Questioner (Vijay): I feel very anxious to open up with people whenever I meet someone.
I feel uncomfortable and I just run away. Is it some mental issue, or I don’t fit in the society?
What do I do?
Sadhguru: So, you are overly anxious about meeting people, interacting with people.
You have heard of a word called “yoga.”
When I say yoga, you are immediately thinking of (Gestures) twisting yourself, no.
The word “yoga” means “union.”
Union means…
See, in your perception of life, there is you and there is the world.
So it is you versus the universe, actually.
You versus the universe is a bad competition to get into. Hello?
You have any chance of winning this (Laughs)?
You get into competition with the universe, is there a chance to win this competition?
No. You don’t compete with the universe. So we found a way called yoga.
Yoga means union.
That means consciously, you obliterate the boundaries of your individuality,
so there is no such thing as you and universe, it feels like one. You need to do little bit of yoga,
otherwise your mind will get twisted out with all kinds of ideas, emotions and opinions.
If you open it up a little bit, if you obliterate your boundaries of your individuality, it’s very easy.
Because when you sit here, you see this person as a part of yourself.
You have no nonsense about this one, whether it’s a man or a woman or a child or an animal.
You have no problem.
With everything, you will communicate absolutely because you have opened up your boundaries.
If you have concretized your boundaries, this is me, this is me, then with this, you’ll always have a problem.
If it’s a man, it’s one kind of problem. If it’s a woman, another kind of problem,
it’s an animal, another kind of problem.
I will tell you. This may sound (Laughs)…
I have been telling people … whether you are at complete ease with life or not,
how to find out somebody asked me recently.
I said, “We can give you a cobra test.”
Cobra test (Laughs) means… right from my childhood, I have been in the jungles of Western Ghats.
In the wild, many of these animals particularly if they are venomous,
their way of perceiving life is through the chemistry.
They are looking at your chemistry
If you show little bit of anxiety, they will go for you, otherwise they won’t.
So if you can just pick up a cobra like this (Gestures), not by holding it by its head and all that,
simply like this, and if he is not disturbed, that means you are at ease.
If he goes for you, you are not at ease (Laughs).
This is a cobra test.
I am putting some people through cobra test, just to check if they are really at ease.
I can go and pick up a cobra anytime, he just comes to me.
Questioner (Kartika): Seemingly alive, all of them?
Sadhguru: Of course (Laughs).
She is asking if they are alive (Laughter).
See when I lived in jungles by myself, no outside support,
the only technological equipment I have is a HMT watch, okay?
And no phone, no torch, no nothing.
In the jungle by yourself, and food.
So people always wondered, “How does he survive for weeks?”
Well, I drank up lot of honey.
Honey - beehives are there.
Bee hives are always built on that branch of the tree where a bear cannot get.
Western Ghats is full of sloth bears. They will go there and drink up the honey.
So, the bees will build it in such a branch where, if the bear goes there,
the branch will break, because of its weight.
So now I slowly creep up.
I always kept a little extra tube on my petrol tube in my motorcycle,
just fourteen to eighteen inches long plastic tube.
I will go stick it into the hive and just drink up half-a-liter to one liter of honey.
Just keeps me going for the day.
But the bees think I am just one more big bee.
If you show little anxiety, they will bite you.
If eight, ten of them bite you in your face, you will suffocate to death.
If they bite you inside your mouth, even one will do, it’ll kill you.
But I always drank honey and I survived.
They never ever bit me, because they are looking at your chemistry.
So it’s time you work upon bringing yourself to ease,
not just with other people, just with life.
The life that you are, must be at ease.
If you are not at ease, you will never realize your full potential, above all…
See in every human being, there is a certain genius.
But ninety-nine percent of the people live and die without ever opening up the genius within themselves.
If it has to open up, if the true potential within you have to open up, your life should come to ease.
There is a whole science and technology called yoga, not just twisting and turning.
Approaching how to handle your body, how to handle your chemistry,
how to handle your energies, how to handle your mental fluctuations.
If you bring this to a certain level, you are at ease.
When you are at ease, if there is this person, that person, animal, devil whoever comes, you are at ease.
You being at ease is most important.
Otherwise, you will not experience life the way it is.
In agitation everything is distorted.