The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett - Sadhguru (World’s No.1 Guru) PREDICTS: "There Is A Mental Health Pandemic Coming! & We Are On The Brink Of Extinction!"

Episode Date: October 19, 2023

If you enjoy hearing about the spiritual aspects of life, I recommend you check out my conversation with Deepak Chopra, which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_pZ2D_nlD0 There is n...o meaning to life and there is no ‘you’, but knowing this is how you take control of your life both inside and out. In this new episode Steven sits down with world famous yogi, Sadhguru. Sadhguru is an Indian spiritual teacher who has been teaching yoga since 1982. He the founder and head of the non-profit spiritual organisation, the Isha Foundation, and has been named one of India’s 50 most influential people. He is the bestselling author of the books, ‘Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy’, ‘Karma: A Yogi's Guide to Crafting Your Destiny’ and ‘Death; An Inside Story’ In this conversation Sadhguru and Steven discuss topics, such as: Why we are wealthier than any other generation but are still unhappy The need for humanity to become conscious How to fight the mental health pandemic The coming suicide pandemic The price we pay for comfort How to raise human consciousness What he learned from his enlightenment Why people are miserable Human nature of being greedy and wanting to expand The technology we can use to expand consciousness What is the real 'you' How to never suffer again Why heaven is here and now What life really is Why compulsion is the main problem in life The need for a instruction manual for life Why people aren't thinking enough How to control everything inside you Why your emotions are in your hands Leaving his mother on her deathbed The ways that competition is a sickness Why trauma is an excuse How we only use one dimension of our intelligence The ways logic is ruining your life Why you should stop trying to be a good person How having a purpose is wrong Why there is no meaning to life You can purchase Sadhguru’s most recent book, ‘Karma: A Yogi's Guide to Creating Your Own Destiny: A Yogi's Guide to Crafting Your Destiny’, here: https://bit.ly/3ZZySVr Follow Sadhguru: Instagram: https://bit.ly/46vt340 Twitter: https://bit.ly/3RSjGYo Follow me: https://beacons.ai/diaryofaceo

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Quick one. Just wanted to say a big thank you to three people very quickly. First people I want to say thank you to is all of you that listen to the show. Never in my wildest dreams is all I can say. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd start a podcast in my kitchen and that it would expand all over the world as it has done. And we've now opened our first studio in America, thanks to my very helpful team led by Jack on the production side of things. So thank you to Jack and the team for building out the new American studio. And thirdly to to Amazon Music, who when they heard that we were expanding to the United States, and I'd be recording a lot more over in the States, they put a massive billboard in Times Square for the show. So thank you so much, Amazon Music. Thank you to our team. And
Starting point is 00:00:37 thank you to all of you that listened to this show. Let's continue. World Health Organization made a prediction, There will be a mental health pandemic. But this is not something that has to happen. If you want to fix this, you need to. One of the most viewed gurus in the world. His mission is to raise every human being to the peak of their potential. Who has built one of the largest non-profit organizations in the world. We have more than any other generation ever had in terms of comforts and technologies. Yet, we are miserable people. You want to be something more all the time. That's why you
Starting point is 00:01:11 suffer. Just tell me, is there one thing that human beings are not suffering? Somebody is poor, they suffer their poverty. Somebody becomes rich, they suffer the taxes. If they're not married, they suffer, get married. I don't have to say anything. You're making up a purpose to bring some meaning to your life. But if you try to enhance your activity without enhancing yourself, you'll only die of stress. What about trauma? You're finding an excuse for the way you are, which you yourself don't like. If something unpleasant happened to you, you have two choices. Either you can become wise or you can become wounded. Your experience of life is determined by you. If your happiness depends on what happens on the outside, you being happy is
Starting point is 00:01:56 a remote possibility. I want to be happy. What's step one? There is a simple practice which will only take 21 minutes and this is when human beings can do something absolutely fantastic. What is the mission that you're on? Well, today, you know, a few months ago, the WHO or the World Health Organization made a prediction that there is going to be a mental health pandemic. At least five years ago, none of us knew what is a pandemic.
Starting point is 00:02:41 Today, we all know what is a pandemic. And they've gone further and they said the next stage is there will be is a pandemic. Today, we all know what is a pandemic. And they've gone further and they said the next stage is there will be a suicide pandemic, just to put it in perspective. In 2020, when the pandemic was in full swing all over the world, in Japan, more people died of suicide than of the pandemic. So we don't really need the virus. That's all I'm saying. Because the virus has gotten into our head. Because once survival is taken care of,
Starting point is 00:03:13 if you do not become conscious, the way you sit, stand, breathe, think, emote, and function within yourself, if it does not become conscious, you will naturally head downhill. This is just September 23rd, I completed 40 years of this work. So 40 years ago, I was a young man, one afternoon, when I had nothing much to do, somehow an hour and a half gap was there for me in the work. I was working like morning, 5.30 in the morning,
Starting point is 00:03:48 12.00 in the night, building various kinds of businesses around me. So when I got a break, there's a small hill. This hill is a place where we go and for the youth. When I was a kid, I cycled up this hill. We camped on this hill. We partied on this hill. If we want to test our motorcycles I cycled up this hill. We camped on this hill. We partied on this hill. If you want to test our motorcycles, we went up the hill.
Starting point is 00:04:09 Just about anything you want to do, the youth, go to Chamundi Hill. This is the thing. I just walked up and sat on a rock. My eyes were still open. I thought it's just 10, 15 or 20 minutes. Suddenly I started feeling every cell in my body literally dripping ecstasy. I thought this lasted 15, 20 minutes. But when I came back to my normal senses, four and a half hours had passed. For the first time in my adult life, tears, me and tears were simply impossible.
Starting point is 00:04:44 Tears to a point my shirt is all wet. Then I shake my skeptical mind and ask what the hell is happening to me. All I knew was I had hit a gold mine and there was no context. Nobody around me could tell me what was happening with me. Nor did I know what was happening with me. This is something that most people will experience in their lives. On a certain day when they are very happy, 24 hours feels like 10 minutes. Another day when you're depressed, 10 minutes will feel like 24 hours.
Starting point is 00:05:18 Time is a very relative experience. When you're so blissed out, what is two minutes? It's eight hours, ten hours, just gone like that. So in about six to eight weeks, I came to some kind of stabilization within myself and started experimenting as to what is happening to me. Then I realized, if I keep a little distance from my physiological and psychological activity that's going on, if I just remove myself a little bit, then within a few seconds or within a couple of minutes, every cell in my body is bursting with ecstasy.
Starting point is 00:05:59 Now, this is not just my experience. Today, we have it measured out in Howard Medical School, how there is endocannabinoids are bursting out in people simply because they do a simple practice. So I made a plan in two and a half years' time, I will make the whole world blissed out. I knew the methodology. If you just keep a distance, it'll happen.
