Ask Me Anything: Sadhguru

sadhguru welcome to the global landscapes for thank you joy delight to have you here with us today thank you so you are a yogi a mystic and one of India's 50 most influential people and three decades ago you founded the Isha Foundation which has human wellbeing at its core commitment today you have over nine million volunteers so I want to show the audience a quick look at your journey through a short video in the next half hour you're going to meet a man who has a devoted following across India and indeed around the world while yoga and meditation are at the core of his teachings to promote individual growth the work of the foundation covers conservation education and health and you'll find him astonishingly pragmatic on a range of very modern day problems let's meet said guru for the very first time in the history of humanity we have the necessary resource we have the necessary capability we have the necessary technology to address every human problem on the planet even 25 years ago we couldn't have dreamt of it but the only thing that is missing is consciousness today the spotlights is on a project called green hands in India we started a mass campaign and six years I spent planting trees in people's heads that's the most difficult terrain believe me and now in the last six years we've been transplanting it and that's happening much more easily action for rural rejuvenation is mainly aimed at rejuvenating the human spirit English and computer skills are very essential to make this children come out of the hopeless economic and social pit they are in if you could first tell our viewers what is the idea behind initiative insight which is more specific towards entrepreneurs whatever the nature of your business ultimately it is all about human wellbeing issue foundation a non-religious nonprofit public service organization headquartered in southern Indiana Satguru has established Asia Institute of inner sciences in North America as a space for inner transformation and complete well-being surrounded by the serene forests of the Cumberland Plateau ayesha Institute attracts visitors from around the world for its unique programs and special events in so many ways but we've done nothing about this one if you want to know well being in is the only way out this is what I want to teach you to that is you can be completely intoxicated without any drug just online this is a shift from wine to divine how can you love one and hate the other when the same divine exists in all spiritual process is not about looking up or looking down it is about turning inward see the only thing that I'm really good at is just this I can just make the air around just crackle with energy are the Yogi's the source of yoga the first yoga will inspire many generations who take up yoga when truly remarkable thing that Sadhguru has Danny he had made Yogi's out of ordinary common people we're tracking of Lamas movement an incredible rally starting from Kanyakumari reaching up to the himalaya all in a month with the sole purpose of rejuvenating India's rivers every state is responding this is concurrence and this is wonderful I'm very happy that Sadhguru has taken up this cause should also become a People's Movement movement for our own survival for the survival of our children if you have to describe yourself in one word would you consider wildlife as two words or one president Pranab Mukherjee felicitating Sadhguru for all his spiritual contribution so Satguru very inspiring accomplishments in your humanitarian work but also a really thrill seeker I see so a lot of people know your work you have a very big global devoted following but there's some people who don't know it so this is the point of today's evening it is ask me anything session with you so we will be getting questions from the thousands of people streaming in online who are not here today in bond with us in person and for those of you in the room you can still participate use the hash tag acid guru hash tag GLS bon 2017 so let's get started first of all I have a burning question my own son guru so in addition to my day job I am a yoga teacher and a mindful meditation devotees so what is your favorite yoga pose and I have a feeling it's not downward dog for some reason the way I sit right now say yeah for me Yoga is not about postures the word yoga means union union means in most people's experience of life it is me versus the rest of the universe if it's you versus the rest of the universe it's a hopeless fight so yogi has realized that this is a hopeless situation to be in and he has learned to open up what I call as myself and make it like everything so there is no me in the universe there's just me or there's just the universe so in what posture do you want to sit it's up to you it depends what kind of seat they provide you and you've talked about this a lot the idea of inner engineering one of the people looking in here like how you came up with this concept of inner engineering and what does it mean so is it not true that though people profess all kinds of religions and talk about all kinds of gods that they have not seen today one thing that everybody trusts is engineering isn't it why we trust engineering is when you engineer something you engineer it the way you want it so we engineered everything in the world the way we wanted it has definitely brought as much comfort and convenience to a point we are the most comfortable generation ever the kind of conveniences that we are experiencing no generation ever in the history of humanity has experienced but everything has transformed around us because of our engineering but this one nasty will still remain like a caveman because you still get angry the same way as the caveman is to get angry is it not important that not just your car not just your computer not just your Wi-Fi connections not just the world around you you as a person happen the way you want yourself to be if you don't happen the way you want yourself to be everything else is happening the way you want it life still won't be good it'll be comfortable but it will not be beautiful laugh becomes beautiful only when you are able to happen just