 In Conversation with the Mystic is a series that's rapidly gained momentum and popularity ever since its inception a few years ago. The focus this evening, as we all know, is of life and love. Love of course being that dodgy four letter word that seems to give many a reason to live and sometimes gives them a reason to die. And then there's life, also a four letter word, just as mystifying, just as enigmatic on occasion. And so we have our two speakers this evening who will be exploring these words, unpacking them, demystifying them. We have the magic of the movies and we have the profound realm of the spiritual. Where does that magical meet the mystical, we'll find out. Good evening everyone. Good evening everyone. Nobody's saying anything. No, they're all here but they're very silent, they're all waiting for it all to begin and let me tell you, I have to confess, as I came on, before this I was quite relaxed but as I've come onto the stage my heart is beating really fast. So while Guruji was praying, I was saying to myself, I must be relaxed. This is the time. When I'm with my Guru, I must be relaxed, this is it. So yes, I will calmly begin by thanking you, Sadhguruji, for giving me this opportunity to be in conversation with you, Isha Foundation. Thank you very much. I thought when we were talking about of love and life, heart beating is a good thing. Oh! Okay, yes it is a good thing. It shows I'm alive and in love and about to begin this conversation. And Sadhguruji, I want to say I have attended your Inner Engineering program, I have seen some DVDs, I've read your books and everywhere there are your brilliant views. On various issues, it could be from the making of a nation, to the making of a toy car, from the running of a household to the running of parliament. You have brilliant views on every issue that one can ever question, yet I know very little about you and it, you know, he has a brilliant mind with an, for lack of better words I'd say out of the box thinking, so different, so refreshing, so enlightening. I'm fascinated and I want to know about your life and I'd like to know that were you just born brilliant? Did it begin from that very moment? I was a normal birth, I didn't come in a box, my mother had a normal time. I'm from the movies and I can't help thinking, was it like it is in story books that a venerable sage came to your home and when he looked at your mother he said, there is going to be born a guru, rejoice. He will lighten his own path and that of other. You also going like this? No, but was it like that or how was it, how was your childhood? I don't think they all came to listen to my mother's labor pains. No, I'm really fascinated, intrigued that we're all here, but you know the way you think, we wait to hear what you have to say. We've all been little children and we've all grown up but we've grown up and been educated in schools and but I find our way of thinking our way of being very conditioned like almost systematized whereas so where did it all begin? I think you're looking for something unnatural that happened there. One thing that could be considered unnatural was it seems I was a very delayed birth. My mother went to the hospital three times and came back and she gave up that he's not coming and when it actually happened it happened at home. My father being a physician that was not possible, she had to be in the hospital. Three times he went and three times it didn't happen, they did everything possible when she gave up, so it happened at home. So that's the only reasonably unnatural thing, everything else was natural birth. I didn't come in a box and I refused to be educated. So what is Sam and the question that you're asking is do people grow up and blossom or are they brought up by somebody? You will see the general expression is I was brought up in this place, I was brought up in that way, especially in the West you will see I was brought up Christian, I was brought up Jewish, these are very common words. I think it's absolutely ridiculous and humiliating that a human being has to be brought up. You bring up cattle, okay? You don't bring up a human being, a human being is supposed to blossom by his own nature. That is why he's on the top of the pile at least on this planet in the evolutionary scale and most human beings don't seem to understand that or they're not allowed to understand that by a whole lot of people and they need to be brought up. Bringing up means somebody is molding you. Molding means it's a predetermined shape. No flower that blossoms is the same way as another one which blossoms yesterday. But a mold means it's always going to be the same if you make a mold. The idea of making a mold is that we want to have the same form again and again and again. Right now, generally that seems to be the work, unfortunately, of the current education system, the so-called religions that are operating in the world and of course the family. They want you to be in a certain mold. They don't want you to blossom like a wildflower because they're afraid of anything fresh happening among them. They want something that is familiar. They don't want something unfamiliar to be brought among them. So if you have succumbed to that system, then yes, you've been molded into certain form. If you allow your humanity to blossom, then you will see you don't belong to any mold. This is the beauty of being human that there is no particular way to be. If you were a dog, you would be one way. If you were cattle, you would be one way. If you were a sheep, you would be another way. If you were a bird, you would be another way, a grasshopper another way. But to be human means there is no particular way. What is human is not defined, not described. It is… it is just that for every other creature on this planet, nature drew two lines. Within that, they have to play their game. For a human being, only the bottom line is drawn, there is no top line. But socially, people are trying to draw a top line for themselves. But nature has not drawn a top line for you, it's a limitless possibility. And this is what is freaking human beings right now, because they can't decide what they can… They don't need to be. They're trying to be like somebody else. Only bottom line is set, top line has been removed. This is evolution. But wait, we still didn't quite get to… So how was it when you were a child, were you… were you put into a school to go the systematic way and didn't keep up with it? Do I look that educated? Don't insult me like that. Actually, you know, when I go and stand in the line, in the immigration lines in particularly in America, they look at me and say, can you speak English? Because I have that uneducated look, it's not easy. Do you know? Do you know what it takes to remain uneducated? Education is just twenty years of going somewhere and getting one certificate. To remain uneducated, it's very difficult. Because from the day you were born, your parents, every other adult, the school, the damn thing, everybody is trying to educate you about something that's not worked in their life. Did you also like… we all went through these confused teenage years of not really knowing where we're going. I mean, did you clearly know your path? Not at all. I was… right from three or four years of age, I was always a million questions hanging in… in my head. I have a question about everything. Everything to everything. Questions means very fundamental questions about existence itself, my own existence. So when I was three, four years of age, suddenly I realized I know nothing. No nothing means somebody gives me a glass of water, I do not know what is water. I know how to use it. I know if I drink