Questioner: Sadhguru, I have noticed that in India, there is a kind of prejudice against the left hand. It seems that it’s considered in a way inferior and the use is repressed. I would like to know what is the root cause of this. And also I know that left hand is connected ti the right hemisphere of the brain, which is responsible for holistic thinking and intuition and this kind of activity. What would be the connection of repressing the left hand and the functioning of the right hemisphere of the brain?
Sadhguru: It is not a question of repressing the left hand. Different hands have different uses. All the Indians are putting their heads down! They don’t want me to talk about it. And there were not very powerful disinfectants in the past. So, left hand was used in a certain way.
There is a research which shows that left-handed people on an average live seven years less than right-handed people
Not just that, right hand was kept for vigorous, difficult, or hard actions. Left hand was kept for gentle, mild actions. This is not a cultural thing. Well, it has become a cultural thing over a period of time. But it is a yogic principle, that you do not use your left hand for doing hard things. Why this is so is – your heart, is it on the left side, or right side? Left! There are a few who are in the right, you are not one of them!
Because of the cardiac function being on the left side, if you are a left-hander, if you are using your left hand for all the more physically difficult actions – there is a research which shows that left-handed people on an average live seven years less than right-handed people. Because the left has the responsibility of cardiac function, which is not a small thing. So the left should not be in vigorous action. You must balance the two in terms of strength and balance. But in general usage, it’s best to use the right hand for all that that involves a certain physical difficulty or stress. You use the left in a milder fashion.
In most actions which need balance, in this culture, they’re compelled to use two hands
In most actions which need balance, in this culture, they’re compelled to use two hands. If you have to receive something, nobody in India stretches out their hand like this [extending right hand]. It’s always like this [both hands together], you must use both the hands. If you want to offer something, you don’t give like this [with one hand], you give it with both your hands. So anything which needs balance, you use both your hands. Anything that needs physically difficult action, you use the right. For certain other actions, you use the left. This is an understanding which has come by observing the body in a certain way.
If you use your left hand, your left brain or right brain does not get active. It doesn’t work like that. Otherwise all left-handers should have been, boom in their brain. It doesn’t necessarily happen like that. Energetically if you are active on the left side, it is possible that the intuitive dimension of your brain becomes active. Not that it’s possible – we know, and we have a whole lot of sadhana for the left. If you’ve been to the Devi temple, everything is on the left side.
Because within you, this is Ida [on left side], this is Pingala [on right side]. This is masculine [right side]. This is feminine [left side]. The feminine has to be handled in a certain way, and the masculine very differently. Because essential quality of what masculine and feminine is, is fundamentally different.
It is not a question of… it’s very rudimentary for people to think, which is superior. It’s a rudimentary mind which thinks which is superior. It is not a question of superiority. It’s a difference. If you do not recognise the difference, you will not be life sensitive. If you try to equate everything, all sensitivity about life will go away. You have to recognise the difference. But a difference need not translate itself as a discriminatory process. Differences are differences. It is not discriminatory in nature. Right now, men are not allowed into this pool [chandrakund]. Is it discriminatory? It’s just a difference. So, right and left are used differently. It is not that one is superior to the other. They are different, and they must be employed differently.
