Synopsis: My question is actually also about identity. You’ve spoken about the need or benefit of detaching from a biological identity. And I’m curious, I think there’s a lot of people in the room and this question came up again and again. If somebody wants to act positively in society, there’s an instinct to start from the biological community, from the people that you...

Synopsis: What advice would you give someone with healing gifts? Someone who can help people create miracles in their lives to grow in service to the world.  

Synopsis: So, I understand, you know, the pursuit of freedom and justice. But oftentimes what I’ve dealt with in regards to religion, I grew up Catholic, I’m Catholic, is it’s view and limited acceptance of the lgbtq community. And the fact that I am lgbtq, and just trying to understand how I fit in. And oftentimes I was not accepted. It depended on how progressive a church...

Synopsis: What role can we play, when people aren’t as enlightened as the people in this room? We can’t really make the same connections as you because we do agency. Right, we are people that want to make a difference and are willing to kind of have the courage to, I guess, have compassion or pity, depending on the mood we’re in. How do we do this? Because that’s something...

Synopsis: Politics. In America we’re more and more divided than before and quite polarised. For me, this is something that troubles me. As someone who has some less than popular opinion sometimes, I’m conscious of how I’m received. Because of people who are passionate about these identities. How can I and others that share, I guess, my desire to bring people together in...

Synopsis: So, on the note of purpose, one thing that I think that I’m constantly chasing is, and I would say I don’t know when I’ve reached it, the pursuit of happiness. I think everyone in this room at some point, maybe now you’re asking yourself, or if you ask yourself like have you reached your pursuit of happiness in kind of understanding why it can be elusive? For...

Synopsis: When it comes to purpose, what has defined what your purpose is in this world? As it has led to you being here at Columbia Business School in the youth and truth program. But, as well as if you have any words for other people in the audience or just me, would be fine as well. Around, how do we find purpose in this world?  

Synopsis: This is not my time of the day. It’s really early in the morning, you know it’s my time to be plugged into the matrix, to be in the rat race, achieve, achieve, acquire, acquire. And then something happens to me after midnight, when the day is over I become very relaxed. And then I have these existential thoughts and I start thinking about other things. And this thing...

Synopsis: I feel a compulsion to entertain people. Does that make any sense to you?  

Synopsis: I feel technology is constantly evolving. And I have a feeling that mobile phones have really changed the way we are. You know it’s having a huge bearing on pretty much everything. It’s permeating everything. Social media, mobile phones, this kind of technology. Like sometimes I wonder, were human beings ever meant to communicate like this? Like I could be hanging...

Synopsis: So today we are here essentially to sense the future. Now what is this? Why have we given this title to this session? Sensing the future. Now I’ve heard you before, saying, the moment right now is eternity. This time travel, past, future, is all nothing. Everything is now.  

Synopsis: You mentioned success. You know, and everybody, you know I’ve noticed everybody is trying to define success. Along the way, I came across a meaning that I really liked. It was, success is the magnitude of the beneficial footprint that you can leave on the society, i like that definition. One of the definitions of success that I liked. But what is your take on this...

Synopsis: You thoroughly enjoyed watching the football. But what do you think about, what is your take on sports? It’s competition, it’s, isn’t it based on one-upmanship? Aren't you telling young kids that it’s about winning, you know? As a child, I didn’t get any kick from winning. It was very minimal for me. I used to really just enjoy playing cricket, playing football....

Synopsis: You went for the world cup?  

Synopsis: Do you dance?  

Synopsis: The question has to be asked. That, okay, I don’t have to have passion at this moment, or any ambition. I just want to live my life at its fullest. Full on happiness, joyful, and I just want to live at the fullest of my potential. How can I do it? What’s the step for it?  

Synopsis: So the summary of that will be that, as people, we choose to learn those things that we think have value in it, not things that transform them. Correct? So how do you suggest that one can expand his or her horizon to see beyond what his/her logic tells them to do or not do?  

Synopsis: As we graduate from school and leave university, and go into the corporate world. A lot of people follow their passion and take an unconventional path. My question is, should you do what you love, or should you love what you do?  

