The Resilient Mind - Why the Most Intelligent People Are the Most Miserable - Sadhguru

Episode Date: September 20, 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.This episode is brought to you in partnership with Sadhguru. Follow his YouTube channel by visiting: https://www.youtube.com/@sadhguru/videosExplore tools from past guests of the podcast. Some links below are affiliate links, meaning we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you:💓 HeartMath: https://www.heartmath.com/resilient🧠 Muse: https://choosemuse.com/resilientmind🌿 Brain Ritual: https://www.brainritual.com/THERESILIENTMIND🌍 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.

Success means you are living your life to your full potential. That's what success means. If that has to happen, you need perception and an active intelligence. Most intelligent people on this planet are generally the most miserable people on the planet. This is simply because they have an active intelligence but no perception of life. Simply if you make effort, it's foolish effort, isn't it? Just labor is not going to get you somewhere. Right kind of action, the right timing, right place.

All this is important, isn't it? How do I grow my intelligence? Don't worry about that. Right now, the important thing is to enhance your perception. If you're able to see life just the way it is, you have the necessary intelligence to conduct it well. success means you are living your life

to your full potential that's what success means if that has to happen you need perception and an active intelligence your idea of success is right now everybody should be below you you must be in the top

this is your idea of success this is not success this is sickness so do not ever think of success just see how to make this into a full-fledged being. If you want your potential to open up in the world,

one important thing that you must fix in your life is your experience of life, either peacefulness or agitation, either joy or misery, blissfulness or, you know, suffering, whatever it is, your experience. Your experience is entirely made by you. Other people are doing what they want.

their drama they're conducting. It is your reaction to that which is causing these experiences to you. So I'm telling you, your experience of what is happening with you right now is 100% determined by you. Human experience happens from within, not from outside. Outside influences are there. How far we allow them to affect us, unless they're physical situations. You're in a war zone.

Somebody is shooting at you. That's a different matter. All right? That needs to be dealt with in a different way. Even there a conscious response will give you better chance of survival than wild reactions. So the privilege of being human being is this that we have an intelligence to determine what should be our experience of life. Other creatures are in a natural, instinctive, compulsive reaction.

We are supposed to be above that. But most human beings are trying to disprove this. And they are also in a compulsive state of reaction. In fact, the more you try to do in the world, the more and more many ugly situations you will have to face whether you like it or you don't like it, okay? Now because you face ugly situations, will you also become ugly or you will use this as manure to blossom into your wonderful flower? This is a choice that you have.

So everything that hurts us, everything that in some way is negative to, in a given situation, whether you will become wise or you will become wounded is your choice. Do not look for ideal situations because there is no such place. There is no such place. Wherever you go, there will be something happening that you think is negative. it's negative or not, I don't want to make a judgment. But in a given place, you think there is negative. There is no way you can fix an yesterday, but you can create a tomorrow. Let's make that happen. See, the best thing about this is you're only facing one of them, either boss or the wife,

never two of them together. So you can oscillate, you know? As a military man, you can escape the wife for some time and you can escape the boss for some time. Unlike other jobs where every day, they have to face. I'm sorry, I'm just joking like this. Anyway, see, you can neither live without your wife nor your boss. Both are important in your life. You sought the career and you got into the job, you got a boss. You sought a relationship, you got into marriage and you got a wife. So these are things that you aspired for. When things that you aspire for happen, then you And you suffer. This must be looked at.

This is not about the wife. This is not about the boss. This is something to do with yourself because human beings have gotten into this place. Wherever you place them, they have found a way to suffer. See, we say this. Life is like juggling a ball. If you're alone, just one ball. Easy to do.

You become two, two balls, little more difficult, leads more attention. Then you become four, you have four balls to juggle. Then you have an Indian army on you. You have 10,000 balls to juggle. Or do you? So how many balls can you juggle joyfully? That's how many you should pick up. So this aspect of life is being dragged into all kinds of things.

One fundamental reason is whether it's, It's our career or our business or our relationships. We are trying to milk happiness out of it. The moment you attempt this, those your loved ones will slowly turn into your enemies over a period of time because that's how it works. We must understand human experience essentially comes from within us. Whether it's pain or pleasure, it comes from within us. and misery comes from within us.

Agony and ecstasy comes from within us. If we understand this, if we take charge of this, if we take charge of the seat of experience within ourselves, what experience would we cause to ourselves? Definitely highest level of pleasantness. So if you being joyful and loving is not enslaved to anybody, you're joyful and loving by your own nature, then every relationship will work well,

whatever sort of relationships you make, everything will work well. Whatever is your career or your business or your activity in the world, you will do it to the best because there is substantial medical and scientific evidence today to show you that only when you're in a pleasant state of experience, your body and your mind will work at their best. For you to succeed in this physical world, this is all it takes, that you must have a few brain cells working properly and four limbs to do the things that you have to do. Without getting your body and your brains to function according to your needs,

you will not be successful. You will only be successful by sometimes by default or by accident. That is not a good success because that success creates anxiety. It's very important. Your success is rooted in your competence. your success is figured out in your mind, if this has to happen, it's very, very important that you're in a pleasant state of experience.

