Sadhguru: Say this after me. Well, Namaskaram to everyone. Today is Rama Navami. A very important celebration in this
country but everybody's staying home. And... well, celebration is not
about doing a particular thing. You can only celebrate something
if you know how to be playful. Where there is no playfulness
there cannot be celebration. There can be grandeur of situations but no celebration because without playfulness
celebration cannot happen. Well, why is it that we remember somebody, celebrate
somebody after a few thousand years, 6-to-7,000 years, why are we still remembering these people? What is their significance? Well, over a period of time with
people's investment of their emotions, slowly a great human being becomes a God. Which is an unfortunate weakness that people have, any wonderful human being comes we want to make
them God, or sons of God, or messengers of God, so that we can nail them on the wall and we
can go about our business the way we want. If you see them as human beings
who lived extraordinary lives. Most human beings will have to
put their heads down in shame, because if another human being
could live like this, why am I like this? This question will naturally come up. So we make them Gods, so that we can go
about our business just the way, as usual. One week of staying home, just
one week of little bit of seclution. Rama went for fourteen years
of vanavas - Social distancing. There was no epidemic; for political reasons. Everywhere in the popular WhatsApp culture,
right now, once again, Laxmanrekha, that was drawn for Sita not to cross and she crossed
and what a disaster unfolded is going around. It's very appropriate. Right now the social distancing is a kind of a rekha. Rekha means a line that you should not cross. Those who... whether you crosses inadvertently
out of ignorance, or by intent, results are same. This is the nature of the existence, whether
you do it with evil intent or out of ignorance, if you do a particular act, the results are same when it
comes to the physical world, the inner world is different. So in the material world, the results are same. Whether you fell off a coconut tree by accident
or by intent, same number of bones will break, unless a coconut also decides to
fall after you and breaks your head. So Rama's life is so celebrated today. But during his lifetime, his life was a serial disaster. As a young prince, an accomplished young man,
a brave warrior marries a very beautiful young woman. But due to political reasons, he has to take this
princess, she's not a tribal woman, she's a princess. He has to take her and go into the jungle. Well, I think once again they are playing Ramanand
Sagar's Ramayan in the television I believe, there's a lot of controversy about that also. In that television serial you will see, it is made to look
like Rama and Sita are on a honeymoon in the jungle. Well, that's not how tropical jungles are. I've lived there. Well, if you spend two, three weeks
in the jungle and come back people in the town won't recognise
you, you will become like that. Head to toe there'll be insect bites
and there are lots of challenges. Today the amount of wildlife has come down otherwise, this is tiger country, this is elephant
country and they don't really... they're not very pleased about
you walking around in the jungle. You must be extraordinarily
careful and conscious otherwise either you will get crushed, or you will
become a wonderful breakfast to somebody. So in these conditions he takes this young wife, and
goes and lives there this is not a honeymoon or a picnic, this is a punishment. As if that was not enough, the Sri
Lankan people, nothing against you; They came and kidnapped his wife, whatever the
reasons, everybody has justifications but it happened. Well, he's a king, he's not that
kind of a man but he's a king. A king means in India, or anywhere for that matter,
they were allowed unlimited number of spouses. Men are looking depressed, what Sadhguru, one?! Unlimited, how? But kings were like that. So he is not somebody, "Okay, this one is
gone find somebody," he is not that kind. He loves his wife, he values her, so he pursues her. You must understand, from Uttar Pradesh
to southern tip of India, not a easy journey! He was Ram in Ayodhya. When he entered Andhra Pradesh he became...
