Questioner: Sadhguru I’ve been watching your videos
and they’ve really changed me a lot.
So, today sir…
Sadhguru I’m a guitar player and I’m doing engineering, I’m in second year.
So often like… obviously my Indian parents want me to have
a study life.
So, they sent me to an engineering college to get settled
but they even support me for guitar but both are getting so hectic for me like
I can’t keep my focus on one thing.
Like when I’m studying, I think about guitar and all the players and music, and si... similarly
when I’m playing I think about other things and even social circles and all.
I don’t have a steady mind and I can’t focus at one thing even if I try
a lot.
Even mobile is a very big distraction apparently.
Sadhguru: So?
Questioner: So, how do I focus on one thing at a time?
Sadhguru: Oh.
Questioner: I…
I fear that if I give too much time to one thing, I might lose or lack in other things.
Sadhguru: See, human mind…
(Talks aside) – Do I have a few minutes to answer this
question?
Moderator: Yes).
See, the nature of human intelligence is such that it can do many things at the same time
as a process.
When I say intelligence, most people are misunderstanding intelligence
as intellect.
Intellect is your thought process, thought is just one dimension of your intelligence.
Thought is only happening because of the data that you have gathered in your mind.
You cannot think about anything for which you have no data.
Isn’t it so?
Isn’t it so (Stresses while saying)?
Participants: Yes.
Sadhguru: You’re getting sleepy?
Participants: No.
Sadhguru: Because usually we put children to sleep at 8:00 (Laughter).
So, human intelligence is made like this.
We… in…
In the yogic way of looking at life, we look at human intelligence as sixteen parts.
Out of these sixteen parts, we can for the sake of understanding,
we can see it as four segments.
These four segments are buddhi, ahankara,manas and chitta.
Buddhi means the intellect.
Intellect, when it comes to your intellect would you like a sharp intellect or a dull
intellect?
You must choose, I’m going to bless you right now.
Participants: Sharp.
Sadhguru: Sharp intellect.
So, obviously intellect is a cutting instrument, it’s like a knife, it’s a scalpel.
It’s good for cutting, if you want to dissect something,
you need a good, sharp intellect but suppose you want to sew something,
all you have is a knife.
If you sew with a knife, you know what’ll happen (Points to moderator’s
ripped jeans) (Laughter)?
You will leave everything in tatters but right now this is the way we are going
about because our education systems are focused
just purely (on?) intellectual basis.
This is a cutting instrument.
If I want to really know you, shall I dissect you?
Hello?
Participants: No.
Sadhguru: I want to know you, so shall I dissect you?
Well, some of you in your maybe pre-university studies you dissected a frog and you were
very excited how the heart was beating.
The frog was not excited believe me (Laughter).
It was looking at you, “what’s wrong with you” (Laughter).
Yes or no?
So, intellect is a certain instrument, it is a cutting instrument,
it can be used for certain aspects of life but unfortunately we are using it all pervasive
because other dimensions of intelligence have not even been touched.
The next dimension of intelligence is called identity,
the next dimension of the mind is called identity or the ahankara.
Identity means depending upon what you are identified with,
that’s how your intellect will function.
This is a knife in the front – this will always try to protect
what you are identified with.
You say “I am a woman”, it’ll try to protect your gender.
You say “I’m an Indian”, it’ll try to protect your nationality,
you say you are some religion, it’ll try to protect that.
Whatever is your identity, your intellect is always working to protect
that identity.
So, how we establish this identity consciously is a very important part of education,
which we have completely ignored today for which we are paying a huge price.
In the traditional education from zero to twelve is balavastha,
that means just to play, eat, sleep.
So that the body and the brain should grow till they are twelve years of age,
you should not try to teach anything, extract anything.
From twelve to twenty-four is focused learning.
This is called as brahmacharya, discipline of how to learn.
Learn is not just learning other disciplines, but above all learning about the nature of
my own human mechanism, my intelligence, my different faculties, how
they function because if I don't understand this (Referring
to Oneself), I cannot really apply myself into anything.
So, we always established this, you might have heard of this,
there is something called as Aham brahmasmi - at the age of twelve this is taught to a
child.
Before we initiate a child into education, first he must take a universal identity that
“my identity is the larger universe”.
