 Life is just a combination of time and energy, isn't it? Limited amount of time, limited amount of energy. If you run into walls here and there, time and energy will go and your life will go. It's very important you run through the door, not through the wall. Yes? Where there is openness, there you go. Good evening. Hey, I said good evening. Good evening. Okay. So, today we're going to talk about two different buckets. One is about the self and the other is self's context within society. Between those two, there's a very common theme of figuring out what our purpose is within self and society. I think it's something that a lot of our generation faces, it's dubbed the millennial existential crisis, something that I've been through myself. So to start off today, we wanted to figure out when it comes to purpose, what has defined what your purpose is in this world as it has led to you being here at Columbia Business School and the Youth and Truth Program, but as well as if you have any words for other people in the audience or just me would be fine as well around how do we find purpose in this world? Speaking about buckets, I think you should kick the bucket because self and society you're not entirely two different things. It's so many people put together a society, isn't it? Just a word. When we do not want to address you as an individual, but we want to address you as a group of people, we say this is a society. But that's just a word. If you really come down, they're just only people, individual people. Well, a certain group of people may agree upon a few aspects and they may think they are one society. But if you further go down, people are just people, individuals are just individuals. You can't really merge them and say these are all one kind, there's no such thing. Maybe there are a few things that they agree upon which makes them into various kinds of society. If you're a secret society, maybe there are more things that you agree upon. But we should kick those buckets because when we see that to address issues in the world, we cannot go about addressing individuals, then we make a society. When we find societies are not still effective ways to handle, then we make it a nation. When we see that is also not an effective way to handle, then we make a global situation or an international fora or something like this. So this is only in terms of when we're looking at solutions, how to find a larger solution. A larger solution is something always individuals will disagree with in so many different levels, isn't it? Is there any one thing on the planet that all of us agree on, there's no such thing. Individual people always disagree with something, but we also agree it's all right because it seems to be working for everybody. I don't like the speed limit in America, but I agree with it, all sorts of people are driving, all right, seventy miles, I'll drive with that. Once in a way I get heavy on the right leg, but fine. So what is the mission you're asking? If this same question was asked in a different situation, people would be, in a way this also bothers on that, people are asking, what is the God-given purpose of my life? Whatever is the source of creation, what makes you think the source of creation which created this cosmos for which you do not know where it begins, where it ends, even keeping account of you, forget about giving you a specific purpose. Maybe the source of this creation doesn't even know you exist, hello? Because this very solar system is a tiny little speck in this cosmic space, isn't it? Tomorrow morning, believe me, if the entire solar system evaporates, nobody will notice it. That's how small it is. In that speck, planet earth is a micro speck, New York City is a super, super micro speck. In that, you are a big man, this is a serious problem. You think there is a God-given purpose for you, this is the peak of human arrogance. Because all this is coming from the basis that has been spread in the name of religion and faith and whatever, that the existence is human-centric. Existence is not human-centric, we just want more creature, which happened recently according to the evolutionary sciences, yes? Even today, if you do not know this, if all the worms on the planet disappear today, in twelve to eighteen months, all life will cease on this planet. If all the insects disappear, somewhere between four-and-a-half to six years, all life will cease on this planet. But if all the human beings disappear, the world will flourish. Planet will flourish, all right? So this sense of assumed, self-assumed significance that people have brought to themselves has made us walk with absolute insensitivity on this planet, absolutely insensitive to every other life because we think everything is here to serve us. Ask an ant, does it want to serve you? Hello? Go sit on a ant hill and check whether it wants to serve you. It doesn't want to serve you. It doesn't matter what kind of books you write for yourself, ants don't believe it. If you don't understand about the ants, you come to the southern Indian forest. The tigers definitely don't believe it, okay, that they are here to serve you. You will be served to them. So this idea, we must give it up because whenever people thought wherever it was propagated that I am doing God-given purpose, I am fulfilling, they did the most horrendous things on the planet. Whenever people said, God told me this, those people did the most horrible things, hello? So it's time that we are here. As human societies we have issues, we have problems, we have struggles. Whatever you think needs to be sorted out and whatever you think is your aptitude to sort out, you pick up that damn thing and sort it out. It's not any God-given mission. You've got to do something, do something useful because there is some joy in solving something. Hmm? There's all the choice we have. You can either be a part of the problem or part of the solution. If you enjoy being part of the problem, do it, there will be consequences. Yes? Sometimes it's fun to create problems, yes it is. But it'll have its own kinds of consequences. The only thing you have to learn is do whatever the hell you want. Just do it well. But for every action you perform there is a consequence. When the consequence comes your way, if you're able to joyfully go through the consequence, you can do anything you wish. But when the consequence comes you cry. If you're that kind, then you must control your action. What if you're just a cry baby though? If you're a baby, you must be with your mother. Mothers, she said she has more than one mother, so I'm saying mothers. So on the note of purpose, one thing that I think that I'm constantly chasing is and I would say I don't know when I've reached it is the pursuit of happiness. I think everyone in this room at some point maybe now you're asking yourself or if you ask yourself like have you reached your pursuit of happiness and kind of understanding why it can be elusive? For me, happiness stems like I think of my family because there's such a critical piece to my love and happiness but oftentimes I feel like I lose sight of it when I'm in this room, when I'm at Columbia Business School, when I'm at work because I'm trying to get to that next level ultimately to help my family but how do we keep track of what's most important and that purpose for me being my family and the pursuit of happiness? Say you're of Mexican origin, family may mean a different thing to you. Like Alex, family means crime, tears of laughter, you know, my parents are here. No, no, I mean a few decades ago when the Italians said family, it meant crime, all right? So family is the smallest unit of a society but if you get overly identified with it, you will become a crime. You must understand this, all the crime on this planet, all the human crimes that we commit, only human beings commit crimes, nobody else does. What you call as evil, what you call as genocide, I'm going to the extreme words, what you call as prejudice, everything has come because of limited identifications that each one of us hold. This is my family, this is my race, this is my religion, this is my nation. It is from this all the terrible things happen on the planet, isn't it? People who are doing this, they believe at that moment they're just doing the right thing. This is what identity does to you. You need to understand the very structure of human intelligence. There are different dimensions of intelligence and fortunately today in our education systems we are exploring only one which is the intellect. If I ask you a simple question, please you must answer this because I'm going to bless you at the end of the question. Would you want your intellect to be sharp or blunt? Because only if it's sharp it works well because it's a cutting instrument, yes? It can only dissect. Now if you're using this intellect to do everything, to cut it's okay. If you want to also stitch with it, you will be in tatters, is that the reason why all the trousers are going into tatters, essentially a cutting instrument if you try to use it on everything it can cause a lot of misery. But now please see for most of you, even though you're from Brookville, nobody ever stabbed you with a dagger. They ignored you. So I'm asking, how much physical suffering has actually come from outside? Almost nothing. Rest is all in self-help. If you sit by yourself, why? Because we gave you a sharp intellect. If we had given you the brain of an earthworm, you would be fine. You would be fine, yes or no? Right now the problem is just this, we have a cerebral capability which most human beings have not learnt how to handle. Hello? You can call this stress, you can call this anxiety, you can call this misery, you can call this cruelty, you can call this murder, you can call this whatever, essentially all that's happened is your intelligence has turned against you, that's