
means buddhi, ahankara,
manas, and chitta.
What buddhi means
is the intellect.
You do what you want.
The nature of the intellect is
to slice things open and see.
If you leave the world in
the hands of your intellect,
your intellect will chop
it into a million pieces
and will want to chop it
into further micro pieces
and want to chop it into
further micro-micro pieces,
depending upon how
sharp your intellect is.
The sharper your intellect,
the more you dissect the world.
You cannot stop it, because that
is the nature of the intellect.
And it's good.
So you must apply
intellect only to know
the material aspects of life.
You can't know life this way.
If I want to know you,
can I dissect you?
JONATHAN BERENT: No.
[LAUGHTER]
SADHGURU: But if a doctor wants
to know some aspect of you,
materially what's wrong with
you, he will take a biopsy.
And in a way, he opens
it up and looks at it.
It's OK on that level.
But I can't know you as a
person by dissecting you.
I can't know you as a
life by dissecting you.
I can know a part
of your body maybe.
Similarly, I can know parts of
the world to make use of it.
But I can't know life as such.
So intellect has
been over-energized
in the last 100, 150 years.
This is a European impact on
the rest of the world, where we
think our thought is supreme.
Someone went to the extent
of saying, I think so I exist
or whatever.
[LAUGHTER]
I want to ask all of
you a simple question.
Tell me, is it because
we exist we may think?
Or is it because
we think we exist?
Which way is it?
Hello?
Because we exist, we may
think, because people
are in such a state of
mental diarrhea all the time.
Nonstop it's going on.
They think it's more of an
existence than existence.
But my head is
all the time empty
unless I want to
think about something.
So I know a thought
is not necessary.
I can just live here
without a thought.
When I want, I will think.
Otherwise, I'll keep quiet.
Just like my hand--
if I want to use it,
otherwise I keep it here.
Similarly, you must be able
to do this with your mind.
Just because you lost control
over your mind and you think
it's everything
because it's entering
into every aspect of your
life where it has no business.
Thought has been
over-energized by people.
And the very nature of the
thought is such that if you
think it must be logical,
it cannot be any other way.
Well, what somebody is thinking
may look illogical to you,
but they have found
their own logic.
The most extreme person
that you have met,
within himself or herself,
they have their own logic.
Isn't it so?
They're not speaking illogically
as far as they're concerned.
They have found their
own kind of logic.
Logic means it needs two.
Logic means it needs division.
Now logically you're
trying to arrive
at inclusive consciousness.
It's not going to happen.
Because you're using
a knife to stitch.
This is not going to work.
If you use a knife to
cut, it's efficient.
You use a knife to
stitch things together,
you will only tear
it up further.
So my thought and
your thought, I
am telling you, whatever
great meetings you have-- I've
been to every kind of peace
conference on the planet.
What happens there?
[LAUGHTER]
It's just short of war.
[LAUGHTER]
After some time, it heats up.
But on the second day
anyway, it's all over.
They all get drunk in the
evening, and they go home.
[LAUGHTER]
If you make them stay
there for a week,
I'm telling you right there,
there will be a battle.
Yes, it is true.
I'm not saying this
with any disdain.
I made a sincere
effort to participate
in all these
conferences at one time,
believing they're
going to lead to peace.
But eight years ago, I decided
I will again go to these events,
because people are professional
conference attendees.
[LAUGHTER]
They're making a
living out of it.
It's not about peace.
So the next dimension
of intelligence
is called as ahankara.
Ahankara means identity.
This is important.
In modern societies, we have
not cultured our children
to culture their identity.
When I say identity, the
fundamental identity for you
is always your body.
There's a racial thing that
concerns him and concerns
all of us.
I'm darker than him, you know.
I face it all the
time, joyfully.
But I face it everywhere I go.
I have extra features which
make me further discriminated.
[LAUGHTER]
But our first identity
is with the body.
When we identify with the
body, the color of the skin
also becomes part of it.
Why do we identify
with the body?
Because our experience
is limited to this.
If you say me, you
mean this, isn't it?
Because you experience of
life is limited to this,
naturally you are identified
with this, and this is you,
and this is how you look.
Somebody looks so
different, whether in gender
or because of race or because of
maybe just fashion-- who knows
what makes them different?
But suddenly, this
is me, that's you.
It's established.
But we sit here in this hall.
Whatever the color of our
skin, whatever our religion,
whatever our agenda, we
are inhaling and exhaling
the same air.
But we have no issue.
Body has no problem.
But the identity has a problem.
You are identified
with something.
We have not cultured
our children
right from an early
age that your identity
should be universal.
This is something in
India traditionally.
Before you start
education for a child,
there is something
called [INAUDIBLE],
where the first chant
that they must do
is that my identification
is with the entire cosmos.
Without this, you should not
give education to a child.
That is the understanding.
Because education is
seen as an empowerment.
You should not
empower a person who
has limited identifications.
Because it doesn't
matter whether it's
of individual nature or
of family or of community
or race, religion, nation.
It doesn't matter.
Once you have limited identity,
you will cause disharmony.
You will cause cruel
things thinking
you're doing the right thing.
I know the debate always goes
to ISIS and things like this.
I want you to understand this.
