The Resilient Mind - Participate In Your Life - Sadhguru

Episode Date: January 31, 2024

Sadhguru is the founder of the Isha Foundation located in Coimbatore, India. The foundation operates an ashram and yoga center that specializes in education and spiritual practices. An accomplished yoga teacher since 1982, Sadhguru is also the author of several New York Times bestsellers, such as Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy and Karma: A Yogi's Guide to Crafting Your Destiny. He is also a frequent speaker at international events and forums.Take action and strengthen your mind with The Resilient Mind Journal. Get your free digital copy today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Download Now⁠⁠ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Resilient Mind podcast. In this episode, you will be listening to, participate in your life with Sad Guru. Get access to the Resilient Mind Journal by clicking the link in the show notes. Enjoy. People are asking, what is the God-given purpose of my life? Whatever is the source of creation? What makes you think?

The source of creation, which created this cosmos, for which you do not know where it begins where it ends, even keeping account of you. Forget about giving you a specific purpose. Maybe the source of this creation doesn't even know you exist. Hello? Because this very solar system is a tiny little speck in this cosmic space, isn't it? Tomorrow morning, believe me, if the entire solar system evaporates,

nobody will notice it. That's how small it is. In that speck, planet Earth is a micro-speck. New York City is a super, super micro-speck. In that, you are a big man. This is a serious problem. You think there is a God-given purpose for you. This is the peak of human arrogance.

Because all this is coming from the base, that has been spread in the name of religion and faith and whatever, that the existence is human-centric. Existence is not human-centric. We're just one more creature, which happened recently, according to the evolutionary sciences. Yes? As human societies, we have issues, we have problems, we have struggles.

Whatever you think needs to be sorted out, and whatever you think is your aptitude to do. sort out. You pick up that damn thing and sort it out. It's not any God-given mission. You've got to do something, do something useful, because there is some joy in solving something. There's all the choice we have. You can either be a part of the problem or part of the solution. If you enjoy being part of the problem, do it. There'll be consequences. Yes? Sometimes it's fun to create problems. Yes, it is. But it'll have its own kinds of consequences. The only thing you have to learn is do whatever the hell you want. Just do it well.

But for every action you perform, there is a consequence. When the consequence comes your way, if you're able to joyfully go through the consequence, you can do anything you wish. But when the consequence comes, you cry. If you're that kind, then you must control your action. You are creating such a level of conflict within yourself for every simple thing. thing that you think you could always be doing something wrong, something wrong, something wrong. Well, joyfully do something wrong, it's okay. Hello? Nobody knows really whether they're doing the right thing or the wrong thing.

Do they know for 100%? No. So don't bother yourself too much about is this right, is this wrong? It is just that when you do something, is this bringing well-being to me and everybody around me? That's all your concern is. Why don't you awaken the humanity within you? Why don't you become a living humanity? Humanity means just this, already we spoke about this.

Animal nature means fixing boundaries. Human nature means expanding or including everybody into your boundaries because this is a natural longing. Wherever you are, you want to be something more, something more. What is this? This is because your intelligence has come to a place where it doesn't like boundaries. It wants to expand.

This is human nature. Human nature is naturally inclusive. Animal nature is exclusive. It wants to fix boundaries. So instead of being in boundaries of right and wrong, even if somebody is wrong, let's include them and do the best we can. So do not waste your time in right decisions, wrong decisions.

When you are reasonably balanced and clear and happy, not frustrated about something, make a decision, throw your life into it, something wonderful will happen. You may not do the right thing, but you may do a great thing, you may do a wonderful thing, that's good enough. How far will I go? What will happen? Well, that depends on various things. Your own intelligence, your competence, and the times in which we exist.

You should not discount the times in which we exist. At different times in history, different things take off. We may be in sync with it. What we are may be appreciated today, or what we are. we are maybe appreciated tomorrow or what we are maybe appreciated after we are gone. But whatever we did in our life, we did with total involvement, because life is in its involvement. Life is not in its correctness. Your involvement must be unbridled.

Whatever you do, see how everybody's well-being is included in this. If you are an inclusive process and you're involved, it is fine. or you right or wrong, right or wrong, till the last day of your life, you cannot really decide what is right and wrong. A human being, at least on this planet, you are the peak of evolution. Physiologically at least. Yes? If other behavioral aspects, if we may have questions.