all. Why has this happened? Simply because of limited identities that you have taken. It may look like great my family, my nation, it is all these people, see if you're strongly identified with something you're willing to die for it, isn't it? Hello? If you're willing to die for it, you're also willing to kill for it, yes or no? Hello? Where you're willing to die for, you're also willing to kill for, isn't that the only problem we have on this planet right now? Everybody is willing to die for something and everybody is willing to kill for something. It could be family, it could be nation, it could be race, religion, whatever. Is it not time that you upgrade your way of how you identify yourself? With what do you identify yourself? There was a tradition in traditional education in India. Before a child starts education, we believed that even now we do this to some extent. From zero to twelve years of age, no any kind of learning. Just a child should play well, eat well, sleep well because our intent is the brain should go to grow to a reasonable size before we load it with something. It's a sensible thing. No, today they want to do speed learning at the age of three. Some people are saying when the mother is pregnant, how to teach the child mathematics. So till twelve years of age, we don't want to teach the child anything except to eat well, to play well, to sleep. Because these three things will decide how your body and your brain grows. So before we start education process, there is a thing called fixing the identity of the child. So one mantra that they will start chanting is aham brahmasmi. This means my identity is cosmic, not even global. My identification is not with my family, not with my father and mother, not with my nation, not with my religion, but my identity is with the cosmos. See, if your identity is not with any limited thing, if you walked into this room, you actually have no problem with anybody just like that. You may get into trouble later, that's a different matter. In transactions, friction can happen. But the moment I walk into the room just looking at your face, I'm having problems. This is a different level of problem, isn't it? Hello? If I am identified with my nation or religion or race or whatever, the moment I step into this room, I already have a problem. Before I meet you, before I really have a chance to have trouble with you. When transactions begin, frictions can happen. That's a different matter. But just by looking at your face, I'm having trouble. This is because we are identified with something very limited. And the nature of your intellect is such, please look at this very carefully. Anything that you identify with, your intellect will strive very hard to protect that identity, always. And your intellect is like a knife, it cuts. Whether you physically pull out a knife and stab somebody or you poke people with your intellect, it couldn't equally hurt, isn't it so? Hello? Huh? Can you hurt somebody with just with your thought, your emotion, your idea, with your words and whatever else? Just the way you look at them, you can hurt them. So intellect is essentially a cutting instrument, a sharp instrument, because you said you wanted sharp. I hope you kept it sharp. It's important to keep it sharp, otherwise it doesn't work. So the moment you identify with something, your intellect is striving to protect that identity. Young people, it's very important that you, if you cannot imagine a cosmic identity, at least a global identity is a must for you. Otherwise, you being empowered by education, you are the source of future disasters. Yes. See, I want you to understand this. Why is it, why is it all the cutting edge technology first goes into military use? National identity, isn't it? Yes or no? The most powerful tools in the world are all designed how to eliminate you one day. So our brains are working to protect our identity all the time. Well, I don't want to get into any political stuff, but the wall may be a more clear manifestation, a more blatant manifestation of that, but essentially it's limited identity, isn't it? Why is it that I wouldn't like to kill my child, but if you are walking in the street to get ten dollars out of your pocket, I will slash you? Why? Because you're not mine, isn't it? Yes or no? My identity is only with this, not with that. So one fundamental thing you must do, because all of you are in premier institutions getting empowered with education. Education is an empowerment. That means without education what you could do, maybe you will do hundred times more with education. When you have such a possibility, it is very important your identity is not a limited identity, at least, at least identify with the planet and all the life on this planet if you can't think of cosmic. Thank you for that answer, that was really... I'm sorry, I was referring to the Italian, just... No, I think you touched on a lot of things that are quite pressing for us at Columbia, in the US, in the world at large. I mean, you went around the issue, but I think I'll kind of bring it in, politics. In America, we're more and more divided than before and quite polarized. For me, this is something that troubles me as someone in this community that has some less than popular opinions sometimes. I'm conscious of how I'm received because of people who are, quote, passionate of these identities that they're in a like to defend, to use your words. How can I and others that share, I guess, my desire to bring people together in a divided world, divided community, even a divided street? How can we kind of be individual actors to get people to focus on everything you just said, what we have in common and not what sets us apart? To find solutions for any problems or any situations, because many people think it's not a problem, all right? So, to address any situation, first of all, we must face the situation as it is. Now you're saying it is getting more and more divided. I don't think so. I think it's always was divided. You may not face it. Well, many of us face it, I face it. Every time I come to the immigration, the way they talk to me, why? Why just looking at my face, you should see the way they address me. Does that make you angry? No. When somebody acts stupid, why will I get angry? When somebody is exhibiting how small they are. Compassion, not anger, isn't it? Pity. If I'm in a bad mood, pity. If I'm in a good mood, compassion. Anger is not the thing because you're just showing how small a egg you are. You're still a egg, you have not hatched, that's all I'm saying. So, you must understand, very deep-rooted divides have always existed in this society. You don't want to face it. You've been glossing over it for a long time. You can't do… I'm sure you're not naive enough to believe. In just two-and-a-half years of your celebrity president, suddenly country has become divided. Come on, it always was divided. Now the language has reached the top. Yes or no? It's just that the language is coming to the surface. I think it's better come to the surface than just boil inside forever. At least let everybody face it, this is what we are. Hello? You must face it. I'll tell you, I come to the immigration. I follow all the rules. I have a global entry. All right? I come. After I pass the immigration, because I'm… you know, constantly I'm in all kinds of bright lights, so these fluorescent lights kind of irritate me, so I wear my shades. After I've crossed the immigration, when I come to the baggage, do you know what, this not happened once, this happened a few times, they asked me to come and take off my glasses. I said, why? Said, you want to come to my office? I'm saying, what the hell are you trying to enforce on me? There are many others white Americans walking around with glasses. You don't ask them to take it off today. I'm telling you in twenty-first century, all right? So you don't believe you are a just and fair society, suddenly because of a new president, something has happened. I'm glad he's bringing it to the surface. The leadership is talking that language. Otherwise it's been there, you may not face it. You may not face it because of the color of your skin. Many of us are facing it. Yes. If you… if you walk into some of these golf clubs and stuff, I can play better than them, but if I walk in there and say, hello, they'll just look through me, all right? So if somebody is going to be hurt by this, they could be hurt. I'm not that kind. I just see it's their pathetic condition of mind that they are like that. So it doesn't bother me, but suppose I'm seeking a job or I want to do something else, I'm sure they would make sure that things don't work for me. Yes or no? So this is not a new happening. It's been there. Maybe slowly things are changing, but I think it's good it's coming to the surface. It's up in your face. You're facing it. You're embarrassed by it. It's a good thing. That is a first step to transformation. Am I saying something wrong? First step to transformation is now it's out in the world. We see it. It's something, you know, in India also we have divisions at an all-time high. What's now that second step that we can take as individuals going into the society? See again, you're repeating that even in India, it's an all-time high. It's not at an all-time high. It is just people and media is playing it up at a certain level, all right? Unfortunately, in a democratic society, there should be a free press. Unfortunately, all media across the world is owned by some corporation or the other. It is no more free. It is no more free. It is tangled up with money. Big time. There are no more dedicated journalists. I'm not saying they're not at all there. Largely, they're not there. They're all serving a company, all right? Yes or no? Hello? It is time we produce some journalists because media is not just another profession in a democratic society. It