Sadhguru: If this one thing everybody settles within themselves,
we will use this mind to the best of its capabilities.
Sadhguru: Without a personality you cannot function in the world,
but you don't have to be stuck with one persona. When you consciously wear it,
it is there for the function, but you don't become that.
P V Sindhu: Because there’s information everywhere nowadays, and everybody is…
is just one second and like away from the information, and there is this
overwhelming information everywhere. So how to shape up
our own individual personality and preserve our individuality? Like,
is there a balance between adapting to the change time or...
changing time and change yourself, like how?
Sadhguru: See, when you say individual personality,
see what the word personality comes from a root word called 'persona'.
Persona means a mask that you wear. To perform a certain kind of function,
you have to wear a certain mask. Now you are a sportsperson. When you are on the court,
you have one kind of mask – that is needed. That mask must be aggressive,
ah… bringing fear in your opponent (Laughs) if necessary, whatever,
you need to wear that kind of a mask. You don't wear that mask at home.
You don't wear that mask with your friend
Because this mask means you must be able to wear by choice and take it off.
In this virus time, everybody is masked, no choice different (Both laugh) kind of mask.
But that is what personality means. To perform different types of activities,
we need to structure ourselves in a certain way. But what happens over a period of time,
by the time people are thirty, thirty-five, they gotten stuck with one mask.
They're not able to take it off. Everywhere they are the same way.
Now it will become a painful experience.
If you see between a child, anybody, whatever their age today,
when they were five, six years of age, if you see their faces were all like this (Gestures)
one big smile, grinning, you can't stop them from grinning. But slowly,
it becomes so grave and long, simply because they are stuck with their own personality.
One mask they wore and they can't remove it, all the time it's stuck.
So, we don't have to crystallize our personality.
It's very important we keep our personality so flexible.
To perform different types of activities, we should be able to
put on different kind of masks. Without a mask, you cannot work.
Without a personality, you cannot function in the world, that's for sure.
P V Sindhu: Yes. Sadhguru: But you don't have to be stuck with one persona.
You can be a different person – as the situation demands, you can be that kind of a person.
That is when you will find full expression to yourself; otherwise you will get stuck
within a structure that you created. It's a prison that you build and get stuck to it.
If somebody imprisons you, that is unfortunate but understandable.
But if you imprison yourself, it cannot be anything more stupid than that.
But that's what is happening to ninety percent of the humanity most of the time.
P V Sindhu: But, ah… and Sir, I would just ask that talking about mask, but
I feel that it’s not just to yourself. I know you want to be happy, you just
want to remove your mask, be happy, stay happy, but it also depends on the
other person that you talk to or you react to. So I'm sure,
you know that time your... your mask is again on. So what do you do for that?
Like, for example, you talking to a person and you don't like that person and you have to
act accordingly to what he say. And you might say like, "Okay, you know what,
that is what he said," and I have to act in a way that, "Okay, I need to be nice to."
So how do you react to that?
Sadhguru: (Laughs) See, mask... P V Sindhu: (Laughs) Because a lot of times it happens.
Like for everyone, I'm sure.
Sadhguru: Tell me, tell me, who is that guy first of all?
P V Sindhu: No, no, no (Both laugh).
Sadhguru: This is going to be, this is going to be news in the country (Laughs).
P V Sindhu: No, no, no, no (Laughs)... I meant to say like
you know, with a lot of people, like you know, when you're talking to a friend,
you know, sometimes you know, you might be angry at them, sometimes you might
not like what they do, like for example, your best friend is doing something
and you know, you might not like it, but then you're like, "It's okay, you know, never mind."
You can't say it on their face saying that, you know, “I didn’t like it, don’t do that.”
They might get offended, is what I'm saying.
Sadhguru: Ah… I'm usually saying it on their face most of the time (Laughs).
P V Sindhu: Because Sir, I have faced few times, like
you know, when you’re talking to your friends or other people, you might
feel that they're wrong but you hesitate to tell them, you know...
I sometimes can't tell or you know, there a lot of
people who can't tell on their faces. (Overlapping conversation)
Sadhguru: See... Sindhu, the thing is, it is not about people being right and wrong.
It is just that every human being is acting and living and understanding
life according to their understanding and their intelligence.
Not everybody can perceive life and understand life to the same extent.
If you see people are the way they are because of the limitations that are there,
you would strive to see how to help them to break their limitations,
rather than making a judgment – they are right, wrong, good, bad, all these things.
There are different types of people. Everything that everybody does,
it is not necessary that you must like it or I must like it,
it's not so. But… P V Sindhu : Yes
Sadhguru: There is no need for us. We, we... if you wear a mask to perform a certain function,
you are still who you are within the mask. But right now the problem is the mask
sits so tight on your face, you cannot distinguish which is the mask and which is me.
So when I say a mask or a persona, what it means is, you consciously wear.
When you consciously wear it, it is there. It is there for the function,
but you don't become that. See when I say you don't become that, right now
ah... you're a tall girl, I saw on any podium you stand, you're like
taller than anybody (Both laugh). So you were not born like this, you were born just this much
and now you became this much. This is just accumulation, body is just an accumulation.
Similarly, what you call as my mind, my thought, my emotion are accumulations.
What we gather – belongs to us, cannot be us, isn't it?
P V Sindhu: Yes, yes. Sadhguru: It is not us. Right now this clothing, it may belong to me,
but it can't be me. Similarly, the body; similarly, the structures of the mind.
If we become conscious of this – what is me and what is not me,
if this one thing everybody settles within themselves, if they are conscious of this,
all these are not a issue. We will use this body, we will use this mind to the best of its
capabilities and that's all. Especially for you as a sportsperson,
using your body and mind to the best of its capability, is all that matters in the end.
So right now, you yourself would have noticed as every human being
would have noticed in their day-to-day activity, because you're a sportsperson, I am
saying for you, because the consequence of you not functioning at your best is
(Clicks fingers) immediately right there. For others,
if they don't do something well today, it may take two years before the results come to them.
For you, it is immediate, there is a bad shot right there if you don't function
well at that moment. So because of that, it is far more easier for you to notice this,
that how many times in your life your own thought, your own emotion,
your own ideas and opinions become a barrier to your function.
So, in the world, there are many, many challenges.
Right now we are in a very challenging time, all right? But you yourself, your own faculties,
your own thought, your own emotion, your own ah… functioning of your body, should not become
an impediment in your life. That is the most important thing every human being should do.
What the world will allow us to do or not, we don't know. It depends on the times we are in.
See today, because you're in twenty-first century you are wielding a racket.
But probably if you were here a thousand years ago, you would be wielding a sword
or something else, you know. I'm saying it is the times,
which is allowing us to do what we are doing. So at this time, as there are possibilities,
there are challenges. In this if a individual human being, you know is here,
without making our body, our thought, our emotion, our energies,
be a challenge by itself. If you just remove this one challenge,
in your life you will perform to your best. Your best will be
the best in the world? We don't know. That's... that is subject to various realities.
But the important thing is, whether I am the best in the world or not is not important.
To your best you're always on, you are never a barrier to yourself.
Other barriers in the world we will have to cross.