Sadhguru: If we want to live well, both externally
and internally, how well we live here simply depends on how well we manage our surroundings
and how well we manage ourselves. Fundamentally, life is management. If you don’t know how to
maintain your body, your mind, your emotion, your situations, your life in general, your home,
your communities, nations and the world – the quality of our life is just how well we manage
things with ourselves. But generally we are thinking of management, we’re applying ourselves
to management only in terms of business management or industry management or… generally we are
talking management only with economic situations, not life as a whole. In many ways it’s unfortunate
that today the most predominant factor that rules the planet has become economics. The other aspects
of life have been totally pushed to the corner. When economics rules, when economics is the only
thing that we are thinking about, we will tend to become very gross and unhappy in so many ways.
What I see is… You know we are conducting various levels of programs to very top level executives
in some big corporations in the world, major, major corporations in the world – what I see
is, people who have failed in their lives, they are suffering their failure. People who have
succeeded in their life, they are suffering their success. If you suffer your failure it’s okay,
because failure comes easy. If you suffer your success, that is tragedy because success doesn’t
come easy. So, something that you worked for, something that you always longed for, something
that you wanted to create in your life, when it happens, if you start suffering
that, that’s real tragedy of life. But a large number of successful people on
the planet are suffering their success. When I say ‘suffering their success’ – if
you look at people, look at yourself and see, you’re still young people most of
you, when you are five years of age, how happy you were and today how happy you are –
if we make a chart out of it, a graph out of it, is it moving upward or downward? In twenty-four
hours’ time, how many moments are you really happy? If you look at this, is it going up
or down? Hmm? Is it going up or down? Down, so that means you are a bad manager, because
after all everything that you did in your life is in pursuit of happiness, isn’t it? All
that you’re doing in your life, you’re doing it because you believe that is your happiness.
You educate yourself, you pursue careers, you build families, you run after your
ambitions… so many things you do, because somewhere you believe fulfilling those things
will bring you happiness. After doing all that, if happiness is not multiplying, it is going down
– that means you are a bad manager of yourself. Anybody who does not know how to
manage his own body, his own mind, his own emotion and his energies, if
he is managing outside situations, he’s only managing them by accident, not by
intent the way he wants it. Because if you do not know how to manage your mind, how to manage
your energies, how to manage your interiority, managing the outside is bound to be accidental.
When you manage situations by accident, you exist as an accident. When you exist as an
accident, you are a potential calamity. When you exist as a potential calamity, being anxious
all the time becomes a natural part of life. Anywhere you go today, people are talking
stress management, especially a few years ago when I first went to United States, wherever I go
people were talking stress management. I could not understand why anybody wants to manage his stress.
I can understand you want to manage your business, your finance, your family, your property,
whatever, but why would you want to manage stress? It took me a while to understand these
people have come to the conclusion that there is no other way to live. Somehow people have come to
the conclusion that if you do things in the world, you’re bound to be stressful. One is not
stressful because of what they are doing; one is stressful because he is a bad manager of
himself. He doesn’t know how to manage his own systems, that is why he is stressful. It is not
the nature of the job which makes one stressful. You ask a chaprasi, he is also stressful; you
ask the top executive, he is also stressful. Everybody believes their job is stressful. No job
is stressful. If you have no control over your own systems, you will be stressful. Whether you do
something or you don’t do anything, isn’t it so? See management means, fundamentally management
means we want to decide the course of our destiny. That’s management, isn’t it?