But physiologically, at least, the most evolved creature on the planet. What the most evolved creature on the planet means? is, it has the most complex neurological system and it has the highest level of cerebral capability. That means you can think, you can remember, you have memory, you have a very vivid sense of memory and a fantastic sense of imagination. An ant doesn't have such a vivid sense of memory, nor does he have any great imagination. Yes, some. But he has a presence of mind about the life that he is living.

Because the education systems that you're going through right from kindergarten level is such that it is about everything except you. It's about everything else. Somebody is PhD in tourism, somebody's PhD in biotechnology, somebody's PhD in something. Nothing about this. How does this function? There is no attention at all. A human being functions.

You know, you have a Kalabarva temple here. What this means is a human being exists in three times. He lives because of the richness of his memory. How rich is your memory? Determines what you will do and what you will not do right now. Isn't it so? So memory is important. The present experience is important.

and how vivid is your imagination for tomorrow is very important. Right now the problem is these things have all gotten mixed up. Because discipline of faculty has simply not come. Nothing has been thought to our children that there needs to be discipline means people think English kind of discipline walking like this, like idiots. Discipline of faculty is not there. Because of this, your own mind turns against you. What happened 10 years ago? You still suffer?

Hello? What may happen day after tomorrow you already suffer? Because there's no discipline of faculty. You don't know how to use your memory. You don't know how to use your imagination. Your memory makes you suffer. Your imagination makes you suffer. And you think you are suffering your life.

You are not suffering your life. You are only suffering the two. greatest faculties of being human, vivid sense of memory and a fantastic sense of imagination. Isn't it so? If you suffer the greatest faculties that you have, what can we do with you? If you suffer an ailment, understandable. If you suffer a disability, understandable. If you suffer your ability, hopeless case?

Yes or no? Yes. Yes. Yes. your capabilities. If you're suffering your disability, it's all right. You're suffering your capabilities. Because what life throws at us is not our choice always. We try to manage it to some extent, but it's not entirely our choice. Life may throw all kinds of things at us. But what we make out of it is 100% ours. If this one dimension, if we take charge

of this, no matter what life throws at me, I will make this into a tremendous process for myself. Let it throw whatever. It doesn't matter what life throws at you, you will turn it into a possibility. You will not make anything into your problem because you are not a problem. This is a choice that every human being has, either for every situation. When I say every situation, there are only situations and situations and situations in our lives. When you don't know how to handle a particular situation, you call that a problem. What is a problem for you? Maybe wonderful possibility for somebody else, usually is, isn't it?

There are no problems in life. They're just situations. You can either make it into a possibility or a problem. You can either you yourself, become a possibility or a problem. This is a choice every human being has. But to exercise this choice, you have to be in a certain way within yourself. Within yourself, you are in a certain state of equanimity, balance and exuberance that no matter what life throws at you,

you will make it into a wonderful possibility. Life can throw all kinds of horrible. all kinds of horrible things. Don't underestimate life. It can do things to you. Yes? Essentially, the important thing is, this is a life. For every one of you, your life is precious, isn't it?

Hello? It's a precious life. If something is precious, where do you want to invest this life? Into what do you want to invest this precious life? If this is a worthless life, throw it somewhere. If this is a precious life, what do you want to invest this life into? If you look at it this way, you will find something truly worthwhile to do. If you think in terms of how to earn a living, how to get this kind of thing, that kind of thing,

then you will do something silly that you will regret for the rest of your life. Most people are a regret. That's why they're going around joylessly because they're not doing what they want to do. not doing what they want to do. They are not creating what really matters to them. They're doing something for a living. This precious life, where are you going to invest it? Are you going to invest it in something that's truly worthwhile? Or are you going to throw it away as a worthless thing? This is the important thing. Because what you call as my life is just a certain amount of time and energy, isn't it? Yes. As you say,

sit here, your life is ticking away or no? You are young, you may not be thinking like this, but actually it's sticking away. What is sticking away is not time. What is sticking away is your life? Yes or no? So this energy that you call as my life, how are you going to invest it? Because it's going to get, if you're doing something truly worthwhile, it gets over before you know what happened.

