Yalda Hakim: Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to this conversation with Sadhguru. My work as a journalist, I often find myself in
some of the most troubled places on Earth. And I realized just how little I know about living and
life and how much there is to learn from Sadhguru. This talk tonight is done in partnership with Head
talks which is basically the Ted talks of the mind and we will be talking a lot about mental health... Sadhguru: Heart is also allowed. Yalda Hakim: Heart is also allowed. Great! We'll talk a little from the heart as well as the head. Seldom do we see this number of people turn out to
one of these events queuing for hours beforehand. But that really comes down to the power
of Sadhguru and the visionary that he is. He obviously needs no introduction. As you know, he's a mystic, a visionary,
a yogi, a teacher, a humanitarian, and someone we can all learn
something about how we live life. Just earlier we were speaking in the green room
about some of the atrocities and some of the things that have happened over the last few weeks and the sort of things that we witness on a daily basis. And the kind of conversations
that we were having in there, I realized just how little I know about living and
life and how much there is to learn from him. So, I hope that you find tonight, in a way, something
that you can take away from his words of wisdom. So, I'll pass it on to Sadhguru. (Applause) Sadhguru chants Jananam Sukhadam… Sadhguru: Good evening. Good evening everyone! Yalda: Sadhguru, can you tell us a little
bit about that chant and what it means? Sadhguru: Well, I'm just not going by the word
meaning but the overall meaning would be… -birth is a certain pleasure and joy, but death is compassion, -When you have lived enough,
the relief of death is fantastic. The worst thing that could happen to you is that, - suppose you have to live forever (Laughter). And what we are calling as birth and
death is just a certain amount of time and a certain amount of energy in play. Time-wise, no matter who you are, what you are,
for all of us time is rolling away at the same pace. There's nothing you can do about it. You can't hold back a day. You can't hold back a minute but
our life energies are in our hands. If we take charge of this, then in a
certain way, we have mastery over time. If your experience of life, by taking charge
of your energies, you make it very intense, then have how you live, -if you live here for a year, it may feel
like you’ve lived here for a hundred years because of the sheer intensity of your existence. And also in terms of activity,
if you organize your energies well, -what somebody may do in ten
years, you may do it in one year. So in terms of impact, if you live hundred
years, you’ve lived a thousand years. So essentially, we're talking about
organizing that we can organize and coming to terms with that
which we cannot organize. This is where the equilibrium of life is. Yalda: You just said, the worst thing
that can happen is if you live forever. But what if that death is then imposed on you? So, I go back to what happened
on Easter Sunday in Sri-Lanka, and the attacks on various churches across Colombo
where three-hundred-and-ten people were killed. I mean, what goes through
your mind when you see this… I mean, some would say a level
of evil inflicted on man by man. Sadhguru: We must understand, evil has always
been inflicted only by one man upon another man, never by some other forces. It never happened like that. No hand jumped out of the sky and did any
evil to anybody ever in the history of humanity. It's always one person doing
something horrible to another person. This could be done for economic reasons,
this could be done because of egoistic reasons, this could be done because of
wealth, property, so many things. But if we have a fight for something, let's say
we are fighting for this flower vase, you and me, at some point if we fight enough, either
some wisdom will arise in you or me and say, “Okay, you keep it, but I don't
want this nonsense going on forever.” It’ll come somewhere, but when people believe that
they're fighting for their gods, there is no compromise. This’s what we need to understand. You cannot compromise, when
you're fighting for your God. If it’s property I'll give it away. But I'm fighting for something about
which there is no question of compromise. So we need to understand this, it's not when events
happen like this… terrible events like this happen, everybody for few days, they will feel all this
and then they'll go about their normal business. We must understand the moment you believe
something, and I believe something else, it's just a question of time, when
we are going to kill each other. Maybe we will or maybe our children will or
maybe their children will, but it's bound to happen. When you believe something,
when you believe means just this, what you do not know you as assume and
you concretize this assumption in your minds, and you gather numbers. If these thousand people here, all believe one thing and when we step out on the street, if they all believe
something else, inevitably there's going to be a clash. It's just a question of time. Yalda: How do we deal with this though? Sadhguru: So you have set up the menu, but you're
surprised when it gets served on your table (Few laugh). Why are you surprised? It is bound to happen. It's bound to happen. All this talk about just adjusting and you know creating
little bit of peace here and there is not a solution. One fundamental thing that we
should do in the next twenty-five years, if we are really concerned about the future of
the world, because the day of the sword is over. Now it is a day of a deadly button, which
can do things that you can't imagine ever, those kind of things it can do. Well, these deadly buttons are being spoken about
on a regular basis these days, in various places. So when this kind of capability is there,
it's important in the next twenty-five years, we have to establish in the world, your religion is
your personal pursuit, do whatever the hell you want, but it cannot be a national or global agenda. This must be set one hundred percent. If we don't do this, we are not looking
at just a few churches exploding or somebody shooting in the
mosque or something else. You could have nations exploding into bits. A large part of humanity can go into bits, because that's the kind of empowerment
we have in terms of technology. It's not like you will take your
sword and kill hundred people. You're going to just take away millions at a time. So when this kind of empowerment is
there, these kind of rudimentary beliefs…. When I say rudimentary belief, I'm just saying,
you believe something that you don't know. Let's understand the word “belief” first of all. I'll ask you a simple question. Is it okay? Am I too abrasive for you (Laughter)? You said it’s Head talks (Laughter). Suppose I ask you right now, how many
of you believe you have two hands? Please raise one hand (Laughter). Do you believe you have two hands