We don’t want to live here by accident, we want to take our lives where we want it to go,
that’s management. Isn’t it so? If you’re managing by accident, you are not a manager, without
you things will run better. So once you say, “I am a manager,” that means somewhere you have
decided that you want to go in a particular way. You want to have a certain kind of situation, both
inward and outward. So everybody is a manager in his own capacity, but in different levels and
different types. Whether you manage a kitchen where you cook for four people or you manage
a large industry where 10,000 people work, fundamentally if you want to have a good kitchen
or a good industry, you must be a good manager of that situation, isn’t it? So whether you’re
managing a little kitchen or a large industry, if you want to manage outside situations,
generally you will have to manage material and people around you. If you have to manage
ten people or 10,000 people around you, you have to manage ten minds or 10,000
minds around you, but if you have no management over your own mind, you managing
10,000 minds is going to be a disaster. In the process of doing something, if we are
destroying human beings – which is happening right now… in the process of managing a situation
the man is broken, then this kind of management is no good, because after all every management
that we do, is only for human well-being. If we are doing management for human
well-being, in the process of doing something, in the process of managing situations, it is not
only about producing something or making profit; human beings should rise to their full
potential. If we manage a situation properly, in simple process of working, you and the people
who are working with you should be able to raise to their full potential. When I say ‘rising
to full potential,’ not just work potential, but as human beings they must be able to rise to
their full potential. If people work together, then people should be able to rise to the
peak of their love, peace, compassion within themselves. If this doesn’t happen, then
it’s bad management, because all management, the basic intent is human well-being. If that is
not happening, you are just producing something, you are making little profit, but human beings
are getting broken in the process, it doesn’t mean anything. So if this kind of management has to
happen, that just in managing a business, you find people around you raise to their peak, then you
have to spend a certain amount of time in focusing on your inner management. If this doesn’t happen,
you will only manage situations by accident. Lot of people have understood management as a
way of throwing their weight around. Can I tell you a joke? Are you okay? On a certain day, a
lion was really feeling great within himself. He just was walking and a little rabbit was going,
he caught him and roared at him, “Who is the king of the jungle?” The little rabbit, terrified,
said, “You, you, of course you!” He let him go, swaggered around a little bit, then he found a
fox, caught him, “Who is the king of the jungle?” “Oh my Lord, it’s your of course, nobody else
but you!” Then he swaggered around a little bit, caught a few more animals, everybody screamed out
of fear, “You are the king of the jungle!” Then he was in full swagger like a manager (Laughter),
king of the jungle (Laughs)? Walked into a clearing in the jungle, there, there was a huge
tusker standing. He went, stood in front of him and asked, “Who is the king of the jungle?”
The tusker took his trunk, rolled him up, picked him up, twirled him around, smashed him to
the ground. His back broke. Then the lion said, “You could have just told me” (Laughter/Applause).
But the tusker said, “You see, I had to make my point” (Laughter). So lot of people generally
are thinking management means just throwing their weight around. Throwing your weight around
is not management, any fool can do that. If you manage a situation, not just things
happening there, people should feel elevated just being in that space. Otherwise it is not
management. Above all, if you go to a place and you manage a situation, you must feel wonderful
being there. If that doesn’t happen, you’re not a good manager. So, if this has to happen, you need
an inner dimension. When I say, “Inner dimension,” what is inner dimension? When I say, “Inner,” I
am not just talking about the body or the mind, because both this body and mind you gathered from
outside in certain ways, isn’t it? For example, this physical body, when you were a child,
this body was only this much, now it’s become this much. How did this happen? How did this
happen? That’s a question. How did this happen? Participant: _____ (Inaudible) Sadhguru: You grew up? “How
did it happen?” I’m asking. Participant: _____ (Inaudible) Sadhguru: I’m sorry? (Laughs) How did it happen?
How did all this body happen? Food that you ate, isn’t it? What you call as, “My body” is actually
a heap of food that you gathered. What you call as, “Food” is just a piece of earth, that you
convert it into food and make it into body, isn’t it? So this body is just a heap of food
that you gathered over a period of time. What you call as my mind is a heap of impressions
that you gathered from outside. Now you have a heap of food and a heap of impressions. If this
much gathering has to happen, something more than this must exist, isn’t it? If you are capable
of gathering such a large body and so much mind, there must be something more fundamental
than this, but that never comes into your experience. You’re just lost in these two
heaps, trying to make some sense out of it. Now as there is a science, as there is a
management science for external well-being, there is a management for science for inner
well-being. It is just that most of the time we have not approached it scientifically,
we’re just believing by doing something, somehow everything will be okay. Right now people
are thinking, by educating themselves they will live happily ever after, which you will discover
after some time, it’s not so. By getting a job, they think they are going to be happy ever after,
which you will discover it is not so. By making money you think you’re going to be happy ever
after, you will discover it is not so. Somebody thinks by getting married they are going to be
(happy?) ever after and… (Laughter) they know it is not so. So you’re trying to somehow fool
yourself into believing that by doing something, everything will be okay. Though repeatedly
it has let you down, still you believe that something else, some other miracle will
make everything okay. It’ll not be okay. It once happened, on a certain day a bull
and a pheasant were grazing on the field. You know a bull? A pheasant, a bird? The bull was
grazing on the grass, the pheasant was picking ticks off the bull, they are partners, you know?
