 Namaskaram and a very warm welcome to everyone here at the Isha Institute of Inner Sciences in Tennessee and to those who joined us online for a special darshan with Sadguru on the very auspicious occasion of Guru Purnima. Guru Purnima is a day of grace. It is a day when one can receive the grace of the Guru much more easily than any other day of the year. It is said that the biggest fortune in a spiritual seeker's life is the presence and grace of a living master, is the presence and grace of a living master. Today on the occasion of Guru Purnima, we are privileged and elated to be in the presence of Sadguru. We will now watch a video where Sadguru speaks about the role of a Guru in a seeker's life. Once you have entered the space which you call as human, from here your evolution is no more natural, it has to be conscious. Become conscious, there will not be any progress from here onwards, monkeys can progress, man cannot progress. He can only progress consciously, somewhere nature trusted your intelligence. Nature believed that with the intelligence that you have, any way you will choose the higher, not the lower. But you've been trying to beat nature's trust, but it's not possible. It doesn't matter how many ways you indulge yourself, somewhere something longs for something bigger, isn't it? Yes? You fill yourself with wealth and filth and everything, but still the longing is not gone. So when the longing becomes unbearable, you seek. When you seek, can't you seek? That which is within yourself by yourself, you can. It's an uncharted path. Because it's an uncharted path, if you go by yourself, you know what happened to Columbus? He wanted to come to India and landed up here. It is an uncharted path, isn't it? Simply by accident he landed in this continent. We are only hearing about those who landed somewhere. Do you know how many never landed? Anywhere? Yes? Thousands of sailors who set forth never landed anywhere. If you go on an uncharted path without any guidance, this is what will happen. Now that Columbus landed here, just see how easy it is from Europe to America. Why? Now it's a charted path because of that man, isn't it? Suddenly you go to your guru because he landed. Using his experience is a good thing. Can't I do it by myself? You can, but we don't know how many lifetimes you will take by yourself. Not that it's impossible. You may just do it in a moment also, you know? You may just land up there, we don't know. But ninety-nine percent of the people will just get lost and washed away. That's why a guru has come. Guru is just a device. Guru is not a person, this must be understood. Only when you begin to experience me as something more than a person, only then I am your guru, till then I am not. Shri Shankaram Sharmat Asanam Samarpayami Shri Guru Charnaka Malebhyo Dhanam Samarpayami Shri Guru Charnaka Malebhyo Dhanam Samarpayami Shri Guru Charnaka Malebhyo Dhanam Samarpayami Shri Guru Charnaka Malebhyo Shri Guru Charana Kamal Ebyo Shri Phalam Samar Payamhi Shri Guru Charana Kamal Ebyo Shri Guru Charana Kamal Ebyo Shri Guru Charana Kamal Ebyo Shri Guru Charana Kamal Ebyo Shri Guru Charana Kamal Ebyo Please say this after me. In whichever part of the world, Namaskaram to you. Today is Guru Purnima. This is the first pulmon night, the semisoul styes, or after the sun's movement in relationship with our planet has started moving south. This shift happens on the day of the soul styes. From then on, in terms of nature, you're moving from a dynamic movement, energies, both of the planet or at least the northern hemisphere and what is happening in our bodies. When we move away from the dynamic nature, we're naturally moving towards what we refer to as inertia. The extreme manifestation of inertia is death. So in a way, we are moving towards a certain slowdown of our system. So this is the nature of the planet. During these last few months, post-winter months, everything in nature has burst out exuberantly, we call it spring. Spring means something is bursting out. Life energies are bursting out both in terms of the planet and definitely that reflects in our bodies. So when this shift happens and sun's movement starts turning south, depending upon which part of the twelve-year cycle we are in a given year, when I say a twelve-year cycle, the solar cycle, as per the observations within our system is approximately 12.25 to 12.4 years. But today, as per modern calculations, they say it's 11.6 to 11.65. But that is not taking into considerations the movement or our relationship with the Jupiter. As you know, most of you should know, at least those of you who are in India are aware of this, that Jupiter is referred to as Buddha because it is supposed to be bruhaspati. If somebody is brilliant, then we say he's a bruhaspati because his intelligence, his energies have become lit, very dynamic. So the story goes like this, there was a sage called bruhaspati and Adiyogi made him into a planet and put him as Jupiter. You be there to god over the human creatures so that they become human beings. Light them up. How is Jupiter lighting us up? As you all know, Jupiter's orbit is