Piyush Pandey: Any tips that you would like to share (Sadhguru laughs) with the people out here as to how…
how a team is made from beyond being a great individual player?
Even a Brian Lara couldn’t win for West Indies, you need eleven good people to win a match.
So, anything that you would like to share…
Sadhguru: India, in my perception, is a tremendous talent pool.
This is not…
I’m not speaking this out of my nationalistic fervor (Laughs).
I’m not so identified with the political identity of a nation as such.
But what I see is, having spoken to all kinds of people across the world
– you know, I have spoken in large universities, scientific community, which have very keen minds,
academics and others
– but on an average, if you pick up a bunch of hundred people off the streets of Mumbai,
or Bangalore, or Chennai, or somewhere,
you will find generally they are of a higher intellect than what you can pick up anywhere in the world, believe me.
I’m not saying this because I’m an Indian.
Generally, natural intellect is very high… but it is one of the most disorganized intellects.
They have intelligence but organization has not happened, which essentially means lack of leadership.
There has not been an inspiring leadership for a long time.
We get leaders only when there is super crisis.
We don’t get leaders to manage our well-being and enhance our well-being.
Only when we’re in a real deep pit… like Mahatma Gandhi is born, because we are in a total mess.
Somebody else has occupied us and everything bad has been done to us,
now one leader props up out of desperation.
Otherwise, to be a leader, naturally to stand up and be a leader, to create good things,
to maintain good things and to enhance good things in the world, we…
When I look back, I have not seen a leader like that for a long time in the history of this country.
I think this is mainly… has many things to… there are many factors to this.
I think one main factor is
- we have been an occupied nation for too long and somehow we have developed this attitude
– “Don’t put your head up, somehow put it down and go home.”
“Don’t confront problems, avoid problems” has been our attitude always.
I think even today, mothers are teaching their children
– “If there’s any problem on the street, just put your head down and come home.
Don’t try to fix it, that’s not your problem.”
Essentially, a leader means in some way you’re willing to confront problems.
You’re willing to seek out problems and possible problems and fix them before they happen.
But that attitude has not been there, so we’ve not built leadership.
And also, being an occupied nation, we did not build many layers of leadership.
If a good leader comes up there, everybody will start worshiping him.
A leader does not need worship.
He needs many tiers of leadership for him to find traction and do something meaningful.
If leadership has to find expression in the world, or in a nation, or in a state, or in an industry, or whatever,
you need many tiers of leadership.
But in our society, generally when a good leader comes up, we will see worship.
Somebody will start building temples for him, somebody will start doing pooja for him,
all these things start happening.
We have to shift from this attitude.
Looking up to a leader for inspiration is good, but losing all sense about him is not good.
So, what is needed in this country is to develop those diff… many tiers of leadership.
This is in…
Somewhere in 2004, that, someone was at our Yoga Center, a very prominent person in the country,
and he asked me, “Sadhguru, this is great what you’re doing but what about the nation?”
I said, “See, I have a list of 2000 people, who will make a difference for this country, if we impact them.
Get me these 2000 people in the next four years.
You will see a quiet change will happen in the nation.”
I am not talking about Prime Ministers, Chief Ministers
because generally their tenure is five years and they’re gone.
But there’s another set of leaders in the society, who may be business leaders,
who may be bureaucratic leaders and social leaders of various kinds,
who have a solid twenty-five to thirty years to impact.
Because if you’re thinking of any kind of serious impact, you have to think at least twenty-five years at a time,
otherwise nothing significant can be done.
So we’ve been trying to reach them and touch them.
Now I can say about forty-two percent of these 2000 people across the country we have touched.
They are bringing about a quiet silent revolution (Applause).
Because in my perception, a revolution is not about “I want you to change.”
This’s not a revolution, this is a problem.
This is the basis of all problems – “I want you to change.”
“I’m willing to change” – this is a revolution.
To bring this forth in everybody
– “Whatever is needed for the situation, I am willing to change myself and do my best in this given situation”
– this is a revolution.
This is the revolution we need in this country right now because everybody is stuck to their own mindsets,
their own castes, their own creeds, their own whatever different kinds of things.
Everybody is an activist for his own causes.
There is no bloody cause, which is good enough in this world, except human well-being.
There is no other cause which is worthy of human attention.
If we don’t dedicate ourselves to that…
If we dedicate ourselves to that, everyone in some way will become a leader.
If your fundamental thing when you step out of your home, if your thing is,
“Today, wherever possible, whichever way possible, I will impact as many people as possible…”
What I’m saying is, let's say you come in touch with ten people.
If ten people come your way today, you can either impact them positively, or negatively,
or you can let it pass by.
Whatever the nature of your job, whether you are just a salesperson, sales manager, manager,
whatever you are up there, even if you’re a beggar on the street
– you know, beggar has the maximum number of clients per day (Both laugh)
– it doesn’t matter who you are,
I have seen beggars who are positively impacting anybody, who comes to them.
They’re saying the right things.
I’m saying in every possible way, either you can positively impact somebody,
negatively impact somebody or let it pass.
So according to one’s capacity to do things, depending upon one’s intelligence, competence,
capability and the position that we hold at a given moment,
our impact may be small or big but we can impact.
If we exercise this right, if we exercise this choice every moment of our life, wherever you are,
you always impact whoever comes in touch with you,
you will positively impact them in whatever way possible, you are a leader.
How far you will go?
Let us see the competence and then… you know…
Suppose you are an IT engineer.
You have information technology ideas 1000 years ago, all right?
Maybe you would remain unemployed right through your life but you could still impact people (Laughs).
I’m saying the time also decides how impactful we are at a given time in history.
But the important thing is that you take up this responsibility
– whoever comes in front of you, you will in somehow make a positive impact on their life.
If you start doing this, you are a leader.
Whether… What capacity you function in depends on variety of things.
That will anyway arrange itself over a period of time.