it, it will quench my thirst and so many other ways of using it. But I do not know what is water. I'm saying even today you do not know what is water. So only thing available in all three states on the planet, three… two-thirds of the planet is water, two-thirds of your body is water. If we think life, we think water. But do you know what it is? With all the scientific exploration, we do not even know a single atom in its entirety. Today our idea of science is learning how to use everything. Yes, we know how to use an atom, we know how to break it, we know how to fuse it, but we really do not know what it is. Any one thing, tiniest thing in the creation, we do not know in its entirety this is the fact of life. Well, even something simple as what you started with saying that looking at water, I mean straight away I was taught water, H2O and what it can do and you can mix it with colors and it becomes that, you can drink it and it quenches your thirst. But I never looked at it and said, you know, I don't really know what is water. Because nobody looks at anything. See, everybody is looking like this. Nobody has any attention for a piece of life here. They are like this. If you pay attention to one life, one blade of grass, one grasshopper, one human being, something else will happen. That's why we said life and love because if you pay attention to one human being, some love will happen within you, okay? If you miss life, at least some emotion in that direction must happen to you. That will happen only if you pay attention to one. If you're looking at like this, these days it's become a fashion because you're in love on Facebook, you love the whole humanity. To love one human being, if you want to love one human being, it costs life. To love the whole humanity doesn't cost anything. It's even better to love God because it's always easy to love somebody who is not here run. It's so easy. But if you have to love somebody who's sitting next to you right now, it costs life. You know how difficult it is to love someone who is next to you right now? How easy it is to love someone who is dead or who is in heaven. Isn't it so? Let's face it. Because if you have to love one, one thing is you have to pay attention. Without attention it will not happen. And above all, you have to give up something that is you to accommodate another. Otherwise it will not happen. The English expression is very good. You must fall in love. You cannot rise in love. You cannot stand in love. You cannot fly in love. You have to fall. Something of you should fall. Otherwise it will not work. You will not know it. So you want to have a fake sense of life, then you don't pay attention to anything. Everything is information. Nothing is a living experience. Everything is from the textbook or from the cinema or from the internet. Nothing is from life's experience. We're doing more and more today of that. Sir, Guruji, you just mentioned love and today it is about life and love. And I would like to know, for us it is maybe love, your family members, whoever it could be. Why I ask you this is because there's so many versions of this and I really want to get to it. Some teachers, some gurus, some guides will say, you know, you can love but you must be detached. You must love but it cannot be conditional. It should be unconditional. And so there's versions of it. I just want to know. See, the simple way of make you keep coming back to me is to give you something that you cannot do. To give you a teaching which you can never do. You must love, but you must be detached. Now you have to keep coming back to me for consultation. Endlessly. Sorry. I'm saying throw yourself into your love affair and die into it. Something will happen. Something worthwhile will happen if you're willing to die into the process. Not just anything, whether it's your work or your life or your love or whatever, if you do not know how to throw your entire self into it, you will never know the taste of what it is. Love but be detached. Why do you want to love then? Only because you want to include somebody as a part of your life, part of yourself. That's why you love. No, I love but I am detached. This means you have to come back to consultation every day. It's like a psychiatrist's job. Every day you have to come and sit on the couch. You need treatment and there is a fee. So what… Okay, all right. So you can love and be attached. No, I didn't say that. Okay, I'm coming back for consultation please. So what did you say? I only said, see what is this need for love in a human being? You must understand, a human being constantly, constantly, a human being is longing to be something more than what they are right now. If this finds a simple basic physical expression, we call this sexuality. Sexuality means just this. Physically you're trying to make something which is not you a part of yourself. For a few moments you may succeed. If you try this mentally, it gets labeled as greed, conquest. Or maybe simply shopping, shopping, shopping. Some people go for conquest with swords and guns, some people go with checkbooks and cash, you know, credit cards. The thing is you want to include something which is not a part of you as yourself. That is a whole effort. Whether you want money or wealth or you want to occupy a nation, what is it? Something that is not you, you want to make it yours. Yours is an effort to make it a part of yourself. If it happens emotionally, on the emotional level if you try this, we call this a love affair. You're trying to make somebody who is not a part of you, a part of yourself emotionally. This is a love affair. If you do it consciously, we call this yoga. Yoga means union. So all these efforts are fine. Everything has its own beauty but has its own limitations. When you understand the limitations of all the other methods, nothing right or wrong about it, it is just that it will work briefly, it will not work for always. When you realize that, you consciously try to include. When you consciously become an inclusive process, if you sit here, if you experience everything as yourself, then we say you're a yogi, okay? So this is a love affair successful. It is something you said at the end which I would like to ask you again. You said love inclusiveness. I can't understand how I can love everybody in this room. You cannot. There's some people you cannot love. I can barely see up there and up there. So how is that, how do you include everybody in your love? Is it because you are looking at love as something that comes to you or you yield to the process of love only because you appreciate a particular quality, a shape of somebody's nose or the shape of their mind or their thought or their emotion or the way they speak or the way they do things or the way they relate to you, something, okay? The many, many things. It is based on something that is acceptable to you. If they do something that is not acceptable to you, love crumbles. Yes. Now what I'm saying is I want you to look at this, whether love happens to you or hate happens to you, anger happens to you, misery happens to you, joy happens to you. It only happens within you, isn't it? Yes. It never. People say love is in the air. No. Because you are feeling very pleasant in your emotions, suddenly air feels vibrant. It always been, you missed it all your life. Now you're beginning to feel it. Okay. All right? So whatever human experience, love or hate, whatever, whatever happens only within you, what I'm saying is, at least what happens within you must happen by your choice. Consciously you must be able to make it happen. If you are able to, if your experience of what is happening within you is happening by