Moving Towards the Ultimate - Shekhar Kapur in conversation with Sadhguru

Shekhar Kapur : I just walked into a space where all the brahmacharis are chanting. There’s something special about their chants. It kind of hits you right here. It’s kind of energizing and powerful. So, what is a brahmachari ? I mean, we understand in Hinduism, brahmachari means denial. But you often said it’s not about denial; it’s about gaining something. Tell me about it.



Sadhguru : [Laughs] You know, for example, if somebody wants to climb Mount Everest, he prepares for years; probably for a lifetime. And then he goes into the harshest of the climate, denying himself every pleasure of life; of comfort, of family, of society. He denies himself everything that people normally want to have – all that to climb mountain. But do you really believe he is denying himself, or is he making another possibility, something which you can never imagine, a reality in his life ?So, that is brahmacharya. The word Brahmacharya literally means – Brahman means “the Ultimate”, charya means “path” – you are on the path of the Ultimate. Or in other words, you are somebody who is not willing to settle for small things. Anybody who has created anything worthwhile in his life has naturally denied himself a lot of simple pleasures that other people have. When you are making film, maybe you are not eating well, maybe you are not sleeping well. Sitting with your wife, having dinner with the family – everything you deny yourself, because you want to create something, isn’t it ? Isn’t that true with every man and woman who has created something worthwhile in their lives ? The same with brahmacharya. They are on the path of the Ultimate. Because of that, their attention is not diverted to other things what people think are valuable.

Shekhar Kapur : So, what is the Ultimate ?

Sadhguru : See, if you look around here, there are mud and stones and trees and plants – this is creation. From this soil, this tree is throwing out wonderful, fragrant flowers; from the same soil, a mango tree will throw out mangoes; from the same soil you have come and make movies; [Laughs] from the same soil, I have come, and I’m a Guru. So, there is something here which can make this mud into a tree, into a fruit, into a filmmaker, into a Guru, and into a billion other things. Don’t you want to know what it is ? Don’t you want to experience what it is ? If it was somewhere in heaven, I would not be interested. But, there is something within you which can transform a rice grain or a banana or a piece of bread into a human being. This is the ultimate source of creation.

Shekhar Kapur : Yeah

Sadhguru : Don’t you want to know what it is ? Don’t you want to experience it ? Don’t you want to know the power of it, the beauty of it, the joy of it ? So, brahmacharis are people who have had a taste of that, and now they want all of it. They don’t care whether they eat or not; they don’t care whether they drink, smoke and enjoy other simple physical pleasures that other people are addicted to. They have had a taste of the Ultimate; now they want it all. They won’t settle for anything less.

Shekhar Kapur : Okay. Now, I understand that till you experience it… [ you won’t know ]. Talk about the Ultimate. What is the Ultimate ?

Sadhguru : See, my work as a Guru is just to give you a taste of that Ultimate, so that your life goes into a tizzy, you go crazy, and you want to go for it. You had a taste; now you can’t stop. [Laughs]

Shekhar Kapur : So your work is to drive people mad….?

Sadhguru : Yes. Because if people sleep through their life, in the name of comfort, in the name of security, they are wasting their life. They must go all the way. This is not my desire – it is their desire also. Today you have a desire to fulfil one thing. If that happens, you want the next one and the next one and the next one. If you carefully look at your desiring process, you will see you are not willing to settle for anything limited, isn’t it ? There is something within you which does not like boundaries. There is something within you which is longing for the Ultimate – always. So, this is not my idea; this is not my philosophy that you should seek the Ultimate. You are anyway seeking the Ultimate in unconscious ways. But if you seek in unconscious ways, you will always remain frustrated; and the chances of finding it are remote. It is better to seek what you want in a conscious, focused way. So, brahmacharis are also seeking just what you are seeking; but they are seeking it 100% consciously.

Shekhar Kapur : So, what is the Ultimate ? [Sadhguru laughs] I’m looking for words.

Sadhguru : See, whatever we look at, we can only look at it the way you understand it right now. If I say something which is not in your understanding, I’d be compelling you to believe me or disbelieve me. I don’t want to go into such obscenities. I think it’s obscene to demand that you must believe me. I’ll never do that to anyone. So, right now, what you call as “myself”, you actually gathered over a period of time?

Shekhar Kapur : Yeah.

Sadhguru : In terms of your mind, it is a huge heap of impressions. In terms of your body, it is a heap of food that you have eaten. So, you gathered this. What you gather can be yours; can it ever be you?

