 Because that's the interrogation team, you have to seek permission. Is it clear to you? Hello? Oh, there is people in the upper region. Can we light them up? I just can't see them. If there's no more extra lights, you got to light up yourself. Well, this youth and truth, why this… this has been on my mind for a long time because it's almost a constant question in the last many years that I have been active. People come to me and say, «Sadhguru, where were you when I was twenty? If I had met you twenty-five years ago, I would have done this, I would have done that. You came just too late. This is like a constant wane, it's… continuously it's happening. So I thought we will step out and meet all those people who are below twenty-five years of age in this country. And that's why the youth and truth… what we call as youth or what we call as life, essentially is a certain combination of certain amount of energy and certain amount of time. Time is slipping away for all of us. You do something, it goes away, you do nothing, it goes away. If you sleep, it'll go. If you're awake, it'll go. Time is rolling away for all of us at the same pace. And time rolling away is not about the clock, it just means we're ticking off life till the final tick, okay? When we are young, we don't really understand this that we are at the peak of our energy only in that time that we call as youth. When you're youthful, you will not understand this. You think you're going to be like this forever, but you will see as time goes by, energy levels are not the same. So when the energies are at their peak, the exuberance of youth, if only if it could be tempered with more clarity and balance, I think this energy could become something tremendous. If the necessary clarity and balance is not there, then the same energy could be disastrous both for the individual, the society, the nation and the world. So it's in this context we thought if we can bring some clarity and balance into the life of the youth in this country, and once this is over, the next phase is going to go international and we're going to reach out to students everywhere to bring some at least a little more clarity and balance so that this exuberance of energy which is only at this phase of life will find fruit, will find fruitful expression in one's life, doesn't go waste and doesn't turn against ourselves. For most human beings, they don't need enemies, they're just doing great. Please. Namskaram Sadguru, it's an absolute privilege to have you among us today. Our girls are super excited, as you can see. They were excited when Ranvij Singh came, I saw. It's an absolute joy to have you among us today. Before we begin, I will quickly introduce the panel to you. This is Kajal Hamjad, this is Anjali Chandrana and I will be a moderator for today, Anisha Koshy. So we can begin with the first question. So we've had an arre, a plethora of questions come in from the entire student body, teachers who wanted to sneak in a couple of questions now and then. But most of these questions have come in from our active student body either through social media or otherwise as personal formats as well. So the questions are representative of the mass. It's not an individual question that we will be asking. Yeah, and they... A question doesn't need so much explanation. So let's dive right in. So Kajal has the first question. So I think the first question as such is something that happened in recent time. So I'm pretty sure everyone knows about section 377 being decriminalized. Yeah. And I think most of the youth, everyone, me, I think most of us would have gone back home. We are very happy about this. And we talk to our parents and people from the, like in the older generation, right? So this is something that I do with my parents on a regular basis. We sit and we discuss a lot of topics. So this is something that happened to me and something that I've heard from a lot of people as well. So when we discuss something like this with our older generation, they said, we are not going to debate with you as such. We're not going to impose our perspectives on you. But this is not accepted in our religion, right? So when I took a step back and I thought, how difficult it would be for kids, for youth, from the LGBT community to come out to their parents. And at the same time, when the parents pose this restriction that it is not accepted in our religion, how does a child and how does a parent deal with it? And sometimes a parent does cut off from their child as well. So just want to know your perspective on the LGBT community or homosexuality as such with religion. And at the same time, how a parent and a child should deal with it. Because I think a relationship between a parent and child is so important, right? And to lose something on that line is not something. Let's see, probably till now, largely in the social space, in the media space, in the social media space, everybody is pitching either for or against. Can we for some time not pitch for or against and simply look at the issue as it is? Can we? Look at me, I'm not a brood, okay? Let that be clear. So when we say sexuality, let's understand this. It is something nature has put in us because there is something called as perpetuation of the race or the species, otherwise it won't happen. Of course, we being human beings, having more brains than body supposed to, because of that, we kind of eliminated the reproductive part and just using the pleasure part of it, all right? This is sexuality right now, largely in the world. But essentially, this pleasure also is come into the sexuality process because otherwise, well, if there was no pleasure to it, maybe we wouldn't be born, you and me. Our present parents would not have gone into it if there was no pleasure at all attached. Yes or no? So we are here because of that. So there is no denying it or putting it under the carpet, that's not the thing. But somebody has a certain kind of sexual preference, which has got nothing to do with reproductive process as such. It is their personal preference because every individual has the right to do whatever the hell they want to do with their body because it's their body. But if it is something harmful, you're going to cut your nose off or you're going to cut something else off, then maybe we will try to prevent you. But you're not causing any harm to yourself in that way, then it's your business as long as you do something in your private. Right now, the Supreme Court decision is just that, that what a person does in their private space is nobody's business. Government need not enter people's bedrooms, that is the law. All right? And I think it's right. But at the same time, why so many of you are upset about it or for it or against it is simply because there has been a campaign around the world. I'm saying the campaign should stop. There may be a few people who are oriented that way, leave them alone. It's their business, all right? Even if you're a heterosexual, you don't go about talking it on the street. Hello? You don't, isn't it? Because private matters must be handled that way, unless you give some sanctity to this body. Please understand this. The fundamental difference between animal nature and human nature is this, we are doing the same things that they do. They are living, they go around, they reproduce, they die. We also do the same thing. We think a lot about it. And we make a whole lot of fuss about it. But we are doing the same thing. Only difference is we can do all these things of eating, sleeping, reproducing, everything more consciously. Because of that, we hold ourselves little different from the other creatures. Otherwise, what's the big difference? You may think there's a difference, other animals are looking at you and thinking, what about you? Isn't it? So, this is the fundamental process. Now, individual people have some choices. I don't think it needs to become a national or international issue. It's their business, what they're doing. But at the same time, there is no need to campaign for it or against it. There's no need to campaign against it. There is no need to campaign for it. If we allow nature to take its course, the percentage of people who will fall that way are extremely small. But because of a whole campaign going on in the world, the number of people entering that space has become bigger, much bigger than what it should be. Having said that, your parents being upset about it or not coming to terms with it, if they're doing it for religious reasons, well, there may be lot of trash in every religion. There is. But there is also some wisdom gathered over the times in every religion, yes or no? So, this wisdom, some people are calling it religion. Some people are looking at just sensibly and doing what they have to do. Some people read religious texts and come to this wisdom because they're not able to figure it out themselves. So, do you have to agree with all the things that they say in their religion? No. But do you have to simply blanket, disagree with everything? That will be foolish? Because human experience cannot be thrown away, isn't it? Thousands of years of human cultural experience cannot be just thrown away. We have to take what is sensible and what is not. So, when it comes to this aspect, they know the consequence of this. See, when you're at this age, the most attractive word is freedom. Hello? Well, I come from the sixties. You know what sixties? So, freedom is the word. In this... But since then I've looked at human mind in so many ways. The moment you utter the word freedom, people will end up doing freaky things. Because freedom is a consequence. It is not a thing that you do. See, freedom is not an act. Freedom is a consequence of how I experience my life. Freedom comes out of a responsible existence. If you think of the consequence without taking care of the process, you will always end up as a disaster. I must tell you this. Well, at least twelve to fifteen of close friends that I had when I was growing up, they all died before they are thirty-five. Well, some of them, you know, because we were living on motorcycles, they got killed on the motorcycles, rest drank themselves to death, others drugged themselves to death, at least twelve to fourteen people who were very close to me, who were around me, all died before they are thirty-five because freedom. Do you understand? Freedom was the real thing. They became free, free and they became free. Death is definitely freedom. So one thing that young people should learn is don't utter the word freedom because freedom is a consequence. It's something that you have to earn. It doesn't come as a philosophy. In sixties, we thought it's a philosophy. If you live responsibly, you will see freedom will come. Let's say responsibly, not in the sense of civic responsibility. If you retain your ability to respond to life without any prejudice, without any restriction, you will see you will become free. Your ability to respond, if it is unlimited, it is freedom, isn't it? Now, coming to this religious resistance, there's nothing religious about this. Sexuality is a biological process. Yes? The very fact that nature created opposites, it has some intention. Well, some people didn't take too natural ways. It's okay, it's their choice. We don't have to discriminate against them. We don't have to persecute them. We don't have to put them in the prison. Definitely it's not necessary. But at the same time, it doesn't need promotion either. Now, when I say freedom and responsibility, this is like this. See, suppose you want flowers in your garden. If you sit in your garden and every day do flower meditation, flowers will not come. If you want flowers, you don't have to even think about flowers. You must think soil, manure, water, sunlight. Soil doesn't feel like a flower. Maneu doesn't smell like a flower. Water doesn't look like a flower. Sunlight doesn't feel like a flower. But if you take care of these things, flowers will happen, isn't it? This is the way life works. So the important thing with our lives is this is a very westernized approach that we are looking at the goal. We want the product. We don't want the process. No, if you're devoted to the process, if you're truly devoted to the process that you're doing right now, you will naturally