Starting point is 00:06:24 Forty years now. Today, people are saying we are touching over two billion people. Last year, our video views have been 3.51 billion. So, people think that's great. But no, that is less than half the population as far as I'm concerned because I started thinking I'll make the whole world blissed out. But people are committed to their miseries, either because of their beliefs or their ideologies
Starting point is 00:06:52 or their compulsive behavior within themselves. So it needs to happen to the whole world. This is, I don't see this as a mission. I just see this as an expression of my humanity. Suppose you hear a good joke will you tell somebody who's dear to you or will you cover yourself with a blanket and tell yourself of course i'd tell everybody yeah pretend it was that's all i'm trying to do no mission my experience i'm trying to just rub it off on people some stats for you that
Starting point is 00:07:23 support what you said earlier, someone dies by suicide in the UK every 90 minutes. 76% of them are male. The single biggest cause of death for men under the age of 45 here in the UK is by suicide. You said you spent a lot of time around business people and they appear to be the most unhappy and least blissful. No, I wouldn't say unhappy, stressed out. Stressed out. What is it that we're doing to that? Because I see myself, I must be in that category to some regard, because I've focused most
Starting point is 00:07:54 of my time on, you know, building businesses and, you know, I guess to some extent material things and success. So I must be part of that. That is a diversionary tactic in the sense. So you can think that survival means two meals a day. Or you can think survival means Bentley. So it'll keep you busy a little longer. Still survival process.
Starting point is 00:08:21 As long as the survival, there's an instinct of survival and there is a longing to expand within the human being. So for most human beings, these two things are mixed up. It is their instinct of survival which is finding expression as their longing to expand. It doesn't matter who you are, where you are, anybody. You want to be something more. If that something, anybody. You want to be something more. If that something more happens, you want to be something more. You can go on like this, how much more?
Starting point is 00:08:53 Whatever you want, if I make it true for you right now. Next moment, you'll be thinking, what more? Suppose I make you the king of, not England, the planet. Don't look at me hopefully. I will not commit such a blunder. Suppose we make you the king of this planet, will you be fulfilled? No, you will look at the moon,
Starting point is 00:09:17 you look at other planets, you look at the other galaxies. If I give you one galaxy, you will say, what about the other galaxy? Because there is something within a human being which wants to expand limitlessly. Is that not a good thing? Is that not the reason why? I didn't say it's not good.
Starting point is 00:09:35 I'm just saying you have constipated that longing to expand. That's why you suffer. When I say constipated, right now you want to expand limitlessly. Can you expand this body limitlessly? No. Please don't. Don't try. In the gym I've tried.
Starting point is 00:09:55 So physical expansion is a limited expansion and your longing is to expand limitlessly because there is something within you which doesn't like boundaries. The moment, see, if I imprison you in a five by five cubicle, you will feel terribly imprisoned. Then tomorrow I will announce your liberation and release you into a ten by ten cubicle. You will feel wonderful for two days. Then you will feel horribly imprisoned. Then we will release you into a hundred by hundred cubicle. You will be fine for a week. After that you will feel horribly imprisoned. Then we will release you into a hundred by hundred
Starting point is 00:10:26 cubicle. You will be fine for a week. After that, you will feel miserable. Doesn't matter where I set the boundary. Once you feel the boundary, you want to break it. So there is something intrinsic within you which doesn't like boundaries. This is a consequence of the evolution that you've gone through. Once your cerebral cortex flowered, now you don't like boundaries. But you're trying to expand in an infinite way by counting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Can you ever count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and one day say infinity? No. You'll only get into endless counting that's all that's happening that's why i said your longing to expand is a limitless process
Starting point is 00:11:11 but right now you're constipated you're going one little step at a time constipation means just this it happens little by little so so is it a case of trying to find a balance between your ambition to expand and to grow and be successful and peace why should you find balance you must expand okay so that's what i'm doing yes no what is the means to become a boundless expansion if you look at that then we say consciousness this is what raising human consciousness means. Because you realize physical expansion is not a realistic thing. We can make physical arrangements as we want, as we need for our convenience and comfort. But that is not the way to expand. Expansion needs to happen in a way that it's not physical in nature. Then you can also own the universe. I can also own the universe. When I look at the way we're living our lives in the Western world, you talked about the WHO.
Starting point is 00:12:12 They describe stress as an epidemic sometimes. And they say it's a major contributor to the diseases that we're undergoing. I'm trying to figure out in my life where I'm going, if there's anywhere i'm going wrong it because i've i'm building these businesses and i'm you know i sometimes ask myself to what end you know when you say where am i going wrong the wrong is this the fundamental wrong is this
Starting point is 00:12:40 what is not you if you think it's you, then you're trapped in that. If you think that I am this chair, because we sat on this chair for a period of time, if you think you are this chair, now this chair will go with you, stuck to your backside, wherever you go. That's a very ugly thing to do, isn't it? It's the same thing right now. Your thought, you think it's you. Your emotion, you think it's you. Your physiological stuff, you think it's you. It's pretty ugly. It's just because everybody's got this chair stuck to the backside,
Starting point is 00:13:14 it looks like it's normal. After all, it's convenient. Wherever you go, you don't have to look for a chair. You've got a chair fixed. If I identify with all these things, if I identify with this chair, you're saying that that becomes a weight. That's all. The thing is, your identity,
Starting point is 00:13:29 whatever you are identified with, that becomes a part of you. And is that what's causing us a lot of our despair? If you sit here just as life, what is your problem? As long as you're alive, everything is fine. Yeah. As long as you're alive, everything is fine. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:13:52 So the only problem is you're identified with things that you're not. So the whole lot of confusion about everything. So if you're successful, you suffer. If you're failure, you suffer. If you're… See, look at the thing. Is there one thing that human beings are not suffering? Just tell me. Somebody is poor, they suffer their poverty.
Starting point is 00:14:08 Somebody becomes rich, they suffer the taxes. No children, they suffer that. Give them children every day, pain, something or the other. So it looks like whole life is suffering. So somebody makes a philosophy, whole life is suffering. You must go to heaven. If you know that much, why are you not gone? You are not gone because you don't know a damn thing. Whether there is a place better than
Starting point is 00:14:33 this somewhere or not, you don't know. You're just claiming these things to somehow fix your psychological sloshing that's happening inside. You're making up things to somehow believe something so that your psychology won't just splash all over the place and go crazy. You're trying to hold yourself in place, telling yourself fairy tales, all right? So what I'm saying is,
Starting point is 00:15:00 do you believe that if you want to navigate your life through this time that we have in a sensible manner, the most important thing is to see life as is, as it is. If I don't see in this room things as they are, I will walk into this table, I will bump into somebody, I will do crazy things every day. If I see very clearly,
Starting point is 00:15:33 navigating myself through all these cables and tripods is not a big problem. Hello? But if I don't see, if there's no clarity of vision, if I'm not seeing things as they are, then what a mess it is, every little thing. That's all the problem is. Not that what you're doing is wrong. The way you're seeing it is wrong. How do I know the way I'm seeing it is wrong?