choice, what is the problem? It only happens within you. Love is not a relationship. A relationship is a different thing. Love is a certain sweetness of your emotion. Whether you look at a tree or a dog or a man or a woman or a child or just at the sky, why can't you look at it lovingly? Because it's not about loving the sky. It's about the sweetness of your emotion. If your emotions are sweet, whatever you look at, you look at it in a certain way. Right now you have nasty emotions, whatever you look at, you look at it in a different way. So you have always associated love with somebody. No, no, no, this is not about somebody. Love is not something that you do. It is something that you can become. If you're willing, you can become love, you can make your emotion into a very sweet space. If you make your body very pleasant, it becomes pleasure. If you sit here, it can be great pleasure just sitting here and breathing. If your mind becomes pleasant, we say this is joy. If your emotions become pleasant, we say this is love. If your very life energies become pleasant, we say this is blissfulness, this is ecstasy. If your surroundings become pleasant, we call that success. Now you're calling your success with somebody as love. That's a mistake. You have a success story with somebody. That is you have created pleasantness in the atmosphere between you and let's say five, ten people around you. You're calling that love. No, that is actually success because that needs lots of management. Yes, it does. Yes or no? Yes, it does. Yes, but for you to be loving, there is no management. If you just make your emotion sweet, your emotions are sweet and it's beautiful to be like this. It's not about anybody. If somebody comes, we can share it. If nobody comes, you can sit here with the eyes closed and still be loving. What's the problem? It is not about somebody. It's not an action. It is not something that you do. It is something that you can become. It's a, it's a lovely idyllic. It is not idyllic, it's, it's the greatest. I mean, you'd really have to practice this. Why? Because I'm thinking... See, this is what exactly I'm saying. If it is an action, an action comes to perfection with practice. Only if it's an action, I'm saying love is not an act. Is health an act? Are you acting healthy right now? I know you're an actor, but are you acting healthy? No. So, health is because we have done certain things and health is, isn't it? Oh, we've not done certain things. We've been given health. No, no, no, no. Oh, we've been given, but if you eat bad, if you live bad, you won't be healthy. We've done certain things to manage our health. Similarly, if you do certain things, you can manage the pleasantness of your mind. If you do certain other things, you can manage this pleasantness of your emotion. If you do certain other things, you can manage the pleasantness of your very life energies. This is things that you can do. Now, what you can do internally, you're trying to manage externally. What can be done here within you, you're trying to manage by creating an atmosphere around you, which is a very difficult thing to do because outside will never happen hundred percent the way you want it. To some extent we can manage. We can't do all of it by ourselves because there are many forces involved. Satguruji, you said something about health and you said you do certain things for yourself, certain things. One, you are given health and then how you maintain it is you eat well, you exercise and you remain healthy. Now, to be loving when maybe in a household, any situation, maybe outside, like you said, outside forces are not pleasant. It doesn't come easily to then just be loving. So what is the practice to become that way or to train yourself to be that way? I want to remove this idea from your mind. You believe you need to practice. Practice means you're trying to perfect an action, isn't it? To be loving at all times? Yes, that is not an act. No, not an act. No, I don't want to go back to the movies okay? No, to be so accepting because... No, it's not about accepting. Right now, do you want to keep your mind, your thought process, pleasant or nasty? Tell me, what is your choice? Ideally pleasant. No, just tell me, pleasant or nasty? You're thinking about it, this is... No, I'm trying to think, should I fox you and say nasty? Say it. Okay, nasty. I'm going to bless you now. No, no, no. Okay, I'll take back my words. Okay. All right. Any human being's choice for themselves is definitely pleasantness, isn't it? Body, mind, emotion, everything and surroundings, you want it pleasant. So why is it not pleasant? Surroundings are not pleasant because of many things. If you thought and emotion are not pleasant, it's entirely you, isn't it? Yes. Surroundings, not entirely me, it's so many forces. We have to manage them, we have to juggle them. Not always are we successful with everything around us. You know, different people have different levels of competence to manage the outside. Not all of us have the same... what to say, the skill to manage the outside. But inside, your emotion and your thought, why is it not happening your way? This is something we have to look at. This has to be addressed, every human being has to address this. At least your thought and your emotion must happen the way you want. It's like this, on a certain day, a lady went to sleep. A lady went to sleep. In her sleep, she had a dream, I think, up there. Oh, there are two stride-off people. Nobody's asleep, right? So that I could pick on you, I'm just looking if I can see. She went to sleep, up there. And in her dream, she had a dream. In her dream, she saw a hunk of a man standing in that corner. And then he started coming closer and closer and closer. He came so close, she could even feel his breath. She trembled, not in fear. And then she asked, what will you do to me? The man said, well, lady, it's your dream. I'm saying, what's happening in your mind is your bloody dream. Now the problem with life is that not that life is not happening the way you want it, even your dream is not happening the way you want it, that's the problem. I'm saying at least fix this, at least let the dream happen the way you want it. If you are dreaming the way you want right now, your thought and your emotion would be pleasant, isn't it? He's better than... Well... Fixing the world is another thing, that's a different game. That needs lot of skill. This needs just willingness. Why are we continuously talking about joy, blissfulness, love? It's not because it's a goal by itself, these are not goals by itself. Only why when you're pleasant by your own nature, you stop being in pursuit of happiness. You are fine by yourself. You don't have to go anywhere to feel pleasant. You don't have to do anything to feel pleasant. Sitting here, you're feeling very pleasant. Now you will look at life the way it is. Otherwise, you're an endless race. Pursuit of your happiness is a lifelong thing till your deathbed you're pursuing, what does it mean? That means you're a failure. If you're pursuing happiness when you were five, I can understand. But that was not the fact. When you're five, you're simply happy by your own nature. When you're fifty, you're pursuing your happiness, this is a failed story, isn't it? But, Sadhguruji, suppose we say this to the common man, who has a little house. Where did you meet a common man? I'm imagining it. Every man or woman think they're special, believe me. Oh yes. Yes, so where did you meet a common man, I'm asking. Oh! Okay, Sadhguruji, when you said about the common person and the special person, I know some teachers have always told us and why your parents always tell