Questioner: Namaskaram Sadhguru. My question is, is it okay..is it okay to be hopelessly devoted to something? Even if your logical mind is saying that no, it’s… nothing gonna happen. Is that okay to be hopelessly devoted to something? As you say, it is a very sweet thing to happen to somebody, to be devoted, really devoted.
Sadhguru: To something! Chocolates… you are also…
Questioner: Maybe to something or somebody or anything.
Sadhguru: Devotees, right from ancient times… If you look at the more famous devotees. There have been many who are unheard of. More famous devotees if you take – you take Meerabai, you take the Nayanmars, and many many well known devotees of today. Whether Akka Mahadevi, or many of them. Any number of well know devotees – historically you know, they have made their name in history. Even those – unheard of ones, let not talk about their lives, it’s different. Within themselves they were in a great space. But in their lives, they always attracted too much trouble – always. Because, as you are saying, hopelessly devoted. That’s a very bad word – hopelessly devoted. But hopelessness is a good thing. I know everybody is selling hope. That’s a psychological game.
Anyway you’re going to die. Where is the hope for you?
You can experiment. I am not talking about devotion to you. But let me talk about hopelessness. Every day – one day suddenly if you feel it’s hopeless, maybe you’ll feel depressed. Just every day, you see it’s hopeless actually. What is the damn hope? Anyway you’re going to die. Where is the hope for you? It’s a hopeless life. Come to terms with the hopelessness. You will see life is really wonderful without any hope.
When there is [no] hope, there is no expectation. When there’s no expectation, there’s no disappointment. You just learn to enjoy. Spring is happening – this is not like Europe or America, spring means all bright colors will glare in your face. No! Subtle things will happen on the tree. You have to look for it. Like jewel it is sitting on the tree right now. You have to look for it. It’ll not blast in your face. Because this is tropical climate. It does things to you like that. You don’t even know when it change from winter to spring, you know. It’s not like in a cold country where it’s really cold and then sunlight came up, and changes are dramatic there. Here it’s subtle. You have to pay attention.
If you are hopeless, you would pay attention to everything
If you are hopeless, you would pay attention to everything. Goddamn hope, gets you on a hallucinatory mode all the time. So, practice hopelessness. Devotion, don’t worry about it. Come to terms with hopelessness. Don’t hope. You’re looking very disappointed now. Practice hopelessness. Conscious hopelessness. Really it’s hopeless. You will see, you will be in a fine place in your life. Hope is a trick. It’s a psychological trick. It’s a bone in front of you that you will never catch. If you put a contraption for a dog with a bone, it will run for its lifetime – this is hope. Become hopeless. Where is the hope for you? Believe me, at the best thing that can happen to you is Isha crematorium. Otherwise I don’t know where you will die. So there is no hope. You think you will escape? You think you’ll escape? No. So, no hope. Come to terms with your hopelessness. You will see, you will become so beautiful.
Goddamn hope, gets you on a hallucinatory mode all the time
This goddamn hope is making you so unrealistic. All kinds of explosions in your mind, which has got nothing to do with reality. If you become hopeless, you will simply do what you can do. What you can do, you will do. What you cannot do, you will not do. This is how life should be, isn’t it? Whatever we can do must happen. What we cannot do, no problem about it. Hope is not like that. It’s a madness which won’t let you rest for a moment. You can’t close your eyes. When you’re very hopeful – I will say shoonya meditation. Too much hope won’t let you close your eyes. Hopeless, no problem. Practice hopelessness, don’t worry about devotion. Because what you are talking about is not devotion.
