 Good afternoon Welcome everybody to this remarkable event that we're so honored to host here at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and when I was asked by my colleagues on that I'm at Saru and I'm not at Madi to consider Letting and hosting and welcoming this event here to the GSB. It was one of these wonderful Times when I can say yes, and this is absolutely Something that we want to do here and that we're honored to have here at the Stanford Graduate School of Business increasingly our students and our alums are concerned with and wanting more material more and Programming around Passionate capitalism around purpose and around principal leadership and so this event is one of many I hope that we will be able to bring some of these topics to our community. I Don't need to do long long Introductions to our speakers today all of you I think know both of the speakers and but let me just say a few words as you know We have with us today on the spirituality side sad guru who is the founder of Isha Foundation and has taught millions of people about spirituality intentionality Compassion and bringing these topics to environmentalism Education and of course to business on the capitalist side We have another remarkable human being Jonathan Coslett who's a CIO of TPG Was a Baker scholar at Harvard Business School, which is a remarkable honor as well and Serves on many boards of many purposeful organizations including the Stanford Children's Hospital He's somebody who was touched by the learnings of Sadguru and somebody who is bringing some of those learnings to a business perspective in a very impactful and purposeful way So without further ado, please join me in giving a hearty Stanford GSB welcome to our speakers and our panel today Thank you very much. Good afternoon Good afternoon Just a couple more minutes on the end of that introduction for Sadguru so I ran into Sadguru. It's probably been about five years or so now through somewhat of a happenstance type of situation, but Getting to know him. I learned that there was a whole nother world of teaching and Philosophy that I could bring to bear to my life and to my work and to my children and It's been quite amazing and Sadguru has been a leader for change change in the world change in people's lives now for 35 almost 40 years and He's traveled around the world quite a lot There are nearly 10 million Volunteers that work for Sadguru's organization Isha group and at any particular time Isha group is focusing on Tens and tens of difference of causes. So for example just recently Sadguru was able to Empower and mobilize a few people in India We'll talk about that in a minute a few people in India to try to help save the rivers that are slowly but surely Going away because of deforestation. So he thought this was a real issue and a real problem that needed to be Addressed so he Organized a rally for the rivers where they went from the south of India to the very northern part of India about 6,000 miles plus or minus In a in a motorcade and with motorcycles and cars stopping along the way and ate a few people join them He had 160 million people join him and in that 160 million people was a force that ultimately led to discussion with the government of India with Prime Minister Modi and Within a very short period of time the government of India has already Enacted most of the the presentation and the purpose and the plans that Sadguru had laid out for trying to save the rivers That's just an example of you know, what he has been doing around the world It's a remarkable man and a great philosopher a great teacher a yogi and also a great friend So on my journey In business, I'm now 2027 years out of business school. So my 27 year career From sort of 25 to 50 I think it's really interesting as we all know as we get older that we start to see that what you thought as a 25 year old Maybe when you're 50 it can literally be 180 degrees different from your perspective when you're 25 It's you know, you we're going from competition sense of competition to a sense of collaboration From speaking to listening from answering to questioning From the destination to the journey from achievement to purpose and from leadership even from leadership to something else called inspiration and Those are the types of things. We're going to talk about today We're going to try to weave them into a business context and more of a real-world context because we're here at the GSB the Stanford Business School and With that maybe we'll kick it off with our first discussion item And we have about 50 minutes and we'll allow for a few questions at the end But we have about 50 minutes and we'll just hit a couple different topics and themes along the way that we think might Be relevant. We did collect a bunch of questions from the students So most of these are designed to hit questions. We've already received so said guru I Love quotes because quotes I think are ways to distill profound wisdom and Sometimes the quotes are spot-on and some times the quotes are actually totally off base so Descartes Said I think and therefore I am and we're here in the midst of the incredible brainpower of Stanford University and Stanford students that have incredible thinking power When you think about that and you think about I think and therefore I am How does that strike you? Good morning to everyone. I think this fascination with human thought Happened in pre renaissance era era because that population or that society had seen Very Dramatic religious imposition that nobody could think by themselves. Everything was already thought and ready in a book So for the first time they could think for themselves breaking loose from the dogmatic oppression So they felt liberated that they could think for themselves Since then I think this European influence has been big and we've made too much of our thought but What our thought is is essentially It's the data that we have already collected something that we already know We bring it out in permutations and combinations of various formats, but