These people, looking
at their actions,
you may be sitting here-- I know
I'm getting into a minefield.
Sitting here, all of us think,
these are horrible people.
But you must understand this.
They believe they're
doing the greatest thing
that a human being can do.
They're working for God.
There can be no better employer.
[LAUGHTER]
Not Google-- God.
[LAUGHTER]
JONATHAN BERENT: Who
you've never prayed to.
SADHGURU: [CHUCKLING]
That's my problem.
[LAUGHTER]
What I'm saying, you
should have seen this.
I'm sure you guys
can Google anything.
You must see there is a press
meet that the Afghan Taliban is
conducting with the
international media
just before the United
States invaded Afghanistan.
All these young guys with long
beards and big, big turbans,
they're all sitting like this.
And they're asking questions.
Just then they bomb
that Buddha statue,
and they made this thing
that girls should not
go to school and
many other things.
So these kind of
questions are coming.
Whatever you ask them, they say,
in our holy book, our prophet,
our God said this, this, this.
We're just doing that.
I was just watching those
guys, I had tears in my eyes.
These are wonderful guys.
These are guys who
are willing to die
for what they believe in.
But they've been screwed
up by the scriptures.
Yes, these are
wonderful people who
are willing to die for what they
think is that right, all right?
A man who is willing to
die for what he thinks
is right is a great man.
But look at the
consequence, simply
because of limited identity.
So there's ahankara.
This identity is what
wills the intellect.
If you hold the right
identity, from an early age
if it's brought into us
that your identity is
with the entire
cosmos-- because nothing
happens here without
everything's involvement
in you.
We are sitting on this
round planet, which
is spinning and moving
at a great speed
in the middle of nowhere.
You don't know where it begins,
where it ends, this thing.
And look at us sitting
here and talking.
How many forces-- how many
forces in the existence
are keeping you and me
in place on this chair?
So there is no way we can exist
without the involvement of all
this.
But talking about
this intellectually
is not going to
help, because you
try to understand
intellectually,
you're using a knife.
Further you will divide.
So there is another dimension
of intelligence within you,
which can make you come
to an experience of this.
The next dimension
of intelligence
is called as manas.
Manas means a huge
silo of memory.
There are eight types
of memory in this.
I will just name them.
I'm not going through this.
There's eight types
of memory are referred
to as elemental memory, atomic
memory, evolutionary memory,
karmic memory, sensory memory,
and in the karmic memory
there are two types.
One is called [INAUDIBLE].
That is a bank of memory,
which determines the very shape
and size of your body.
There's another one which
is right now in play, so two
dimensions of karmic memory.
Inarticulate memory,
that there is
a memory but you
can never articulate
but it's finding expression.
When you see a chair,
you know this is where
you should sit, not there.
You didn't think about
it, because there
is a memory in you that
this is where you must sit.
When you see a glass, you know
this is how you must hold.
This is not simple.
Without this knowledge,
you cannot build this.
There is an enormous
memory which
allows you to do almost
everything automatically.
Because an inarticulate memory
is constantly in action.
And that is articulate
memory, which
is a very minuscule
part of your memory.
The next dimension of
intelligence is most important.
This is called as chitta.
This is an intelligence
without an iota of memory
in it, unsullied by memory.
See, memory means a boundary.
You guys are always
dealing with information.
Today you're in technology.
I think memory does
not mean what's here.
Memory means-- chh--
all over the place.
Memory is a boundary.
What I know is
always a boundary.
What I do not know is a
limitless possibility,
isn't it?
We have misunderstood
the power of ignorance.
[CHUCKLING]
Our knowledge is always
bound within boundaries.
Our ignorance is boundless.
So always in the
yogic system, we
identify with our ignorance,
never with our knowledge.
This is something we must
do in a technology company.
Because that's where
the possibility is.
That is where the new terrain
is, in your ignorance,
not in your knowledge.
So chitta is
unsullied by memory.
It's just pure intelligence.
Right now, if you eat an apple,
it turns into a human being.
You cannot do it
with your brains.
Even your brains were created
by what you eat, isn't it?
There is an
intelligence here, which
is capable of transforming
anything to this, because it
is making use of the
memory and the manas
and making this happen.
But the most important dimension
of your intelligence is chitta.
In today's education systems,
in today's social conditions,
there is no effort
to dip into deeper
dimensions of our intelligence.
We're just too enamored
with our own intellect
and now using this knife
to stitch everything.
JONATHAN BERENT: Well, you
should know that even at Google
when we interview people,
we have something called GCA
that we look for, which is
General Cognitive Ability.
I suppose that that would fall
into that intellect dimension.
Most of us weren't raised where
we were told from an early age
to identify with the cosmos.
So is there any hope for us?
Or are we lost?
SADHGURU: See, identifying
with the cosmos is just
another thought.
As a thought, it
doesn't do much.
It makes people a
little airy brained
and they'll start acting funny.
You become New Agey.
You know, I love the cosmos.
[LAUGHTER]
It's very easy to
love the cosmos
because it's not here with you.
[LAUGHTER]
If you've got to love
somebody next to you,
there's lots of problems.
[LAUGHTER]
See, this wanting to
set up boundaries,
the instinct of wanting to
set up boundaries, is so deep.
