Questioner: Good evening Sadhguru, my name is Pinky Bhardwaj,
and I wanted to ask you, what is the definition of self-actualization, according to you,
and can a normal human being like us, can ever attain to that stage?
Sadhguru: I must tell her, when we first, you know, started teaching this Inner Engineering programs,
the brochure– a little brochure we used to have – used to say,
“From ordinary to extra-ordinary” (Few laugh).
So people come, it used to be a fourteen evening program –
and after second, third day, they come and say, “Sadhguru, nothing special is happening to me”
(Laughter). I said, “I never said something special will happen to you.”
“But you said, ‘From ordinary to extra-ordinary’?”
“Yes, I said, you will become more ordinary than others (Laughter/Applause).”
Because (Laughs)…
Because the biggest disease on the planet is,
people want to be special.
If you just come to terms to simply be ordinary, as you are,
in a way, you’ve already taken a huge spiritual step.
Okay?
That you have come to terms with the nature of your creation.
This itself is a huge step.
This is not about saying, “Okay, all my freaky nature is fine!”
That’s not it.
That you’re just ordinary, you’re not trying to be special.
Being special means you’re trying to be one up on somebody all the time,
which has been taught to you from kindergarten, “Are you first or second, what?”
From day one. Nonsense!
See, when you want to be number one, which is a most special place that people are looking for,
what it means is, you somewhere enjoy other people’s inabilities and sufferings.
It’s not about you blossoming into a full-fledged life, it is about being one up on somebody all the time.
But this is not the nature of life.
This is the nature of a poor intellect.
A very poor intellect, which desperately wants to prove it is special.
But the nature of life is like this -
whether it’s an earthworm, or a grasshopper, or a plant, or a tree, or anything¸ if you observe any life,
all this life is striving for is to become a full-fledged life.
This is all the striving for the human being also, to become a full-fledged life, in all dimensions.
But the only problem with the human being is,
we know… clearly know what is a full-fledged earthworm, or a grasshopper,
but we do not know what is a full-fledged human being.
This is a problem, because nature has drawn two lines for every other creature,
within which they live and die,
but for the human being, there is only bottom line, and there is no top line,
and that’s what human beings are suffering.
They are not suffering their bondages.
They are suffering their freedom.
This is a serious problem.
In how many ways, you are trying to create bondages for yourself, see every day,
because you want something to bind you,
where you feel like you belong to something, otherwise, what is this?
In the middle of nowhere,
I want you to just imagine, in this cosmos, you don’t know where this goddamn solar system is,
how the hell the everything is held together,
one simplistic story you can believe, okay god is sitting there, and rolling all these things.
But that is…
Even a kindergarten child won’t buy it in another ten, fifteen years, believe me (Few laugh).
Yes.
In another fifteen, twenty years, you will see, a five year old child will not buy this stuff.
So self-actualization, how do you know there is a self?
Assumption, again, isn’t it?
See beliefs are like this,
we can make you believe anything, if we work hard enough on you, from the day you’re born.
These beliefs have come with all kinds of conclusions.
So first and foremost thing is debrief yourself.
Debrief yourself of culture, of religion, enjoy the culture.
Culture is the color that we wear.
You enjoy the culture, but culture is not an effective tool for search of truth,
because what mess we do today, is tomorrow’s culture,
that means what mess they did yesterday, is today’s culture.
You think it is properly thought out?
Everybody is doing their own stuff, and that’ll become tomorrow’s culture, isn’t it?
The same way it’s happened in the past,
don’t think in the past, everything was sacred and everything was wonderful, no.
They were also confused, they did whatever they did, and that’s our culture.
Let’s enjoy the culture, let’s wear our culture, let’s preserve our culture, let’s nourish our culture, but
that is not a tool for search of truth.
For that, you have to debrief yourself completely.
Then, if you debrief yourself completely, you don’t know whether there is self or not.
So how do you actualize a damn thing, that you don’t know whether it exists or not.
So search becomes real.
Seeking becomes genuine.