Sadhguru: A man who is working with such intensity and commitment is not working for not producing results.
The problem is...
you heard what Krishna said
through the words of a king's servant.
Whatever you wish to do in your life, you have goals;
whether it's art, music, spirituality, politics, business,
you think you will do anything significant? That's all he's saying.
Questioner: In the Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna advises us
to keep putting in effort without being attached to the results.
But I find it incredibly hard to keep working and not obsess over the results.
And I would love to know how we can better practice
putting an effort while being detached to the results?
Sadhguru: Well... [Laughs]
I am not in any way
well studied about any scripture.
It's unfortunate, but I have to say, I've not even read the Gita. [Laughs]
But we know the life of Krishna,
that... people think Krishna means
butter, girls and flute. [Few laugh]
But you need to understand this: all these things happened only till he was 16 years of age.
So after 16, he lived an extremely committed life.
His commitment was to marry
the political process of the day with the spiritual process,
because he saw, unless those who wield power,
or, essentially in their experience have a larger sense of life,
and an inclusive sense of identity...
not my family, my children, my husband, my wife, this stuff.
You have a larger sense of identity, only then you must wield power – otherwise it will lead to corruption.
People say power is corruption; power is not corruption.
Limited identity is corruption.
They believe they're doing the right things, and they're doing the horrible things all the time,
because their identity is so small. So, he was trying to change this.
This was his whole life's mission.
And always working for results. Hello?
A man who's working with such intensity and commitment is not working for not producing results,
obviously he is working for results.
The problem is...
you heard what Krishna said through the words of a king's servant.
Nobody else told you; he only spoke to Arjuna – Arjuna never spoke.
He lived for 36 years after that incident,
but he never uttered one word what Krishna told him.
Have you heard anywhere? He ruled as a king,
but never once he said, "Krishna told me this on the battlefield" – not once.
So, everything that you have heard is only from Sanjaya, who was a king's servant.
You must understand the quality of a king's servant: he's very reliable.
See... [Laughter] if you, let's say...
if your husband, or wife, or children, they saw something.
They come and tell you – they will add a little bit of their own stuff, and tell you. [Laughter]
It is intrinsic to a human being;
their own opinions, ideas, other things will naturally get into what they're speaking.
But a king's servant is trained never to add his opinion, otherwise his head will go.
He will only interpret everything word by word as it was.
So, he is a kind of an ancient tape recorder, okay?
He is recording, and just telling the king, "This is what he is saying."
But there is no context.
What is shared between two people where there is a very deep relationship,
if two lovers are doing something, talking to each other,
somebody else may think they're quarreling, but they're doing their love affair.
So, this is a love affair between Krishna and Arjuna because they know each other very intimately.
So, he is speaking a certain language.
So, as King's servant takes word by word,
without knowing the context, or understanding what it is,
the experiential dimension of what it is, and he is saying.
So, having said that, see... essentially, it is just this.
Whatever you wish to do in your life, you have goals.
What kind of goal will you set up? Right now you're in the university.
What kind of goal will you set up?
What you already know, you will exaggerate that a little bit, and think it's a big goal in your life.
Generally people call this an ambition, I call this a constipation [Laughter]
because you're trying to handle life little by little – just like constipation. [Laughter]
If you have a goal, your goal cannot be something absolutely new,
it is only an exaggeration of what you already know. Yes, or no?
Can you think of a goal that you simply don't know?
How is it even possible?
So, what he's saying is, don't…
you know, there is a direction we've taken, but...
you have to be dedicated to the process, otherwise goal will just be hallucination.
If you… do one thing right now.
You know, just don't take this one breath, take the other breaths, let me see.
Questioner: I can't do it. Sadhguru: That's all he is saying.
He's saying, without taking this step properly,
you hallucinate about the goal – what is the point?
In yoga, we say this very simply; we say, "If you have one eye on the goal,
you have only one eye to find your way;" it's inefficient – that's all.
So, he's just talking about, in a battle if you're inefficient,
it is not that you won't get your increment or promotion, you just get dead!
Hello? [Laughter]
In a battle if you're inefficient, you think you'll just lose your marks or something?
A grade you'll lose, is that what it is? No! You'll be buried that evening.
So he's telling him, because Arjuna is talking about how to kill all these people, and may become a king.
He said, "You've not become a king yet.
You need to shoot this guy in front of you now, properly,
otherwise, not the king – you will be buried today evening."
That's all he is trying to tell him. Is it wrong?
So, you know, every year in the month of November we have a business event.
So, 200 CEOs were there last year, also this November it's coming again,
and they just look at how seamlessly Isha Foundation functions.
Variety of activity – all volunteers.
You know, volunteers means what? Nobody's trained for the job. [Laughter]
They are super dedicated, but... they're not trained for the job.
And you can't fire them, because they're volunteers. [Laughter]
If you hire them, you can fire them; they're volunteers – how to fire them? You can't!
So, they looked at this and said, "Sadhguru, we pick up the best from IITs, and IIMs, and all this stuff.
But, you're just doing with volunteers,
and your organization functions better than our companies – how is it?"
I said, "See, all of you are dedicated to the goal.
Here, I have continuously instilled in people that you're absolutely devoted to the process.
Now, what you're doing – you do this well."
Most of them don't even know where I'm taking them, all right?
They're working for a certain project, they don't know what is the goal.
I have something else – if I tell them right now, they'll freak [Laughter]
because my goals are so far, they will give up.
So, right now we have instilled this in them, you just absolutely involve in the process.
Know the joy of involvement, first of all.
Without absolute devotion to what you're doing right now, you will not do anything significant in your life.
Whether it's art, music, spirituality, politics, business – take anything;
without being devoted to the process that you're doing right now, you think you will do anything significant?
That's all he's saying.