Sadhguru chants Yoga Yoga
Yogeshwaraya (Participants chant along)... (Sadhguru’s presence) Sounds of Isha music -
Prasanthi sings a Hindi song... (Video plays on Tantra series
for Sadhguru Exclusive) (Sadhguru’s presence)
Sadhguru sings Shiv Kailasho ke Waasi... (Sadhguru’s presence) Sadhguru: Namaskaram.
Namaskaram to everyone. Wherever you are,
namaskaram to all of you. Well, it's nice to see so many
of you after such a long time (Applause). Well, the laws in the country, both here and in many
states in this country, and everywhere else,
are being relaxed. They're being relaxed not,
because we're in any better situation than we were four months
or five months ago – in fact, we are in a worse situation. But a society, a nation and the
world cannot go on locked up forever. So they're relaxing this for
economic reasons and social reasons. As the laws of the
nation and states relax, your personal protocols, your family
protocols must become tighter and tighter – it's very important. The most fundamental responsibility
in this time is that you stay alive. Ensure everybody
around you stays alive; this is the most
fundamental thing. Well, different generations are
thrown different kinds of challenges. If you ask me,
this is a very soft challenge for you. It's a soft ball,
it's not a hard ball compared to the World Wars
that people have seen, compared to the horrors that past
generations have witnessed and suffered. This is a soft ball,
don't crib too much. It's important that we hit this
ball right – very, very important. (Talks Aside) Well, in United States, as you
know, relentlessly it's going on, nearly 200,000 deaths. Well, people are thinking, "That's not
too many for four months or five months." That's because you were not
counted among the 200,000, it doesn't look like too many. Maybe nobody... fortunately,
someone very close to you, near to you, loved ones have not been counted,
so you're thinking it's not too many. Any death,
unnecessary death is too many. Well, people have to die, but
don't have to die stupid. All of us have to die, but we don't have to die stupid
because when I say stupid... Well, this is not like a bubonic plague,
it's sweeping across and killing everybody. If you... If you behave
responsibly, it'll spare you. I've been telling you, you've got
to be responsible for a long time. Now the virus is telling you if you
behave responsibly, you will be spared. If you behave irresponsibly,
you will be taken. Hello? Inner Engineering! Yes (Laughs),
that's all it's saying. So, at times like this, it's important that all our sense
works for us, not against us. Compulsive behaviors
can cost lives, if not yours,
somebody else's unfortunately. Please ensure that nobody
dies, because of you, and you don't die
because of you. Hello?
Make sure of this. Well, over nearly seven
million cases in United States, over 1000 are dying every day. India rapidly catching up,
nearly five million cases, daily hundred
thousand extra cases. There may be five to seven times
more undetected across the country. Fortunately for India, the mortality rate or the fatality rate
is way lower than any other country. You know, we've been eating right
(Laughter), it's playing its role. Particularly in southern India, the fatality rates are way lower
than anywhere else on the planet. I said this well before,
five-six months ago, looking at the diet of
South Indian people, probably they will survive
better than anybody else. It's coming true with
all the numbers now. Well, many other countries, Brazil,
Russia, everybody racing with each other. The question is not
where it's happening, it is just that this is a
test of what we are made of, how we will behave, how safe we will make
it for ourselves and for everybody el... else around us. Well, it is Mahalya Amavasya
in the next few days. This is the time of
the year where... ah, close to the
autumnal equinox, this is the time of the year
when the earth is most feminine, particularly in the
Northern Hemisphere. The feminine quality of the
planet is more enhanced. Literally across
northern hemisphere, this is the time when water is a
dominant element on the planet, except in California
of course (Laughs). Water is a dominant element,
so naturally it represents the feminine. So in this time of the year, the divine feminine is most
active and available to people. So a ten-day festivity starts with this new
moon, which is on 16th, 17th of this month, and as you know, 22nd,
23rd is the equinox. And as you know, I'm eternally
grateful to the equinox in my life. I did not know it was equ...
equinox on that day. It's much,
much later I realized, many years later I
realized it was an equinox day. So feminine being
dominant Mahalaya Ama... Mahalaya Amavasya is
also seen as a time when our respects, regards and obe...
obeisance be paid to our ancestors. What is the significance
of ancestors? They're dead,
why should we bother about them? Well, the problem is who you are right
now, in today's world you constantly being on Google, maybe you think you were delivered
by the Google lady (Laughter). The people that we refer
to as your ancestors, they may not necessarily be wandering
around, hanging onto the trees, but they're living within you. How much of ancestry stays alive within
you, on one level, it enriches your life, on another level,
it enslaves your life. We are who we are only
because of our forefathers. What they learnt, what they knew,
their skills, their technologies, their sense of life, we have imbibed
all of it knowingly or unknowingly, every one of us. At the same time, if you let
them live too strong within you, you won't have a life of
your own because then... Do not underestimate the dead,
they will try to live through you. This is why so much
care was taken, not in any one culture, across cultures
everywhere in the world, certain things were
done when people died, so that they don't try to
live through you too strongly. Because if they live through you
too strongly, your life is wasted, that is, you
will not be a fresh life. You will be sort of a
carbon copy of an old life. Unfortunately,
many of you have this aspiration that you want to live
through your children. No, that's the last
thing you should do. Your children should live... you must enrich their life.