Starting point is 00:15:59 What is the evidence of that or the symptoms of that? As you're giving me the evidence from statistics, that's the evidence. So I am not like that. Obviously, you're here, I'm here. So both of us didn't commit suicide. So we are not in the statistic. That's not the point. You think those people who committed suicide,
Starting point is 00:16:18 everything was wrong with their life? No. Not everything was wrong with their life. I have a few things. As it goes wrong in your life, my life, everybody's life, some things don't work, all right? In everybody's life, something doesn't work in the outside world. If everything is working for you, obviously you're living a very petty life. In my life, 95% of the things that I want doesn't happen. Only 5% happens. Because I'm trying to fix everything in the world.
Starting point is 00:16:49 Most of the things don't happen. So if anybody wants to die of frustration, it must be me. But I will not. Because no matter what, I will die blissed out. I live blissed out, I die blissed out. Because what I do, what the situation is around me and how i am are never connected i'm the way i am i'll do my best has has it required you to train yourself to sort of disattach from this no no no see uh this is all because see the problem is too much spiritual jargon is going all over the world
Starting point is 00:17:27 because every idiot who's read two books can write his next book. If you read two books, there was a time when people read ten books and then wrote one book, that was called plagiarism. Now they read two books and they write the third book. See, your background is full of books. I hope you have not read all of them. I've only read two and I'm writing one. Because just about everybody is writing.
Starting point is 00:17:57 It's all right. It's freedom of expression. They can write what they want. But these are two things. There is expression and there is perception. Which should you invest in more? Perception. If you perceive well,
Starting point is 00:18:14 your expression will be valuable. Right now, everybody's on an expression binge without perceiving a damn thing. There will be so many people that are going through stress at work in their relationships, in their household, listening to this, going, how do I live blissed out like he does? Like, what's step one in that staircase? I'll tell you.
Starting point is 00:18:43 See, whatever you call it, you call it by whatever name you want. Stress, anxiety, tension, depression, bipolar, this one, that one, many things. I was talking to some of the top psychiatrists in UK and they told me there are 72 varieties of psychological ailments. I thought there may be half a dozen. But they said there are 72 varieties of psychological ailments. I was really surprised, 72, that's like a golf game, you know. Then I asked, what are these?
Starting point is 00:19:21 They told me quite a few things. One of the things they told was compulsive nose picking. Even if they're bleeding in the nose, they can't stop it. That explains everything in a way, compulsive nose picking. Leave the nose picking. It's compulsiveness. You're compulsive in your thought, compulsive in your emotion, compulsive in your actions. That's all the problem is.
Starting point is 00:19:46 How do you fix compulsiveness? If this room is dark, how do you fix it? Let's do one thing. Both of us fight with this darkness and push it out of the window. There's no such thing. If you turn on the light, it's gone. So there is no substitute for consciousness. If you become conscious, compulsive behavior is gone.
Starting point is 00:20:10 Suppose you are in thought, emotion, action and energy, you are not compulsive, that you can create whatever thought you want, whatever emotion you want. Would you keep yourself blissed out or miserable? What's your choice? Blissed out or miserable? What's your choice? Blissed out. For yourself, every human being, for themselves, they want the highest level of pleasantness. So the intent is already there. You don't, I don't have to inspire them, be blissed out. There's no such philosophy. Every human being wants the highest level of pleasantness for themselves. Those who think it's hopeless here,
Starting point is 00:20:45 they are the ones who created heaven. They said, there is a place which is always pleasant. But they don't have any proof that we are not already in heaven and making a mess out of that. Hello, do you? Do you think this is heaven? This is planet earth and it's a fantastic place
Starting point is 00:21:04 and it's the most fantastic place we have seen in the known universe. Do you think there's heaven, though? Do you think there's somewhere else we go to that is another world after this one? Everybody who thinks there is one, they must go today. Hello? If they have better accommodation somewhere than London, shouldn't they not go? Did people not rush to America at one time? Why are they not going?
Starting point is 00:21:31 No, they want you to go. This is not good. It's true. See, whatever kind of mental ailment you talk about, essentially, when your intelligence turn against you, there is no power in the universe which can help you. But why is my intelligence turning against me? Somewhere we have not learned how to handle it, isn't it?
Starting point is 00:21:57 Your education systems, your society, nowhere is there anything to teach a child how to handle their own intelligence, their own emotions, their own thoughts? There is no such thing. All fixing mechanic shop, you know, repair jobs everywhere. Leave the repair jobs. The simple thing is this. The reason why people are struggling with this is they have, pardon my words, but otherwise people won't get it. They have a mental diarrhea. This doesn't create anything except distress.
Starting point is 00:22:34 Anything that runs loose without your control is called diarrhea. Why has it happened? Even today, even if somebody gets physical diarrhea, immediately somebody will pop a pill. But traditionally, what did we do? Somebody has diarrhea, first thing is, we understood we have eaten something wrong. First thing we did was, just don't eat, just drink water and wait.
Starting point is 00:22:58 And next, identify what did I eat yesterday or today morning, what happened to me? What is it that I consumed which caused this? And avoid that. But no, we will plug it in. No, if you plug it in, it'll all rise within yourself. This is all that's happening. Right now, our way of doing life is very forceful. When I had mental diarrhea last time, the last time I had mental diarrhea, that kind of overthinking causes anxiety, all those things. No, no, no, dude, let me correct this. There is no overthinking.
Starting point is 00:23:28 I am saying people are not thinking enough. This is a serious problem. But they think they're overthinking. They're not overthinking. It's a diarrhea, it's happening. Why is it happening? Something wrong food has gone in. What is the wrong food?
Starting point is 00:23:44 This is all it is the moment you identify yourself with something that you're not your mind you cannot stop do what you want do whatever you want it will not stop so that that anxiety that people experience where they start remunerating about the future or something that's happened, that is because... No, let me put it this way. This question, I understand what you're saying. See, what is it that human beings are suffering?
Starting point is 00:24:15 What happened 10 years ago? They're still suffering. What may happen day after tomorrow? They're already suffering. This is what you're saying. What happened 10 years ago, is it here now? Does it exist? No. What may happen day after tomorrow, does it exist here? No. So if you're suffering something that does not exist, what does it mean? Tell me bluntly,
Starting point is 00:24:42 if you're suffering something that doesn't exist here… Well, it's like insanity, but it feels like it exists. Tell me bluntly, if you're suffering something that doesn't exist here. It's like insanity, but it feels like it exists. It is insanity. It is insanity. That's why I'm saying once you start doing this, how far you go, when will you graduate? When will you end up in a doctor's place? When will you end up in asylum?
Starting point is 00:24:59 It's a question of time. But now, world bodies are predicting it's going to happen large scale very soon let me give you an example so someone has a sick child or they just lost their job and they're thinking over and over again about you know oh my god my child's gonna die i'm gonna lose my job and then i can't feed myself i'm gonna lose my house I'm going to be on the street. That kind of remuneration and stress, that anxiety they experience on a day-to-day basis because they're scared of losing something which might, you know, they believe will end them up on the street or lose their job or they won't be able to feed their family. That kind of torment.