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka he became Rama. He came to Tamil Nadu, they made him Raman. But just two of them - him and his brother,
looking for his wife, not a easy journey. No Google Maps to guide, just by people's guidance
you have to go totally, unbroken terrain everywhere. He reached here, and then he saw then man who
has kidnapped his wife has a formidable army and fully organized but they are just two of them. So, they sought the help of Tamil people. I must say something about Tamil people here because this is a land of very exuberant,
enthusiastic, devoted people. They did not look up, even now in
this culture, at that time, not at all! There was no God up there,
their God is here, in the earth. So, they are very earthy people, full
of involvement, vigor but no fancy ideas. I wish we had lived like that but
now a lot of fancy ideas have come. People have made you feel like there is a place,
another place somewhere, which is better than this. That's why we're making a mess out of this. So Tamil people who are like that.
They're still like that in many ways. I'm not saying this to insult other volunteers and others but this is my observation in the last
forty years of working with volunteers, everywhere in every country
we have fantastic volunteers, but you will see always Tamil
people are little extra vigor, you want to do the most difficult
things that nobody wants to do, you will see it was always Tamil
people who will take it up and do it. There is a certain sense of innate
commitment and devotion, which is probably culturally cultured over
a period of time for thousands of years. And even when Rama came, he found that, that they became so dedicated to this new man who
came from somewhere, and they put themselves to it. They built a small causeway to cross to Sri Lanka
and they fought the battles, they won the battle, he got his wife back and went back. Then he went for one year of repentance. So his brother Lakshmana asked, "What are
you repenting about? You killed an evil man. What are you repenting about." He said, "Yes, there were many
negative qualities about him - his ego, his arrogance, his whatever
all those things but he's a devotee. I killed a devotee also. A great devotee of Shiva. I killed a devotee on one level." For that, one year, he went off into penance
into Himalayas. Can you believe it? Being already out in the jungle for fourteen
years, not fourteen days like Corona. Corona isolation is fourteen days, that people are
fighting and creating a nuisance in the country. Fourteen years of isolation for King. Now he takes one extra year off because he
killed a devotee - a man who stole his wife. That's the kind of man he is. As if that was not enough, political situations evolved - when the wife is fully pregnant, he has once again sent
her into the jungle once again without him, separation. For a King, The Queen is pregnant
is a very significant thing because having a heir to the kingdom is a very big thing. Don't know whether she has a boy
or a girl, or what, no sonogram. He sent her to the jungle. There she delivers twins. Unknowingly, he almost kills them. Gets into a fight with them. If you have to do something really terrible that
you will regret forever in your life would be, knowingly or unknowingly you killed your own children. He almost did it. And his beloved wife for whom he travelled over
3,000 kilometres, fought a battle and took her back, he never again saw her, she died without seeing him. This is a serial disaster life. For most human beings if any one of those events that
happened to him happens, they will get freaked out. They will become full of anger, hatred,
angst, fear, all kinds of negativities, but he maintained absolute balance. He is even today celebrated as one of the best
administrators among the kings of this land. So no matter what life did to him, how he was within
himself in spite of enormous pain inflicted upon him, he did not reflect that pain on other people. You have caused hurt to me, so I will
cause hurt to you, this is not the way. Whatever happens to me, I remain peaceful,
in absolute balance and do the best that I can do. People were questioning me during
Youth and Truth, is he fair to his wife? Is this the way to treat the family? Well, if you are just another man, that's a good
question but if you have a king or a leader for the nation, a leader who puts his nation above
his family is the leader that we want. That's a leader that we want. Not someone who puts his family above the nation. So this is the leadership he showed, he could
have easily discarded or not taken into account what comments and commentaries that
were happening about him and his wife, and has kept his wife with him
because she matters to him. No! He sacrificed his family, his unborn
children for the sake of the nation. This is the kind of leader that you need for any nation. And it is because of this balance, because
of this sense of purpose and duty in his life, that we still celebrate him and
