Sadhguru: What does success look like? What does it take?
Human being has come with such open sense of possibilities,
those who are committed to being successful with whatever they're doing,
one important aspect of their life is,
that is what get you across so many lines in our life, so many barriers in our life.
This happened in your school, maybe later in your university,
later in your work, it's happening to people, maybe not everyone but to a whole lot of people.
Their commitment to success is weak.
Tch. They want to succeed; they will take three steps, then something little interesting happens here,
they will go away here, they will go away there, they'll go away there, “Hey, I want to live, huh." (Few laugh)
Their commitment to success is weak.
Either situations around them in some way,
you know, situations can impede you from doing what you're doing very easily,
many times it happens to everyone.
But when this happens, people weaken their commitment for their success.
Maybe physically they'll feel little weak – they will weaken their commitment to success.
Maybe their emotions slosh around a little bit – they will weaken their commitment to success.
This is very important right now.
However long it takes, this virus,
you must come out of this successfully.
That means you must stay alive. That's an important part.
And commitment to staying alive should not be slackened no matter what happened.
Somebody very dear to us passed away, all the more important we must live. Hmm?
People around us are all sick, all the more important we are healthy
to take care of the people around us.
So our commitment to success should not weaken
because there is social drama going on or physiological drama or psychological drama,
whatever happens, your commitment to success should not weaken.
That is what get you across so many lines in our life, so many barriers in our life.
So, what does success look like?
What does it take?
You must understand, those who made any significant achievements in their life,
they did not, you know... (Laughs)
I don't want to take any personal examples of anybody.
I'm trying to avoid obvious things that are coming to my mind. (Laughs)
Well...
you know, I know, family and friends who always have their breakfast on time.
And after breakfast, of course they must have coffee.
After coffee, of course they must light up a cigarette and sit there nicely because they're trying to become peaceful.
And then they will go to work, come back home exactly on time for lunch, eat lunch, rest for one or two hours, sleep.
Then evening have one tea and then smoke and then again go to work.
And at eight o'clock, 08:30, they're back home for dinner and then maybe other things, drink and this and that and whatever.
Well, that's their priority, it's fine. I'm not complaining it should not be that way.
But those who have been very successful either in music, sport, art, business, spiritual process, doesn't matter what,
those people never know when they ate,
when they slept, when they got afternoon rest. I have not seen such a thing in my life. (Laughs)
So, those who are committed to being successful with whatever they're doing,
one important aspect of their life is,
they're not settling down wherever it's a bit comfortable.
Because comfort will happen when they lower you to in the grave, very comfortable you are, you know.
Have you seen how comfortable they are?
Once they're dead if you throw them there also, they're comfortable;
if you lower them, they're comfortable; even if you burn them. (Laughter)
Arrey, yes or no?
Comfort will come. Right now, it's about ensuring
that there is profoundness of experience and there is impactfulness of activity.
Because
if they had given you a limitless amount of time, you could do all those things, nothing wrong.
I'm not against them.
But they gave you such a little time with such tremendous potential of being human, that's the problem.
If creation had made you like an earthworm,
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with an earthworm.
It is just that it's a unipolar potential, it can only do that much.
An earthworm is not thinking of climbing a tree
because it knows it'll be picked up by the birds. It never has such aspirations.
It just wants to recycle the earth.
You know, it is beneficial to so many other lives, including us,
but its objective is very clear, to eat and to reproduce and to die, very clear objectives.
That purpose to fulfill he strives. I don't think he sleeps in the afternoon. (Laughter)
I don't think so, because many afternoons I've seen earthworms, they were all vigorously active. (Few laugh)
But a human being came with too many potentials.
Because of that, it needs a certain level of striving for a human being to...
forget about the world, to consider yourself successful.
If your idea of success is, you're doing little better than your neighbor,
I call that sickness, that is not success.
You are happy that your neighbor is worse than you. Is this sickness or success?
It is sickness.
But in some way, you feel fulfilled with what you're doing.
Let's consider that as success for now.
It doesn't matter whether you're better than somebody or worse than somebody,
that question should not even come up in your mind.
But in some way, you feel you're using yourself fully and there’s a certain sense of fulfillment in your activity.
Well, if you're capable of just closing your eyes and simply sitting without any activity, that's fantastic.
But you cannot do that.
You cannot do that right now. In the states that you are, you can't simply close your eyes and become still.
Instead of being busy, you will become preoccupied.
That doesn't mean you're improving, that means you're regressing in some way.
The problem about this success is, people always making judgments,
“I did this, I did that, maybe this didn't work, maybe this is a mistake, that's a mistake.” There's no such thing in life.
See, at one time, you were a monkey, all right?
Hey, this is not me, this is that Englishman, you know. (Few laugh) Charles Darwin said you were all monkeys.
At one time, you were a monkey just a brief while ago.
Was it a mistake that you committed that you were a monkey?
Or was it just a certain stage of evolution?
Was it a mistake or was it just a certain stage of evolution?
Similarly, since you were born because as a human being, you're born largely unformed, unlike other creatures.
Other creatures if they're just…
their food is taken care of, they know what to do with their life.
Because human being has come with such open sense of possibilities, you come unformed, you don't come fixed.
You have to fix yourself. Different people throw different types of balls at you.
From all over, your parents, your teachers, the school, the neighbors and the society and the world
throws all kinds of things at you. To gather all this muck
and make something worthwhile out of yourself is your business. That's your success.
It doesn't matter whether somebody thinks you're worthwhile or not, you feel you are a worthwhile life. Good enough for now.
World may not recognize, it doesn't matter. But, you know, you are worthwhile.