Shekhar Kapur : No. Then what is the “you” beyond “yours”?

Sadhguru : So you are existing here without even knowing “what is me”. This “me” is not a simple me. This “me” is the Ultimate. This “me” can make a piece of bread, a banana into a human being. This is not a simple thing. This ame “me” which can make a banana into a human being also created the whole cosmic scape. It is not a different “me.” So, the choice is just this – either you can exist here just as a piece of creation or you can exist as a very Creator himself. That’s the Ultimate, for now. There is more to it, but for now….[Laughs]

How to respond to the suffering in the world

Questioner : As a capitalist society, here in the US and elsewhere, we tend to function out of our economic interests.  For me it is hard to be happy when I know that things that I buy involve exploiting people and that I am living in a society that in some way promotes violence around the world.  How am I supposed to focus on myself only and forget about the suffering of the world ?

Sadhguru : Oh, you are just on the way to becoming a human being! [All laughs]...  because a human does not land here as a human being, he has to become one, he has to evolve.  If a dog, a monkey or a tiger is born, it is already a dog, a monkey, a tiger.  If it eats well, it will become a good tiger.  A tiger is never sitting there, worrying itself out how to become a good tiger, "Will I end up has a house cat?" [All laugh]  There are no such struggles in it.  Food is all it has to take care of.  But you are born as a human.  To become a worthwhile human being you have to do many things.  What is human is so complex and so beautiful, you have to make it.  Your mother just deliver you as a raw material; it's your project to become a humanbeing.  How well you conduct this project is how wonderful a human being you become.  So, you are beginning to become a little sensitive to somebody else's suffering, that's good.  You are on the project. [Laughs] "It must happen, It must happen" something within you should cry.  Otherwise how is it supposed to happen ?

                                          Let's say half the world is miserable right now - it actually is.  Now if you make yourself also miserable, you are only adding to the problem.  They are miserable for one reason, you are miserable for another reason.  This doesn't solve the problem.  Only if you are joyful, only if you know what it means to live beautifully, you can create this for somebody else too.  How can you make it happen for someone when you don't know yourself what happiness is ?  You will think, "If I dump food there, it will be okay."  It will not be okay.  That's how the world has handled it.  They think if you throw some aid, it is going to be okay.  It is not going to be okay because you yourself don't know what it means to be okay.  So, if you are concerned about life around you, the first thing is you must be concerned about this life [referring to oneself].  If you do not know how to take care of this one [referring to oneself], how will you take care of that one [referring to other] ? Only if you know how to keep this one in the best possible state, you also know how to take care of that one.  Otherwise, just with good intentions, you will cause misery to everybody in the world.  More misery happened to this planet out of good intentions than out of bad intentions.

Questioner : I hear what you are saying but for me to focus on my own inner happiness is almost like a selfish thing to do ...

 Sadhguru : See, when you say "selfish", I want you to understand, the very basis of your existence here is the Self.  Everything is self-ish - put a hyphen.  [Laughs] It's all self-ish.  If you are concerned about the rest of the world, which everybody should be, either you are concerned about them as rest of the world, or you are concerned about them just the way you are concerned about yourself.

                            If you are concerned about that one just as you are concerned about this one, if you go to fix that one without fixing this one, what will that one tell you ?  That one will tell you, "First take care of yourself.  What nonsense are you going to do to me ?"

Questioner : It's hard for me to sit down and focus on yoga or something like that ..........

Sadhguru : That is because you have prejudiced ideas about yoga.

Questioner : If someone is getting slaughtered in Darfur, Africa right now with a machete, it is hard for me to go to the mall, hang out with my friends and enjoy myself.

Sadhguru : Going to the mall is different, doing yoga is different. [All laugh.]  Yoga does not mean that you have to sit and focus on yourself.  Whether you go to the Darfur or to the neighborhood, there are problems everywhere. If you reach out to the problem in the neighborhood or in Darfur, wherever you wish to, wherever you are capable of doing something, in what condition would you like to go there, both physically and mentally ?

                               We are working in Sierra Leone.  Let's say tomorrow morning I'll drop you in Sierra Leone.  I'll give you two years time to make a difference; let me see.  You will get lost in the problem.  I have dropped people there who have spent three, four, five years training themselves to do this.  Now they went there.  Just go and see the kind of difference they have made in three month's time because they know what to do with themselves and what to do with other people.  If you do not invest this time in yourself to enhance your capabilities, if you just go there with great emotion, you will get lost in the problem.  Just good intentions won't do.