worship him, today is his birthday. But the South Indian people who
served him, one of them went with him. Today he's become a superhero
all over the country – Hanuman. But after Rama's time, some
people, little crooked in their head, projected South Indian people who
lived here 6-7000 years ago as monkeys. So South Indian people still a little disturbed by that. They have love for Rama, but they're angry
little bit with the way they have been depicted. But also, they enjoy that no matter what they say they anyway worship a South
Indian man as the ultimate hero. Even if they want to win a election today,
they will sing praises of Hanuman even today. So, South Indian superhero is still worshiped
all over the country, literally all over the world. Even a President of United States was carrying a
small figurine of Hanuman in his pocket at one time. Yes. So, today is Rama Navami, it's wonderful. You are just not even on vanavas, just home stay. Don't act so funny, because you see the birds are happy. All the other creatures are happy. Let me show you what happened in Peddar Road in Mumbai yesterday morning, hmm? See the video. Aren't they happy that you're not there? So, you can see in Isha Yoga Center, they're always
happy because we are keeping social distancing, not just today, all the time from all the creatures. Peacocks, snakes, everything else are very happy here, because we've kept certain distance
with them, allowed them to live their life. We've learnt to live with them, all kinds of creatures. But not the case with cities. So on a busy street in Mumbai at 8.30, 9
in the morning if a peacock can dance, well, you can't complain the world is going bad. Well, well, well, lot of people are
going to get very upset with this. Do you know what is happening
in the stock market? I know. There is loss and pain there. Yes, lot of people have lost their wealth,
lot of people could lose their livelihoods. If you don't manage well, it could lead to starvations. All these situations are there. But this is what life is about. Today is Rama Navami. Let us take this one quality. When challenging times come, you're not facing the
kind of challenges Rama faced in his life. Simple. Maybe fourteen days, maybe twenty-one days, maybe forty-two days, you just have to stay in your own home. Hello. You can't complain about this. We're
not asking you to go and fight a battle. We're not asking you to go and live in the jungle
without any protection – In your own home. Your problem is not about the situation. Your problem is your mind is in such a
state that going to work you're complaining, sitting at home you're complaining. Let's change this. Now that this is
confronting you, let us change this. Don't wait for that day – April 14,
April 15 "I'm going to be out." Maybe you will be, maybe you
will be not, we don't know yet. We thought we will be but in the last two days, certain people have changed the whole
dynamics of the virus in the country, so we do not know whether we
will be out on 15 April or not. We will be partially out or fully out
or not at all out, we do not know. But, first thing is, this is one thing you
must do, this is one thing you deserve, that your experience of yourself
is a wonderful experience. This must happen. Not because of what you do, not because of
what you have, simply because of what you are. This one thing you must do to yourself. If you don't do this to yourself, you may have
many things, but you will never be at ease. You don't know what it means to be
at ease means you are in disease. You may not have virus, but you're
not in ease means you're in dis-ease. If you're in dis-ease, you may be medically
healthy, but you're sick as a life. Let us use this time that we have. When there are no external demands on you,
let us use this time to transform this one person. I am not asking you to transform the world. I took up this crazy job of trying to transform the world. See what a failure I'm. Well today people say that we
have touched over a billion people. But my intent was to transform the
entire humanity, a billion people... a billion people is just still sixteen, seventeen percent, maybe just about that or even less
than that of the entire population. At this stage in my life if I am sixteen
percent, I will die a failure for sure. But I will die of blissful failure, that's for sure. This happened, for those of you who do not know. Some thirty-eight, thirty-nine years ago, I was just sitting
in one place and I just burst into ecstasy for no reason. Every cell in my body dripping ecstasy. So I kind of thought "What is this?" After some time I realized, if I don't
just mess with my mind, I'm ecstatic. Messing with my mind means just this – see, you have two significant faculties with you, which are unique to a human being,
no other creature has this faculty. This is, a very vivid sense of memory
and a fantastic sense of imagination. Now sitting at home, these are the two faculties that
you are suffering, your memory and your imagination. You suffer things which happened ten years ago. Don't think you're suffering life,