Synopsis: So, one of the questions that keeps popping up in everyone’s mind is, how do you define the clarity of purpose in your life? And that’s something that you’ve probably been asked multiple times before. But this is something that we still struggle with. And we easily get influenced by people around us, and we get distracted from what we truly are passionate about....

Synopsis: I tend to follow the same thing, that you mentioned that the education system needs to be changed. So on the same note, that the education system needs to be changed. It’s more to say that learning and adapting, it’s anyone’s life’s integral part. You need to adapt with how it’s happening around you. Also, Charlie Munger said that human being needs to be a...

Synopsis: ...

Synopsis: What event, decision, experience, or period, has had the most profound impact on your life?   

Synopsis: Sometimes, we’re in a situation where we’re surrounded by people who have a very high expectation of us. And when you can’t fulfil their expectation, you start feeling a very terrible feeling of guilt. And, it’s okay when it’s your mother-in-law, I’m kind of cool with that. But, sometimes it’s your parents, for example. Sometimes it’s the people who are...

Synopsis: How do you think positively in circumstances or, you know, external factors that are very negative?  

Synopsis: Expectation. We were talking about, before we came on the stage, in a cricket context. T20 cricket is, you know, something that people love. They love the sixes, they love the fours. But using that metaphorically, converting that into a conversation around humanity. Is there a false expectation? Is that what’s also setting up humanity for the positive aspects but also...

Synopsis: Let’s focus for a second on collaboration, because as an individual, I can take it that the Isha Foundation is something which is now a global movement. So talk to me about the spirit of collaboration. I mean, how you’ve developed, built these organisms like a human body that. You might describe yourself as, maybe a platelet within the human body. You know, there’s...

Synopsis: Is there a specific reason why we’re gathered here in your opinion? What’s the force that strung us all together?  

Synopsis: How to learn to accept the truth? Because most of the time, truth is bitter and it is a hard path. So I always tend to make few adjustments and assumptions, which will make my life little easy, but I’m far from the truth. So how do I start learning to accept the truth?  

Synopsis: There’s always the right or wrong decision. Whether the decision is right or wrong, is only eventually realized. How will I know if I’m taking the right decision or wrong decision?  

Synopsis: Is it alright to be ordinary? Or should I be special in something?   

Synopsis: In helplessness, many youngsters start thinking about taking the extreme step of ending their life. On this topic, many questions were asked. One of them is, many of my close friends are suicidal. What could I do to help my friends to get rid of this thought? And, they don’t want to do yoga.

Synopsis: There are times when you feel worn out. It might be because of the external pressure, or emotional trauma that we’re going through. Or because of the lack of inner strength. In such a situation, or such a circumstance, what do you think would help us get back our interest and enthusiasm in life?

Synopsis: I often find myself in a situation where I’m not happy with myself. I compare my abilities, achievements, and even my appearance, with that of others. Also, I think since I’m a humanities student, people around me constantly compare me with my other friends who have taken up medicine or engineering. And that really puts me off. And I think that’s one reason for...

Synopsis: Taking forward the theme, Sadhguru, about the process inside and work outside. When we look around the country today, we see so many problems affecting our fellow Indians. Poverty, discrimination on the basis of religion and caste, and inequality. And of course, when I look inside myself also there are problems. I’m very far from having a good process, I’m definitely...

Synopsis: In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna advises us to keep putting in effort without being attached to the results. But, I find it incredibly hard to keep working and not obsess over the results. And, I would love to know how we can better practice putting in effort while being detached to the results.

Synopsis: So Sadhguru, speaking of Chennai and change. All of us here are undergoing one of the biggest changes in our lives. Because up until now, we haven’t really faced the shortage of a basic necessity, that is like, water, or food, or shelter. But now Chennai is facing one of the biggest water crises, I think in history. Where they predict in 10 years the city’s going...

Synopsis: It feels like at every point in human history, for society, there’s always been this one challenge or one recurring. For instance, for most of human history, a society’s main issue would have been to protect itself from outsiders. In my opinion, right now, humanity’s or society’s issue is climate change or nuclear war. So, it feels like solving this has been...