you that, you know, you are special. Each one of us is unique. I remember this part, I'm not sure whether I heard it at your discourse or on DVD of yours, where you said it was about, you know, people being special and us always thinking that God knows of us. And you said something like, do you know all the grasshoppers in your garden? So, of course all of us have said no. So, you said something like, so how does God know each one of you then? And I was devastated because I always thought somebody out there knows we care about him. You thought you were number one on his book, is it? Well, I've been told since I was a kid, you're special, you're unique and God cares about you. When somebody says you're unique, it's an insult. No, you said no top line, so you're peaking in different ways. In this vast cosmos, this solar system is just a speck. Tomorrow morning if the whole solar system disappears, vanishes, evaporates, nobody will even notice it, maybe it's not even under account books of creation. It's so small. In this speck of a solar system, planet earth is a super speck. In that Mumbai is a micro super speck. In that you are a big man or a woman, which is a huge problem. This is a very immense existential problem. This is because we have lost perspective as to who we are, what we are. Our psychological realities have become bigger than the cosmic reality. That is the big problem. It's time you step out of your cinema. I'm not talking about the Hindi cinema, I'm talking about the cinema that everybody is playing in their own minds. See a cinemacy right now, they darken this whole hall because it works best that way. This is the basic technology of a cinema. If you do not darken the cinema hall, if you light it up and play a nice cinema, it's not going to work. You have to darken it. So I'm saying a cinema of your mind because it's a dark space. Every thought is enlarged, playing out bigger than the cosmic space. Today, everything in the cosmos is happening perfectly well. But you have one nasty thought crawling in your head and it feels like a bad day, isn't it? Yes. So that's because your psychological realities, your petty creation has become larger than the creator's creation. You lost perspective of life. That is the fundamental basis of all this confusion and suffering. If you see who you are, the micro-spec that you are, you wouldn't imagine that God is made in your own image and he looks like you and whatever. Okay? If… if we were all buffaloes, we would definitely think God is a big buffalo. Okay. Okay, so what is it really? Please tell us the… Please define it for us. What is it? What is going on this life, this love? All these emotions that we go through in… in our lives, all these thoughts that we create for ourselves. What is going on? These are all human possibilities and capabilities. Every possibility becomes a problem for those who do not explore the possibility in its right perspective. Thought is a tremendous possibility. An ant cannot think like you. He can work better than you. He's more disciplined. He better made… better traffic rules than you. There's no traffic jam out there. Okay? But he cannot think like you. That sets us apart. This is a possibility. But now this possibility has become a problem for ninety percent of the humanity. Now they're freaking because they can think and they're thinking all the wrong things. Their thoughts have become nasty. If they were pleasant, they would have enjoyed their thought process because it's become nasty. It's becoming an ailment, isn't it? People are suffering their thoughts immensely because they do not know how to keep it pleasant. Nothing has been done towards it. So what is a possibility always becomes a problem if you do not explore it in the right perspective. So your thought and emotion has become a problem. Now love affair is a problem. You're making all kinds of things out of it which are all coming from this misunderstanding. Not understanding this thought and emotion is generated by me, I can generate it whichever way I want. If nastiness is what you like, you do it. I don't care if that's what you like, but you're suffering it. If you're suffering it, you shouldn't be doing it. I'm not telling you be loving. What is your choice, pleasantness or unpleasantness? If unpleasantness is your choice, you enjoy it and do it. What is my problem? You want to drink poison, what is my problem? I'm just telling you, this is poison, this is this. Drink whatever you want, but by choice. Don't drink unconsciously, that's stupid. That is not befitting of a human being. A human being means we are far more conscious than every other creature on this planet. That's what sets us apart. Or every creature eats, but we can eat consciously. So our eating becomes so many things. Every creature has sexual drives, they go on fulfill it whichever way. We can do it consciously. So we become something, something. We are doing the same things, but we are doing it consciously. Suddenly there is a magic about it, not because sex is magic, food is magic, no. Because we can do it consciously. Every basic act, like eating and copulating becomes magical because we can do it consciously. If you leave that one thing, if you exclude that one thing from your life, that you're not conscious about the way you think, the way you feel, the way you act, the way you move your body, if you're not conscious about it, everything can turn ugly. Everything can become nasty. So it is this which sets you apart from every other creature. So a dog is walking on the street. If you show it a biscuit, it'll wag its tail. If you do this, it'll do. If this is what you are, that if somebody is nice to you, you'll wag your whatever. If somebody is not nice to you, you will bite them. I'm saying what, where is evolution in you? Forget about civilization. I'm talking about evolution. Where is the evolution? Where's the sign of evolution? I'm asking. Okay, Sadhguruji, let's go to... I've seen people copying answers in examination, but never questions. Yeah, I've got questions. Well, today many women in our modern society are stepping out and having a career. And I just like to know, what do you think of this? Of women stepping out, being career people, managing home as well, being financially independent. This is good. See, every woman should do what she wants to do as an individual person. It should not be made into a trend in a society or the only right thing to do in the world. Because I think if a woman is intends to have two children and raise them, I think it's a full-time job. I'm not saying she should not go out and work. If she wishes to, as an individual person, she's free to do what she wants to do. But having two children is not about reproduction. You're manufacturing the next generation of people. How the world will be tomorrow will be determined by what kind of mothers you have today. Believe me. You know, I have seen many ladies coming to me and say, when I asked, what are you doing? Oh, I'm just a housewife. I said, why do you say you're just a housewife? You don't seem to understand the significance of, you know, being able to nurture two or three new lives. It's not a not important job. It's a very important job. Carrier, I want you to understand right now because we've made the whole world into economics. Unfortunately, women also getting as stupid as men as if how much money you earn is going to determine the value of your life. No, it is just procurement of things that you need. Money is just about that. Man was procuring, woman was taking about the more beautiful aspects of life. Now, woman also wants to procure. If there is such an economic need in the family, fine, she