essentially All our thought is coming from the data that we already have that means No new possibility exists there This is I know very So we are thinking intellect is the only intelligence we have unfortunately, let's look at it this way essentially what you're referring to as mind is a Certain combination of memory and intelligence isn't it now What you remember what you have studied what you have acquired you remember all those things Human beings have a vivid sense of memory. That's one of our greatest faculties But every cell in your body remembers much more than your entire brain remembers Ten generations ago. How your grandmother great-grandmother great-grandfather look like you don't remember But your body remembers there knows is sitting on your face Your body remembers a million years ago. How your forefathers were so keenly that it is not even forgotten the skin tone Yes so What the amount of volume of memory that you have in a single cell in your body is Way bigger than what you could carry in your brain If it comes to intelligence, we know today that a single molecule of DNA is performing more functions than your entire brain actually So you're not managing it. There's an intelligence functioning, but only problem is you have no access to it People keep asking me said guru. How is this that you're constantly doing so many things at the same time? I say I think with my body Not with my brain. That's why I have my brain never works and it's silent and quiet I think with my entire body because there is a way to employ other dimensions of intelligence Right now because we are thinking intellectually This is the consequence of a certain type of education that all of us have gone through today modern education means it's purely intellectual So whatever you're doing intellectually has to be logically correct This is why even the science is losing traction and spinning in the same place now Because we are trying to fit everything into our logic logic is just a small aspect of our life It is anything that makes that means a world to you. You put it through the test of logic Suddenly it makes you feel stupid. Suppose you fell in love with somebody and you logically look at it What is this love affair? You will see it'll make you feel stupid Yes But it's those stupid things which are making your life So we have given too much too much margin for our intellect and Not employing other dimensions of intelligence which exists within us It is because of that we have produced a certain kind of world certain kind of economic systems certain kind of political reforms that have happened simply because everything has to be logically correct Otherwise, it'll be dismissed as nothing. So your love affairs are nothing your compassion is nothing your mother cared for you It is nothing because logically all that doesn't make sense But it is those things which have really made our lives So this about whoever describes the Italian person saying French French French is it? I think I'm sorry Saying I think so I exist. I'm asking you a simple question Is it because you are you may think or is it because you think you are? Right now because you think you exist what has happened these see today in the cosmos Hundred billion galaxies. There's not been a single accident. All right. Everything is going great Sun came up on time planets spinning on time everything fantastic But one nasty little thought in your mind and it's a bad day And those are the types of things that I think we all here in the West can learn from The yogis in the East and maybe continuing that discussion I'm a capitalist and I think that Adam Smith is a great philosopher and There's a quote behind us from Churchill that says the main vice of capitalism is The uneven distribution of prosperity. You have a lot of inequality in the world The main vice of socialism is the even distribution of misery I'm curious as to how you think about capitalism as a spiritual yogi Being a yogi is individual enterprise It is not a mass produced product it is something that one has to do within themselves So it's very individual So in a way you can say it's capitalist because you build your own capital within yourself But capitalism as a As a system as kind of not is not is obsolete now Because there was a time Let's say hundred years ago in whole of United States. Maybe Maybe 25 or 50 families held the capital So they decided everything so that was called capitalism Now it's the market which decides everything. So this is a market economy So this is a far more democratic way of functioning because anybody who has Good idea and is capable of executing that idea for him. There is no death for capital capital anymore So capital is available for everybody. So there is no capitalism. It is market economy But market economy needs to evolve further Right now wherever I go people keep referring to India as emerging market. I said, please don't refer to us as market place We're people So I'm looking at you as a market I think this is a very rudimentary thought that we are looking at people as markets If you look at them as people you would see how to enhance their life in that there would be a proper economy a more inclusive economy where Everybody is a partner in the economy somewhere we think That the customer is market and I am the economy I'm producing and supplying so I'm the economy. You're just a victim So there is another way I think the future is coming there that the customer of even a small product can be a participant Or a partner in the company. See if you have 10,000 partners in this town your business just cannot fail This is the firmest way to stand Suppose you have a billion partners across the planet your business just cannot fail. It's perpetual Right now you have victims when they realize they've been victimized You're going to get it I'm curious as you travel and let's compare the economic and maybe political systems as a whole between two very two of the largest the largest countries in the world India and China India is the largest democracy