if you're doing something worthless, it feels like a long life. Have you noticed this on a particular day when you're very happy, 24 hours, poof, it went off like that like a moment, you're miserable, 24 hours feels like 10 years? Have you not noticed this? So only miserable people will have a long life. Joyful people, life goes away like that, as if it's a couple of days, it passes away like that if you are creating what you really care to create. See, if you want to get somewhere in your life, get somewhere does not mean be better than somebody,

do this, and this, that, no. As a life, your experience of life should become a fantastic experience. So right now, all the crazy things that people are doing in their life, why? They drink, sexuality, temple, this, meditation, whatever they're doing. Why are they doing? doing because they want their experience of life to become pleasant. Yes or no? Somebody hits the bottle, somebody hits somebody else, and somebody does something else, but essentially

looking for pleasantness. If your body becomes pleasant, we call this health. I'm talking yoga now to you, officially. If your body becomes pleasant, we call this health. If it becomes very pleasant, we call it pleasure. If your mind becomes pleasant, we call this peace. If it becomes very pleasant, we call it joy. If your emotions become pleasant, we call it love.

If it becomes very pleasant, we call it compassion. If your very life energies become pleasant, we call this blissfulness. If it becomes very pleasant, we call it ecstasy. If your surroundings become pleasant, we call this success. Only for this last one, to make our surroundings pleasant, we need the cooperation of many forces around us. Many things have to fall into place. But to keep your body pleasant, mind pleasant, emotion pleasant, your life energy is pleasant, it's 100% your business.

Not good for the business. Isn't it 100% your business to keep this body, this mind, this emotion and this energy pleasant within your self? I'm asking all of you, tell me, on a day when you're very happy, are you willing to do a lot of things, or a day when you're depressed, you're willing to do a lot of things? When you're happy, you're willing to bend backwards and do everything possible. When you're little unhappy, how difficult it is to move you, isn't it?

So why do you say if you're blessed out, you'll do nothing? It is just that you will no more be a vested interest. You are not in pursuit of happiness. pursuit of happiness, your life is an expression of your bliss. Now what will you do? You will do what's needed. Every human being should be doing what is needed, isn't it? Right now, they are trying to milk happiness from the world.

Destroying the world in the process. Completely destroying the world. See, today, what is it that is ecological disasters unfolding? What do you think it is? In pursuit of human happiness, isn't it? Nothing else. In pursuit of human happiness, we have turned this planet into a bonfire and people are not even happy.

Forget about being happy. Most people are in different state of struggles. So it's very, very important. What is in your hands? First, all those things must be taken charge of. What do we do in the world? Let us see. To what extent the world allows us to do it?

Your body, your mind, your emotions and your energies must take instructions from you, isn't it so? Hello? Right now, it is taking stimuli and instructions from all sorts of people. So how the hell do you think? You will go where you want in your life when somebody else and somebody else can make this body, this person do whatever they want. At least what happens within you must be determined by you. What happens around you?

It'll never be 100% determined by you. If you work hard, a little more influence, otherwise little less influence, but never 100%. Outside situations will always be like that and they should be like that. Because if the whole world happens the way you want, then where do I go? Little bit your way, little bit my way, little bit somebody else's way, it's fine. But what happens here? Must be my way. If this one thing happens your way, will you keep yourself blissful, miserable, depressed?

What? So essentially, you must understand. You can call it stress, anxiety, misery, depression, whatever you call it. Essentially, your intelligence has turned against you. That's all that's happened to you. Because there is no any kind of knowledge in your education system from ABC to till this day, how to take charge of the faculties that you have within yourself. When he is fully shattered, what can you do?

The question is, do you want to allow yourself to be fully shattered? That's a question. And many things that don't work out in your early life, you will see later on it is a great blessing. Even if you put through the most horrible situations, either you can come out using that experience as a better human being or you can use the experience to become a horrible mess. So whenever something hurts you, there are two options.

You can either become wounded or you can become wise. This is the choice. The more things hurt you early on in your life, the wiser you should have become, isn't it? But unfortunately, most people become wounded. This is simply because they just need an excuse to turn their own intelligence against themselves. That's all. Especially if the world around you turns against you, is it not very, very important that your intelligence tends to... We are misunderstanding.

consciousness as just mental alertness. Mental alertness will help you to survive better. Consciousness is not about that. See, you know that you exist right now only because you're conscious, isn't it? You are conscious right now. That's why you know that you're here. Suppose you fell asleep. You don't know that you exist, isn't it? You don't know the world exists, nor do you know that you exist simply because you're somewhat unconscious. Does it mean to say you're completely unconscious? No, you are still conscious when you're sleeping, but not conscious enough to notice the presence of many things.