do your best. Everything that you have, result will come or no? Result will come or no? It'll come. Just because you sit here and desire the result, it's not going to come. You will only have plastic flowers in your head. Flowers will not grow in your garden. So this is the time of life. I'm surprised, you know, like it's not just you. Just about anywhere I go, young people are asking only this question. What this means is they are trying to live too early. See, this is a time to grow. This is a time to enhance yourself because your ability to enhance yourself and grow will not be the same after ten years, believe me. Your ability to learn will not be the same. Your ability to grow physically, emotionally, intellectually and in consciousness will not be the same after ten to fifteen years' time. So this is a time to grow. When it's time to grow, if you try to live too much, some life you want to taste, but if you try to live too much, you will see your growth will be impeded and your life will be stunted in so many different ways. So it's very important young people focus on growth because we are seeing this, you know, like I've traveled across the United States, many of these universities, it brings tears to me when I see how it is. I'm glad, at least in India, most of the students are sober in the daytime. Really, I'm telling you, in top universities, daytime, they're all gone. So we're becoming slaves of commerce because people have intentions to do their own thing. They're just enslaving the people, young people because they want to sell their brand because it seems early age, if you get used to a certain kind of beer, that's what you're going to drink for the rest of your life. Yes, they have done research on this. Universities have done researchers on this and they're supplying free beer in the school. Tell me, does it take a genius to understand this that if I open a book which is of some complexity and I want to grasp this, if I'm intoxicated, can I grasp it? Hello? Does it take a genius to understand this, I'm asking? So you don't have to... When your parents say something, they may refer to their religion because they think it's an authority. You take away the authority, just listen to the words. If it makes sense, do it. If it doesn't make sense, tell them politely, that's not the way it is with me, all right? Okay, the next question that's come in from the students is internal and external validation. So a couple of... let's take a decade back. You know, the word peer pressure was the next big thing. Everyone said, you shouldn't succumb to peer pressure, you shouldn't listen to what your peers have to say, they're probably ill-intentioned and ill-mannered. But we've reached a point where our peers don't have to say that to us anymore. It's internal validation. We do things to validate ourselves and in some form or the other, way more dangerous than a peer telling us because we can stop them. The voices in our head, we can't. So how do we sort of cope with internal validation? Or the necessity for internal validation? I already said that most people don't need enemies. They're just doing great by themselves. Now, see when you say you're a human being, also connected with the previous question also because you're still not fully settled. When you say I'm a human being, you have a body, you have an intellect, a bunch of thoughts and certain penetration of intellect. You have emotions and you have a consciousness behind us. Suppose we were some other creature, let's say we were buffaloes, then body would be the most dominant thing in our life. Biology and body is the dominant thing. Mind, intellect, not that it doesn't have, it has its own mind, but small. Emotions it has, but still not as big as the body. Consciousness it is not truly aware of. So essentially, body is the front end of a buffalo. What should be the front end of you among these four things? No, that's why it's a mess. Don't do guesswork or tell me. I would get the mind. If you say the thought process, see your thought is a consequence of the data that you have gathered, isn't it? In this many years, I will assume you're 18, okay, just for safety, for my safety. In this little bit of time that you have from birth to now, whatever data you have gathered, permutations and combinations of that is what is coming out is thought process. Thought is not coming from somewhere else. Yes? Only from the data. Do you believe you have all the data that is necessary to know the nature of your existence, the cosmos and the beginning and the end of everything? No. Whatever if you have read the libraries of the world, still what you have is a minuscule. From this minuscule, you generate thoughts and you say that should be the front end of your life. This is a European element. It's the Europeans who said thought is everything, you know? You know Descartes? You're not philosophy, what are you? Science, okay. I have a philosophy. Descartes said, I think so I exist. I'm asking all of you, is it because you exist you may think or because you think you exist, which way is it? Because you exist you may think because most people are in a state of mental diarrhea all the time they think thought is an eternal process. No? If, see right now, if my hand starts jumping all over the place, what do you think? You think I have a ailment, isn't it? So if your mind starts jumping all over the place, what should I think? You have an ailment. Only thing is everybody is like you only. That's how everybody is. So it looks like normal. That's how it is in an asylum. Just because everybody's hand is jumping like this, does it become normal? I'm asking you, does it become normal? With hand it's very obvious and visible, but if you pay enough attention, it is visible, isn't it? So your thought is an outcome of limited data. That can never be the front end, it's very, very small. Why thought became so significant in the world is because of European system of education. Why in Europe thought became so important was, they went through a few centuries of very dogmatic religious imposition. They were not allowed to think for themselves. So somewhere in 1700s they broke away from that. They started thinking for themselves. It looked like liberation. But now the same thought is freaking people to death. See, if I leave you alone in a room all by yourself, I will give you food and shelter and everything, all good care for you. Only thing is, nothing to do. You will freak yourself to death, believe me. So with that kind of a mind, you wanted to be the front end. So thought is a very, very limited thing. In the yogic culture, there is no significance to thought. We don't care what you think and feel. That may sound a little abrasive, but why I am saying this is because we know what you can think and feel. It does not mean you are ever exploring anything new with your thought. You are only recycling the old data bin that you have. Endless recycling of what you already have. Nothing new will ever happen. This is why societies are going on talking the same rubbish forever. Centuries after centuries, they are discussing the same damn thing. We still can't figure out. Well, the most fundamental thing, the biology, sexuality, we can't figure it out after millions of years of existence because thought based. If you pay attention, simply you know what it is. You don't have to think about it. Only because we are thinking about it, it's getting all distorted in the mind. Otherwise, biology is quite clear cut. There is no need to exaggerate it nor to... Yes, there is no need to plate up or plate down. It is there to the extent it is there. In different creatures, it's at different levels. In different human beings also at different levels, you just do it, leave it at that level. It's just one more aspect. It's a physical platform for our existence. Biology, isn't it? Now, you must decide what should be your front-end. You must decide. So, pretty... See, it's not me who's dodging the questions, okay? To be honest, I think it's still unclear to me. To be very honest. But I think the tangent that we will have to discover will... No, there is no tangent. I'm just asking you. Is it true these four dimensions are there to you? Yes, very much. What should be the leading edge? That's all I'm asking. What is the tangent about it? I still stand by thought for some reason. I will probably... I'm probably terribly wrong and I will probably discover... No, no. Is it true your thought is coming from limited data? True, yes. So, if you're coming from limited data, is it true that you can never ever explore anything new? You can always widen your data. You can always go out there and learn and study. That is experience. Right, yes. Please understand. Life is happening in three fundamental dimensions. Why in this culture, all this Trishula, Trikala, Trinitra, all these three, three, three is, because essentially your life is happening like this. There is memory of the past. There is experience of the now. And there is imagination of the future. These are the only ways life is happening. But people can sit here right now and suffer what happened ten years ago. Yes. You can. You also can. And people can suffer what may happen day after tomorrow already. So, if you're suffering what happened ten years ago or ten days ago, what happened ten years ago, does it exist right now? No. No. So, you're suffering that which does not exist. Please, psychologists, please tell me. If somebody is suffering that which does not exist, what's the terminology for them? No, I'm only asking for technical terminology. If someone is suffering that which does not exist here, what is the term? Psychiatric term. You can call it whatever you call it. I call it simply insanity. No, no, that is a very strong word because it will not help your practice if you call people that. But the fact is, if I'm suffering something which is not here, it amounts to insanity or no. Yes. So, if I'm suffering what happened yesterday or what may happen day after tomorrow, I am suffering something which does not exist, isn't it? So, essentially there is in this form of education, you have done no work as to how to manage the intellect, intellectual process. No work. Simply it's going mad all the time. You don't know what is memory, what is experience, what is imagination, it's all mixed up. In this state, this intellect is not a possibility. It is only trouble. I must tell you this, four months ago, I think four, four and a half months ago, a television anchor in Andhra Pradesh, a 34-year-old woman, she jumped off the fifth floor and killed herself. She left a note saying, nobody is responsible for my death, my brain is my enemy. Can you beat this? Well, she articulated it, but that's the truth with a whole lot of people, 90% of humanity. Their brain is their enemy. They don't need any external enemy. If they sit in one place, they poke themselves. So she killed herself and this, I don't know if you saw this, this handwritten thing went all over on the televisions and everything. Well, this brain, this brain is the most bloody precious thing that you have. It took millions of years to manufacture this brain of evolution. And today it's become your enemy. Obviously, there is no stabilizing factor in sight. When we say stabilizing factor, we are not talking about taking tranquilizers or having a glass of something to become stable. There is a dimension beyond all this. It is on the platform of this life, we have slowly built this body, we built this mind, we built these emotions, isn't it? Isn't there no concern about that platform that you call as life? If we just attend to that, all these questions will just vanish. People were asking me when I was at Danna University day before yesterday, Sadhguru, how come you can answer every question? I said, because till now nobody asked me a question that I myself did not ask to myself and to everybody around me. I had a billion questions, nobody answered. Then I realized the questions are all coming from a wrong perspective because there is no profound experience of life on the surface with information that I have. I am manufacturing questions and questions and questions hung like a dark cloud around me when I was young. So I said, till now nobody has asked a question that I myself