in the world China is the largest Communist system in the world When you travel between India China and even comparing it to the west How can we think about What's working and not working in that relative comparison of Those two largest democracies and communist systems in the world So democracy as a political system is one thing As you as Churchill said maybe in democracies misery is equally distributed When things have to be done it gets slowed down Inordinately simply because you have to convince everybody involved And not everybody gets the point by the time they get the point the time has passed many times So this problem is there But the most beautiful aspect of democracies Not always is it right most of the time it gets itself wrong In spite of that the best thing about democracy is It's the first time in the history of humanity that we can change power without bloodshed That's the most important thing. We should never forget this Otherwise even within a family if power had to change there was bloodletting Nations major nations are changing power without a drop of blood That is the first time in the last hundred. I mean in the last 10 000 years It is only in the last 50 60 years. This is happening across the world So we should not underestimate the value of that though there are unnecessary impediments in democracy Which goes on what can be settled in 10 minutes goes on for 10 years of debate Yes Like you're talking about What to say economies which are at different stages of development If you say united states, it's at a certain stage of development If you say republic of china, it is at a certain stage of development. If you say india, it's another stage of development I don't think you can handle all the three with the same norms and rules Because they are in different age groups. You can't handle a five-year-old kid and a 15-year-old youth And a 25-year-old adult the same way So they are in different stages. They need to be nurtured and handled in different ways China is a great example where In a forceful manner in a very forceful manner almost in a brutal manner They have taken out a billion people out of poverty in a matter of 40 years. That's not a small thing People focus on brutality But the most brutal thing is to keep a whole population a lifetime of poverty is the most brutal thing Shooting somebody is not so brutal compared to Keeping them in poverty for a whole lifetime or generations of people Generations of people were in extreme poverty So to move them out forcefully it was taken out of that I think now they're making the necessary changes. Maybe the world expects faster changes, but They're making the necessary changes of shifting from a communist and forceful way of handling things to a more market-oriented Way of handling. I think it's a very wise thing to do. There is no perfect way to do these things Nobody knows what is the perfect way when a billion people are involved in the economy India is doing it the hard way, but in a more stable way, I would say because when it happens forcefully It is easy to use force on people when they're very poor When people are poor stick works When they become effluent the stick won't work. They will turn around and bite That time will come for china before that they must Chain themselves. I think they are moving in that direction. Are they moving rapidly enough or not? Is only something we have to see how it happens But india is going the hard way in a democratic way democratic way means we are constantly confused about everything Yes, that's what democracy means Because for everything a hundred people are involved What can be done by one man can just take a decision But hundred people are involved. It looks like a confusion. It is a confusion, but it's a more stable way of growing because people are involved in this like In china, there may be one leader or maybe five people ruling the country in india There are one billion people ruling the country in everything. Everybody is on This leads to a lot of impediments and confusion at the same time. It creates a very solid base It creates such a solid base. It doesn't matter what happens to world's economy You will see india is always going at its own pace Simply because everybody is involved at some level So These are two very drastically different ways of developing an economy Hmm, I don't think you can do What china has done in india indians are If there are three people there will be five opinions so You can't manage is like that. We are little So people were asking me satguru. What do you think about india's trajectory? We are like, uh, you know, I was very closely involved with wild bees at one time when I was young So I said we're like like a like a swarm of bees We are buzzing and seem to be going in all kinds of directions But the the whole swarm is heading in one direction, but each one of them is Doing their own thing Progress is a lot of progress. It feels like the change the pace of change in the world is so fast. There's incredible progress. We're here in the heart of Uh part of the world that prides itself on change and disruption and progress and innovation What are some of the things that we're not thinking about? As uh, we're not talking about with all this progress in terms of some of the implications So, uh We're getting too carried away with economy economy today Anywhere you go even if you go to your grandmother's place you discuss economy Hello, even your grandmother is talking about economy Economy we must understand is just an organized way of handling our survival. We should not raise it to heavens That's not how it is But the entire world has taken to this today everybody. There are whatsapp economists in india Or Or you don't use that platform much here, whatever I mean, there are social media economists who are advising on a daily basis what should happen to the world all this stuff Leaving that aside, you know first time when I went to the world economic forum Uh A computer manufacturing company that was the second largest company at that