You're like manure (Laughter). Hello? Yes, if you're good
manure, they will flower. If you smear yourself all over their faces,
they will smell and stink like manure. Hello (Laughter)? You must be good manure
for your children, rich manure, so that they will flower
and they'll have a life of their own – it's very, very important. So every culture
always took care to distance themselves from the
dead in so many different ways. In India, we developed
elaborate methodologies, chose times when we can do
maximum in this direction, so that year-on-year we create
more and more distance. Just because you forgot
about your dead grandparents or parents or of
your forefathers, th... that does not mean they're gone. They live through you. The very way you sit
and stand (Laughs)... You may not understand this
in the beginning of your life. When you're eighteen, twenty you
thought you definitely not going to be like your father or your mother,
that's the last thing you want to be. You know,
I'm talking about the free spirits. But by the time you're forty-five,
you sit like them, you stand like them, you talk
like them, you know? Unknowingly,
even your body moves like them. This is because they're
living through you. So this is a time of the year, which was called...
which is refer to as the Pitru Paksha. That means, this is the time
to attend your ancestors, you may know them,
you may not know them. Up to twelve generations of
people are usually attended to, so that they don't try
to live through you. You distance yourself
genetically from them, so that this life
(Referring to oneself) operates and organizes
itself as a fresh life, as a new possibility, that it doesn't become a
repetition of the past. So, this...
We are right now at this time and the Mahalya Amavasya which is
16th, 17th of this month, in the Yoga Center, I think
anywhere between 20-to-25,000 people will do the necessary processes to
distance themselves from their ancestors. They may be dead long time ago. How we handle the dead has
substantial relevance to one's life. I've said this before, which now going
into research mode in some places, because what you observe with
life is no more research. You have to observe
the lab rats, whether their ancestral
behavior has influence on them. Only if it's true for rats, it's true
for you (Laughter) – rat race, you know! Well, even among them
it's been noticed that... One experiment, I think this happened in
the Emory University, if I'm right, or I could be off in terms of university –
some premier American University for sure. They made this small experiment, where a bunch of rats
were given nice... a... a cherry blossom
smelling cheese. They lapped it up one day. Next day when they came to eat, when they bit into the cheese,
they got an electric shock – you know humans
(Gestures) (Laughter). And again and again a
few days they did this that whenever they bit into this cherry
blossom smelling cheese, they got a shock. Seven generations of rats would not
go anywhere near cherry blossom smell. They learned their
lesson, I'm saying. And these generations did not live
together, in case they're running a school– they were separated. So wherever they were, for seven
generations their learning remained. It's only in the eighth
generation, it started dissipating. So it is true with rats,
it must be true with you. I mean, I'm going by the data. But we know always it's true with you, both
positives and negatives are true with you. Both positives and negatives, if it become
very strong influence upon your life, they turn into a
negative process. It may be positive, but if it becomes a very strong influence,
then it becomes negative, because whatever your seven genera...
I'm only going seven, okay? Mahalya Amavasya we're going to
twelve, but in case... Because you're all covered, I can't make
out whether you're homo sapiens or rodents (Laughter). Really, we're all
looking funny these days (Laughs). So, generations of
people that we have lost, probably we do not know
them, we don't know their names, we have not even seen their
pictures, but they're living through us. So, whatever learnings they had,
seven or twelve generations ago, if it plays out too strongly, you
will become irrelevant to today's life. So, you have a fear of cherry
blossom may not mean anything today, but it continues within you. So, this complex
web of information, which we are today calling
as genetic information, karmic information, pranic information,
various kinds of things which have built up as a network of information,
which is functioning in our lives in so
many different ways. Some of it has been accessed and
research by scientific, modern research. Many they know it is
heading in that direction, but you know... you... you... you
need funding to come out with results, so it is being postponed.