did not raise. But why if I raise the question, the next generation is raising the same damn question, that means we are not learning a thing from each other, isn't it? With all due respect, speaking of mental diarrhea and data pain, we'd like to talk about the education system. And, sorry, so as students at this point, I know this has been through ages and like all students feel a certain way about the education system. But there's a certain amount of anxiety that exists within us because we learn great things here. It's good for your future practice if everybody's anxious. That's there. Psychology helps. So we feel trapped because all the learning that we do here is beautiful, like we sit, we attend classes and it's really nice. But the concept of one standardized way of evaluating all students is something that seems really unfair in a certain way and it sort of pulls us down because not everybody learns a certain way. Not everybody has to be evaluated a certain way, but the system should work. So there's not this one solution to it. You just can't go, okay, you do this and then everything is fine. The students are happy and the teachers are happy. There's no one direct way to it. So how do you sort of approach this system that is trapping the creative minds of young, nice, sweet students? That sweet you added to describe yourself. See, right now I'm involved in writing an education policy for the country. We are working on it. It may take another year, year and a half before we really come up with this because I live my life out of my experience and my experience of education was just ridiculous. I'm… the sisters… No, no, I'm acknowledging them because I am also a carmelite. One year on my second standard I was in the Christ the King convent and in my seventh standard I was in my nirmala convent. No school would keep me for more than one year because I never understood why the hell am I going to the school. Nobody explained to me. It's very… please whatever I say, please… I wanted to listen to this carefully because it could be misunderstood completely because when I was four, four and a half years of age one thing struck me that suddenly I did not know anything. I do not know anything means I do not know anything at all. If somebody gives me a glass of water I do not know what is water. Well, I know I can drink it, I can use it, I know how to use it but I don't know what it is. So I keep staring at the water for hours on end. Well, actually the fact is even today you don't know what is water if you really look at it. We know how to use it, we know how to destroy it but we don't know how to… what it is really. We… with all this scientific exploration we do not know one single atom in its entirety. We know how to break it, fuse it, make a bomb out of it. All these things we know but we don't know what it is. So if I found a blade of grass I'm just staring at it for hours. If I sit up in the night in the bed I'm simply staring in the darkness. My dear father, being a physician started thinking that I need psychiatric evaluation. You're just too late. My problem was I look at this and I don't know what this is. They're asking me to look at that. I just cannot shift my attention, I'm just looking at this. In this condition they sent me to school. My mother said don't look here and there, pay attention to the teacher. I went and looked at the teacher. Absolute attention to the teacher. The kind of attention they had never received in their life. Many things happened in this, I don't want to go into the detail. When… about nine years ago this school where I studied for a couple of years that's only school where I stayed for two years. So they came to invite me for their 125th anniversary. I said, see, why me? I was not just a not-good student, I was not even a student because I didn't have a textbook, I didn't have a notebook, I just went. I just had a bicycle. I thought it was good enough. So I said, why me? Please, I am not a good example for the students. They said, no, no, our school has produced union ministers. Our school has produced cricketing stars, film stars. You are the only mystic you have to come. So I went. So I went and sat there in the quarter angle, the same operative buildings and no, this is my experience I am saying. And suddenly I looked at this particular classroom and I remembered I was twelve years of age. One afternoon these are times when I don't speak for many days because when you don't know anything, what to say? I'm still trying to drink in the creation around me. I'm paying attention to the leaf, to the everything. Man, woman, child, animal, plant, anything. I'm just paying attention to everything. I still not figured out a thing. So there's nothing much to say, so I don't speak. So at one point my father put me through speech and hearing test, thinking I cannot speak. This is the problem of a physician. Then that afternoon the teacher is trying to get some response from me. After about thirty-five, forty minutes I'm just looking at him. I don't even hear what he's saying. I know this man's past, present and future. But I don't hear the question. After thirty-five, forty minutes he got so frustrated and angry with me. He came and held me by the shoulder, shook me like this violently and said you must either be the divine or the devil. I think you're the later. I didn't feel insulted or abused, I just thought about this. Because till then I did not know what is this, what is this, what is that, what is that. Everything is a question mark of the entire universe. But I knew one thing, this is me. This guy confused me about that also. I just look like this. Is this divine, is this devil, what the hell is this? I tried to stare, it didn't work. Then I started closing my eyes and sitting. This is how my journey started because I am trying to figure out what the hell is this. Because till now I had one assurance, this is me. Suddenly he confused me about this also. Why I'm telling you this is, see, we have set up education factories to feed for other factories, larger factories. You must all understand day in and day out when everybody talks economy, economy, economy, you must understand you are just raw material. You are not human beings. That's where we are driving the world, entire world. When economy is the most important thing, this is how you will run the education. There is no time for any tenderness. There's no time for any nurturing. There is no time for anything because everybody has to pass at a certain age and get into the job and make money and then in the end, I don't know what. They'll relax in the end when they're 75. So this has to change. But for this to change, we have been in 15, 20 generations of poverty in this country. Your parents have relaxed a little bit. My time, our parents were so hyper about how will you earn a living, how will you earn a living? I said, why do you bother about how do I earn a living? Tell me when you don't want to feed me. I'll just go somewhere. I'm capable of getting my food and I have no problem of wanting to live like somebody else. I'm not bothered what somebody else has. I know I will never go hungry. I will find my food somehow. I went into the jungle and stayed for three weeks by myself and I managed to survive off the jungle. So I knew if nothing works, I'll go into western gods. So why I'm saying this is we've become too overly concerned about survival process. For the society to relax a little bit, I think economic development is needed. See, these two things are like this. If economic development is much more and there is ease that if you let's say you don't pass your examination, you won't fall on the street and get lost. If that assurance is there, everybody will relax a little bit. Feet off the throttle a little bit will happen. So right now we created three different dimensions of education. One form of education is just for rural India because for them it's economic. For them to get out of that economic and social pit in which they are a certain type of education. Another form of education for those parents who are reasonably affluent who want their children to be exposed to a variety of things. Here at least 50% of the time is dedicated to art, music, theater, like this and the school is created like a museum almost. So children live here in a completely different way. And we have another school which you saw the girls dancing. From the age of six to eighteen, there is no academics for them. They learn only classical dance, classical music, Kalari Paitu which is the mother of all martial arts, yoga, Sanskrit language and English language. This is all they learn. They don't go to any academic stuff. They go through twelve to fifteen years of very severe training. You saw the girls dancing but you don't know their fitness. If you ask them to just climb up here they will just find their way up there like that. Physically the main focus is to grow the body and the brain to its fullest without any intent. See the problem is at the age of three people like to hear their sweet little girl saying, what will you become? I'll become doctor at the age of three. So from the age of three your wishing lot of people will be sick in the world. I'm saying it's a completely wrong way of nurturing. Raising children or bringing up human beings is like raising a garden. It's not a factory. In one extruder everybody goes but that's not going to change in a hurry. So you need to learn how to make the factory feel like a garden a little bit because in your time it's not going to change. By the time you get out of education, if we start the process now and invest heavily, it may change slowly in the next 20-25 years. That's how it is because changing the education system, in thought we can change it, on paper we can change it. Putting it down there, training the necessary people, creating the infrastructure, this is not going to happen and also we need to reduce our population a little bit. Otherwise it's very difficult to provide good education for everybody. So there is… since we're talking about education and the Indian education system. Are the people in the upper region still awake and on? Quiet there soon. Okay, since we're talking about the Indian education system, one of the main questions that actually came to us, you know, was is attendance… sorry, is education all about attendance? Because somewhere… Yeah, they're awake now. Somewhere no one wakes up in the morning to say, oh, I'm going to learn something new today. She wants to become a star in the qualities. So everyone, I think gets up saying, oh, I don't have attendance, dude. I think I need to attend this class. Well, I have 85 in that so maybe I can miss one class. I think many of the students here, they don't like maths but when it comes to calculating the amount of percentage that is required, they're so good at it. I think even Anisha has a question when it comes to motivation and drive as such, especially in college. Yeah, yeah. So our main question is how do we shift that into more of a learning objective than making attendance so dominant in this education system? I don't want to share my experience of attendance. What happens with the student body at large is the drive to learn or the drive to acquire knowledge has died down somewhere. So I think this is our question from the student government itself because we as an organization, as an institution, I think… Yeah, you're trying to win the next election also. Varnit already. So yeah, so what happens with a lot of the students in college is we provide them with all of the avenues that they possibly could ask for. The best associations, the best teachers, the best outlook, the best reach opportunity, name it and we've given it at some level. But the drive to get them to actually do it or the drive to get ourselves to actually pick ourselves by the feet and say, this is what I want to do. I want to make full use the whole potential of what I've been given. How do we accomplish that? Because I think there's a stage of stagnation. We need to plateau by third year and we've declined. So how do we overcome that stagnation? See, as you have been pointing out as students everywhere, it's not that teachers and establishment doesn't know about it. They also know one thing is the massive size of