Sadhguru: Human ability to perceive is far beyond just understanding the words.
Right now I am speaking, your ability to perceive is actually far beyond
just the words that you hear.
But because the mind is trained right now, not only to hear and record,
desperately trying to remember, note down.
You know, some of you, the hands are itching, something that you think is valuable has to
be written down, but human perception goes far beyond this.
Recently, I was in you know, just four days ago,
I was in discussion with one of the top level environmental scientist in this country
and we were just talking about it, across the dinner we were just discussing
so many things.
So, he asked, Sadhguru, what are the books that you read?
I said I read Asterix and Dennis the Menace, that’s my reading.
I don’t get to read anything because all the time I’m travelling.
If I read a newspaper, that’s big deal.
“Then where do you get all the information?”
I said I am picking it off you (laughter), you did all this study,
why should I go through it again, I don’t open all those books.
You are sitting here and I am picking all the things
and I’m talking about it.
“But, where do you get all the technical words?”
I said, don’t you have it in your brain right now,
I can pick it off you whatever I want.
I won’t go about studying all that nonsense because anyway the jargon doesn’t mean anything
to me.
Because, human perception is way beyond that, that’s why I am going on telling you
just be with me, just be with me,
if you can simply be with me, your ability to perceive this
is far more than writing down every word of what is said.
If you have all this words, you still won’t know anything.
Actually.. shall I tell you the secret?
Buy yourself an oxford dictionary, everything that I say is already there.
(Laughter) No?
you just have to arrange it.
It doesn’t get you anywhere that way.
So, to enhance perception is very important because only what you perceive you know.
Rest is all stories and imagination, isn’t it?
What you perceive and you experientially know that is all you know,
rest are just empty stories, it doesn’t matter how great the story is,
it is still an empty story which won’t make a difference in your life.
If it has to make a difference in your life ,
there must be an experiential dimension to it.
That will happen only if you perceive.
You've heard of Vivekananda, hmm?
Participants: Yes He’s the first yogi who came to this country
in 1893 and made a little bit of waves in those days.
So, he also went to Europe and on his way back from United States
and happened to be a guest of a German philosopher.
And after dinner they met in the study and they were discussing this and that
and there was a large book on his table which was over 700 pages.
So, Vivekananda said because the man was speaking very highly about
the book, he said can you give me that book for an hour.
Let me see what is there in it.
That man laughed.
He said, in one hour you going to read this book.
I have been reading it for weeks and not getting anywhere
because it’s so complex.
And that too it’s in German language, you don’t even know the language.
What will you do with it in an hour?
Vivekananda said, you give it to me for an hour, let me see.
So the book was given to him.
He took the book and placed it between his two hands
and just sat there with his eyes closed.
After one hour, he took the book and gave it to him
and said this doesn’t have anything significant in it.
(Laughter) That man thought this is the peak of arrogance.
You don’t even open the book and you make a comment about the book,
a book which is in a language that you do not know.
So, he was little put off by this and he says what is this nonsense?
Vivekananda said you ask me anything about the book
I will tell you.
Okay, in page 633 what is there, verbatim Vivekananda repeats.
You ask any page, just number the page, he will tell you what
is there word by word on every page.
Then he asked how is this?
You didn’t even open the book, how is this possible?
He said that’s why they call me Vivekananda.
Viveka means perception, his name is Narendra.
His guru called him Vivekananda because of his ability to perceive.
He said that’s why I am called Vivekananda.
So perception of life is not ... you cannot all process it through your logical
mind, it doesn’t work like that because logic
will filter out so much of your life without which you cannot
live.
How successfully an individual human being can perform a certain action
essentially means to what extent your body takes instructions from you, to
what extent your thought and emotion cooperates with you, to what extent you can
get all your energies focused in one direction, to what
extent you can get the situations around you to go with you.
But before all this happens, how clearly you see
something is the most important thing.
If you can't see clearly but your action is great in the wrong direction, then very successfully
we will fail.
So the foremost thing is always to develop a certain
clarity of perception that if you sit here you clearly perceive what
is the situation around you.
All yogic processes are essentially about enhancing
your perception because it is the profoundness of your perception
which brings clarity to every aspect of life.
if I sit here with my eyes closed, if someone enters this hall
I will tell you what kind of person has entered this hall.
If you could sit in your office, if someone enters your office,
if you could know what to expect from the person who comes in front of you
without uttering a word, it would be good, isn't it?
So much rubbish would be cut out.
A little bit of work is needed to keep the system at a certain level of alertness.
If you put it through a certain few paces, eating right, sitting right,
breathing right, doing things right holding the body right, if you do these things
for some time consciously one or two months, you will see
the alertness in the body will come to a status where just anything, if something
comes in front of you simply you can feel it out.
Whether it's business or personal life or just life
everything will get enhanced if your perception is keen enough