Sadhguru: What you call as 'Gayatri,' what you call as many other things
in yoga we call this tantra yoga.
Improper usage of sounds, powerful sounds can cause serious problems.
Someone brought this lady to the program, and
she had lost her voice almost six or seven months or
almost eight months before she came to me.
Mantras need to be done with certain care.
Gayatri is a powerful process
very different in its nature. It is
not something that’s entirely focused towards one’s internal or spiritual growth or
that dimension. It involves various things. So, this was generally taught to every householder,
so that for the
not-so-focused people, some substance, some support for well-being, health,
success, and other aspects of life.
So, Gayatri is not necessarily for a serious spiritual practitioner.
It is more for a householder for whom spiritual process is also one aspect of his life.
It’s a possibility if it’s properly initiated.
We don’t generally do those things here because
except for the Devi, spiritual process here is devoid of all ritual.
Internalizing the process is
little more sophisticated and subtle but far more reliable than external processes.
When we use external processes to create inner dimensions,
it leads to a certain limitation of space and time as to what we do and what we do not do.
You can't be twenty-four hours spiritually 'on' if you are involved in an external process.
It's a good support, it's a good aid, but
it's just that it's a good support.
In terms of support,there’re many other ways to support this.
Above all, those who are initiated by us here,
we support them in a completely different way. They... they just have to (Laughs)...
they just have to ask for it and wherever they are, there is a support system.
Support system not in terms of teachers and volunteers and stuff
energetic support is available wherever they are.
So, because of our ability to provide this support to every human being,
wherever they may be,
we did not establish rituals of support.
It is one of the most popular things that’s been done in the country for a long time.
Long time means particularly in the last thousand years – I think since Adi Shankara
he propagated this big time because when he came,
there was a certain degradation of general population,
so he wanted to teach something that’s mass. Like today, we’re doing Isha Kriya, mass.
Gayatri is a certain process which involves many things.
And considering the nature of what it is
I am not saying it's irrelevant today, it’ll always be relevant – but socially
and structurally, it is not so fitting into modern life as it is
because of the things that are needed to make this happen.
In today’s world, because almost
a huge population on the planet today does not stay in the same place
I want you to understand… I want you to look back and see. Five hundred years ago
most people in their whole lifetime, they got up and went back to sleep in the same place,
in the same building for their whole lifetime without one day of being out.
That’s how life used to be. Today, I think very, very few human beings are like that.
People like me, if I sleep on the same bed for two nights, I think it's a fortune (Laughter).
So, those days are gone. Because of that, certain rituals and certain ways of doing things
the relevance of that has come down, substantially.
I am not saying the relevance of the basic practice is gone – no.
But social things have changed, situational changes have happened,
which doesn’t facilitate those type of practices much. It’s best they’re internalized.
Internalized processes can be done anywhere.
We are not depending upon what kind of atmosphere we are in,
what kind of people we are with, it doesn’t matter.
So, yoga is one hundred percent internalized.
What you call as 'Gayatri,' what you call as many other things
in yoga we call this tantra yoga. When I say, 'tantra yoga,'
today tantra has found very ridiculous expressions particularly in the Western nations.
And people think If you utter the word tantra, they’re thinking about unbridled promiscuity.
No, tantra just means technology.
There are various types of tantras. So, if you employ technologies
where external material is involved, that’s called tantra.
If you employ technologies where no external material is involved,
it’s completely internalized, then we call it yoga.
If you want to create tantric processes
right now an arati is happening in the Devi temple – it's a kind of a tantra.
A pooja happens, it's a tantra. An abhishekam happens, it's a tantra.
These are techniques or technologies to create certain impact
but now if you want to do tantra, you need the form of Devi, you have so many limitations.
Tantra is useful when people are not willing to do anything by themselves,
they want somebody else to do it for them. So, one person who’s learnt how to do it,
facilitates it for everyone.
The danger of tantra is exploitation.
There was a fabulous tantric culture in this country,
in the last two generations we’ve beaten it down
because it led to such states of exploitation and turned so ugly,
we thought it's better without it. So, last two generations have really pushed
ritualistic way of life out because it was so exploitative.
So, internalized processes, the safety of it is, nobody can exploit it – it's you.
Somebody can inspire you, somebody can initiate you,
somebody can induct you into a powerful process – that’s it.