is an important pillar of democracy. Yes? Without it, democracy will slowly go away into something else. Because democracy means every four years or five years, depending on what's the term, a new set of people are going to rule the nation. It could be a complete mess if there is no checks and balances of various kinds. These are all going away because people have taken sides beforehand. Today you know in America, in India also we know now. It was not so some time ago, but these days we know which media belongs to which party. Everybody knows. How can it be media? You can't call it media anymore, I'm saying. Yes? Media means what? They will report what is there. They can give a commentary about something. But essentially their business is to throw the facts at us. It's for us to form our opinions about what facts that come to us. But today don't you already know which media belongs to which party? So when this is the condition, you will hear a lot of things. And there is social media, anonymous journalists, those who don't dare to put their name on what they are saying, they are saying all kinds of things. But you walk through the country and see whether it's India or here, it is just the same as it was there are problems and there are solutions. Both are happening, isn't it? So if you go off television and switch off your phone and walk on the street, you will see everything is quite fine. I just have one more follow-up for, I guess, young future business leaders in this room. We are at the very center of business. Why are you ignoring me? Oh, yeah. Well, you are a fashion icon, a guru and more. We don't want to limit you to just as future business leaders, you know. And you have a great throw of a frisbee where the videos work. But what role can we play when people aren't as enlightened as, I guess, the people in this room and can't really make the same connections as you? Because we do have agency, right? We are people that want to make a difference and are willing to kind of have the courage to, I guess, have compassion or pity, right, depending on the mood we're in. How do we, how do we, I mean, how do we do this? Because I think like that's something that I would genuinely want to play a big role in, if I can be honest. I think it's something that I at least would like my life's purpose to have something with that. See, I'm sure in your own little ways, within the university, some sense of… you're bringing some sense of, I believe, you're bringing some sense of equality and some sense of acceptance for all sorts of people within the university. At the same time, do not take this thing about becoming a missionary for something because then without knowing what's happening to you, one day you will be totally skewed and off the place and you will be the source of problem. Once you take on something with missionary zeal, you will see, you will get so badly identified with it and you yourself will become a source of problem. I think I can share this with you, when I was just thirteen, fourteen years of age, I almost got into armed struggle, all right? This is the time when Che Guevara is our big brother and we are thinking of armed struggle. We think that's the only way to find solutions for India. Well, then I saw people who were espousing these teachers and, you know, openly in schools and in colleges, professors talking about how you should all join armed struggle, a particular professor who had a sway on a few of us. And his son and his daughter, they were twins, both his son and daughter, they were my classmates. And we are all ready, actually in another three to four days we are supposed to leave for the jungles of Andhra Pradesh to go and fight. Then I asked this fellow, his name was Ajay, I said, hey, so we're all going, what are we taking? He said, no, I'm not coming. I said, what? No, my father doesn't want me to go. No, he wants us to go. He doesn't want his son to go. Then I sat back and thought, what is this about? I thought, we are all in the revolution, hey, you were a revolution. I thought we are all in the revolution and suddenly, okay, the girl is not going because only the boys were going, all right, but at least this boy is supposed to go. He's just my age in my class. But no, father is saying, no, you cannot go because you can't die there. These idiots must die. And actually I stepped back. I participated in various mildly bordering on revolution, sticking posters and doing this and that, giving that kind of stuff, writing very strong what we thought was justice. But actually when I look back and see, so juvenile and unjust by itself, at that time it looked like this is justice. One thing we must understand, the moment we speak about justice, I know this is a delicate thing to speak in America, but I want you to look at this with much, with absolute openness. The moment we speak about justice, unknowingly we will talk about revenge, slowly we will just slip into that. So when we… is justice needed or absolutely? But I'm saying the moment you start talking about it, it's like freedom. The moment you say freedom, you'll start doing freaky things because freedom is a consequence. So is justice. Justice is a consequence of a mature society. Justice is not a cause that you take up because the moment you take it up as a cause, then you will see divisions will happen. You versus me will happen. Once you versus me happens even for the right reasons, all the wrong things will happen, isn't it? Suppose in the name of justice these two segments of this student body gets divided, even if it's for the right reason, the result will be all the wrong things, isn't it? Hello? So it's very important we understand what is the cause and what is the consequence. Injustice is a consequence of an immature society. Injustice is a consequence of a limited identities people have taken in so many different ways. If you do not take that and try to bring justice, all you will create is a full-on fight. And when a fight happens, there will be no justice of any kind. All that will happen is pain and destruction for all sorts of people. But when you're in that mode, because I know this, because I was so fired up for those few years, I thought I'll go. Two of my friends went. One I don't know where he disappeared. The other one got killed about eight years ago. He became a major revolution leader in Karnataka and he got killed by the police. And when his family informed me about this, you know, this boy was so dear to me. He was just one year younger to me. Why I'm saying this is the moment you speak about consequence as a source, you're creating trouble unknowingly. You will create more damage than solution. See, right now, why does injustice happen? Why will I be unjust to you? Simply because my identity and my commitment to well-being is about myself and maybe my family and maybe my community, not for you. It's already set. It's only a question of time when you and me come in touch, this prejudice will find expression, but it is set in my heart, isn't it so? Instead of working at what is happening within the human beings, which will take a lifelong commitment to solve, today we can go out on the street, justice for everybody, justice for everybody, all you need is a, you know, a placard and shouting for one day and go back home. So always we will pick up consequences as a cause. Don't do that. Don't talk about freedom, talk about responsibility. If we live responsibly, we will have a free social society, isn't it? If we talk about freedom, we will do freaky things. I come from that era where next to revolution was freedom, okay? We grew up in sixties, freedom, freedom, freedom, all that happened is, by the time I became thirty-five, at least twelve to thirteen of my very close friends all died, either on motorcycles or because of overdoses. Yes, because freedom. So freedom, justice, equality, these are all consequences of evolving a human being to a certain level of maturity. If you are not willing to do that work on individual level, that each human being here evolves to that level of maturity, that you're not willing to do, these things will only cause more trouble. I think it's a very related question, but really targeted towards organized religion and something that I've struggled with. So I understand, you know, the pursuit of freedom, justice, but often times what I've struggled with in regards to religion, I grew up Catholic, I'm Catholic, is its view and limited acceptance of the LGBT community and the fact that I am LGBTQ and trying to understand how I fit in and often times I was not accepted, it depended on, you know, how progressive a church was, but how do you see religion playing a role in the justice, in being more tolerable, compassionate towards people from different sexualities? A bishop went to the mental asylum, not as a patient, but to give a talk. So they gathered people like this. He spoke. Nobody was listening to what he was saying, they were all busy with their own things. But there was just one guy in the front row who without batting an eyelid was listening and drinking up every word that he was talking. Nobody else, not a single person was listening except this one guy. After our long speech, the moment the talk was over, that guy got up. Then there, like there is a dean in the hall, there was a medical professional there. He went to him, said something to him and then left. So the bishop was very eager to know what that guy said, because nobody else was listening, he was the only guy listening. So bishop inquired with the doctor, what did that guy say? He was listening to me very keenly. So the doctor said, he just asked, why am I in and why is he out? As a follow-up, what are your thoughts on human sexuality? Oh, I didn't think about it, but I was born out of it. I'm a consequence. Someone had fun. But I think… So one thing that you've mentioned previously is