Sadhguru at University of Michigan, Ross Business School Sadhguru Interview Debate Latest
ah wow good morning thank you for being here and a very warm welcome to you we're truly honored and privileged to have you here with us today uh we'd like to start the youth and truth conversation with actually a conversation we had right outside a couple of minutes ago and that would be that in the past couple of years we've seen that change is coming in multiple forms be it um in education be it in the job opportunities beard and culture earlier it would take about 20 to 30 years for us to realize and see this change but today it's happening at a much faster rate how would you suggest or how do you think we as the youth should adapt to change like this and be prepared for it well i know i'm in a university so what i speak is not against it but something as you said change is coming much faster so particularly educational institutions whether it's school or college or universities because largely till now education has been a way of constructing a mindset depending upon where you study everybody develops a certain kind of mindset a set mind is a disaster maybe it is set for a particular purpose and it may serve that purpose as you said people are thinking education means employment education is not about employment employment is about survival education is about enhancement of the human being a time is coming where this will shift in the direction i'm speaking very shortly probably depending upon the speed of technological evolution the speed of change in education has to happen well all of you everywhere is everywhere these days are talking about machine learning or artificial intelligence i must tell you my first experience of knowing that machines can do something like this i was 13 years of age it's not like two days 13 year old who's got a already discarded three different uh you know models of cell phone or ipad and things like that at the age of 13 for the first time i saw a flat bed calculator okay those days uh there were only two companies making it at least the only two available in india was sony and panasonic sony considered very expensive because it was 125 rupees that means 1.9 dollars panasonic you could bargain it down to 90 rupees so everybody bought panasonic so somebody brought this to school and they just did took to took into took i said immediately my first thought was why the hell are they torturing me in the math class here there's a solution and immediately my mind went into why don't they have a machine like this for science and physics and chemistry and history and all the nonsense that they're torturing me with every day after nearly 50 years or more now that dream is becoming real in the next 10 years children can see there is a machine which knows more history more physics more chemistry than your professors and teachers this is a great time because till now in the name of education we've been deceiving ourselves and everybody that memory is intelligence this is not just in the university it's gone in the name of religion is gone in the name of scholarship it's gone in the name of various things essentially all this means is somebody got to read a book a few years ahead of you and suddenly he's a superhuman being this will die soon and i am very glad because now human intelligence will become valuable now human consciousness will become very valuable how you are becomes more valuable than what you stacked up in your head because a small chip will know more than you know your phone can do 10 phds a day yes because that much can be stored so we are mistaking memory to be knowing or intelligence so time is coming where human intelligence will be of greatest significance not memory so education has to transform itself in this direction so what this means is we are moving from mindsets to consciousness consciousness means it's not a fixed thing it is not just flexible it has no shape and form that's where human beings need to go educational institutions to take that step fast because for probably last 300 years we've been busy manufacturing mindsets for example because we're talking about india here i think in india still largely the education was designed by her majesty service more east india company i would say this education was designed in such a way where the cornerstone of education is obedience not intelligence i want you to get this straight obedience is the cornerstone of education process if obedience is the cornerstone of education this is a recipe for slavery this is the trick of an occupying force but we are still continuing that form of education for variety of reasons whatever reasons so change is compulsory change is not an option those who don't change will fall on the wayside will we allow change to happen in a haphazard way torturing people leaving a lot of people out of it or will we do it in a planned focused way and we execute change will we execute change by design or by default this is a big question in front of us i hope as a generation of people we have the sense to execute change by design not by default thank you i'm sorry did i say something wrong so i i i tend to follow on the same thing that you mentioned that the education system needs to be changed to adapt um in a sense that why are you copying a question i'm not it's not i'm taking reference though but i take a note so on the same note that education system needs to be changed and it's more to say that learning and adapting it's anyone's life's integral part you need to adapt with how it's happening or surround you um also charlie mongerman said that human human being needs to be a lifelong learning machine you need to learn every day every set of your way but you have mentioned that people are human can i disagree with that learning business you can you can that's the view it's more capitalistic view that you need to be keep on learning and adapting what you surround with see because your learning is establishing a mindset now you struggle to adapt i am not interested in learning i don't want people to learn i want people to become in such a way that they're perceptive that they can see things as they are not because of their learning simply because human faculty has the capacity to absorb a situation as it is if you don't have a fixed mindset if you see things as they are according to your intelligence and competence you will respond why should you adapt you just need to respond this is the significance of being human that we are the only creatures on this planet who have the necessary faculty to be conscious and to be able to respond not to react instinctively so this whole process