But we know this has influence. Especially societies which
don't handle their dead properly, in those societies, the most
vulnerable population will be adolescents. From zero to eight years of age, children generally have a
kind of a protection, an imm... immunity from the
ancestors (Laughs). They be their own thing. But
between eight and eighteen, the influence of unattended
ancestral – for lack of words, I'm using – their spirit or their memory,
plays havoc with adolescents. So a society where
adolescents suffer most – it's the best part of
your life in many ways, but they suffer most – that society you must know has
not attended to its dead properly. So this is a time
of the year where even if we have not done
something in the past, every... everybody makes an
attempt to deal with the ancestral dead, so that their influence is limited in
our lives. We appreciate who they were, we appreciate
their contributions. We have this kind of
body, this kind of brain, this kind of learning, this kind of
whatever – in all that they have a role, we appreciate that. At the same time, we want
them to stand little away from us, so that we can live our own lives. This is important, otherwise their
influence will be very, very strong. Adolescents and post-pregnancy women
are most vulnerable for these forces. It is very important if there
are such people in your homes, you must attend to this. So Mahalya Amavasya is that day,
just two or three days away. But this is also on this day we're
taking off across United States looking for a culture
which is largely dead and also the modern
America, how it's been built. You know, we're doing a... exploring...
That is what I think... No, that's not what they put up. You know about this? Okay. So (Laughs), because a... because ah,
American people have been singi... singing that it's
blowing in the wind, so I decided we'll
ride on a two wheeler, so that we don't miss the
wind or what it has to say. So probably we're doing six to...
anywhere between 6-to-8000 miles on two wheels in the
next three-to-four weeks, three weeks I hope.
Once again, looking at a... an ancient, largely...
largely dead culture. Archival right now,
not really alive. So, this is not to
bring back the dead, but to appreciate every
kind of human being who's made us who
we are right now. At the same time, we
becoming who we want to be, not becoming like
them, this is important. So, these aspects of old
memories, genetic memories, karmic memories playing up, because of this, there was a very intricate
process in India. There used to be – now which is largely lost, some
people are trying to hang on to it, but it's going to be very difficult and
it'll be definitely obliterated in the coming probably twenty-five,
fifty years' time – is people had a way of
tracking their genealogy. Today I know you have some
websites or something doing for you. But people had a way of looking at this, so
that genetics don't mix in an unhealthy way. As a part of this, who you should
marry, who you should cohabit with, who you should not touch,
who... where you should be, where you should
not be, all these things. As generations and generations
happened, thousands of generations, then this was easy to manage – when societies were
largely agricultural and we know where they lived, they
never moved from their land, so we knew. But in modern societies, everybody's moving
and nobody knows where they come from. So the boy or girl that you bump into
somewhere on the street, you marry them, because (Laughs) you don't
know where they come from. And the world has changed,
people are mobile like never before. That's why the virus
is also spreading. Yes. What... what happens in some one
little city in China is all over the world, because all of us are
flying all over the place. If we were just doing
agriculture on our lands, it would have been a local phenomenon,
it would not have been a pandemic. So, it once happened, Shankaran Pillai
went to his astrologer. He was an eligible bachelor at one
time, I'm telling the ladies (Laughter). So, he went to his astrologer and
asked, "What kind of girl should I marry?" So the astrologer said, "See,
though initially it looks troublesome, your marriage will
be more successful if you marry someone with
opposite traits than what you have." Shankaran Pillai said,
"That I have decided. That is why I have decided that I
will marry a rich girl" (Laughter)! Opposite traits! I heard there are lots of questions,
let me take the questions, because there is a limit on how long I
can hold this online thing (Laughs). And you also getting fried I
think, some of you. You okay? Please. This first question
comes from Katie in Switzerland. Namaskaram Sadhguru.