You see a dog peeing
all over the place
not because he has
some urinary problem.
He's building a kingdom.
[LAUGHTER]
It's a pee kingdom, but
it's a kingdom, all right?
He's building a kingdom.
Every human being is
also doing the same thing
because there are two
dimensions of your intelligence.
One is designed to
create self-preservation.
One aspect of your
intelligence is
designed for self-preservation,
which is your intellect.
The chitta, that dimension
of the intelligence
is designed to make you expand.
Once you have come
as a human being,
this is your issue
fundamentally.
Whoever you are, whatever you
are right now in your life,
you want to be something more.
If that something more happens,
you want to be something more.
If that something more happens,
you want to be something more.
I'm sure you guys want to
set up Google Maps for Mars.
Yes, if that happens
for the entire universe
if it's possible.
Because this is the
nature of being human.
There is one dimension which
always wants to expand.
Another dimension always
wants to build walls.
You build a wall.
You feel safe.
After two days, you
feel you understand
the walls of
self-preservation are also
the walls of self-imprisonment.
You want to break
it, you break it,
and you put a new wall there,
and you think this is great,
this is freedom.
After some time, you
feel that's not it,
and you want to expand it.
These two dimensions are
not opposing each other.
They're are not diametrically
opposite to each other.
They are complementary.
There is only one thing about
you which needs preservation.
That's your physicality.
This body must be preserved,
because if you break it,
you can't fix it.
Everything else
in you right now--
suppose I take out all your
thoughts, all your emotions,
all your ideas, all your
philosophies, all your belief
systems, and trashed them right
here, break them into pieces.
You can come up with a
fresh start, fresh emotions,
fresh belief systems, fresh
philosophies just like that.
So all those must
be every day put
into the-- what you call
them-- the shredder.
You must have a pulverizer,
because shredder
means they'll go again,
pick it up, and fix it.
You must have a pulverizer for
yourself before you go to bed.
Today's ideas, today's
thoughts, today's
belief systems,
today's experiences,
you must leave the
dead to the dead.
JONATHAN BERENT:
Let me challenge.
Let me challenge that.
Because I thought something
that [INAUDIBLE] said
was very interesting.
And she said almost the
wound becomes the healer.
Or sometimes you hear the
wounded become the healer.
So you can take some
of that, can't you not
transform some of those things
that have been difficult
and use that energy,
use your intellect
to do something for good.
SADHGURU: So the experience
of life can cause two things.
All this is nice when
things, small things happen.
When really major
things happen to you,
the wounds of so big
for people that they
don't heal in a lifetime,
many of them, OK?
So the choice is just this.
The experience of life,
whatever happens to us,
you can either make it into
your wound or into wisdom.
You can either become wise
or you can become wounded.
If you become wise, you
will become a solution.
If you become wounded, you will
also become one more problem.
It's a choice we have.
JONATHAN BERENT: So where
does this wisdom come from?
How do we access--
if we're so used
to using one of these
four, and probably
like most people
in the audience,
I wasn't even aware that there
are these other dimensions,
what's a starting point?
What's a way to access
beyond the intellect?
SADHGURU: See, it's like this.
Right now there is
water in this glass.
This is definitely not you.
Yes?
But if you drink
it, it becomes you.
What is it that you
did with this water
that something that's
not you became you?
When you say inclusiveness, this
is all you're talking about,
something that is not you.
You want to make it a part
of you in some way, isn't it?
So this is right now not you.
But if you drink
it, it becomes you.
So what is it that
happened technically
for you, peace, justice?
Right now I'm asking you--
you take your right hand,
all of you.
Take your right hand and
touch your left hand.
Is that you?
Hello?
Touch the chair on
which you're sitting.
Is that you?
How do you know this?
What is the basis of this?
How do you know this is
me and this is not me?
Here there are sensations.
Here there are no sensations.
Or in other words,
what you are saying
is, whatever is in the
boundaries of my sensation
is me, whatever it is outside
the boundaries of my sensation
is not me, isn't it?
Right now this is not me.
If I drink it and include
it into the boundaries
of my sensation, this
becomes me, isn't it?
Now, the boundaries
of your sensations
are such that if you make your
life energies very exuberant,
you will see they will expand.
If it happened, you suppose--
it should have happened
to many of you-- there
was a moment in your life
when you felt so joyful
tears came to you.
Has it happened to you?
You were so joyful or
loving tears came to you.
At such a moment, if
you take your hand
and just put it six to eight
inches away from your body
right here, you will
feel sensations.
If such things did
not happen to you,
I can do something
horrible to you
so that you
experience something.
[CHUCKLING] We can chop
off your right leg.
If you chop off your right
leg, the leg is gone,
but still the sense of
the leg may remain intact
for a period of time.
You've heard of
this phantom leg.
Leg is physical.
Leg is gone.
But the sensory
leg is still there.
This means sensory body
has a structure of its own.
If your energies become
very vibrant and exuberant
within you, your
sensory body expands.
Suppose my sensory body
became as big as this.
Now you'll become a part
of me and my experience.
If it became as
big as this hall,
all these people become a
part of me and my experience.
Because my sensory
body has stretched.