Then the pheasant looked at a huge tree which was at the edge of the field, and very nostalgically
said, “Alas, there was a time when I could fly to the topmost branch of the tree, but today I do not
have the strength even to fly to the first branch of the tree.” The bull very nonchalantly said,
“That’s no problem! Eat a little bit of my dung everyday, you will see within a fortnight’s time
you will reach the top of the tree.” The pheasant said, “Oh, come off it! How is that possible?”
The bull said, “Really, please try and see. The whole humanity is on it, you could try too
(Laughter).” Very hesitantly, the pheasant started pecking at the dung, and lo, on the very
first day it reached the first branch of the tree. In a fortnight’s time, it reached the topmost
branch of the tree. It just went and sat on the topmost branch and just looking at the scenery,
enjoying it. The old farmer saw a fat old pheasant on the top of the tree. He took out his shotgun
and shot him off the tree. So the moral of the story is: Even bullshit can get you to the top,
but never lets you stay there (Laughter/Applause). So if you are seeking, if you’re seeking a life
of fulfillment, if you’re seeking a life of joy and peace and well-being within yourself, don’t
try to bull yourself in some way. You must do the right thing, otherwise it won’t work.
Now that you’re managers or to be managers, probably definitely I hope they have taught
you that unless you do the right thing, it doesn’t work with outside. The same
goes with the inside, unless you do the right thing it just doesn’t work. You may just
bull yourself to believe that this will make me all right that will make me all right. Yes
for a moment, but the next moment you crash. Please see… successful people, unsuccessful
people – just look at their lives and see, in twenty-four hours how many moments are they really
joyful? How many? You go on the street and see, how many joyful faces do you see on the street?
Very, very few, isn’t it so? Yes? If you see any, usually they are young faces. Over thirty faces
are all long faces. What's happened to them? For most of them, their lives have worked out far
better than they ever imagined. If you look at yourself as a generation, never before another
generation of people have been this comfortable and this well physically as you are right
now, isn’t it? Isn’t it so? We are the most comfortable generation. No other generation has
known these kind of comforts and conveniences but still are we any happier than what people
were? This is simply because we did not do inner management. We just did external management, no
inner management. In the process of creating what we want, the very source of our life, this
planet, we are just destroying, isn’t it? In pursuit of our happiness we are just making a
bonfire out of this planet. But still we are not satisfied, nor are we any more joyful than what
we were five-hundred years ago as people were, isn’t it? So somewhere we have neglected
the interiority. So to turn inward, what is needed? One reason why most young
people here have never made any effort to turn inward is because today any thinking
person, the moment he can read A, B, C, speak English, and he has extra alphabets
next to his name, he develops an allergy towards anything spiritual. This is not your
fault. These so-called spiritual people have made such jokers out of themselves. They have
presented spirituality in such terrible ways, ridiculous ways, that anybody who has any
sense doesn’t want to go anywhere near it. See spirituality means, to know
something which is beyond the physical. Right now, if you exist as a physical entity,
as a body, as a mind because both these things are accumulations from outside, whatever
happens outside will happen inside. If what happens outside begins to happen within you
all the time, then you being peaceful and happy is always accidental… because it doesn’t
matter who you are, how powerful you are, how great a manager you are, external situations
will never be hundred percent in your control, that’s the nature of the life. Even if
you’re just two people in the family, still you don’t have absolute control over the
situation, isn’t it so? As the scope and play of your life increases, you have less and less
control over the situations in which you live. That’s the reality of life. So if whatever
is happening outside is happening within you, you being peaceful and happy in your life
is a far away thing – it’s never going to happen. Only when a person begins to experience
a dimension beyond the physical within himself, then he can play with the physical world whichever
way he wants, he can do the best that he can do with the outside world but the interiority
is undisturbed, always the way you want it. The outside world will not happen
the way we want it hundred percent, at least the inner world should happen the way
we want it, isn’t it so? Isn’t it so? The outside will never happen hundred percent the way we
want it. That’s the reality of life. But at least this one should happen the way we want it.