the student body. It's not a small number to experiment and change this and that. It's massive. And if you make any changes, the loopholes that arise in the new system, everybody will exploit the loophole. So people are averse to change because of this, which is not the right way to approach. But the pressures of running an educational institution, I also know how it is, talking about attendance. See, I can… I can… I raise my girl with very little interference with what she's doing. So she travelled with me. I was travelling across India driving myself all the time. So she started travelling with me when she was three-and-a-half months of each. I just held her down in the front seat, strapped and drove always. My right leg is heavy, you know. So she grew up like this in various homes and her exposure to people was tremendous. By the time she's eighteen months of age, she's fluently speaking three languages. But I made it very clear to everybody, nobody will teach her anything. Do not teach her ABC. Mary had a little lamb. I don't care whether Mary had a lamb or not. So I made one rule. You can play with her. You can do whatever. Nobody is going to teach her one, two, three ABC, nothing. No rhymes, no nothing. Well, she picked up some cinema tunes, this and that, like Sounds of Asia is Singing. She picked up those tunes by herself, but nobody thought her anything. Then I thought I'll never send her to schools. She can just be with me. But one big problem is you cannot provide that age group company, which is very important. She may become my age when she is still ten-twelve. So I sent her to a school which is most relaxed without too many restrictions. When she was twelve-thirteen years of age, one day she came to me. Something that happened in the school upset her emotionally and she came to me and she said, you're teaching everybody so many things. You don't tell me anything. I said, see, I don't teach anything to anybody unsolicited. Now that you've come, we can talk, I think. I said, this is all you have to know. Never look up to anybody. She looked at me like this. She said, even me. Because if you look up to me, you will miss the value of who I am. You may… maybe you will hang me on the wall and nail me to the wall and smoke me out of your house with incense. But you will miss the value of who I am. You have to look at me for who I am. So don't look at… look up to anybody. Don't look down on anybody. This is all… just think through this. Because all human beings have fixed it. Something is good, something is bad, something is high, something is low, something is superior, something is inferior. In this state, there's no education, if you ask me. Only misuse of knowledge. So this is all you have to know. Never look up to anything, never look down on anything. You will become absolutely present and very human. Full-fledged human. And if you become an overflowing human… humanity, your learning possibilities, your perception will blob like that. That's what we need to do. But how to do it… they were telling me in these premises, there are ten thousand girls. How to do it with ten thousand girls? It's tough. Okay, we will limit it to only two thousand girls. Then there will be strike outside on the street. Why are you not giving us admission? So this is a situation which can't be just fixed simply because somebody changed their mind, you can't fix it. There is a very complex reality there. So for yourself, we can do this, maybe I don't know from the student union or from the teacher's side. If we can identify responsible students, responsible need not necessarily mean obedient. Responsible need not necessarily mean they're getting ninety-eight marks in where they should only get sixty. So responsible is different. All I'm saying is, if all of you girls assure the management that our time in the college don't compel us to just necessarily sit in the class, but these seven or eight hours we have, we will stay focused on something. We will not sit here and they're gossiping. We'll focus on something. If education is a focused time, it doesn't matter what you focus on. Who knows, you may be science, suddenly you may become a better psychiatrist than her, psychologist than her, or she may be psychology, she may just pick up something else. Because choices are made considering so many things at a certain time that may not be your genuine aptitude. See, there is a certain genius in every human being. Home situation and school situation must fundamentally focus on how to unfold that genius. Unless you create that atmosphere of incubation, it will not flower. Believe me, ninety-nine percent of the human beings on this planet live and die without ever touching the inner genius that they hold within themselves. It is not just about them. What a loss to humanity. This is why the same stupid things are being debated for thousands of years because human genius doesn't open bunch of idiots. Yes? Talking the same damn things forever as if it's something else. What every other creature with a millionth of your brain knows human being is struggling to figure out. What a grasshopper knows. You're struggling to figure it out. This is not fair. Hello? This is not fair to humanity. I want a higher opinion. Hello, all of you. So another topic that is like very sensitive, but it's not talked about as much is casual relationships that exist in this nice age group that we're in. So, yeah, I'm just going to say good things about us. So, people engage in physical relationships today and what they lack is a lot of emotions and we want to know if it's opinion, I mean your opinion on it and whether people do it by choice. Is it healthy? Is it, you know, what to make of it? Can I tell you a joke? Yes, please. There was one Mrs. Bhatia. No Bhatias. I could change the name. There was one Mrs. Bhatia who was having her fiftieth wedding anniversary. They had a wedding anniversary and the next day she filed for divorce. The judge saw the divorce petition. He was also a good family friend. So he called her and he said, why you want to divorce your husband? It's such a sweet little thing. Why do you want to divorce him and what grounds you want to divorce him? She said, he's not been faithful to me. He's been cheating me. How do you come to this conclusion? Just yesterday you had your fiftieth wedding anniversary. You were fine yesterday. How do you conclude this? I got a little nostalgic and started flipping through the photo album. Then I saw none of my five children resemble him. So... See, right now, do you... do you remember how your great-great-great-great-great grandmother ten generations ago looked like? You don't. But her nose is sitting on your face right now. Your body remembers, yes or no? Yes. Your body remembers even the skin tone of your forefathers a million years ago. It still remembers, not forgotten. So what you're calling as my body is an enormous amount of memory, isn't it? What you carry in your brain as memory is minuscule. What you carry in your body, there is evolutionary memory. There is genetic memory. There is karmic memory. There are articulate and inarticulate levels of memory. There is so much memory. You know, you think you know how to walk right now. Please understand only because your body has built up that memory. If your body forgets, you won't be able to walk. So the amount of memory, for every simple thing that you do, you know what to eat, what not to eat, how to eat, you must put it in your mouth, not in your ears. This may look funny, but you would not know if you don't remember. So your body is a repository of tremendous amount of memory and it's picking up all the time. If you walk from here to here, there may be 50 different kinds of mild smells. You may not consciously notice, but the body is picking it up and it recognizes. All the time it's recognizing. That's how you know what is good smell, what is bad smell, this is this smell. That is, you recognize the different aspects of sound, smell, this, that, because constant recognition is happening. So this body memory, traditionally in this culture, we call this as runanabanda. That means physical memory that you build. You can either consciously build your physical memory or you can simply take in wild amounts of memory and go through lots of physical confusion. So wherever there is impact, I don't know if you still have these things, maybe your generation is gone, but still there will be people in Bangalore city. If you ask them to, if you try to give them salt, they won't take it, they'll say keep it there. If you try to give them sesame seeds, they will say please keep it there. Because they have recognized many substances which can easily carry your memory and it will become mine if I take it. So I don't want to take in memory. This is the reason why generally in this culture, touching each other, shaking hands, these things are avoided. We touch our own two hands and don't Namaskaram because we don't want to go on picking up memory. Because if I as much as touch this, this memory it remembers. You try this with four of your friends, you touch their hands. Don't try to consciously remember, every day touch their hands, forget about it. Tomorrow if that person comes and touches you, you know it's this hand, isn't it? So the body remembers, it's not the mind. The physical body remembers, this is called as runanubanda. When there is a sexual interaction or there is any kind of intimacy which involves thought, emotion and body, the amount of memory that is left in your system is very big. It is from this context, they said you must keep this as simple as possible. There are other aspects where in certain tantric process and all they're involving, they are preparing themselves for years to distance themselves from the body in such a way that the body doesn't pick up anything from anywhere. This is being done like a sadhana, not as sexual promiscuity. So the question is not of morality. The question is of what is it that you want to do with yourself in your life? If you want to be in such a way that in your life, your inner intelligence will be the most dominant thing in your life, not your physical body, then you must keep the body's memory as simple as possible. This is why simple types of food, you know people go into very simple kind of food, not complicated. Even now, I eat one meal a day and I eat only one item in the meal. I won't eat ten. I may eat all of those things another day, but today I'll eat only one item because it makes a huge... Just experiment and say, don't go by what I'm saying. Just experiment and say, especially when your examination time comes, eat simple food and see what a difference it makes for your intelligence, how it functions, how alert you are, everything. So what is it that you're trying to build yourself to? Do you want to build yourself to be a sexual supernova? Or... No, I'm saying some people may have that intention. That's up to them. But what is it that you want to do with your life is something that you must decide. If you have decided that, it's very, very important that you don't unconsciously pick up enormous amount of memory because this will lead to, later on you will see it'll become very difficult to remain peaceful and joyful in your life, no matter what good things may be happening. Simply because there is confusing memories in the system. When something else of similar nature comes, the body goes into a turmoil of confusion. It may not translate into your mind. Just physically it will go on. So it's a choice that one has to make. It's not a question of morality, it is a question of living sensibly. Thank you so much, Sadhguru. Now we shall be entering into the social media questions that our students have been sending in. So the first question is sent in by Shivangi Sharma. Lots have been spoken or debated about feminism. Girls are doing different things in the name of feminism. Is there any meaning to feminism or are we fighting a non-existing idea? See, there is a meaning to equal opportunity for all human beings. You should not even consider their gender. Women should have rights. I don't like that. All human beings should have equal opportunity. And they should choose what they want to do, what a man wants to do, what a woman wants to do. It's the choice of an