We can do a small experiment.
You OK to be a Guinea?
Hello?
AUDIENCE: Yes.
SADHGURU: What we will do
is-- with you eyes closed
you have to do this, but
right now observe me.
What do you do is
with your eyes closed,
just rub this briskly like this
for two minutes, let me say,
one minute-- briskly.
OK, keep your eyes closed,
and just hold your thumbs
three to four inches away
from each other with your eyes
closed.
Something happening
between your hands?
Hello?
AUDIENCE: Yes.
SADHGURU: OK, please
open your eyes.
So just a little
bit of rubbing-- you
didn't do it for a minute,
either, just 20 seconds.
You rub it, and suddenly
something happening
between these two hands, simply
because of vigorous movement
the sensory body has expanded.
You can feel something
happening right here.
You know why people are rubbing
each other all the time?
[LAUGHTER]
It's an effort.
It's an effort to include
someone who is not
a part of you as yourself.
If this happens--
[LAUGHING] If this
happens in a very
basic, physical level,
we call this sexuality.
If it happens emotionally,
we call this love.
If it happens mentally, it gets
labeled as greed and ambition
and conquest.
If it happens on the level
of your sensory body,
we call this yoga.
Now, yoga means union.
Union does not mean
you cause the union.
Anyway, this happening is one.
You are allowed yourself
to experience it.
That means the walls
of self-preservation
you loosened up a
little bit, that's all.
Why you want somebody
close to you,
why you want a loud one
in your life is somewhere
you want to loosen the
walls of self-preservation
where you don't have to worry
about protecting yourself.
Suddenly you feel one with them.
And once you feel one
with them, in some way
you want to be in
touch with them.
Because you're trying to loosen
up your sensory body in such
a way that you can experience
that which is not a part of you
as a part of yourself.
Now, this need not limit it
to be one person or anything
like that.
This need not be
biologically connected.
If you can sit here with your
life at its peak of exuberance,
you will experience the
whole universe as yourself.
Then we say you are a yogi.
JONATHAN BERENT: And you had
that experience 34 years ago.
You talked about it a
little bit yesterday.
I'm just curious
for those of us that
haven't had a peak
experience where we've
had this sense of union, what
advice, what step would you
take if we are of the place
where we think, all right,
I'm willing to try this out.
I'm a skeptic.
I don't know what
the sensory body is.
I had a little taste of it here.
What would be the next step if
we wanted to try for ourselves?
SADHGURU: Let's describe
what is being skeptic.
Being a skeptic means you don't
believe anything unless it
truly makes sense to you.
Most people are just
downright suspicious.
But they think they're skeptics.
They don't qualify as skeptics.
They're just suspicious
about everything.
This comes from a
certain fear within you
that everything around
you can be wrong.
Suspicion means you made a
conclusion about something
that you do not know.
Believing something positively
or believing something
negatively is not different.
They're the same things.
You believe something
that you do not know.
Skeptic means whatever I
do not know, I do not know.
I don't assume
things in my life.
What I know, I know.
I think everybody should
come to this much sense
and straightness in our life,
that what I know, I know,
what I do not know,
I do not know.
It's perfectly fine.
"I do not know" is a
tremendous possibility.
Only if you see "I do
not know," the longing
to know, seeking to know, and
the possibility of knowing
arises.
So if you are a skeptic,
you are an ideal candidate.
If you're a believer,
we have to debrief you.
[LAUGHTER]
JONATHAN BERENT: Get
the shredder out.
SADHGURU: Because you
assume too many things
that you do not know.
You know the
geography of heaven,
though you can't operate
the local Google map.
[LAUGHTER]
JONATHAN BERENT: OK, well,
we'll be taking questions,
so be thinking
about the question
you might want to have.
I think one more
question I want to ask
is, how do we-- we've been
talking about some things that
are very big.
I think they're promising.
But yet think about the
conversation we had earlier.
And how do we tie these
two things together?
How do they relate in your mind?
SADHGURU: Those of you
who are interested,
because right now we
must understand this.
Your intellect needs data
to function-- yes or no?
Hello?
AUDIENCE: Yes.
Without data, your
intellect is useless.
It needs data.
That's why you guys
are in the business.
Everybody knows
everything in the universe
right now, not because
they went there and saw it.
Because they googled it up.
Because intellect feels
stupid without data.
Now, the nature of the
intellect is like this only,
that it feeds upon the data.
Where does the data come to you?
What you see, what you hear,
what your smell, what you
taste, what you touch.
In the video nature of things,
these five sense organs,
which are the main agents of
gathering information for you,
are all outward bound.
You can see what's around you.
You can't roll your eyeballs
inward and scan yourself.
You can hear this.
So much activity here.
You cannot hear this.
If an ant crawls upon your
hand, you can feel it.
So much blood flowing.
You cannot feel it.
Because in the very
nature of things,
your sense organs
are outward bound.
You cannot use these
to turn inward.
There is another
dimension of perception,
which needs to be activated.
Why is it not active in me?
Because the sense organs
are instruments of survival.
They come on when you're born.
Whatever kind you are.
Anyway, it comes on.
It comes on for a dog, pig,
cat, elephant-- for everybody.
Similarly, it comes on for us.