That is, there may be many problems and issues outside, but you are never the issue in your life. But right now the problem is in most human beings' lives, their own thoughts, their own emotions are the greatest impediments that they're facing. If you just cross this one thing, you will see every human being will be able to, perform to their fullest level, find expression to their fullest. This is another concept which is made its rounds in the world,

that something else should motivate you to do what you're doing. If what you're doing is significant enough, you don't need any other thing to motivate you. What you're doing is truly significant to life. Why do you need another motivation to make that happen? If you really understand and experience that what you're doing is truly important for every life around you, you don't need a motivation.

Life just goes on. See, does your heartbeat need a motivation to keep it going? I'm asking you. All the life processes is not asking for any motivation, isn't it? Monson's coming, any motivation? No, it's coming year after year, because the natural process is going on. Simply like that, in you and me, life is on.

What I'm telling you is, If you're doing something which is aligned with the fundamental life process of who you are, this can find a million expressions. It need not be just spiritual teaching. It can find a million expressions that what you're doing is aligned with your fundamental life process, then you will not need anything to motivate you. Simply, as a part of life, it will just happen. You should not be a motivated person.

Generally, somebody, when we say somebody is motivated, It means they have an agenda of their own. Life has no agenda. It's for you to be a full-fledged lion. A grasshopper is trying to be a full-fledged grasshopper. Earthworm is trying to be a full-fledged earthworm. A bird is trying to be a full-fledged bird. A tree is trying to be a full-fledged tree.

A human being should strive to become a full-fledged human being. These are all our businesses. But each one of us start creating our own agenda. us and doing all kinds of things. No, no, you're just a piece of life. Don't take yourself too seriously. Because before you and me, countless number of people have come and gone. Yes or no?

Where are they? All those people. You think they were all idiots? They were all idiots and they died, is it? No, they were also like you. Maybe they were also officers. Maybe they were kings more than. more than you, all kinds of things, all topsoil now.

What you call is life is a brief sparkle. The only thing that you have to do is rise in sparkle as a full-fledged life. When something is needed around us, we will do that naturally because when you're doing wonderfully well, you will do what is needed, isn't it? When you're miserable, you will be motivated. Yes. Tell me, when you're very happy. Have you looked at yourself?

How nice and wonderful you are. You're willing to do anything for anybody. Went backwards if necessary. I'm happy to see somebody's talking with some passion about what they're doing. Somebody, it doesn't matter. What they're doing is right, wrong, okay, perfect or not. But someone has put his heart into it. It's okay because human lives becomes beautiful,

not because we do the right things. human lives become beautiful because we put our heart into what we are doing it doesn't matter what we're doing whether we're sleeping the floor or managing the country or what we are doing if we are putting our heart into what we are doing it's beautiful to be doing that activity

now that you're stepping into the world not that you don't know but anyway now you're stepping into the world in a different dimension than the way you have been till now Once you step into the world, there's going to be a lot of filth. There is corruption, there is nonsense, there is so many things happening everywhere. There are some set of people, a certain set of people, who will develop an allergy for this filth.

They can't stand it. They usually run to the Himalayas. Because they're allergic to filth. They can't take it. They want everything pure. but such a thing will not happen because the filth of the world has one way or the other has entered our minds

whether we empower that filth or not is all the option that we have but we cannot avoid filth it is there all the nonsense that can happen in the world you know in your head isn't it so one set of people develop allergy and try to run away which they can never do really

another set of people a large segment of people unfortunately have come to their own kind of philosophies, anyway the world is full of filth, let me also become filth. So they have joined that, they have merged into the filth. What we call is filth can also be great manure. Indian spirituality has always used lotus as a symbolism.

A lotus flower has always been the main symbolism for Indian spirituality. Why a lotus flower is, a lotus flower grows best where the filth is thick. This filth, which is stinking, which you can't bear, has transformed itself into your fragrant, beautiful flower. This option also is with us every moment of our life. If the atmospheres that we live in make us, we cannot call ourselves managers. If we make the atmospheres that we live in, only then we can call ourselves managers. Being a manager means that we are going to create whatever we see as the most beautiful thing to happen right now.

Allowing situations to create you is not management at all. The difference between heaven and hell is just this. You are doing something willingly. That's your heaven? You are doing something unwillingly, that's your hell. Hmm? We have already taken on attitudes what we like and what we don't like. I like this person, I don't like this person.

Now with this person I will do things willingly. With this person I'll do things unwillingly. This may be two people, two aspects of life, to communities, to nations, too many things. This I will do willingly. This I do unwillingly. This means I've decided in my mind this is good, this is bad. There are no good people and bad people. Everybody is oscillating between the two.

If you create a very pleasant, wonderful atmosphere, everybody behaves wonderfully. If you create an unpleasant atmosphere, a whole lot of people act nasty. Yes or no? There are joyful people and miserable people, but there are no good people and bad people. The moment we think we are good, we are entitled to destroy the bad, isn't it? Oh, we've been destroying a lot of people for a long time. Time to stop that. Because human beings are in different levels of experience and understanding.

Anybody who is not like you is obviously bad, isn't it? Isn't it so? Those who are not like me must be bad people. Because the basis of goodness and what you think is goodness is decided by you. No, you have no business to do that. Willing means this. I'm just willing. I'm 100% yes to life.

I am not yes to this one, not to this one. No. I am just yes and yes to life. If you are a 100% yes to life, you're a volunteer. You have become a willing life. You have become share-willing that you have no will of your own.

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