                              If you want to make a difference, you need capability.  Otherwise you will sit in your house and crib about everything in the world, and nothing happens.  If you are interested in doing something, the first thing is how to enhance your capabilities, your own ability to deal with life.  Otherwise how are you going to reach out to anybody and do anything ?  In the remotest part of India, at every street corner, if you go and sit in the tea shop, right there revolutions happen; they change the world.  But the moment the tea is over, the revolution is over. [All Laugh]  Haven't you seen tea shop revolutions ? Right there everything is happening - they know how to run the country, they are advising the prime ministers, they can be the batting coaches for Tendulkar [great indian cricketer].  The only thing is they don't know how to make a good tea. [All Laugh]  Everything else they know.  So, just being concerned, just being emotionally charged about a problem is not a solution.  Solutions will come only when we empower ourselves.  If you do not take time to empower yourself there will be just not one Darfur, we will create a thousand Darfurs on this planet.

                              Out of good intentions people have done more horrible things than out of bad intentions.  So if you are concerned about humanity, please empower yourself, so that no matter what kind of situation you are placed in, you are not going to be broken and shattered by the situation, you will do the best you can do.  First empower yourself, is that a crime? That is yoga - a technology to empower yourself.

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   EXPERIENCES OF ISHA MEDITATORS WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE IN SIERRA LEONE

                  "After going there, I realized how advanced India is.  Sierra Leone is in such a bad state.  I had never imagined that even today, people are living in such conditions.  They don't have proper food to eat.  They don't have proper clothes to wear.  Not just for a particular community - the whole country is like that.  There is no proper education.  There is no culture.  There are no role models.  There is nobody to look up to.  It's just so painful to see that.  I could not believe that in today's world, there is a place like that.  While we are living this kind of life, there is another part of the world where people are living in such conditions - such unimaginably pathetic conditions.

                        Just the simple thing that there is somebody caring for them, there is somebody to be with them, not really offering any money or anything, but there is a human being standing next to them as a human being - it meant so much to them.  And it meant so much to us.

                    For all of us, these two month's in Sierra Leone have been one of the greatest experiences, one of the deepest experiences in our lives.

                                                                    Swami Rijuda

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                                          "I have been trying to write something about Africa for the last two months.  Usually words come so easy but now I find a lump in the throat and a tightness in my heart with the very thought of this people and this land.

                                          Africa broke my heart.  I was devastated, shattered, being there.  I had always wanted to work there, but the ideas I had about it were nothing compared to the reality of the whole situation.  My deepest pain is seeing human beings unable to reach their full potential, unable to even have a chance of knowing life deeper than just survival.  And all this was there; a diminished humanity, and the whole situation obscenely exaggerated by the efforts of so many people wanting to do something but incapable of really making a difference, and by those who are still seeking to exploit and exploit and exploit.

                                        Whether it was War, exploitation, slavery, greed, whatever the reason in the past, for ignoring and misusing an entire continent's plight, I cannot see any reason.  There is no justification for the fact that millions of people have to live in such conditions when the world is splurging in luxury.  Tears flood my eyes as I write this and all I can say is that after being there, I cannot eat as I did before.

                                        Every morsel of food that I put into my mouth reminds me of the six weeks we had there.  Six weeks where, for the first time in my life, I had to think whether I would spend 1 dollar to eat something to sate my hunger or not spend it.  It is not that food was not available, but it was not easily accessible because of the pace of work that was going on.

                                        And that itself made me realize just how much I take for granted.  These people, still dancing,  still celebrating life in spite of all the struggles, all the fight for survival, have made me more human and more willing."

                                                                                        Tina, Isha meditator.

"I am a hindu and I love my muslim brothers"