Starting point is 00:25:39 I wouldn't want to put those two things in the same level, losing a child and losing a job, all right? Losing a child is a different thing. It's a completely different thing. Obviously, there will be a certain amount of pain in any human being. That's different. So, let us say such a terrible thing we had to face that we may lose our child. Tell me, can you do the best for the child if you are in your sanity or is it good to go into insanity? I feel like it takes a tremendous discipline. Now what it takes, we'll see later. But I'm just asking a fundamental question. Okay. Well, it makes more sense not to go
Starting point is 00:26:26 into insanity. Yes. Sanity will make a difference. Maybe we can save the child, maybe we cannot. Because all aspects of life we don't determine. Our experience we can determine. See, what happens
Starting point is 00:26:42 in the world around you, even if you're just two people in the family, never will it happen 100% your way. If you try, nobody will be around you. It's as simple as that. I've read your story. So I know that there's moments in your life where you've lost people that you loved. Lot of people, not one or two, because my family
Starting point is 00:27:06 is so large. Almost every other day I'm burying somebody who's very dear to me. Which one of those moments impacted you the most? And did any of them drive you into the insanity that we're talking about? No, I don't let anything drive me into insanity. This is a brief amount of time that you have as life. Here we create many things. You're creating businesses. I have large movements where millions of people are involved. There are relationships. You cannot take these things lightly because other lives are involved.
Starting point is 00:27:44 But you cannot prevent anybody from dying. You can attend to them. If something is going to happen to them, you can make attempts to save them. But you cannot prevent anybody from absolutely dying, including yourself. This is a fact. So the only two things that we have is a certain amount of time and a certain amount of energy this is all that you call as life what do you want to make out of it you want to make a mess out of it see the thing is first of all they are living an emotionally constipated life they only loved their child i saw everybody as mine. Everything that happened hurts. But that's part of it. If you walk in a forest, there are thorns in your feet. But this doesn't mean you don't
Starting point is 00:28:30 enjoy the forest, all right? You have moments of sadness. See, you're asking a very question which is hard for me to say because I have done this to myself, that nothing happens within me the way I don't want it. If that was your situation, nothing happens within you unconsciously. Everything that happens, happens the way you want, within yourself. What is the experience that you want to have right now is always determined by you. What would be your choice? Grief and misery, is it? No. See, you're the only creature who can decide your way of being,
Starting point is 00:29:15 no matter what is the surrounding. Every other creature is an instinctive reaction to what's happening around them because they are only fired by their survival instinct. They don't have any other aspiration. Once their stomach is full, their life is settled. For a human being, stomach empty is only one problem. Stomach full, one hundred problems because life doesn't settle with survival. You want to be something else all the time.
Starting point is 00:29:48 The problem is you're a being. You're supposed to know how to be. How far away have human beings gone from the definition or that aspiration? So is that an incorrect question to ask then? Because I asked you if you experience sadness. If I want to, I do. If I want to, I do. If you want to, you do. Okay. I said it doesn't happen as, it doesn't happen by itself. If I want, I can be loving. If I want, I can be joyful. If I want, I can be sad.
Starting point is 00:30:29 Yes, when somebody dear to you is no more, you yourself that but do you stop doing anything no that sense of purpose you have the most popular question that young people ask me is is about passion and purpose they they've been indoctrinated by society to think that they have this one purpose and their big issue is they can't seem to find it. So like an Easter egg, they're going in hunt of what's my purpose? How do I know once I've reached my purpose? For people that are working now in jobs, listening to this on their way on the tube to work, what is this subject of purpose and passion? What do I commit my life to? How do we go about answering that?
Starting point is 00:31:02 See, if you get absolutely committed to your purpose, you will be called a fanatic. If you are willing to do whatever it takes to achieve that, you will be called a terrorist. So there is no purpose to life. If you are not a vested interest, and you can be not a vested interest only when you are joyful by your own nature. That how you are is determined by you. So, this is the fundamental you have to set, that your experience of life is determined by you.
Starting point is 00:31:40 When I say experience of life, people are always thinking experiences happen because of external stimuli. No. If you dream of a tiger, you can experience fear, isn't it? You can dream of somebody beautiful and experience love. Yes or no? So I am saying all experiences come from within you.
Starting point is 00:32:00 Human experience happens from within you, never from outside of you. There may be a stimuli. Now, this stimuli means just like this. You know, you're too young to know these things. There used to be wax hall cars in this country. They always used to bucket in a slope like this because morning you need two people to push that car in the morning, in 50s and 60s, I'm saying.
Starting point is 00:32:26 Later on, they had crank start. You need one person to do that. Otherwise, you can't get your car started. Today, all cars are self-start. I'm asking you, your peace, your joy, your love, your blissfulness, would you want to keep it on self-start or push-start?
Starting point is 00:32:47 Self-start. I wouldn't want it to rely on anyone else. This is the question you're asking repeatedly. You want push-start. Don't be on push-start. Inner experiences are always on self-start. Outside world will never happen 100% our way. Little bit your way, little bit my way,
Starting point is 00:33:03 little bit somebody else's way. And that's how it should be. Because if everything happened your way, where the hell do I go? It doesn't happen your way or my way. It's fine. It is only fine if you're joyful by your own nature. But if your happiness depends on what happens on the outside, then you being happy is a remote possibility i want to be happy on my own nature i hear what you've said however i'm gonna walk out of this room and i don't know something's gonna annoy me maybe my words are even wrong but then i'll immediately snap back into the sort of unconscious, I don't know, dismay or despair.
Starting point is 00:33:48 How does one go about the first step in becoming happy by our own nature? Do you think your life is worthwhile? Your life is worth investing about 32 hours of focused time upon it. Your life. Yes. If you think so, you should do that. This is what the process that I've called it as inner engineering. 32 hours of focused time.
Starting point is 00:34:14 Book is just a large brochure, you know, because there is a practice involved. When I say a practice, a simple practice, which only 21 minutes of practice. To teach this 21-minute practice, we take 32 hours of orientation. Because without that, it won't happen. You need to understand how the mechanism of your own thoughts, if your hand is punching you in the face, why is it doing that?
Starting point is 00:34:43 You need to understand. Otherwise, just holding it down is not the answer. This is the most sophisticated machine on the planet. Have you read the user's manual? The user's manual for my body? For yourself as a life. No, I didn't know that was one. So when do you want to do it?
Starting point is 00:35:01 Towards the end of the life is when people think they should do it. It's like you got yourself your ipad should you read the user's manual in the first three days or after three years when you're getting rid of the machine when i first get it yes but nobody gives me the user's manual for myself no no the thing is it's inbuilt you have to just pay attention how do i do that we'll do one thing right now shall we do a simple experiment with yes you'll have to do this with your eyes closed. Okay. But right now, look at me.
Starting point is 00:35:28 Okay. After what you can do. You place your palms like this, facing down upon your thigh, gently placed. So, you will start breathing slightly deeper, 10-15% deeper than normal. Don't do it yet. Hello. Yeah. And as you're doing it, I will say switch.