is an ancient mindset of we have to learn so much what we have learned becomes irrelevant after 50 years so we have to relearn and adapt but that as she said is going to happen every two and a half years now what used to happen in once in 50 years is going to happen every two to three years now so when it happens every two three years you establish a mindset you learn something you establish a mindset then you try to adapt to the next thing you'll go crazy by the time you're 50. but if you keep your intelligence uncluttered and perceptive you will know how to respond okay so one of the questions that keeps popping up in everyone's mind is how you how do you define the clarity of purpose in your life and that's something that you've probably been asked multiple times before but this is something that we still struggle with and we easily get influenced by people around us and get distracted from what we truly are passionate about how do you recommend today's youth to be focusing on building a true passion and also developing a clarity of purpose in life oh see this idea that a human being has a purpose to his existence is a very tyrannical idea the moment you have a strong sense of purpose you are a natural tyrant the question is only question of competence there are lots of tyrants all over the place there are lots of muslims and adult fittlers all over the place fortunately they are important and incapable yes there are lots of them don't think only one was born there are lots of them fortunately nobody has the capacity or the competence that those tyrants had otherwise a whole lot of people with same intention of wanting you to be something other than who you are right now so if i have a purpose to life if it gets organized it becomes a mission who the hell are you to have your own mission you're here you're just a pop-up on this planet all right you pop up and you pop out here instead of doing what is needed most right now for maximum number of people you have your own purpose maybe god-given purpose whenever people say they have a god-given purpose they have done the most terrible things on the planet you don't like it it's okay but have they not whenever people said god spoke to me terrible things are coming you can be sure about it you you heard the statements because you are trying to endorse your nonsense with some other authority from elsewhere why do you need a purpose life is a phenomena beyond your understanding you're here to experience it and enhance it for yourself and everything else around you that's about it what is there for you to have a purpose of your own when you're not even figured out where it begins where it ends when you have not even figured out where this cosmos begins where it ends where you come from and where the hell you will go how come you have a purpose of your own you don't need a purpose you just need sense you need sense and sensitivity and sensitivity will naturally come if you look at life as a more inclusive process right now some studies in the last two days creating a flutter i've been talking about it for last 25 years some studies say that in the next five years the insect population is going to go down so dramatically that all agriculture on the planet could be seriously hit and food could become a great crisis i've been talking about this continuously for last 25 years people think worms and insects are no good but i'm telling you once again if all the worms die right now in the next 14 to 18 months there will not be a single life on this planet including you and me if all the insects die within the next two and a half to four years not a single piece of life will exist on this planet but if you and me die planet will flourish yes this is the fact of our existence or no hello whatever nonsense we think about ourselves without human race this planet will do great but without worms insects microbes and various other creatures this planet cannot exist as a life so our idea the most destructive idea that's been put into human minds in the name of religion philosophy and nonsense is that creation is human-centric creation is not human-centric you are just a speck in this creation you're really nothing as i said you're like you know on your computer screen there are pop-ups you pop up and you pop out you think so much about yourself but actually before you and me came here countless number of people who all thought they are great people came and went where are they now all top soil yes or no worms are fisting on them all right but human beings this is all it is in this vast cosmos this entire solar system is a tiny speck in the tiny speck this planet earth is a microspec in that microspec detroit city is a super microspec in that you're a big man this is a serious problem that is this is all because of our learning do you understand this is because of our learning because we've lost our sense of perception we're not seeing things as they are we're making up things in our mind in the name of education it's time we come to reality once machine learning comes your nonsensical learning will not mean a damn thing just because you read a book you're acting superior no a five-year-old kid will turn on his machine and tell you here it's a great time so our next question is more to do with as we graduate from school and leave university and go into the corporate world a lot of people follow their passion and take an unconventional what do you mean they get married they follow the passion and take an unconventional fast my question is should you do what you love or should you love what you do oh you should not love anything the important thing is you're just loving all right if you're right now loving if you see the flower you will handle it lovingly if you see a man woman or a child you will behave lovingly if you see a dog or a cat or even an insect you will behave lovingly or if nobody is here you will just look at everything lovingly this what is important for a human being i love something is a vested interest in the world they have caused immense damage in so many different ways well out of this many products fall out which i don't want to go into the detail now but the simple thing is just this see follow my passion i know it's become a very what to say in thing to say everywhere i follow my passion your passion is destructive i'm telling you the important thing is once you are enabled by education especially if you have if you feel education has been an empowerment in your life you must look around peel your eyes without any prejudice and see what is most needed and do that damn thing if all this comes because you are trying to extract some sense