The cover star of our Summer 2020 issue was renowned Indian mystic and teacher Sadhguru, who spoke to us about what lies ahead for humanity. We previously shared an extract of this article to our website, as a sneak peek, and now, we are posting the whole thing. Read on and enjoy!
Exploring Deeper Dimensions
Dive beneath daily life
Extracts from Positive Life in conversation with Sadhguru
Sadhguru, one of the most influential men in India, is a yogi, public speaker and author of the New York Times bestseller ‘Inner Engineering; A Yogi’s Guide to Joy’. Quickly becoming a vital voice in regards to tackling current issues, he is also a promulgator of a wide number of spiritual, educational and environmental endeavours. He expresses his vision as one where people are enabled to reach inner well-being, fulfil their highest potential as human beings and thereby harmonise both themselves and the world. Sadhguru is also the founder of the Isha Foundation, a not-for-profit charity dedicated to raising human consciousness through the science of yoga. Sadhguru spoke with us recently, offering readers words of motivation and insight.
Reboot Reset Renew
“For all those people who have been eternally complaining about too much work, their boss and bad traffic, this is the time to recoup. If we know how to make use of this time, we can come back with renewed strength and energy. If we can keep anxiety aside, and every one of us uses this time to upgrade ourselves by 10%, physically, mentally, emotionally and in terms of our competence, this will set the world at a different pitch and possibility.
We are offering various guided processes that you can download in an app or on the web that can support you in this.”
Maximise your lease on life
“In many ways, the virus, and the conversation happening around it, has brought mortality right up in our faces. Human life is very fragile. We are mortal creatures. We have a limited lease of time and it is ticking away at every moment. If everyone was conscious of this, where would we find time to fight, or abuse each other, or do anything that doesn’t really matter to us?”
“A time like this should be used as a realisation about how we should live our lives, what we should do differently within ourselves and around ourselves. The value of our humanity must become the prime factor. When I say the value of being human I mean this: every other creature in the world, in its very intrinsic instincts, always wants to live within a safety boundary, but what sets the human being apart is that, when our intelligence has flowered, our consciousness comes to a place where we want to break our barriers.”
“If we want to break our boundaries, this is the time – when our mortality is really in our face. We must use this as a point of realisation. We must bring humanity to a new level of realisation of the significance of being human.”
Safeguard Freedom
“Suppose there is a war in a nation – governments will naturally take charge and many basic human rights will be curtailed. In hard times like these, emergency laws may be promulgated that give sweeping powers to the government. However, I wouldn’t worry so much about that because right now, staying alive is the most important thing. For this, controls may be needed.”
“What I am concerned about is the long-term. If the virus situation continues for two to three years, it will become normal for us to be controlled. A lot of individual freedom that people in every nation have fought for in their own way, may get wiped out.”
“The responsible citizens of every nation should keep a count of all the encroachments that are happening. Don’t protest now because the government has an onerous job on its hands, both in terms of maintaining limiting fatalities and maintaining the economic process. We must keep a count however, and the moment the virus situation is over we must see these things are pushed back at least to where they were. This is an important responsibility of every citizen of every nation in the world.”
Look within
“Health is not just an absence of disease. The word “health” comes from the word “whole”. When an individual human being feels complete – physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually – that is when health happens. We must build this into a human being. This has to happen at the earliest time in his life.”
“When it comes to infectious diseases, such as the virus, you need medicine. But over seventy percent of disease in the world is chronic, which means it comes from within the human body system. These diseases are thus self-created. The physical body has a natural longing to be healthy, to survive and to protect itself as much as possible. Yet, when this is so, why is it that our own body, or certain parts of our body, turn and work against itself? This is something that needs to be looked at rather than just trying to constantly fix things when they go wrong.”
“No one can give us health. Health is our responsibility. This has to be brought into our curriculum so that every child can learn how to generate health for himself, rather than wait for a healthcare system to help later in life. Each individual must become the main healthcare provider for themselves, because health can only be organised from within.”
Dive into deeper dimensions
“Our survival process is more organized than ever before. Today, if you have enough money, you can go into a store and buy everything that you need for a whole year. This was never so on this planet. Survival has always been such a great struggle but now for the first time, the survival process has been totally organized. This is the time to find expression to deeper dimensions of what a human being means.”
“I have, at close quarters, seen multi-billionaires still behaving like beggars. Their mindset is that of a beggar who sits on the street every day, thinking, “How many more pennies can I gather?” The numbers are different but the experience of life is still the same.”
“It is very important that you simplify your survival process so that the deeper dimensions of who you are find expression in your life. If we had been created like any other creature on this planet; eating, sleeping, reproducing and dying one day would have been a complete process by itself. However, once you are created as a human being, human life does not end with survival, human life begins only when survival is taken care of. It is extremely important that you discover what it means to just sit here and reverberate as a piece of life – that is the ultimate ecstasy of being here.”
“What you call as “myself” – this body, mind and whatever else, was slowly created from within. There is something within you which can transform a rice grain or a banana or a piece of bread into a human being. From a newborn to who you are today, this was created from within. So that which you refer to as creator is definitely within. That which is the deepest core of you, you can either call it God or “myself”. These are just different names for the same thing.”
The Isha Foundation’s flagship course, Inner Engineering Online (IEO), is currently free for healthcare providers and is otherwise offered at 50% of its usual cost, during these challenging times. IEO is an intensive course for personal growth that imparts practical tools to bring our physical, emotional and mental capabilities to their peak.