Starting point is 00:35:46 Then you turn your hands around gently upon your thigh like this. And again, when I say switch, get back this way. In these two conditions, something about your breath will change. I will also give you a clue what could be changing. Where the air is filling up in your lungs, how it fills up, something about it will change. Or let me put it this way, the maximum expansion and contraction, in which part of the chest is it happening? This way, which way? This way, which way? Just notice that. Just hold your palms facing down, close your eyes.
Starting point is 00:36:17 Okay, and when you say switch, turn my hands over, right? Breathe slightly deeper, not very forcefully, just 10-15% more. Notice where the maximum expansion and contraction is happening. Switch. Switch again. Please open your eyes. Switch again. Please open your eyes. Is there some difference?
Starting point is 00:36:50 Yeah. What is it? In what part? How I feel? No. Where is the maximum expansion and contraction when you're holding two different postures? I felt like my chest and my belly were expanding more when I was switching.
Starting point is 00:37:11 I felt like I was just getting more air into my body. Let me tell you what's happening. You can experiment by yourself and see. When you have your hands facing together, facing down with all fingers together, maximum expansion contraction is happening in the lower lobe of the lung. Yeah, yeah. If you turn it around, it happening in the lower lobe of the lung. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:37:26 If you turn it around, it shifts to the middle lobe of the lung. A middle lobe being much larger, you feel more, but actually it's the shift. So I'm saying, just by turning your hands around like this, the very way you breathe is altering itself.
Starting point is 00:37:43 It's not just the breath. The very way your life energies function is altering itself. How many times in a day unconsciously are you? Now you're setting your energies into turmoil and hoping to be peaceful. It will not work and I'm happy it doesn't work because if it works for you by doing wild things and still everything is peaceful and wonderful within you, then what is the use of my life? Spending a whole lifetime paying attention to every little thing that's happening here. I'm saying if you can drive blind on the London streets and not hit anything, a good driver will feel insulted isn't it that's all i'm saying but how do we learn the user manual for ourselves though so you know
Starting point is 00:38:31 is it it's not something we go and read in a book you said the problem is this all your sense organs are outward bound because they are survival instruments. Your sense organs, your ability to see, hear, smell, taste and touch are essentially your survival instruments. Life cannot be enhanced by them. You can only survive better. If you see better than me, you can survive better than me. If you hear better than me, you can survive better than me. If you hear better than me, you can survive better than me. But this life will not feel enhanced by perceiving more through the five
Starting point is 00:39:10 sense organs. And they're all outward bound. You can see me. Can you roll your eyeballs inward and scan yourself? No. You can hear that. So much happening in the body. Can you hear that? No. So all your sense organs are only to perceive what's happening around you, not to perceive what's within you. So to perceive within you, you need to turn inward. That needs a little, because it's not survival. Something has to be done. You know how to write English language? Yeah. Yes. To learn the damn 26 alphabets, it took some effort, isn't it? Hello? Yeah, it did. It took some effort and it took some guidance because anything that's beyond survival needs striving.
Starting point is 00:39:57 That striving is missing in the society. There was a time, there was a time where in the civilization that we refer to as Hindustan or Bharat or today being the political countries being called as India, in this culture, 70% of the people were invested in inward well-being. Because of that, they became super enhanced. Because of that enhancement, they became so wealthy in everything, rich in mathematics, rich in astronomy, rich in business, rich in trade, rich in industry. It was the richest nation on the planet just 300 years ago. See, everybody from here, whether it's English or
Starting point is 00:40:37 French or Portuguese, everybody went to India. You think in search of poverty? In search of wealth, isn't it? It became like that effortlessly without conquering anybody, without having large armies, because people invested in enhancing themselves. I'm telling you, if you try to enhance your activity without enhancing yourself, you'll only die of stress. This is what is happening to, unfortunately, a whole lot of CEOs. I am concerned about this because a CEO means you gave something that is important, that needs to happen in the world into his hands, his or her hands. And if they are stressed out, what misery will they create for the rest of the world?
Starting point is 00:41:26 It's very important. That journey to taking care of ourselves, like I had to learn how to read a book or to learn language. No, I'm saying anything that's not survival will not come naturally. You have to strive. The society has to create that longing.
Starting point is 00:41:43 Being peaceful and joyful is more important for a human being's experience of life than me being better than you. That orientation the society has to create, isn't it? I agree. I agree. It just seems like there's such a powerful narrative coming from social media, magazines, TV, movies
Starting point is 00:42:10 that are making us individualistic it's not even individualistic it's always about me being better than you it started from the kindergarten school there itself they told you I am first rank, you are third rank from there it started I am first rank, you are third rank.
Starting point is 00:42:26 From there it started, I am better than you. So the whole life is about being better than somebody means, essentially what it means is, I enjoy your failures. Does it sound like joy to you or sickness to you? Sounds like a sickness. It is a sickness. We're building into our children right from day one. What about trauma? I was thinking about early trauma and how that drives us to be, drives us away from a life of contentment, drives us towards, you know, a life where we might end up in prison or we might be dysfunctional in other ways
Starting point is 00:43:07 because of something early that happened when we were seven years old. You know, it could be a small thing or a big trauma that has orientated us to be greedy or to be selfish or to be, in the worst case, maybe to hurt others.
Starting point is 00:43:19 Essentially, you're finding an excuse for the way you are, which you yourself don't like. See, if something unpleasant happened to you, you have two choices. Either you can become wise or you can become wounded. Choose. More unpleasant things happen to you than anybody else. You must be the wisest man soonest.
Starting point is 00:43:49 No, you choose to be wounded because you carry this wound like a badge and so that you can cause the same wound to others. What's the point? When you know the pain of it, how do you do the same thing to me? But it becomes a survival technique. No, there is no excuse. The thing is just this. How do you do the same thing to me? But it becomes a survival technique.
Starting point is 00:44:06 No, there is no excuse. The thing is just this. Instead of intelligently, consciously responding to life, you are reacting like any other creature. That's all. So something bad happens to me when I'm seven years old and these neurons fire in my brain that make me react badly. This is all WhatsApp neurology. Whoever told you these things.
Starting point is 00:44:33 Right now, we have a research center in Harvard Medical School in Beth Israel Hospital. Right now in October, this month on 17th to 21st, we have an international conference there. In these five, six years of its existence, they have done a lot of study. One thing they found was, I can't go into all the scientific things, I'm not a scientist, but one important thing is, this simple 21-minute practice I'm talking about, people who did this for over six to eight weeks, the endocannabinoids in their system is 70% higher than what is considered to be normal. What is normal for a happy person? It's 70% higher than that. You know what's endocannabinoid? You know what's cannabis? Yes. Every human being has cannabis receptors.
Starting point is 00:45:25 This doesn't mean that this body was created to smoke cannabis. You're supposed to produce it. When you don't produce it, you try to substitute from outside. That's a different matter. Let me not go into that aspect. But 70% higher, what this means is, it is about 23% higher than what happens in sexual orgasm or extreme exercise, simply sitting here. So if you felt like that every moment of your life, do I have to tell you, don't rob, don't
Starting point is 00:45:58 kill, don't do this? No. No. That's all you need to… We've not fixed that one thing. See, when you were a child, when you were five years of age, you were just bubbling with joy by your own nature, isn't it? Somebody had to work hard to make you unhappy at that time. But now somebody has to work hard to make you happy.