Transcript: We must look at this. All life on this planet, anything that you take. A worm, an insect, a bird, an animal, a tree, or a human being. The only thing that every life is aspiring for is, it is trying to become a full-fledged life. An earthworm is trying to be a full-fledged earthworm. A grasshopper is trying to be a full-fledged grasshopper. A mango tree is trying to be a full-fledged mango tree. So...

Transcript: The simplest and the most fundamental thing that you can do in your life is, that you're life always. You don't have to be in any particular way, you just have to be alive. Everything else, including the body and the mind, are accessories to life. Accessories are added to life to facilitate certain things, not to overshadow life. We add accessories to facilitate, to add on and enhance. Not to overshadow...

Transcript: 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. 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...

Transcript: The most important thing, the most important aspect of my life is I never identified anything as small or big. Even today, I pay the same level of attention to everything. I have no, anything small or big. I have to kind of encapsulate that I can say this. You know, my daughter has been traveling with me since she was three and a half months of age. So that was a time when I was driving across India,...

Transcript: Essentially a long spell of peaceful, civilized life, a long spell. You must understand this. The reason why we got this long spell is, in the North, we were protected by the Himalayan ranges. In the South, by the Indian Ocean. So this is Himalaya, the Indian Ocean that we call today as Indian Ocean, at that time was called as Indusagara. This is why we took the identity, he and du. Hindu. Hindu is...

Transcript: You must understand, whatever stimulants, whatever stimulus you may take from outside, essentially human experience of all kinds is caused only from within. The question is only are you on push-start, or are you on self-start. Which is better, technologically? Self-start. So if I teach you, suppose I teach you that you can simply sit here and be totally blissed out, more stoned than anybody on the...

Transcript: This is a fantastic planet, has nurtured not one or two life forms, millions of life forms. The sheer variety of life of animals, birds, plants, insects and worms that we have on this planet is mind-boggling. Our ability to gobble up the resources on the planet is too much. We exploited the land, we exploited the oceans, our idea of life has become exploitation. From an atom to anything, we are seeing...

Transcript: See we are always thinking of changing the system. I'm not saying it should not, it should. But, within the existing systems we can do many things. Depending upon the individual teachers and the individual educators, how they operate. Because when you try to change the system in your own time, when you want to change the system, you must understand any system, even within the family if you want to...

Transcript: Gautama went to every known master of the time. He was intellectually so brilliant and his longing so great, if he went to a place, what normally somebody would pick it up in years, he would do it in weeks. The eight types of Samadhis, he achieved all eight of them but still he knew this is not fullness of life. Still longing. When nothing else worked, he took to an extreme path which is called a Samanas....

Transcript: The beauty of motherhood is not in reproduction. The beauty of motherhood is in inclusion. Yes? It's not because your mother reproduced you, that's not why a mother is precious. Because in many ways she saw you as a part of herself, it's because of that. Suppose your mother delivered you and never bothered about you, she will be your worst enemy, isn't it? The willingness to include another life as...

Transcript: People always kept account of money and things that they have. But, very few people kept accounts of how they are, or they're progressing, or regressing, or what is happening. People have taken on this mode, if small things go wrong in their life, they'll find one little person down there and say it's because of him. I'm talking about the husband. If big things go wrong, it's because of him, the big...

Transcript: Not every situation which seems like a solution is actually a solution. And not every situation which seems like a problem is a problem. So what is a problem? What is a possibility? It's like this, there was a little bird in Michigan, United States. And winter was just sitting in. This is the time he has to move South to warmer climes. But he was a little too happy and tweeting around, you know. He...

Transcript: Raise the bar of survival, keep on raising it. What was your idea of survival 25 years ago? What was your idea of survival 15 years ago? What is your idea of survival today? It's raising the bar, isn't it? Two meals a day was survival when you didn't have anything, if you have known such a state, it's good to know those things. But now maybe mercedes is survival. In every different segment of society,...

Transcript: There's common sense, there is sense and there's something beyond sense. With common sense your survival process gets handled. You don't have to be brilliant, you just have common sense. You will survive pretty good. You could turn out quite street smart actually. If somebody very intelligent is walking down the street, let's say Albert Einstein is walking down the street, a street urchin can easily...

