 For giving this, since I have been a seeker since my childhood, that is what made me a writer, a story writer. And that's what made me a screenwriter. And that's what made me a filmmaker. Where I observe people, the traditions, the values and changing people, I experience them because since my childhood, I've been living with them. And whenever I met people, I felt them. I observed them. And I could see the changing people from every decade to decade. In 1940s, the values of our society and the values today have been so much different. I remember if I talk about cinema or film because I am a film director. So pardon my expression to cinema only. In 1940s there was a film called Porosi where they showed the story of two neighbors. And one neighbor found the other neighbor in trouble. His wife was sick, wanted some medicine, doctor. This first neighbor went to a dentist and asked him to pluck his golden teeth. He sold to the jail, brought the money and gave it to the neighbors for the treatment of his wife. Then in 1950s the films came when the friends, or his friends would sacrifice for the life. They would see each other, film like Sangam. Then 1960s came when their family relations were explored in human drama, the Indian families. And the 70s came when the violence erupted, when the rich man looked like a thief, a dishonest man. And the poor man cried, and Amitabh Bachchan was born. In the 80s somehow Mr. Rajesh Khanna with his romance specified us. And so the cinema went on changing the values of our hero-heroines from Lada Ganga to Gayatri. They became Katrina, Karina, and so many names now. So cinema is the reflection of society. So we pick up the stories from them, but there is always a question in my mind. I do connect gurus, mentor like you, from time to time to send some social message to talk something about my subjects. So here I say, Mr. Guruji, you are a guru, I am a student. You are a spiritual guide, I am a drama writer and the director. You answer every question, Sadguru, but I question every answer as a child. I talk and write about conflicts, you talk and write about the redemptions, the solutions. You look at the people as victim of ignorance. I look at the people of actors of the world. I complicate their thoughts with various dimensions. You resolve their thoughts with one dimension by becoming GPS, our GPS. I do not know, Guruji, about the finite to infinite. I do not know the measurable to immeasurable. For me, beginning is birth and is death, rest is journey. I do not know no man's land, a distance from his subconscious to consciousness. I am a student as you are once over, also a student. So now you are a master, a mentor. I would like to know, sir, what is a good student and what is a good guru or mentor? How would you define a really good student, bad student, good guru, bad guru? You have already claimed the mantle of being a good student. So I think I am free to claim the mantle of being a good guru. I think it's a deal. Now, for a good student, a good student will not look for a good guru because if you are a good student, you learn from everything. You are not looking for a good guru. Even if you meet a very bad one, you learn a lot from that. How you should not be, that is also important. In a way, this is what happened to me. When my longing came, I looked. I met so many people who claimed to be gurus. But the only thing I learned from them was how a guru should not be. And that's not… that's not a small thing to learn. It's a very big thing. It's a very big thing. Like as a director, I always tell my techniques and what not to do. I never tell them what to do. So for a good student, there is no problem. Wherever he goes, he will learn. Whatever he meets, he will learn. A good guru is one who doesn't teach you anything, but makes you so thirsty, you can't help learning. If people come to me thirsty, I don't give them water. I put salt in their mouth. They get so thirsty, they got to find it. Because if you show them something, which is not yet in their experience, the only choice that somebody has is either to believe what you say or disbelieve what you say. If you believe, you do not get any closer to reality. If you disbelieve, you will not get any closer to reality. It is just that if you believe me, you will have a positive story to tell. If you disbelieve me, you will have a negative story to tell, but you will not be an inch closer to reality. Above all, I think putting people into this kind of a dilemma, either to believe or disbelieve whatever I say or do, I think it's obscene. You should not put people into such a situation. So my work is mainly you are a seeker, but not intense enough. So my work is to make you so intense that it cannot be denied to you. Because truth is not hiding. You are hiding from it. Truth is not hiding. Truth is obvious everywhere in the universe. You are hiding from it because the intensity of seeking has not happened. If seeking becomes intense enough, knowing is not far away. Because what you are seeking is not sitting on Mount Everest. It's within you. So how long does it take? What is within you if it takes a lifetime? Of course, you are on a con job, isn't it? Yes or no? It was sitting on Mount Everest, you could not climb. That's understandable. Maybe you don't have the legs and the lungs to get to the top of the mountain. But what is within you if you don't find? Obviously, you are on a con job or no? So to get you out of this deception is all my work is, my work is not to dispense truth. Who am I to do that? So true, so true. To be on the lighter note, being a film man, which is your favorite Hindi film? They expect something from me like this. To be on lighter note. It's been a very long time since I saw one. Just recently, I think on the airline I saw one, this is about something in the Bihari mountain. I think Manji, something. Manji. That's a good movie. Yes sir. And Manji copied his get up also I think. I think it was very well done. I think something like that. And further more lighter, bro. Which is that screen heroine you fell in love with? I'm sorry. Which is that heroine, film heroine you fell in love in your younger age. Me? No, you love human being. No, there were enough girls around in my town. I didn't have to look to Mumbai. No, let's come to his fear now, please. That Guruji has been talking very fondly about his Chamundi Hills. And I'm fortunate enough to have visited Chamundi Hills. And I shot one of my film called Krodhi. Chamundi Hills? Not really. Yes sir. So I'm very fond of Mysore locations and all those I made for days and all that. So I remember I was making film called Krodhi in 1978. And there was a scene I shot because I thought that was the right location for this scene. Can I explain you, one minute was seen part of it. It was a Dharminder and Pran scene that one criminal has entered into the team of saints in disguise, the Guruji of this team, except him. There are a lot of saints who don't need any help from outside. So there was a scene when the criminal asked Guru, don't teach me about this God and destiny and all this. I know it all. He said that. I wrote the dialogues. He says there must be a very smart and very shrewd guy a thousand years back who created these two worlds called God and the other