of joy and satisfaction from the world you have not understood that human experience essentially comes from within whether joy or misery peace a turmoil agony or ecstasy no matter what it is human experience comes from within you is that so hello hello it looks like i'm asking for a higher opinion human experience no matter what madness or frustration or love or joy everything comes from within you isn't it you you're trying to create an inner experience by managing the world this is why all the disasters are happening why human beings are so insensitive to everything why they're going about on a rampage we call this development we call this economy we are on a rampage all right why we are like this is we are trying to extract an inner experience from an external man manipulation no this is the first thing you must settle before you step out of this university you must settle this one thing that your experience of life is created by you now naturally you will see what is the best thing i can do in the world and that's what you should do what is most needed right now if you are an empowered human being so much investment has been made on you in the name of school university education all this stuff when so much has been invested on you you must see what is most needed right now and of course whether you have competence to do that specific activity or something else that that judgment is always there but not the question of what my passion means i like to do this i don't care whether it's needed or not i just like to do this this is a vested interest isn't it so just to follow up on that so so as you said the the summary if it's the local goal it's okay now the summary of that will be that we people we choose to learn those things that we think value in it not those that transform them correct so how how do you suggest that one can expand his or her horizon to see beyond that what's the what's her or his logic tells to do it and not to do it basically see of course human beings will act according to their individual individual intelligence that is a given isn't it you cannot you cannot do the same things that i do or i cannot do the same things that you do this is the nature of life this is the nature of human intelligence but why is it that we are seeing the same situation differently is probably because we have evolved different types of mindsets but if you don't have a set mind that is your your brain is not a concrete block it is willing to take any form that's needed then i believe if we look at this situation both of us will see it as it is if we see this situation whatever the situation as it is we'll be seeing it the same way isn't it if you hold your opinion about your perception then you will see it differently if i hold my learning and my mindset above my perception of things or the reality of what is there then i will see it differently then of course we will fight but that is what i am saying why are you approaching with a set mind you are approaching with a set mind because you are giving too much significance the information that you have gathered information is not intelligence it is human intelligence that is needed to transform situations information what is very valuable today to tomorrow it may be trash isn't it because you're talking about change when things situations change the information that you have which you thought is very valuable becomes trash or no so following up on that question so in working towards uh our ambitions uh we sometimes uh forget to enjoy the present experience life as it is and we strive towards making the beautiful future now how do you recommend that we think about balancing the two that is enjoying the present versus working towards the future see there is no such thing as future it's just a plan in your head such a thing doesn't exist anywhere in the universe is it so hello it doesn't exist anywhere in your experience there's only what is here now what is right now here and now is all that is there in your experience it's all that's ever been so there are two very important faculties which are unique to human beings compared to every other creature on this planet we have two faculties which are very unique to us which is a very vivid sense of memory because of this vivid sense of memory we have a fantastic capability to imagine if you did not have memory would you be able to imagine no so right now traveling from memory to imagination means you're traveling from past to future completely bypassing your experience of life right now what is it that human beings are suffering the various levels of suffering people are going through it even happens in the university i know those really you are in the most insulated atmosphere even here people suffer immensely i know that see they are not suffering life they are essentially suffering their own memory and imagination hello because people can suffer what happened 10 years ago they still suffer what may happen day after tomorrow they already suffer so is this life or is this suffering of memory and imagination you're just suffering your memory and imagination you haven't even touched life this is the unfortunate consequence of learning that you don't know how to keep your memory in your memory chip and keep yourself free from that you can carry your scholarship on your head this what happens to you because you are living in memory the whole value of your life is because of memory that you carry isn't it so see when you say i'm educated what does it mean that means the whole value of your life is in just the memory that you carry i'm telling you in the next five years this will be ridiculous you must change before that those who change ahead of the times to come are the pioneers of the time isn't it so those who change after changes happened or the leftovers don't be a left tower you must be ahead the simple thing is just this well we acquire some knowledge about how to do this how to do that it's useful you have a lot of phone numbers on your phone so at least now there was a time when we i used to remember at least around 800 numbers and names because i didn't have a phone book and there was no cell phone just by memory we used to remember it was very valuable very valuable now it's just trash i don't even know my number anymore really people ask me sadhguru what's your number i really don't know because it doesn't matter anymore because the machine does the damn thing isn't it you don't have to remember your own number it is all there so i am saying you do not make yourself who you are because of what you remember this means you are a creature of the ancient times ancient may mean two years