Questioner: So, I’ve been watching your videos for quite some time. And you know, you’ve made an interesting comment that you know, when you think of god, most people think of him as an old man sitting up there with a big beard, you know passing judge…
Sadhguru: You talking about me? Old, beard, sitting up here. Tell me further.
Questioner: And so, my question was, I was curious to understand what in your definition would be god?
Sadhguru: See, the reason why in every culture people have come up with their own concept of god – every culture has a different concept of god, but everybody has come up with some concept of god, because they have no explanation for creation, isn’t it? Hello? You came out of your mother’s womb and looked around, too much creation. You know you didn’t do it. Then you looked up your mother, maybe she did it. Well, she delivered you but she did not deliver the planet, you know that. Then you looked at your father. No, not him! You looked at every other adult around you. Nobody looked like competent enough to make all this happen, isn’t it? Yes or no?
There’s not one person here who looks like he is competent to create this whole creation around us. So, the simplistic conclusion is, there is a big man sitting up there. Uff, I fit the description. At least the western description I fit, in India I don’t fit. But now there is an argument, a big argument in the United States churches “Is god a man or a woman?” The last election they tried to settle that issue. Didn’t work that way. So, your ideas of god are essentially cultural in nature. You know, Idi Amin, you’ve heard of Idi Amin? You know, Uganda man? Hmm, not Tanzania but in Africa. Idi Amin declared, “God is black.” I agree with him, hmm. I agree with him, because if a white man can have a white god, why can’t a black man have a black god?
So, this argument also is going on, particularly in the US churches. They tried to settle that in the previous election. But in India we know god is brown. Especially Indians who live outside of India, very proud of this because, you know, we know what god looks like, because he himself visited India nine times. You don’t know this? Hello? Nine times he himself visited. To other places he sent his son, his messenger. Indians are very proud of this, to other places only messengers and sons went, to India he himself came. I keep reminding them, that is because god wouldn’t trust anybody else with Indians. He wanted to do the job hands-on with Indians. So, he himself came, not once, nine times. And he failed. Nine or ten times we can debate, but failure you cannot debate, isn’t it? Obviously, he failed, what do you think? With the Indians…
Questioner: It’s a perspective that we can take. He maybe didn’t do the best job, yeah, but he was good. But he was good, he created you, me, so many of us.
Sadhguru: Yes, but coming hands-on, it’s a failure, isn’t it? He could have sent somebody like everywhere else. So, our ideas of god are coming because we have no explanation for creation. What you are referring to as god is essentially that which is the source of creation, isn’t it? Because you are a human, you are imagining it has to be a big human being. Suppose you were a buffalo, you would definitely think it’s a big buffalo.
You heard of the big yak in Tibet, you’ve not seen. I went hunting very big yak. I drove all over Tibet, took permissions and drove off road everywhere to see the big yak because they told me, “The big yak from horn to horn is six feet wide.” I wanted to see this animal. “Oh my god, how would it be?” Then after driving everywhere, I realized it’s little got big in their heads. He’s little bigger than the domesticated yak, but it got so big, they said it’s six feet wide, the horns. Then I said I must see this. But there was no such animal anywhere in Tibet.
So, if you are a buffalo, you would definitely think god is a big buffalo, isn’t it? So, our ideas of god are childish, but it is a fact that you and me did not make this creation happen. That’s a fact, isn’t it? But you don’t know how it happened. With all the exploration of science, we still do not know how it exactly happened. Nobody knows, isn’t it? You pay attention to a flower, to a leaf, to an ant, to an insect – if you pay enough attention, each one of them smacks of tremendous sense of intelligence, isn’t it so? Hello? If you put filth to the root, it becomes a flower – fantastic or no?
Look at you, look at you – just the soil that you walk upon, look at you how you are sitting, became such a sophisticated machine, isn’t it? So, whatever is the source of creation – well sappy people are saying, “God is love,” desperate people are saying, “God is compassion,” other people are saying, now it’s a in thing in North America, “God is empathy.” They’ve not been hit by life yet. But if you pay enough attention to creation – because it is the presence of creation which has given you the idea of god in your head, isn’t it? If there was no creation, you wouldn’t think there is a God. If you pay enough attention to every piece of creation, what you will see is, it’s intelligence, intelligence, intelligence – intelligence beyond what you can contain in your brains. Yes or no? But nobody said, “God is intelligence,” unfortunately. If we had said that, definitely we would be populated with more intelligent human beings rather than the sappy ones.
You know, our center is in Tennessee. We have a large center there. When I was new there, I walk into this town, which is a one-horse town literally, a small town. And I’m walking on the street and greeting people, smiling at them, thinking they’ll be happy to see a new face. But it’s a different kind of setup. I’m just, I’m just at the right complexion, a shade darker than this cannot be there in that town. I’m just on the edge. So, one big man, this [arms extended] wide, over six feet tall, comes and stands close to me. He looks down at me and says “God loves us.” Then I say, “The way you are, only God can love you”. Before this went inside and worked, I had to go away.
Because everybody is concocting their own ideas. Leave your ideas, pay attention to the creation. Tell me if this flower has to blossom, nobody sprayed perfume to the roots, they put filth. Hello? They put manure. That manure became fragrance. This means, “Is there a tremendous amount of intelligence functioning in this rose plant?” Hello? You ate a piece of bread, and this became a human being. Is there a tremendous amount of intelligence beyond your brains functioning within you? So, this is the source of creation right now for you. If you access even one drop of that intelligence, you will live magically, instead of becoming hallucinatory.
If you believe things that you don’t see, you will become hallucinatory. But if you access things which are not in your access right now, your life will get tremendously enhanced. That’s what you should look at. Right now, there is an intelligence here, which can turn a piece of bread into a human being. If I took a loaf of bread in my hands and made it into a human being, who do you think I am? You would think, I’m the source of creation, isn’t it? Every one of you is doing this in your stomach, of course, not in your hands. But no access! So, if you don’t have something, it’s okay. But if you have it and you don’t access it, this is a crime, isn’t it? So, my entire life’s work is just this, so that you find access to the source of creation that also throbs within you.
You are right now a piece of creation, that’s fine. But you are also the source of creation within yourself. If you find access to that intelligence, you live in a magical way. Other people will think you are superhuman. But this is not about being superhuman, this is about realizing being human itself is super.