or do you know you have two hands? Yalda Hakim: We know. Sadhguru: If I start an argument with
you, that you don't have two hands, and if my argument becomes too powerful, one slap
in the face and you know you got hands (Laughter). So with hands you know. There are so many things you believe. What does it mean? It simply means you are not sincere enough to
admit, “What I do not know” as “I do not know”. Because you have not understood
the immensity of “I do not know.” Only when you see “I do not know”, the longing to know, the seeking to know and the
possibility of knowing becomes a living reality. Otherwise everything I do not know I just assume. What is the point of that? The moment you assume, and you gather thousand people
who assume the same things, and I assume something and I gather 10,000
people who assume the same thing, this is… clash is inevitable, believe me. Yalda: But it's easier said than done to say, well, in the next twenty-five years,
we need to get out of this mindset. Sadhguru: Well, never before this was possible. Today we're sitting here just talking
to a thousand people, but you know, that today we have means, what we speak here,
we can make it reach the entire humanity. This was never ever possible. Many fantastic human beings have come
but what they could do was minimal, because when they spoke hardly ten people heard. Today you can sit here and speak to the entire world. When you have this capability, how come you say you cannot
transform the world? We can. It is just that are we committed to making it happen? I was just talking to somebody who's
some kind of an expert on the Internet. That's when I started going on
YouTube and everything (Few Laugh). This is about twelve years ago, I was talking to someone in United States who
is some kind of an expert on the Internet affairs. So I’ve never gone browsing or anything,
I'm just busy with what I'm doing. So I just asked what are people looking
for, for hours on end they are on this net? So he very casually says, “Sadhguru, about
seventy percent is pornography.” (Laughter). I said, “What?” He says, “Yes.” I didn't want to believe him, I said, “This is
not possible. It can’t be seventy percent.” Maybe some people are looking up something
but then I check with a few other people, everybody says seventy percent of data is pornography. And they tell me, every year some 1.2 million children,
below fifteen years of age are being sold on Internet. What's wrong with us? I’m saying when such a tremendous tool of
technology comes to us, we want to sell our children? Is this how we use it? We want to change this. That's why I'm loud in the last ten years,
out on the Internet (Laughter/Applause). Yalda Hakim: Do you think though that
technology is a good thing or a bad thing? Sadhguru: Technology is neither. The beautiful thing about technology is,
if you learn to use it, it works for you. But who you are, will decide how you use it, isn't it? So what we need to fix right
now in the world is who are we -this is what we need to fix. We've all become many things which we are not. Essentially, we're born as life on this planet,
rest of the things are taught to us, isn't it? Stop teaching all this stuff which makes
us something other than human beings. Yalda Hakim: I mean, you can say this Sadhguru, but how do you deal with a fifteen-year-old who
spends six, seven hours of their day on a phone, which then impacts their mental
health, their state of mind? Sadhguru: See, being on the phone need
not necessarily impact the mental health, but what is on the phone, that's a question, isn't it? Right now, at least in India, whatever they may be looking for pornography
but Sadhguru pops up (Laughter/Applause). I am telling you, I am saying this with
a certain glee (Laughter) because... you know, I’m just walking in Bangalore city, some twelve, thirteen-year-old boys,
they… bunch of them, they say, “Hey, Sadhguru , Sadhguru!” and they come running. I say, “Hey! You idiots, how do
you know who I am (Laughter)?” They said, “No, we watch your videos, Sadhguru.” I said, “What? Your mothers must
be forcing you to watch my videos.” They said, “No, in our class all
of us are watching your videos.” I really enquired and I find in every school that I go to, at least twenty to thirty percent of
the children are watching our videos. I'm telling you when I was fifteen, nobody could ever get me to watch a goddamn
spiritual video (Laughter), all right? No way. But today children are watching. So this is a new and a fantastic development. So phone is not the problem. What is the content you're
putting on it and who's putting on it? Children are putting? No, adults are putting,
everything has become commerce. So children are playing video games, –whatever, some… in India some PUGB, what is that? Because I came to know about it because the
Prime Minister mentioned this (Laughter), something. See, it seems whatever, two,
three hours a day you're practicing how to kill this one, this one,
this one and this one. Okay? Chuk chuk chuk chuk chuk chuk, -I'm shooting. When I am twelve, thirteen, it may be okay. When I become eighteen, don't
I want to get little real (Few Laugh)? Hmm? Am I happy just shooting them on my phone? I would like to really shoot them.
Please understand this. You think I will be satisfied just shooting people? When I think it's the right thing to do, whoever appears
I shoot them, shoot them, shoot them on the phone. You think my instinct of wanting to shoot people
that I see will be satisfied just on the phone? You're living somewhere. It's not reality. So, when we are putting our children through
this and we think they are violent, they're wrong. No, this is the kind of content you're giving them. Can’t we change the content to whatever extent we can? Yalda Hakim: I mean, but there are
a lot of studies that have been done that the Internet is causing a
lot of angst for young people. Sadhguru: See, these studies goes on about
everything, what is not causing angst, tell me? Everything is and these studies
keep changing all the time. Yes, there is some kind of impact of a screen
time because of the type of light it emits. People lose this their ability… because they're going
on this late night, they cannot sleep properly, because they cannot sleep properly,
next day morning there are many troubles. All these things are rolling up. Today in the United States, they have technology
de-addiction centers, where like (Laughs)… like A… or something, they have technology
de-addiction centers where people go there, and it's a big thing that you can
live without a phone (Laughter). It’s a huge achievement that you kept your
phone away for whatever number of days. So technology is not the problem,
compulsiveness is the problem, isn't it? If you're compulsive, even the food that you eat,
if you eat compulsively, won’t you get sick? So for compulsiveness, there's only one cure
-consciousness. There is simply no other cure. You can make adjustments. Can I say a joke? Is it okay?