ago or 2 000 years ago it doesn't matter you belong to a place which is dead you become part of the dead now future imagination and your expectations means you are trying to raise the dead don't try that shall i you okay for a joker they're becoming very serious that's what i'm saying the the first the first consequence of scholarship is you become serious not just serious dead serious this happened an old couple were watching an evangelical program on the television the preacher was going full on and uh he was promising he's going to heal them and all that stuff so he over the television he's going to hail them he said place your hands wherever you have problem in your body i will heal right now so the lady put her hand on her throat and sat because she had a thyroid issue the man looked at her and then put his hands upon his groin and sat she looked at him and said john he only said he will heal the sick he did not say he will raise the dead so what do you think is your future is just you're trying to raise the debt from what you know you're trying to create a future don't do that because future is the next step the next step is available to you only if you take this step properly isn't it so hello do one thing you skip this breath and take the next breath let me see try and see what will happen to you this will be the last breath you will take isn't it how can you take the next step without taking this step properly it is the entertainment of the wane to go on thinking what kind of future what kind of future no how well you conduct the present future is a consequence this whole problem has happened to education systems they've all become goal oriented i see particularly i'm sorry but particularly in management schools they've become very goal oriented what goal orientedness means is uh your learned professor was saying about his mother talking about a mango tree see you don't have to sit there and do mango meditation for mangoes to come you just handle the daily process of watering the mango mango tree manuring it taking care of it you never thought mango mango will anyway fall on your head isn't it it's a consequence instead of handling the process you're trying to handle the consequence we have a business event every november third week and over 200 ceos from across the world come to train for four days with us and all that so they last time when they were there they were asking me they're running major companies in the world they're asking me sid guru we pick the best people in the world from the management schools when we identify that they are doing well in the first year second year itself we pick them from iims iits across the world we always resourcing them and we constantly keep uh not just a bone of meat hanging in front of them in spite of that our organizations don't run as smoothly as yours and we know you're a slave driver that is it is a volunteer organization nobody is paid for the job nobody is trained for the job i get only dropouts they said how is it that everything is running like a seamlessly smooth machine out here not small operations over nine million volunteers across the world variety of activity happening uh nothing ever fails it just goes on properly how is this i told them sid this is all it is your problem is you have set a goal your one eye is on the goal so you have only one eye to find your way very inefficient here i have inculcated in everybody they are devoted to the process of what they're doing right now they don't care they don't even know where it will go they are just absolutely devoted to what they're doing right now well somebody else is directing it it will go where it has to go if you don't do what we're doing right now really well where i want to go is just hallucination isn't it so don't think this hallucination is a making of the future if my blessing for all of you is may your dreams not come true because what can you dream of right now only exaggerating what you already know isn't it so hello can you dream of something that you do not know only what you already know you exaggerate it a little bit and think this is my dream my blessing is let your dreams not come true let your life be about something that you could never dream of so in speaking of this how does one um truly find their values and then eventually stick by their values or should they even be sticking by those values that they find throughout their life values meaning it could be anything it's things that you believe to be true it could be guiding forces it could be any of those morals could be see for me my existence i'm sorry it looks like i'm contradicting everything i have no morality i'm on camera see i have no morality my integrity is a consequence of my humanity not my morality people who thought they are morally correct they have done the most horrendous things on this planet yes or no please tell me because of you thinking what is correct not just to somebody even to your own children you've done terrible things yes it is true parents teachers elders priests pundits they have done terrible things to people simply because they think they have a moral righteousness yes or no why is it morality has become important because you put your humanity to sleep if your humanity is on what does humanity mean it's just this do you know in your brain there is something called as a reptilian brain it is the size of a for your fist or maybe it's the size of a crocodile's brain that kind of brain you have and there is also cerebral cortex which is what makes you human which is what gives you various sense of being something different from other creatures what this humanity means is these days probably you're not seeing this because dogs are all leashed but if you leave the dogs around you will see they will go about peeing all over the place not because he has some urinary issue he is building a peak kingdom because his entire existence is about a boundary always he's thinking about his territory his boundary so those men and women who are operating from that part of their intelligence are always thinking of boundaries but essentially to be human means you move to the other dimension of intelligence where it is always looking at how to break all the boundaries fundamentally you look at yourself and see no matter where you are you want to be something more isn't it so hello if that something more happens right now what something more we can go on like this so how much more do you believe will settle you for good if i make you the king of this planet will you be fulfilled don't look at me hopefully i will not cause i will not commit such a blunder if if you become the king of this