I see you as a great karma yogi. I can clearly see how karma
yoga is benefiting the world. However, what is the use of kriya yoga
to the world beyond individual growth? Isn't it a selfish pursuit? What are the direct benefits
of kriya yoga to the world? Sadhguru: Oh, why are you declaring
what kind of a yogi I am (Laughter)? This is like, hmm... You already decided what
kind of a yogi I am, hmm? This happened, a young starlet
in the Hollywood told a... a successful director,
pretty as she was, she said, "I love you and
I love you and I love you." The director looked at her
and said, "Will you marry me?" She said, "Come on, don't
change the subject now" (Laughter)! You already decided, so how do I
change the subject I'm wondering, that I'm a karma yogi (Laughs). Now, what you're
asking is suppose... suppose this was an apple tree
or a mango tree and full of fruit, you would go to the
tree and see... say, "See, your fruits are
fantastic, really useful to me." Usefulness is always
about me, all right? "But why did you grow so tall? So hard to get, you must have
been low, right here, full of fruit, we would have just plucked. We could have
gone even without Isaac Newton realizing that it falls down, because it would be
already down, we could just pluck and eat. Why have you grown so
tall?" Not understanding, only because he has grown so
tall, he bears fruit. So there are two dimensions – one is growth,
another is expression. Today of course,
I'm... I'm horrified to see parents pushing their children in the
front like poster boys or girls and saying, "At the age of eight, my boy
has already formed a company. He's a CEO of a company which
is worth half a million dollars." What a horrible thing to do to
a eight-year, ten-year-old child that his value
is only in dollars. This is the most horrific thing that you
can do to your children, you should not do it even to your enemy's children, that
at the age of ten, your boy is a CEO – doesn't mean anything. Your boy or girl must be just eating well,
playing well, sleeping well, growing well, hmm? He or she must grow, then they will do something
worthwhile if they've grown well. In body, mind, emotion,
thought, in spirit, in their life energy
they've grown well, they will do something worthwhile as
it is needed for that time of the world that they live in. But you're goal-oriented, you want
fruit, you don't care about the root. Yes, fruit,
not root is the goal. So this happened, I think I've spoken
about this in the past (Laughs). When I was doing farming, ah... a family of entrepreneurs
they come to me and say... Because I had coconut and
mango and things in my farm, they said, "We've come up with
a new formula, some growth... (Talks aside: What do
you call that? Growth...) growth enhancer," like you know,
you bought all those hair products, growth enhancer, and
you're bald (Laughter). And I said, "What is
so special about this?" They said, "You don't have to do
nothing with the root, just the fruit. You spray it on the fruit and
the fruit will poof (Gestures)." I looked at this person and said, "Why
don't you spray it on your brains, hmm" (Laughter/Applause)? I know life like this, if the root
is enhanced, fruit will come, I'm willing to wait. But you want the fruit to be
enhanced without root being enhanced, I know you're
going to kill my tree. So how does one become
a karma yogi, first of all? Because one has grown
beyond his own needs. His own survival, his
own concerns are over, so he's doing something that's useful. Without that happening,
if he tries to do things, then he will exhaust himself, he will
become a frustrated creature in the world. When you try to do something
that you're not ready for, you break, one way or the other. So the most important thing
is, to enhance this life. Kriya yoga means to enhancing this
life in such a way that your own survival, your own psychological, emotional, physical
survival is no more a concern to you – anyway it will happen. Now you will do something. What will you do? When your joy is not a problem,
when your survival is not a problem, when your love is not a problem, when your emotions and thoughts are
not a problem to you, what will you do? You will pick up something
that's useful and do it, or you will close your eyes and
sit, both are okay. Both are okay. Right now, closing your eyes and sitting
without touching anybody is the greatest
virtue in the world. All governments are advising, hello,
international bodies are advising. For this, you must be... In some way,
this life should become self-sufficient, only then. So karma yoga will not
come simply because you do hard work. In Tamil, we call this
kaludai yoga (Laughter). Kaludai yoga means donkey yoga – hard
work, hard work, hard work. If you do hard work,
you don't become karma yogi. Your work is a joyful expression of
who you are, then you're a karma yogi. Because karma is not sticking to
you, that's why you're a karma yogi. You... you heap up karma with
difficulties, then where is karma yoga? See, karma means... This a
contradictory two words coming together. Karma means bondage,
yoga means liberation. Karma yogi means somebody
who uses his bondage as liberation, somebody who does activity
as a means of liberation, not as a means of entanglement. It is only because
of what you do physically, mentally, emotionally, you
get entangled with the process of life, isn't it? If you... You must already
know, in the month of February, probably to start with only in United
States, we're releasing the Karma book. It is a way of looking
at karma probably... Because I just looked at variety of
things that are being said in the world, it is the... one of the most
misunderstood aspects of life, so we thought we
should clarify this. So, the book on karma, which is about gaining
mastery over your own life, over your own destiny, because
how the old information plays in you determines what you think,
what you feel, how you act. So without kriya,
how will you do karma? If we go back to
the same analogy, kriya yoga is about making the
tree grow, making the root strong, stem strong, branches and leaves,
and everything – useless things, so you thought. Then in the season,
fruits will come. You thought that is
the only useful thing. No, the roots that you don't see
are doing much more to the soil and to the land and to the life
around it than the fruits that you eat. It actually is. So without kriya, without a human
being elevating himself or herself to a certain level of freedom,
there is no question of karma yoga. Then wherever you go,
you will see only negativity, wherever you go, you get battered, simply
because you've not worked upon yourself, because of this everything
seems to be negative. People... You know,
there is a saying in India – anywhere you go, you can either
meet God or devil, it's up to you (Laughs). Whoever you meet, you want to meet the divine in them or
the devil in them, this your choice. Yes. I make sure that I meet
the divine in everybody, so everybody is wonderful. But if the same people if you touch the
devil in them, they are quite horrible. Are you or not, hello (Laughs)? So it's your choice, whether you meet
the divine in people or devil in people. Joshua Goldberg,
when he was in school, one day went into the headmaster's
room and said, "My friend Robin says... My friend Robin says
that I should go to the devil, every day he keeps cursing me
like this, because I'm Jewish. He says I must go to the devil." So the headmaster asked,
"What have you done about it?" "Well sir, I have come
straight to you" (Laughter). It's up to you what
do you want to meet. Wherever you go, you can
either meet the divine or the devil, because these are polarities with
which every aspect of life is living. It's for you to touch
the right thing. For this, your... you must be in
a certain way, only you touch... then you touch the right things, otherwise
you will touch all the wrong things. And when you touch wrong things in people,
even the dearest ones in your life, ooh, how nasty they can become!