Yalda: Please (Laughter), of course. Sadhguru: On a certain day an office colleague, a young
woman asks Shankaran Pillai that… -hey (Laughter)! -that if she could get a lift in his car. So she took her in the car and he was driving. When it got a little lonely part of the road, he pulled the car aside and he suddenly
became like an octopus (Few Laugh) -that is -his limbs were all over her. -She pushed him away and said,
“You fool! What are you trying to do? I thought you’re a decent fellow and I came with you.” He said, “I'm sorry, I quit smoking.” (Laughter). Yalda Hakim: Then tell us (Laughs) how do
we get to a point of consciousness then? How do we not take our impulse
from smoking to something else? Sadhguru: See, we are misunderstanding,
consciousness as just mental alertness. Mental alertness will help you to survive
better, consciousness is not about that. See, you know that you exist right now
only because you're conscious, isn't it? You are conscious right now, that's
why you know that you're here. Suppose you fell asleep, you
don't know that you exist, isn't it? You don't know the world exists, nor do you know that you exist simply
because you're somewhat unconscious. Does it mean to say you're completely unconscious? No, you're still conscious when you're sleeping, but not conscious enough to notice
the presence of many things. So, consciousness is not whether it is
present or absent, it is always there. The question is only the intensity and the volume of it. If we have to use an the analogy - right
now, see, the lights are focused on us. So, both of us are clearly seen. There are people hiding in darkness (Few Laugh). -Suppose, you dim the light further, all these people
will disappear, only two of us will be there. If you increase the voltage, suddenly they will all appear. They were always here. They were here all the time, - because the lights were
dimmed, I could only see you and nobody else. If the lights were up, then you could see… - this is all consciousness is. Everybody is conscious, question is how conscious. So to increase or to raise consciousness,
what have we done in the societies? Our entire education system is just about
survival, one being better than the other. How can you be conscious when you are competitive? When you're… all you want to do is be better than somebody, your only joy is other people's failures, how will you be conscious? When you're enjoying other people's sufferings, other
people's failures, this is what being number one means. I am the number one means what? You are number ten. That's my joy. So I think this is sickness. From kindergarten, you're spreading this sickness
into children, and you expect them to be fantastic. It won't work like that. Yalda Hakim: So do we need to change our systems? Sadhguru: Oh definitely (Laughter/Applause)! See, right now it is in any way going
to change in the next five to ten years, not because people are going to become conscious,
simply because of artificial intelligence. For a long time, I always wondered
even when I went to the school, some… an idiotic person who's read a book a few years ahead of
me, suddenly is acting like they are something superior. Just you read a book few years ahead
of me, and how come you're so superior? I don't understand this. If you're a scholar, you read a few books. If you're a religious person, you read just one
book and somehow, you are superior (Laughter). How come just by reading one book
ahead of me, you become a superior life? All this is going to be demolished
in the next five, ten years’ time. My phone will be able to do ten PhDs a day. It has enough memory to do that. So, all scholars, religious people, people who just keep
on vomiting, their stuff that they've read elsewhere, this will be nothing. This will be nothing. So, if… See, there was a time, I remember
this very well in Mumbai port, when the first gantry was installed
to load and unload the ships, you know, about thirty -five, forty years ago maybe,
all the labor protested, they went on strikes. Then I was in a… you know, I'm interested in
this thing. So I was visiting some ports recently, I was enquiring what was the size of the vessels
then, what is the size of the vessel now, how much time does it take to load-unload. At that time, the biggest vessels were about
30,000 tons, or 35,000 tons in that range. Today, most of the vessels are over 100,000
tons, some of them are quarter million tons. But at that time, they were taking twenty-six
to twenty-eight days to unload one ship. Today, they unload a ship in less than twenty-four hours and they are unloading twelve,
fifteen ships at the same time, -that is, in one day twelve,
fifteen ships are unloaded. Why? -Because of… from man's muscle we moved to machine. Right now, all the professors, scholars, all of
them are crying “what will happen to our jobs?” It's the same situation. What you could do with your intellect,
a machine is coming which can do better. My first brush with artificial intelligence as
I saw it, was when I was thirteen years of age. Today's children everybody's on
the iPads and screens all the time. When I was thirteen, for the first
time I saw a flatbed calculator. So somebody brought it to school.
I'd never seen anything like that. They said multiplication tuk, tuk,
tuk, tuk, tuk… tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk, just came, immediately I felt offended (Laughter). Because if it can be done like this, why the hell are they torturing me in the
arithmetic class (Laughter/Applause). So I imagined if there was a calculator for physics,
chemistry, biology, everything, how wonderful. It took fifty years. Now it's coming. All the best for the children of the future because
they don't have to go through this torture of simply trying to retain something in your memory
and believe that your memory is intelligence. Your memory is not intelligence. Your memory is a certain capability, all right,
but intelligence is a different dimension of life. Consciousness means pure intelligence,
unsullied by memory. Now if I look at you, “Oh, I know Yalda. She's good.
She's bad. She's my friend. She's my enemy,” this, that, that, so much nonsense in my head. What happens now is I don't see
you the way you are right now. Yes? If my intelligence is sullied by my memory, I cannot
see you and experience you the way you are right now. If I don't see you right now, the way you are,
I cannot see this flower the way it is right now, I cannot see the sunrise, I cannot see the sunset,
for everything I have a stupid meaning in my head. There is no meaning in the phenomena of life. There is no meaning to sunrise. There is no
meaning to a flower. There's no meaning to a cloud. There's no meaning to anything.