To move into deeper meanings of life, I will say that I am a nobody and am in love with everybody.  Truly, after watching this movie"My name is Khan", it just struck me that how after the 9/11 episode, people have started aligning the name of terrorism with every muslims of the world.  How just a few insane people have taken to themselves has the "Protectors of Islam" and are waging a cowardice war in the name of "Jihad". 
                                            It's true that life becomes difficult when people start doubting our identity but atleast within ourself we can feel that we are innocent and we cannot let the people decide on how should we live our life.  But the mass lives on people's opinion and hence they can never be at peace with themselves.
                                            This is where Sadhguru comes forth.  I remember him saying that controlling the outside situation may not be in your hands but what happens within yourself is definitely under your control. 
                                            There is one beautiful scene in this movie where Shahrukh Khan goes to the restaurant along with his companions.  Just when he is about to eat, he remembers that It's time to pray and readies himself to go for his namaaz (prayer).  But the companions points out to him that It will look so embarrassing to do namaaz in full public view.  Beautifully, Shahrukh points out that Does the time of his prayer should be decided by the people's opinion or it should be decided by the kind of relationship he has with God.  Which is important ?  It just struck me that how often we may have postponded our "Meditation and Practices", fearing that what people will think of us if we do it in full public view ?  Truly, there are many kinds of situation we face while travelling in the train and how often we postpone our practices because of what people may think about us. There are many lessons to be learned in life.
                                            In this movie, "Shahrukh" suffers from Asperger Syndrome, an Autism like disease.  Though he has limited capabilities but he is gifted with a full blown loving heart.  It again struck me when Sadhguru says that on the outside, we may all be differently capabled but from the inside, we can live our life to peaks.
                              Shahrukh reaches in a village which is struck by a hurricane to save a old woman, where love is the only relationship between them.  Though he keeps saying that he cannot do much to help them but the matter of fact is that he is there to help, in the midst of all the danger.  It is not about what we do but it is always about how we feel within ourself.

 Dvd is available at My Name is Khan

Sharing lighter moments with Osho

Questioner : I AM A POLACK. I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY PEOPLE THINK THAT POLACKS DON'T HAVE ANY INTELLIGENCE.




Vedam,

I ALSO WONDER why people think that Polacks don't have intelligence. They have a different kind of intelligence, that is true -- so different, a unique kind of intelligence.  Nobody else in the world has that.

I have heard about the Polack Pope:

He was aboard a plane and the pilot said, "It is unfortunate that out of the four engines one has stopped working, but there is no need to worry. Three engines are more than enough to take us to our destination. The only thing is we will be three hours late."

After fifteen minutes he said, "Sorry to interrupt you again: the second engine has stopped, but no need to worry. Two engines are still more than enough and we will complete our journey, but now we will be six hours late."


And after half an hour he announced again, "Ladies and gentlemen, sorry to announce that the third engine has also failed, but still there is no need to panic. One engine is enough to take us to the destination, but now we will be nine hours late."

And after just five minutes he said, "If you want to say your prayers you can say them, because the last engine has stopped?"

And there was great panic and chaos, but the Polack Pope was sitting silently. The lady sitting by his side was weeping and screaming.  He said "What is the matter? Why are you so worried? At the most we will be twelve hours late!"

This is pure intelligence! It is mathematics, nothing else! Who says Polacks don't have intelligence?
I have read Bertrand Russell's Principia Mathematica -- that's nothing compared to the Pope's mathematics!
There are people who don't understand the Polacks and they go on spreading rumors that they have no intelligence. I am not anti-Polack. I love them, I enjoy them! I can see their intelligence is totally different!

Kyacki's son had been acting a little strange lately, so Kyacki took him to a psychiatrist.
"Tell me, son," questioned the shrink, "how many wheels does an auto have?"
"Four. "
"Very good," said the doctor. "Now what is it a cow has four of that a woman has two?"
"Legs."
"And what does your father have that your mother likes most?"
"Money."
The psychiatrist turned to Kyacki and said, "You don't have to worry about him -- he's smart!"
"He sure is!" said the Polack. "I missed the last two questions myself!"
 
Just a matter of different intelligence! Who says they don't have any intelligence?
Vedam, don't be worried. Enjoy the intelligence that God has given to you!

Banducci, Sullivan and Piwalski, traveling together in Mexico, got drunk and killed a Mexican. All three were sentenced to the electric chair.

First they sat Banducci down and asked him if he had any last words. "I am a dentist," said the Italian, "and I will care for everyone in the village for twenty-five years if you will let me go."
The authorities refused and the executioner proceeded to carry out the sentence. He pulled
the switch and nothing happened.
"By law," said the executioner, "the Italian is a free man, because the electric chair did not work."

Then the Irishman sat down. The same question was asked. "I am a doctor," said Sullivan, "and I would care for the villagers for twenty-five years in exchange for my freedom."
Again the answer was no. The switch was pulled and nothing happened. He went free.

Then Piwalski sat down. He was asked if he had any last words.
"I am a graduate in electrical engineering from Texas A M," said the Polack, "and if you
put that white wire in that hole, and the red wire in that hole..."

And who says that Polacks don't have intelligence?! Just sheer nonsense! They have intelligence -- in fact, only they have intelligence!