There is no room for exploitation.
At the same time, there is no need to throw everything out
that would be like throwing the baby with the bathwater.
You don’t have to throw everything out. Carefully maintained tantra is okay.
I want you to obliterate this silly idea that you have – 'tantra means sexuality.'
No, it's got nothing to do with sexuality. It has got something to do with
using external means to make things happen, whatever.
Because both yogis and tantrics are more like scientists, making… seeing how to make it work.
They might not have fit into the moral codes of a particular society
or a particular time in history. Because of that, they might have gotten this label..
because of that they’ve gotten this label. But otherwise,
it has nothing to do with sexuality.
It's about learning to use external material for your well-being –; not just yours,
the larger group of people. So, Gayatri belongs to that realm
nothing wrong with it, it's just the suitability of today.
The mantras are a powerful process but they need to be properly used, properly initiated.
Improper usage of sounds, powerful sounds can cause serious problems.
I happened to be in United States and someone brought this lady to the program,
it was a seven-day event and she had lost her voice almost six or seven months
or almost eight months before she came to me. Voice totally gone;
she's seen every doctor, every expert, voice gone, she can't speak a word.
Simply empty air comes out when she tries to speak, without any sound.
They've not been able to detect anything improper with her vocal cords or whatever,
everything is proper but she can't speak. So, naturally when nothing is there,
they will say, maybe there's a polyp, maybe there is this, maybe there is that, maybe
you know all kinds of cortisones and this and that and somebody is suggesting a surgery.
There's nothing else they want to open up and see.
So, they brought her to me and I looked at her and then I asked, "Did you do any practice?
Any spiritual process, did you do any mantras?"
Then I said, "Okay, you be in the program, let's see."
So, one day, two days, three days she's becoming anxious
because her voice has not come back and I have not said a word about her vocal cords(Laughs)
So, by fourth day, she's very anxious.
Then she came again and I again asked her, "Did you do any mantras?"
When I looked at her, I thought she must have done something. When I looked at her,
it's very clear to me, she's done something. She said, "No." Then I asked,
"Did you come under the influence of some mantras?
Did you go to some place where they're doing powerful mantras and did you
come under the influence?" She said "No." Last day she's very anxious,
then again I met her and I said, "See, you must have done something
or you have come under the influence of some mantras.
Tell me, what have you done in the last year, year and-a-half. Where all did you go?"
Then she said… You know, she writes, she cannot speak.
She said, she did 'Gayatri.'
"Oh," I said, "Where did you learn Gayatri?" She said, "I went to India and I bought a CD,
whenever I'm going to work" – you know Atlanta traffic is such
she takes two-and-a-half hours to reach her workplace and when she's stuck in the traffic,
she'll do Gayatri like this (Gestures) (Laughter).
When the traffic clears up when she's driving, she'll leave the Gayatri alone;
when she has time, she'll just repeat with the thing. You know
she's an American person, you know, how she will repeat the mantra.
We don't know already the CD itself maybe wrong and top of it she's American.
Sanskrit words will not come easy to her (Laughter).
No, no, I'm not commenting about America.
If you've not spoken the vernacular language, to utter Sanskrit, will be very difficult.
So, then I knew that she's done, messed up with Gayatri.
I said, "See, three months if you come and stay with us in India, we will make an attempt.
No guarantee. We will make an attempt and see." She came here
and we put her through a whole lot of process. In three months,
she recovered about seventy percent of her voice. Still thirty percent was not there,
that is thirty percent not there means, I first of all put her on…
"See, don't make an attempt to speak. At the most in a day,
maximum one hour you can speak. Rest of the time no speaking."
Slowly, slowly she improved, even then if she gets emotionally excited, voice will go off.
If she gets little emotional excitement, voice will go.
In about one year's time she recovered almost ninety percent.
But, still she found if she got angry her voice will go. I said, "That's good.
Let it stay that way" (Laughter). Whenever you're angry at least, you lose your voice.
You don't say bad things at least.
So, over three, three-and-a-half years' time, she recovered almost hundred percent,
only very rare moments it would give up.
But generally almost ninety-nine percent she recovered in about
three, three-and-a-half years' time of practice.
So, mantras need to be done with certain care, with proper instruction and guidance.