So consciousness is not whether it is present or absent, it is always there. The question is only the intensity and the volume of it. If we have to use the analogy right now, see, the lights are focused on us, so both of us are clearly seen. There are people hiding in darkness. you dim the light further, all these people will disappear. Only two of us will be there. If you increase the voltage, suddenly they will all appear. They were always here. They were here all the time. Because the lights were dimmed, I could only see you or nobody else.

If the lights were up, then you could see. This is all consciousness is. Everybody is conscious. Question is how conscious? So to increase or to raise consciousness, what have we done in the societies. Our entire education system is just about survival, one being better than the other. How can you be conscious when you're competitive? When you're all you want to do is be better than somebody. Your only joy is other people's failures. How will you be conscious? When you're enjoying other people's sufferings, other people's failures. This is what being number one means. I am the number one means what? You're number ten. That's my joy. So I think this is sickness. From kindergarten you're spreading the sickness into children and you expect them to be fantastic,

it won't work like that. You're paying too much attention to everything around you. Not enough attention to this one, but the quality of your life is essentially determined by how you carry this one. Yes or no? This moment, what kind of clothes you're wearing, what kind of car you parked outside, What kind of home you live in does not determine the quality of your life. This moment, how joyful are you feeling within yourself, determines the quality of your life.

Isn't it so? Nothing has been done about it. You think it will happen in consequence. And you're setting impossible goals for your happiness. If I have to be happy, my wife should be like this, my husband should be like that, my children should be like this, the world should become some other way. Well, these are impossible conditions. you're setting for your happiness and peacefulness.

Now that you have compromised yourself to peace. Why I'm saying compromise yourself to peace is because a lot of people have given up aspirations for being ecstatic or blissful. If I'm just peaceful, it's enough. Even the so-called spiritual leaders are going about and saying peace is the highest goal in your life. Peace is not the highest goal in your life. If you want to enjoy your lunch today, you must be peaceful. Yes or no?

If you're not even peaceful, there is nothing in your life that you can do in a worthwhile way. To be peaceful essentially means this, that you're not messing your mind. To be peaceful means that your system is at ease. You know how to conduct your mind, you know how to conduct your emotions, your body and your energies. You are peaceful. It is not a rocket technology. It is the most basic thing. You have a dog at home, you give him his food, he sits peacefully.

Maybe not ecstatic, but pleasefully, many times they're ecstatic also. Yes? If your dog is able to sit piece, oh, he doesn't have to run my industry. That's not the point. He's got his own stuff going. See, it has nothing to do with the external activity that you're doing. It's got something to do with the internal system. as to how they're functioning. Essentially it means neither your body, nor your mind,

nor your chemistry, nor your emotions, nor your energy, are taking instructions from you. They're doing their own thing. Once your machine is not in your control, being peaceful is impossible. I'll tell you, you get into your car and now you go there and you want to turn this way. You do this to the steering, it goes this way. Can you peacefully drive this car? Can you? No. No. No. Anxiety. is natural, isn't it? This is what has happened to your vehicle. It's out of control. You've never done anything to find out where the steering wheel is, first of all. This is not that simple as a car. This is a super-supercomputer. Now the problem is most people have not even bothered to find the keyboard.

They think if they do this, somehow it'll work. If you make, when you're given such a highly sophisticated machine, if you do not conduct it to properly, it will cause many problems to you. If you come to the idea of mortality once in a way, it will make you depressed. It will make you fearful. If you live with it every moment, it will make you absolutely exuberant in a life. Because it is just this one thing that this is not forever. This is just for a brief period of time.

the more joyful you are briefer, it becomes. If you're ecstatic, it'll just vanish in no time. Yes? So if you want to stretch it, you need to make yourself truly miserable. Otherwise, it'll be just gone in no time. If you come to terms with this, if you live this way, that every moment you appreciate one thing and only one thing, because the most important thing in your life. is you're alive right now to be alive.

