Arundhathi: Namaskaram and a very warm welcome to all of you.
I'm delighted to be here, the launch of Sadhguru's new book of poems, Eternal Echoes.
There are many of you here who are familiar with some of Sadhguru's work and this is a
chance to immerse yourself in over five hundred pages of it.
But for those of you, perhaps some of you online and elsewhere, who are more acquainted
with Sadhguru as the proponent of Inner Engineering, as the proponent of yoga as a science, of
technologies of well-being, this is a chance to be acquainted with a somewhat different
Sadhguru.
And for those of you who've known Sadhguru through his many avatars online, as the dynamic
navigator of the external world, as a charismatic public speaker, as the initiator of multiple
projects, as an aviator, a golfer, a motorcyclist, this is yet another chance to be acquainted
with a somewhat different Sadhguru.
Because this is the province of the lyric, not of logic.
This is the province of the twilight world, not the province of hundred-watt illumination.
And Sadhguru himself describes himself in these pages at various junctures in particularly
interesting ways.
At one point he describes himself as the wanderer of the twilight world, at another point as
a borderline being, at yet another point as the fathomless empty page, and at yet another
point, as one who can see in the dark of the cosmic womb.
These were some of the... the images that I took away with me at the close of this book.
It's almost like having a glimpse into a mystic's journal.
It's a series of utterances in which we see a person not particularly concerned with issues
of form or craft or even grammar, but what there is in abundance is glimpse after glimpse
into the unimaginably eventful inner life of a mystic.
And this remained with me above all.
I think for those who are fascinated by the many faces, the many dimensions of Sadhguru,
this offers a glimpse into him as that borderline being, standing on the cusp of diverse worlds
as a dual citizen of both the darkness and the light.
And for those who are seekers, this book offers the chance to be transported to a place that
I think every seeker is passionately and deeply curious about, which is the state of mystical
union.
And for devotees and disciples, this offers the chance to be transported to a place that
every devotee yearns to be, which is the heart of the Guru.
And on that note, I'd like to invite on stage the author of Eternal Echoes, Sadhguru (Cheering/Applause).
Arundhathi: I know that there are many other poems Sadhguru, but I'm going to ask you at
this point, not to read the one that I had originally intended, but to move on to your
"Guru" poems, where you actually speak of your own Master.
Sadhguru: Mhmm.
Arundhathi: These are among the most spare poems in the book and perhaps amongst the
strongest, so it would be a pity to bring this to a close without reading those poems.
Sadhguru: Where is that?
Arundhathi: 161.
Sadhguru: Mhmm.
Sadhguru: "My Master"
Brooding, squinting, staring I could not hit the mark
He walked...
He walks in like a wanton monarch With a crooked stick
And he makes His Mark
(Applause)
it's very difficult to not ask Sadhguru to read some of the poems that I think are the
most unusual in this book, which is poems of utter tenderness.
'Too Much Tenderness' or just 'Tenderness.'
Sadhguru: Where is th...
Where's that?
Arundhathi: 268.
Sadhguru: 'Too Much Tenderness.'
Arundhathi: No, no, 'Tenderness.'
Sadhguru: Hey, let's go too much (Laughter).
No?
Arundhathi: Okay, any of the tender poems.
There are three of them (Sadhguru laughs).
Sadhguru: Let's do "Tenderness (Laughter)."
Arundhathi: I thought so (Sadhguru laughs).
Sadhguru: Tenderness.
The irony of life
that I should now be doing...
I am sorry.
The irony of life
that I should now
be doing everything to bond myself... to bind myself, to bind.
To demarcate boundaries
that no one should cross,
doing my best to be self-centered
All these antics just to keep
this com... this crumbling cage intact
'With the work done, why linger on?
Depart gracefully', says my mind
But what to do with lovers
who have lost themselves in the
process of loving?
Too many lovers, the very remembrance
bring tears of too much tenderness
So I'll act brash and go on.
(Applause) We have Kangana Ranaut in the audience, yes.
Kangana Ranaut: Namaskaram, Sadhguruji.
Hello, Ma'am.
Sadhguruji, your poems are so wonderful...
Sadhguru: Hey, you just got the book, you haven't read it, come on (Laughter).
Kangana Ranaut: I have, I have, some of them I've read there is this poem which I just
saw, 'too much tenderness.'
I think you may have written about somebody you lost in your life, so do you feel a sense
of, you know, can you... putting your story out there, is it cathartic for you (Sadhguru
Laughs)?
What is the purpose of it?
Sadhguru: See, only if you have something pent-up, you need a cathars...
cathartic process.
I...
Do I look like I've gathered any substance living here?
Kangana Ranaut: No, you don't, and what you said about these being absolute reflections,
I do agree with that also.
Sadhguru: No, I mean to say, catharsis is meaningful only when you have some pent-up
stuff.
So, this is something, you know, I was in United States and this journalist was interviewing
me, "Sadhguru, all the time you're busy, how do you unwind yourself?"
I said, "I don't wind myself up first of all (Laughter)."
Why do you wind yourself up and then unwind yourself?
I don't wind myself up, so where is the question of catharsis.