world called fate. He created world God because he wanted his children to follow what he said. But he wants them to believe. So he made them a fear of God and fate he created the world because when he child fails in following all the principles laid on by him, he says it is your destiny, it is your bhagya. So I know it all. And this was the question he put into Guru. And Guru answered him that there was one Shila and Chamuldi Hill who created and there were some writings on the stones. He says look at it in Hindi. Bhakti kuch bhi nahi ek shakti hain. Bhagwan kuch bhi nahi ek insaan hain jo mahan hain. Prem kuch bhi nahi ek anand hain. Jat tujhe wo mujhe ek dosne mein parap karna hain. Tumare, you have got a wisdom but there is a layer on you of the worldly pollution. So you are a intellect, you are a man of intellect but you do not realize the importance of it. So this is why I remember Chamuldi Hill because I wrote this scene there while sitting on the stone. Oh, hope not the same rock as me. So I thought that that is how you become Sadhguru because you belong to Chamuldi Hill. Thank you sir. Now my short questions in my mind since my childhood is what is the difference between a rich man and a wealthy man? Who is really rich man? One who has the new currency is a rich man. So you mean to say the man with the old currency has gone poor? Poorer? See unfortunately we have brought the world to a place where the words like rich or wealth have become purely economic descriptions. There was a time when people would talk about wealth of knowledge or wealth of wisdom. That's gone. Today if you say wealthy people will only understand it as an economic wealth because in many ways today society is driven by economics. There was a time when we were overly influenced by the British at least we would discuss the weather. Of course Mumbai weather there is nothing much to discuss. But today all conversations are around economy everywhere in the world. Everybody is behaving like an economist these days because it is the economic engine which is driving people's minds. It is the economic engine which is determining the nature of choices that we make in the world. It is the economic opportunities which determine what kind of education people go through. People are not studying what they want to know. People are studying that which will fetch them the maximum money. Yes or no? So maybe a few are still marrying for love. Everything has become economic. In United States a whole lot of people before marriage they are signing a contract. In case we divorce what's the deal? How can two people become one when this calculation is on? But even the idea of becoming one has been given up is always true. The idea and the dream of two people becoming one has been completely given up because when economic calculation comes you become exclusive you can't be inclusive. So economics are ruling us in every way. So when you say richness, when you say wealth we are only talking about money. Not just richness and wealth if you say he is a big man in the town it doesn't mean that he has a big brain. It doesn't mean that he has a big heart. It means he has a big pocket. Nothing else. This is a very poor way to exist. When we do this the ladies must know this. When economics become the main crux of everything that we do the feminine will vanish from the world or feminine will be subjugated. If women have to succeed they have to become like men. There is no other way. Masculine will be everything. That means world will become utilitarian. There will be no aesthetic. There will be no beauty. There will be no gentleness. Everything will be a calculation. What is useful? What is not useful? What do I get? What do you get? There will be no home. There will be only a marketplace everywhere. In the marketplace the rules of the marketplace are like this if I give less and take more that means I am smart. Yes or no? If you buy you go to the share market you buy for less and sell it for more that is smart. But life doesn't work like that. Life becomes beautiful only when you are willing to give it all and you don't care what you get. Unfortunately economics means an organized approach to survival. Now we have made survival. When we were in the caves survival was a big issue. We organized civilization with so much effort because we thought we could leave survival behind and focus on higher dimensions of life. But once again we have brought ourselves to a place or bringing ourselves to a place where survival is supreme. Nothing else matters now. Only thing is we have raised the bar of survival in such a way that it doesn't matter what you have you are still trying to survive. Affluent nations in the world, the western countries where almost every citizen has everything that is needed they are still fighting for survival. Fighting for survival like nobody else. I keep asking the American people you guys all the time talking about freedom where is freedom in your life? Because even if the most significant dimension appears in your life you can't take a turn. I keep joking with them. You know some time ago or 2000 years ago Jesus came and said come follow me a few people followed him. But today if your Jesus comes back and says come follow me where can you follow him you have a 35 year mortgage on your house you have still the student loan at the age of 45 you have a car loan you have insurance you have this you are not going to follow you got a bank to go to you are not going to follow anything it doesn't matter even if a divine entity arrives you cannot change the direction of your life this is not freedom. Freedom means you should be able to change and alter your life according to the opportunities that come isn't it if something truly significant comes you should be able to turn around and do something else because we have enshrined economics as the highest value all these things are gone everything is about money and wealth means just money again most of the wealth that we have today in the world is just made up in people's minds in 2008 when recession was setting in the western countries I happened to be at Davos the economic forum that year India was running a campaign in Switzerland the campaign was India everywhere all the American and European business leaders were all looking very depressed because recession was coming that means they had a few billion dollars less than what they had and they were all very depressed so depressed means you were very touchy and angry with everything Indian people were rubbing it in their face I get down in Switzerland huge hoardings India everywhere on the buses India everywhere inside the train India everywhere so it was irritating everybody so they asked me to handle a session called recession and depression I said recession is bad enough depression is worse all of you have always been complaining you don't have enough free time this is the time to walk on the beach what are you complaining about what is it that we are complaining about so there was a Chinese bureaucrat see the way we have structured the economic engine is such it is like that Panchatantara story where a monkey sitting on the wrong end of the branch and chopping the branch if it succeeds it will fall that's how we are right now so I said see the way you have