If this is also not happening the way you want it, if your body, if your mind, if your emotions,
if your energies are not functioning the way you want it, then this is the worst kind
of slavery, because somebody else decides what should happen within you. If somebody
else decides what should happen around you, that itself you call it slavery, isn’t it
so? Yes? Are we on talking terms or no? Participants: _____ (Inaudible) Sadhguru: Oh, that’s fine. If somebody decides
what should happen around you, that itself you call as slavery. But if someone decides what
should happen within you, is it not a more horrible way of being a slave? But please see,
the whole world is in it. The only consolation is everybody is like this. Now… now that you’re
learning management as a science, I would like you to understand there is a whole science of
inner management. If you don’t learn that, you may manage businesses, you may manage industry,
but still you will not live a life of fulfillment and well-being. If you want to live a life of
fulfillment and well-being and offer the same to people around you, it’s extremely important you
know what it means to manage your interiority. Sadhguru: I, I really don’t know how you feel
today, going out of, probably the last step of your education or at least one step of your
education, a major step of your education. Because when I studied in the university I
was… I did not go to my convocation (Laughs). Somewhere, right from my childhood…
Are you okay for a story? Participants: Yes Sadhguru: Right from my childhood, the education
that I received, though they sent me to the best possible schools around, it didn’t mean anything
to me because my sense of listening and looking at people was such… when the teachers were talking
whatever, chemistry, biology or mathematics, one thing I could clearly see was whatever they
were saying didn’t mean a damn thing to them (Laughter). And I was not willing to listen to
anything from somebody who is talking something which doesn’t mean anything to him. So I always
looked at the teacher, if he put his heart into, it I’m willing to be there, otherwise I’m out.
Because somewhere I’m… I have so many things on my agenda for the day; twenty-four hours are packed
with too many things. I am not willing to spend an hour or even five minutes listening to someone
who is talking something which doesn’t mean anything to him. Even if he is talking nonsense
it doesn’t matter, if it means something to him I am willing to listen to it. But if he is talking
great things which don’t mean anything to him, I am not willing to listen to him. So as a part
of this, I spent… your education is over so I can talk (Laughter). I spent almost ninety percent of
my college hours outside, only ten percent inside. Only when I saw somebody who is talking something
with passion, I’m there. Otherwise, I’m just out. Now this education, I am repeatedly telling Dr.
Majumdar and few other people around here, “I’m happy to see somebody is talking with some passion
about what they’re doing (Laughs).” Somebody, it doesn’t matter what they are 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’re doing. It doesn’t matter what we’re
doing. Whether we are sweeping the floor or managing the country or what we are doing – if
we are putting our heart into what we are doing, it is beautiful to be doing that activity. So I
think it’s a fortune that I’ve just seen a few people, I hope everybody here is putting their
hearts into what they’re doing, and living in an atmosphere where people are passionate about
what they’re doing itself is highly enriching. Now that you are stepping into the world, not that
you don’t know, but anyway now you are 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 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 are 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 there is… world is
full of filth, let me also become filth.” So they have joined that, they have merged into the filth.
What we call as, “Filth” can also be great manure, you know (Laughs)? 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 a 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; creating
the situations that we want is management. As many of them have said many things, this
process of education, there is a certain exhilaration now that education is over, you
are stepping into a new dimension of life, the excitement and you know, it’s always
beautiful to step into something new that you believe is going to be wonderful but what
we have seen with life with most people is… Now let’s say somebody got a job, the first
day when they went and sat behind this table, this table was the most fantastic place
in the world. But within a few years, behind the same table they’re manufacturing
blood pressure, diabetes, ulcers and what not. This is not because there is something
wrong with the jobs that we do, this is not because there is something wrong with the world
that we live in, it is simply because we have not paid sufficient attention to ourselves. We
have paid too much attention to what is outside. To succeed in the world, people are always
thinking great aspirations will make you successful. Aspiration is just an initial starting
point, just because you aspire for success, just because you aspire for prosperity,
just because you aspire for well-being, it doesn’t happen. Success, prosperity, well-being
happens because you have made yourself capable of creating those things. Everybody aspires.