that sexuality shouldn't be promoted. I think that was in one of your talks, and so I'm curious, I assumed, and again this is my assumption, that when you mentioned that, I almost felt as though don't publicize your gayness, or don't publicize your non-gayness, and so I'm trying to understand why you said that. But I thought this is one aspect of life which doesn't need publicity, anyway people will go for it, doesn't need any marketing, I said. Hello? If you want to sell a drink, you have to market it. If you make a movie or to market it, if you write a book, you have to market it. Sexuality does not need marketing, hello? It's been on for million years without any marketing, all right? So I said, why are you publicizing it? Everybody will do what they have to do. What individual people do with their bodies is their business, it's not a public debate. So I think we're about to wrap up our questions and we're going to open up questions to the audience. So we have the two questions. Before we get there, my favorite topic, Rohan mentioned food. You cook yourself, I believe Isha has also published a cookbook. Can you talk a little bit about food from the yogic diet perspective, or what are things that we should be actively doing on a daily basis if I do choose to go the less sinful route one day when it comes to food? Less sinful in terms of the gluttony that I do endure with food. What are the tenets of the diet that we should be looking at? And sorry, if you have a favorite recipe to share. Right now we're running two good restaurants and another three, four okay restaurants. Because I am also a food buff, not for eating but for cooking. Don't get much time these days to spend that kind of time, but at least my daughter certifies that I'm the best cook in the world, so it can't be wrong. So I carefully, this is a very unique type of recipe because we are families who have come from Andhra Pradesh at one time, Telugu families who moved into Karnataka, a particular kind of region where the spice is available in its hundred different forms. So our families have been initially martial families, later on they became business families. The men who go to war and the men who go out of the country for business those days when there is no text and email and all this, when they go, the only way the woman can get their men back is by holding by the tongue, it's the taste of the food. Because they've gone out, you know, they were going out to Burma, Japan, those things, way back I'm talking, couple of centuries ago. Now they have no reason to come back because it's not like today you hop onto a plane and back in few hours, it's months of journey, you kind of tire, what's going to bring you back, it's the taste of food, wherever you go, this spice is just eating you up. So they always came back. So they said, we hold them by their tongues, otherwise these idiots you can't hold them any other way. So lot of culinary expertise, enormous mastery, all these things. So I picked up a little bit, with that I prepared a kind of a set of menu for this restaurant. Today it is rated as the second best vegetarian restaurant in Asia. So if you happen to be in Chennai or Hyderabad, you must go and eat there. So why I'm saying this is, see how to extract pleasure out of this planet. In this cooking is an important part, enormous pleasure of how to extract things out of this planet, which causes enormous pleasure. When you don't know anything else, the simple way is to number all your senses, you just get smoked up. One weed will do. But to prepare this meal, you have to go out into the garden or the jungle and pick specific things for different things. This was like a normal thing, you know, they'll go out into the fields picking that specific thing for today's cooking. So this kind of care was there. Today that kind of care is difficult because we just on the run, everything is on the fly. So that is not much done, but still it's hugely appreciated the moment people come and come in touch with it, that is there. So what kind of food? Two parts to the food. One is after all it's fuel for this body. So it should fit into the system well, that's important. Another thing is it has to pass through the tongue. So we don't have to gulp it down, we want to enjoy it. Whichever way, when you're hungry, when you're really hungry, anything goes, isn't it? Hello? It's a question of survival. Let's say you've not eaten for five days, whatever the hell edible thing comes is great, but we've passed the stage. Most of the people on this planet have passed the stage, but survival is pretty well taken care of. Now, see my mouth is watering because I'm thinking of my own cooking. I have not looked at your book yet. So these are two different aspects, but the first is most fundamental and important. I will not go into the second because that's another matter. When you talk about food as fuel, food is not religion, let's understand this. Food is not a philosophy, food should not become an ideology, it is just a fuel for this body. In what form and in what composition will it provide this body the best nourishment with least amount of trouble? That's the whole thing. So if you want to look at it like this, first of all, you're not none of your biology students, are you? No, just business. So if you look at the human system, the way it is, in the animal kingdom, you can largely divide animals, either as herbivores and carnivores. There are of course mixed, but largely so. If you look at the basic physical structure of these two kinds of creatures, you will see there's a fundamental difference in the way their body is constructed. Particularly the digestive system, when we say a digestive system, from the lip to the anal outlet, digestion is happening at various different levels. This is called as the alimentary canal. To start with the way our jaws and our mouth structure is, if you look at it, you must have noticed this. If you have a dog or a cat, if you've not seen tigers or lions, all carnivorous animals have only cutting action in their jaw movement. Yes? All the herbivores have cutting and grinding action. You, what do you have? Hello? You have both cutting and grinding action. Why is this so? Because there are certain enzymes in your saliva that digestion begins for you in your mouth, not in your stomach. The more the food stays in your mouth, the better your digestive processes. Now that you asked the yogic thing, in yoga, in some systems of yoga, I don't go by these things, but I just, I want people to decide by the texture of the food how much you do this. But there are some systems of yoga, if you don't know how to chew, they say every mouthful you must chew twenty-four times, but it's twenty-four times you must do this. If you do that, at least thirty to forty percent of the digestion will happen in your mouth itself. Already it's been prepared. Now food is primed well in your mouth, when it goes inside, that is what the stomach is expecting, half-digested food, so that the rest of it can be done quickly. But today, most people are just gulping things down, because you, with every food you're getting free coke so that you can take it like a pill. You can gulp it in and gulp it in. Now the moment you put sugar in your mouth, these enzymes will not function. If you take any carbohydrate, let's say you take any grain, let's say you take rice and keep it in your mouth, you will see within thirty to forty seconds it'll turn sweet because it makes carbohydrates into sugar right here. But if you put sugar in your mouth, immediately that system gets reversed and that process won't happen. So with your food, you're having some sugar-loaded drink, immediately this part of the digestive system is gone, you're not using it at all. So everything is on this. So this is being overloaded, it's not just an accident, that fifty percent of the world's antacids are consumed in United States of America, three hundred million people are consuming fifty percent of the world's antacids. This is the statement on the food that you're eating, hundred percent, isn't it? It's a clear statement that obviously we're completely eating the wrong kind of food. If you look at the length of the elementary canal, even if you look at the incisors, the small r's, the way the carnivorous animals and the herbivores are made, your structure is all herbivore. If you look at the length of the elementary canal, all the carnivorous animals, it could be anywhere between three to four times the length of the body of that animal. In all the herbivores, it's five to six times the length of their body. If you look at your own elementary canal, it is anywhere between twenty-four to thirty feet. Since it is five to six times the length of your body, why this is so is if you eat any vegetable matter, let's go little slowly, if you eat, let's say raw meat, it will take anywhere between seventy to seventy-four hours for it to go through your system. If you eat cooked meat, if you cook it well and eat, you are doing rare, all right? That's a different matter. If you cook it well and eat it, then it will take anywhere between fifty to fifty-four to fifty-six hours to go through the system. If you cook the vegetables and eat it, it will take anywhere between twenty to thirty hours to go through the system, depending on the type of vegetable and what, how much fiber and other things. If you eat a raw vegetable, it will take anywhere between twelve to fifteen hours to go through the system. If you eat a fruit, it will take one-and-a-half to three hours to go through the system. Any food which stays in your body for long periods of time is excessive bacteria in the system. You spend a lot of energy just to fight them down. And if it stays in the body, today there is enough medical science to tell you. In Ayurveda, in the Eastern systems of medicine, whatever problem you go with, first