structured this is if we succeed we shall fail that's how we are right now because if we fail you will be depressed if we succeed the world will be damned yes the way we are going so I said it's better you are depressed because if your ambitions are fulfilled there will be no planet left that's where we are going so this Chinese bureaucrat did a wonderful thing he there was a big mirror he put one chair and he said see there are two chairs one chair here one chair in the mirror they all said yes then he covered up the mirror and he said see now there is only one chair they said yes then he said always there was only one chair you made it up with a mirror that there are two chairs the wealth on the planet is not gone anywhere it is just distributing itself a little bit every time it slips out of your hands and goes to somebody you will get depressed he was saying it's moving to China thank you for sharing the chair also here there are two two chairs thank you very much for sharing two chairs now the other question comes in my mind sir about education to children there is a slogan going on in our country right to educate right to education and I always feel more than right to education there has to be a right kind of education because educating CAT is a bad it's not a right education right kind of education is more important that's what I feel and I say where do we lack the whole process of education for the so many years say rather century or 80 years that we have not been living with the intellectual power till now we face that say India is not is economically poor India is intellectually poor at the moment because there has to be a big gap of the whole process of education the right kind of educations to all of us children what is your take on it say India is not definitely not poor on intellect I would say you are one we are thousands I speak to all kinds of people around the world business leaders, academics, scientists but still I would say when I say it means ignorance no at random if you pick up hundred people from the street just like that Mumbai or Chennai or Bangalore I would say they are way smarter than most people that you can pick up anywhere in the world you shouldn't clap for yourself like that I should have left out Mumbai it is just that we do not have an organization for this intellect to find expression because there is no necessary structures to find expression each person operates this is one thing about India everybody thinks he is a genius that's our education and you will see everybody is an expert in everything it's like if you go to a local tea shop he will tell you how Virat Kohli strokes are not perfect how he should do like this, like that he will say how Narendra Modi does not know how to be a Prime Minister what he should do we face every time a Panwala tells me how to make a story he knows everything in the world but it's just that he can't make good tea just one little lacuna otherwise everything else is an expert we have this as a little bit of an issue in the country this is mainly because there is no outlet for this enormous intellect that country has there is no structures for people to find expression to that you just see take Indian people and put them anywhere they are just on the tops it's not about surviving, they are thriving because once they find proper structures and they understand the structure you can't stop them because there is a necessary intellect this is a consequence of a very huge history a cultural history that we have today there are experiments to show like for example if you let us say you put the smell of this flower on some food substance and keep it in front of a rat or a mouse and when it goes and touches it it will get an electric shock if you do this a few times next seven generations those rats will not go towards that smell all of them understand this is their learning so similarly within the human being a lot that was done in the past which we call a samskara that means intrinsic learning that we have is still paying off or in other words we still surviving on old food it is time that this generation gets the right stuff but that's not happened yet because our education systems and every system that we had has been disrupted badly in a systematic way because we have been an occupied nation for nearly a thousand years some came and just ravaged everything others came and systematically destroyed everything and they created an education system which was mainly towards obedience and clerical kind of work to serve Her Majesty's service in 1947 when we got our independence we should have seriously thought about what kind of education does India need we must understand this without any infrastructure literally without infrastructure without any kind of education our farmers are producing food for 1.25 billion people this is knowledge why is this not knowledge I am asking why is this not knowledge why is this not competence I was talking to a group of CEOs I was just telling them say I will give you ten acres of very fertile land you do one thing I will give you a couple of two different crops you take out the harvest let me see all of your MBA, MBA whatever you take out a crop let me see it will freak the hell out of you I am telling you it's not easy I have personally formed I know what it takes it is the more educated you are the more difficult it becomes really because it takes a very a very close sense of involvement with what you are doing and from this from plowing the land to the seed to taking the crop out it is not a easy process but our farmers are just doing it like that as if it's just part of their life something that they just inherited this is a nation with over twelve thousand years of agricultural history the only land like that on the planet in southern India they are farming the same land for over twelve thousand years there are certain records which show this so there is knowledge like this on various levels but we have tried to push everything aside and reinvent the wheel once again we want to learn ABC and do it like this so there is a disruption in the intrinsic learning that we have and the school learning that is coming to us I'm saying just read a book however educated you may be read a book and make one good sambar let me see it won't come that's exactly the question because we are thinking only what is written in the book A plus B equals C is only knowledge why is not making a wonderful sambar knowledge why is not growing a crop knowledge why is not making a pot knowledge we have very constipated sense of what is knowledge because the school system because this is come from elsewhere some Indian student in Oxford I was just not even a month three weeks ago I was speaking at the Oxford Union in Oxford University one of the Indian students has filed a court petition that he should be compensated for the boring classes that they are teaching in Oxford University I was very happy that's why I never went that's why I never went to the university that amazes me that is why the school system the textbook the six answers to the exam six questions in the exam after studying whole year it really amazes me that is why I always feel why not the internal enlightenment to the children see the problem is why we are talking about right