Interviewer: We are often reprimanded for using swear words, it is nowadays used as colloquial
slang. What... What is the big deal with using slang words when I casually use it without intent?
Sadhguru: See,
this happened – a nice, catholic girl got married and went. After three days she called her mother
and said, “Momma, I can’t be here with this guy. All the time he is using four-letter
words (Few laugh)." Then the mother asked, “What kind of four-letter words is he using?”
She said, “He is talking about cook, clean, wash, iron (Laughter/Applause).”
So, what is wrong in using words? Essentially, what you’re calling as swear words
is largely today... We have our own swear words which are very generic to our languages and some
are vulgar, some suggest certain intentions, some refer to our families and (Laughter)...
and some are just simply poking fun at each other kind.
But largely, your swear words in English language that you use today,
are essentially picked up from America, it’s either toilet or bedroom, okay (Laughs)?
I must tell you this. This is way back, many years ago. Someone, a guest came from Australia.
I’m talking about nearly forty years ago. A guest came from Australia and I am supposed to take
this person around in Mysore. You know Mysore is a touristy place, you are from Bangalore, hmm? It’s
a touristy place – there are many places to see, so I’m taking this person on my motorcycle.
If I ride hard, I hear in my ears “Shit.” Then I think, “What if I brake?” “Shit!”
They see something beautiful, “Shit (Laughter)." If they... the food is very spicy, “Oh, shit!”
I was thinking, "Why this person whole day chanting shit like mantra (Laughter/Applause)?"
I thought maybe constipated, trying to invoke (Gestures)... (Laughter).
Because what should be done in the morning, whole day,
why are you dragging it through the day, you know (Laughter/Applause)?
Then I observed, they’re getting angry – “Shit!” And they become little calm.
Oh, then I thought, “Oh, it’s working for them, I should not disturb this.” Because I don’t believe
in disturbing anything that’s working for anybody. If it’s working, let’s leave it (Applause).
So, I just thought through this. See, we have look at the... looked at the whole science of uttering
sounds in a powerful manner – what it can do to your consciousness, what it can do to your body,
what it can do to invigorate your energy, many, many aspects of this and then we say,
“Shiva (Laughs)!" With the necessary preparation, if I make you utter this one sound, you don’t have
to believe in any god or anything. Just the sound, it will blow your brains out. I can show you this.
Then I thought, “Shiva – shit –
Shiva.” Oh, we arrived at it scientifically. They somehow got it (Cheering/Applause).
In... Even in Shi-va it is only shi which is the powerful part, va is a dampener,
so that people don’t blow up too much. It’s like a balance. Well, instead of va they put
t (Laughter). I thought it’s okay, it’s working, so why... Because, usually when they say... when
they keep saying too often, the t doesn’t come. They say, “Shi.” So, even me, when I say, “Shiva,”
the va doesn’t really come out, it’s just shi. So, I thought, "It’s okay. What does it matter?"
Then immediately some people got very this thing, “Sadhguru, you
are saying Shiva and shit are same – highest and the lowest?” I said, “See,
this high and low is all your business. But as far as your mind is concerned,
in case your vocabulary is stored in an alphat... alphabetical order, Shiva and shit are close
together (Few laugh). You cannot store Shiva here and shit here (Gestures). You don’t have
such a capability. I don’t know how it is stored in your mind. Suppose it’s alphabetical, they are
right next to each other. So, you can’t separate them.” So, the question is not about what is
good, what is bad, what is right, what is wrong. The question is, will it work everywhere?
If you keep shitting all over the place, is it going to work for you (Laughs)? That’s a question.
So, it’s all right among young people, you are saying, “Shit, shit” everywhere. But now it’s
come to Amei... United States, it’s come. Even the top administrators are uttering these words,
just like that. In the international community when they utter such words,
it’s finished in many thin... in many ways, okay? Not because of anything else, simply because
people are… You know, if you watch this, some of these American movies and stuff,
and stand-up comedians, they are making the whole sentence with one word. Yes?
Whole sentence is just one word repeated in many different ways, and they are eulogizing that.
I am saying, to develop or to evolve a complex language, it took such a long time. It taken
thousands of years for human mind. One of the most complicated things that we have
come up with as a civilization in the world, is language. Language is not a small thing. That
way in India (Laughs), we have 1300 languages. How much genius must have been there that right here,
you speaking Marathi, somebody is speaking Telugu, somebody is speaking Kannada, somebody is speaking
Konkani. And for thousands of years, though you lived side by side, you maintained your
literature, they maintained theirs, like this they managed. This takes a certain level of genius,
to develop the language. Now, a language which had hundreds and thousands of words,
you want to reduce everything to one word and you think it’s a forward step, I'm sorry (Applause).