Whatever is needed for survival
for any biological creature,
it turns on at the time of
birth because it's needed.
Otherwise you wouldn't survive.
But anything beyond
survival process,
without striving it would not
have ended your life, isn't it?
Anything that you know from
an alphabet to whatever else
you know-- I'm sorry.
I'm not talking
about your brand.
I'm talking of
the real alphabet.
Anything that you
know, from reading
to writing to using a computer
or singing a song or whatever,
you know these things
with certain striving.
I want you to remember when you
were three, four years of age,
that damn A, how complicated it
was, as if it were not enough,
there were two versions of
it, which freaked the hell out
of you.
Today you can write
with your eyes closed.
Still, there are others
in the world who did not
strive in that direction.
Even today, you
ask them to write,
they will struggle [INAUDIBLE].
Without striving,
anything beyond survival
would not enter your life
and will not enter your life.
So turning inward is
not a survival process.
So there are two fundamental
dimensions within you,
instinct of self-preservation,
longing to expand limitlessly.
Both true for a human being.
This is essentially a human
problem on the planet.
No other creator wants
to expand limitlessly.
They are only
thinking of survival.
Their stomach
full, life settled.
For you, stomach empty,
only one problem.
Stomach full, 100 problems.
[LAUGHTER]
Yes, so all your trouble
begins after stomach gets full,
isn't it?
Because this is longing
to expand limitlessly.
In the evolutionary
process, we can say this.
But every other creature,
nature has drawn two lines
within which they live and die.
They're quite final.
But once you become human,
there is only a bottom line.
There is no top line.
So what humanity is
suffering and confused
about is not their bondage.
They're suffering their freedom.
What do you do with that?
[CHUCKLING]
JONATHAN BERENT: Wow.
All right, well, I'm
going to invite anyone--
SADHGURU: All these identities
of religion, race, caste,
creed, nationality
is they're trying
to set their own bondage.
Because no bondage has been
given to you by nature.
You're trying to set
your own bondage so
that you feel secure somehow.
JONATHAN BERENT: And so that's
part of the motivation that's
driving the attacks.
SADHGURU: All these
identities, being identified
with the color of your
skin, with whatever nonsense
you believe in and nationality--
just a cloth, a flag.
People will stand there and
tears will come to them.
Just look at that.
It really amazes me.
And on one level,
it's beautiful.
On another level,
it's super ugly
that you get identified with
all these kind of things.
People get identified with
a symbol, with a word,
with just about
anything, all right?
So you are trying to create
some artificial boundary
of your own.
Once you create this boundary
and you have another boundary,
I have my boundary, when
they meet, we clash.
JONATHAN BERENT: So if
you have a question,
please go ahead and
come to the mic.
And again, we're trying
to think about this topic
of inclusive consciousness.
You've heard a lot of
things shared from our VPs
and also from this conversation.
So let's hear what's on
your mind based on all this.
Over here.
AUDIENCE: Hello.
So I'm involved in organizing
a peace conference in India.
And it's a very
grassroots-led effort,
so no politicians, thank God.
And I found it interesting
that you said you stopped
attending peace conferences.
So I'd love to hear from you
any advice on what we should do
or what we should avoid
to make this small effort
a success for the people
who are attending.
SADHGURU: See, when you say,
no politicians, thank God,
you're just not attending
to the source of problems.
[LAUGHTER]
Politicians are not
another breed of people.
A democratic society
means tomorrow you
may become the president
of this nation.
That's what it means, yes?
If you're willing to
stick your neck out,
you may become the
president of this country
or a prime minister
of another country.
So a politician did
not drop from the sky.
He is not some other creature.
He is just like you and me.
He stuck his neck out, which you
and me are not willing to do.
Let's admit this.
It's not an easy thing.
It's easy to sit
down and comment,
but it's not an easy thing
to try to run a nation.
It's complex, believe me.
So you must have politicians.
But you must have
am atmosphere where
it's not political in
nature, where they will also
let their hair down and
talk like common citizens
or human beings.
But without them, what
are you going to change?
So peace conferences, if
it's just an entertainment,
you can gather your friends
and have a peace conference.
But if you want peace on the
planet, the most important
politicians, the most powerful
politicians in this world
must be there.
Only then there is a
possibility of peace, isn't it?
Otherwise it's
just entertainment.
I'll tell you.
I was in a very important
peace conference.
There were 42 Nobel laureates,
each one of them pulling out
10, 20, one of them 44, 45 pages
of printed sheets without even
looking up at anybody, just went
on reading their paid speeches
from morning to evening.
And slowly, the hall
was becoming peaceful.
[LAUGHTER]
In one afternoon, the
second day afternoon,
I'm sitting right here in the
front row, and I look around.
Literally everybody has fallen
asleep except the security
man who was standing there
and me, the idiot, who
is sitting up
there and believing
there's going to be world peace
because of this conference
and sitting up there, alert,
listening to every word.
Then I looked around.
Everybody's become
very peaceful.
They've been having
late-night parties,
and they're all very peaceful.
Then when my turn to
speak came, I said, see,
I've heard so much
peace [INAUDIBLE] today.
I want to ask you, can
all of you or any of you
put your hand on
your heart and say
you are genuinely
peaceful in your life?