to education is we have for example I don't know the exact number all over the country in Tamil Nadu itself we have 9.6 million children in the government schools alone okay 9.6 million children when you have such vast numbers then you have to do something what you do for the mass is never the best but what to do you have to include everybody so some rudimentary sense of education is happening because at least they must learn to if you don't know this 70s and 80s the objective was everybody should know how to write their name campaign was literacy means you must know how to write your name this is all that is they were trying to move them from thumb imprint to something written it did not change life in any way but it was a forward moment in a sense but we must know this when the British came around 270 to 300 years ago there was not a single illiterate person in this country they were amazed because there was no school rooms anywhere there was no school infrastructure but there was no illiterate everybody could read and write so they wondered how does this happen then they realized the system is so organic that it is simply happening from within so the first thing that decided was we must destroy this education system because if you educate them like this they will never become English see I am the only Indian left in this hall so this system of education that we have inherited from those who occupied this nation see we must understand this you never take advice from your enemy isn't it if you have some sense I am a scientist so when they leave your country and go first things to overhaul is your political system your education system your administrative system these are things must be overhauled immediately because they were created for a certain purpose for example even today the terminology we are using I am saying the district administrators in many states including Tamil Nadu are referred to as collectors in the British time they were just tax collectors their only administration was to collect tax and take it back home even today our administrators are called collectors what are they supposed to collect from us I am saying we didn't change anything we were just lazy we were just happy that we have become free but freedom is a terrible thing if you do not understand the responsibility of being free freedom is a terrible thing if somebody is managing our life it is better when we are not responsible only if we are truly responsible freedom is a wonderful thing otherwise freedom is a terrible thing maturity freedom must come with a maturity that is true I belong to middle class brought up by middle class family and most of us are middle class people what is this middle class I am doing well I am educated I am a graduate still they call me as your middle class and we most of us are in the country see this is an aspirational thing when large segments of the world of the country were in extreme poverty the aspiration was to become middle class middle class means you have college education you may not be very rich but you are college educated you have a job and you have a regular job usually government employees were middle class at one time slowly others joined up now middle class people are driving Mercedes Benz okay is it in the terms of the economic development or the knowledge or the enlightenment what is it which term they are middle class it was definitely an economic description and there was a big goof up with this middle class I think it was in nineties a certain US firm came which was I forget the name of the firm they came to do a market survey for Ford Motor Company and they came here and said some hundred million, two hundred million whatever number of middle class families in India so Ford can go to India no problem because it is the largest middle class so Ford came and set up the plant at that time and they couldn't sell ten cars then they found out a middle class in India is earning ten thousand rupees a month and he can only cycle to his office no question of he buying a car it took them a while to understand everybody have their own idea of middle class they thought middle class means in America middle class means somebody who is earning somewhere between sixty thousand I mean thirty thousand dollars to hundred thousand dollars is middle class here at that time India's middle class is if they earn approximately ten fifteen thousand rupees per month they were middle class which is just three hundred dollars so everybody has their own idea of middle class but we can take this to another place now you are claiming you are middle class because it's always I wonder middle class means neither other neither this side nor that side neither I have an identity whether it is poor or rich they are clear about themselves when I am poor guy he is clear that I am a rich guy now the middle class is neither this way nor that way in what terms that was bothering me aspiring to be rich but haven't made it ha ha ha ha ha look at it like that yes I am taking all golden opportunity to ask you the question which bothers me at times is about the world called democracy what is democracy and what should be the relationship between the leaders and the people the government and the people And in growing democracy, who gets corrupt first? The leader or the people? That's my question. See, the… In Tamil, the word for democracy is jananayakam. That means people are the leaders. That means there is no leader and there are no people. People are the leaders. That's what democracy means. Unfortunately, people have forgotten that they are the leaders. I hear even today morning or yesterday evening I was being interviewed. Today morning I was being interviewed by a journalist in Lucknow. So he said, these politicians, I said there are no politicians. They didn't fall from the sky. They're just you and me, somebody who is willing to do the dirty job for you. What you think is dirty and you don't want you, yourself or your children to get into, somebody got into it for you. Yes? And once you get there, the entire game is such that it just dirties your hands, you can't help it. It's become like that, the system. So in democracy, there is no leader and people. It's people and people. But obviously there are leaders and there are people today. That is because we have allowed it. Otherwise, every five years you could stand up and become a leader, that's how it should be. We have not kept it mobile enough because we have this tendency of giving responsibility to somebody and forget about it. Only when something goes wrong, we will scream. Otherwise we don't care a damn. When it is essentially... If you are making a movie or somebody is running a business, not after something goes wrong, you'll attend to it as a director. You are on it every moment to see it goes right. So I'm saying once you live in a democracy, you must be an active participant. It is not a spectator sport to sit back and forget about it and then cry when something goes wrong. I'm telling you, even your home will not run right if you don't pay enough attention, forget about the nation. Yes or no? Even your home, your own family will become corrupt if you are not paying attention to many things. Yes or no? You don't like it, but it's true, isn't it? If you don't pay