must do it. But it is not a compulsive need. It must not be set up as something better to do than doing something. If she sings, saw, if she plays music or if she just loves her children or if she cooks beautifully or she just lives beautifully like a flower, it's good enough, I'm saying. It is not necessary that only if she earns this much money, she's doing something valuable, otherwise she's not. If there is an economic need, she can do it. Or if she has a passion for doing it, she can do it. But let not such values be set up in the world because you are not evolving, you're regressing. You're making survival more important than aesthetics of life. Okay, Sadhguruji, let me take you away from this and let me take you to a world of safe films. World of films? Okay, let's go. Let's go movies. Years ago, when films started and you know, through the sixties, seventies, there were lovely stories, nice values, beautiful music, lyrics. By the time I was the star in movies, some of our Jhatka Matkas might have shocked the previous generations and they must have said, what is all this? But it was still within limits. Whose limits? I mean, what's acceptable to society, whatever, I mean, I'll say and then now today, the complexion of films, the kind of films we see, you know, it's little clothes. It's live-in relationships are, you know, up there on screen for everybody to see and nightclub culture. I mean, it sometimes worries me that my children are growing up now. This is what they're seeing. These are the kind of songs that they're listening to. The lyrics are about, you know... From Janam Janam to expiry date songs. Yes. So, this is the... This is what they're watching. This is what they think is cool. This is the... This is the hip and happening stuff. I'm... I think by the time you came, the Janam Janam was over, isn't it? No, it was still there. It was in the middle somewhere. The music was wonderful. The lyrics were still lovely. But today it is Munni Badnam Ho gayi and it... things have really moved to chewing gums and... I am forgetting at this moment what the lyrics are, but then it's... It's shallow right now. India has the youngest population in the world right now. So with such a young nation growing up on this, this is the feed. This is what you see, this is what you hear. I'm just a little concerned as to what they will turn out to be. I'm sure your parents were concerned too. Okay, so can I... I'm sure my parents were very concerned when I was growing up. So every parent has this concern, every generation has this concern that the next generation is going wrong always. I understand what you're saying. This sudden change, if every generation likes to go one step beyond where the previous generation has stepped in, on almost everything just for the sake of doing something different or it's natural they have grown up in one atmosphere, they take it to another level. They move to the next level. Yes. Next is not always next. That's what you're saying. Next is not always next, right? Yes, it's not higher, it's... It's just next. So this concern is always there, but right now the change that is happening is not the next. It is a serious influence because in the last fifteen years, the world's ability to communicate across cultures and borders is so heavy and so unprecedented. Nobody has ever been used to this kind of influences before, okay? Never before. This level of influence on our young people, never before possible, no other generation has ever experienced this kind of onslaught from so many directions and the volume of influence is too big. So in terms of changes are happening, not... it is not next, it is simply somewhere and nobody knows where it is because it's too complex and too mixed. Nobody knows where it is, including the young people, it's just a mix of things. So this is because of a sudden onslaught of information and communication. It is not for us to judge whether it's good or bad, it is just that definitely this level of information. When I say information, it's like when we were growing up, I believe it was true for your generation also, we never knew what is boredom, okay? There was no such thing, we were just excited about everything that came our way. But you see today, twelve-year-old kids, if you tell them what, oh! You see, they're just bored because they know the whole cosmos, they've seen it on their phone screen, not even on the computer screen. On the phone screen, they've seen entire cosmos, they know everything. Things that you do not know, they know, you ask them, they know it. By information, by the time they are eighteen, they have had five love affairs and gone. In the western world it's like that, here also it's beginning to happen, okay? So by the time they're eighteen, they've seen everything that you need to see with body, mind, emotion, okay? By the time they're twenty-five, what? What next? What next? You will see, this is not my wish, but this is something that I see, the way people's minds are working, the way they're being led in with information, I'm not a… by any standards a pessimistic person, but I'm just seeing this, if this level of information continues and it will multiply many fold for the coming generations, you should not be surprised. In the next fifty to hundred years, if fifty percent of the human population choose to commit suicide, you should not be surprised, because that is what will happen to the mind. Somebody's clapping, look at this, it's popular. No, you have just touched a chord, that's… No, I'm saying today, today, this day, more people commit suicide in this world than all the wars and murders and accidents managed to kill. So more people are on self-help already than murderers, warmongers, bad drivers, everything put together. More people are on self-help and if this level of information onslaught continues on human mind, I know the nature of mind absolutely, because I know my mind, I know how it works, what it can handle, what it cannot do, I know it clearly what human mind is. That's the reason why I don't have to read people's books or listen to their entire thing, if they say one sentence, I know what their mind is. Because I know the structure of human mind entirely, otherwise I won't be who I am. So I'm saying this, if this level of information onslaught continues at the same pace or at higher pace, which is possible in the next few years, this will definitely lead to wanting to terminate yourself, because there will be nothing to live for. There is no joy and excitement about anything. You please watch your children. By the time they are twelve-fifteen, they are just bored. You look back at your own life. Those of you who are over fifty years of age, just look back at your own life. When you are twelve-fifteen, was there any room for you to get bored about anything? Simply you are excited about every little thing, isn't it? Today you will see it's almost a common feature. Twelve-fifteen-year-old kids are just bored. Only thing is… Yes, they are all on iPads, iPhones, they are on gadgets. Because we are talking about love and life, all this will not mean nothing. Because you had one love affair when you were eighteen years of age, you thought this is your life and you are going to be willing to die for it, whether you died for it or not. But at least at that time you thought you will die for it. Okay? Today by the… on Facebook they had twenty-two love affairs going simultaneously. It just means nothing. I'm not saying they should have it or not have it. All I am saying is, this will lead to a certain overload on the mind and suddenly a human being will think, why am I here? You know that big Shakespearean question