Maybe today I’m an Indian, may be today I belong to this religion or
that religion, maybe I belong to this caste, clan or whatever,
but my large… larger identity is with the universe
because education was seen as an empowerment.
We don’t want to empower you when your identity is narrow.
Because all the crime on the planet, all the corruption on the planet,
all the horrendous things that people to do to each other
is only because of limited identity, isn't it?
I can do it to you but I can't do it to myself because this is me, isn't it?
I can't do it to my own child but I can doit to somebody else because this
is mine and that is not mine.
So before you are empowered with education, which we seen (see?) as the powerful tool
for life, first thing is take a universal identity - unfortunately
we’ve neglected.
Because of this, today if you see the cutting edge of technology
and science always goes first for military use.
Yes or no?
Participants: Yes.
Sadhguru: So how to kill people, how to dominate somebody, how to destroy somebody
– this is where our knowledge is going simply
because we did not establish a universal identity
before education came to people.
So the third dimension of your mind is referred to as manas.
Manas means it’s a silo of memory.
When I say memory, it’s not just what you remember, your entire body is memory.
There is evolutionary memory here, there is genetic memory here, there is karmic
memory here, there is articulate and inarticulate levels
of memory, conscious and unconscious levels of memory,
various dimensions of memory.
We identify eight different forms of memory.
Right now you may not remember how your great-great-great-grandfather looked
like ten generations ago but his nose is sitting
on your face, body remembers.
Yes or no?
Body absolutely remembers everything.
So this memory is the basis of your intellect.
If we take away the memory or de-link the memory from your intellect,
your intellect will become without activity.
This is one important dimension of yoga that we understood that if we…
See if you want to continue the knife analogy, the intellect is like a knife,
the hand that holds the knife is identity.
Knife is useful or dangerous depending upon not on the knife’s quality
but the hand which holds it, isn't it?
If you are identified one way, this knife will poke you,
if you are identified in a different way, this knife can save your life.
So the same knife everyday saves lives and sometimes takes lives, depending upon
who holds it or which hand holds it.
So, we de-link the manas with the intellect.
Now intellect’s simply there without intention.
So Right now I want to become an engineer,
I want to become rich, I want to make money,
I want to be this, I want to be that, you’ve become goal oriented.
This is the fundamental flaw in the education system,
we’ve become goal oriented.
Because we want to get there, we are doing all this.
We are like circus monkeys.
Circus monkeys are like this - you show a banana and say “you do all those
tricks, I’ll give you a banana”.
So it will do all the tricks, banana.
No banana, he will simply sit there.
So, once you’ve become human, you should not behave like a circus monkey.
It is not because of a carrot and stick that you’re driving yourself
because you're seeing that what you are doing is of some consequence
to you and to the world around you,
that’s why the action.
So if you de-link the knife and the hand and the silo of memory,
then your intellect will shine with sharpness.
It will not be rusted with memory, it will shine with sharpness.
See, it’s like this, there are some people who are (Laughs)… when you go to restaurants
you will see and may be in some homes also -
you ask them to cut a mango, they will use the same knife with which they’ve
cut onion and they cut the mango and give you.
You can't keep it in your mouth, the sweetness of the mango is gone.
If the residual impact of whatever the knife has touched is there in it,
slowly it will leave… lose its purpose, isn't it?
The same goes for your intellect.
If the memory sticks to your intellect, after sometime it’ll become a useless intellect
because it becomes a highly prejudiced intellect.
So, the entire yogic system is about this, to dissolve your identity and simply sit here
so that your intellect will shine like a razor without any intent.
Intensity without intent, if it comes into your intellect,
you can do twenty-five things at the same time,
just like that, okay (Applause)?
People keep asking me, “Sadhguru, you…you have been busy the
whole six months, not a day’s break,
then how did you write this poem?
How did you think about this?
How did you come up (with?) this plan?
How did you design this one and that one?”
I have twelve, fourteen tracks running all the time,
I just initiate and leave, they will run by themselves.
See, when a computer is able to process something, if you feed and leave, it processes, isn't
it?
Isn’t this (Referring to oneself) a better computer than
anything that you’ve ever used?
Hello?
Only problem is, you did not read the user’s manual for this
one (Referring to oneself).
You must read the user’s manual (Laughter/Applause).
So just listening to videos is no good, we can teach you a simple practice.
You will see your intellect becomes super competent (Applause).