They were straight enough.
They said, no, we
are not peaceful.
I said, if you cannot
make your mind peaceful,
how the hell are you going
to make the world peaceful?
What's happening in
the world is just
a larger manifestation of
the nonsense that's happening
in our heads, isn't it?
If you and me were truly
peaceful human beings,
do we have to worry about
you and me fighting someday?
Hello?
Whatever the issues, we'll
sit down and handle it, right?
Because there is violence in us,
now we have to have a boundary.
Here there's a barricade
just in case I get violent
or you get violent.
[LAUGHTER]
JONATHAN BERENT: How about
from this side over there.
AUDIENCE: Hi.
Just a very basic
question-- you mentioned
that before we start
educational of our children,
we should try and make sure that
their identity is the cosmos.
But how do you do
that then we ourselves
are so hard-wired--
I mean, how do we
tell our children that
their identity is more
when my own thinking
is so limited, when
in my own identity
is so limited?
How do I pass something
like that to a child
when I am not capable
of doing that myself?
SADHGURU: Anyway, whatever
you tell your children,
your children don't
listen to you [INAUDIBLE].
[LAUGHTER]
If you have them on the way, I'm
telling you, forewarning you.
[LAUGHTER]
They don't listen to a
damn thing that you say.
But they observe you.
They pick up things from
the way you are behaving.
If you don't show
that in your life,
your teachings will be
hated after some time.
Yes.
See, this is most unfortunate.
I just see this happening
to so many people.
When they have a
child, these parents,
they did everything
possible to the child.
They thought this
is their life, not
just changing diapers, so many
things, everything possible.
They taught they're
living for this person.
As this person becomes bigger
and in their over-concern
about how this child
should be, trying
to teach him the best things
in the universe, which is not
true in their lives, slowly
you will see by the time
he becomes a teenager,
he avoids them.
If he wants to share
something, if he
wants to listen to some
sense, he goes to his friends,
never to his parents.
Not everybody, I'm saying,
but largely it is happening.
Because they don't make sense.
They talk things that
doesn't make sense.
People keep asking me, Sadhguru,
how did you become like this?
What is this [INAUDIBLE]?
Did you display your life
and you are like this?
This is all I did.
I strived to remain uneducated.
It's not easy, believe me.
From the day you are born,
just everybody around you
is trying to teach
you something that
did not work in their life.
[LAUGHTER]
You can clearly see it's
not worked in their life.
Because if it had
worked, they should
have been joyful and ecstatic.
It's not worked.
They've become long-faced.
But they're teaching you
all kinds of best things,
louder universe.
It's not going to work.
You don't have to say a word.
I will tell you-- is it OK
if I can share something?
JONATHAN BERENT: Sure.
SADHGURU: I brought
up my girl alone.
At the age of seven,
she lost her mother.
So one rule I put-- she's been
traveling with me since she's
4 and 1/2 years of age, OK?
I'm sorry since she is 4
and 1/2 months, not years.
4 and 1/2, I sent her to school.
But as a little infant,
she traveled with me.
And I made one rule.
Where ever I went, I always
stayed with many, many families
all over the country.
I always told
everybody, never teach
her anything, no ABC, no 1,
2, 3, no rhyme, nor nonsense.
I don't want anybody
to teach her anything.
People thought this is
strange or [INAUDIBLE].
And I said, just leave her.
By the time she
was 18 months, she
was speaking three
languages fluently
because nobody messed with her.
[LAUGHTER]
And she grew up joyfully,
went to school, everything.
At the age of 13, something
she was disturbed at school,
and she came back home.
And one day she said,
you're teaching everybody
so many things.
You're not telling me anything.
I said, well, I don't
do anything unsolicited.
[LAUGHTER]
I've been waiting.
It's all right.
Now you come.
There's only one thing
you need to know.
I said, never to
look up to anybody.
She looked at me,
"what about you?"
kind of thing in her face.
I said, not even me.
Never look up to anybody.
Never look down on anybody.
That's how you have
to do with life.
Never look up to
anything or anybody.
Never look down on
anything or anybody.
Suddenly you will see
life just the way it is.
Right now, something is
high, something is low,
something is God, something
is devil, something is virtue,
something is sin.
You divided the universe in
a million different ways,
and then you're
trying to fix it.
It's not going to work.
The instrument which broke
the world into pieces
is your intellect.
With that, you're trying
to fix everything.
It's not going to work.
Now, this racism
thing, it's disastrous
that in 21st century, every
day there's a shooting.
I think this has been
happening all the time.
Only now because of cell phones
and Facebook it's out there
and everybody knows.
I think it's been happening
right through, all right?
At one time, it was
happening legally.
Now it's been
happening illegally.
Now, these kind of
things are happening
because we're using our
intellect to fix the problem.
You're using a knife to stitch.
This is not going to work.
You just live that way.
Whichever way you live,
your children will grasp it,
and they'll make a sense out
of that in their own way.
And maybe they'll fall
this way or that way
because you are not the
only influence upon them.
You better know that.
You're going to be a mother.
You must know this.
You are not the only influence.
There are all kinds of
people, and there's Google.