Fully alive, 100% alive is the most important thing, because only if something is 100% alive, can you make it yield something beautiful? See, you have a little plant in your house, or let's say a mango tree in your house. It is like this, which is just imitating you. Can you make it come out with lot of sweetness? No, it's alive in a big way.

Now you can expect sweetness from that. Nobody has to teach the mango tree which is alive. Please give sweetness. Any way it will pour out, isn't it? Miserable people have to be thought. Please be loving. Please be nice to people, gentle to people. Do this, do that.

All this things necessary because in some way you become half alive. If you're exuberantly alive, it is natural for human consciousness to bleed sweetness every moment of your life. We don't know what great things you will do or not. We don't know whether you will climb Mount Everest or not. We don't know whether you will run faster than Mr. Bolt or not. We don't know whether you will become the richest man or woman in this world or not. But this one thing you must do to yourself, this one thing you deserve, this one thing is 100% in your hands, that you can live here as a joyful human being.

This much is possible for every one of us. Our ability to fix the world around us, subject to various realities. Some things work, some things don't work, because this involves too many forces. Sometimes it falls into place, sometimes it doesn't. But in our lives will we do everything that we can do or not is determined by this that only if you're joyful by your own nature, that is you have no fear of suffering. Only when you have no fear of suffering, will you dare to walk your life full stride? everything that you can do you will do.

In our lives, if we do not do what we cannot do, this is not an issue. But if we do not do what we can do, we are a disastrous life. I know money is important, but money doesn't come because you desire money. It comes because you do something well. Instead of going on thinking about how much money you want to earn, if you look at what you want to create,

and if what you create, is truly worthwhile, money will happen. This idea, see, for example, right now, there are modern examples, well, there are Narayan Murtis, there are Zuckerbergs, there are all these people. These people didn't bother about money. These people bothered about creating something. Because what they created was valuable to everybody, money naturally comes in. And above all, if you are creating what you value, if you are creating, what you value, if you are

creating what you see as an immense value to everybody's life. You have the joy of creating it. How much money depends upon times? It doesn't matter. What is your level of intelligence? What is your level of capability? Introvert, extrovert, this, that doesn't matter. Do you have the courage and commitment to make the possibility into your reality?

That's all the question is. So if you focus whatever you're doing right now, it doesn't matter what it is. How simple an act you're doing right now, it doesn't matter. If you're absolutely devoted to that that you're doing right now, depending upon various aspects, things will unfold. But because of Western influences, we've become too goal-oriented. Goal-oriented means we are interested in the consequence, but we are not interested in the process.

If you are not interested in the process, you should not be an artist. Yes. Process is an end in itself. If you are absolutely devoted to the process, depending upon various aspects, something will come out. But now we are interested in the consequence, not in the consequence, not in the process, process, this goal-orientedness, I want to get there, I want to get there, where the hell do you want to get? No, I want to win the race.

See, if you treat life as a race, if you have to win it, you have to get to the finish line soon, isn't it? You want to? Hello? If you get to the finish line ahead of all these people, you won the race. You know what the finish line is? we'll be negotiating where to bury you. So, particularly being in creative arts, don't ever think of a goal.

What should I become? How should I be? What should I create? Don't worry about these things. If you're devoted to the process, something will come out. Something more beautiful than you imagine will happen because you're devoted to the process.

Without devotion. I'm specifically using the word devotion because people think devotion means going to the temple, church or mosque. No, without devotion, either in sport, art, music, spirituality, politics, business, anything, any arena of life, has anybody done anything truly significant without being absolutely devoted to what they're doing? Have they? No, mediocre things you can do.

So do not think of art and aesthetics as a way to earn a living. Living will happen because if a human being stays focused on something, inevitably it yield. How can it not yield? The universe will yield to you if you are focused. I'm telling all of you, young people, do whatever the hell you want in your life. But you must be intensely focused on something.

If you're not investing in anything your life, It will just go waste, because as I told you in the very beginning, one basic ingredient of your life is time, and this is just going away. If this one thing is done within the human being, then every situation is a possibility. Once every situation becomes a possibility, this human being will blossom to a full-fledged life. And this is the aspiration of every life

to somehow become a full-fledged life. Thank you for tuning into this episode. Continue strengthening your mind by listening to our other episodes.