you're suffering your own memory. You're suffering things that may
happen day after tomorrow already. You're not suffering life,
you're suffering your imagination. So you're suffering significant faculties that you have,
which makes you into a unique life on this planet – a very vivid sense of memory and
a fantastic sense of imagination. This is what you're suffering. When you suffer your blessings, not curses upon you; when you suffer the highest values
invested in you, then, what is left? What is left? This is what is the significance of Rama. Life can be a serial disaster, outwardly;
inwardly, you use your intelligence, your memory and your imagination and above all, this... this privilege that we are the most evolved creatures on
this planet, it's not a small privilege. Number one spot. Being a human being on this planet Earth is, nature has
delivered you to number one spot, that's what it means. Peacocks are dancing on the streets of Mumbai. At least within your home you can do something. Social distancing, because I'm not
asking you to do ball dance or tango. You just dance for the joy of it,
do whatever the hell you want. But you are a human being,
that means, you know how to be. If you knew how to be, you would
definitely keep yourself blissful. That's what you should do. Because this is something that you owe to yourself. This is one thing that must happen. This is your fundamental birthright, that your
experience of life on this planet is pleasant. This is what Rama represents and signifies. On this Rama Navami day, let's take this up, that it doesn't matter how this corona
story will go, how this damn virus will go, we still don't know, because there are
so many irresponsible human beings who do absolutely irrelevant and idiotic things. With all of them, we don't know what
kind of game the virus will play with us. But what kind of game we play
within ourselves, let's fix this today. It's very important. Questioner : Sadhguru, this question is from Anoop. Namaskaram Sadhguru, I've done Inner engineering,
and I wanted to recommend it to my family as well. However, due to the lockdown, we are considering
the Inner Engineering Online option instead. Can you please shed some light, about
Inner engineering Online and its benefits. Sadhguru: Why did you wait till lock down? If you were immensely benefited by Inner Engineering,
why did you wait so long to give it to your family? Now that you're locked up with your
family, now you want them transformed. I appreciate the intent. But really, if you have gotten, if you have really imbibed Inner Engineering,
in its essence, your family may not go through it. You go through it. By your very presence, you can transform. Obviously such a thing has not happened. So they must go through it. Fortunately, the preparatory part of Inner
Engineering is online, available online also. So let them do it. What are the benefits. Well, these, we can't call this vanavas. What is the traditional word for a lockdown? Maybe there is no word. Anyway you're homebound. This homebound experience for the next few weeks will become pleasant for you if all of
them go through Inner Engineering Online. Because Inner Engineering online, is that part Inner
Engineering process, by itself involves the body, the mind, emotion and energy. What we need to do with the body and energy, we will have to go direct because that's a
kind of a transmission, that is not a teaching. But what we do with mind and emotion is a kind
of a teaching, that you can experience online. For most human beings, if the
way they think and feel changes, you will see there's a tremendous change in their life. Right now, if you can think of what you want, not compulsively or something else,
you would naturally be blissful. If right now, you can keep your emotions very
pleasant, oh your home would be so pleasant. So all the psychological and emotional benefits
which naturally translates into social behaviour, these benefits are there. The energetic dimension and the physical aspect,
well, that needs to be done as direct transmission. That will not be taught online, because
there are many implications to that. The Shambhavi Mahamudra,
you have to learn separately. But Inner Engineering Online will
transform the way you think and feel. Most human beings think this
itself is ultimate transformation. If somebody can think differently and feel differently,
and they become pleasant human beings, people normally start saying he's a
spiritual person, he's so wonderful. No, no, no, he's just a regular human being. Others are still evolving. If a human being is conscious, thinks
what he wants, not compulsively, and holds his emotion, the way he
wants, this is just a human being. This is not something, he attained to
something, no, he's just a human being. Others who cannot even think the way they want,
feel the way they want, this a evolutionary issue. So this evolutionary issue can
be handled within the family, with the Inner Engineering Online program,
and in the country and in the world. Namaskaram.