[LAUGHTER]
AUDIENCE: Saghguru, you talked
about identity and inclusive
consciousness.
So I want to know, let's
say like you talked
about the sensory
body and feeling
that everyone is part
of you kind of thing.
So where does the role
of action come in?
So if I do something, do
I identify myself with it
what I did?
And let's say if I
feel that you are
or everyone is part of like
me or the whole cosmos,
and you do something.
Is you doing something,
cosmos doing something,
me doing something?
Where does the action
come in the picture?
SADHGURU: See, this is the
beauty of our existence.
In this existence,
in this cosmos,
we are not even a speck of dust.
That small we are.
But still, creation has
given as an individuality,
an individual nature that we
can experience these things.
But countless number of people
who lived on this planet
before you and me came.
Where are they?
They're all topsoil.
They've become part of
the Earth, isn't it?
So if you get it
from me today, you
can transform your life,
that really everything
is a part of you, and you
are a part of everything,
not as a thought,
but experientially.
If you can experience
everything around you
as you experience the 5,
10 fingers of your hands,
then you will see life becomes
tremendously beautiful.
Otherwise, anyway one day you
will get it from the maggots.
But it will be a
bit too late lesson.
But everybody will get
it one day, isn't it?
Hello?
When people bury
us, we are going
to get the point that we
are part of the Earth.
Right now, we forget it.
We can live sensibly.
So this must come
from an experience.
If you come from a
thought, again you're
thinking how is inclusiveness
and individuality existing
at the same time?
That is the beauty
of this existence.
It is the filth which has
become the flower, isn't it?
Yes or no?
It is the filth which
has become the flower.
In your mind filth is
different, flower is different,
but in existence filth
and flower are same.
They are not different, just
different ways of existing.
For you nose, filth
doesn't feel good.
But if you were a pig,
you would like the filth.
Nothing wrong with that.
Because it's the same thing.
It's the same thing or no?
Hello?
It's the same thing, isn't it?
It is just that in our mind
and with our intellect,
we are breaking everything.
This breaking is only a
psychological reality.
This is not existentially true.
See, we started a huge movement
called Project GreenHands.
I think something a little
bit was there in this.
This happened like this.
When I saw that entire southern
India was turning into desert
very rapidly, rivers
were drying up,
ground water went from
like 100, 150 feet
to almost 1,500
feet and palm trees,
the crowns were falling off, we
thought we must do something.
Then I did this to them.
One day I called-- I
went to a small village
and called for people.
About 5,000 people turned up.
So I made them-- this is around
11 o'clock in the morning.
The weather is not like
this in southern India.
It's hot, summer sun.
I made them sit there.
Close by, there were
about five rain trees,
three of them really large ones.
You've see rain trees?
Some of them can be
as large as an acre.
It's shade.
So three of them are
really large ones.
Two of them were medium-sized
ones, very attractive.
I would love to be
under those trees.
But I made them sit
here in hot sun.
And I went on talking,
stretching the talk,
telling them stories,
telling them jokes.
They were all very
enthusiastic in the beginning.
Slowly-- if you're walking
around, you won't feel the sun.
If you just sit under the
sun, it just really gets you.
About 1 and 1/4,
1 and 1/2 hours,
they were really going away.
They're thinking, what's
wrong with this Sadhguru?
He's just frying us in the sun.
Then I said, come, and I
took them under the tree.
Ah!
Everybody.
Suddenly, you know
what is a tree.
Otherwise you were
thinking of how
to make furniture out of this.
Now suddenly you
know what's a tree.
I made them sit
down there and read.
It's a certain spiritual
process that I set up,
a process for them where I
told them, what you exhale,
trees are inhaling.
What they exhale,
you are inhaling.
Once they experienced
it, now you
can't stop them
from planting trees.
They planted over
28 million trees.
And you can't stop them.
They changed the entire culture.
But when this happened to
me about 9, 10 years ago,
I went back to my [INAUDIBLE]
city, which I had not
gone and done any work there,
I had never spoken there,
I avoided this because
my family lives there.
I wanted to be anonymous in
that town, not recognized.
But because of the
Google and stuff,
I got recognized everywhere.
So when I went there, they
insisted I must do something.
I called for a program.
All kinds of people turned up,
my kindergarten school friends,
teachers, my college teachers,
school teachers, everybody.
When I spoke and
all this happened,
and my English teacher came up
to me from school and she said,
now I understand
why you wouldn't
let me teach Robert Frost.
I said, ma'am, why would
I not let you teach Frost?
I like Frost.
I have some poetry
in his own voice.
I said I like Frost.
Why would I not let you teach?
Don't you remember?
You didn't let me teach Frost.
Then I remembered.
One day she came up,
and we were always
studying English poems
and English literature.
Suddenly she introduced
this American poet and said,
this is Robert Frost.
He's a great guy.
And she started out
the poem. "Woods
are lovely, dark and deep."
I said stop.
[LAUGHTER]
I said, a man who
calls a tree a wood,
I'm not going to have
anything to do with this guy.
[LAUGHTER]
She said, no, no,
Robert Frost is
a great-- I don't care
who the hell he is.
He calls tree a wood.
I'm not going to
listen to that guy.
I didn't let her teach.
