Chetan Bhagat: Right now, there is just so much suffering…and you open the tv, or internet , everywhere. How does one cope. I mean, is it the same way; meditation, and praying, or is it staying present, or your breath – the things that you often talk about. Are those things relevant? Is there something else people should do right now, to just cope you know, and not lose hope? Young kids are telling me, we’ll never get a job, what is going to happen to my life? What would you say to such people?
Sadhguru: See, one thing is, a whole lot of people in the world go about, like they are immortal. Now, mortality is staring in your face like never before probably. So, this is one thing that is upsetting people. We need to understand, if we have to stay sensible, we must be consciously aware – every moment of our life, if we are aware, that we are mortal, we will organize and plan our lives, and the little time that we have, and the energy that we have, in the best possible way.
This idea that other people die – no, no, no, you and me will die
This idea that other people die – no, no, no, you and me will die. We want to complete our time and die, that’s all. There is no such thing that we will not die. But everybody thinks, other people die. No, no, no, you and me will die. That goes for everybody. We are all mortal creatures. We are all dying kind, alright. Now, with the virus, it’s staring in our face. But, it was always staring in our face, and we were missing the point.
Having said that, this is not to be insensitive to the deaths that have happened. Loss of dear ones, loss of.. economic losses, loss of jobs – everything. But we need to understand this – this is a time when mortality is so obvious to everybody – this is the time understand, our focus should be on the nature of our life, and the quality of this life.
Right now, most people’s focus is on their lifestyle
Right now, most people’s focus is on their lifestyle. So, everybody is crying about the loss of lifestyle. I am saying, if you have life, it’s good enough. Lifestyle is just of our times. If all of us were here a 1000 years ago, maybe all of us would be living in huts. Those people that you think in Mumbai are very poor, maybe we would be in same kind of squalor, and we wouldn’t mind. We thought it is fine, alright.
So, right now, somebody else is living in a better house. Comparing myself to that person, now I suffer my home. This need not be so. Do not be committed to lifestyle. Your commitment should be to make this life as beautiful as possible. If you shift this focus, we will go through any kind of time. We must understand this, compared to previous generations of people – there were world wars, there were famines, there were terrible events that happened in the world and including in India, alright – this generation, we have not seen anything like that. This is a bad one, but still it’s a soft ball. If you behave responsibly, it is not going to hit you. However responsible you are, if a war is happening, you know, bullets and bombs would just kill you. It doesn’t matter where you are.
Today, unfortunately in India we have this problem – I have been talking to so many people, [so] I am saying this – people think war means, it happens on the border. No – it is happening on the border, because a few brave men and women are standing there, and because of their efficiency, it is happening only on the border. If they don’t stand there, it would be happening in Delhi. If our soldiers are not doing their job well, their soldiers, the enemy soldiers will be walking on the streets, alright. And you know all the terrible things that have happened with the past invasions. Don’t forget that.
I’m saying, that way, as a generation of people, in terms of comforts and conveniences, no generation ever had these kinds of comforts and conveniences. No generation had survival better organized than this generation. We just have to make sure nobody starves. That’s all. Rest of it is only loss of lifestyle. Don’t make big fuss about it. This is a time for every human being to build themselves to a higher possibility. Either in your competence, in your emotion, in your thought, in your experience of life, in your joyfulness, in your peacefulness, in every way, please use this time to upgrade yourself. When time to act in the world becomes open, you will be in a great advantage, rather than sitting and crying.
Right now WHO is saying that it is not just this pandemic, there is going to be a mental pandemic, and there is going to be a suicide pandemic. See, our problem is, if we get one problem, we want to multiply it into many. No – if you get one problem, let’s see how to handle that. Don’t multiply it in your head. Yes, it is a serious issue. It is not a joke. Yes, there is tremendous losses for everybody. But, focus on being committed to your life not to your lifestyle. Then you will see everything will change in many ways.
Focus on being committed to your life not to your lifestyle
See, if you are committed to a lifestyle, without being committed to enhancing this life, inevitably one way or the other you will move into crime. Maybe, crime outside of the law or crime within the law. But, inevitably you will move into crime, once you are committed to lifestyle. If you are committed to enhancing your life, lifestyle will happen according to our competence, and the times in which we live.
See, we must understand, our lifestyles are all not made by us. Our lifestyles are of the times. See, right now, in 23-24 hours from India, I’m here in United States. If it was 100 years ago, coming to United States means, probably 45-50 days up, and 45-50 days down, alright. But, people are saying this 22 hours of flight, it is too long, repeatedly they are telling. I said, I’m glad it is only 22 hours. Otherwise people were, you know, sitting on s steam ship and going. Before that on a sail boat, not even knowing whether they will get there or not.
So, I’m saying we are having – as a generation of people, we are having the best of everything. Never before humanity has had these kinds of things. Now, if we commit to enhancing our life, rather than just enhancing our lifestyles, we can become the best generation ever. Because, our survival issues are largely settled.
We must understand this – 300 years ago, if you want water in the morning, you had to walk down to the well, or the river, or pond, to carry 2 buckets of water. Today, how many young men and women are ever capable of carrying 2 buckets of water, a mile. Physically capable. They are not anymore. So, you open the tap, water comes. Hot water comes, cold water comes. Everything happens. And you cribbing, and cribbing, and cribbing. Please don’t crib. Use your life.
…you cribbing, and cribbing, and cribbing. Please don’t crib. Use your life
Because whether you do something or not, whether you are joyful or miserable, whether you are making something out of yourself or nothing out of yourself – time is rolling away. Time is ticking away. You must understand that since you and me started talking, everybody who is listening, and all of us, including you and me are 47 minutes closer to our grave. If you think about it once in a way, it causes paranoia. But, if you listen to the body, every beat in the body, it is clearly saying, it is mortal, alright. Always it is reminding you, it is mortal.
If you are conscious every moment of your life, well you wouldn’t want to waste one moment doing something that doesn’t mean anything to you. You would do only what truly matters to you. If all of us were doing only what genuinely genuinely matters to us, we will be living in a fantastic world – pandemic or no pandemic.