Who is not aspiring for success in the world? Everybody is aspiring. Even a beggar on the
street is trying to be a successful beggar, isn’t it so? Every human being is aspiring for it,
but only those who have made themselves capable will succeed. Making yourself capable, not only
in terms of management skills and other things, but… that is needed too, but making yourself
capable as a human being to go through situations untouched, to be like a lotus flower. Even
if you’re in the filthiest of situations, to maintain your beauty and fragrance,
if one has this he will float through this life untouched. If one doesn’t have
it, life will eat him up in so many ways. It is my wish and my blessing that this
new set of managers will manage this world, this country, this community and the business
and commerce, which is part of our existence today in the world, in a much better way than
the previous generations of people have done; because externally we are better
equipped than ever before. If we make a little effort, it’s… it’s
a fortune that an institution has made an effort to equip you internally to whatever
extent it was possible for them. If you equip yourself for internal management also, I’m
sure that these group of people and many more who will pass out of this institution,
should definitely manage this world, this nation and the communities much, much
better than the way it’s been done till now. When it comes to management, there is no such
thing as perfect management. It is just that if people give themselves absolutely to what
they’re doing, things will happen. Right now, the Isha Foundation, Dr. Karthikeyan, after
seeing what’s happening there, that’s how he’s been into this. It is run by all young people, the
whole foundation. We have hundreds of centers in India and outside the country. Everything is
managed by very young people. People who have been with us for fourteen, fifteen years,
they’re just in their early thirties now; very, very young people. No senior people,
no experienced people, just young people, raw hands. I took this as a challenge to make
it happen through them, not using any kind of experience. I’m not against experience, I’m not
against that, but I wanted to make a statement that incredible things can be done, not because
we know how to do it. Incredible things can be done simply because we are committed
that we want it to happen, that’s all. Today, this has grown into a voluntary
organization with over 200,000 active volunteers around the world, and we have taken
enormous projects of social significance. All these things are handled by volunteers, they
are not paid for it, they spend from their own pockets and do things. And you need to understand
managing these people, managing volunteers is much more difficult than managing paid employees
because you can’t fire them (Laughs). You can never fire them for inefficiency or indiscipline
or whatever, because they’re there on a voluntary basis. So people who manage these situations,
very young people, without any qualifications, they are such fantastic managers of
people. The way they manage the situations, the way they conduct thousands of people has set
such a exemplary example in the community there. I would take this opportunity, someday that
when it is possible you visit Isha Yoga Center, as to how things are managed so simply
because management doesn’t come… I know you need to learn about finance, this,
that, banking and those kind of things, but fundamentally management is your ability to
be capable of inspiring people to do their best and that’s all we can do. If everybody around us
are doing their best, that’s the best possible management that can happen. So this is not going
to come with manipulation. This is only going to come with dedication, this is only going to come
with love, this is only going to come because you are willing to give yourself hundred percent to
the person who is next to you at that moment. “Oh is all this possible? Is it not all utopian?
You think this is the reality in the corporate sector?” I am telling you, we are working in
the prisons, we are working in rural areas, we are working with major corporations in the
world, it doesn’t matter what kind of person you meet. If you just learn to touch the core
of his humanity, then you see every human being is willing to do his best for you, always. If
you just learn how to touch the very core of a human being who is around you right now, you
will see everybody is willing to do, lay their lives down for you. Only if people around you
love you and they want to do the best for you, you will not get ulcers doing management. If
people around you are trying to pull you down, you will anyway get ulcers trying to manage
situations, isn’t it so? If you do not create the people who truly love us and wanting to give
their best, then management is going to be a pain, management is going to be a huge suffering.
Only when people around us really want to do the best for you, only then management
can happen wonderfully. It’s my wish and my blessing that all of you turn out as truly great
managers of yourself and the world around you. (Laughs) Our lives become beautiful not because
of what we do, our lives becomes beautiful simply because we have included everybody around us as
a part of our dream of well-being. I hope all of you become truly successful and well. In whatever
way, with inner technologies if you need any help, we are always available to you. It’s been a joy
to be here in this institution. I’ve been to any number of colleges, people are the same,
but creating an institution with some sense of commitment for inner well-being in today’s
world is… I’m too happy. Thank you (Applause).