thing is they'll purge you because a clean colon is a symbol of health. But the moment you're eating certain types of food, your colon can never be clean. There are issues and problems today. The amount of colon cancer, intestinal cancer is so heavy because one thing is they're eating food which is not suitable for the system. Another thing is they're eating old food. When I say old food, almost anything, everything that if I walk into any store, what I see is any food you want to buy is at least a month or two months old. Still in India, fortunately, except in big cities, still if you want to buy a vegetable, it must be plucked today morning. It is plucked at 6, 6.30 in the morning. We cook at 8.39 when the vegetable is still alive. We want to eat it and it will make a world of difference. Today people are talking about farmers' market, organic stores and works. This is how the world lived thirty, forty years ago before you business guys totally messed it up. So those of you who… I know all this is not possible for everybody to maintain, don't go by what I say. Don't listen to anybody when it comes to food. Just learn to listen to your body. With what kind of food is your body most comfortable with? Not your mind, not your tongue. Your body should feel very comfortable. If your body is comfortable, one thing is it will bring down sleep quota. If your lethargy goes down, if your sleep goes down, your agility goes up, your alertness goes up, this means the body is happy. The body is happy with the food that you're consuming. After eating the food, if you feel like this, unless you drink something caffeinated or sugar loaded, you cannot get up and do your work. If that is the condition of the body, this is not good for you. You should not be touching that. I would say instead of going by all kinds of prescriptions, there are simple ways that… not here but we could teach you how to become alert to the food. If something appears on your plate, you must know whether this will go well with you or not. It's happened to me many times, I'm always with food but I'm saying sometimes food has been laced with some poison or something. If it just comes before me, I just look at it and say I'm not eating this, it's not good. Something is wrong with it, seriously. Simply because your body is capable of that. You just do one thing, throw something to your dog, not your pet dog, he's become like you. If you… A dog which is free, if it is free, Brooklyn, there's still some dogs free, three dogs are free. They're hipster dogs, they got mustaches in it. If you throw something to him, one sniff, he knows whether to eat it or not, isn't it? How come you don't know? You're supposed to ecologically… you know, in the evolutionary thing, you have the most sensitive neurological system. If you look at the food, you must know how this food will behave within me. Based on that, you can shape the markets of tomorrow, the business people. So, on the note of what we're consuming and putting in our bodies, one of the things that I'd like to know the truth about is the increase in addiction. I would say in the U.S. is the lens that I'm looking at. It's something that has personally really touched a lot of the loved ones in my family and friends and I see it as a growing trend amongst my generation and younger generations using it as a coping mechanism. Why do you think people are doing this, looking to drugs to solve their problems and what is an organic way for them to solve that? It is a natural process of graduation. Last generation went on alcohol. This generation is upping it a little bit. They don't want to do the same damn thing. Big Ados, there was a time when alcohol was illegal in this country, you know? It went wild, bootlegging, you know, we're from Tennessee, our center is in Tennessee. So, bootlegging or moonshining, whatever you want to call it. So, it went out of control. Then the government decided it's better to put a tax on alcohol and make money, which they did. Now they decided it's better to tax marijuana and make money. Believe me, watch my words. Another twenty-five years cocaine will be legal. Why not, I'm asking? I was in India also, there are students campaigning, why can't we make marijuana legal? This generation they do not know, in the valleys of India, Nepal, Bhutan and the Northeastern states of India, marijuana grows whole valleys, you understand? Nobody ever bought this to touch it. A few people, some… somebody who has nothing to do in their life, they smoke themselves up. Rest will not touch it because it's all over the place, all over. I've trekked extensively in Himalayas. Just we're walking through hash, this high, chest high, simply you have to walk through the hash plants. If you just do that, it'll stick to your hand, you can roll it up and you can smoke. Yes, or some of you are looking dreamy, oh, this is the place to go. But now we are suddenly making this into a big thing. They were asking me, why can't we make marijuana legal in India? I said it was never illegal till American government insisted on destroying all the hemp crops in 1960s because hemp was a very important textile in India. But in 1960s, they insisted from America because they couldn't make out the difference. Though hemp and marijuana are same species, they are of a different kind. Hemp grows up to fifteen feet, marijuana grows just about five to six feet tall. They're different, but same species. They said, no, you have to destroy it because they thought it's all coming from the hemp farms. Hemp was hugely cultivated, but they burned down all the hemp farms. So all the marijuana moved to Afghanistan. So they were asking me, why can't we make it legal? We can. Right now the term, I don't know what terms you use, it's called smoked up. You're using the same terms? Hi. In India, it's smoked up. Smoke is just cigarette, smoked up. It's the weed. So I said, see, it's very simple. We have nothing against anything. It is just that a human being is always trying to enhance his or her life all the time. How do you enhance your life? Some foolish people believe by acquiring things, they will enhance their life. But even if you live in a palace, you could be miserable. Yes? Enhancement of life will happen only by heightening your faculties. How your intelligence works, how your perception works, heightening your faculties is the only way enhancement of life will happen. Experience of life is enhanced. So I asked, suppose you want to fly in a small plane and you find the pilot is smoked up. You want to fly with him? Hmm, hmm, hmm. That's it. Said, okay, you're not getting the point. You need a serious surgery. Then the surgeon comes and he's smoked up. You want the surgery? Said, no. So you understand, with lowered faculties, he will not make a good pilot or a good surgeon. How come you believe you'll make a great student? Changing your slightly, I have a question submitted by the prolific anonymous. How do you, Sadguru, decide between your principles slash goals slash priorities versus the person you like the most? The goals and principles both come from the same mind slash heart. And I'll note, anonymous use the word like, but we can also use love in there too. But I guess the question is, how do you reconcile your own goals and principles versus the person you like or love? Well, it depends what you have taken up. If your goal is just to earn a certain amount of money or comfort, for somebody who matters to you, you should be willing to drop those silly things. But if your goals are such that it is not about your comfort, it is not about your money, it is not about anything, but it's a larger goal for the well-being of the people, then you don't have to take a decision. Decisions will happen. They will just happen. You don't have to decide. One other question by Sumit, how do you stop taking yourself and start enjoying the process without losing the passion for your goal? See, I know this has become a very goal-oriented society. I think I was when I was conversing with you there, I was kind of talking about this. You know, every year in the month of November, we have a four-day business event called The Insight. So around, we limited to about two hundred, two hundred and twenty people. The top CEOs from across the world come. Some of the top business leaders come. This is a very unique module where we pick up some super successful people and new successes. We kind of break down their success into a lesson plan and all these people go through that. It's a program that's on. So every time, inevitably, almost every time, somebody will always ask this question. So Guru, we pick up the best people from the best universities. Every year we have to upgrade their salaries. In spite of that, our organizations don't work as well as your organization. What is the secret? And we can see you did not pick them up from the best universities. And above all, you don't pay them anything. They're all volunteers. But everything seems to be working better. You must come and see how our events work and how the yoga center works. All volunteers. That means nobody's trained for the job. They just have enormous enthusiasm. They're not trained for the job. They're not qualified. And you can't fire them for inefficiency because they're volunteers. How to fire them? You try to manage a situation like this, you'll go nuts in three days. Believe me, flat. But I'll not go crazy because it's a different process. So I said, see, this is all the fundamental differences. I have continuously worked with people to make them devoted to the process. You guys are dedicated to the goal. Whatever you think is your goal right now, probably in five years it will not even be relevant to you, all right? So you are wasting your life going in a direction which may not mean a damn thing to you in a little bit of time, possible. Unless you don't grow, you