time so People were almost resentful as to why I am there. What is a mystic doing in an economic forum? So this person came up to me and asked something like this So I said see what's your business? He said that we make computers. We're the second largest Well, three months later the chinese bought them over Uh I said see whether you're making a computer or a safety pin or a spacecraft. It doesn't matter what you're making essentially You have forgotten. This is all about human well-being All business is about human well-being and that's my business And it should be everybody's business So in all this economic jargon, I think we are forgetting somewhere. This is about human well-being People who are running the economy are getting destroyed destroying themselves and the planet And the economies of the world have become like this Uh when in 2008 when I was at the economy economic forum There was a little bit of a trend of depression beginning to happen Particularly all the american billionaires who came there. They were carrying an extra long face Because they were a few billions less Than what they were three months ago So they asked me to handle a session called recession and depression So I said recession is bad enough You don't have to You know compound it with depression But anyway right now the way we are driving our economic engine is such That If we fail we will be depressed But if we succeed we will be damned for good I said better. You're depressed Because this is like, you know in india. There's a proverbial story About a man sitting on the wrong side of the branch and cutting it when he succeeds he will fall That's something that all of us as business We are we are going in that way when we succeed we will fall That's not good. Our success should raise us but our success will bring us down Once in a way recession is helping us to slow down Otherwise business as usually if all economies on the planet or the global economy is fully thriving and on I think uh in 25 years time, there'll be a serious economic ecological crisis Serious stuff not simple stuff. This rally for rivers you were talking about This since 25 years when I was very actively engaged with south indian rivers, you know I floated down rivers. I lived along in the forest and rivers because I I didn't go to any university All I did was spend time in the jungles So I have a very intimate relationship with them In 25 years on an average across the country 44 depletion of water levels have happened 44 in 25 years 25 years is not a long time for a subcontinent But in 25 years 44 depletion has happened some rivers have depleted over 70 Hundreds of tributaries small rivers have completely gone dry. This is our way of handling economy Ripping off our fundamental source of life and handling economy. What does it mean? So In india it is very stark because of the population and land pressure that we have But it is so everywhere. It may not be so visible, but it is so everywhere So we need to devise or bring down our pitch of Economy in our own minds. I think we're talking too much economy and less of life It's time when you meet people you talk something about life. How are you doing? No, no, how is your company doing? What's your stock? This is the talk It's time you ask how people are doing because all this economic Aspirations that we have is essentially towards human well-being In pursuit of well-being. We have done all these things in last hundred years We have come to a place where In the entire history of humanity, we are the most comfortable generation ever physically I'm saying Never before any generation had these kind of comforts and conveniences as we are enjoying right now. Yes Never before anybody could have thought of these kind of comforts and conveniences But are we bursting with well-being or joy or love? Because of this? No, we are seriously neurotic these days And we are cribbing like nobody Because earlier we used to just crib in the neighborhood today. We are on the facebook And global cribbing is happening for smallest things. So it's very important that Our economy is just another tool one more tool For the well-being of life on this planet If we forget that Our success will be Our failure unfortunately Speaking about neurotic. I want to do a little a little tangent on just one question about politics About some of the leaders In the world and sort of generally we have a handful of Very powerful people in a handful of large countries. You're trying to walk me into your minefield No So it's it seems strange and odd to me that we have leaders in places like Russia and syria and north korea and iran and many other places That have a little bit different sense So i'm i'm i'm curious as to A mystics perspective on where we are today with the leadership around the world There's a quote up behind us from gandhi That says when i despair i remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won There have been murderers and tyrants and for time they can seem invincible But in the end they always fall Always Should we take solace in that? No One falls and the next one is bread So uh I have highest regard for matma gandhi. This is his the coming year is the 150th Birth anniversary for him. I'm very much a part of that But uh, is he right on this one? No, he himself fell to an assassin's bullet Well, you have a martin luther king shot down dead and there have been so many others Who are nowhere near any kind of tyranny who have fallen to bullets Well miscellany you hung but hitler had the freedom to shoot himself I'm saying not all of them fell And uh One thing we need to understand is There are a lot of tyrants all over the place in every society In homes, there are many tyrants Fortunately, they're not as potent As an adult fitler or a miscellany or somebody else or whatever Fortunately, they're not as capable So a essentially we are trying to celebrate incapability In competence So tyranny is it there? It's everywhere Prejudice is there means tyranny is there, right? What is the scale and what is the