It's just that it's fantastic. That's all. Meaning exists only in the psychological
framework of the human being. And these meanings are simply because
we are constantly dipping into our memory. In traditional terms in India, when we see people
living out of their memory, we say, “Ayyo karma.” That means past memory is ruling
them, they will never experience life. They will just recycle the same stuff. Yalda: Is it possible to shed or leave behind memory?
Sadhguru: I'm sorry? Yalda: Is it possible to shed
or leave behind your memory? Sadhguru: See, you don't have to shed your memory.
Yalda Hakim: Because it is part of identity. Sadhguru: No, no. If you shed your memory, you will again walk into the same pits that
you’ve walked in, in the past (Laughter). Memory is not to be shed, it needs to be carried
little loose, that it is not sticking to you all the time. See your entire body right now is just memory. There is evolutionary memory, there is
genetic memory, there is karmic memory, there is conscious, unconscious levels of memory,
articulate and inarticulate levels of memory. In yoga, we identify your existence
as eight dimensions of memory. This whole thing is memory, isn't it? See, you may not remember how ten generations
ago your great-grandmother looked like, but her nose is sitting on your face (Laughter). Body remembers, isn't it? One hundred percent. It doesn't matter where you go, what you do in your life,
this body retains every bit of that memory, isn't it? So this existence is memory. But do you want to use this body and this
bank of memory that you have in your mind as a platform upon which you sit or do you want
to carry this on your head -this is the difference. Being conscious means you sit on this platform. Being unconscious means you carry
it on your head, the burden of it. Yalda Hakim: You mentioned artificial intelligence. Are you worried about the future? Sadhguru: No, this is the best
time for me (Laughter/Applause). See, if let us say right now, you have read 10,000 things
and you remember all that. I have not read anything. So the value that you have is only the memory you have. But now I have a little gadget which knows
a million times more than you know. So now what is the value for you and me? What kind of a human being
I am is the only value, isn't it? What nonsense you carry in your head is of no value. So this is a great time for me (Laughter). This is great time for humanity because now you
being a human being will become more important than what nonsense you carry in your head. I'm sorry, this is Head-Talk (Laughter). Yalda Hakim: So are you saying then that
we are living in the best time in history? Sadhguru: Definitely. Is there any question? Never before human survival was
as well organized as it is today. which is a mile away and carry this bucket full of water. Tell me, in this room, how many people are even
fit enough to carry a bucket full of water for a mile. (Laughter) Now we're complaining because
the warm water is not coming. There are two knobs you have
to turn for warm and cold water. You want a single knob so people are freaking
in the morning, “two knobs, I have to handle” (Laughter/Applause). So, survival is better organized than ever before. When our concern was survival, we couldn't
pay attention to other dimensions of life. See, once you come as a human being, if you had
come as any other creature, stomach full, life settled. Once you come as a human being,
stomach empty, only one problem, stomach full, one hundred problems (Laughter). Why this is so is, our life is not fulfilled with survival. When our survival is in question,
we are just like any other creature. Only when survival is fulfilled, the dimensions
of being human kicks in, into our experience. When you're thinking of “where is my next
meal”, we don't expect you to be very human. You lose it in many ways. Now survival is settled for large part of humanity, unfortunately, there's still populations
for whom it's still a struggle. But I would say at least for sixty percent of
the population on the planet, for the first time, survival is better organized than ever before. The world is safer than ever before,
though people are constantly complaining. Well, you are talking about Sri-Lanka.
Yes, it's an unfortunate incident. But thousand years ago, if thousand
people died, just hundred miles away, you would be sitting here thinking
world is super peaceful. Yes or no? Today it's because of BBC (Laughter) that somebody
dies somewhere, the blood flows into your sitting room. It's a good thing at least your humanity is being evoked. Otherwise it’ll sleep. So I'm saying in terms of violence,
we are more peaceful than ever before. Our survival is organized better than ever before. And above all, our ability to
communicate is better than ever before. These are not small things. Now the question is, what are
we going to communicate? Are we going to abuse each other? Are we
going to throw dirty things at each other? Or are we going to do something
that will transform us as a generation? Because this’s our time on the planet. Are we going to make this the greatest time in
the world ever or are we going to let this pass? That's all we have on our hands. What else do we have? This all we have. All we have is a little bit of time, isn't it? Hello (Yalda Hakim laughs)? All we have is a little bit of time. But most people think they're immortal (Laughter). That's why they don't do anything. Because they think only other people die. They don't understand you and me will die. When we are born, we are geared to die. So it's only a question of time. Time is ticking away right now. As you sit here from the time we came and sat here, we are twenty minutes closer to
our graves, all of us (Laughter). Yes, if you're conscious. If you think about death, once in a
way it will become a morbid thought, but if you're conscious that you are
mortal you would organize your time in the most productive possible way, isn't it? Yalda Hakim: Are you worried
about global leadership, though? I mean, you say we were living in the best time that we… -it's the best time for us in
terms of survival and technology but if we look at the global
phenomenon’s at the moment, I mean, even if we look at what's happening
in this country with Brexit and identity politics, and people feeling like they need to belong
to a certain type of thinking or group on either side of the spectrum, is
that not dividing us more and more? Sadhguru: See, I think this reaction is happening,
not just here, in many places across the world. I've been talking to media and others, saying
don't push the pendulum too much on one side, it will inevitably swing the other way round. So people have been pushing it too much on one side, about politically being correct, saying the right word,
not the right thing, the right word you must use. If I say mankind, women will react (Laughter), I'm saying… is everybody so screwed up in
their head all the time they are discriminatory? I don't think so. Some people are, of course,
but today it's become like this.… You know, it was very natural for me, if you see a child, you want to pick up the child, you want to do something,
you want to talk to them, you want to hug them, whatever, because it's…, it's like a fresh flower. But today, you don't know whether to touch the child or