constant attention, even your home will go bad and corrupt. So when this is a thing, such a large nation, if everybody doesn't pay attention to what needs to happen, it will go bad. Then we cry. We have this problem. When small things go wrong, we have somebody here. When big things go wrong, we have somebody there. This guy is free, free. He is never responsible for anything. This has to change. See, the most beautiful thing about democracy is power can change hands without blood flowing. Never before it's happened in human history. Whenever power changes, blood will flow. Now power can shift from one group of people to another group without blood spilling, which is a huge achievement. But we as individual need to understand that I am the part of the democracy and I'm equally responsible as my leaders are. See, I think one mistake we have done is in our education systems, in our homes, there is no awareness about this, that there are instruments in a democratic process through which all of us can participate in some way. On a daily basis, if you wish, this awareness has not been brought to people. They think if they cast vote once in ten years, because one election they'll miss, you know? Then the election day they went to Goa. One they will miss, one they will vote and they think they are very responsible citizens because they voted once in ten years. That's not how it works. You need an active participation. Then only democracy will work the way it has to work. Right now our idea of leadership is if we find a good leader, we will start worshipping them. A good leader does not need worship. What a leader needs? If somebody's a competent leader comes at the top, what he needs is he needs many layers of leadership so that he will find traction to what he wishes to do. But you will see if a good leader comes, he will spin on the spot because there is no traction down the line. Either there are worshipping people or those who are busy with their own stuff. So we need to understand democracy means we have taken the nation into our hands. We need to make it happen. Somebody will guide it, somebody will make policies, somebody will take some decisions, but the nation is run by the people. If we don't get it, then we will always be just complaining, we will not have a great nation. If we want a great nation, we have to stand up and take charge of this country. Taking charge of the country does not mean usurping power tomorrow morning. No. Where we are, what roles we have to play, we should be doing our best. People are always talking about politicians being corrupt. But I'm asking you, if there is no policeman on the street, how many people will stop at the red light? I think about ten percent. I'm being generous, I know. About ten percent. The rest, if you elect any one of them as a chief minister or the prime minister, what do you think they will do? Because they are lawbreakers anyway. I see, you know, normally I land in Coimbatore late in the night to ten o'clock, eleven o'clock, one o'clock, whatever time and I'm driving from the airport, red light, I stop. There is one little TVS muppet guy who's parked behind me, kee-kee, he will do. Then I don't go till there a green light comes, he comes next to me and says like this, what's wrong with you? He thinks I am a fool, all right? Exactly, exactly. He thinks he is no policeman, what are you doing here? Go. So, if you make these people into… if you put these people into positions of power, what? People who are in positions of power or on spotlight, so everything that they do is seen. But corruption is all pervading, isn't it? Within the house, between a girl, child and a boy, there is a distinction. This is corruption. Between a right hand and left hand, one is superior, one is inferior. This is corruption. So, corruption is not just up there taking money or whatever. Corruption is on all levels, isn't it? There is no even-handedness about life. We have brought this to everything. This has to go means spiritual process is needed. If I can't share something, I think I must have shared already, I'll leave it. Spiritual process is important. Because an inclusiveness is needed. You must transcend looking at things as superior and inferior, one is higher, one is lower. You learn to look at everything. This is one thing that happened to me very early. I realized I don't know anything, so I started paying attention to just about anything. One thing I discovered with people around me was, they could pay attention or they would pay attention, only to those things that they thought is important. Rest of it, they learned to ignore. I couldn't do this because I couldn't decide what is important. I found the ant crawling on the floor was far more important to me than my father who was asking me to do something at that moment. I'm saying. Yes, it was. It is so if you're a child also, isn't it so? Your child is looking at the ant. Does he not think the ant is more important than you at that moment? Yes, he does because it's more interesting than you. It is. It is the finest piece of mechanics that you can find on the planet. If you could build an automobile like an ant, whoa, it would just go anywhere, you know? So I got into this mode of paying attention to just about anything because it never occurred to me something is more important, something is less important. My father believed that he's a very… he's a disciplinarian. So he thought. So evening seven o'clock to nine o'clock in the evening, me and my siblings must study something, textbook. And he will be sitting there reading some magazine or newspaper so that we study. I have no issues about all that if I just open my book. I just open somewhere. I never had the habit, even today I don't have the habit. I always open somewhere. If I read one page, I know the authors mind through and through so I don't read beyond that. So I open somewhere and on the page I find a small speck of something, you know, some flaw in the page. If I just look at it, it held my attention. Entire two hours I was like this, looking at the spot. I never read a single word. Not did I look up anywhere. I just got absorbed into this little spot. There was enough in that little spot to keep me engaged for two hours. Why I'm saying this is, this is the biggest mistake we are making with life. We are setting this up in our children's minds. This is God, this is devil, this is superior, this is inferior, this is mine, this is not mine. In this you're causing corruption. You're bringing corruption to the infant to recognize one thing as high, one thing as low, one thing as mine, one thing as not mine. Here corruption has started. If you make this child that you brought him up like this into Prime Minister, of course he will be corrupt. Whatever if you, by getting into a position of responsibility and power, it only gets magnified. Somebody doesn't just get corrupt the moment they get there. They've been corrupt all their life. They've been trained in corruption by their parents and their society. Now it got magnified because the opportunity is magnified. So corruption is not up there. Corruption is everywhere. If you are concerned about corruption, just sit at home and see how many things are there in your life which you need to iron out. Yes or no? If you