outside of the Earth's orbit. Wherever Jupiter is in the orbit, the sun gets pulled in that direction. Sun is not stationary, it gets pulled in the direction of the Jupiter. Approximately the same distance as the diameter of the sun itself. So depending upon where Jupiter is going, sun is here, here, here, here. So whenever the Jupiter and Earth come in sync between their two orbits, because our orbit is 365 days, Jupiter's orbit is eleven point eight five years. So whenever it comes in touch, at that time the dynamism of the sun is at its highest peak on this planet. As all of you know that the only source of energy on this planet is solar energy. Don't think solar energy happened after you invented your panel. Every leaf is solar energy and everybody can turn into coal or oil or diamond because of solar energy. Just everything that happens here is solar energy transformed into various expressions. You also are solar charged. So when the planet and the Jupiter gets aligned because this is moving rapidly, this is moving slowly, it gets aligned somewhere. When that happens, you get the maximum. While this maximum is good, if you clean, keep the planet good because this maximum brings extra heat. On an average there is a variation of 2.5 degrees Celsius variation in temperature in these twelve years or 12.25 years of cycle, solar cycle because mainly because of the influence of the Jupiter pulling the sun a little closer to us. So this means more sunlight, more temperature, more radiation. If we want to benefit from this, we must keep the planet healthy, green, then you will benefit. Otherwise you could be little scorch dark. Recent research is talking about that climate change could shrink the human brain. Are you noticing it? That's what I was just saying. The ladies there cannot hear, please take care of this. I said the climate change is supposed to shrink your brain. If our brain shrinks, definitely first thing is we cannot hear. Then we cannot see, then we cannot think straight, everything else will follow. So first signs are showing up already in this hall. So in this twelve year cycle, right now we are not aligned with the Jupiter right now, but we will be after some time. Probably in the month of October, November, we will be aligned. So you may have a little late winter coming because this year we will be aligned around that time. Now the important thing is once dynamism that was naturally offered to us is receding and inertia is settling down. You must do something to keep this dynamic. This is why this phase from now onwards is called a sadhana pada. It's you know we started a sadhana pada seven months of sadhana pada for young people. If you're not dead, you're young. Starting from 21st of June goes on till Mahasivrathri, so six to seven months and it's fantastic. Some of you are here. They started howling. I thought you evolved. So it's fantastic, the kind of response, but it's tragic that we are not able to provide the necessary infrastructure for people to come. I don't know this year's count, it should be much more. Last year nearly 30,000 people applied for this, but we could accommodate only some 1,200 and odd people in the center. So this is why we're pushing for infrastructure, both here and there because just imagine just in India 30,000 people, youth come and spend seven days, seven months, I'm sorry, seven months upon their own well-being, intense sadhana. They go back into the world. There is no better contribution. So Guru Gurnima is not just a celebration, it is a commitment. It's a commitment that we will evolve. See monkeys have an advantage. Hello? Monkeys have an advantage because they anyway evolve, you know. But once you become human, unless you consciously strive, there should be no evolution. This is because to point where nature can push you, it has pushed you. From here on you have the freedom to evolve or freedom to stagnate. So Guru Gurnima is the day when Adiyogi expressed his commitment. When I say expressed his commitment, well these seven sages were today celebrated as Saptarishis. When they hung around him for a long period of time in preparation on this day of the solstice that year, the solstice and the full moon happened to be coinciding. So when the solstice happens, certain shift happens. When I say certain shift, well because you've just born all of you, you have not noticed anything other than what is said in the school textbook. That also you did not notice. You know because you read it on the Google. If you notice, if you pay attention, there are two cycles happening in the body. This is going this way, this is going this way. Don't imagine these things, you must pay attention, not imagination, attention. Now this movement determines how well coordinated you are, how well balanced you are between the two polarities of Eda and Pingala or masculine and feminine within this system. Without polarities, there is no physical existence. Even an atom cannot exist without polarities. Everything physical is between two polarities. The reason why we're always talking about going beyond our physical nature, which is the essence of