not because people are making such a big deal about it. I'm not saying there are no issues,
- there are serious issues, which needs to be addressed but at the same
time when we push it to a paranoia level, instead of taking necessary steps,
we make it a paranoia among people, then the other swing is inevitably going to come. Now somebody is saying “Don't worry about all this
ecological nonsense, nothing is going to happen, everything is fine, let us… you know, let's do
everything as it is because this all rubbish,” because you pushed it too much. This is very important to understand,
people who are concerned in this world... if you are a concerned human being, it's very important, whatever you think is right,
you must not push it too much. If you push it too much, the reverse pendulum will
anyway happen. You're seeing that right now. Talking about Brexit, am I... Is it okay (Laughter)? Because I think you already made up your mind so…
(Laughs) See, could you sell this idea to anybody in 1945? 1945, could you sell this idea that Germans, French,
Italians, Spanish, English, all come together as a union? Could you even think? I'm asking after World War Two? So in fifty years’ time, when such a thing
happens, it's not just an economic arrangement, it's a huge step in human consciousness,
that with people that you fought so bitterly, -bitterly means it can't be any worse,
human beings can't find any worse than that, -after that, within fifty years, when the generation is still
alive, many members of that generation are still alive, you thought of coming together, it's not a small thing. It's not just economic arrangement. It’s not
just euro versus your pound or whatever… it is a tremendous step for humanity. But now you want to go back on it (Laughs). It’s done. Yalda Hakim: On that note, I just
want to open up to the audience and give you a chance to ask
some questions from Sadhguru. Just stand up, introduce yourself
and we'll start here on the front row. Questioner: I’m Meenakshi and I work in technology. Sadhguru, so thrilled and privileged to
be here, feeling blessed. Thank you. My question is that in Kali Yuga, is it possible to take
the advaitic meditative route to try and get your… get in touch with your consciousness,
without a guru and the guru mantra, or should one pursue namasmaran
and bhakti marg as the way. One tries everything but is flapping in the wind… Sadhguru: See, you’re a technology person and I'm asking all of you, well, each one of you may have your own religious
beliefs or whatever, but please look at it sincerely. Your belief is only to a point of convenience, isn't it so? Are you willing to believe to such an extent… You have children? Children?
Questioner: Yes. Sadhguru: So are you willing to leave the future
of your children in God's hands and leave it, just do namasmaran and leave
them on the street, because… Arey street is also in God's hands right? Are you capable? No. Are you willing to leave your home doors open, your
wealth everything open because God is there anyway? No, you do everything that matters to you. You’re keeping God as insurance (Laughter). All right? So, when you're in this state of mind,
don't talk about devotion, it won't work. Devotion is a fantastic thing. Devotion is another dimension of intelligence. But with the kind of education that you've gone through, and your intelligence has become very skewed,
just by exercising one aspect, that is the intellect. Right now, our education systems are exercising
only one dimension of your intelligence. That is, just the intellect. If I ask you a simple question, would you want
your intellect to be sharp or blunt, all of you? Make a choice, I’m going to bless you (Laughter).
Participants: Sharp. Sadhguru: So you want it sharp.
So essentially, it's a cutting instrument. So let us say you have one knife in your hand and you
want to do all the activity of your life with the knife. Well, you can cut things well with a knife. But if you want to stitch your clothes, you use a knife
-you will inevitably be in tatters, isn't it (Few Laugh)? That's all that's happening today. Because you're exercising just one dimension
of your intelligence which is the intellect, which is a discriminatory sharp instrument,
which slices open… dissects things. Now, I want to know something
physical, I want to dissect it. Now I want to know you -shall we dissect you? Is that the way to know you, I'm asking? If I dissect you, will I know anything about you? Is it possible, I'm asking? By embracing you… by including
you, I may know something. By dissecting you, what will I know? What will work for a physical substance
you're trying to apply to your own life. It's not going to work like this. See, the more educated people are becoming
the more disturbed they’re becoming. Education should have settled them, isn't it? Education should have enhanced life. But tell me who is causing maximum damage on this
planet? Educated people or uneducated people? Hello? Educated people, isn't it? Educated people should have been the solution. Educated people are the problem, simply
because we are using a knife for everything. If you want (Laughs)… You know… There was a time when I was
crisscrossing India on a my motorcycle. So one whole night I've been riding. I am somewhere between Madhya Pradesh
and Uttar Pradesh, I don't know which state, somewhere around there in the border. So early morning around six-thirty, I end
up at a tea shop. Full night I've been riding. Then, you know… People who ride motorcycles, they will know one
problem is always that every five hundred kilometers, those days the chain will become slack. So you have to take off a link and
put it back, tighten the chain. This is a very easy job, but it's messy because of the
grease and stuff, your hands will become messy. So I'm just about preparing for
breakfast I'm not willing to mess. Then I see on the opposite side a shack,
which says Mubarak Mechanical Works. Then I see a young boy there, and
I said, “Hey, can you tighten my chain?” He said, “Yes, yes,” full enthusiasm. Then he goes inside and brings
his tools. What he brings? He brings a chisel and a hammer (Laughter). Then I say, “What? You're going to do with that?” He said, “Yeah, I can do it.” I said, “Wait,” then I walk into his garage and look,
only what he has is chisel and hammer (Laughter). He can fix it but after that, that's the end of it (Laughter). So right now this is what you're trying to do. You're trying to fix everything
with the sharpness of your intellect, you will become a mess, the more you
do it, more mess you will become. Only satisfaction you have is, you know words
and things that other people do not know. But you are a total mess. Yes, because the other dimensions of intelligence
have not been opened up in this society, largely, not everybody but largely. The systems… There are no systems to open up
other dimensions of intelligence. So when we say devotion, we're talking about a
completely different dimension of intelligence. Devotion is not about belief. Devotion is not about going to
a temple, church or mosque. Tell me, is there anybody in this world either in
sport, art, music, business, spirituality, whatever, has anybody done anything significant without
being absolutely devoted to what they're doing? Hmm? Has it happened? So devotion is another dimension of intelligence.