individual. Just thinking all women are same, all men are same is a stupid idea. The requirement is not the same, the drives are not the same and the aspirations are not the same. So all women be like this, all women be like that. This is a very... See, this is the problem and something is going wrong. People react to that and they think they can correct it by reversing everything. Reverse is not the answer. Reaction is not the answer. What you do in reaction will always lead to one kind of injustice, will lead to another kind of injustice. There are various aspects attached to this. But feminism, if you're importing it from United States, most of the feminists, they didn't live well. They talked and talked and talked and in the end their life is empty. Not because there is no man. You don't need a man, it's your choice, okay? But the problem is constantly being in a state of reaction doesn't need to lead to well-being of a human being. This is one species. We should not forget this. There are not two species. This is one species. The species is made in such a way that they have to. There is only possibility to exist together. There is no other way. Question is how much need you have for the opposite gender or you don't have need for it. That's up to individual choices. But fundamentally there is no such thing as superiority or inferiority. Once again this superiority business has come or this male domination has happened in various societies mainly because we made economics the most important thing. Money is the only value. Now the go-getter in the family is the only value. Let me share this with you. My mother did not earn a rupee in her life and she didn't care about earning a rupee. But can you think that that family... can you think of that family without her? Is it even a possibility? Rubbish. It's simply rubbish. That somebody thinks, oh, she didn't earn a rupee so she must have been a slave. So she was a housewife. She worked all the time. Nobody paid her. This is just stupid stuff, okay? Because money has become the greatest value. Right now in this town if you say there is a big man this doesn't mean he has a big body. We don't value them anymore. It doesn't mean he has a big brain or a big heart or big something else. No, he just has big pocket. So this has to change in the society. If money is the only value, male is the only value. I want you to understand this. Today in the name of feminism unfortunately a whole lot of women are desperately trying to be like men. It's not so much in India. If you look in, you know, business districts of United States and UK and other places I feel terrible for this woman. All the time they have to be in a certain way. It is so hard to be a woman in the western country these days. At one time it looked like freedom. You will see it is so extremely difficult to be a woman because she has to be always balancing on four inch heels and she has to be dressed like this and she has to carry these bags like a man. Everything heavy bags and computers and going here, going there just doing the same stupid things that man is doing. All this is all about how I earned a few dollars more than another man. This is just a stupid way to structure life both for a man and a woman and for a woman it will lead to a lot more suffering. Today over forty years of age, I think over forty-five years of age forty-two percent of the women in America are on some kind of antidepressants or something else. This doesn't speak well. This doesn't show that it's worked, isn't it? Well, exploitation comes. Whoever is powerful tries to exploit. See, you must understand it's not about a man or a woman. Whoever has the power tries to exploit. People are not trying to exploit the woman. They will exploit another man also, a child of why children are beaten in this world simply because they're small. Hello? If your children were bigger than you, would you beat them I'm asking? So, anything that is weaker than you somewhere you think you must exploit. If this has to go, the front end of your life should be your consciousness. Why consciousness is? See, when we sit here, your body is your body, my body is boy body, hundred percent. Till they bury us, we don't understand it's the same stuff. Yes? When they bury us, we get it, it's the same soil. But right now this is me, that's you, hundred percent. Now you are very cautiously agreeing, disagreeing because your mind is your mind, my mind is my mind. Yes? But when it comes to life, there is no such thing as your life and my life. There is just life, this is a living cosmos. You captured a little bit of life, I captured a little bit, somebody else captured a little bit. But it's like blowing so bubbles. You blew so bubbles when you were young. So you got only this big bubble, somebody got this big bubble. Same soap, everybody has air in the lungs, but one person gets this big bubble, another person gets this big bubble. Why do you think? Certain level of attention, isn't it? In blowing a simple soap bubble, there is a certain methodology and a technique to it. Now you filled up this much, poop, it went. Then you can't say this is my air. There's no such thing. So similarly as you sit here, there is your body and my body, your mind and my mind, there's no such thing as your life and my life. If you put that as the front end of your life, all these discriminations, prejudice, nonsense, your body will not work against you and anybody, your mind will not work against you or anybody, your emotions will not work against you or anybody, because it is the identity which decides how your mind functions, isn't it? Right now this feminism is coming from, I am identified as a woman. No, physically you are a woman. It's fine. Fifty percent of the population should be woman. Always. Always it should be. That is good. But your identity need not be hundred percent. You are identified as a woman at one level, but your identity need not be one hundred percent with your female body, because this means we are identifying with body parts. If we must identify with body parts, why choose reproductive organs? At least choose the brains. But brain is my enemy. So this is another question from Shruti. This question is for Sadhguru, the style icon. Nowadays fashion is a multi-billion dollar industry. At the same time in the name of fashion, really unappealing growth trends also come out. In the name of fashion, are crossing a line and how do we identify the line? Sorry, I am sorry. Are we crossing the line and how do we identify the line? The first sentence withdraw that one. I am not a style icon or something. See, for those of you who do not know this, the third largest polluter on the planet is fashion industry right now. It's estimated across the world, compared to how many clothes, how much clothing our grandparents had, how much clothing we have is on an average five times more. All of you are seeing that, isn't it? They're saying by 2025, that will double. That means we'll be ten times more than our grandparents. Out of this, all this cloth that we are wearing, ninety-eight percent of it is now synthetic fiber. Only two percent is natural fiber. Out of this, ninety-five percent is polyfiber. Polyfiber has entered our bodies, has entered the plants, has entered the animals, has entered the food chain, water, soil, everything. This is one thing that's gone under the radar. Everybody is trying to shoot at that little plastic bag, which must be done, of course, but the polyfiber cloth is the largest polluter which is going under the radar. It is sitting on our clothing, on our bodies, constantly polluting everything because the micro of polyfiber is just getting into everything. There are no poignant pictures of a turtle being trapped in a plastic bag or something like that, but we are all those turtles stuck in these things. So, one of the things that we are doing is, you know, as you know from your history that India was the greatest supplier of textiles to the rest of the world at one time. Sixty percent of the world's exports was Indian textiles 300 years ago. It was systematically destroyed during the British era. Over three to four million people died in about fifty years simply because the industry was systematically knocked down. And that's one reason why when the English left nearly ninety-one or ninety-two percent of the people were in agriculture because all these weavers went back to agriculture just for sustenance. That is why such small holdings all over the place and agriculture being in such disarray, one reason is because of destruction of handloom industries to a point where one of the governor general said, the fields of India are bleached by the bones of the hand weavers in 1860 because millions died. So, having said that, we still have the skills. India is poised if we do the right things to be able to clothe the world once again in a sensible way, in a natural way. And in the sense, this can be economically fantastic. We could completely stop farmer suicides and the distress of the farmer if part of the agriculture is towards generating natural fiber. We have various natural fibers in this country. Fortunately, I'm seeing the more high-end fashion designers recently, I don't know if you saw, we had conversation with Sabya Sachi and people like this are promoting natural fiber. Well, now that you called me a fashion icon, let me admit this, in the month of October, we are having a fashion show in New York City. Whoo! This fashion show, I'm not going to walk the ramp. Okay? This is not about showing the apparel, but this is about exposing the top designers in America to Indian textile, the fabric. So, 30 varieties of fabric we have already transported to United States is waiting there. We're going to display this and give this material to them of some part of it free of cost so that they can try what they want. And to promote this, this could be a game changer for India's economy. It need not necessarily be hand loom, even if it is machine woven, but natural fiber. If natural fiber comes back, there is no other nation on the planet that has the skills that we have. Over 120, over 120 distinct varieties of weaves we have in this country, nearly 50 of them will die anytime in the next 10 to 15 years because only one old person, one little couple are doing something, their children have become software engineers. And it will die in the next 10, 15 years unless we revive because we must understand this. I don't know if you've ever been to a hand loom, weaving thing, have you been there? In Bangalore, there's a lot of silk, saree weaving, you must go and see. At one time, you know, my father believed that I will go into this because my family's… the larger family was involved in silk weaving. So I went there to see, I was just 17, I wanted to see how they do it. I was, you know, cocking and like that. He's working on the loom, they're weaving a silk saree. He's just doing… I'm just… I think at that time I think I'm smart, then I realized that's different. And I'm paying full attention and looking. Simply he is doing this, simply one flower opens up in the cloth, another flower opens up here, geometrically perfect. If you have to put this into your software, it will take so much effort. This guy's got it in his head simply. So we have destroyed this mainly because of compulsory education. Okay? If a child, if a son or a daughter with their father or mother goes to the loom or to the agricultural field to work with their parents, the parents could be arrested because child labor. So we are determined to destroy all the skills in the country and have a millions of graduates who have the attitude of the educated and who don't know how to do a damn thing in their life. So we push the education system towards only 50% of the time that you spend in the school should be academics. Rest of the time in villages, agriculture, craft, music, dance, folk, arts, many things. For the first time the central government announced about a month ago, 50% of the time is academics. But to implement that, it'll take the way, the speed at which we move, it may take 10, 15 years because infrastructure, training, you need teachers and everything. So coming to fashion, I think all of you must be style icons in some way. That means you're not just imitating