freeze, then the same damn thing will mean something to you all the time. Otherwise, if you're evolving and growing, what means a lot to you today may not mean anything in another five, ten years' time, possible or not. So this goal business you must leave, who are you to set the goals? Because your goals in some way are related to the world, isn't it? Why are you setting the goals? Right now there is a situation. Whatever is your area of engagement, you involve yourself in that. If you do your best with what's happening today, tomorrow will be better or no? Hello? This entire process is about being devoted to the process. What will happen to me? What will happen to me? Where will I go? Shall I reveal the secret to you? Hmm? The last scene of your life is you'll be dead. That's where you will go. Where else do you think you'll go? It is just that how wonderfully you conduct the process of life, isn't it so? Hello? You're looking at life as a race. See, the moment you think of a goal, you want to get ahead of him, isn't it? It's a race. If you look at life as a race, you must get to the finish line first. This is not a race. Who told you this is a race? Do you want to get to the finish line before everybody else? This is… life is in its process and its detail, isn't it? How deeply you're engaged with the details of today will determine the quality of what we create tomorrow. Yes? If you do not engage yourself with the process of today, if you… succeed in your goal, you will be miserable. If you do not succeed, of course, you'll be miserable. Just see, this is something that I'm constantly speaking to business leaders around the world. See, one thing most business leaders are proving to the world is that success is a painful thing. Success is a terrible thing. I was just talking to a group of board members of one of the top companies in India. This is a multinational company. The board meeting, all of them should come with jackets and ties for the board meeting. I said, see, people make you board members because they put their money. People… Common people have put their money. Nations' economy is involved with the success of your company and variety of things. But they made you the board members because they believe you guys are sensible people. You will do something that they cannot do with their own money, isn't it? Isn't it the reason why somebody invests in somebody's company? That you… you are going to do something with my money that I am not able to do by my… by myself. That's idea. But you guys come with a jacket and tie in forty degree centigrade. I don't think you got any sense in you. Hello? This is your mindset. What kind of decisions? Are you taking? See, in forty degree centigrade, you have a neck tie. Should you not display sense in every aspect of your life? Can you be just sensible in one thing, rest of it you can do in a stupid way? Is it possible? If you're sensible the very way you walk, you conduct yourself, everything you will conduct yourself sensibly, isn't it? So this is very important. This is because we become goal-oriented. No. You must become process-oriented. If you are devoted to the process, goal will happen. In India, this is a big question everywhere we go. The last question will be, Sadhguru, that's okay. But Indian team, how can we beat Pakistan? Cricket team. I say, don't bloody try to beat Pakistan. For that, there is Indian army. If you want to win the cricket game, don't beat Pakistan. Bloody hit the ball. Hello? Yes or no? You hit the ball. If you hit the ball well, well you may win. I want to beat Pakistan. Of course you're going to make a fool of yourself. So we want to get to the goal without handling the process. Life does not work like that. If you want flowers in your garden, you don't have to buy perfume and go and spray to the roots. You throw filth at the roots, flowers will come, isn't it? Isn't this the process? Do you become a good gardener because you sit in… I'm sure a whole lot of people in New York City are doing this. They sit in front of their plants every day. They meditate, flowers, flowers, flowers, doesn't work like that. You take care of the soil, the manure, the water and the sunlight, flowers will come. Consequence is not your business, processes your business, isn't it? If you do the right things with what's happening right now, consequence is coming. If you get engaged with the consequence, you will become miserable. Whether it comes or it doesn't come, both ways you will become miserable. So I think we have about thirty minutes to take audience questions. Anybody has just… right there. Namaskar, Sadhguru. My name is Radha Kulkarni and I'm a Columbia alum and studied policy here, not business, and I work at the United Nations now. But before I get to my question, your talks are both inspiring and grounding at the same time and that's a difficult balance. So thank you so much for coming to Columbia and speaking with us. Much appreciated. So my question to you, Sadhguru, is that there's so much suffering in the world. When I travel on work or otherwise, one observes that on the one hand there is even lack of basic peace or there's so much violence and on the other hand there is even lack of basic resources and abject poverty. So I would be curious to hear your perspective on why does every single person have such different starting points in life, which would mean like a child based in Africa doesn't even have water and is perhaps will die of malnutrition has a very different starting point than say a billionaire's child who is perhaps sitting somewhere in the middle of North America. So why does disparity and then how and where it sits in the larger scheme of things or in the cycle of the cosmos or life if there is, if that's how we call it and and also then that gets me to the question of then who are we? That's a very Indian question. You must know, I must tell you this because you're also working at the UN. We were trekking in Tibet about three years ago and every year we trekked there three years ago when I was going. There was people from over forty countries trekking with me. So one Indian person who lives in United States stood up to ask a question and the question went on for over eight minutes. You've been very brave. So the question was going on and all these international audience their heads were spinning because they're not grasping the question. Then I said please relax, this is an Indian question because we have practiced asking questions for over ten, twelve thousand years. This is a nation where even when so-called divine entities came they could not give us any commandments because all we had was questions, relentless questioning. Then one Chinese lady who was working in United Nations for more than thirty years, she said, sattguru, even in those thirty years when I worked in United Nations only Indians asked questions. Anyway, so why there is disparity? I thought you know the answer. There is disparity because those who have don't care about those who don't have. It's very simple. Those who have want to take more and more, those who don't have just don't have. Oh, there are various aspects. It found expression in many different ways, started with imperialism and even now we are always seeing every nation is seeing how we can take the maximum resource from everywhere else, isn't it? So we know the source of the problem, what is the solution, the question. So solution wise, see in 2016 they are telling me, some studies saying that in 2016 we produced enough food for eighteen point six billion people. But we were only seven point one billion people on that day. But still thirty-five percent of the planet is malnourished. You were talking, you know the statistics better than me, you are in the United Nations. When we are producing three times more food than we actually need for the population, still one-third of the population is starving. Millions of children die of malnourishment all over. Not just in Africa, even in India. India has the highest malnourished population right now. You know it's an evolutionary process. You know Charles Darwin? He told you that you were all monkeys, not me, okay? He told you you were all monkeys and you became human. And today the genetic scientists are saying that the difference between you and a chimpanzee in terms of DNA is only one point two three percent. One point two three percent is not much of a difference, isn't it? Hello? Not much of a difference, isn't it? So physiologically that's how close we are to a chimpanzee. But in terms of our intelligence and awareness, we're world support from a chimpanzee. Right now, largely the first question started with that. Largely our identities are still biological. If you say my race, it's biology. If you say my family, it's biology, isn't it? Largely human identities are still biological. When you're biological, you're set within a small boundary. And when you're biological, your instinct of self-preservation is at its highest. In your intelligence or in your brain structure, there is something called as a reptilian brain which is approximately the size of your fist here. So that is still working like a reptile. Working boundaries all the time and trying to protect that boundary, which finds expression in so many different ways. But there's another dimension of intelligence which is the cerebral cortex which makes you a human being today, which thinks and struggles with these issues. If you were a tiger, you wouldn't care that, you know, goat's child is hungry, you wouldn't care because after all, it's your food, all right? But once you become a human being, you actually don't care, but still one part of you which makes you human makes you struggle. You need to empower that. As a humanity, we need to empower that, that your instinct of self-preservation must go down and the longing to expand, which is always there within us. See