If you exercise that, life will be very beautiful. But it does not mean that you can simply believe that… Devotion has become deception because it's a deal. Right now the deal is like this, “Dear god, I will give
you ten pounds, will give you me million” (Laughter)? I'm saying when there's not a single idiot on the
streets of London who's willing to make such a deal, how come the source of creation is willing
to make such a deal with you (Laughter)? Yalda: So what do you think of organized religion then? Sadhguru: I generally don’t think
about it (Laughter/Applause). It is not that it has no use. See, if there was no religion, a lot more
people would have lost their mental balance. It is a very inexpensive way of psychiatry (Laughter). No. I'm saying… See, I want you to understand the line
between sanity and insanity is so thin. Don't think there are insane people and sane people,
every one of you are crossing the line here and there. Some people are not able to come back. That's all the difference is (Laughter). Yes or no? Well, aren't you saying with somebody,
“I'm mad at you” (Laughter).” So you are not mad at anybody,
you’re just mad (Laughter). That’s all. You are able to go mad for some time and
come back. So you think you're normal. Somebody went there and could not come
back, it became a terrible problem, all right. So do not assume sanity is some kind of a established…
sanity is some kind of an established status for you. No, today, you may be perfect,
tomorrow morning, you may be gone. Do you understand? It's very much possible like today you’re healthy, tomorrow morning, you may be
talking about terminal illness. It's possible for any of us. So the same thing is possible with mental
illnesses also. It is not to be taken lightly. But I'm talking about not exercising different
dimensions of intelligence in a human being. Making an education system,
which is all like a factory extruder -everybody has to come off the same shape and form, -this is causing enormous distress in human societies. Yalda Hakim: Yes. Questioner: It's very nice to be with you, Sadhguru. I wanted to know about Adiyogi because I've
learned and I studied some yoga for years and I never heard about Adiyogi except from you. Sadhguru: Oh, you thought Madonna
invented yoga, is it (Laughter)? The word Adiyogi means the first yogi. We don't know the exact time, but it's
somewhere over 15,000 years ago. That much we know because of certain… certain relics we have found and
certain things that have been said, certain astronomical phases that they've talked about. Based on this, we estimate it's over 15,000
years ago, we don't know the exact time. So the significance of Adiyogi is this, for
the first time for the human beings, he said, “If you're willing to strive, you can cross all
the limitations that nature has set up for you.” Only thing is if you're willing to strive and above all,
the most important thing of this is, he's the first one.… I don't want to take the credit away
from the English people (Few Laugh). Charles Darwin spoke about evolution
about hundred-and-fifty years ago. You had a two hundred birth anniversary recently. So Adiyogi spoke of evolutionary
process over 15,000 years ago. He spoke in a different language. When they asked, “How life happened? What is its beginning? What is its
end?” when his disciples asked him, he said, “The first form of life was fish.” Second form of life, he said, is a turtle, a amphibious life, that means life is moving
out of water, finding its way on the land. Indian people know about the nine avataras. Hmm? The next one is an animal usually it's called a wild boar, because wild boar is supposed to be the most
physical creature among the mammals. So he says it's a wild boar. Next one is half man half animal. Next one is a dwarfed man. Next one is a full-fledged man
but emotionally volatile man. Next one is a peaceful man. Next one is a loving man. Next one is a meditative man. The next one which is yet to come
is supposed to be a mystical man. That could be you. Because if you pull out a small thing in your hand
and start speaking to somebody in India or America, you’re quite mystical. If you only (Laughter), yes…, I'm saying if only you had a phone hundred years ago, you could claim you’re god and people
would have believed it (Laughter). Yes or no? So he's not talking about individual people.