don't take this out, you have no right to complain about corruption because corruption is in your home, corruption is in your mind, corruption is all around you. It is just that those who are in positions of power, you expect them to be clean. I also do. But I don't believe that will happen unless down the line also we aspire for that in our lives because the kind of people we are, that's the kind of leaders we elect, isn't it? We have some aspiration to change it, but we are not determined to change it. Something that is negative, something that is rotting in a society will not go away unless we are determined to change it, strong determination to change it. Otherwise it will just go on. Rot is not something that you can simply get rid of because rot spreads by itself. It is cleanliness which doesn't spread by itself. You have to do the cleaning, but rot spreads by itself. So corruption spreads by itself. If you want to bring cleanliness, you have to strive. First of all bringing it into your life, otherwise it's not going to work, we'll only talk about it. Sadhguru, you're a master of knowledge, very history, mythology, everything. And I feel that I'm a child of ancient India. And I know Indian, thousand years back, Indian hundred years back, and Indian today. Thousand years ago this, how they looked. Not to the get up. How I have changed, how I have changed from thousand to hundred to today, and why I have changed. Is it a better need to be better? What is the change you're asking? Yes. What's the change as an Indian? How much we have changed? When we talk about India, thousand means we are talking about recent times. Ancient times. Recent. Recent, thousand India. Now it's a four thousand to five thousand, yes. So, India as a culture exists for over twelve, fifteen thousand years. At one time, we became a nation with enormous intellect, enormous capabilities, very crucible of science, mathematics, astronomy. The greatest scientists in the world have acknowledged modern science could not have taken a single step without the mathematics that came from India. So, there were tremendous minds that we evolved because we had what is called as samskriti. Today we have Isha Samskriti school, which is on these lines. Samskriti means some means equanimous and exuberant. Kriti means way of doing it. That is, getting life to a place where it is exuberant and equanimous. If you keep your life exuberant and equanimous, now this life will be full-fledged life. This is the aspiration of every life. Whether it is an earthworm or a bird or a tree, all of them are aspiring to become full-fledged life. So is a human being. Only thing is we know what is a full-fledged earthworm, we know what is a full-fledged bird, we know what is a full-fledged tree, but we do not know what is a full-fledged human being. No matter what you become, still you feel it's not enough. It doesn't matter what you have become. In somebody else's eyes you might have become big, but within you you know this is not enough because what is human is a limitless possibility. Expansion. Because for every other creature, nature has two lines. Between these two lines they live and die. For a human being there is only bottom line, there is no top line. So most human beings are suffering their freedom. If you're suffering your bondage, understandable. But if you're suffering your freedom, that's a bad thing, but that's what is happening. Human problem is what to do with myself. Whatever you do, it's not enough. Whatever you do, it's not enough. If you had come like any other creature, your survival taken care of, everything is fine with you, isn't it? Eating, sleeping, reproduction, if it happens, you are fulfilled. But that is not the thing with human. When these things are in question, they are big. Once they happen, they are nothing. So this transition, what you're talking about, historical movement of human beings in this country, there was a time when we hit a peak. But we became so absorbed in finer aspects of life that we did not have fighting men. Our biggest strength was we were placed in a geographical crucible where we were well protected. We call this Hindustan, not after a religion, as people think it is today, or some people think it's after a language, no. A land which lies between Himalayas and the Indusagra or the Indian Ocean, this is Hindu. Why we worship these two geographical features is we knew our well-being comes from these two features. The Himalayan ranges and the Indian Ocean protected us, so we could focus on the development of the human being. When every other society was constantly ravaged by external forces, we remained untouched for a long period of time. But when people came, they did not come as invaders. They just came in few hundreds, hundred to hundred people, they were actually bandits. They wanted to rape, loot and run. But then they found people were so docile. People were deeply involved in spirituality, mathematics, music, astronomy. Somebody who is looking at the stars can't fight. Someone who is singing music cannot fight. Somebody who is, you know, counting numbers or doing mathematics cannot fight. They found this was such an easy land. Bandits became emperors. They stayed there only. They stayed back. Why run? Yes. They decided to stay back and they became emperors. And these are not people with any administrative skills. They were barbarians. So they ruled that way. So immense suffering happened. But we had an evolved sense of intellect and philosophy and ideology through which we survived. It doesn't matter how you beat them, they didn't fight back, but they survived. They not only survived, they kept their culture, they kept their sanskriti, they kept their tradition. To whatever extent they could and survived and survived and survived. After over a thousand years of innovations and all kinds of rules over us, still this is the only culture on the planet which still has a flavor of its indigenous origins. Everybody else is totally wiped out. But it has not been easy. It has not been the best of times. What was the greatest economic power on the planet just three hundred years ago? We became one of the poorest nations in a matter of two-hundred-fifty to three-hundred years. I think at about two-hundred-seventy years, we became the poorest nation because everything was shipped out. But still we're coming back once again. We have an intellect. We need a determined leadership to wake us up a little bit. We're a little sleepy, you know? Because for generations, ten, fifteen generations, our mothers have taught us never confront a problem on the street. If you see a problem, come home. Yes, this is what our mothers have taught us. Because this is the mentality of an occupied nation. Don't raise your head, put it down and come home. Because if you raise your head, you may lose it. But if we want to generate leaders in the nation, we need people who seek problems and confront problems on a daily basis. The moment you seek and confront a problem, half the nation resists. It doesn't matter what's the problem. See, everybody was talking about black money, all right? It was one of the conversations always going on. When they don't have money, they would say somebody else has black money. The money that I have is white, what you