For me communism means
an individual embracing the community
as myself.
Whichever government gets elected
I bow down to the people’s will.
My opinion is not bigger than the people’s will of this nation, always.
Moderator (Anjali Yogi): So Sadhguru,
in one of the earlier videos
you have mentioned of having those leftist orientations.
but when we were interacting with the students
in the campus
we found out that
there is this dominant perception
about Sadhguru being right wing (Sadhguru laughs).
Has Sadhguru turned right wing now (Sadhguru laughs)?
Is it (Few laugh)...
Sadhguru: See, right now
we are working with the Tamil Nadu government,
which you know is AIADMK.
Nobody knows which wing it is (Laughter/Applause).
We are doing a lot of work with Andhra Pradesh government.
Still, I think even
that you can't decide which wing it is (Laughter).
And that wing was part of the big wing
in the center but now it is not
- it is flapping against it.
Now we are working in Kerala,
which is left wing
and we are working with the central government.
If you want to call it right wing,
you can call it right wing.
I’m saying,
what is this problem with the government?
Government means
- in a democratic country
- it’s people's choice, isn't it?
Now I don't respect people's choice,
I respect only my choice.
I think you’re a nutcase (Laughter/Applause).
You’re fanatical.
You’re fanatical about your own beliefs.
I don't belong to any wing,
but
when people elect
whether I agree with it or I don't agree with it,
personally, whether I agree or I do not agree with it,
I will bow down to people’s will
because that's what democracy means (Applause).
Now, the significance...
the significance of democracy is just this
- why can't we have...
Well, you mentioned about my…
See,
I was only fourteen, okay?
Please pardon me.
Moderator (Anjali Yogi): Young blood that time (Laughs).
Sadhguru: Even now.
Moderator (Anima Soankar): …but then you are putting…
Sadhguru: Even now young (Cheers/Applause)(Laughs).
Moderator (Anima Soankar): Sadhguru, you are putting it as it was your mistake,
Sadhguru: No, I did not say it's my mistake.
It is just that I’m telling you
- this is 70s.
1967 Che (Referring to Che Guevara) passed away.
You don't understand - at that time,
Che was like…
he was like our elder brother,
he died,
and how he was killed,
those stories spread everywhere.
And there is a lot of emotion in all of us.
Even today I see people wearing Che’s t-shirt and going.
Most probably,
a whole lot of them don't know who he is.
They think he’s Bob Marley or something (Laughter).
So (Laughs)
at that time
it's like our elder brother was killed in Bolivia and at that time
the nation was in a state,
where it looked like
there's not going to be any solution in this country, at that time.
So we thought,
we and a whole lot of other people believed,
unless there’s an armed revolution,
there is no way out for this country.
And even in school
there were teachers who were giving us talks.
And everywhere there was
Russian literature and we read and read…
you know, we devoured Russian literature and
it all made sense.
And I’m always angry (Laughs).
You can't believe this,
but I’m always angry
because everywhere I see injustice
- in home,
on the street, everywhere,
everywhere in politics and religion,
any damn place I see only injustice
and injustice and injustice
- so I am all the time
twenty-four hours angry about something.
When you’re angry,
you want a quick solution.
You’re not willing to wait for solutions to happen, you want a quick solution.
So the quick solution looked like armed struggle.
These were the heady days of Charu Majumdar and Somulu in the South.
Well, we were fired up by that.
I’m not regretting those days.
But
we have come to a time now where we are threshold on a threshold of possibility
through democratic means.
Never before this has happened in the world, I want you to know this.
The only nation which has moved a billion people
from poverty to a certain level of economic well-being is China, okay?
But they did it the hard way, violent way, all bullets and bullets and bullets..
So they did what they did in their own way.
And once they achieved what they have to achieve, now they’re trying to move slowly towards
a democratic process to some extent,
at least open market system they’re going into.
But with India we have a unique possibility;
we can move five hundred to six hundred million people
from abject poverty in which
they are right now to a reasonable level of well-being
in a matter of next ten to fifteen years’ time.
We are just on the threshold of that,
through a democratic process
- without bullets, without killing,
without massive repression, nothing!
No force.
Without force we are able to do it,
if we manage to do it.
If all of us get together, it will happen.
Otherwise, we’ll sit on the threshold forever.
Right now there is a possibility
we can cross the threshold.
I think we must make that possibility a reality
because never before
any nation anywhere has moved
six hundred million people
from poverty to reasonable well-being in a matter of one generation.
It's not happened anywhere.
We can do this in this country
for the first time (Applause).
So…
“Well,
when you were young
you were communist, now you’re saying this.”
I’ve not changed my position.
I’m still that
because for me communism means
an individual embracing the community as myself.
That I still am.
I may not be in the party
because the party didn't make sense to me,
but communism has not gone out of me.
We are a community
where we live together
- a few thousand people
- without any distinction
of caste, creed, religion anything.
Nobody I have ever asked who come to Isha Yoga Center, “What is your religion?
What is your caste?”
I don't even ask because it never occurs to my mind.
So how I became right wing in JNU, I do not know (Few laugh).
So I feel today,
when information is available everywhere,
I think young people, educated people, should…
All of you research scholars should do some research at least,
all right (Laughter/Applause)?
Just making wild conclusions about somebody whom you have not even met,
this I have seen everywhere, especially in this country.
This doesn't happen anywhere else in the world, this is what I’m seeing.
In this country,
people who have never met you
seem to know more about me
than I know about myself (Laughter/Applause).
Those who have never seen me,
those who have never met me,
those who have never spoken to me,
they know more about me than I know about my own life.
I think you must give them a PhD
because they’re such an imaginative research they are doing (Applause).
So, I am working with governments.
I will always work,
let everybody know this.
Whichever government gets elected
because I bow down to the people’s will.
My opinion is not bigger…
My opinion is not bigger than the people’s will of this nation, always.
Moderator (Anima Soankar): Sadhguru,
even if we buy this argument,
there’s a predominant conception
that there is some leaning towards the right because like…
This is…
Did you feel this is high time,
this is high time to galvanize votes for 2019,
that the Youth and Truth campaign?
Sadhguru: See, if I give a call
- I don't have to go university to university
- if I give a call,
any party will get substantial vote, okay?
But I will tell you this (Applause)…
But I will tell you this,
my daughter comes and asks me,
“Which party should I vote?”
I won’t tell her.
I tell her, “You need to think.”
She is an artist,
so I tell her, “You need to think.
What's good for you and people around you?
Maybe not good for me, it doesn't matter.
What’s good for you and people around you, for your community of artists,
whatever, you must vote for that party, not what I say.”
In the…
You know, in the Yoga Center and everywhere I go, people ask,
“Sadhguru, whom should I vote for?”
I said, “I will not take the step of destroying democracy because if I give a call
and let's say ten million people vote,
have you not destroyed democracy?
You have turned a democracy into a feudalistic process
that one leader gives a call so everybody blindly will vote for something.
This is what you’re trying to change.
People are voting on the basis of religion, caste, creed and all kinds of rubbish.
This is what needs to change.
Only when individual people think for themselves and vote, every time fresh,
not committed to even a party,
only then democracy will stay alive.
This is the most precious thing we have
because what is precious about a democracy is,
power can shift without bloodletting.
Never in the history of humanity
such things have happened.
Even if power has to change in a family,
somebody will be somebody will bleed.
Yes or no?
This is how it’s been.
But for the first time in the last hundred years or hundred-and-fifty years,
we are able to change leadership without bloodletting.
Do not underestimate that,
do not ever underestimate that (Applause).