Ritu (Questioner): Namaskar Sadhguru.
My name is Ritu.
My question is –
what according to you, is being successful in spirituality?
Sadhguru: In spirituality or life?
Ritu: In spirituality.
Ritu: And will I know it before I die?
Sadhguru: See, what this entire contrived ideas about what is spirituality –
what’s happened is,
people think if they are seeking god, they are spiritual.
What you need to understand is –
you have already made an assumption
and then you’re trying to concretize your assumption.
You want a guru to tell you,
“Yes, god is there, seek him.”
Seeking means this –
you don’t know whether god rules this existence
or devil rules this existence
or it’s simply un-ruled like India (Laughter).
You don’t know,
that’s why you want to seek. You…
Seeking means you do not know and you want to know.
If one has to be successful,
as I said earlier,
the most important thing is,
your intelligence is not identified with anything,
because the nature of the intellect is this –
the moment you take on an identity,
your intellect will work hard to protect that identity.
You just have to tell yourself three times,
“I’m an Indian,”
suddenly everything Indian looks nice,
everything across the border doesn’t look nice.
You just have to tell yourself, “I am this”
and immediately it only protects that and nothing else.
This is the nature of the intellect.
In fact, that is the work of the intellect because
intellect is a tool of survival,
intellect is not ultimate intelligence.
Unfortunately, because we are too much under European influence
and somebody there said,
“I think, so I exist,” (Referring to philosopher Rene Descartes’ statement, “I think, therefore I am”)
we just lost it.
In India, in the yogic system,
we do not ascribe too much significance to your thought, first of all.
So once we do… Why we do not give significance to thought process is –
it can only happen from the limited data that you have gathered.
What you call as thought,
whatever kind of thought you have,
is just recycling the limited data that you have gathered.
You may think about gods,
you may think about pleasure,
you may think politics,
you may think money –
it is only the data that you have, you’re recycling.
You are not… You are not touch… See, you may be thinking whatever,
so I’ve been telling…
This is a hard thing to do with people,
constantly telling them, tch,
“If god appears in your meditation, you just have to ignore him.”
“Ah but Sadhguru, if Shiva comes?”
“Especially if he comes” (Laughter)
because Shiva is coming only because of the calendar images that you have seen.
If you were born elsewhere,
somebody else would be coming.
So this is the old data playing up,
so whatever plays up…
See, you cannot…
you cannot think god,
you cannot think money,
you cannot think ocean or the sky.
You’re only recycling the limited data.
So we don’t acknowledge thought process as a great form of intelligence.
It’s a wonderful instrument for handling your survival in the material world.
But if you want to pursue something,
there are other dimensions of intelligence within you.
To put it very, very simply,
today afternoon, whatever you had for lunch –
let us say you had a chapatti -
a chapatti turns into a wonderful woman like you
because you ate the chapatti.
If Suhel ate this chapatti, it will turn into a man.
If a dog eats this…
Suhel Seth: But I’m a man (Laughter).
Sadhguru: That is why, I’m saying.
Suhel Seth: Ah, okay, that way.
Sadhguru: You’re not getting it.
What I’m saying is – if a dog eats the chapatti,
it turns into a dog
So very intelligent chapatti, you think?
No,
this is programmed.
In your system, there is a certain volume of memory and intelligence,
which is capable of turning a simple chapatti into a human being.
When I say ‘a human being,’
I’m talking about the most complex mechanism in the universe
that we know of.
There may be others
but this (Referring to oneself) is the most complex mechanism in the universe that we know of.
What have you manufactured such a complex machine with?
With chapattis, bananas, dal and this and that –
just about anything you eat,
gets transformed.
So there is an intelligence within you, which is the very source of creation.
Instead of finding access to this,
you are too lost in your own thought process.
Once you get lost in your thought process,
your identities become super strong.
When they become super strong,
you have a sense of confidence
but all your clarity will go away.
Unfortunately,
the very foundations of the so-called religions of the world,
is about building confidence –
“Don’t worry, god is with you.”
You know, there are some bank…
there are some bank advertisements, you know,
“I’m with you” (Laughter).
You know how a banker is with you (Laughter).
So, this is a confidence building process.
But confidence without clarity is a disastrous process.
What you need is clarity.
Confidence means you can’t see but you’re confident.
This is a dangerous way to go.
This is what…
This is a continuous disaster.
See, it doesn’t take thousands of years to figure out simple aspects of life.
I’m saying… Now Suhel is going at these things –
anger, hatred, all kinds of prejudice against each other –
with great vehemence about it.
What I’m saying is,
these are simple things in a human being.
After million years of living here,
if you can’t figure it out,
which way to be out of it,
obviously your intellect is not doing well enough, isn’t it?
You need other dimensions of intelligence.
People ask me,
“Sadhguru, all other gurus are doing so many miracles. You don’t do anything.”
I say, “You want me to pull a pigeon out of my pocket (Laughter)?
If I do that, you will have a bird and I’ll have a shitty pocket” (Laughter).
Suhel Seth: But no, let’s stay with this.
But you do acknowledge that there are many such people
who are actually defrauding the emotions of a large population,
by doing this kind of nonsense?
Sadhguru: See,
corruption is not the prerogative of only spiritual people (Laughter).
There are corrupt politicians,
there are corrupt lawyers,
there are corrupt policemen,
there are corrupt doctors,
there are corrupt
‘every kind of profession,’ okay?
It has entered every sphere of life.
It is just that
when a person who claims to be a spiritual guide or a guru turns corrupt,
it stands out glaring
because today, if you go to a police station,
you’re expecting him to be corrupt,
unfortunately.
If he’s not corrupt, you’re surprised.
That’s when you talk about it,
“Oh my god, I went to the police station,
they didn’t… the guy didn’t ask for a buck.
He did the job for me, you know” (Laughs).
But when you go to a doctor,
if he is corrupt, you are little hurt
because you placed your physical self in his hands.
But when you go to a guru, you placed your entire life in his hands.
If he is corrupt, you’re very profoundly hurt, all right.
So, the integrity that is necessary to perform different levels of activity
is definitely more demanding when more trust is invested in that.
But unfortunately,
spiritual enterprise has started, okay?
It’s an enterprise.
If you read two pages of Gita, you can become a guru in the country.
You don’t have to read the entire thing.
Two pages and go on repeating the same two pages
in a language that other people don’t understand,
you will become a guru (Laughter/Applause).
Sadhguru: So, about being successful with her spiritual process,
this is all you have to do.
Tonight, when you go home, sit on your bed,
look at yourself –
what is you,
what you gathered, okay?
You have a home - you gathered it.
You have people - you gathered them.
You have clothes - you gathered this.
You have a body - you gathered this.
The content of your mind, you gathered it.
See, before going to bed, close your eyes
and see if you can keep all that aside,
even intellectually.
Just try to keep it aside and go to bed every day.
You will see, one day you will wake up
in a way you have not believed possible –
truly awake (Applause).