You have seen, come on. Hello? Wonderful people that you loved and
adored, when you touch the wrong thing... wrong things in them,
are they divine or devil (Laughter)? They become worse than
the devil (Laughs). So kriya is very, very
important, because you coming to a
certain state is important. It's not about
what comes to you. You coming to a certain state is what
determines the quality of your life. What comes to you need
not necessarily determine. Yes, that is also important,
but even to draw the right things, you must be in a certain way. That is a... mu... first and foremost
work that every human being has to do. Please. Speaker: This next question
comes from Emma in the United States. Namaskaram Sadhguru, I have observed that air conditioning
is avoided in many of the buildings at Isha Institute and natural ventilation
is encouraged as much as possible. Is this an effort to be green and
cut energy use (Sadhguru laughs)? Or is there something more to that
in terms of what happens in our body? Can you please explain? Sadhguru: Well,
this is not my idea, this is how life happened on
this planet for a long time, hello, that you must know when it
is summer, when it is autumn, when it is winter, when it
is spring. You must know, because every
other life knows this. One reason why a simple
microbe or a virus is terrorizing you is simply because you've been living like
a lab rat in a box with circulated air. Hello? This is one reason. Why rural people are less affected
compared to the urban people, one is concentration
of population, another is this, that their immune systems are
much weaker in cities simply, because of variety of things. One
important thing is circulated air, closed indoors all the time, sedentary lives, processed
food, many things are there. But one important aspect
is circulated air. You come to a place like
this, you know, Cumbria. Tch, tch, tch,
look at this, fantastic! Hello (Applause)? After driving extensively around
the... around United States... extensively driving,
I decided this is the place. One reason is, nature is at its best
with a certain amount of balance of heat and cold and everything. This is important for one who wants
to do something within themselves for quick results. See, you could
go plant this tree in the desert, maybe you can manage and
keep it alive, but will it grow like this? The same goes for you. For your growth to happen
in a certain direction, a certain type of weather, a certain
type of air, certain type of sunlight, a certain amount of cold, heat, all this is needed
for you to grow. So, after driving
all over the country, I decided somewhere around
here is where we should de... settle because this has the
necessary atmosphere, all heat, cold, dryness and wetness of the seasons,
everything is well-balanced in this place. Here you come and you want
to live in a box (Laughs)? Even when you die, I
don't want to give you a box, I want you to go straight into the earth
as a eco-friendly material (Laughter). That's my wish,
hello (Applause)? Because at least
when you're dead, im... as quickly as possible, this
body should become part of the earth. You want to seal it in a box. I don't want you in a box,
even when you're dead. Even there, I want you to breathe
and maggot yourself quick. When you're alive,
you want to live in a box. I can understand you're
living in Manhattan – I have nothing against the place –
and if you open your window, it stinks. So you live in circulated
air, I can understand that. But here, living in
circulated air is a crime. Hello? I'm not talking about an ecological
crime, it's a crime against humanity, your humanity
(Laughs) I'm saying, because you come
all the way to this place and you want to deny
yourself what is available here. That will be a complete waste. So, right now,
we're in the process of offering things. Probably they will send
you a mailer or something, I don't know if
they're ready with it. But both here and
in Isha Yoga Center... There also we choose... chose
the place very, very carefully, next to the mountains. When I chose that
place (Laughs), there were many reasons but one thing was
definitely the atmosphere and the latitude. It's at eleven degrees
latitude, bang on, and that is most conducive
for human growth, because the earth is mildly
tilted in its rotation. And it's around eleven degrees and
maximum centrifuge forces generated there. So we chose that place But you know how people live,
they would like to kill anything that could be a threat to them. I said, "No, no, we
learn to live with them." You won't believe
me, on that day, out of the six trustees who were there with
the Isha Foundation, four of them resigned, because I've gone nuts. They're wonderful people,
they supported us till then.