some rubbish that some model or somebody does. Something that fits you. Because each body is made differently, there is a certain way to arrange aesthetics for your own self. For your body and style is also for your mind and emotion, isn't it? Not just about your body. So it must arrange itself like that and please, maybe right now it's not possible for everybody, at least one day in a week, please wear natural fiber. Many farmers will not die if you do just this one thing. At least one day in a week, wear natural fiber. You may save many farmers' lives because this will be a steady market. If you grow more vegetables, it goes on the street. If you grow less, it's always a struggle. But if part of it goes into producing natural fiber as it used to be in this country, we were the largest cotton and jute manufacturers in the world. But all wiped out. Time to get it back. So the next question is from Uma. The question goes, life in cities have become a nightmare for girls. Grouping, leering, lewd comments in public transport are a norm that girls have to put up with and unfortunately don't raise their voice against. What to do about such upsetting civilization evens? It's an unfortunate reality. At that moment, I know what is the reaction what is it that we feel like doing, that's a different matter. But we must look at the larger picture. Why? Why is such a thing happening? See, this is because we are a society in transition. We have sort of given up our traditional ways of doing things. We have not caught up with another way of doing life totally. We're just hanging in between for too long. In the sense, probably thirty to forty percent of the young people that you see in the cities are migrants. They've come from elsewhere. One thing is when you're in a new place, you can afford to be responsible. They won't behave like that in their own village. Okay? Because there are consequences. Here they are new. And another thing we have to address, if we have to look at it compassionately, is if he was in his village, his mother, his Mausi, his Atte, somebody would be talking, see, we're going to get you married to that girl, see that girl, that is going to be your wife, whether it's going to happen or not. That's not the point. He thinks there is a solution for his hormonal struggles. Yes, it's a reality, come on. Between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five, this is at its peak. So even if there is no physical solution, there must be a solution in thought and emotion that he knows that, you know, this year you're going to get married. No, this year the crop is not good. Okay, you will get married next year. They may postpone it five years. But he is living in that comfort that there is a solution for him. You take that guy and transplant him into Bangalore city. He's just a wild creature. He's living somewhere, ten people in one room. You know, daytime one set sleeps, nighttime another set sleeps in the same room. That's a living condition, so I'm saying. And there is no family, there is no any kind of balancing factor in him. There is no society for him, it's just dog-eat-dog world for him. And for his hormonal stuff, there is no solution. Nobody's telling him that girl is your… for you, you know? His mind is going crazy. He watches movies, these days pornographic stuff is all over the place. He's watching it on the phone. So he thinks this is what every girl wants. He's unable to think beyond that. You must understand his problem. See, first of all, what puberty or adolescence means is, see, when you were, let's say, ten, twelve years of age, you looked at somebody, they were just fine. Certainly you became fourteen, fifteen. Your intelligence got hijacked by your hormones. You look at somebody, every bump on their body looks like a world by itself. Yes, this is the reality. Now that guy who is transplanted from a village to here and his idea of a woman was his mother or his mousy or somebody, now he's seeing young girls here, the kind of girls that he only saw in movies maybe. Now one drop of alcohol, the guy will pounce on you. Little more push he needs. All these rapes and things you're seeing is just this. Already he's out of control, he's somehow holding himself, put one or two drops of alcohol in his mouth, boom! He'll go crazy. So this is an unfortunate situation. It's a cruel situation for him, it's a cruel situation for those who are victimized by him. But we are a society in transition. It's time we address our issues directly. Don't go on thinking it'll get solved if we close our eyes and sit. It doesn't get solved. So as a society we must debate, are you going to go back to sixteen years of age, you can get married or are you going to go back to a place where you will discuss and see how to conduct this society. After all there are young people, they have their needs. How are you going to address this? We need to directly head on, we must approach it, not slinking around it, not hiding behind religious books and this and that. You need to address it, this is the issue, how to deal with it. If you don't do that, this is what they are doing. See, one thing is when such things are done to you, how horrible you feel is one thing. But I want you to also think, how degenerate does he feel doing these things? There is a certain degeneration. He can only do it when he believes he cannot be caught, isn't it? Because there is a certain degeneration of mind, essentially because it is just like a hungry child grabbing something and running away to eat. He is in the same mode with his sexuality. So we need to address this, very important we address it, the sooner we address it the better it is. Thank you, Sadhguru. We have questions from the audience now. We will be taking questions from the audience. Logistic members, please help the audience. You don't look like Mount Kamal. There is a question on top as well. Yes, please address it to Sadhguru. Namaste, Sadhguru. Namaskaram. I am Harshita. My question to you is, what do you think about the concept of hell or heaven? Hell or heaven, what do you think about that concept? I heard it. I was just trying to figure out where you are, what… is it heaven or if you jump it will be hell for sure. I won't do that. So, please sit. Thank you, Harshita. See, those who have made a hell out of themselves are always aspiring to go to heaven. Yes. If I… if I am sitting here and I am blissed out totally, look at my eyes. It looks like I am always stoned. Yes, never touched a substance, but this is the most complex chemical factory in the world. Is that so? Do you agree with me? The question is only, are you a great CEO or a lousy CEO of this chemical factory? If you are a great CEO, you would keep this all the time, blissed out, right chemistry? If you are a lousy CEO, you produce bad chemistry and you think it's because of this one or that one or that one. So, for some reason people are feeling miserable. Their chemical factory is not going the way they want. They can call it sadness, they can call it misery, they can call it depression. I know in Bangalore a whole lot of people are against me, continuously trying to troll me because of depression business. I'm saying again, for those activists, I'm saying again, if you know how to manage your chemistry, your depression will go. Even if you go to the doctor, he's only giving… going to give you chemicals, isn't it? So, do you think the pharmaceutical industry that they are using there has better chemical structures than my body? Do you believe that? That means you're a vested interest, you have investments in pharma industry. So, when this is feeling like hell, we hope that somewhere when we go up there, how are you feeling out there? That everything will be fantastic. What's her name? Harshita, Harshita. Harshita means you're not blissed out. So, this happened, this happened in Alabama. You know, Alabama state, it's a special state, it's a different kind of state, hardcore religious state. So, in a Sunday school, a Sunday school teacher was going all out, full rhetoric, full force. And unfortunately, the audience were not like you, they were all tiny tots. It's a catch them young policy. In his full rhetoric, he was going and children were sitting like this. Suddenly he stopped for dramatic impact. He stopped and he said, what do you have to do to go to heaven? Little Mary in the front bench stood up and said, if I mop the church floor every Sunday morning, I will go to heaven. Absolutely. Another little girl out there said, if I share my pocket money with my less privileged friend, I will go to heaven, correct. Another boy said, if I help people who are in need, I will go to heaven, correct. Little Tommy in the back bench stood up and said, you got to die first. Well, that's a qualification. If you want to go to heaven, you got to die first. So when you die, depending on your culture, we will either bury you or burn you or cut you and throw you to the birds. Yes? One of these things we will do, depending on your culture. So one thing is very clear, you will put your body back into the earth and it's a very eco-friendly thing to do. If you've not done anything in your life eco-friendly, that is one act which will be good. You should not take your body and go. You must put it back into the earth because this belongs to the earth. So you left your body and went to heaven. You know what is in heaven, Harshita? No? You know? Okay. So, what is in heaven? In Hindu heaven, food is very good. If you are a foodie, you must go to Hindu heaven. Nala himself will cook personally for you. He's the greatest chef. If you go to another kind of heaven, white-gound ladies will float around in the clouds. If you like that kind of ambience, you go there. If you go to another heaven, you will have virgin problems. If that's what you're looking for, you go there. But you went there without the body. What do you do with good food and virgins I'm asking? Hello? You don't have a body? These are all bodily problems, isn't it? No body. What do you do with food and virgins? In the Hindu way of life, there is a thing up there in heaven, there is an Akshay Patra. How much ever you eat, food will always be full. Well, when you go without a body, food will always remain full in the vessel. And they will always remain virgins. So, we have been doing this for a long time. This was one simple way. You must understand the manageral skills of the traditional people. This was a way of managing humanity. You're miserable. You... Don't worry, when you go there, everything will be okay. Solace. So, if it is a psychologist saying these things, it's okay. But you really made them believe everything is going to be better somewhere you can mess up your life here. That's not good. Somebody is in deep state of suffering. Don't worry, when you go and sit in God's lap, everything will be okay. It's a psychological tool. It's fine when people are in extreme states, but don't brand it and sell it everywhere because it's not going to work like that. So, now heavens are collapsing in people's minds. Why there is such an increase of consumption of alcohol and drugs on the planet is mainly because many people are not articulating it. But in their minds, heavens are collapsing. How many of you are thinking, one day when I go to heaven, everything will be fantastic? Not many of you, I'm sure. But in the previous or the previous generation, if you had looked, the numbers were quite significant. So, heavens are obviously collapsing in human mind because if you ask three questions, all the three heavens will collapse. Yes. So, now once human intellect became active, inevitably it lasts questions. If you ask questions, these things will collapse. So, people are trying to have alternatives right here that they're getting drunk and drugged right here. So, this is the moment all of you young people must understand this. At this point of time, if we don't raise human consciousness in a big way, if you don't teach people how to sit here absolutely blissed out by your own nature, believe me, in another fifty to seventy years' time, at least ninety percent of the human population will be on some kind of chemical. To be healthy, they need chemicals. To be peaceful, they need chemicals. To be joyful, they need chemicals. For everything, they