Sadhguru: Human memory is a fabulous thing;
it's because of this ability to remember
we have science,
we have technology,
we have a civilization,
we have information technology;
it's all about memory, isn't it?
But at the same time
it's human memory
which is the source of all bondage.
What you call as karma is just memory
on different levels of life.
Memory is like a doorway;
a doorway can open but also it can close.
If doors open for you,
you experience doors as beautiful things.
If doors close in your face
you always remember doors as horrible things.
Isn't it so?
In your life
if doors are opening for you wherever you go,
you see door as a very wonderful thing
but if it's always slamming in your face
door is a horrible thing.
Memory is just like this.
Memory is what has given us the ability to be informed;
it is because we are capable of making ourselves informed
about various things
many beautiful things have happened in our lives,
many.
The very basis of civilization is memory.
Today what goes as learning is simply memory, isn't it?
Memory transmitted from generation to generation;
that is how if your father knew how to do one stitch
you learnt how to make the second stitch
and your children learnt the third stitch;
this is how things have happened.
But if you did not remember the first stitch,
reinventing the wheel all the time,
nothing would have happened, isn't it?
Just intelligence would not have led to civilization;
memory is important.
At the same time
memory also makes your life repetitive
not receptive,
simply repetitive.
When you carry a certain volume of memory within you
life becomes repetitive,
automatic.
All sense of being human,
all the possibilities of being spontaneous,
all the possibility of exploring new terrain
in one’s life
gets obliterated because of memory.
As I said, it's like a doorway.
It all depends
whether it's opening for you
or closing for you.
When people try to learn by shear memory
many things happen
and lot of so-called culture and civilization is a product of that
shear memory,
not much intelligence in it.
Together they are a deadly combination.
Just memory is simply a repetitiveness.
One of the Isha meditators
from United States
wanted to come to India.
Last four years he’s been planning and planning
but he has a cat that he loves
and to leave the cat for more than two weeks
and come to India has been very difficult.
You know the cat?
He divorced his wife
about six years ago.
So he has no such problems
but the cat.
Slowly he became little more dispassionate
and he decided to come.
So he handed his cat over to his brother
and then he travelled to India.
Landed at the Chennai airport.
The moment he cleared the customs,
first thing he did was
he borrowed a volunteer’s phone who had come to receive
the US meditators who are landing that day
and he said,
‘I need to make a call to United States.’
‘Okay.’
So he called his brother
and he… first thing he asked,
‘How is the cat?’
The brother said, ‘Cat is dead.’
He said, ‘
what
cat dead?
He screamed and yelled and cried
and then he said,
‘Okay it's dead;
we can always get another cat
but don’t you have any sensitivity?
Couldn’t you say in a gentler way?
Simply barking
cat is dead.
Is there no sensitivity at all in you?’
Then the brother asked,
‘Okay, what was I supposed to say?
It's dead.
‘I can understand it's dead,
but couldn’t you say something;
couldn’t you say the cat went up to the roof top,
there it rained heavily
and he got soaked
and you called the fire brigade
and you went up and you got it down
and you put him
you took all the care;
put him in the cat hospital
but he got pneumonia
and he passed on
but peacefully;
something.
There is no sign of civilization in you.
What is this cat is dead?’
Then he said,
‘Okay next time I’ll try.’
Then he said, ‘Alright, how are you?’
He said, ‘I am doing well.’
‘How is mother?’
‘Well, she went up to the roof…’
Lot of civilization has become like this
because information that travels from generation to generation
gets stored in different ways
and so much distortion
and now you can't look at anything straight the way it is.
Minds get so deeply conditioned
that
you can't look at anything straight anymore.
So what you call as culture is just memory;
what you call as civilization is just memory;
memory is not useless,
memory is useful
but if you do not know how to keep it aside
that becomes your biggest bondage
because life becomes repetitive.
When you are repetitive
you cannot be receptive.