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00:57:06,426 --> 00:57:03,852
In such a remote place
who is going to come? I tried to tell them,
"You know, right now I'm in disguise. I will come out in a
different way in a few years." Then they went into a literary
debate of what is a disguise. Then I gave up, I said, "Okay." But today
Isha Yoga Center is on Incredible India map (Applause), one of the most important
centers to _____ (Unclear) in the country. So similarly, when we chose this place
also there was lots of resistance. "Why don't we do it next to Atlanta?
Why don't we do it next to Nashville? Why don't we do it near Detroit?"
All kinds of things came. But we se... came here, because we are not just interested in
those who are with us today. Future generations of
people who aspire to grow, they must have a
conducive atmosphere. We must set the right culture
right now, because we've given it up in many ways. We're looking
at immediate conveniences and giving up long-term
well-being for this life. So when you come
here, it's important – we'll fix big windows, you open it. It gets chill in the
evening, you close it. Do you understand? It gets cold, you wear something
warm; it gets hot, take off. Not all the time in bikini, you can't
walk around (Laughter/Applause), because you
have circulated air. You must cha... You know, you must recognize
nature and respond consciously every time. This is important. This is very important for your physical,
psychological and spiritual well-being, this is very, very important. So we're opening
up both the centers, which lot of debate has been there, should
we have large number of people or no? So finally we've
decided in India, probably in the
next five to six years, we will have anywhere around 100-to-150,000
people living in the Yoga Center. Here (Applause)... Because anyway you're
working from home (Laughter), here also we are looking at
anywhere between 15-to-25,000 people living here in the next
five to six years' time. So the necessary accommodations and
everything coming up (Applause). So plan for yourself and... but you
must have warm clothes for winter, light clothes for summer. You can't live in the same clothes
without a shower, all that. There's enough water. You can shower every day,
and open the window, close the window. Above all, I don't want you to stay in
that damn construction all the time. You only go and sleep there. Rest of the time, you must be
out like this. Hello (Applause)? Dwellings are places
for us to sleep. Rest of the time, we must be
largely out as much as possible, receiving the bounty of
sunlight, air, everything else. The energy that is
here in terms of nature, in terms of life, in
terms of consecrations, you must feel it every moment. You lock yourself
up in your room, well, we can put you in the
Tennessee State Prison (Laughter). I'm saying, they even open the doors
for you there, food comes on time, you don't have to work,
unless you get hard labor. These days that's very rare. Most of the prisoners
don't have to do any work – they just have to
stay fit, eat well. Somebody opens the doors for you,
somebody switches off the lights for you, everything will be
done – it's convenient. I am telling you what is the
difference whether you're locked up by somebody or by yourself,
what is the difference? It's the same life, isn't it? If you want to grow as a life,
it's important all these aspects are there. I want you to understand and
appreciate all the people who are here – people who are here as residents
for the last ten, twelve years' time, the amount of
work they have done to just to make this place reasonably
hospitable and keep it going. Appreciate that at
least (Applause). If all you want to do is come here and
lock yourself inside, what is the point? Well, in winter you
can have a heater. Okay? You can have a heater in your
bedroom, it's all right. But when you walk out, you wear warm
clothes and go, don't go in a cabin. Hello? Otherwise, we can build
a cabin for you. Usually this cabin is
called a coffin (Laughter). Yes. But even when you die,
you should not ask for a coffin, hmm? Instead of cutting down
a tree for your coffin, isn't it better become a manure
for the tree, hello (Applause)? Hmm? So, these possibilities
will be opened up in a big way. You see how you can make it. You plan your life in the
next five, six years' time. You're in a place where you will
grow, where you will live well. Living well does not mean how
much bank balance you have, what new model car you're driving.
Living well means you're well – physically mentally, psych... psychologically, emotionally,
spiritually, you're really well. If you sit here,
you're fantastic. This is living well. If we live well like this,
there is room for all of us in the world. But if we try to live
well, like right now... I'm sorry, this is...
I know, it's a national spirit. This American Dream is
a very destructive dream, because people came here mainly
because of the openness and the land. But slowly their American
Dream got very twisted. I was... You know, because
we're going to make this trip, I was just looking up some of the
icons in this country like Elvis Presley. Well, everybody thought
they should be like him. Well, he inspired a whole generation
into something, whatever that is. But slowly this dream, dream, dream,
what a disastrous dream it becomes for him. How horribly he dies
is really terrible. This dream should not
happen to anybody. Well, in more recent times, you've seen
other musicians going the same way – American Dream, American dream,
hmm, dying most terribly. This should not happen
to any human being. So we must... See, after all, it's a dream. We must adjust our dream
(Laughs) in such a way that it works for me
and you, isn't it? Hello? My dream is death for you –
what kind of dream is that? Recently there was a quote, I think the daily mystic
quote that comes out, something about
Alexander the Great. A lot of people whose... his...
he still has fans (Laughter). Can you believe it? A man like that is still
having fans in the world. They all protested in India, "How can he say Alexander
the Great Idiot" (Laughter)? Well, that proves there are still
idiots left (Laughter/Applause). My dream should not
be death for you. Hello? After all, it's my dream.