to be or not to be, it's not the most intelligent question. Unfortunately people think so. This is only because you have not been touched by life. You are not a piece of life. You are just a psychological case. You are full of thoughts and emotions. You have not touched life at all. You think your thoughts and emotions are life? No. Your thoughts and emotions are the drama that you are creating in your mind. It is your cinema. You must be able to end it somewhere. If you do not know how to put the end, then it's going on endless cinema, you are going crazy. Life is happening here. You know, your work is not life. Your family is not life. Your career is not life. Your cinema is not life. Your thought is not life. Your emotion is not life. Life is happening here. Everything else is accessories to life. Now the frills of life have become larger than life itself. Life is entirely missed. If you touch life within you, then it's an explosion of energy. When such a thing never happens to you because you have information about the whole cosmos on your phone screen, you will never be touched by life because too much information, too much thought, even emotion is drying up, too much thought. This has happened. If you look at European philosophy in the last hundred, hundred and fifty years, you will see, if you read Dostoevsky, you will want to commit suicide. Brilliant, intellectually brilliant, but you will wonder why are you alive? Because intellect is like that. If you wake up in the morning, devoid of any… touching any life's experience within you, don't think about your child's face, do not think about the flowers in the garden, birds in the sky, nothing beautiful that ever touched you. Just think logically. You have to get out of bed. That's not a small feat. You have to brush your teeth, breakfast, go to work, eat, work, eat, sleep. Again, tomorrow morning, same thing. Next fifty years, you have to do the same process every day. If you look at it one hundred percent logically and intellectually, you will have no reason to live today morning, tomorrow morning. It's only if you touch by something, suddenly it's worth living. If you're not touched by anything, then it's not worth living. What is… what is so worth living about a human being? Wake up in the morning, trudging through life every day, eating, sleeping, same rubbish. What is the point? There is no point. Unless you touch by something, some magic of life, if it doesn't touch you, either in the form of love, or in the form of a flower, or in the form of something within you. If something doesn't sparkle within you, definitely there is a question whether I should live or not, isn't it? And we are taking humanity in that direction with this overload of information. Information is not knowing. Information is just garbage collection. You just gather things which don't mean anything to you. You look smart in a tea party, but you're not smart here with life, okay? If you're smart with life, you must be blissful, isn't it? If you're really smart with life, you must be joyful and blissful, isn't it so? You're only smart in a tea party, because you know when somebody is talking something, you know the galaxy Z-22, what happens there? Everybody, wow! They can also open the internet and the same thing. You think this guy visited the galaxy? So, Sadhguruji, then what is it? Okay, so for all of us, give us a clear, simple, simple sentences, do this and you will be at least on the way to being blissful or happy or aware or living in a nice, conscious way. If you… if you just observe, if everybody makes a little effort, everybody take a little time for this piece of life, okay? Not for your family, not for your career, not for something else, something else. Just for this piece of life, give it little time because this is the most important piece of life in your life, isn't it? Yes or no? Yes. Even if you're in love with somebody, still this is the most important piece of life, isn't it? So pay some attention to this, how does it happen? Why have you taken it for granted? Believe me, you're not going to be here forever. I'll bless you with a long life, but you're going to fall dead one day. Yes or no? Yes. So, do not take this for granted. If you wake up in the morning, tomorrow if you wake up in the morning… No, this is not my wish, but I want you to know of all the people who go to bed tonight, over a million people will not wake up tomorrow morning. And tomorrow if you and me wake up tomorrow morning, is it not a fantastic thing? A million people did not wake up. You woke up. Is it not a great thing? Just look at the ceiling and smile. You are still awake. You're still there. A million people did not get up in the morning and you woke up. And for many, many millions of people, somebody who's dear to them did not wake up. So just check those five, six people around you. They all woke up. Wow, it's a fantastic day. You woke up and everybody who matters to you around you woke up. Is it not fantastic day? You don't think so. Yes. You don't seem to think so. Because the problem is just this, you're living with an idea that you're immortal. When I say you're immortal, you're not actually thinking you're immortal, but you're not conscious of your morality. If you're not conscious of your mortality, somewhere you think you're immortal, isn't it? How many moments in a day are you conscious that you're mortal? If you were conscious, would you have time to crib? Would you have time to fight with somebody? Would you have time to do some rubbish with your life? If you knew, if you're conscious that you're mortal, you would do nothing other than what is absolutely needed for you and everybody around you. This one thing if you do, if you just remind yourself, you don't think this is a negative thing, death is not a negative thing, it's the only thing which has added value to your life. If you're here forever, you would be unbearable. Yes. Yes, yes. Isn't it? Aren't we glad everybody dies one day? If you just become conscious of this one thing, that always you're conscious that I'm mortal, you don't have to think I will die today, we don't intend, we want to live as far as possible. Just you know one day I will die. If you're just conscious of this one thing, you will naturally become spiritual. You will not become spiritual by thinking about God, you will become unrealistic, hallucinatory. You will start talking to somebody, you will start doing all kinds of things. Already people, you know, they have earphones on and they're talking, you don't know whether they've lost it or they... Ten years ago, if somebody was walking on the street talking, you would know that she's lost. But today you don't know. Whether they got their headphones or and they just lost it and they're talking, we cannot make out. But if you are conscious that you are mortal every moment of your life, spiritual process has begun for you. So the one... one of the main reasons, one of the fundamental reasons why that all these things have to be taught to you that she's repeatedly asking this question, were you born special, did you have normal birth or not, is simply because most people have forgotten they're mortal. They think they're immortal. They may not actually think they're immortal, but they're not conscious they're mortal. With every step, with every breath, if they were conscious of this, you know how consciously they would live? They would become fantastic. It is your mortality, which makes you want to know what is the nature of your existence. You really want to know where you came from, where you will go. Only when it sinks into you, all this drama will one day end. But right now you think