Questioner: Sadhguru, you may not be aware of this, but in the last few days after the eclipse, there have been lot of people on social media, they’re referring to your observation that food becomes unfit for consumption during eclipse, and they’re saying they had food and they did not die.
Sadhguru: Are they disappointed?
Questioner: They’re even calling you superstitious and non-scientific. So, just wanted to hear your thoughts on that.
Sadhguru: Let’s understand, what is superstition? Superstition is – without any perception or knowledge about a certain subject, you make conclusions – that’s superstition. Now, the nature of life is like this – depends how sensitive you are, accordingly, that profound is your perception and experience of life. This will not come through intellectual accumulation. Those who read a high school textbook, if they think they are scientists, what can I say? Because a genuine scientist, a scientist who was probed into any aspect of life, into any aspect of life with certain profoundness, will not speak like this.
Now, as a yogi, I, as far as possible, I will never consume anything which is cooked, which is more than an hour-and-a-half old. While we are serving the food, the way we’re serving in the ashram, is hoping that all of you will graduate from being yoga practioners, to yogis. Not just bending and twisting, you are beginning to feel the union in the existence. If this has to happen, body has to be sensitive, and it has to have a minimum level of inertia. Now, if you eat food which in some way has deteriorated – it may not be rotten, nor is it going to kill you, you can eat it. It is just that, it will lower your perception. In my experience of life, for me, lower perception is death – at least death of the yogi. The man may live, the yogi’s dead, because he’s lost his perception, he’s lost his sensitivity.
So, the death of sensitivity, if it doesn’t matter to you, there’s really no problem, you can eat what you want. You can eat garbage, and still survive. Well, people are eating food that was cooked a week ago, ten days ago, three months ago, they’re keeping it in their refrigerators and eating. After eating it, they don’t know what’s the difference. To such people, what can you say. But for sure, they cannot have the sensitivity that I’m talking about, and I’m sure they’re sleeping eight to ten hours a day – that is death for me. Ten hours of sleep, nearly forty percent death, isn’t it – In twenty-four hours? So, if you wish to live like that, you can eat whatever you want. What is the problem? You can eat anything you want.
Well, I’m not a scientist either, and I don’t wish to be one. I don’t have either books to read, nor am I researching anything, nor am I looking through a microscope, nor do I have a lab in my backyard. I just pay attention to this [self] human mechanism, which is me. I kept it well, takes a lot of work… takes a lot of work to keep this well, doesn’t just come. So I keep it in a certain way, and that anything that happens in nature, I observe what’s happening with me, and I’m speaking that – I am also observing the life around me, for confirmation. Every insect, worm, bird, animal, tree, is saying the same thing. Well, if you’re going to discover this after many years, and a few billion dollars of research, it’s up to you.
Well I want to tell you, till recently, these so-called scientists, the real science is different. A scientist who has looked at something with profoundness will not speak this way, these are probably internet scientists, you know? They know every science, not just one. Everything they know, because they’re on the internet. So such people were saying, I’m saying something so simple – they were advocating that alcohol, tobacco, red meat are the best things for your life, till recently. Now suddenly they’ve all become activists against that, because somewhere, somebody said, after a billion dollar research, we’ve been saying it forever. What is a recent discovery for you, has been an eternal wisdom for us.
I’ll tell you, I was in conversation with a doctor in United States, of Indian origin. He was telling me, that he is the first one in western medicine to identify that the heart not only pumps blood, but it also sucks the blood back, the ventricles pump it out, the atrium sucks it back. This, he is the first one who wrote the papers, he sent me his videos, his TED talk, his scientific papers. I looked through it and I couldn’t believe it – that till recently, till a few years ago, nobody in the medical science knew that heart sucks back the venous blood.
Well in the yogic system, the focus is on the atrium, which sucks back the blood. The Ayurveda speaks about it, Charka Samhita speaks about it. In yoga, the focus is always not on pumping the blood out, but about sucking the blood back, because we are interested that our blood is as pure as possible, because certain level of impurity in the blood means, we lose perception.
We are not interested in terms of – what is the nutrition, what is the oxygen content, how long will I live – this is not the point. How do I live, what is the quality of my life, is my concern. How profound is my perception is always my concern, and this has always been the concern of this culture, and this science that we are referring to as yoga. So, if you think only if it’s written in a book, it is true, then you’re very superstitious and religious, you’re nothing scientific about you.
You think night means just absence of light? Or there is a phenomenal change in the very way the life happens, from day to night? You ask every insect, bird, animal, tree, even the rock, it knows night is different. If you sit here, with little openness, you will know it’s not just about light. If you close your eyes, even in the day time there’s no light. In the night also there’s no light, but is there no difference? Every meditator knows what’s the difference, isn’t it? So somebody will say, this is all rubbish. There’s just absence of sunlight, that’s it! That’s what they’re saying about the eclipse. Doesn’t matter. I’m telling you, during the eclipse time, don’t cook food and eat, you know, keep it and then eat. Don’t do that! Eat before, or after, because this is life sense, this is not internet science.
The greatest ignorance is knowing that you’re not ignorant – that’s the whole problem. All the internet scientists, I please request you, eat some fresh food. Keep yourself healthy, well, perceptive – not to me, to life! Eat during the eclipse if you wish! You won’t die, inertia will build up. If you don’t mind the inertia – anyway, you’re drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, doing things – maybe it won’t make any difference for you, possibly it doesn’t.
If you take a high-end car today, and go and pump gasoline in any of the Indian gas stations, which is 87 octane, your car will stop within a few kilometers. You need to buy special gas and put it into it. Why? Because it’s high performance. So if you want to be high performance, what kind of fuel goes into you, you look at it carefully. You are a junk machine. Eat whatever, drink whatever, what does it matter anyway? Live whichever way you want, there’s really no problem, okay?
So, if you’re disappointed that you did not die by eating during the eclipse, I’m sorry you’re superstitious! And the nature of life here is such that the earth, the sun, and the moon, have significant impact on this life. If you’re conscious of its ways, you can ride this, and make your life effortless and easy. If you’re not conscious, these same cycles could crush you, and everything you will struggle with, and you will suffer enormous prejudice within you. Because prejudice and resentment will make you suffer more than physical disease, or pain, or injury. Please don’t stay there, try some fresh fruits and vegetables – it could help. Whatever next eclipse comes, one eclipse you eat old food, another eclipse you eat fresh food – experiment and see!