competency of the tyranny is the only question We have not strived to Craft an education system Where we don't produce tyrants We are producing tyrants. Maybe they're running companies Maybe they just have three people in the family and they're doing their tyranny right there Or maybe they're school teachers Uh They could be anything but tyranny is all over the place Only a few fortunately are super competent They organize themselves into large-scale suffering Others are not able to organize themselves I would say We should be able to celebrate competence Because that's the only thing ultimately If we want to celebrate competence, we need a more inclusive human being My competence should not work against you. When is this possible? Only when in some way in my experience you're a part of myself So we need to bring this into every structure When we say when I initially said Unfortunately, our education is too intellect oriented. We must understand what is the nature of the intellect Intellect if I ask you would you like to have a sharp intellect or a dull one blunt one? Are you must choose sharp? Are you must choose? I'm going to bless you Sharp one or blunt? Sharp So essentially it's a cutting instrument. It's like a knife So you have a knife in your hand Whatever you give it to this knife, it will cut it open and see This is the nature of the intellect. Dissection is the only way intellect can know anything So suppose you want to sue something for that also you use your knife You'll have everything in tatters. That's all that's happening That's all that's happening to the world People are using their intellect even to put things together. It doesn't work like that You should know where your intellect is relevant where it is not Our education system is kind of celebrating this intellect for everything So whatever you give people are putting into their dissection mode This is why relationships are breaking down The people don't know the value of human interactions people do not know what it means to get together Because if you put it through the intellect, what is the problem? It's better to have friends on the facebook They're safe You can you can delete them whenever you Don't want But a real friend he nags you he sits right next to you but Inclusion is not there in our experience because we are becoming more and more intellectual As intellect develops as the significance of intellect becomes paramount in the world Nobody can be with anybody Because you will dissect everybody in your mind and actually nobody is okay Sincerely look at this and see nobody is actually okay except you If you ask any I think this is a business school, but if you last time I was a medical school So if you ask any psychiatrist, he will tell you if you think nobody is okay, this means you're getting sick Yes, it is if you think nobody is okay except me You going towards megalomania And this is happening to every human being large scale our very education systems and every other system As they become more and more intellect based This is inevitable because this is the nature of the intellect It will not only slice everything it will cut you into pieces It will cut you into pieces And you should not be surprised in another hundred years If you have 30 to 40 percent of the people on this planet being schizophrenic Yes, you should not be surprised at all because It is very much like that unless a lot of children don't go to school Yes If everybody goes to school if hundred percent population goes to school for next hundred years You will have minimum 30 to 40 percent schizophrenic Because you are making intellect paramount It will cut everything into pieces when it's done with the world. It will do this to myself dissection So with dissection You can know certain things But you can't know everything you can't know this life by dissection And your economy your leadership everything is about enhancing life, isn't it? Hello It's about enhancing life Not just playing some game which is against life Right now it's become like this People have started this like a game that they cannot stop. It's an addiction game That you start doing this doing this In the stock market you have all that But where is it? The wealth on the planet has remained the same in the last billion years Is not changed We can make products out of it things out of it, but it's essentially the same material, isn't it? See it's like You stand in front of the mirror There is only one person One person becomes two in the mirror if you put one more mirror This can become hundreds of people Now you think there are hundreds of people No, there are no hundreds of people. There's only one person Yes Similarly with wealth similarly with everything there is only that much We should see how to use it in a sensible manner Of course, we want to live well. There's no question about that But life on this planet is for all life This idea that's gone into human mind Certain religious dogmas have put this idea Everything in this world was made to serve the human being If you pay, you know, I spent a lot of time in the jungles If you just observe a lizard there a reptile a crawly creature He has a complete life of his own You observe the ends they have a complete life of their own Especially other mammals in the wild they have a total life of their own Their own emotions their own families their own politics and their own fights and wars and everything They got the whole thing going So but somewhere human mind Has been trained to think all life is here to serve us. No, no, we must understand this There is there's today. There's a study which says If all the worms on the planet disappear today In about 12 to 18 months All life on the planet will disappear worms believe me Those lowly worms you call somebody a worm. That's the worst thing, right? If all the insects disappear in somewhere between three and a half to five years all life on the planet will disappear But if all human beings disappear The the planet will flourish Let's let's relate that to Ambition we're here