only others appear in obituary columns, you are only going to read it. That is simply beautiful. That's all that's needed. If you want to know the value of life, just know that it's a brief happening. The time that you spend here as life it's a very relative experience. If you're truly joyful and ecstatic, it's horribly brief, believe me. I feel like I was born debut for yesterday. See, already how I have become. Okay? But on a particular day, if you're depressed or miserable, one day seems like an endless thing. So, only miserable people have a long life. If you're a joyful ecstatic person, life is always brief. If you live to be hundred, it's still very brief for what possibilities a human being carries. For the immensity of what a human being is, it's too brief a life. If you're given hundred years, two hundred years, it's still… still too brief because before you know what's happening, before you explore a few dimensions of life, it'll be over. It'll be over, over, okay? Only miserable people have a very long life. They feel it's very long. Sadhguruji, here we have a few questions. First question is from Prabhas Sundaras Sundar Sen. Where and how do we draw the line between loving unconditionally and becoming a doormat? See, we need to understand this. What's being right now passed around as love is generally a neutral benefit scheme. You give me this, I'll give you that. If you don't give me that, I don't give you this. This is not said, but it's done. It's done, isn't it? It's not said. So human beings have physical, psychological, emotional, economic, social and various other kinds of needs. To fulfill these things, when you say, I love you, instead of making these things ugly needs that we have to, ugly transactions that we have to do, you give me this, you give me that, to bring some aesthetic and beauty to this transaction, we coat it with a certain amount of sweetness of emotion, which we call as love affair. Where the transactions happen, more smoothly because once we are human, somehow doing basic transactions in a basic way makes us feel ugly. If you take food with both your hands and eat it, it's ugly, isn't it? We want to eat in a certain way. Similarly, to fulfill our physical needs, emotional needs, economic needs, we have arrangements where we can conduct this in a more aesthetic manner. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, this is the fact of life. So this level of love, I call this, this is enough to fulfill the domestic needs of once, you know, for two people to live together, to fulfill their needs, to produce children, to raise them, domestic level of love affair people can have. But if people want to have a love affair, which will bring them to an ultimate union, then not many people are competent to do that. Not many people are ready to have that kind of a love affair, where it'll make two lives into one. Two becomes actually one in experience. That will need something more. Most people are competent of using love to fulfill the domestic needs. But to go beyond that, they are not ready. And when I say they're not ready either, I'm not talking about this person or that person. So when one is ready and another is not ready or one is making an effort and another doesn't have the effort, then it feels like somebody is becoming a doormat. That is what it is, that it feels like they're being exploited. But above all, one who is longing to become use love as a way of ultimate union should not be bothered about being doormat, this and that. In India we have a culture whereby choice people name themselves as slaves. You know Ram Das, Krishn Das, this Das, that Das. What is it? They're openly saying, I'm a slave. I'm a doormat. I want to be a doormat. They're not saying, I'm afraid I'll be used as a doormat. They're saying, I want to be a doormat. So this is a kind of love that they are wanting to use to use for ultimate union. This is not for domestic purposes. So if you're looking for ultimate union, then love is a different affair. If you're looking for conducting of domestic affairs, then you must manage dignity. Who gets what? If anybody is using more than what they should, then if you don't give me that, I don't give you this, okay? Otherwise if you're looking for ultimate union, you should not think of all these things. That's a different affair. That's not for not much social thing. If you fall in love itself, you become vulnerable to somebody. Without becoming vulnerable, there is no love affair. You have to fall. When you fall, somebody may raise you or somebody may walk over you. Yes. But the thing is the experience of your life is beautiful because you fell, not because they raised you, not because they walked over you, because you could actually have the sense of abandoning you to fall. That was the beauty of your love affair. Not what they gave you, what they did to you. This no. The beauty was you sat alone and you think you really love this person so much you were willing to die. That was the most beautiful moment. Not the moment they gave you a big gift, not the moment they gave you a diamond ring, not the moment they said this and that about you. No. You just sat here and you're willing to die. That was the moment. Not just a doormat, you're willing to be the dust on their feet. Okay? I am not saying you should be like that. I am saying, where love transformed itself into a devotion. If you fall in love itself, you become very vulnerable, but there are still some shreds of sanity in love affairs that you can recover. But if you become a devotee, there is no sanity left and you cannot recover. So before you trade such a land, you must see whether you offer it or not. What are your goals first of all? If your goal is to make a life, a cautioned, a very measured love affair is good. But your thing is, you want to dissolve into the process of life. You don't want to have a good life. You're not planning to have a good life. You just want to become an explosion of life. You don't care what you get and what you don't get. Then you become a devotee. Devotion means it's your intention to dissolve into object of devotion. So a devotee is not expecting whether I'll become a doormat or a crown on somebody's head. Whatever I become, as long as I can touch your feet or head or whatever, it's fine with me. So that's a different state of existence. I don't think somebody who is looking for a domestic level of love affair should even ask that question. We have one question from the social media, the Facebook. Amit Madan wants to know, in this materialistic age, the real feeling of love is disappearing from our life. Most of the love we receive from others and expressed to others is superficial. How can we reinforce the real feeling of love in our own life and in others? Forget about others. If you… if you learn to be loving by your own nature, not because of somebody else or something else, I know the question is coming from Facebook. There's an enormous possibility. You can even love those people who don't even exist. So I'm saying it's a tremendous possibility. So if you just become love, not love somebody, then you will know the nature of love. If you love somebody, it's a fickle happening because no human being will happen a hundred percent the way you want them. Every human being on this planet is going to disappoint you, believe me. Not because they'll do something wrong, because nobody can fulfill the unrealistic expectation you have of them. It's simply not possible. Have you been able to fulfill anybody's expectation I'm asking you entirely? Partially, but never entirely, isn't it? So nobody else will be able to do it. Unless you're still such a hopeless