spiritual process, is if you are within the polarities, you are kicked from one pole to another, one pole to another. These cycles keep you busy. And these cycles, once the cycle becomes, the circle becomes long enough, you don't know that you're going in circles because every segment of a circle, a small segment of a circle feels like a straight line. It takes a lot of attention. To see I am actually going in cycles. If you pay enough attention, this is there every year, or if that is a bit too much for you, if you pay enough attention, every twelve to twelve and a half years there is a cycle in your life where similar situations will keep coming back. You will start uttering similar words, you will start behaving the way you were behaving twelve years ago. This may sound ridiculous but watch yourself and see. This is what is happening because life is a repetition if you don't consciously strive. So conscious striving is absolutely necessary if a human being has to evolve. That's why I said monkeys have an advantage. Nature, nature still working on them. They didn't choose. Nature just pushes them. But you have to choose and strive. Otherwise it remains stagnant. Is it wrong to be stagnant? No. It's not wrong. It's not a crime to be stagnant. A stagnant pool naturally stinks, that's all. That's the only problem. Otherwise it's better to swim in a stagnant pool if your only concern is safety. A stagnant pool is a better place for you to swim than a flowing river. Flowing river, you know. It has many possibilities hidden in it. But a stagnant pool, don't go for that large nesting. Everything else is fine. Only one lake. You don't know. It's not Loch Ness, you know. So except that one pool, everything else is fine. So once you're in a stagnant pool for too long, non-existent monsters will rise. This is the nature of stagnation. If you just become stagnant in your life, monsters will rise in your mind, threaten you initially. If you don't act slowly, they start eating you up in so many different ways. No monsters from outside. But the life that you are, if you stagnate it, it will create monsters. People are suffering these monsters in so many ways, in so many levels. But they're constantly working for their security. Safety, security means stagnation. Adventure means anything could happen. Adventure does not mean you have to jump off a mountain or jump off an airplane or do something that's risky for your body, not necessary. Except your body, everything else you can risk, isn't it? Hello? Body, you must keep it safe because if you break it, you can't fix it. Everything else is open to adventure. Your thought, your emotion, your way of being should be adventurous. You don't have to necessarily jump off a cliff to be adventurous. Because body needs to be protected. We cannot create another one. So how can we do celebrate Guru Purnima without talking about Adiyogi? When Adiyogi became Adi Guru, he was reluctant because he was completely blissed out and you don't know what these seven people are. Everybody when they sit in front of you, they will drip tears and say, «Sadhguru, my life is for you. Tomorrow morning, their uncle's daughter's birthday is happening. They must go. So he kept them there for years without even looking at them. But those seven were not that kind. They gave everything they had and prepared and prepared and prepared. On this solstice day, when he was trying to adjust his own system, he opened his eyes and looked. Suddenly these seven idiots are shining. It looked what? Shining beings they have become. He just gave them something simple to prepare and they have become shining beings. He looked at them. Then he gave up his this thing of not wanting to be involved because the difficulty of trying to convey something which is not within the realm of logic or not within the realm of the five senses is a thankless job. It doesn't matter what you experience in given moments. Three days later, you will go back and say, maybe he just mesmerized me. Maybe they put some something in the drink. Suddenly I was feeling like this. Maybe they put something in the drink. I'm not making this up. Every day, this kind of betrayal is happening to me daily basis. Every day, people who are there for periods of time and say, Satguru, there is no other god but you. I said relax a little bit because I know what you have done to your gods. I don't want that to happen to me. Someone came and told me recently, Satguru, you're like Jesus. I said, don't ever say that. I don't want to be nailed. All right? Don't ever say such things. So all this you will do but because there are monsters in your head, monsters are because of stagnation. Just understand if life was flowing and new things were happening all the time, if evolution was happening within you actively, there shall be no monsters because all the life energy will be used to make a monkey into human being. Do you know how much energy it takes? Hello? To make a monkey into a human being, it must have taken tremendous amount of life energy to do that, isn't it? So if you consume your energy for your transformation, for your revolution, then