I can adjust my dream, isn't it? Hello? Maybe I can't adjust my size
and shape of my body just like that, but at least my stupid dream
I can adjust the way I want. I've said this a few times,
but let me say this to you. You heard about that lady. Hello? You've... You've heard about that lady? You must participate in this dream,
because you already know this. There was a lady. On a
certain day, she had a dream. What she had? A dream. In her dream, she saw a hunk of
a man standing there (Laughter), staring at her. Then he started
coming closer and closer and closer. He came so close,
she could even feel his breath. What sh... she
could feel? Breath. And she trembled, not in fear. And then she asked,
"What will you do to me?" The man said, "Well lady, it's
your dream" (Laughter/Applause)! What the hell you do in
your dream is your business and let your business be good
for you and for every other life. Hello (Laughs)? So your children, they... I
see many young children whom you have
trapped and brought, "You must listen to
Sadhguru" (Laughter). Hmm? And if you does quank
quank, you're pinching him, "Sadhguru's talking,
keep quiet" (Laughter). That's not the way (Laughs). You... You build a dream
for your children in such a way that this dream works for them
and for every other life around them – that's the kind of dream
we must have, isn't it? Hello? That's the kind of dream
that you must have, otherwise it will go
somewhere else. Right now you're seeing in California
– American Dream unfolding itself. Over 2.6 million acres of land has been
burnt in the last two or three months. Whole towns or whole small
villages are giv... getting burnt. People thought it's an American dream
to build and build and build and build. Well, there are many
ways to look at this. One simple thing is, I'm asking you,
right now you're here in Tennessee. Fantastic land out here. Set fire to this
forest, let me see. I'll give you five
liters of gasoline. Set fire to this
forest, can you? No. "Well, that's a unfair comparison. There we're in the fringe of a
desert, we are here, we are north." All right, that is
true. I understand that. Because there were natural
cycles of fire and rain there. Why is it all gone? One important thing is which... because this same phenomena
I've noticed in India is the tubewells. I don't know how deep
California tubewells are going, but I am sure they're pretty deep.
In India, in southern India these days, a whole lot of them are going
12-to-1400 feet to suck water. Show me one tree, which has a root system which is
1400 feet down and it can take its water. You're just sucking out
everything with powerfull pumps, everything is dry, just barely alive. Just a little bit of fire, puff,
everything is becoming ash. Well, the natural cycle
of that part of the terrain is once in thirty, forty, fifty years,
there needs to be a cycle of fire. That is part of
the natural cycles. But not like this,
burning up the entire region. This is happening, because we've
taken too much water out of the land. There's not enough water in the sap
of the tree for itself to resist fire. If there was substantial
sap in the tree, it wouldn't burn like this,
isn't it, like matchsticks. Well, I'm making ecology very simplistic,
but fundamentally that's all it is. There is not enough
life in the vegetation, there's not enough water
in the vegetation. Why? We're too many. When we are too many, at least we must
be little more sensible how we live. Otherwise, who should live and who
should die will become the question. An unfortunate question mark will arise,
"Who should live and who should die?" Right now such decisions
unfortunately are being made in hospitals, "Who should get the ventilator, who
should not get the ventilator?" (Laughs) These are very... These are the most tragic
things that should happen to a human being. You... Both... You...
You went to... Your mother was feeling ill,
so you took her to the hospital. They also tested you
and you're also virus, so they admitted both of you. This happened
to so many people, I'm telling you. They just took somebody who was showing
symptoms, they went for a test themselves. They're also sick,
they were also admitted. Then the unfortunate
reality is they have to decide, the available one virus... one
ventilator, who should get it? They decide you should get it, not your
mother, because she's old, she can die. Having made such a decision,
how do you live after that I'm asking? Hello? Or if you and your daughter or your
son goes, they will decide you should die, the younger person should live. Well, it's a fair decision,
but how horrible a decision to make. So this is happening
to us on many levels, simply because we are not living not only sensitively, we
are not even living sensibly. So please do not come here and say,
"Fixed air conditioner for me in my room." No, we'll open the windows for you. If you want, we'll make automatic
windows. If you want to live unaware, temperature sensitive windows – it'll
open and close by itself (Laughter). Also temperature
sen... sensitive... You know, because putting your arms
inside in the jacket and all is difficult, when it's cold, we'll
put a sack on you. Hello? You need an
arrangement like this. And above all, these machines... See, I want you to just be
here for some time and see – not now, we cannot welcome
you now as per the state's protocol. But when I came
to United States, first thing I noticed is all the time
something is humming anywhere you go. When I go back to India, when something
is silent, it's like that (Snaps fingers) chuk nothing. Do you know what
impact this has on your system? You may not notice it
because you're always in it. Just some motor is running
somewhere all the time. If nothing else, at least the stupid
refrigerator is going baa boo baa boo, something (Laughter).