romantic, you're still waiting. That ideal person is going to come from somewhere. No, believe me, whoever comes, I want you to know the ideal people whom you worship, when Krishna was there, his wife's complained. All right? So there is no opera for us. Yes, please remember this. Okay. Sadguruji, this is where we open, yes, the platform, it's... Anybody has a question, this is the moment. Yes, please. My name is Anand. My question is about marriage, divorce. No, no, there are two different things. See today is many youngsters, like many of them they don't want to marry and few of them who marry, there are occasions where they are getting divorced. So, would you like to throw some light on these situations, Sadhguru? See, you need to understand the institution of marriage. One thing is as we said a little while ago, it's about bringing a certain sanctity to the simple basic needs that every human being has. I will repeat, there are physical needs, there are psychological needs, there are economic needs, emotional needs, social needs, variety of needs. To fulfill all these things, we set up an institution called marriage where all this can be conducted in a sensible manner. Otherwise, if we did it on the streets like every other creature, it would turn ugly for us and we will feel not good about it. So, to bring some sense of organization, some aesthetic, some stability, because man and woman coming together naturally brought fresh life. The nature of human life, the nature of human offspring is such that because of the possibilities that a human being carries, it is compared to any other creature, it is the most helpless life which needs maximum amount of support. You could leave a puppy on the street, as long as he gets food, he grows up into a good dog, no problem. But not so with the human being, he doesn't need just physical support, he needs variety of support and above all a stable situation. Whether there should be marriage in society or not, one will debate when they are eighteen because physical body is asking for freedom, all right? At that time, everybody questions, is marriage really needed? Why can't we just live whichever way we want? But when you're three years of age, you valued marriage immensely, a stable marriage immensely, isn't it so? Yes or no? Not yours, your parents. The parents, yes. When you're three-four years of age, you are one-hundred percent for marriage. Again when you become forty-five-fifty, you are hundred percent for marriage. Between eighteen and thirty-five, you're questioning the whole process. Okay? That's true. I am not saying marriage is the thing, but do you have a better alternative? If you have a better alternative, damn the marriage. But you have not come up with a better alternative because a stable situation is a must for a child. Once you have a child, it's a twenty-year project. Yes. Okay? That is if they do well. If they don't do well, it's a lifelong project. So, if you want to get into such projects, at least twenty years, there must be a commitment to create a stable situation. Your whims and fancies will change, your emotions will change. If that is what it is, don't get into such situations. It's not compulsory for everybody to get married. It's good, young people are saying people are thinking whether to get married or not. I'm glad. It is not necessary for everybody. But if you get into it and if you… especially if you get into children, you must understand it's a minimum twenty-year project, whether you like it or you don't like it. Otherwise, you shouldn't get into those projects. You don't walk into a project, drop it halfway and walk away, isn't it? They have their benefits and they have their problems. It's your choice. But at least choose consciously, you don't have to get married because everybody is getting married. You don't have to talk about marriage and divorce in same breath as if they come together. This is a completely… an American idea, you're thinking of marriage and divorce together. Nobody thought of divorce in this country till recently, isn't it? Why should you ever talk about marriage and divorce in one breath? It's a crime. It's really a crime to think on those lines. But if it so happens, something truly went wrong between two people and they have to separate, that will anyway inevitably happen. You don't have to plan it at the time of wedding. Speaker- Namaskaram, Satguru. Speaker- Okay. Speaker- Yeah. Namaskaram. You mentioned about survival and you talked about aesthetics of life. I would like… I would request you to elaborate on aesthetics of life. And my second question is for my friend. I don't know whether you will answer it or not but I just want to mention it over here because she has requested me to do so. Her question is, what is the purpose of this universe? Speaker- Tell your friend I didn't make it. Thank you so much. Speaker- Why am I being blamed for these things? The only thing I have done is I have figured the nature of my life. And by figuring the nature of this life, I know by inference every life has happened the same way, not just every life, the very cosmos has happened the same way. If you know the nature of this life from its origin to its ultimate, you know the nature of everything by inference, everything that's worth knowing. So tell your friend I didn't make this universe so don't blame me for such big things. I just figured my way through my life and when you figure it, if you figure it, you will see the most important thing that's happening in your life right now is that you're alive, nothing else. Not that stocks have gone up to date, that's not the most important thing. Not your love affair, not this and that. If you don't understand what I'm saying, suppose tomorrow you're lost, I'm not saying you must wish, I'm not wishing you must lose, but suppose tomorrow you lost half your money and you're feeling depressed and your mind says I want to die, close your mouth, hold your nose like this for two minutes. Your body says to hell with your money, I want to live. Tomorrow you found your love affair collapsed and your mind says I want to die. Check. The life within you says to hell with your love affair, I want to live. Every time you feel little suicidal or depressed, just check. The life within you says to hell with all these things, I want to live. So I want to know the most important thing that's happening to you right now is life itself. Not the fancy thoughts that you have, not the emotions that you have, not financial arrangements or family arrangements or whatever rubbish you have built around you, these are all accessories to life. These are all frills. Frills are so much you're missing the skirt, that's the whole problem with you. Yes, so much frill. Fundamental things are forgotten. So this is the most important thing. Right now for most people life means their job. Life means the new house they're building. Life means the car that they bought. Life means their wife, their husband, their children know. Life means what's throbbing here, not even your body, not your mind, not your thought, not your emotion. What is right now throbbing here, this is life. Because this is on, everything else seems to be meaningful. If this one stops, nothing around you means any damn thing to you or to anybody. I liked what Satguruji today, what he was explaining, that this blissfulness, this happiness, whatever it is, is not outside of you. And it is there with you. If you at every moment remember that you are here only for this brief time, wouldn't you do the best every moment? Wouldn't you love everybody that moment? Wouldn't you do all the things that you love or you value every moment of your life?