Transcript: You must clearly evaluate in your life. How much of your life is happening from outside, around you? How much of it is just your psychological structure? This is something, distinctly, you must draw a line on this. What is, right now we're sitting here, what's happening here? What am I doing within myself? This distinct line, if you sit up what is happening in my mind? What is happening around me?...

Transcript: There is a very big difference between doing what I like and doing what is needed. When you start doing what is needed, there is no such thing as what is it that I like and what is it that I do not like. If you just transcend this one thing, that I like something, I dislike something. If you just transcend this one thing, 90% of your spiritual work is over. That's all. Because the karma generating...

Transcript: You know my great grandmother. People used to say, she's a devil of a woman. When I saw her, she was over 100 years of age. They called her a devil of a woman not because she ever did any harm to anybody, but she had a laugh. If she laughed, the entire street shook. Like that she laughed. She lived to be 113, 113 years of age. She was married into a very rich family, a big land-holding family. When...

Transcript: So in terms of dance, see, I must tell you this. We come from a culture where all our gods dance. Everywhere else god is a serious guy, a very serious guy. But in India, if he doesn't dance, we won't treat him as a god. All Indian gods, male and female, always dance because if they can't dance, he can't be god. Because dance essentially means that life is happening, see dancing in a particular style...

Transcript: See, Michael Jackson had the power to inspire a whole generation of people. What he did was so unique and eye-catching anywhere in the world. I'm telling you, in the remotest part of India, in some village where there is no nothing, they know Michael Jackson. I mean that's a level of inspiration he brought in. A whole lot of youth dancing like him in India. In imitation of him. So that was a powerful...

Transcript: So my question, it's a little personal, based on where I live. So I live in Montana. Much of Montana is very rural, they're only about 900, 000 people in the whole state. There are more cows than people in Montana. But there's a lot of poverty in Montana, people really struggle to earn a living there. So people often are working 2-3 jobs, very busy, not such great access to fresh food or good food,...

Transcript: Why are you trying to label a day as a bad day, or a good day? It is only human beings who, in their experience, they do these things to themselves. Why they do these things to themselves is, see today there was a glorious sunrise. Millions of flowers blossomed across the planet, so many wonderful things are happening, even the stars are twinkling right now, the moon is full today, everything is fantastic....

Transcript: Whether you're political, or spiritual, or you're in a commercial venture, or you're doing nothing, you're a citizen of this nation. You have rights and responsibilities of being in this country. Each person, according to his understanding of his rights and responsibility, and his intelligence and capability, should act to better everything around us, because we are all benefiting from the platform...

Transcript: Are your thinkings rooted in religion, meaning traditional Hindu practice, Shivaism or is it rooted in the practice you mention of yoga? Which is, of course, a practice which is secular but still related to traditional Indian thinking. I mean how will you describe your relationship to Indian traditional thinking and religion? See, for me, when people refer to me as a Sadhguru, what they are saying...

Transcript: The name India is given to us. It's an English name. This is the technology of dominance. You must see this, when they imported slaves from Africa, the first thing they did in the port was to change their name. To call you Cucu, Tobo, Nono, Pupo, something like this. If I call you Padmanaban, now you're standing like this. I call you Cucu, you're. First thing is to give a meaningless name which has...

Transcript: I'm trying to equate this to like, polarity. I mean we have, we have light and dark, we have hot and cold, do we have an evil and not evil if you will? Or a good and bad? See, good and bad is not in terms of your belief, or your idea. Anything that sustains and enhances life is what life should be looking for. See, don't look at yourself as a person, don't look at yourself as a man, don't look at yourself...

Transcript: I wanted to know basically, how to control excitement? If you could give me an easy or simple way, which I can follow. We can, we can do that if we just have you shot. After that you'll be cold and unexciting. Why do you want to control excitement? I want you to be in a state of excitement all the time. Your problem is, because see, people have been telling you this, if you're too happy, sadness will...

Transcript: One thing that we can know from birds, probably better than any meteorological instruments is, if we listen to them carefully, we would know the meteorological conditions, or the weather patterns very well. Many studies have observed this, on the banks of Ganga and also Narmada river, certain birds, which nest very close to the water, by looking at where they build the nest at what height, people know...