planet will you settle for good no you will look at the stars you would want the solar system you want you want the galaxy you want the milky way yes or no because there is something within you this is only instilled in a human being i want you to understand this this is essentially a human quality that you want to expand limitlessly maybe right now you are approaching it in a constipated way which is called as ambition ambition means you're approaching your longing to become limitless in a constipated manner you know what's constipation it happens little by little so this is what ambition is why do you have an ambition you don't need it what you need is an active dynamic intelligence and an active dynamic body which supports that and you have understood your experience of life is always created from within you if you know and you are creating the nature of your experience would you keep it miserable or blissful what's your choice for yourself no what you want for your neighbor may be debatable what what you want for yourself is 100 clear you want it to be in the highest level of pleasantness yes or no for yourself so if you are joyful right now and you're alert and dynamic in your intelligence and active in your body what will you do what will you do you will work for some silly idea in your head or will you work for something that's absolutely needed because you will perceive life as it is right now you may call it ambition you may call it passion you may call it desire all you're trying to do is squeeze a little bit of juice out of this planet that's all you're trying to somehow find some satisfaction fulfillment joy love from the world i'm telling you please pay enough attention to yourself and see if you want joy if you want fulfillment if you want peace if you want love if you want ecstasy it can only happen from within you yes or no if this one thing you settle world each one of us will deal with it to the best of our ability but this is the fundamental ability of the human being that we long to breach all boundaries if you are some other creature always you want to set up boundaries if you sit here and if you have no sense of boundary of this is my friend this is my enemy this is a stranger this is an unknown person this is my family if you do not have such things if you looked at everybody in an inclusive way because your boundary is not here it's limitless or no boundary if you looked at these people and acted according to your intelligence would you do something wonderful hello this is your humanity your humanity is not cannot be caged your animal nature can be caged we have evolved over a million years but evolution still is by choice you can either take a backwards step or a forward step if you take a forward step in your evolution right now that you understand what this is longing for is to become limitless not to become rich not to become powerful not to own something or something you want to be limitless because these are the boundaries so do you want to enhance it in increments do you want to go in installments towards the infinite expansion that naturally this life is seeking you think in installments you can get to infinity you think it's possible no no no so how do we do it at least you must look at it i don't want to go into that aspect right now but at least you must look at it because if you fulfill your ambition your life will not be fulfilled only because you take a lifetime to fulfill it it is so whatever your ambition is suppose by today evening i will manifest it for you will you live with total full fulfillment for the rest of your life what you want in next 50 years i will have it done for you by today evening will you live joyfully peacefully absolute fulfillment will you do it for me no so it's not going to work anyway so only thing is only if you fail it works the wrong way to wire yourself only if a simple thing that you want takes 50 years to get there then it works but if it happens tomorrow morning you will be a disaster isn't it so now you're talking about change at a rapid pace so what you your ambition is if it looks silly tomorrow morning what do you do you already invested in that direction you can't change so it's best you don't have an ambition you don't have a passion for anything but you're capable of doing everything passionately whatever is needed you're capable of doing it joyfully and passionately that's what makes a human being who he or she is so guru let's take on that so let me ask you that i'll be the simple person i don't i don't want any passion in my life i don't want no no no i'm just saying take off the simple because i'm saying having an ambition and passion is simplistic i am not talking about you becoming a simple person in fact you become a limitless human being because you have not fixed anything for yourself if you are joyful have you noticed this by yourself on a certain day when you're very happy are you willing to do more things or on a certain day when you're little depressed are you willing to do more things please tell me so a lot of idiots on the planet are going about spreading oh if i am happy right here i will not do anything well your experience clearly tells you only when you're happy you're willing to do whatever is needed isn't it you're willing to bend backwards even to reach out to somebody on the street but when you're little miserable you are nasty to everything around you not willing to do anything you would like to just lie down and sleep isn't it so so where does this thing come from that if i am joyful and i'm in a very dynamic state of intelligence and physicality that i will become a simple person no the question has to be asked that okay i i don't have to have passion at this moment or any ambition i just want to live my life at my fullest um full-on happiness joyful and i just want to live at the fullest of my potential how can i do it what's the step will be you're getting to the point see most fundamental thing that needs to change in our understanding of this is when you say full-on experience of life first thing is to understand that experience of life no matter what is the experience of pleasantness or unpleasantness or agony or ecstasy only happens from within us isn't it so if you take charge of this this is what is creating this is an experience creating machine learning everything you look at it oh you love this person you hate this person you're angry with this person you like this person you dislike this person everything is happening from within you isn't it do you know that people who you think you cannot stand somebody thinks he's the most wonderful person yes or no so this experience