Starting point is 00:46:21 What happened to the equation? If you had really grown up, five years if you're that happy, by the time you're 31, you should have been ecstatic. Isn't it? People typically do feel more miserable as they age. They feel more stressed and more stubborn and more bitter.
Starting point is 00:46:48 No, they're carrying more baggage, that's all. You said something earlier about humans are the most intelligent species on earth. Aren't we? You have a doubt about that? For now. Artificial intelligence. I wanted to ask you about this. No, artificial intelligence. We'll come to that. First, establish this. Artificial intelligence is created by human beings, isn'll come to that. First, establish this. Artificial intelligence is created by human beings, isn't it? Yes.
Starting point is 00:47:11 Then how did it become more intelligent than me? Read more books? No. See, everything, everything that's man-made here in this world came out of human intelligence. And it's still not a full expression of our intelligence. Still, there are many, many more things we can do. You are thinking mind means, intelligence means just intellectual process.
Starting point is 00:47:38 Because of that, you think the phone is smarter than you. Because it has better memory and it has better computing process. So all those who are on one-dimensional intelligence, which is intellect, which is a European problem, if you ask me. You're exited, but still you're European, you know, in culture. I know you Brexited, but... So it's in Europe that suddenly human thought became very elogized. Why it became like this is the dogmatic religious beliefs, which did not allow people to think for themselves. If you thought anything other than what's written in the book, you're dead. They made this for a few centuries. So suddenly,
Starting point is 00:48:25 when they broke away from that and started thinking for themselves, they suddenly thought this is liberation. And they elogized human thought and we crafted the whole education system on the planet based on that. Today, you're just using one dimension of your intelligence, which is intellect. Thought process is thought to be everything. Where one of them went to the extent of saying, I think so I exist. What are the other dimensions of human intellect? Will come, will come. I'm asking you, do you exist because you think
Starting point is 00:48:55 or because you exist you think? Because I exist I think. Yeah. You may think if you want or you may not think, it's up to you. So because you exist, your existence is important. Your existence, is it because you're seeing me that you exist? Even if you close your eyes, you still exist, isn't it?
Starting point is 00:49:13 Yeah. If you don't hear anything, you still exist. So your existence is fundamental. These are all activities of seeing, hearing, smelling, thinking, emoting. These are all activities of your existence, the life that you are. But we got it all upside down and how do you expect it to work? Because another aspect is if I ask you a simple question, would you want your intellect to be sharp or blunt?
Starting point is 00:49:40 What's your answer? Sharp. Sharp. If I give you a sharp instrument, let's say we give you a very sharp knife. Now you must be very conscious how you move your hand. If you are little la-la-la-la kind, la-la-la-la-la, if you do, intestines will come out. Yes or no? Yes.
Starting point is 00:50:00 We don't give a knife to a child's hand only because of this, because his hand is not steady. Not because knife is dangerous. Never in the history has it ever happened, a knife jumped up and stabbed somebody. It never happened, believe me. I've been following the news. It is only the hand that wails it. It can cut a vegetable and make you a meal or it can do surgery and save somebody's life or stab somebody and take their life. All these things the hand can do, not the
Starting point is 00:50:32 knife. So right now, your intellect is a sharp instrument. Once you have a sharp instrument, you must know how to hold it. This is simply not there. Everybody's cutting themselves up and they think something is wrong with life. You can call this stress, anxiety, misery, whatever you want. Essentially, you have a sharp instrument and you're unconscious, so you're cutting yourself up.
Starting point is 00:50:57 Well, that instrument, that sharp instrument, in a world where we're building machines that have the intelligence of a million people and those machines can make decisions so theoretically the machine can now decide to send a missile at a country on its own because but if we had the intelligence we wouldn't make a missile yeah but we have and this is what i'm concerned about is i've sat here with all these ai experts and they're talking about the issue. They're telling me they're not going to be able to contain
Starting point is 00:51:27 this artificial intelligence. See, let me tell you an example. I've spoken about this before. I don't know if I should repeat that, but let me say this to you. I remember this very clearly. It was 1972. You didn't exist. I remember this very clearly. It was 1972.
Starting point is 00:51:48 You didn't exist. And for the first time, they installed a gantry in the port in Mumbai called the Mazagon docks. In the docks, they put up a gantry. Till then, as it was done everywhere in the world, maybe a little further back, there were labor who were going up into the ships and getting the sacks out and unloading. Those days, the largest vessels were about 125,000 to 150,000 tons. They would take 24 to 28 days to unload one vessel.
Starting point is 00:52:24 So they installed a gantry. So all of them went on strike, a big strike, which paralyzed Mumbai city. At that time, it was Bombay. It got completely paralyzed because all the labor went on strike. I'm sure many such labor strikes have happened here. Every time a new machine was installed, people went on strike. Because their argument was, if you put this machine, this is going to unload a ship in one day, what are we supposed to do with our muscle? We got this muscle. Now what are we supposed to do?
Starting point is 00:52:56 They went on strike. This is what now the professors, academics, all the intellectual people who only invested in their intellect are now saying, what are we supposed to do? The machine will do everything. It's fantastic, isn't it? All the machines are doing all the hard work for you. But when the machines can think,
Starting point is 00:53:18 the machines could make a decision that they want to do things that aren't good. Only machines think. Do only machines think. Only machines think. Do only machines think? Only machines think. Only if you've reduced yourself to become a mechanical thing, you're only thinking about life. Otherwise, there's a way of opening yourself up to life
Starting point is 00:53:39 and experience the magic of life. Right now, you're trapped in the logic of life. When I say the logic of life, logic is the foundation. It's very, very important. But suppose in this building, we make you live in the foundations. Today, it's called basement, but it's actually a dungeon. We used to lock up people there or animals or something. If you want somebody to have a horrible life you put them in
Starting point is 00:54:06 the foundations that's all i'm saying if you live with the foundations of your life which is your logic you will live a bad life no matter where you are even if i put you up in a palace you still suffer are you scared at all are you concerned at all humans have made nuclear bombs now they've made this thing called artificial intelligence which is accelerating are you concerned at all? Humans have made nuclear bombs. Now they've made this thing called artificial intelligence, which is accelerating. Are you concerned at all that it will get into the wrong hands and people who are stressed... No, artificial intelligence means at least the human error
Starting point is 00:54:33 will be taken out. I'm happy about that. The human error? Yeah, there are so many idiots who can do anything. Half-brained people get to the top of the nation. They could do anything. At least artificial intelligence means there'll be a proper process before we launch anything.
Starting point is 00:54:49 So you're happy about artificial intelligence? I'm happy about any development because essentially how I see is… Let me tell you my experience, first experience of an intelligent machine. I was probably 12, 13 years old. I was in my ninth standard. And I went to school only when I had to. Most of the time I got lost on the way. But when I went, I thought this was just an unnecessary nonsense in my life. So I spent most of the time in the library, barely went to the classroom.
