Questioner: You are the first live person who has spoken of so many of these things that I have read about, and now I’m sort of restless. I want to get on with it, and I know that’s my mind. And, I’m not even… My experience today has been that I haven’t been able to appreciate, to receive life here today. I’ve been anxious to move ahead to… to experiencing life but I can’t seem to do it myself. I can’t seem to sustain it.
Sadhguru: Now, let’s look at it through… like an analogy. You’re living in a certain prison. Let’s say, there’s a fort around you. Initially, if the wall is big enough, it all seems to be okay. Yes? Let’s say this is a 50 acre land, big wall. You lived in this only all the time. You felt quite all right. But then, suddenly you see up, and the birds seem to be going beyond 50 acres. The wind seems to be blowing beyond 50 acres. There is something within you which gets into the madness.
A seeker suffers much more than others
People around you, who pretend to be sane, they all tell you – stop that nonsense. Just do what you have to do here. Don’t have such fancy dreams, you know. Aren’t they telling you? The so-called worldly wise people. They’re always telling you. But you cannot suppress this. If you suppress this, you will suffer. If it doesn’t find expression, you will suffer. But if it seeks expression, you’ll suffer even more. A seeker suffers much more than others, because now he knows the pain of ignorance. Most people in the world do not know the pain of ignorance. If you do not know the pain of ignorance, you have no real longing within you, isn’t it?
You are the kind – if you eat a pizza you are happy. I’m not saying you should not enjoy your pizza. It’s just that if you eat a pizza, you think life is fulfilled. Now you still don’t know the pain of ignorance. You think by eating, sleeping, or indulging in this pleasure or that pleasure, life is complete. You still do not know the pain of ignorance. The pain of ignorance should tear you apart. Then the longing to know, becomes intense. If the longing to know becomes intense – it is just one moment.
The pain of ignorance should tear you apart. Then the longing to know, becomes intense
The reason why it seems to be so far away, is simply because the necessary longing has not come. It is just off and on longing. Accordingly, off and on experience. If the longing becomes so intense, that till I know – I cannot sleep, I cannot eat, I cannot breathe. If it becomes like that, just in one moment you will know. Because what you are seeking is not sitting on the mountain or floating on the clouds. It is within you.
You know Jesus told you – though he did his initial marketing about taking you to kingdom of god. The moment enough people gathered, he turned around and said kingdom of god is within you. If kingdom of god is somewhere, I don’t care to go there, it’s okay. If it’s within you and you missed it, that’s tragedy, isn’t it? Isn’t it so? If it is somewhere up in the heaven, I don’t want to go there, I’m happy in Ohio. That’s different. But if it’s within you and you missed it, that’s true tragedy isn’t it? Right now that’s the tragedy. It’s right here and people are missing it.
There was a time – when I first came to this. If I just look at people, I would burst into tears. Just seeing what they are missing. Right here, I am exploding with ecstasy. People are walking around with long faced. And it is there in them also, I can see it right there. But, they are going about totally unaware. I would just cry. If I see people, tears would come. Now, I got seasoned and I just laugh at them. Because there is no other way to handle life, you know.
So, one of the ways is – now, there is a wall, you jump up and fall down. You have a glimpse of the outside. There are many jumping methods. We can make you jump, and have you see a glimpse of it. The glimpse is shown to you – because that is not the end of it, that is a inspiration. If you don’t have a glimpse, then you don’t have the momentum to keep it going, isn’t it? Mind becomes hopeless – oh, maybe there is nothing beyond this. Maybe there is all there is, after all. Eating, sleeping, reproducing, dying – what else is there! This is all there is to life. You will try to convince yourself. So, a little glimpse if given, so that now suddenly everything here becomes stale. You want to know something there.
Glimpse is only an inspiration to give you the necessary momentum to go on with life. To go on with the search and seeking. Now, jumping and looking beyond the wall was good at one time. After sometime it becomes frustrating, because it’s just one moment looking and falling back again. So, what we need to do? Now jumping is not good enough. We need to build a ladder, isn’t it? I’ve always described Yoga as a ‘ladder to the divine’. Because now you are learning how to build a ladder.