today it is finding expression as ambition, conquest or maybe simply shopping. What is this all about? You want to be something more than what you are right now, isn't it? Yes? Now the question is, if you become something more today, tomorrow are you fully settled? No, you want to be something more and something more and something more. So you seem to be going towards some kind of goal in installments. I'm asking you right now, how much more will settle you for good? What do you think? How much more? Suppose I make you the queen of this planet, will you be fulfilled? I'm asking. Masking? Don't look at me, hopefully. I will not commit such a blunder. I will not commit such a blunder, but I'm asking you, suppose we put a throne on the North Pole and made you sit there, the queen of the planet, would you be fulfilled? No. You will look at the stars, you will look at the galaxies. This is the nature of the human being, because there is something in this human being that doesn't like boundaries, wants to expand limitlessly, but right now the consciousness is constipated. You know what's constipation? That means things happen little by little. You want to expand, you want to expand, but you want to do it in small measure as if you are going to live here for a million years. So you have to move, every human being, all these business students, you must move from your personal ambition to a larger vision. Ambition means constipated expression of growth. Vision means seamless expression of growth. This must happen to you. How much should you grow? You should not determine this. You must gas yourself fully, make yourself competent and enhance your competence. Let's see how far it goes. Yes? Let it see how far it goes. Why should you fix the limit? Because whatever limits and whatever goals you set are just an exaggeration of what little you know today, isn't it so? Huh? Yes or no? Today what little you know? You're exaggerating it and thinking this is ambition. No, this is constipation. I know being in the university, now you've passed out, being in the United Nations, you have much knowledge about many things. But all your knowledge, even if you have studied the libraries on this planet, all your knowledge is a minuscule compared to what this cosmic space is, isn't it? If you identify with this minuscule knowledge that you have, you will become a minuscule. Because you're such a minuscule, endlessly you will feel insecure about anything and everything that's happening to you. See, he lives in Brooklyn, still nobody stabbed him. What are you insecure about? In yoga, we have another system. We call this the intelligence of ignorance. We always identify with our ignorance, because our knowledge is so small, our ignorance is boundless, yes or no? Huh? What we do not know is boundless, isn't it? What we know is so little. So you identify with what you do not know, then your life will expand rapidly. Your intelligence will stay alert through your life. If you identify with knowledge, your intelligence will sleep and you will make a fool of yourself with a big degree. Yes, it's very important. If your human intelligence is on, it is very natural to be inclusive. If your reptilian brain is on, it is very natural to be exclusive, to put up walls. So as a human society, as nations, we have put up walls and walls and walls for everything, isn't it? The very damn market place is a big wall, it's a wall street, all right? The markets are controlled so that everybody does not thrive. Yes or no? Hmm? Markets are controlled, industries controlled so that everybody does not thrive. Anyway, you didn't ask me what happened to this food that we grow for 18.6 billion people. You must find out, you're in the UN. You must find out. All of you must find out. Why? We produce food three times than what we need and still one-third of the humanity is starving. Why? Shouldn't your humanity want to find out? Please, you must find out. Thank you so much for having this event. My name is Prem. I'm a sophomore studying history. And my question is about this idea of a cosmic or global identity. I think it's no secret that many of us here, no matter where we came from before this, we now have a certain level of privilege for being at a place like Columbia. And I think I'm confused as to whether this notion of a global or cosmic identity almost is predicated on a sense of privilege and that certain people in this world don't necessarily have the privilege of like being able to look beyond their most immediate surroundings, whether it's because of discrimination, racism, sexism and so on. So how can we as people that maybe do have more privilege leverage that to make that global identity mean something more than just us talking about it here? This happened in Columbia University. Two young ladies met. One of them said, I will not marry till I turn thirty. Another said, well I'm married but I will never turn thirty. So we must understand the investment in problems that people have made. When my business is… your problems are my business. I don't want your problems to go away. Hello? Yesterday something came up, this two were there. This came up because yesterday morning I read something terrible happening somewhere in some part of the world. People keep sending me, though I'm not in the U.N., all the terrible things that happen before it comes to the news media, it comes to me in so many different ways. So you know I was at the economic forum at Dawes and there's a big thing going on about Sudan, American celebrities posing with this tout-out child photographs and everywhere and compassion and stuff. I appreciate the intention, I'm not against it. Everybody has to do it in their own way, I'm not against that. But in the same video, they were showing all these militants taking automatic weapons and death everywhere, massive, large-scale rape and simply if you're a man you'll die, if you're a woman you'll get raped, all right? It's almost like that. This southern Sudan was like that sometime ago, now it's coming to some kind of sense. So these guys are just shooting, dozens of them, simply shooting in the sky. So I said, see, these guys are not shooting at somebody, they're shooting in the sky. That means they have limitless supply of armaments, all right? You can't take away the guns from them but the bullets, they seem to have. The gun that they're using, I know what they're using, I know what caliber it is, there's just eight companies which are making these bullets, armaments, six of them are in United States. All you have to do is, I'll give you the address. You just lock down this, in about six months time when they run out of bullets, at least they have to hack people, the number of people killed will go down at least. Once they don't have bullets, other people will know how to deal with them. Yes or no? I'm saying, when my trouble is your business, will you give it up? So as young people who are going into the business world, don't think you have to go there as a victim of what is existing right now. I'm not trying to blame everybody, this is how we've shaped it, all of us are responsible for this. Till now, this is how we've done business. It is time to change it. And last twenty years everybody, there are lots of commentary in social media, why is he always with corporate leaders, oh he's become corrupt, he's moving with this person, corrupt person, because I see today if you want to change the world, not just business world, if you want to change the world, how we do business has to change. It is not the success of military, it is not the success of politics which makes a nation, it is the success of business which makes a nation. So how are we conducting our business is important. If you don't transform the business leaders, how the hell are you going to change anything? When I was the economic forum, somebody important there asked me, Sadhguru, if we have to do one thing for you to transform this world, what is it? I said, just give me twenty-five people for five days. I will change the world in the next two to three years. They asked, who are these twenty-five people? I named the top twenty-five leaders of the top twenty-five nations in the world. I said, see, normally with ordinary people, I… two-and-a-half days is enough to transform them. But these are politicians, so five days I'm just taking insurance. Five days you give them to me. If the way they think and feel about everything around them, even if there's a ten percent change in the way that they are looking at the world, if they become ten percent little more inclusive, the world will change dramatically, believe me. The food that we've made for eighteen point six billion people, one thing is we don't have to exploit the planet so badly to feed seven billion people. And on that, one-third of them are hungry. This can be solved if these twenty-five people make up their mind, yes or no? Hello? So it is very important. Today you're sitting here in the university as a student, but tomorrow you are part of a larger company. Well, when you join up, you may not be able to decide how to run this company. But don't become a victim and give up. This is all the choice you have. In India always when it's a yoga, we always use lotus flower as a symbolism. Why lotus flower eats, it's true with every flower, but particularly with lotus is the more stinky the slushiest, the more fragrant and beautiful the lotus flower becomes. So we always use this that this is a way a yogi should be. When you see filth, you can become allergic to it and become an ascetic if you wish. Or when you see filth, you say everywhere filth, let me also become filth. Lot of people become this. Or another way is you transform the filth into a flower. This choice you have wherever you are, whatever role you play, you have this choice. You're always a part of the solution, not a part of the problem. This