Starting point is 00:55:20 Like me. So, one day somebody brought a flatbed calculator. Maybe you've not even seen one like that you're all doing on the phone on iPad. Flatbed calculator is most of it is flat, one little screen like this. We've never seen anything like this. So, you say, you know, 185 into 365, took, answer is right there. I looked at it and I felt really insulted. Why the hell are they tormenting me in a mathematics class when this machine is there?
Starting point is 00:55:53 Why can't they make one machine for chemistry, one machine for physics, one machine for every damn thing? I enjoyed swimming in the lakes. I enjoyed sitting on the trees. I enjoyed loitering around all over the countryside. I learned my life like that. But this nonsense, why am I going through this when this silly machine can do this? At last my dream is coming true. I'm very happy. Everything that human beings can do. See, this silly mentality, what will happen to
Starting point is 00:56:25 our jobs? Why do you need a job? All you need is food to survive. Suppose everybody on the planet is fed. I know those guys, idiots will become drunkards and drug addicts, that's a different matter. But if everybody is fed and you don't have to worry about your living, this is when human beings can do something absolutely fantastic. Right now, they're spending their life just to earn a living.
Starting point is 00:56:51 When will they make a life out of themselves? What you said sounds almost identical to what the founder and the CEO of OpenAI, who made ChatGPT, which is leading the way at the moment, said literally yesterday in an interview he did. He said, if we can get people to a point where they don't have to worry about tedious jobs, then they can live these blissful lives. We'll do one thing. We'll remove all the earth moving machines and everything. Give everybody a pickaxe and a crowbar and a spade. Let them all go back to the mines and construction everywhere.
Starting point is 00:57:28 Let them start doing physically. Will they protest or no? They will protest. Ah, that's what will happen in 50 years' time. If you ask them to multiply, they'll protest. That's what I said. The first moment I saw the calculator, I said, what is this nonsense?
Starting point is 00:57:44 Why am I doing all this when I can do tuk-tuk-tuk here? The counter argument to that is that people need a sense of like purpose, something to strive for. You need a false purpose to live because you have not even made an attempt to understand what this life is about, what its potential is about. You need a false purpose. You go and dig in the mine and it's your purpose. And then you produce two children. Putting bread on the table is a big purpose to your life. Silliest way to live for a human being.
Starting point is 00:58:14 That's how most people live. Unfortunately, that's the kind of world we have created. And the world that if you could wave a wand now and create a different world, which I know you're trying to do. In fact, you're building a city in America, right? You're part of a project. This is why I find it so fascinating
Starting point is 00:58:34 because I look at the way we've designed society and it's so stubborn in the way we've designed it. I often wonder if we're going to have to go back to a blank canvas and redesign it again from the ground up that's never going to happen where is a blank canvas how do you create a blank canvas it's never going to happen the desert somewhere you have to slowly see the thing is this happened can i tell you a joke please one day a cardiologist a famous cardiologist a doctor went because he was driving an Aston Martin and it gives trouble, you know.
Starting point is 00:59:12 He went to the garage and the mechanic said, yes, doctor, leave the car here, evening I'll have it ready. The doctor took the taxi and went to the hospital and came back in the evening. The mechanic had not even touched it. Then I said, hey, why is it not ready? Oh, no, doc, this is, this, that. Tomorrow morning I'll have it ready. Tomorrow morning he came, car was not ready. I said, hey, what are you trying to do? Why is it that you're not doing? Then the mechanic said, huh, see, I fixed your engine. You pay me 500 pounds.
Starting point is 00:59:58 But you fix somebody's heart and they pay you 50,000 pounds. Why is that? You fixing an engine, I'm fixing an engine. Doctor said, try to fix it when it's running. If you could demolish everything and rebuild, it's very easy. The thing is, you have to rebuild it when it's on. That is the whole challenge, isn't it? That goes for individual human being, that goes for the society, that goes for the world. We have to rebuild it when it's still functioning. After you demolish means are you inviting a nuclear holocaust so that later on we can rebuild it? It's not a good idea. No, that's not what we want. And that's why the practice that you described matters. Yes, it doesn't matter even if you're manning a nuclear
Starting point is 01:00:44 bomb. Let's say it's your job to press the button, you're waiting there. If you're miserable, frustrated, depressed, even without a command you may press if it was in your hand, sometimes it may happen. But if you're joyful, blissful, naturally you look at… See, this is something people don't understand. People think love brings them happiness. It's not true. If you're very joyful, you will look upon everything in a loving manner. Because what you call as joy, love, let me put it this way.
Starting point is 01:01:16 If your body becomes pleasant, we call this health. You want it? Yes. If it becomes very pleasant, we call it pleasure. You want it yes if it becomes very pleasant we call it pleasure you want it yes if your mind becomes pleasant we call this peace you want us only to create pleasantness in your surroundings do you need the cooperation of various people and many forces around you. But to create pleasantness in your body, mind, emotion and energy is 100% your business. If you were the only person on this planet, would you know whether you're good or bad? I wouldn't know.
Starting point is 01:01:57 So it is only by comparison that you know that you're good. But if you are the only person on this planet, if you are joyful, would you know you're joyful? Yes. That's important. So you're saying focus on joy and how we feel versus good or bad? No, I don't. I'm not saying focus on joy. I'm just saying, you understand this, your interiority can happen 100% your way if you're willing. External things will not happen hundred percent our way. We have to strive. Some things happen our way. Many things don't happen our way. But internally, if you are happening your way, you will keep yourself very pleasant. When you are pleasant, we can expect pleasant things from you. When you are unpleasant,
Starting point is 01:02:41 I expect pleasant things from you. Where is it going to happen? People, in the name of religion, in the name of love, in the name of caring, they've done terrible things, isn't it? Most horrendous things have been done. A question I've often asked myself is, you talked about fake purpose a second ago. How do I know if the, because when you interview people and you say like,
Starting point is 01:03:14 what's your purpose or what's your mission? They'll sit here and they'll give me lots of things, right? Some of them might be, I'm just fooling around. I have no mission. No, not you. I'm saying you ask a kid on the street, what's your mission? Younger kids these days will say they want to save the world
Starting point is 01:03:26 or they want to be a public speaker or they want to be a YouTuber. Do you view those as fake ambitions from confused people? I did not say fake ambitions. The thing is, you're making up a purpose to bring some meaning to your life. Yeah. What you need to understand is, life is a phenomena beyond all meanings. Meanings is an element of your mind. Only human mind needs meanings.
Starting point is 01:03:58 Sun comes up in the morning, doesn't need a meaning. Full moon, out there, doesn't need a meaning. Tide, doesn't need a meaning. Only place where you need a meaning. Full moon, out there, doesn't need a meaning. Tide, doesn't need a meaning. Only place where you need a meaning is your head. Your mind needs a meaning. Why? Have you seen this? You've been at some point, at least for moments,
Starting point is 01:04:17 you've been very joyful, blissed out. You've been. At that time, do you ask what is the meaning of life? No. No, only when you're miserable, it's important. So you create one problem and then you create another problem and another problem and you think it's a solution? No. Meaning is a serious problem.