at a business school where we've got really talented students about to start their career so relate that to ambition and relate that to The struggle that that many people find to define success Ambition is a a constipated expression of human longing Human longing if you look at yourself Wherever you are you want to be something more, isn't it so? Hello I've been talking terms Wherever you are you want to be something more or no Yes What more it depends what you're exposed to if you know money you're thinking more money If you know wealth more wealth knowledge more knowledge love more love pleasure more pleasure Whatever you know whatever may be your currency, but you would like to be something more If that more happens right now You want something more if that happens you want something more So what is it that you're looking for you're looking for a limitless expansion If you're looking looking for limitless expansion What is your means see it's like this you want to go to india You think your tesla will take it No, I have nothing against the electric car But I am saying You won't even reach los angeles your battery will run out Now if you want to go to india if not an airplane at least you must have a A craft which is capable of navigating the oceans, isn't it? So similarly if you're looking for infinite expansion, what is the means? The means that you have right now is all physical in nature in the sense Everything that you know as life is only by seeing hearing smelling tasting and touching the five sense organs You cannot see hear smell touch or taste anything. That's not physical So in your entire perception of life, you're only seeing hearing smelling tasting and touching physical dimensions of existence When we say physical Physical exists always because of a defined boundary without a defined boundary. There is no physical nature But now you want a boundless expansion through physical nature If you try to become boundless, it's like you're trying to drive tesla to india No, you cannot you need an appropriate vehicle for that So that vehicle is now the most corrupted word on the planet called spirituality Spirituality does not mean religion Spirituality does not mean looking up or looking down Spirituality means you want to touch a dimension beyond your physical nature because If you have little awareness, you know that physical about you was accumulated over a period of time. Yes Hello, you're not born like this, right? It is accumulated what you accumulate can be yours. It can never ever be you You can pick up as much as you want if you have the ability to carry But when time comes you'll have to Shed it. This is just a piece of the planet what you're carrying Before you and me came countless number of people have walked this planet. Where are they? Uh, they're all topsoil This will also become topsoil unless your friends choose to bury you real deep Fearing you may raise from the dead So essentially ambition is just the same thing you want to expand But how much expansion you want to expand limitlessly? Can you do that physically? Never So Ambition is just a constipated version of this innate longing which is there in every human being to expand limitlessly If you become conscious you would expand limitlessly Finding the right vehicle for that Otherwise it finds this kind of destructive Constipated destructive expansion, which we call individual ambition Which is very destructive and my ambition and your ambition always is bound to be Conflicting it cannot be another way as long as you're incapable and I'm incapable We are doing a small pool each other fine, but I am big I want to expand you're also big You want to expand in competence. I'm saying big Now there's going to be a clash So that is when you call somebody a tyrant. He tries to conquer the world So this tyrant exists in every ambitious person, but fortunately incompetent And and how unfortunate that we think incompetence is fortunate, isn't it? The greatest thing is human being should function at its fullest possibility But now we are hoping they function at less than As limited as possible. Otherwise, they don't know where to stop It's like somebody starts eating and he doesn't know where to stop eating When to stop eating It is a problem with lots of people. This is the same thing Unfortunately, we give it all kinds of decorative names, but essentially it's the same thing So one can move from this personal ambition to a larger vision What is the difference? Essentially the difference is just this ambition is about me Vision is inclusive And if your ambition or if your longing is for something more than your own comfort and fulfillment Then you will find success every moment of your life If you're ambitious, you find success only once in a way, you know constipation is like that There's a the quote behind us is Success does not lead to happiness But rather happiness leads to success And maybe in the context of a coin a term you've coined inner engineering you can talk about that Happiness leads to success. It's not that success leads to happiness I think till now what I've been saying in a way is happiness is success Because it's human well-being that we are working for if I'm already well, is that not success? When when people are working so hard for their well-being If I sit here simply breathing and I'm very well, is that not success I'm asking So just because I am happy does it mean to say I won't do anything You tell me in your lives all of you When are you willing to do more when you're very joyful? Are you willing to do more or when you're miserable? You're willing to do more When you're joyful, you're willing to bend backwards and do whatever is needed, isn't it? When you're miserable, can we get you going? Oh very difficult Miserable and depressed people you can't get them going for smallest things, isn't it? But when you're joyful you will not just bend forward you will bend backwards and do whatever is needed I was it's only after coming to united states. I got this term, you know tgif it sounds like