there shall be no monsters in your head. If you're a stagnation, you become a stagnation because you get identified with something. Your wealth, your beauty, your education, your qualifications, your money or maybe your muscle, we don't know, depends who you are. You get identified with something, now you're anchored with an anchor, where will you go? No Sadguru, I have been rowing my boat, daily I'm doing Shambhavi. Yes, Shambhavi is making your stagnation little pretty, but if you want to go, you must pull in the anchor or cut the rope, otherwise this is not going anywhere. So once you create stagnation, slowly monsters will arise. Sometimes it'll torment you seasonally. Yes, seasonally they will torment you because when... for whatever reason, if the energies are a little high, today Guru Purnima, the moon is close to us and on any Purnima for that matter, on a full moon night, energies are high. As all of you know, if you... at any time, if you spend some time in the asylum or even at home, see, they're not able to hear. Hello, you're good. We're talking about evolution. Please fix this, do something with the ladies. Hello? Is that good? Say it's good. Learn to say good things. That is... ego is so that you get it twice. If you didn't grasp it the first time, one more time. So don't worry, if you don't hear a few words, don't bother, just be with me, okay? These monsters that human beings create in their own minds, because energies that are dedicated to your evolution are unused, doesn't matter in what kind of comfort you are living in, who you are in the world. You may be living in a palace, but monsters won't go. People who thought or everybody thinks they are super successful, they suffered monsters like anything. Yesterday we were talking about the emperor, the Sikandar, Alexander. His monsters were unmanageable. He barely slept and went crazy with these monsters. There are many like that in the world. Your monsters may be small because what you have identified with is small, but small monsters, not any more comfortable. Actually they're more torturous. See if you go into the jungle, not here in United States, they've weeded out all while. Suppose in India you go to... go into the jungle, if you're attacked by a tiger, probably in five seconds you'll be dead, max, most probably two seconds. He'll break your neck, first thing. But suppose you're attacked by a bunch of wild dogs that here you call as coyote, then they will eat you alive, piece by piece, which is better. If you must be taken, at least a tiger, not a coyote or a wild dog, because they cannot kill you, but they will rip you to the bone. So here there are no such thing coyotes sometimes, no tigers or elephants, but there are ticks. You must decide whether a tick is better or a chigger is better. It doesn't kill you. But... so small monsters are not a relief. Small monsters work more incessantly. Big monster may gobble you up. These work slowly, incessantly, very patient monsters are dangerous. If they're impatient and they eat you up, gone. They quietly eat you daily, little bit by little bit. Not good. So essentially if you do not invest in enhancing who you are, monsters are inevitable. That is what this day is about, to commit that I will enhance my way of being. I will evolve or transform my life from what I am right now. Not necessarily because what I am right now is bad. Especially if it's good, it should become better. Hello? If this is very good, it should become better. So this is a day of commitment. This was a day of commitment for Adiyogi also. Till then he thought he doesn't want to get into this business of handling people. Because as I said, trying to convey something which is not in people's experience and they have no instruments to grasp it. Show me, where is it? Well, you can't even see the air that you breathe. What can I show you? And you have a mind that your experience, if little distance comes, then you say, maybe it was all a dream. Maybe I just fooled myself, this whole spirituality. See, this happens to you. Let's say there's somebody living with you, you know them. Well, they're past. Depending on how much you are related to them, maybe three months later, if you think about them, their faces would have become vague. They're not this clear. Like how hearing is happening there, their faces will become little vague. You have to look at their photograph to remind yourself how exactly they looked. Otherwise they'll become little blurry. You know them, you remember all the incidents and this and that, but not clear-cut faces. Three years later, you... they don't come. Even if you call, they don't come because it's faded. Then if you want, we can tell you, see that person never existed, it was your dream. Your dreams also like that. Today morning it happened, it was vivid and on, more real than real. But after two days, it has gotten all garbled, mixed up machine because this is the nature. Because your memory is not a photograph. Your memory is a complex system. It has to bounce through... bounce through many things to give you a picture. That picture, depending upon how