is created from within you no matter what is the nature of your experience if you take touch take charge of this one thing that your experience is determined by you and nobody else but you if this one thing happens then don't worry rest will happen to what extent to the extent to the fullest extent possible that our intelligence our capability and the times in which we exist it's very important people think they are doing everything by themselves no the times in which we exist is important depending upon the time should allow us right suppose you came here a thousand years ago and you talk about artificial intelligence they would bury you yes or no so it is a times so the time should be conducive that it allows us with all this in your life if you do not do what you cannot do it's not an issue but in your life if you do not do what you can do you're a disaster isn't it i am only talking about avoiding this disaster because most people have become this disaster because they have their own passion their own ambition their own mission and their own moods going up and down all kinds of things if you did not have all these things you do everything you can do isn't it in your life this must this much must happen everything that you can do must happen what you cannot do anyway doesn't happen what to do so i changing topics a little bit since this auditorium is full of indian expats so one of the questions that we want to wanted to ask is how do you recommend that we the indian youth here in the us start thinking about contributing back to india while they are living their american dream because these two pursuits are very diverse and they might not coincide these two nations that you're mentioning in many ways in culture in geography in economics or at two different spheres altogether one is a new nation hardly 200 years old little more than 200 years existence of united states of america maybe 200 years old since independence but really it is only 100 years or 120 years where really in a focused way they started building this nation when you talk about india for us recent times means 5000 years in india people in their conversations they say you know what happened recently in our history they're talking about two three thousand years so these are completely two different ways of looking at it there is immense value to both immense because of the newness of their existence the american people i'm not talking today when they came here and they trying to figure out in the new land what to do they did whatever was needed for that given situation for them to go on where individual aspiration was the main thing nobody thought of a nation when they came here they were only thinking of their own ranch or whatever they call it a piece of land they thought they have broken away from the nation of being england or scotland or ireland or maybe even germany and france and wherever they came from but largely these three nations probably to begin with they really thought they have broken away from the bondage of nationhood that's what the debate is still going on about the right to bear arms because people did not think they are going to make one more nation which is so tight like england of that time they thought they're just going to live here free but slowly for practical reasons one understands without organization individual enterprise slowly will work against each other if we don't have a war we will have a family feud family feuds in this country were like wars isn't it it went on and on for generations because it is the same thing somewhere you have to fix the boundary still human beings have not come to a place where in this world we can simply live without a boundary we've not come to that place at least those who claim they're educated at least in your minds and hearts you must remove the boundaries geographically still there are boundaries we cannot remove those boundaries if you suddenly remove those boundaries there will be a total upheaval of things so having said that india as a land is like running into thousands of years which gives people a sense of timeless existence where our way of doing things have always been never about individual aspiration simply what is inclusive and happening because always we remember you know in many indian homes it's very hard for american people to understand in indian homes many of them have kept records of 60 70 generations of people their names my grandfather's name 60 generations ago 70 generations ago they got names written down in the books so their sense of existence is very different which is changing dramatically now as a part of this youth and truth i've been going to all these universities recently when i was in delhi five days ago they were asking me sadhguru when you were a youth how things were the what were you thinking and today how the youth are what do you think is the difference i said one stock difference i see is we were always thinking of a revolution how to change this country how to do this how to do that today you go into the university everybody is only talking about individual aspiration nobody is talking about the larger context of what it is this is a consequence of a certain level of economic development when it was the country was it a certain status of development when i say certain status of development in 1947 when the british left india the average life expectancy of an indian was 28 years today it is 69.7 years or nearly 70 years this is a huge change when average life expectancy
was 28 years naturally we were thinking revolution how to change this something needs to happen dramatic otherwise it's not going to change but today the present youth are thinking of individual aspiration so people look at this as oh is this not a bad thing i said no it's a very good thing because if all individuals in the country are doing well the damn country is doing well isn't it hello so these are two different approaches what america thought of individual enterprise and uh you know individual aspiration probably in 50s and 60s post world war ii now india is beginning to think in early 21st century this is a natural consequence this is one thing this is one thing which will be troublesome for nations which develop in a big way without individual aspirations being accommodated so nations which developed in a rapidly in a short span of time using a stick stick works very well when people are poor the moment they do well if you use a stick they will turn back and bite you yes this is the nature of a human being when he is desperate he understands the stick will drive all of us in one direction and something will happen if we all scramble