need chemicals. I want you to know this. Seventy percent of US population is on prescription medication. The most affluent nation on the planet. Why does individuals and society seek affluence? Because the first step of affluence is choice of food, choice of nourishment. The second step of affluence is choice of lifestyles. The most incredible variety of food is in front of you and enormous lifestyle choices are there and in this society, seventy percent of the people are on pharmaceutical prescription medication. This clearly shows if you do economic development without also cultivating human consciousness, our wealth will become our biggest problem. So we are still on the threshold of economic development. This is the time where we have to invest in evolving human consciousness for all this previous question, the problems that you asked and everything. Fundamentally, evolution of human societies need to happen, but there is no such thing as a society. There's just you and me. It's only individual people. If you and me evolve, society has evolved, world has evolved, isn't it? Society is only abstract. It is actually all of us individuals, isn't it? So if individual evolution, in terms of becoming conscious doesn't happen, you will see ninety percent of the population will fall into chemicals. When they fall into chemicals, I'm not talking about this as a moral thing. If ninety percent of the human population goes on constant usage of chemicals, the next generation that we produce will be a generation which will be much less than who we are. And that's a crime against humanity. Every generation, the next generation that comes must be at least one notch better than who we are. If we produce a generation less than us, then we have committed a crime against humanity. We have taken humanity backwards. And that is what will happen if chemical usage multiplies and it is going wild. This is the time to raise consciousness. That's why we are here with you. To blow your mind without cocaine. I think Anjali has a follow-up question to that. So post her question, we will continue taking questions from the audience. So just going back a little, so psychology and psychiatry has been held, infamously held by the neck because of pills. Something that, you know, has been like a reason concern in everybody's mind, because at least that stigma of going to counselors have fortunately come down a little. But the fact that people go to psychiatrists and the fact that they are prescribed pills is somehow still there. And the fact of the matter is that when a patient is put on pills, it's not the be all and end all of it. They do not stick to their pills for the rest of their lives. They are put on the pills so that the psychotherapy or like the therapy works on them and little by little they are actually put off the pills and, you know, until and unless that entire procedure of putting you off the pills and making you independently live without the pills happen, the procedure is incomplete. Unfortunately, a lot of these procedures are, you know, left halfway because, you know, people do not complete the term of, you know, their therapy. But the entire science... You're telling me? I'm not... I'm not rubbish in the science. I did not rubbish the science. I only said somewhere in a quote, not even a saying, somewhere past quote that was put out, I said, if things are going wrong with your life, it's bad enough. If you get depressed, you're only multiplying the problem. For this, the activists have been... you also? You also? Okay. Okay, I'll explain that. I very much understand. I'm closely associated with various people who are in the profession and there are many people because every day I'm meeting thousands of people, not everybody is perfectly sane, a lot of them go off, they need doctors' help, everything. It's not we're discounting that. But if you do not bring the fundamental responsibility in every human being, that their physical and mental health is their business, if you do not bring this from an early age, you will see a lot more people will go off. Don't think everybody is pathologically ill. No. Those who are pathologically ill without medication for periods of time, they may not be able to come out at all. Some of them will never come out, that is also there. That's a different matter. But we are talking about all the fringe kind of madness which all of us have. I can also drive myself into depression, something that I want doesn't happen. Everybody can capable of driving themselves into depression. Isn't it so? Is it possible or not? So what you're saying, you think depression is a choice, like... See, please understand, there are some who are pathologically ill. It gets them in spite of themselves. But many of them push themselves into it. Suppose you get very angry. What is the expression you use? I'm mad at you. So consciously, willingly you're getting mad because you get some results in the society. If you keep trying it, because the line between sanity and insanity is so thin, if you push, push, one day you will cross. There are many, many, many people in the world who need not be ill, both physically and mentally, not just mental illness I'm talking, both physically and mentally they need not be ill. See, right now, for last fifty years, some millions of cardiac surgeries have been done. Today surgeons are clearly telling you, if you go off red-made, you eat the right food, if you exercise, you will not come for the surgery table. Is that against your cardiology? Why is psychology such an insecure profession? Absolutely not. This is one last thing that I will add before we move on for the next question. There is a certain diagnostic criteria for... So, I might be sad. I might be extremely sad, but that does not mean that I am depressed. I am entitled to my sadness. See, please, who doesn't know this? Do I look so simplistic that I don't understand somebody is sad and somebody is depressed? But is it possible that many people push themselves into depressive states at certain times in their life and the same people also came out in a determined way? Is it there, thousands of them? Yes. Many of them. So, if I say it is open, everybody need not end up with chemicals. Maybe it's against a particular profession, but we're talking for humanity. Thank you, Sadguru. Although I don't think Anjuli is fully convinced on the answers tangent, questions will be taken from the audience. Yes, sir. Can the sir please be given a mic? How do you get fully convinced and not convinced on a fact? If it's your opinion, you can be convinced or not convinced. Is it a fact that many of you, I'm saying most of you are young, you've not seen much life, but even in this little life that you have seen, there were moments when you crossed your sadness and became depressed for a few days. Has it happened to you? And most of you have come out of it without anybody's help. Or maybe with a friend who brought you a little bit, have you? These are facts, these are not opinions. All right. Yes. Question please, sir. Namaste, Sadguru. My name is Ujwal DJ, and I'm just a visitor, but I've been quite a lot following you and your teachings. Just one question in mind. In today's day and age where students are very well connected on social media, ideas which have been shared on social media, both on and off social media, the main question which I want to ask is many people find that there are an array of conflicting ideas which are floating around in social media. And sometimes, many times, these ideas are equally appealing as to the conflicting idea. So my question is how can we be sure that we are making the right decision and we are going to go on the right path? Okay. Thank you, sir. Now, once you say there is a right path and a right decision, you are trying to make a world full of fanatics. There is no right decision in your life. Whatever stupid decision you take, if you put your mind, heart and soul in it and make something out of it, it may turn out into a great thing. Is this the right thing I did? Who is to decide what is the right thing you did? The question is that's why I said even when it came to education, the question is not about what subject you're studying, you're sitting in class under the tree where, but is your student life being spent in a focused way or is it loose? That's a question. So there is no right thing to do, but if you put everything that you have into it, it becomes a great thing to do. So, right decision, right path, the moment you fix those things, we will become fanatical and you will see nobody will be right, everybody will pretend to be right. And that's a world we have created for a long time, it's time to change that. Questions from the audience, please. Namaskaram, Satguruji. I'm Rinda. So my question is can one spend a balanced time in academics and spirituality or maybe career and spirituality? See, anything that you do with your body is connected to time, it takes time. You want to run, you want to walk, you want to do this or that, everything takes time. What you do with your mind also takes time, but not to the same extent enslave to time. Really, you know all these timings, Mr. Bold runs something in nine seconds means because body and time are related because our sense of body, I mean our sense of time is only because of our body. You don't have to look at your watch to know what is the time. If you observe your bladder, you know how many hours you've been sitting here. I'm saying our sense of time is essentially because of body. We had sense of time even before the watch came, isn't it? Because physical is keeping time always. How long you can sit here, how long you can walk, how long you can do something, everything is decided by time. Time may be a relative experience at different times. You have seen at a certain time when you're very joyful one day, twenty-four hours, poof, went like a minute. Another day you're little depressed. I'm sorry, clinically depressed. Then that one day feels like a whole lifetime. See, when we are very miserable for some reason, that one day... I'm not picking on you, I'm just joking with you. I'll come for counseling. It's okay, right? So when somebody is very miserable, you will see time just won't roll. So time is a very relative experience, but still it's very directly connected to our body. If we did not have a body, suppose you don't have a body, you sit here for ten thousand years, what's the problem, isn't it? So when it comes to the mind, it is not as much enslaved to time as your physical body, but mind also has time. But there are dimensions within you which are not related to time. So this thing about right path, wrong path, all these things largely relates itself to body because it takes time, it takes away life. If you just take a wrong turn, it'll take away life. Maybe you lost half an hour, but you lost not half an hour of time, you lost half an hour of life, isn't it? So when it comes to physical things, we must be little conscious of which turn to take because it takes away our time. Mentally, you can take any turn you want, whichever way you want, because it doesn't take much time. So when you talk about spiritual process, it doesn't take time at all, it's an inner dimension which doesn't relate to time. So your education, you may be studying, you may be running, you may be working. To be spiritually doesn't take time. Only little initial guidance may take time. Afterwards it doesn't consume time because it's not physical in nature. Thank you so much, Sadguru. We will be taking the last question from the audience. Yes, ma'am, please. Namaskaram, Sadguru. Where are you? Okay. My name is Raman and my question is that at some point or some other point, all of us we feel kind of lost, like we're not connected to something or this idea of not belonging anywhere. So what is that phase and how can we come out of it? That's called freedom. Yes. See, people are always talking about freedom, but they're always thinking how to bind themselves to something or somebody. If you're really lost in your life, you're absolutely free, isn't it? Hello? No? So freedom is a... a territory which needs lot of maturing and culturing to handle. Otherwise, people doing compulsive things, they're thinking they're free. These are compulsive