identified you are or how not identified you are, it starts fading. So with this kind of people, why should Adiyogi invest himself? I am also thinking. So he ignored them for years. But then he saw on this day, they all become shining beings, then he also turned south. Because he turned south, they called him Dakshinamurti. That means the deity of the south or the deity which faces the south. So he turned south and became a guru. So this is the birth of a guru which is not a position exalted position of power but of commitment and sacrifice. So he sacrificed his own freedom and his blissfulness and his ecstasy and committed to transmit what was happening within him. So this is why Guru Purnima, his commitment and so many other wonderful beings who committed along the way in these many, many thousands of years, don't waste that commitment. It's time that you commit. If not for everybody's well-being, at least for your well-being, this must happen. The moment you go back you have to catch up with many things. There is a sitcom that you missed three days. Hello? Three days you missed it by coming here. Now you have to go catch up. So you need extra three hours for that and of course the current one. Together you need all that and of course there is family which is also a sitcom. Hello? It is a kind of a sitcom, maybe not well directed but so in all that commitment becomes weak. This happened. One day Shankaran Pillai and his wife were lying in the bed. The wife was pretending to be asleep. Shankaran Pillai just came, he saw she was asleep. Then he got it under the sheets. Then he put his hand over her, touched below beneath her earlobes and slowly traced his hand along her body down to the belly, down to the thighs, went down till here, then shifted to this leg, came till here and he stopped. The wife was awake and then she said, it's been ages you've done anything romantic with me. It was so sweet of you, the way tenderly you touched me today. But why did you stop? Shankaran Pillai said, I found the remote. He was just searching, you know. So this viruponimam, don't celebration means generally people eat more. Hello? So in the guru's name, don't eat more please. If you eat little less, there will be a reminder. Hello? You eat little less and see everything that you want to do on that day, your memory works very well. You will eat little more and see everything gets blurred out. So I am not... because you're in here as guests but those of you across the world who are at home today as your commitment to me, eat little less because it'll stay alive with you. Those you're here as a guest, please eat whatever you want. I can't tell you to eat less, that's not in my nature. Because this is Indian hospitality. You go to somebody's house, you say, no, no, I'm dieting. Ah, it's okay, it's okay, you can diet at home. When you're in my house just eat. It's okay. No, no, I have, you know, I have diabetes, I'd have this problem, that problem, my doctor. Ah, doctors will say, you eat, it's okay. So I'm saying, whatever you're eating, just be conscious of this. If you're eating, if you're eating by hand, we call it a morsel of food. If you're eating a spoonful of food, from today till winter solstice, because inertia is setting in, just eat three morsels less. Just, just be conscious. Every, every meal that you sit, you will eat three spoonfuls less. Only three, it's not going to hurt you. Only three spoonfuls less. Just being conscious, I'm eating less because I want to be assisting my dynamism, not settle into my inertia. Assisting life, not death. Because death does not need your assistance. Death is always super efficient. Has it spared anyone? So many have missed their life, isn't it? Hello? So many, many have missed their life. Has anybody in the history of humanity missed death? So death, death, not exactly. Okay. I didn't know you were in twenty-four hour cycles. Generally, naturally our physiology is tending to align towards this twelve and a quarter year cycle, the solar cycle. That is the healthy, healthiest and the best way to be. If you are on twelve plus year cycle, the body will be stable, no monsters in your head. There's no such thing as confusion and struggle. If it becomes six years, you will still be healthy, still be efficient and good, but to be joyful will be little difficult. If you become a three-year cycle, you're okay, you're functioning reasonably okay, other people think you're okay, you know you're not okay. You know, in seventies, in United States, everybody started telling each other, I am okay, you're okay. See where it led. You know, I am okay, you're okay. Culture, you know that? The book became a legend. Everybody's saying, I am okay, you're okay. So both of us agree, we are okay. Because both of us, when we are in the asylum, we have to tell each other we're okay. This, I, we were doing a program for young sportspeople, golfers, chess players, cricketers, all kinds of youth, very young ones, all below nineteen, twenty years of age, but some of them are already professional, top level athletes. So they, some of them came with their coaches. So one girl