your company, but Tgif okay Thank god it's friday This means five days of the week you're suffering Two days you're going to enjoy No life never will work like that We we've made sure in our organization in isha even in our school. It's seven days Because if you if you're really joyful about what you're doing Where is the question of thank god? We have an opportunity to do something that we want to do Isn't it not like thank god? I got a break Not just me hundreds of people around me are today 20 hours a day seven days of the week 365 days on on on and on and uh this is because We are first joyful And then we are doing our work We are not doing our work in pursuit of our happiness This is an expression of our joy So the more opportunity you get the better it is This needs to happen to the world If you were joyful you would do only what is needed But if you're trying to milk joy out of this world, you will do all kinds of desperate things Isn't it? Why is my well-being against your well-being? Because I think For me to be happy. I must do this this and this No, I am joyful by my own nature because human experience essentially comes from within. Is that so? Hello Your joy or misery both happens from within you. Is that so? What happens from within you at least what happens from within you must happen the way you want it, isn't it? See this is all human beings are seeking They want pleasantness in their life. They want everything to be pleasant If your body becomes pleasant, we call this health. If it becomes very pleasant, we call it pleasure If your mind becomes pleasant, we call this peace. If it becomes very pleasant, we call it joy If your emotion becomes pleasant, we call this love. If it becomes very pleasant, we call it compassion If your very life energies become pleasant, we call this blissfulness If it becomes very pleasant, we call it ecstasy If the surroundings become pleasant, we call this success. It is only for making the surroundings pleasant, you need the cooperation of people around you. For all the other levels of pleasantness, of body, mind, emotion and energy is entirely your business, hello? Some people say, no, I'm not interested in all this, I want to go to heaven, why? Because the advertisements have always said, heaven is a very pleasant place. If we told you right from your childhood, God lives in heaven but it's a horrendous place. Do you want to go there? No, you will pray from here only. So essentially you're looking for pleasantness, highest possible pleasantness for yourself, isn't it so? What you want for your neighbor may be debatable, but what you want for yourself is always highest level of pleasantness. To achieve this pleasantness, we are doing so much circus on the planet. To create a pleasant surroundings, we need some work. But the rest is all internal, isn't it? To keeping body, mind, emotion, energy pleasant is completely internal. So you need to engineer this in such a way that it is naturally pleasant. There are many ways to look at it, one simple way to look at it is, all human experience has a chemical basis to it. Or in other words, this is a chemical soup. Are you a great soup or a lousy soup? That's all the question is. If you become a great soup, this feels wonderful. If everybody cooperates, we'll create something very wonderful around us. If everybody does not cooperate, you are the pleasant part of the lousy soup. That's my choice you always have, isn't it? So we've probably got one more theme I want to end with. And then we'll actually open it up for a few questions, a couple questions. We've got about probably 10 minutes after this. So behind us is what could be my favorite quote of all, because it talks about what we're all here for, which is relationships. It's by Maya Angelou. It says, people will forget what you said and what you did. But they will never forget how you make them feel. And we're on this earth together for a very short period of time. So happiness and satisfaction comes a large part and a large part from the relationships we have and what we do in those relationships. How can we implement those thoughts both in our lives and in the context of our careers? I thought you would respect what I'm saying is far more revolutionary than, you be nice to me, I'll be nice to you, business. Because a whole lot of relationships start off with this intent. But most of the time they don't succeed. People who had the most pleasant early interactions could get into horrible states of conflict later on, all right? Individual people, groups of people, nations, all levels it's happening. This is because I expect you to make me happy. You expect me to make you happy. This is always a time bomb. It'll tick for some time and it'll explode unless it just peat us out. So I'm telling you this, why should how I feel depend on you? Because how I feel is coming from within me. This must be determined by me, isn't it? Hello? The moment I think I'm feeling miserable because of you, there's a conflict. Yes or no? So it's very important that human beings have to mature into this possibility that you feel joyful, you feel miserable, you feel horrible or you feel wonderful, this is essentially you're doing. Somebody else, what are they doing? What they know best they're doing. What they know best maybe allows the option. But they're doing what they know best. Right now they're abusive because that's what they know. They don't know any better. But why should that determine how I am? If the moment there is this fear of what will, how will I feel? Maybe I will suffer. Once there is fear of suffering, your entire life becomes half stride, sir. It'll never be a full stride because the fear of suffering cripples human beings. Right now, this is what has crippled humanity. The fear of suffering, what will happen to me is always a big issue. What will happen to me should be determined by me. What happens around me, of course everybody has a stake. But what happens within me, why is it that somebody else can decide this? Whether I am blissful or miserable