have must be black. This has been the mindset. Today's story. But when you try to take some action, just look at the voices all over. Is it the best action? Is it the wrong action? That's not the point. We can debate it endlessly. But the thing is, it is some action in the direction. We talk about Sanskriti, you said about Sanskriti. And I wonder since my childhood, that in my home and other places also, I always find pundits chanting Sanskrit mantra. We get married with the mantras around in Sanskrit. Whether we understand them or not. You're not supposed to understand all that. That is what I was told. And everywhere I find mantras and pundits and all auspicious occasion or whatever the occasion is. And we respect somewhere, like the back of our mind, we respect our language, ancient language Sanskrit. But when it comes to our kids to learn Sanskrit, we tell them, learn that language which gives you a job. This will not give you a job. And we are very shy to allow them to learn Sanskrit, why it is so subtle. So this is, as I said, we have experienced 10, 12, almost 15 generations of abject poverty. So when we're in such a state of poverty, our only concern is our children should somehow survive, somehow get one degree, get a job. This used to be the mantra in sixties and seventies. Get a government job somehow or become a doctor. That's the best thing your life is made. Somebody else gets sick, but your life is made. This is coming from a certain fear that your children may not survive. If they don't pass this, this, this examination, they may end up on the street because that's all the options there were. It was not a false fear. If your child did not get educated, unless he was super talented with something, most probably he will end up as a street bum. That was a fact. But slowly things have changed. Our economic situation has changed dramatically, whether we want to recognize it or not. In seventies, how you were living and how you are living today, there is a phenomenal difference in the material wealth. So today our children have many more options. We can little go slow on this job-oriented education. Still, there is a large segment of India which still has to go that way. But those who are reasonably well-to-do can go little slow on their children. I created three different dimensions of education. One is rural education, which is called as Isha Vidya. To bring awareness to this, tomorrow we are golfing at Wellingdon. To bring awareness to rural education. This education is designed purely to get these children out of their economic and social pit they are in. This is from the age of six, they are learning English language. Within one year they become fluent in English language and they start working on the computers. This English language and computer is their passport out of the village. This is the goal. This is run in a certain way. We have another school called Isha Home School. This is for the affluent. This is run in a completely different way with an enormous inclusion of sport, art, theater, all kinds of music, every kind of thing that you can add to aesthetics to it. The school itself is created in a very aesthetic way. So the children experience a different dimension of life. And these children live in groups of twenty in a household with a dedicated couple who are parents for these children for the first five years. And the next five years they'll have another set of parents, they move into a different house. These children grow up with enormous exposure to all kinds of talents. For example, now I made their eleventh and twelfth, which is two years, into three years. I said, in our school it's three years. Because we have invested so much on music, art, dance, theater, all these things, the moment they come to eleventh standard, many parents go marks mad. Suddenly marks, marks, marks will come, they want to drop the music, they want to drop every other art they've learned. So I said three years. So extra this one year, whatever they are good at, they will become much more proficient in that. If they are good musicians, they will go into that. If they're good in theater, they'll go into art, we're exposing them to leadership, management, business, variety of things. But you children will get out of the school one year late. I think you can afford it because you are well to do. You have only one child or maybe two children, it's all right. Your child gets to work one year later, it's perfectly okay. Initially everybody thought it's crazy, now everybody wants to be there. Another dimension of education, here there is no formal education. There are only six things that they learn. They start with yoga, khalari paitu which is the mother of all martial arts, classical music, classical dance, Sanskrit language, English language. This is all they study. First four years, these six subjects, after four years they will drop any two of them and keep the four. And after another two and a half to three years time they'll drop two more. And the next five years to six years, they will do only two subjects. They will become experts in that. You must come and see these children, you won't believe how they are. They are incredible, because this is focused towards building the human body and the human brain to its fullest. If you want something to perform, first thing is you must build the machines. You must build the machine to a higher level of capability, then only it'll perform. Right now the biggest problem with the modern world is we are too goal oriented. We want to enhance our activity without enhancing who we are. This is why everybody's talking about stress, whatever simple jobs they're doing they're stressful because they have enhanced their activity without enhancing themselves. It's like you take your maruti ate it and on a racetrack, it will fall apart. It's not built for that I'm saying. It's okay to go to your office. If you raise it, it'll break up. So similarly, if you want to enhance your activity, you don't worry about the activity. If you enhance the human being, he will perform the activity according to his capability. So this is focused on just developing the human being. These children are in another zone altogether. Yes. Fantastic. You won't believe it. I must tell you this. The first batch, I was to initiate them about five years ago, when they become fifteen years of age, they stay with us from the age of six to eighteen. When they become fifteen, three years they take brahmacharya. It is three-year period they must take and at eighteen they must go off. It is not our compulsory beyond that till that point because we want them to focus. When I had to initiate them at the age of fifteen, they go for a sixty days of silence. Okay. Total silence. Now, I have to initiate them. I want to see how the children are doing. About three-four days before the initiation, I go there to see them. Their schedule is from morning three-thirty to eight-thirty in the evening, okay? In a day, at least six hours, they are sitting with their eyes closed, doing sadhana and all kinds of sadhana, at least about eleven to twelve hours of sadhana. In this, at least six hours, they are sitting with eyes closed. So, I go there to see them at three-thirty in the morning. The first batch was only fourteen. Today