asked me, sath guru, we have been told that we must fake it till we make it. Fake it till you make it. Well, just because something rhymes well, you fake it and you won't make it. If you want to be in an arena where every step has to be right, one wrong step, you won't make it. That is what competitive sport is. Every step has to be right. One wrong step, you won't make it. That's a level of competition that's out there. When that is the thing, if you learn to fake it, you think you will make it. You will have all the mannerisms of a champion without ever being one. This is a disastrous way. So don't fake it. Now you go home because unfortunately, this is Guru Purnima. I must clear these cobwebs. A guru means most people saw the guru. Indian people, their idea of a guru largely is from the calendar images. As I told you yesterday, he was not sitting like that all the time. Maybe one moment he was like this and somebody caught him at that time. The American idea of a guru is from India. His eyeballs must be double the size of the normal man. Size of the eyeballs doesn't even decide the size of your brains. Hello? And size of your brains will not decide whether you're enlightened or not. So a guru means he's kept his energies in such a way he's intense. Because he burns like that, naturally he emits light. In his presence you see things that otherwise you won't see even if it's right here. Because you're made like this, you're... the way you're made is such without light you cannot see because of that. Guru is not a teacher. A guru is not a guide or a philosopher nor a friend. He is there just to light it up. If you don't pay attention, you can even miss the sunrise. Hello? Most people are missing the sunrise because they don't have the attention, something that big, that powerful, most people are missing it, isn't it? So if you don't pay attention, you will miss the glow. It takes attention. That's why from this Guru Purnima, till December 22nd, you eat three morsels less. Whatever you need to eat, three morsels less. In India, we used to have this, my grandmother, my great-grandmother, my mother, all of them simple, at least by today's standards they're considered simple people, but they were so intelligent. In everything that they did, whatever they were doing, they did it so well. They... their thing is only to cook for the family, to take care of the children, to keep the house well. They did that so well. If they're not done that, I don't think we would be who we are right now. Because you thought in the end you will eat three morsels. No, no. What they did was always before breakfast. If breakfast they take what they want to eat. First thing is this much for the birds, this much for the ants, that much for the squirrels. Three morsels already gone. That's the way to do it. In the end, you know, it may go this way. This is for my guru. So, celebrating Guru Purnima means it's a celebration of a revelation where Adiyogi for the first time brought this to humanity that your destiny is entirely you're making. Who you are, what is the nature of your experience in this life, what happens within you and largely around you also is determined by you. This is a phenomenal step for humanity to realize that this life is made by me, not by something else. The nature, the quality and the experience of life is determined by me. So this was brought home. This is a celebration of the possibility of human liberation. This is not a celebration of a god who came long time ago. This is a celebration of the possibility of human liberation. This is about individual liberation, individual evolution and emancipation and liberation. Mukti, it's about mukti, yoga, just the tools for that purpose. Many ways, 112 ways were offered because of the 112 energy points or chakras as they are known. Out of this, 84 are largely stable, 28 of them are moving. Once the solar or the solar solstice happens a little while ago and from today, these 28 will tend to settle below your anahata, more in the lower part of who you are. So all the sadhana and terming this period as sadhana-pada is to ensure that all of the time don't settle down. If they settle down, in many ways you become more available to gravity than grace. If the day you become fully available to gravity is the day when you're dead. You're fully available to gravity. Right now, though there is gravity working upon you, you can stand up against gravity. You can jump, you can dance, but you will become absolutely available to gravity when you're dead. So when these 28 chakra start migrating down, then you become more inertia than life. This is why this period is sadhana-pada, that you must invest in doing something dynamic so that not all of them will settle down and move you towards that aspect that life wants to avoid. We know we cannot avoid, but we don't invite death. We cannot avoid death, but we don't invite death because we are life. And this life and the deeper life, how to access this 112 ways for every kind of human being, there is a way. This is the significance of this day. This day, the Adiyogi became the Adi Guru, hence the Guru Purnima.