It's doing its own things. It's... Please live in a
quiet place, a genuine quiet place. That's what we're
trying to create here. Just an absolutely quiet place
– when it's quiet, it's quiet. You will see how it'll
calm your entire system. This is very important for
your physical well-being, for your spiritual well-being, extremely important and
your psychological balance – this is very, very,
very important. The world bodies and the
doctors around the world... Just now, after
this an hour later, I have a conversation with a... a doctor from India about the mental pandemic,
the fear of mental pandemic that's coming. The fear of suicide pandemic
that is evolving in the world. I'm telling you, the amount
of reverberations that you're taking into your
system on a daily basis has a significant
impact on these things. Just come, just live here,
just quietly for a month and you see how
everything just settles down, simply because there is no
outside unnecessary reverb going on on the system. And there are also other
things that you don't even feel, which we cannot avoid
in terms of wife... WiFi, microwave, this one, that one –
so many things are going on. What we cannot avoid,
let's leave it. At least everything that we can
avoid must go, it's very important. It doesn't matter how
you have lived till now, it's important from here on... You know, the virus,
the great teacher has come. You ignored me for
so long (Laughter). Now, he's teaching with a stick. I tried to do with carrots,
but you're no bunny (Laughter). So he's teaching you with a
stick, at least now get the point. Now, both carrot and stick is here. So, let's make it happen,
please (Applause). (Talks aside) We... you know, there was a... tch I started on a painting something
here when I was in United States last time or before last time
when I came – more than a year. I started it off and left it incomplete
because when I come here, I am here only for a day or two, and then I am travelling all over
the country, never got around. Thanks to the virus, just
yesterday I completed it, so I thought I will torture
you a bit (Applause). You know... You know
the... the paintings in India have I think till now about a
million-and-a-half dollars I've raised for COVID relief work, just
with two paintings (Applause). So, here it is (Laughs). (Painting is unveiled) This is a
representation of great time or Mahakala (Applause). One... Just one question, we'll close. Is there a question? Speaker: This question
comes from Prasanth in Chennai. Namaskaram Sadhguru. In our culture, many women devotees
have looked upon Shiva as their husband, for example, _____ (Unclear), Akka Mahadevi, Punyakshi, but no male devotee has looked
upon a female deity in that dimension. Why haven't male devotees looked
upon female deities in that angle? Is it right or wrong
to look up that way? Sadhguru: Well, you want to marry Bhairavi,
you're welcome (Laughter/Applause). This is why we made the
female deities so fierce, so fierce, you would only
(Gestures) (Laughter). I know in the closing minutes
if I enter into this dimension, it'll create a lot of confusion. Let me sow some confusion and later on,
some other day we'll clear this (Laughs). Between the masculine and the feminine,
I'm not talking male and female. I'm... Between the
masculine and the feminine, the emotions that spring
from what is feminine is always in the
form of an offering. The emotions that spring from the
dimension that we refer to as masculine – you being a male or a female
is nothing to do with this. The emo... emotions that spring
from the masculine dimension is always to
possess, to conquest. So in that context, approaching
the divine as context (conquest?) will be simply waste
of time and energy. It has to come in the
form of an offering. So that is why women developed a whole
tradition – if they are very feminine. Not all women are so
absolutely feminine. In today's world for
the sake of survival, they're trying to make themselves
more and more masculine, because the framework of
the world is entirely masculine. Very few spaces left where
feminine can be expressed, or feminine can find... Unabashed expression of the feminine
is very limited in modern societies. Very, very limited space,
rest is all masculine. I would say, trying to be fair, at least eighty-five percent of
the world is largely masculine, maybe ten-fifteen percent is
somewhat feminine, that too, they're guilty of being feminine.
Like that, they're feminine. They're not simply feminine. So the feminine needs to
be developed in the world. If you want to have a
balanced feel to life around you, it's important feminine should
come up at least fifty percent. So, approaching a masculine
energy, approaching the divine as a woman will not really
work for their own well-being, because the feminine
emotion when it becomes subtle, naturally knowingly or
unknowingly, willingly or unwillingly, it becomes an offering. In that context, it works. That is the reason that this
has been evolved in that sense, because the idea is to become an
offering, not to become a conquest. Even there (Laughs). (Sadhguru’s presence)
(Instrumental music)