in one direction something good will happen to me also but once that scramble is over then i'm thinking of my own individual aspiration now the trouble comes that trouble is coming wherever development happened too rapidly because of a forceful way of doing things this is a good thing about india professor krishnan said that it's a chaos well it is a chaos only for an external view viewer who doesn't understand our existence we would be fully you know we would get thoroughly bored with too much order we like that we're driving on the street suddenly an elephant comes really we like that if suppose an elephant came on an american interstate or the whole nation will scream how can this happen an elephant came on the street we are very excited we'll pull out our cell phones take pictures and share with everybody i saw an elephant on the road today all right so it's a see there are two kinds of orders you can have a manicured garden and it looks like [ __ ] and span everything is the way you want it and you can have a forest where nothing seems to be in order but if you take away your hand off the manicured garden for just three months it will be nonsense but forest for million years it's existed obviously it's a better order it is just that to live in the forest you need different kinds of skills yes well once in a while you get eaten by a tiger but you travel all the way to africa or india to see a lion or a tiger so when you got eaten you definitely you did not enjoy the like wildlife but you saw it for sure thank you we'd now um like to open it up to audience questions so uh we have a couple of people with mics moving around if you could just raise your hand and they will come right up to you hope i'm not too aggressive for the university so for speaking okay you need a microphone that's a microphone it's a grand marketing idea but not technologically not good to do that my question uh is about india india currently is a shining star on the global map economy is thriving people are flourishing all things are great and going good and in the last four and a half years we have seen a decisive serious government which is taking us in this development path but my question is about this gruesome you know horrible act that happens today at kashmir and we saw 40 plus jawans here so i don't know how what's the psyche of these people who can get into a car with 300 kgs of ammunition and you know just blast my my question is how can government do decisively uh you know to to solve this at the butt and the second part to it is i know it happens periodically but the psyche of these people how can this be changed can we ever imagine inner engineering in pakistan without being killed you know without being having the fear of being killed remember the question then yeah that's my question the two aspects of it in the garment aspect and the people aspect thank you see uh as i said earlier we're still not in that level of human consciousness where all boundaries and borders can be just wiped out and human beings just embrace each other and live there's no such love affair going on okay still national identities religious identities various other kinds of ideological identities set is against each other it is uh it is as simple as it is but when it comes as to how it manifests on the ground it's too complex it's not something you can solve like that so in the making of a nation in the making of a nation one important thing is the sovereignty of the nation because nation exists only because of its borders this may be an unpopular thing to say in united states right now but but you call something a nation only the first and foremost is the geographical border isn't it well people can go this way that way people can change their language people can change their religion people can change their beliefs and ideologies but it's a geography which is a first dimension of making of a nation so this sovereignty should not have been dragged for so long after independence it's a serious mistake it should have been settled immediately but unfortunately they did not settle it for i mean i don't want to make a uh political postmortem now but it's a serious mistake not to settle the severity of the nation not to fix the boundaries and say this is it still it is a line of control it's not the national borders it is still a line of control which is always out of control and there are various things i don't want to give a political commentary now so you're asking about the mindset the mindset is like this this has been in many ways put across they are fighting for what they believe in you are trying to fight for what you believe in and this will go on endlessly you understand either you must change your belief system or they must change their belief system and that doesn't look like in your future all right that doesn't look like that but either you must have the wisdom to end the enmity you must kill the enemy you must have that wisdom if there is no room for that wisdom unfortunately it will naturally translate into killing the enemy it will naturally go there whether you like am i propounding this no it will naturally get there whether you like it or you don't like it so just because somebody lives across the border do you want to kill them definitely not but at the same time do you want to protect what you see as this nation this is an unfortunate dilemma of being human if you were an animal anybody crosses your bound boundary enters your territory you just kill him all right hello but this is the dilemma of being human somebody crosses your boundary you you may have to kill him but you don't really want to kill him this is the struggle of being human this struggle must be there in a human being always if the struggle goes away will you become an animal this struggle must exist within us but still acting decisively for the larger well-being of a nation has to happen why i'm talking about a nation is for me nation is not a political entity nation is not my nationalism i i don't belong to that for me nation is the largest amount of population you can address right now if you want to bring well-being you cannot address the globe hello you cannot address the whole globe just like that it is not within your means to address the globe the best thing you can address right now the largest human entity you can address right now is nation if you go down maybe there are states maybe there are religions maybe there are chaos and creeds and all kinds don't go there address the nation because it's the largest segment of humanity you can address right now in that context sovereignty of the nation becomes of prime importance well