the way you want yourself to be if you could happen right now the way you don't want yourself to be would you keep yourself blissed-out or miserable if you had a choice right now either to be totally blissed out or miserable what is your choice for yourself blister but with a purpose yeah see if your bliss down you will do what is needed hmm not with your own artificial purpose nobody has any right to have a purpose of their own if you are really joyful by your own nature you will look around and see what's needed and you will do just that if we are doing what is not needed that is not a great thing only when people are seeking happiness through their action they will do all sorts of things which are unnecessary on this planet but if your life is an expression of your joy you would do simply what's needed so why should you need a purpose of your own there are many things that are needed if something is needed we will act nothing is needed you can close your eyes and sit with mindful or empty it's up to you people streaming in how to follow up to that if we are all in the pursuit of happiness why do you think it is so elusive to be in pursuit of happiness itself is a oxymoron because whether you experience joy or misery happiness or unhappiness agony or ecstasy all happen from within you isn't it when the source of your experiment experiences within you when the basis of human experiences within you you trying to extract it from the world either silly way to go about right now this is the problem people are trying to extract happiness from people around them or the world around them they will definitely be frustrated and it will be elusive because how can you make happiness rain upon you happiness will not rain upon you it is just that the seat of your experiences within you if it was under your control if you had taken charge of it you would definitely create most pleasant experience for yourself if it is not on your charge it happens accidentally somebody else is able to make you happy or unhappy or what this means is somebody else or some else or just about anybody can determine what happens within you see if somebody determines what happens around you in your life that itself is generally called a slavery isn't it if someone else or something else can determine what happens within you isn't this the worst form of slavery that's what I'm trying to release them from the worst form of slavery that something or somebody or whatever can determine what happens within you what happens within you must be determined by you if you determine what happens within you I am 100% sure you will make the most pleasant things happen within you if right now if you're feeling less doubt will you be nice to me obviously isn't it if you are feeling nasty you will share it with me but if you're feeling beautiful you respond beautifully to everything around you instead of teaching all kinds of morality to people if you teach them how to be joyful by their own nature you can be assured they will do the best things to everybody around them so someone has a challenge then why is there so much suffering in the world is there a reason for it suffering in the world is self-inflicted there are situations in the world could which could be challenging somebody's in a war zone somebody's in you know famine zone these are pains caused from outside to us somebody may be in an ailment or an injury these are things caused to us from outside pain is caused to you by your body and by situations around you suffering is totally manufactured in your mind if pain comes suppose I step on a thorn and it hurts me it hurts my body it's painful my body also goes through pain but whether you want to multiply it in your mind and make it into suffering or just leave it as pain and treat the pain as it should be treated is your choice so this is a choice that you must be able to exercise most people have lost that ability to exercise that choice the reason why there is such widespread suffering is we have not invested any time or energy a resource towards the inner well-being of the human being we have built schools we have built hospitals we're building all kinds of things around us which are of course needed but have we built any infrastructure either physical infrastructure or human infrastructure towards the inner well-being of the human being at random here and there something is happening but there has not been an organized effort to do that and that is why you see so many people suffering because we have not invested in the human well-being all right next question we're at the global landscapes forum where people work together but sometimes people are selfish and just care about themselves what is your advice I'm sorry we are here at the global landscapes forum where the mission is to work together but many people seem selfish and only care about themselves what do you say to that you must make them care more about themselves if you are genuinely concerned about yourself genuinely then you will naturally be concerned about everything right now their concern is not even themselves it is their thought it is their emotion it is their ideology it is their belief systems it is their prejudices that they're concerned about if they're generally consider genuinely concerned about themselves as a life that they are they would naturally be concerned about every other life because if you sit here for a moment as a life because you and me our life rest is all made up in our minds isn't it that I'm Indian your tyranny is somebody else something has this all made up in our minds essentially if you simply sit here you're just a piece of life if you experience yourself as a life you being concerned about every life is just a natural consequence it is they are not sufficiently concerned about themselves that is my concern so how does one start a movement this when we are working together in a place like this we also have these issues people keep coming to we're a volunteer organization with millions of people working across the world so many things happening and people keep coming up to me and say sit guru I cannot work with this person this horrible person like this