must be determined entirely by me because this is in my hands because experience is coming from within. Somebody can stimulate something or somebody can stimulate something positive or negative but essentially whatever the input, what I make of it is always me, isn't it? The moment you have fear of suffering, you will not do what you could do. In our lives, if we do not do what we cannot do, there's no problem. If we do not do what we can do, we're a disastrous life. And this will happen to us and this has happened to us in a big way to humanity. A whole lot of human beings will not do what they can do simply because of the fear of suffering, what will happen, what will happen, this must go. And this will only go if you engineer your interiority in such a way that what happens within you is entirely decided by you. What happens around you, we will collaborate. What happens within me, there is no collaboration, this is dictatorship. So we probably have time for just a couple of questions because there's a classroom coming in here in about 20 minutes. Why don't we open it up for a couple of questions? Is there a microphone? I don't know if there's a microphone if there is one there. Okay, here we go, where the mic is. Guruji, what is your ambition? Did you just come in? No ambition, I'm just fooling around. Guruji, I got a question for you. Can you comment about your laughter? I've seen a lot of people laugh, but nobody laughs like you. You have such a joyful laugh, it comes from you. Of course everybody laughs differently, so what's the problem with that? See, these days these kind of things are going on, some pathetic, apathetic kind of yoga is going on. People call this laughing yoga. Both of us stand in front of each other and say, you say he he he, I say he he he. This is crazy. See, this is like you, you understand there must be flowers in the garden. If you want flowers in the garden, you don't buy plastic flowers and fix it there. You have to do something which doesn't look like flowers. You have to handle the soil, you have to handle the manure, water, sunlight, none of them look like flowers, none of them feel like flowers, none of them smell like flowers. But if you handle these things right, flowers will come. So laughter will come, not because you have taken a stand. Every day I must laugh for… you know, because just recently I was reading somewhere, somebody is advising one American to-do teachers, you know, what are the things you must do. Every day ten minutes a day you must laugh. You will be in the psychiatry department soon. If you are in a certain state of pleasantness within you, without knowing why a smile will spread on your face, with very little tickle you will laugh. So laughter is a consequence. Don't try to create the consequence. You work this process, the source. This is the… okay, this ambition can be handled like this, the young man is asking about ambition. See, ambition means you are resulted… you are interested in the result. Recently when we did this business event in India, so they all came to our yoga center, which is spread over 400 acres and 4,000 plus people are living there and lot of things happening, variety of activity, all are volunteers. Nobody is paid for, nobody is trained for the job. And you can't fire anybody because they are volunteers. Look at my troubles. So they looked at this and said, these are all top companies in India and they said, how do you run this place with such efficiency? We take the best people from management schools, we cannot run it like this. What is… what is the secret of this management? I said, see, this is all. We are devotees. Not devotees of some god, we are devotees of the process that we have taken on. We are devoted to the process, not to the result. Because we are so devoted to the simple process that we are doing, everything looks phenomenal and there are results. Result is a consequence. You are only interested in the flower, not in the root. You think you're going to have a flower? So whether it is joy or success is a consequence. We are too focused on the consequence. You need to be devoted to the process. I think the most important question or last question will come from this young lady. Hey, don't ask me difficult question. I don't mean to be rude, but what's… like everybody has a limited amount on this life, but if you are trying to teach everyone something, then everyone's going to pass away soon, so what's the point? Oh, existentialism. Uh-oh. Woo, that's another hour. Oh. And this is from the youngest. This is from the youngest. Alright, that's a tough one, Mr. Guru. So if we are trying to teach something, it's going to take a long time. Let's say I want to teach you something which will take a thousand years, then your question is relevant. I'm talking about not teaching you something, just opening up a dimension within you, which is naturally in a certain way. Is it true, what did you have for breakfast? What's your name? Arna. Arna. Agna. Okay. What did you have for breakfast? Uh, a bagel. Bagel. So you eat a bagel. Does a bagel look like you? So you eat this bagel, right now this work is going on, the bagel is becoming a little girl. Yes or no? So is there an intelligence within you which is capable of turning bagel into a human being? You have. Suppose I could take a bagel in my hand and make it into a human being. Who would you think I am? Must be the source of creation, isn't it? But you are doing it. You're making a bagel into a human being, you're really fantastic. When you're such a fantastic human being that you can turn a bagel into a human being. You are not a small possibility. You are a tremendous possibility because in two, three, four hours you can make a bagel into a human being. Is it a small phenomenon? When you're able to do such a thing, you becoming joyful, how many thousand years should it take? If you allow me, we can make it happen in a few minutes. But if you become another, it'll take a few hours. Thank you guys very much. Thank you very much. Maybe again next year.