He's talking about different stages of evolution. If you look at what Adiyogi spoke, in many ways, it runs absolutely parallel to what
Charles Darwin spoke hundred-and-fifty years ago. So he spoke about evolution and he said, till
now evolution happened without your consent. Now you have the privilege to
decide how far you want to evolve. He said this is the most significant aspect of being
human is this, that you decide your evolution. When you were a monkey, -it's not my
statement, it's Charles Darwin (Laughter), okay -when you were a monkey, you did not
decide ''I want to become a human being'', nature just pushed you on for whatever reasons, but now that you are a human being, now you can
decide, what kind of a human being you want to be. This moment you can be like a brute, next moment you
can be godlike, both are possible for you right here. So he said the most significant dimension of
being human is, you determine your evolution. This is the only creature on the planet
who has that freedom to do that. He said this is the most important thing and he gave
one-hundred-and-twelve methods through which a human being can evolve to their ultimate nature. So that's why Adiyogi. Questioner: Namaskaram, Sadhguru. I would like to know about science of consecration. And if I'm worthy of knowing it, how do I go about it? Sadhguru: Oh… (Laughter) Well, we must congratulate Yalda because
in the next three weeks, she will be a mother. Yalda Hakim: Thank you (Applause). Sadhguru: This is terrible gender discrimination because
only women are allowed this privilege (Laughter). So she was talking to me about
how she is conscious when… when there is a situation in any place,
given place, without any logic to it, conscious of certain energies and how different people
and different forms and different spaces impact you. So the science of consecration is just this, the best material to consecrate is a human being. Because of all the physical forms on this planet,
this is the most evolved physical form. The easiest thing to consecrate is a human being. But the problem with the human being is,
every few minutes they'll make a U-turn. You can consecrate them right now,
by tomorrow morning, we don't know. So first of all, to get them committed to stay
with whatever is given to them is a big issue, especially in today's world. Because of that, we consecrate other forms. We always want to choose a
form or a substance first of all, which is of the highest density
possible because physical form, its strength and its integrity depends upon its density. So, we normally solidify a mercury to do this. this is called as rasa vaidya, which means
it is the technology of solidifying mercury. People think it's a miracle. No, it's not a miracle. We use mercury as a process of consecration. The idea is, it will change the
very energy in which you are. Well, today our modern science is
still busy studying physical things. Everything physical about you has been
gathered from outside, isn't it so? Hello? What you call as my body is just a piece of this planet. You slowly gathered by the food that you eat. So if everything physical about you, is just something
else, not you, what you gathered cannot be you. What is you? Definitely there is
a dimension beyond physicality. If you ignore that, there's simply no life. But right now, still, the logic, the human
logic which thinks it is scientific, is still at this level of logic that except what
I can measure on the instrument does not exist. So actually all of you do not exist (Laughter)
because you cannot be measured. This happened to me. I don't subject myself to these
indignities anymore (Laughs). Way back because of some obligation I
had to… I was in some institute, they said, “We want to measure your gamma waves.” I didn't know I had gamma waves (Laughter). They said, “No, there are gamma
waves in your brain, we will measure it.” So they put fourteen electrodes into
my body and they said, “Meditate.” I said, “I don't know how to meditate (Laughter).” They said, “You teach everybody meditation!” Yes, I do because they don't
know how to sit still (Laughter). If you want, I will sit still. But this is the whole problem. Their problem is they want what
kind of meditation, they want a name, and the process and they want to measure the result. So I'm not going to give them that pleasure. I said, “If you want and I’ll sit still.” So I simply sat. After about twenty minutes with some metallic object, they’re hitting that funny place in your elbow,
you know where it hurts most (Laughs). Then I thought it's part of their
experiment and I sat there. Then they’re hitting my ankle, my knee. It became quite consistent and painful (Laughter). Then I opened my eyes and said, “Am I doing something
wrong? Why am I being beaten (Laughter)?” They said, “No. According to our
instruments, you are dead” (Laughter) I said, “This is a great diagnosis you have” (Laughter). But then they thought through and they said,
“No, it looks like your brain is dead (Laughter).” I said, “I’ll stay with the first opinion.
I am dead like this, is okay with me. Brain dead if you give me a certificate. That's not going to be good.” Why I'm saying this is, the essential life that you are, you think you're
going to measure it in some instrument? Only physical processes we’ll measure, isn't it? And you know, everything
physical about you is from outside. It's not yours. Hmm? It's not yours. It is just a piece of the planet. So, you can't be measured, so you don't exist.
What a great conclusion are you making? So what is consecration, is a dimension
of energy which is not physical in nature, but it is life, concentrated life, let's say. Consecration is a way of creating
a very concentrated life process. If you walk in, (Gestures) it’s like that. So in certain cultures, particularly in India,
every street we consecrated at one time, but people slowly misunderstood thinking
these are temples for worship, whatever, it all went into all kinds of things, but still, there are
fantastic spaces of consecration in that culture. You must come and experience this. These days, they're measuring some bio stuff and
all they're saying, some fantastic things happening. I don't know what their meters are. But I know this, Yalda is saying she
knows this, if you walk into a space, you know how alive or dead that space is. So, is it measurable by something? No. Only life knows life. If life meets life, it knows;
when life meets death, it knows. Is there some instrument to measure this? No, because all your instruments
can only measure physical processes. So consecration is that concentrated life process. No human being should live in unconsecrated spaces. If you care for humanity, especially children, especially children below
fourteen years of age, believe me, if you make sure they spend a certain
amount of time in consecrated spaces, you will not have any of this
nonsense about adolescence prob… See, right now… if you're a infant, diaper problems,
toddler means he's running away problem. Adolescence means some other
problem. Middle age means crisis. Old age means horrible. When are you going to live I'm asking you (Laughter)? You’re looking at life process
as a problem, it’s not a problem. You're making it a problem because
you're trying to fit life into your intellect. No, your intellect fits into this life perfectly well. If you try to fit this life into this