like that so I tell them see in this world this is the kind of people we have like this one like that one like that one like that one this is the kind of people we have if you think what you're doing is significant enough you have to work with these people it's the sort of people we have but if you want to work with ideal people you must go to heaven and today writing in how does one start a movement for positive change like rally for rivers how did you get it off the ground so the most important thing is if we talk about some vague abstract idea it's not going to reverberate with the people it must concern their lives and if you clearly make it in such a way that it's about them it's not about you then naturally people will take up to it one simple thing that which is very clear in my mind when I said this this one sentence reverberated across the country in India I said this is not an agitation this is not a protest this is a campaign to raise awareness and to bring about a policy for the well-being of our rivers so once I said it's not against you or anybody for that matter it is not against the political powers it is not again any particular group it is not against the farmer it is not against the city to Ella it is not against anybody it is just that our rivers are dying we need to do something when it was appealed in such a way that it was never against anybody it is for everybody and it's not about me it's about you naturally people reverberate with that so I'm getting a question here how can we school students give our supports rally for rivers this is from someone in India this is one phenomenal thing that happened in the country the schoolchildren incredible things that they produced in those in the last three months the way they stood up and supported the kind of you know a lot of artwork that did and the messages they gave out and the videos that they made the children did such a fantastic job which inspired millions of people to act and when we asked him to paint the painted River we had a painting competition running across some 160,000 schools the most painful thing was to see that many children just painted sand and they thought it's a river because that's the kind of river they've seen they've never seen a flowing river and we made we made some kind of a brief survey and we found 80% of the population below 20 years of age in a city has not seen a river in their life they only read about it they only heard about it they saw it in the movies but they never seen a river in their life because they never went the living apartment home they just go to school and they come back and they study and that's about it they never went to a river so when I made this thing that you know as a it's it's something that I I always kind of you know against people taking selfies with me I've never taken a selfie myself I said I'm compromising this no selfie business and I took 8 selfie still now with 8 different rivers and it caught on in a big way that said gurus taking selfies I said only with the river not with you not with anybody not with prime ministers and presidents but only with the river I will take a selfie and children started taking selfies with the rivers they compel their parents to take them to the rivers and this became a large moment and children have done wonderfully well so for the child who's asking this question the time for giving the missed call is over it is in the works to become a policy so we will be calling for depending upon where you are right now we call forth with full time volunteers nearly I think 6,000 people have registered for this and a few hundred will be coming and moving into the yoga center to work from there the rest will work in various cities whichever city you are if you register in the rally for reverse website we will see how to engage you in some form ok now we all know the trick if you want a selfie of Satguru the reiner not far so this is an interesting one coming in there seems to be no justice in climate change developed countries that are taking up most of the carbon budget are the ones that flourish whereas others are on the brink of disaster does the law of karma really work see ya if we look for justice in the world we will end up with a fight the moment you demand justice believe me you will end up with a fight or with reprisals so whatever people have done have done right now how to get the world to be far more inclusive than the way it is is what we should look at if you ask for justice in a way in their minds from whomever you are do morning justice in their mind it looks like revenge you're trying to arrange for what they have done in the past he's not going to work so we should look for a more inclusive world because what you call as the environment is most inclusive it doesn't spare anybody so we just have to make this make common cause out of this those nations those societies were being little left behind in development of course we have a challenge we will have to pitch our causes in the international forums and for the right kind loss if you are asking is this my Karma yes it is because karma means action you have not performed the right kind of action so you are paying the price for it it's time we do the right kind of things now we must understand this much that in our lives if we do not do what we cannot do there is no issue but if we do not do what we can do we are a disastrous life so don't be a disastrous life thinking up all kinds of philosophies for yourself it is very important we as a generation of people do whatever we can do to set things right and this is our time on the planet we must understand this those of you who think you're immortal I am just reminding you you mortal you will be dead one day all right and that day you will do something very cool or eco-friendly that you get buried in the planet it's a very good thing to do but right now we must understand we are here for a brief amount of time like a baton carrier in a relay race whichever way the previous generation gave this planet to us we are supposed to make it better and give it but V as a generation we cannot make it better we've eaten we have taken a huge bite of this