Starting point is 01:04:38 Meaning has become meaningful for somebody only because they're in some way distressed. The process of life and the experience of life has become burdensome. Why am I carrying this? I want a meaning for the burden that I'm bearing. If life was a blissful process, why would you care what is the meaning? So when people, people must ask you all the time, what's the meaning of life? And you must then, does that suggest that they are absent of bliss see this meaning problem is a very western problem in the eastern world we don't ask for meaning we are always looking for profoundness of life what's the difference the difference is digging deeper into yourself and creating something around your head are two
Starting point is 01:05:26 different things meaning is so meaning is looking outside for a reason outside or inside doesn't matter but you're trying to build a psychological solution to an existential reality and you have to accept that existential reality. The existential reality is you don't know where the hell you came from. And I don't know where I'm going. And you don't know where you're going. You're just here for a brief amount of time and you think you're the center of the world.
Starting point is 01:05:56 That means you must be very religious because it's the religious people who went on propagating that this planet is the center of the universe. Though in India, for over 6,000 years, people have known planet is round and it goes around the sun. Clearly, there are drawings and there are books, there are documents which clearly say that. But people who are following dogmatic religious processes, they propagated that this is the center of the universe.
Starting point is 01:06:26 Now, will they say, we said what is wrong and apologize for that? No, because when I think I am the center of the universe, I will be doing so many idiotic things. You must apologize if you are the one who taught me that nonsense. So life doesn't have a birth given meaning. Let me tell you, this happened. There was a bishop in Istanbul. At that time, it was Constantinople.
Starting point is 01:07:01 You know, I mean, I'm not trying to insult any community, but this actually happened, so I'm quoting the thing. In 1924, this bishop was part of the Greek Orthodox Church. Very Orthodox Church and he's a bishop, so all his life he's a man of cloth, he was there. But being in Istanbul, you know, all these exotic stories come wafting across the Bosphorus from India about the mystics, about the yogis, about many, many things. India is full of stories like this. And for ages, these things have been coming and excited people to travel to the east, all this stuff. So he always wanted to go to India and meet a real yogi or a mystic. But being a man of cloth, he couldn't decide where he goes and doesn't go. When he was over sixty years of age, he got an opportunity to go to India. He went to southern India and found a good guide who could guide him.
Starting point is 01:07:58 And the guide took him and said, see on this particular mountain, if you go this way, this way, this way, he gave all the landmarks. If you go there, there's a cave. There, there is a yogi. That is a man you're looking for. So our bishop went all the way up. Mountains are not kind to people who lived in churches or indoors, you know.
Starting point is 01:08:18 They don't care who you are. They trouble you. So with great difficulty, he went up. When he went to that place, just outside the cave, a yogi was sitting totally blissed out with his eyes closed. So the bishop had heard that if you see a yogi, you must prostrate before him. So he went down and he was not fit for those kind of postures.
Starting point is 01:08:40 But with great difficulty, he went down, huffing, puffing. He stood up again. Hearing all the commotion, the yogi opened his eyes and smiled. Then the bishop asked, can I ask you a question? This is the first introduction. The yogi laughed and said, well, by all means you can ask a question. Then the bishop asked, what is life? See, as a human being, you have the intelligence to ask this question when you are eight years of age.
Starting point is 01:09:11 Well, in your childishness, you missed it. At least when you're sixteen, you should have asked. Definitely, you have the intelligence to ask that question. But now you're well over sixty. Now you're asking, what is life? But it's okay, it's better late than never, you know. So when he said that, Yogi went into raptures. Life, life is like the fragrance of jasmine, you know, upon the gentle spring breeze. The bishop said, what? Fragrance of jasmine the gentle spring breeze. The bishop said, what?
Starting point is 01:09:49 Fragrance of jasmine upon gentle spring breeze? My teacher told me, life is like a thorn. Once it gets into you, if you sit, it hurts. If you stand, it hurts. If you lie down, it hurts. And you are saying, it is like the fragrance of jasmine upon gentle spring breeze. Then the yogi laughed and said well that's his life you must understand your experience of life is determined by you
Starting point is 01:10:12 it's your choice the last thing i wanted to ask you about is a campaign you've recently been putting a lot of effort into, which is the Save Soil campaign. I want to know why you're doing that and why that message and campaign is so important for all of us. One important element of why human beings will become mentally ill in the next 15 to 20 years, a lot of people are estimating there may not be a single family left without one mentally ill person at least. That's what they're saying. So this mental illness, why? See, one thing is, in the last hundred years of industrial level of agriculture,
Starting point is 01:11:01 one thing that's happened is we are only seeing soil as a resource. Soil is not a resource, it's your source. It is the source of your life. It is the largest living substance or system on the planet. If you take a handful of soil, it has eight to ten billion organisms in it. It is the most intense life and the largest living system not just on the planet, in the known universe, it is the largest living system. But still, over 80% of the nations are treating soil as a resource, which they think they can fix it by adding a chemical or take away chemical. Let me come to this very quickly. What is the problem? See if today all the insects disappear from this planet, in another two and a half to four years, all life on this planet, including you and me and plant life, everything will
Starting point is 01:11:54 be gone. Insects go away. If all the worms go away today, in the next one and a half to two years or two and a half years, all life on this planet will be extinct. If all the microbes go away, we both of us disappear within the next few seconds. This is the reality. They are the foundational life. We are the cherry on the cake.
Starting point is 01:12:18 Right now, average loss of microbial life is like this. 27,000 species of organisms are going extinct per year. 27,000 species are going extinct per year. At this rate, it's estimated in the next 25 to 40 years, we will come to a place where it will be very difficult for human beings to find basic nourishment on the planet. First thing that will collapse is your software. That's what you're seeing in terms of psychological ailments. That's not the only reason. All those things are there.
Starting point is 01:12:52 But the most important thing is lack of nourishment. Just to give you a perspective, some studies have been done in California. What they are saying is, in 1920, if you ate one orange, what nutrients you got from that? If you want that today, you need to eat eight oranges. Has there been a day when you ate eight oranges in a day? No.
Starting point is 01:13:16 This goes for everything else. You are eating empty food, which doesn't have richness. Just look at the Google map. Don't go by what I say. Just look at the Google map. Don't go by what I say. Just look at the Google map of the world. How many green patches? How many brown patches? It is terrifying.
Starting point is 01:13:36 We have a closing tradition on this podcast where the last guest leaves a question for the next guest, not knowing who they're going to leave the question for. Who was that guy? I can't tell you. That question to you, not knowing who they're going to leave the question for who was that guy i can't tell you their question to you not knowing who it was for they didn't know it was for you is what in your heart of hearts matters to you i have only one heart that also i gave away long time ago heart of hearts. I don't have all those things.
Starting point is 01:14:07 I broke my heart into a million pieces and threw it away in the world. I live not because of my values. I live not because of my morality. I live not because of some commandments from somewhere. I live out of my humanity. Thank you. Bye.

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