Questioner: I always wanted to be a musician and my… and, I have a south Indian father so it was a very rocky relationship with him. And he sent me for B.Tech in Andhra Pradesh. I ran away from hostel. I came back to Delhi, he put me into law, I quit that. Finally somehow established myself in Delhi as a small musician, and later on I became a part of Rally for Rivers and I volunteered myself.
Some big explosion happened within me yesterday and I told my like… I got a link on our Whatsapp group by Wing akka saying that we could volunteer ourselves for the next three years as being part of the Rally for Rivers thing. So I registered myself yesterday and I told my father that I’ll be leaving everything and…
Sadhguru: What are you leaving, man? You got nothing! You left the…
Questioner: So he…
Sadhguru: Everybody likes to make some drama about it, “I’m leaving everything you know”. What the hell are you leaving?
Questioner: So my father got really angry because he saw me settling into something after a very long time, and he was like “this is not what you want to do”, and he became so angry that he called you a ‘spiritual terrorist’. And he wanted me to ask you this that, “what is my responsibility as a son for my parents?” and I want to ask you this that, “am I doing the right thing?” I believe that I am doing the right thing.
Sadhguru: There are no right things to do in life. If you choose something and put everything that you have into it, it’ll become a great thing. Is it the right thing? Is it the best thing? When you say, “Is it the right thing?” what you’re asking is, “Is it the best thing to do in life?” There is no best thing to do in life.
There are no right things to do in life
Anything that you take up and if you put your heart and soul into it, it becomes a great thing. Is it the best thing? No. Then what is the best thing? There is no such thing. There’s really no such thing.
And now that you have duties towards your parents – tell me, whether it’s to yourself or to your parents or to anybody, don’t look at yourself as a Delhite or an idiot, whatever you want to call yourself. You’re just a piece of life, hmm? Hello? And today you’re here, one day you’ll be poop, gone. You are a brief life. I want you to just imagine, you’ve seen those insects which come when it rains, you know, ants which fly – suppose you were that. You just came alive poop, poop, poop and puff gone. That’s what you are.
Just compared to the span of your life, the insect’s life is looking so meaningless – and poop, poop, poop and gone. That’s what the rivers are thinking about you. Poop, poop, poop and gone. Yes or no? Compared to their lifespan you are just like that insect or less than that insect, isn’t it so?
Anything that you take up and if you put your heart and soul into it, it becomes a great thing
But you don’t know what the insect is thinking, but at least you – I want you to think and see, it’s a bloody brief life. Both for you and your father, and don’t you ever take this South India in a negative ground. As if a South Indian father is some terrible phenomenon. You tell your father, I defended his South Indian origins.
In this culture people desperately wanted to have a son, not because they had a kingdom to rule. Because they believed if they have a child – because the girl will get married and go off somewhere – if the son is there, he will be there, and make sure that before they die, he will take them to Kashi or he will take them to the right place and see that they get mukti. That is the entire process of life here. Because we saw the very process of life and it’s exuberant flying around for some time and pooof, this itself is a trap.
Suppose you remembered one hundred lifetimes of coming up, flying around, falling in love, reproducing – South Indian or North Indian – and kayanta sthanam [place for cremation], suppose you remembered hundred happenings like this, would it become meaningless? Hmm? Because of loss of memory everything is looking fresh. Yes?
So, your fundamental duty towards yourself and your father is just to remind them of this. It’s all right what your father calls me. What does it matter? He is after all South Indian.
So are you doing the right thing? I don’t know, sir. All I know is this needs to be done, and those who do it with all that they have will find fulfillment. I am not somebody who ever debated, “Is this the right thing to do in my life?” What was needed, I jumped into it – because if you are a constipated life, you will always be thinking about “What to do? What not to do? What to do? What not to do? What is my passion? What is not my passion?” Why the hell are you not passionate about everything? Hello? Why are you not passionate about everything in the existence? You’re only passionate about one thing means what? You’re constipated. That’s what it means.
Idiots do things that they don’t like to do… Intelligent people do what they love to do… Genius learns to do what is needed joyfully
Idiots do things that they don’t like to do, suffer for their whole life because they think it’s needed or they think it’s their duty. Intelligent people do what they love to do. They enjoy their life to some extent. But a genius learns to do what is needed joyfully. That’s when your genius flowers because it’s no more about you. Now there’s a limitless way of looking at life.
So, every aspect of this rally or many other things we’ve done, I don’t even have to tell people that this must happen, this must happen, this must happen. A few things, yes. Rest of it, I just make it up in my mind and I know it must happen, and it will happen. Not because… not because I’m exercising my will over the world, because I am just fulfilling the will of the world. That’s all.