planet so it's important that at least we make an attempt to give this planet to the future generation as it was given to us at least to that extent we must do and there is enough time to do that in the next 25 years the damage that we have caused in the last 50 years can be turned around if we do all the right things the question is only are we going to be that generation which has the courage and the commitment to do the right things or are we a vain generation who just talked about it and walk away so on their vein and just got a question what do you think the youth around the world need to do to leave this world a better planet for the next generation well everybody will tell you consume less and save the water saved they save that yes all those things must be done I'm not questioning that but the most fundamental thing that nobody wants to address in this world is see at the beginning of 20th century we were only 1.6 billion people today we are 7.3 billion people I think that's an irresponsible reproduction this is not just because of reproduction our lifespans have increased that means we have postponed death if you have postpone death is it not important to postpone birth I am NOT talking about any great philosophy I'm just talking about simple arithmetic if you postpone death should you not postpone but and we're nice but we're just too many if you do not reduce the human footprint on the planet do whatever you want all kinds of technologies all kinds of philosophies all kinds of environmental moments we have to reduce the human thank you thank you that's good we have to reduce the human footprint on the planet in the sense see right now we are 7.3 billion people by 2050 the World Health Organization estimates we could be nine point six billion people by 2075 we are supposed to be twelve point six billion people by the end of the century we are supposed to be 14 billion people there is no way you're going to save this world or save the forest or River with 14 billion people walking on this planet because our ability to consume because of our technological progress has increased so much what thousand people used to consume 100 200 years ago one person consumes today simply because of the variety of things well you can improve technology you can drive an electric car but electric car may not smoke in your city but even for the electric car there's a whole lot of stuff going into it all right electricity has to be generated somewhere so without reducing human population trying to curtail human aspiration is not going to work I know human beings well enough you try to curtail their aspiration they will do or they will seek their aspirations or fulfillment of their aspiration in clandestine ways it is very important instead of making projections that by 2050 we will be 96 Oh on the lighter when I'm saying I'm talking to people in India and saying I'm going to institute an award for all those young ladies who are healthy who are capable of bearing children but chose not to do that I want to give them an award because their service for the future of this planet is too big to go unrecognized interesting you you're getting the wood all right you've done a lot but what is the one thing you wish you could change about the world human beings everything else is perfect perfect this planet is perfect - the human beings or human beings have to get in tune with the rest of the existence that's all that's yoga speaking of humans what is your biggest weakness what's my biggest weakness I never left any aspect of my life as a weakness whatever qualities are whatever lapses that may be there I made it all into something that'll work for me and for everybody around me speed is my weakness yeah once I sit on something it has to go full speed so with life it's on full speed cycle huh explains the motorcycle hobby yeah it was my life at one time I literally lived on a motorcycle for about seven years a criss-crossed Indian motorcycle now I'm something else but always on full speed alright so said guru our last question for you how can each of us on an individual level interact more responsibly with nature see how you do it people always ask me so do what should I do so somebody says you must have a shower with two liters of water well maybe you need 25 liters of water maybe somebody needs 50 liters of water I am NOT here to tell you what you should do I'm only my business is only to make you very conscious and sensitive to everything around you you respond according to your intelligence it's not for me to prescribe that you have showered with two litres or four litres or ten litres I will not do such obscenity on anybody because I think it's obscene to tell people how they should do things but I'm saying you must be conscious that your life is not a bubble separated from the rest of the world or whether from the universe this is happening in tandem with every other life whether it's worms or insects or even microorganisms or trees or birds or animals they are not separated from you what you exhale the trees are inhaling what they exhale you're inhaling if you become conscious no I have to tell you don't chop the trees down do I have to tell you protected my business is only to make you conscious how you respond I'm sure you will do it to the best of your intelligence and your capability and I want to leave it there because I don't believe in telling people what they should do so sadguru I would love to spend all evening with you to soak up your wisdom but thank you so much for well getting up in close and personal with us but also this wisdom of everyone collectively through individual consciousness to come together in global consciousness I think that's a great message for us and for anyone who is interested in you more about your organization you can visit Aisha dot Sadhguru org and the campaign hashtag rally for rivers so good night everyone devestating cute that group

Channel: Global Landscapes Forum - GLF

Views: 1,400,362

Rating: 4.8240638 out of 5

Keywords: sadhguru, glfbonn, global landscapes forum, questions

Id: I098n_9LPP4

Length: 34min 19sec (2059 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 20 2017