The Resilient Mind - The Power of Stillness - Sadhguru

Episode Date: February 4, 2026

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 Now⁠⁠This episode is brought to you in partnership with Sadhguru. Follow his YouTube channel by visiting: https://www.youtube.com/@sadhguru🌍 The Resilient Mind Podcast is a proud member of 1% for the Planet — building resilient minds and a resilient planet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Resilient Mind Podcast. In this episode, you'll be listening to The Power of Stillness with Sad Guru. This episode is also available in video. Watch it on YouTube by clicking the link in the show notes. Enjoy. Silence does not mean. Shutting your mouth silence. What is being referred to as silence or neshab.

One cannot do this. One can become this. See if you can articulate the same things that you're saying with half the number of words suddenly you will become extremely conscious of everything The wind makes its own science So does the water

So does the earth In fact, so does the sky All those celestial objects are making their own sounds There are sounds of pain science of pleasure, sounds of misery, sounds of joy. For everything, there is a sound. In human life, it's very true. Sounds of life, and there are sounds of death.

And there are even sounds of silence. So this complex amalgamation of sounds, different kinds of sound, creates different intent, different levels of compulsiveness, different levels of bondage and different possibilities of entanglement. In all this, why one chooses to become silent, silence is not a way of denying yourself. Life, it is not even about denying yourself articulation. Silence is about moving from compulsiveness to consciousness. All science represent different forms and different dimensions of compulsiveness.

When one chooses to become conscious, not be entangled in the compulsive nature of the existence, he naturally chooses to become silent. Silence does not mean setting your mouth, plugging your ears' silence. You can sing in silence. You can dance in silence. You can even speak in silence. You can even scream in silence.

Don't try. That does not mean when everybody is silent, you scream. That is not screaming in silence. Because sound is of the surface. Silence is of the core. of the core. It is only the surface which makes the sand. See, now the water is hitting the surface and making the sound. Deep down, there is no sound.

That is true with life. On the surface, it is a very complex mesh of sound, a maze of sounds happening. But at the core, there is no sound. There is no word for no sound in English language. in English language, we call it nishabd. That means absence of sound, a total absence of sound.

Absence of sound means absence of reverberation. Absence of reverberation means absence of life. Absence of life means absence of creation. Absence of creation means absence of the creator too. So a space which is beyond creation and creator, a dimension which is beyond life and death, that is what is being referred to as silence or neshab. One cannot do this, one can become this. Commonly, there are two words employed to describe this.

One is mann. That means you're practicing silence. You're not silent. You set your mark. And you're remaining in man. This is not neshapht. Man means you're practicing silence. If you're practicing something, obviously you're not that.

Are you life or are you practicing life? Masking you? Are you life or are you practicing life? Practicing life? No, your life. Maybe not very well practiced, but your life. Similarly, there is a difference between practicing silent, silence and becoming silence. Practishing silence starts as a certain restriction.

But slowly, as one practice of silence, one can, possibly, become silent. One can become silent in intense activity, but nobody can keep up intense activity forever. Moments of intense activity are only moments. Nobody can sustain it. You'll expand yourself. Only if you can achieve it in inactivity, it is sustainable. If something is possible only in intense activity. It is never sustainable. And a very intense and ecstatic moment of singing, somebody may become or taste a moment of silence.

But how long can you keep it up? Your throat will tear. Your neighbors may kill you. Possible. So this possibility of coming to silence. or becoming silent, also means to become still-all, to become utterly still. Stillness can be achieved in so many ways. If you watch a snake, he's still.

If you watch a tiger, which is on a hunk, absolutely still, charged, but still. These are all different dimensions of stillness practiced for survival. If a snake moves too often, he'll get killed. If a tiger does not know how to be still, he'll never get his food. These are all acts of survival. A human being, for survival, he has to be actor. Only when his vision falls upon something which is beyond survival, then he will think of stillness.

Then he will understand as he will. observes himself as he notices the complex city of one's compulsions. He understands the only way to solve it is to become still. To train this body, to train this mind, to become still, take some effort. If one is simply blissed out, he will become still. But otherwise one has to work bit by bit, one has to work to bring this body to absolute stillness. Most people cannot hold their body in one place for any length of time. There, all the time and moment.

As it is said, a man is ill only because he does not know how to be still. Because in stillness, you are in touch with the dimension way beyond. creation. Once one is in touch with that, there is no such thing as illness. If I sit here and the body rots and falls down, still there is no illness. It's just there. Because in fact when one becomes actually still, he may not be able to hold onto the body unless he learns the tricks, the mechanism of the body. So why should I become still? Will I lose my body?

Anyway you will lose your body. And the time to lose your body comes, if you want to lose it gracefully, then you must know at least a little bit of stillness. If you want to put your body down like you can put this piece of cloth down, with the same ease, with the same gracefulness, Then you need to have some stillness in you. Otherwise, you and your body, you have to be torn apart, which is an ugly thing to do. When you're being torn away from your body, it is an ugly and painful thing to do.

Unless you can keep it down. There's no grace in life. So if one has to attain to that grace, At least a certain amount of stillness has to enter your life. For this to happen, a certain level of silence has to enter your life. If right now it is not coming, at least practicing a little bit of mouth. In another, if you're speaking 15173 words right now, How many more?

How many words do you spit out in a minute? Fifty-one seventy-three, you actually doing that many? I thought that's impossible. Okay, I believe you. So whatever number you're doing, see if you can, articulate the same things that you're saying with half the number of words. suddenly you will become extremely conscious of everything. Right now, our oral diarrhea is happening.

If you're doing 15.73, it's diarrhea. Okay. Now, if you have to hold back half the words and still say the same things, now you have to be very conscious. Otherwise, you cannot say it. Just try this and see. Tomorrow, one day. In an hour, normally what number of words you utter.

Make it half. Don't curtail your activity. Still say the same things. But with half the words, how wonderful the whole world will feel, you know. World will be a wonderful place on telling you tomorrow if everybody does this. Many marriages will be saved. Thank you for listening. Continue strengthening your mind by subscribing and listening to our other episodes.

Thank you.