what has to be done has to be done but we must have pain in our heart even when we cause damage to somebody is a threat to us we must have some pain in our heart otherwise we will lose our humanity so i am just saying when retaliatory action happens don't do this very much unfortunate it must be done but we must have some pain that we have to do these things welcome satguru hi i'm rashmi um i'm from chennai now um i have have practiced shambhavi maha mudra since i was 15. um thank you for it and who is serving you italy and sambar here huh my mom is in here i'm missing her so my question to you is since i've come here i had to explain my my way of upbringing my culture or the way i do certain things and you have said aadhi yogi is not light he's darkness this darkness is something this is associated with evil in certain cultures i am a dark person so you're saying i'm evil i understand what you're saying but i'm not calling you evil i understood what you said when you said ah the yogi was darkness he was not light but when i'm explaining it to my friend or to anyone for whatsoever how do i put it in a context that they understand because like you said there are cultural differences and how do i put it in a proper context can i is it okay for me can i take the liberty of referring to you also as little bit dark like me i would love that so you're a dark girl all right now that you're a dark girl you make yourself so wonderful so wonderful that people will start seeing oh dog girls are wonderful that's the only thing you should do in the world don't say no this color is good that color is good this is nonsense make yourself so wonderful people see oh dark skin people are fantastic if you if you try to do your chennai in detroit that's not fair no i'm not mentioning fair as a complexion not fair because it is it's important that your culture and your way of doing things is as important as anything but it's very important when you come to a new land you don't try to impose that you only keep it as a you know we have a flower pot but all the seeds are occupied by human beings but if we keep flower pots on all the seeds that will be meaningless isn't it so you must keep your culture like a flower pot alive always colorful alive chennai all right but but don't try to make everybody do the chennai stuff this is detroit all right so it is isn't it fantastic that people who lived in different parts of the world are so different just imagine if everybody was same you would want to go to another planet isn't it so fantastic from one place to another they're so different see this is the uniqueness of india if anybody very different kind of people come indians get very excited different but in most other cultures something very different means they become defensive this must change you must be excited about the difference not fearful about the difference the fear about the difference comes from the crocodile brain in your head the excitement about everything different comes from being human and about you trying to sell darkness see light has become very valuable simply because of the way our visual apparatus are made suppose you were an owl no i'm not saying that suppose because in south india being an owl is not considered wise it's considered stupid okay so suppose you were an owl your value would be darkness isn't it so hello because that's how your visual apparatus are right now what you know as light let's differentiate between what is light and what you know as light what you know as light will can only happen if something is burning is that so coal is burning petroleum is burning nuclear energy is burning or the sun is burning something has to burn only then the kind of light that you understand through your visual apparatus can exist anything that burns will not burn forever is that so it has to get exhausted somewhere if you set up a lamp or a candle here it may burn for two hours this bulb may have whatever twenty thousand hours they talking you may have a hundred years the sun may have hundred billion years but everything that burns will burn out sometime isn't it so so what doesn't burn is always cool and dark you and me huh so what doesn't burn is always cool and dark there's an eternal character to that so out of this wisdom we said in yoga when we talk about the divine to a beginner we refer to the divine as light divine light once one advances in their experience of life we refer to the divine as darkness because only darkness can be unlimited borderless and infinite light as you know it can only happen in a momentary way it flashes up and it goes down so light as you know it is a very temporary and momentary happening in terms of existence what you think is sun in human experience because our life is just a few years we think it's a limitless source of light but in the nature of the existence in the nature of this cosmos sun is just a momentary happening it just flashes up for a little bit of time and dies out but the larger part of creation is largely dark isn't it lightless because it's eternal and always so it's good we have time for one last question oh oh sir um my name is amurthya and i have a classic little logo i have a question for you yes sir my question is why do people lie all the time so uh it's not that people lie all the time you may be just in some bad company right now now for yourself leave the other people for yourself you're a little boy i'm sorry you're a big boy you must understand this don't concern yourself about what is truth what is a lie just concern yourself about this one thing every word i utter every action that i take in my life is it for everybody's well-being or is it just about me that's all don't worry about what is true what is life these are all endless nonsensical debates just concern yourself about this whether everything that you do is inclusive or exclusive if you just fix this one thing for yourself then you don't have to worry about anything else about am i correct wrong am i right wrong am i sinning or in virtue am i telling a lie am i telling the truth this is not the point the point is your existence your action your word everything is it inclusive or exclusive just fix that one thing thank you so much for taking the time out to be at the michigan india conference here with us it was truly an honor to have you and i'm sure all of us will leave with a different light and having thought about everything that you've said thank you very much thank you sadhguru for such an engaging and inspiring conversation thank you it's been a long time since i came to michigan thank you for having me here thank you very much thank you you
2021-01-24 06:28