things. Somebody is drinking. If you say, why... why don't you not drink today, you can do it tomorrow. Why don't I have the freedom to drink? No, it's compulsive. If you're calling your compulsiveness as freedom, it's very unfortunate. You lost all your freedom in compulsiveness. So freedom is that kind of a territory where you have to culture yourself, mature yourself to exist free. Everybody, I think at some point, we provide these opportunities for young people to come and just be by yourself. No compulsive talking, no phone, no drink, no nothing simple. You eat what you want for nourishment and then simply be... Everybody must spend at least a little bit of time like this because only then you understand how compulsive you are. Unfortunately, we are translating compulsiveness as some kind of a goal in our life or freedom in our life. No. See, if you want to get somewhere in your life, get somewhere does not mean be better than somebody, do this, earn this, that. No. As a life, your experience of life should become a fantastic experience. So right now, all the crazy things that people are doing in their life, why? They drink sexuality, temple, this, meditation, whatever they're doing, why are they doing? Because they want their experience of life to become pleasant. Yes or no? Somebody hits the bottle, somebody hits somebody else and somebody does something else, but essentially looking for pleasantness. If your body becomes pleasant, we call this health. I'm talking yoga now to you, officially. If your body becomes pleasant, we call this health. If it becomes very pleasant, we call it pleasure. If your mind becomes pleasant, we call this peace. If it becomes very pleasant, we call it joy. If your emotions become pleasant, we call it love. If it becomes very pleasant, we call it compassion. If your very life energies become pleasant, present, we call this blissfulness. If it becomes very pleasant, we call it ecstasy. If your surroundings become pleasant, we call this success. Only for this last one, to make our surroundings pleasant, we need the cooperation of many forces around us. Many things have to fall into place. But to keep your body pleasant, mind pleasant, emotion pleasant, your life energy is pleasant, it's one hundred percent your business, not good for the business. Isn't it one hundred percent your business to keep this body, this mind, this emotion and this energy pleasant within yourself? If these things are pleasant, right now you sit here and you're blissed out. Now what will you do with your life? What do you think you will do? Really? Okay. She's saying, probably I'll do nothing. I'm asking all of you, tell me on a day when you're very happy or you're willing to do lot of things or a day when you're depressed, you're willing to do lot of things. When you're happy, you're willing to bend backwards and do everything possible. When you're little unhappy, how difficult it is to move you, isn't it? So why do you say if you're blissed out, you'll do nothing? It is just that you will no more be a vested interest. You are not in pursuit of happiness. Good life is an expression of your bliss. Now what will you do? You will do what's needed. Every human being should be doing what is needed, isn't it? Right now they are trying to milk happiness from the world, destroying the world in the process, completely destroying the world. See, today what is it that these ecological disasters unfolding, what do you think it is? In pursuit of human happiness, isn't it? Nothing else. In pursuit of human happiness, we have turned this planet into a bonfire and people are not even happy. Forget about being happy, most people are in different state of struggles. So it's very, very important. What is in your hands, first all those things must be taken charge of. What we do in the world, let us see to what extent the world allows us to do it. Your body, your mind, your emotions and your energies must take instructions from you, isn't it so? Hello? Right now it is taking stimuli and instructions from all sorts of people. So how the hell do you think you will go where you want in your life when somebody else and somebody else can make this body, if this person do whatever they want? At least what happens within you must be determined by you. What happens around you, it will never be hundred percent determined by you. If you work hard, little more influence, otherwise little less influence but never hundred percent. Outside situations will always be like that and they should be like that because if the whole world happens the way you want, then where do I go? Little bit your way, little bit my way, little bit somebody else's way, it's fine. But what happens here must be my way. If this one thing happens your way, will you keep yourself blissful, miserable, depressed, what? So essentially you must understand, you can call it stress, anxiety, misery, depression, whatever you call it. Essentially your intelligence has turned against you. That's all that's happened to you because there is no any kind of knowledge in your education system from ABC to this day how to take charge of the faculties that you have within yourself, there is no addressing it at all. If you address it, people say, oh you are archaic. This has become the norm in the country. If you say you need to do something with yourself, no, no, no, we do everything outside. No, you need to do something with yourself because otherwise you will not happen the way you want yourself to be. That's a disastrous life. Thank you so much, Sadhguru. It's an absolute pleasure having a conversation with you. Can I have free consultation? Yes, I'm sure Anjali will make arrangements for that. I'm so sorry, there is a constraint of time. I apologize for the inconvenience. She is the elected leader here, you can't go beyond that. You must ask her, she is the elected leader here. I can't cross over my deans, so go for it. Please ask the question. Pranam Jadguru, I'm from West Bengal, my name is Shorobh Roto Mukherjee. I have been following you for the last three months and... Was that a warning? No, no, why, why sir? I have been following you for several last few months and I have been watching your videos and literally I can say that I'm your fan. But I have one question that I have noticed that you have said that whatever we accumulate in our life, like our salary, our reputation, our wealth, our body fat also, it's all, we can say that it's mine, but it's not me. You say, I have seen this and it's extremely logical. Sure, I can say that the house is mine, but that's not me. I can say that the body is mine, but that's not me. Then what is me? Then what is me? If I release, whatever I earned, if I remove whatever I earned, then what is me? What is my existence? That's what I want to know. Why are you asking me, huh? Listen now, well, what is you? Right now, what you think is me is just a bundle of thoughts, emotions, ideas, prejudices, philosophies, ideologies, a hodgepodge of many things that you picked up. You're a scrapbook. That doesn't sound good. No, you're a cocktail. Shall we upgrade him a little more? You're a bouquet of flowers. All right. So what is you? This happened at the Cincinnati airport in Ohio, United States. People had lined up to check in on the airline ticket booth. One man just skipped the line and came straight in the front and thrust his ticket. The lady at the counter, she said, sir, there is a line. He said, no, no, I'm in a hurry. She said, everybody's in a hurry. You're on the same plane. Please stand in the line. Then he said, do you know who I am? She looked at him, promptly picked up the microphone and said, there is a man here who does not know who he is. Can somebody help him? So who am I is not a question that you ask somebody. It's a question that you ask yourself, make it more and more profound. If you had stood up, this is like a… what you're asking is like a morning prayer, you know, how people pray. If you go to learn one mantra, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And phone also you can attend in between these days. Even in the temple priest, you are running the phone in between, all this. This happened closer to Christmas. A lady in Minnesota was praying, was overheard by the neighbors. She was praying, dear God, please this time, last time that old fool Santa close came and he mistook my prayers. What I want is a thin, slim body and a fat bank balance. Last time he mistook this. Why I'm saying this is, you please look at all the prayers on the planet, dear God, give me this, give me that, save me, protect me. Does it look like something divine or does it look like simple survival? Simple, outsourced. To survive on this planet, you just need four limbs and a few brain cells which work. So right now, Sadhguru, all that is okay, but I want to know who I am. This whole who am I business became very popular because of Ramana Maharshi, you know? You heard of Ramana Maharshi? It's not a Bengali. So Ramana said, who am I and sat down there. People today think they don't have to do anything. If they once in a while ask somebody, who am I, they think they're being spiritual. I was… I was teaching a program in Los Angeles, there's a bunch of people, about hundred and fifty people, all prominent people, many of them from the Hollywood crowd and a whole lot of young women were looking similar, they… they're not sisters, they have the same doctor. And then one of them says, Sadhguru, I'm just teaching them a simple twenty-one minute practice. Why? To turn you inward, because you're asking this question out, you will not find anything. If I tell you you are an atman, paramatman, nonsense, where does it take you? Just more vocabulary. See if I tell you you are a soul, you are a divine entity, you are atman, you are paramatman, you didn't get anywhere. You just got more nonsensical vocabulary, that's all you got. So I said, we're teaching you a simple process, twenty-one minutes, how to turn inward. But you're telling us, all these twenty-one minutes we have to do all this, but Ramana Maharishi said, you don't have to do anything. I said, whoa, whoa, Ramana got to Los Angeles? But Ramana did nothing, that's a fact. He simply sat like that, cross-legged, simply doing nothing, absolutely. Rodents came and bit and ate his flesh. It festered, wounds became worm-infected. He simply sat doing nothing. If you can do that kind of doing nothing, immediately there is an answer, all right? But now in California they've made like this, if a mosquito bites, they'll call 9-1-1. Yes, that's how it is. In this state you don't ask. So right now, if this is an existential question, this is not a small question, you don't know who you are, is it a small problem? Huh? It is a fundamental problem, isn't it? And you're getting up and introducing yourself where you Bengal you come from and everything and now you're asking the question, the question is not matured yet. If you stood up and you could not ask question and tears came to you, I would have answered this question completely differently. But now it's a joke, so I'm joking with you, is it okay? Huh? Question is there, it's a good thing, the question is there. But the question needs sharpness to penetrate. It still doesn't have enough intensity that it can penetrate something. It's right now a casual question. So right now I can tell you something, who you are. But it's not in your experience. If I tell you something which is not in your experience, what can you do? You can believe it or you can disbelieve it. If you believe it, you are not any closer to it. If you disbelieve it, you are not any closer to it. If you believe me, you can go and tell some fancy positive story. If you disbelieve me, you can go and tell some negative story about me. But you have not moved an inch, isn't it? So if you genuinely if this question is burning within you, if tonight if this question bothers you so much, you cannot sleep, you cannot sit, you cannot stand. If it bothers you like that, then you come, I'll give you something else. Something totally different. To all the young women, because you're calling yourself millennial, so I'm thinking you're all eighteen. So to all of you, the simple thing is this, do whatever the hell you want, but do it well. That's all that matters.