one thing you do, depending upon your competence, let's see how far you go. So Sadguru, thank you for being here. What advice would you give someone with healing gifts, someone who can help people create miracles in their lives to grow in service to the world? Say miracle means like this, everybody walks on the floor, you walk on the ceiling, everybody swims in the water, but you walk upon the water, please don't do these things. If you walk upon the water, where the hell will you swim? It's important, it's important that you don't do unreasonable things because if you do not recognize the miracle of your existence, right now see we're sitting here, maybe you're thinking we're sitting in Columbia University, but we're sitting here in this universe. We don't know where the goddamn thing begins and where it ends, we do not know its nature and the damn planet is round and it's spinning and we're sitting here and talking all this. Isn't it a miracle? I'm asking. Hello? Isn't it a miracle? So just pay attention, just tell me one thing that's not a miracle out here. What was yesterday's soil that you walk upon today is a flower. What was yesterday's soil that you walk upon today is a food on your plate? Yes? He agrees with me. Good. We're good. So isn't this all a miracle? Hello? So there is no need for you to do something unreasonable. Miracles are just happening everywhere, aren't they happening? Everywhere. You are a miracle, isn't it? Just two, somebody gave you two cells. See how you've become? Isn't this a miracle? So those who have no eyes for life, they're too engrossed within themselves. They think they will perform miracles. Now what is magical for one person? Suppose, suppose I pulled out something from my pocket, let's say five hundred years ago and started speaking to somebody in India. If I said I am the messenger or the sun or himself, would you believe or no? Hello? What is one person's magic is another person's engineering. So this is why we are talking about inner engineering where you can live magically which is very important. This is magic, isn't it? Hello? Isn't this life magical? Everything about this? But unfortunately most human beings are not experiencing it. Unfortunately, most human beings are muddled with their own logic and stuck in it so barely they do not feel and enjoy the magic of their existence. If your perception is not muddled by your memory, this is very important because our entire education system from kindergarten to wherever you go, we are being made to believe memory is intelligence. Memory is not intelligence. All those who believe memory is intelligence are going to feel like idiots in the next five to ten years when the artificial intelligence, when your little gadget starts doing better than you, believe me, my phone can do ten PhDs in a day. Yes? Aren't you finding this Google lady a miracle? She seems to know every damn thing, I'm just trying to think of something that she doesn't know. Everything that is about information gathering, remembering, keeping it in your memory, analyzing and throwing it out, a machine will do better than you. In the next few years, you just have to wait to feel like a fool. So, the significance of being human is just this, that we have a system which just go by anything. Let's say you ice. The visual apparatus started developing. Even now there are certain fish in the oceans where their skin became photosensitive. That means they could sense what is light, what is darkness. What is their level of seeing? From there our eyes have developed to this point on this planet, our eyes, our neurological system, our brains or the highest level of development that's happened. So our experience of life is capable of being magical. For all those of you who are trying to magic by snorting or smoking or something, let me tell you, a little magic happens there also. I'm not… I'm not somebody to look at this as a moral issue. It is just that it's destroying the possibilities, that's our only concern. Isn't this the most sophisticated chemical factory on this planet? Human Mechanism, hello? Now the question is only, because you're all business guys, the question is only are you a great CEO or a lousy CEO, that's all. If you're a great CEO, you will get what you want out of this. If you're a lousy CEO, you get tension, anxiety, misery. I get ecstasy. Thank you. Thank you for being here. My name is Matan, I'm a first year MBA student. My question is actually also about identity. You've spoken about the need or kind of the benefit of detaching from a biological identity. And I'm curious, I think there's a lot of people in the room and this question kind of came up again and again. If somebody wants to kind of be… to act positively in society, there's an instinct to start from that biological community, from the people that you identify with biologically. And since you've spoken about that need to detach from that identity, where do you suggest like what's the alternative to starting from that biological community? And maybe… maybe I've understood you the wrong way, because I see you shaking your head. Oh, say I did not ever say you should detach yourself from biological identity. Instead of seeing your mother, father, brother, sisters and whatever the larger family as your biological identity, why don't you see that they are the first people that you have access to? You can work most effectively only where you have access… access and acceptance, isn't it? People are always telling me, «Sadhguru, you must come and work in Africa. I said no, I will not work in Africa. Because if I want to go into Africa, I would like somebody to give me at least five billion dollars before I enter Africa, because without that hand-holding you can't make a difference there. You cannot. You will go there and waste your life, nothing will happen. I work in India, because in India if you give me ten dollars, I will make it into thousand dollars in effect, because I have access and acceptance with the people. This is not because of my nationality I work in India, simply because the access and acceptance is so good that if you give me ten dollars, I will make it into thousand dollars. But if I go to Africa, if you give me hundred dollars, it will become one dollar, because there is no access and acceptance out there. And the problem there is of a different nature. It's a completely different nature. So where you choose to work is not a question of your nationality or your ethnicity or your family, where you have access and acceptance, that's where you must start. Otherwise you'll just waste your time and energy. Because life is just a combination of time and energy, isn't it? Limited amount of time, limited amount of energy. If you run into walls here and there, time and energy will go and your life will go. It's very important you run through the door, not to the wall. Yes? Where there is openness, there you go. Then you want to turn around and come there, that's a different matter. But you must always start work where there is acceptance and access. What access what will you do? You'll just beat your head on the wall. And if you have a great idea, if you cannot even sell it to your family, you're not going to sell it to anybody. It's the last thing we're going to close with for youth and truth is, what worries you the most about the youth of tomorrow? What? What worries you the most? Oh, I'm not the worrying kind. Because this nonsense that every generation is worried about the next generation, I'm not that kind. The previous generation was worried about me. And they didn't know a thing about me, they're just worried about me. I'm not worrying about you, I'm not. Because I know with all your madness you'll figure out things as things go by. It's being worried about the next generation always is an ancient melody. You must see what Socrates said about the next generation. He said they have no respect, they don't stand up when elders come, they're not thinking straight, they're going to ruins. Well, two thousand, three thousand years ago the guy's talking the same thing. Time to change that. I'm not worried about you because I see for the first time in the history of humanity this generation is empowered in ways that nobody had imagined possible, yes? Our survival is better organized than ever before. And if we want to change the world, no better time because I wanted to recognize this because many great beings have come right from ancient times in their own… every generation had their greats. But even if they raised their voice and spoke hardly twenty-five people heard, today if you have something sensible to say, you can say to the whole damn world, do not underestimate that. So one thing you should do as business people and young people is clean up that space a little bit. All kinds of idiots are saying things loudly, same things are not really getting across, yes? Because still social media I feel will mature probably in the next five, ten years people will know how to filter it. But there is a concern because the way we are using these technologies against ourselves and against everybody else, when I say against them many things, they're telling me seventy percent of the data is pornography and they're telling me on the internet over one point two million children below fifteen years of age are being sold for all kinds of filthy things. I think as a society, as human beings, when we start selling our children, that means we've hit the bottom. What do you think? Hello? We really hit the bottom, isn't it? So these are things that young people can change. I'm just saying how many in this campus? Five thousand people. If five thousand people meet and you're determined, you want to change the language and the direction of what's happening on the internet, believe me you can do it, five thousand people if you get active, just do it, let's make it happen.