We chose Longfellow instead of
Frost because I didn't let her
teach Frost that year/
So I'm saying if you call a
tree a wood, it's a commodity.
This water, this Earth
that you walk upon,
the people that you see,
these are not commodities.
This is life, isn't it?
The air that you breathe,
the water that you drink,
the soil that you walk upon,
the trees that you sit under,
everything else in this world
is life and life-making material
for you.
If you forget this, you
will treat it as commodity.
If you experience this,
that this is actually
what is making
your life, then you
will see the most fantastic
thing about this universe.
Everything is one,
but everything
is separate at the same time.
That's what gives
us an experience.
That's why I can sit
here and talk to you.
Otherwise, how to talk to you?
JONATHAN BERENT: Maybe
one more question.
AUDIENCE: Hi, Sadhguru.
Thank you for coming.
So for me, one way to
achieve inclusiveness
is to see other
people as ourselves.
For example, right
now I know for sure
that you exist within me,
because your voice happens
within my head, your image.
SADHGURU: No, no no.
If voices are happening
within your head,
it means something else.
[LAUGHTER]
AUDIENCE: So your image
happens within me,
because it reflects
through my eyes and--
SADHGURU: You mean to say you
have nightmares every day?
[LAUGHTER]
AUDIENCE: Well, so my point
is, I see you within me.
That I know for sure.
But I wonder whether you
see me within you as well.
And if you answer
yes or no, then that
may be a belief, because
how do I know it's true?
SADHGURU: See, there are
two levels of reality here.
There is a
psychological reality,
and there's an
existential reality.
Existential reality
is not your making.
Psychological reality
is entirely your making.
But a large part of it
is unconsciously made,
so you believe it is real.
Whatever is true in your
psychological reality
may have some social
relevance but has
no existential relevance.
Right now, if I say you are
within me, you will feel good.
If I say I love you,
you'll feel good.
Maybe it's true for me.
Maybe it's true for you.
But it's not floating
around anywhere here, OK?
It's just my emotion
and your emotion.
Yes, it is nice that
our emotions are sweet,
our thoughts are sweet,
our actions are sweet.
It's wonderful if it is so.
But it has only psychological
and social relevance.
It has no existential relevance.
If you want to
know life, you have
to step out of this bubble
called psychological reality
and step into
existential reality.
Then only you have
a taste of life.
Otherwise, you are just a bundle
of thoughts, emotions, ideas,
opinions, and now I'm there in
there in all that. [CHUCKLING]
So what I would tell
all of you is instead
of thinking about it,
instead of analyzing it,
an experiential
dimension has to happen.
If you're willing to dedicate
28 to 30 hours of focused time,
we will give you tools
with which you can
make this happen for yourself.
This is not some empty talk.
This has happened to
millions of people.
This has worked.
And I must tell you,
first 21 years of my work,
as a rule I never
appeared in the media.
Of course, I didn't
have a website.
I never put up one poster or
banner or even a brochure.
Only by word of mouth
millions of people came.
Obviously it must
have worked for them
to bring their
family and friends.
And now I'm not
promising any miracle.
I'm not taking you to heaven.
I'm telling you the source
of all your problems is you,
not somebody else.
I'm saying it's hard talk.
It is not some miraculous
promise of going to heaven,
some La-La land is
there and everything
will be fine for you.
No.
In spite of that, people
came, because they
saw the transformation
within themselves.
And people around
them had to come.
There was no other way.
So I'm saying this is the
technology of well-being.
We are handling our external
well-being in a scientific way
through many means
of technology.
Why is it that we
are so crippled when
it comes to our interiority?
We are trying to handle
it through our emotions.
We are trying to handle it
through our philosophies.
We are trying to handle
it through our ideologies
and belief systems.
No, it's time you approach
this human mechanism
in a scientific manner,
how to make this
into a full-fledged possibility.
See, every life in
this world is only
trying to become a
full-fledged life,
whether it's a worm
or an insect or a bird
or an animal or a tree.
All they're striving for
is to become full-fledged.
But we know what is
a full-fledged worm.
We know what is a
full-fledged insect.
We know what is
full-fledged everything.
But we do not know what is
a full-fledged human being.
Because even if I make you the
king or queen of this planet
tomorrow, still you will ask
[INAUDIBLE] for the stars.
Because there is
something within you
which is longing to
become in finite.
If you are longing
for the infinite,
you can't go about
conquering space.
It's not going to get you there.
The finiteness to you has
come to you only because
of your identification
with your physicality.
Because the nature
of physicality
is a defined boundary.
Without a defined boundary,
there is no physical nature.
But is it true that
this physical body
you slowly accumulated?
Is it true?
Or were you born like this?
You accumulated this.
What you accumulate
can be yours.
It can never, ever be you.
Or in other words, you
are living your life
without experiencing the life
that you are even for a moment.
Your entire involvement is with
your physiology and psychology.
It's time it changes,
that you experience
the life that you are.
This life that you are
doesn't come with boundaries.
It's only the body.
It is boundaries, and you
must stick to the boundaries.
It's very important.
Don't expand it too much.
Thank you very much.
JONATHAN BERENT: Thank
you so much, Sadhguru.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you.
Thank you all.