it's grown into big number. I go there and sit with them. Nearly half of them are girls and the rest are boys. I went and sat, I just looked at these children. They were literally glowing. I sat there and wept because I was not like this when I was fifteen. I know that very well. These children are literally glowing like lights. They're just sitting like this, unmoving. I just sat there for over two hours. They didn't move a bit. They just sat like, sat like stone. I just bowed down to them and came. This is fantastic. They are only fifteen, fifteen-year-old children. That is exactly what I am when I said the right kind of education. This is the right kind of education. Yes, but at the same time, as I said, we are a huge population. If we want to improve our education, if we want to improve our education, if we want to improve nourishment, if we want to improve the traffic situation, if we want to improve anything in this country, we have to reduce our population. There is no other way. One very interesting question in my mind I have been facing since my childhood, we are talking all this due respect to the belief of every guru and… No, you don't have to respect my belief because I don't have any. When you were talking about the Adiyoga, the great Lord Shiva, I remember my mother used to go to Lord Shiva's temple and I used to accompany her. And she would tell me that this Lord Shiva belongs to the three lokas, dharti, akash, batal. So my father brought one globe showing the geography of the earth and I asked my mother, is Lord Shiva, you are talking about the three worlds, I turn to the… I turn the globe. I said, does these Americans know Lord Shiva? So is Lord Shiva territorial or universal? That still question lies in me. Let's understand this in the right context. The word Shiva, shiva means that which is not. That which is… is physical creation. That which is not is that which is not physical. That which is not, where can it be in India or America or on this planet or in another galaxy, where can it be? It's everywhere. So there is a dimensionless existence. So we call it appropriately shiva, that means that which is not. Today modern scientists are saying that nearly 99% of the cosmos is empty. But not that there is nothing, there is something, but it is not something. Because our idea of something is we should be able to perceive through five senses. See, right now what you can see and what you cannot see is this. You can see my hand because it is stopping light. Anything that is not stopping light you don't see, isn't it? Right now there is air here which you're breathing, which is most vital from your… for your existence, but you don't see it. You don't see the air unless you live in Delhi. That's a privilege of being in the capital city. Now if you look up in the sky, you see the stars. But stars are a small happening. The real thing is the vast emptiness. So this we refer to as shiva, that which is not. Today modern scientists are saying this vast space has a tremendous amount of energy, but it is not any of the energies that are measurable by us, like electromagnetic waves or weak nuclear energy or strong nuclear energy or electrical systems or microwaves, none of these things. It is none of the measurable energies. But there is no denying it is tremendously powerful. So we said shiva means that which is not. And we said it is in the lap of shiva that creation happens. At the same time, we called Adiyogi also the shiva because he perceived that which is not. You are who you are. People call you a director, a film producer. Why? Because you perceived something. If you did not perceive that, they would not recognize you as that. So we recognized Adiyogi as shiva because he perceived that which is not. Because he perceived that, we called him also shiva. Then maybe there are any number of people at least in southern India, almost 90% of the males are named after shiva. We called that man also shiva because we know if he does the right things, he can also realize that he is shiva. We named our dog also shiva. Yes, because we know he is also made of the same stuff, but he does not know. But we must remind him by naming him shiva. We'll call the dog also shiva shiva, no problem. In another country, in another religion, they would be very insulted if you named your dog by their god's name. But you will see in the villages, dogs in only in the cities they have this problem, all their dogs have English names. This is because this pet dog business came from the English people. Far as dogs were there on the street and we never thought of taking dogs and fondling them like this, only the English were doing it because they were away from home and they must have been feeling lonely. That's the reason. Now you see in India every so-called middle-class family all their dogs have English names. So we will call the ultimate reality as shiva, the one who realized that, the Adiyogi as shiva, one who did not realize that but has the possibility, we'll call him shiva, we'll call the dog also shiva because he is also made of the same stuff, but he cannot know. But we want him to hear that sound. So every time we call him shiva, shiva, shiva, we hope that he will evolve one day. Thank you very much for enlightening us about the real meaning of shiva so much. And for those of you who do not know now on this 24th of February, we're unveiling a face of Adiyogi which is 112 feet tall because Adiyogi offered 112 ways in which a human being can realize his ultimate potential, 112 ways to do it. So as a way of honoring him and also to bring back this dimension that your well-being is not in looking up or looking down but looking inward. When we looked up in search of our well-being, we became hallucinatory. Then as modern societies, as science and technology came, we started looking out for our well-being. Once we started looking out for our well-being, in pursuit of human well-being, we've ripped the planet apart. True well-being will happen to a human being only when they turn inward to bring this revolution back into the world for the next generation of people particularly. We built this iconic face and a book is also ready. Now the idea is to move people inward, not up, not out, in. In is the only way out. Can we show the image of Adiyogi? Is it possible? Yes. On the screen? But I must say… This is the largest face on the planet. Yes. I've gone through your book. It's an amazing, amazing book and so much enlightenment in it. And what the best line which I found was that you said in your book, your joy, your miseries, your love, your agony, your bliss all lie in your hand. Some are suffering their failures, some are suffering their consequences of their success. Some are suffering their limitation and some are suffering their freedom. What's the way out? In is the way out. Because all human experience is caused from within us. Everything that ever happens to you happens within you. What happens within you must happen your way, isn't it? Right now we are trying to fix the world to fix this one. It's not going to work like that. If you fix this one, then we can create a world the way we want it. But right now we think by fixing the world, this is going to be all right. It's not going to happen like that. It's great, great in life.