intellect, it's not going to work. So consecration is a dimension
and a science and a technology, with which you concentrate life in such a way, if you walk in, whole energy system bursts forth. You will see we’ve created spaces like this. If people just walk in, sheer
intensity simply tears start flowing. They don't know why. Simply the intensity of the place,
simply tears start coming. You must… Every day, your cheeks should be
washed with tears of love, joy and ecstasy. If this doesn't happen, you're not living yet (Applause). Yalda Hakim: Sadhguru, we've just got
a few more minutes left but I wondered… I mean, it was such a beautiful
thoughts that you’ve just left us with. But I wondered if there was some
final thought or a mantra or something that you can leave our audience (Sadhguru
laughs) with before they go home. Sadhguru: See, this is what I would like to change, -to learn ABC just twenty-six
alphabets in English language, if you come to Tamil language, two-hundred
-and-twelve alphabets, at least it's complicated, -only twenty-six alphabets, tell me how many years did you spend just
learning the alphabet and learning to use it? Your basic education till high
school, this is all you’re doing, learning to use the language and using the language
so that you can understand whatever comes your way, this is all, - at least twelve years. Twelve years you spent, one
solar cycle that’s called in yoga. One solar cycle you spent just to learn a
language to communicate with people. But to transform your life, you want
a two-minute mantra (Applause). That is what she was trying to say because
certain people told you that if you just utter this, so many syllables, everything will be transformed. I'm not saying it is not possible. It is possible because sound has that power
to transform, if you use the sound right. But what level of preparation are you is the question. If you throw such a small seed somewhere, it will
become a huge tree, but only if the soil is fertile, isn't it? If you’ve put it here on this platform, will it grow? So, what have we done to ourselves, what is the
level of preparedness we have, this is the issue. All of you, I could just initiate you into a powerful
meditation process just like that in two minutes, if only certain level of preparedness was there,
but to do this, a few minutes of initiation, normally in our basic program, we spend
thirty to thirty-two hours of preparation, because everybody has invested
in all kinds of identities. People keep asking me, “Sadhguru, what is
the secret? How did you become like this?” I told them “This is all I did, never
identified myself with anything.” The moment your intelligence
gets identified with something, -you must understand this, the nature of the intellect is such, suppose you identify that you are a woman, now your intellect keeps on doing rounds
around that protecting this gender all the time. Now, you say “I'm English.” Now it will
go only around that protecting that. Now you say I'm a particular religion.
Now it will go only around that. Whatever is your identity, your
intellect will serve only that. The moment you identify yourself with something, you have subjugated your intelligence to just
self-defense and protection and survival. The intellect could have been a
penetrating force to reveal life to you. Instead, you're using it to fight life… other
life because it's a defense mechanism. The moment I have an identity,
I have to defend it, isn't it? Just to be here, without any sense of who the hell I am… You actually don't know who the
hell you are (Laughter), hello? Assumed stuff, isn't it? Only because you dip into your memory…. So if suppose Mr. Alzheimer visits you,
suddenly you don’t know who the hell you are. Even now you don’t know, this is an assumption
based on the accumulated memory. So if you just learn this one thing
before you go to bed tonight, everything that you are not, keep
it aside and go to bed, okay? See right now, this clothing, is this you? No! So you understand, this is not me. It’s not that
physically you have to keep it aside (Laughs). I am saying, you know this is not me. Is this me? This is not me. Is this body me? This is accumulated; this can't be me, isn't t? It is said, if you live here for about seventy-five years, you
approximately eat, depending upon your diet of course, you approximately eat between 12-1400 tons of food. Are you carrying it right now? Hello? Those of you who are middle aged, are you
carrying at least six-hundred tons (Laughter)? Where is it? What you thought as my body
is coming and going all the time, isn't it? It’s not even the same body. It’s coming and going all the time. So this is not me if you keep it aside, all
the impressions that you have gathered, -you also gathered from outside, -keep that aside, everything that’s not you, just keep it aside and go to bed, and see if you can just be little conscious
till that last moment till you fall asleep. Most people don’t know when
they fall asleep, most people! When I say “most”, I am being generous
with percentages, ninety-nine (Laughter)! If you make a little effort, just a little effort, a few days if
you make an effort to stay conscious till you fall asleep, you will see, you will wake up
like a new born baby every day. And it’s important… Why I am saying a newborn baby, Yalda will have this experience in a wonderful
way, you will see the baby (Gestures). What do you think he is trying to do? He’s drinking life! You wake up like that (Gestures) (Laughter). Why? Because you are just living in the capsule
of your memory, you think you already got it! If you got it you must be dead, isn't it? So people are practicing death
in installments (Laughter). See, if you're really super-alive, it’s fantastic! If you are dead, it’s good, but if I want to torture you, what will I do? I will not kill you. I will make you half-a-life, that’s torture, isn't it? This is what is self-inflicted for
most human beings right now, they are keeping themselves half alive and
they are wondering why life is such a torture. I just asked a simple question… about a year, year-and-a-half ago when I was in London,
I was speaking to a very prominent group of people, I asked, “How many people in London city can sit in
the evening peacefully even without a glass of wine?” They clearly said, “Less than one percent (Laughter).” So, to be healthful, you need a chemical. Today seventy percent of the people are
on prescription medication of some sort. To be peaceful, you need chemicals. To be joyful, you need chemicals. To be ecstatic, of course you have ecstasy (Laughter). I am saying, for everything if you
need chemicals from outside, this is not a moral issue for me, the concern is this, if ninety percent of the population is doing chemicals
to be healthful, joyful, peaceful, everything, the next generation that you
produce will be less than you. This is a crime against humanity. Next generation should be at
least one step ahead of us. But if you produce a generation which is behind you, -you're seeing this, you're
beginning to see this everywhere, -if you produce a generation which is less than you,
you have committed a serious crime against humanity. This will happen in a big way if we don’t go off
chemicals both prescribed and otherwise (Applause). Yalda Hakim: Thank you. Thank you.
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