Nowhere to go - Sadhguru

Questioner : After years of doing sadhana, I still feel I might not be getting anywhere. What to do ?

Sadhguru : I doesn’t matter how many years of Sadhana you do, you will not get anywhere. Not that you might not, you will not because the idea of doing sadhana is not to go somewhere. The idea of doing sadhana is to come to a state where you can simply be here. To understand and know that what is here is everywhere, what is not here is nowhere. So, getting beyond the need to go somewhere – that is sadhana. Because there is nowhere to go. If you do not know how to be here and now, you will not know how to be anywhere. There is only here, there is only now; the rest is all in your head. So, sadhana is to bring you to a state where atleast for some period of time in the day, just sitting is good enough. Everything is that is worth knowing is here and now, and that is the only place you can be. If you live, you are here and now ; if you die you are still here and now. You cannot go anywhere. There is nowhere to go.

Sadhana is a device; it is a method to bring you to a certain level of maturity where the need to go somewhere is gone. What is why people steeped in sadhana are not moving anywhere. If you travel around the world, you will still not know whether the world is flat or round, forget about the intricacies of life. But if you are truly here, everything that is worth knowing is right here, because you cannot perceive anything on the outside. It doesn’t matter if you sit here or in the Himalayas or Africa or the United States or South Pole or North Pole. Maybe certain atmospheres are supportive, certain atmospheres are not supportive, that is a different thing – but essentially, you can only experience what happens within you.

So, wherever you go, only this is there. You know, these mountains here are called Velliangiri ; that means “White Mountian”. You can make them the Himalayas – that is what it means. We also call them “Kailash of the South”. If you sit here long enough or involved enough, they will become the Kailash; you don’t need to make the journey. You may make the journey and still not know anything. You may just sit here and know everything, because you can only experience what happens within you. You cannot experience what happens in the mountain; you cannot experience what happens in the sky; you cannot experience what happens anywhere; you can only experience what happens within you.

You can sit here, look at somebody, and experience love. You can close your eyes, just think about somebody, and experience love, isn’t it ? So, you can either stimulate it from outside or simulate it from inside, both are possible. Either you are on “push-start” or “self-start”. [Laughter] It is only a technology difference. Either you are a current machine or a past machine. You look at the moon, you look at the earth, you close your eyes, you open your eyes – still what is happening within you is all that is happening to you; nothing more, nothing less.

So, sadhana is to bring yourself to that level of maturity to simply see, it does not matter what you do, it does not matter whether you climb the peak or sit in the valley, it does not matter whether you are successful or not in the world, it does not matter whether you are well-known or not, it does not matter if you are eating whatever you dream of or drink kanji, it is just the way you experience it. This is not a trap; this is a beauty of life. There is really nowhere to go. You can sit here and be blissful, ecstatic; you can sit here and be miserable. You have a whole range of choice. You can sit here and think,”This is the most tortuorous moment in my life”. Life has not put any bondage upon you. Bondage is all your making. Existence has left you free, absolutely free. You can sit here and that’s it. Nothing needs to happen; still you can go through life in a most wondrous way because of what you do within yourself. Or you can go all over the place and do all kinds of things, and still go through life in an utterly miserable way. Both are your making.

So, sadhana is that blessed process through which you realize this, that there is nowhere to go. When the need to go stops, your sadhana is successful; then you just sit. Sitting need not necessarily mean you are physically sitting in one place. It is just that the itch to go into this and that is gone. If you sit, you are fine ; if you run, you are fine; if you fly, you are fine; if you walk also, you are fine. Wherever you are, you are just fine. Once the itch is gone, you are at ease. Once you are at ease, you don’t have to do anything. Just a little bit of waiting, that’s all. Only if you are in love, you can wait, because when you are in love with somebody, you are feeling emotionally pleasant. Love creates a lot of mental anxiesty because that is your idea of concern. So your mind is getting unpleasant, but your emotion is pleasant – and still it is worthwhile.

If you are irritated, agitated, frustrated, or angry, you cannot wait because you are unpleasant. Depending upon the type of karmic substance you have and the kind of active and dynamic help that you get from outside, the period of waiting may alter. It maybe a few moments, a few years, whatever, but just sitting and waiting. When your insides are pleasant, waiting for a few years is not a big deal. You just wait.

Postponing your Yoga - Sadhguru explains

Question: Whenever I plan to do yoga, my mind says, 'Later, later…' and I am not able to do it. What is the solution?
I want to tell you about this popular superstition in some villages in Karnataka. As soon as the sun sets, the villagers fear that ghosts and demons will come to their homes. So, in order to save themselves, they have a sign painted in red at the door that reads -- Naale Baa, meaning 'Come Tomorrow'. The idea is that on seeing the message, the ghosts and demons will know that they are supposed to visit this house the next day. But, as tomorrow never comes, neither do the demons! Isn't that wonderful?
But, in your life, for all those things that are essential, you have put up a 'come tomorrow' sign for them too! So, it's 'come tomorrow' for blissfulness, peace and yoga itself! This 'tomorrow' is a deep trick of your mind. Your mind says, 'I won't do yoga'. Your ego says, 'How can you not do it, man! You must do it'. If you say, 'I won't do', a feeling of guilt sets in. So, the mind (very cleverly) will never say, 'I won't do', but instead 'let's do it tomorrow'. Tomorrow is always a good day, isn't it? Today, there is some problem. But, when you say 'tomorrow', everything is over as tomorrow will never come for us to experience.
If you wish to do anything, whether it's concerned with your internal or external well-being, creating the necessary atmosphere is a must. Whether you want to run a business, or lead a peaceful family life, or maintain perfect health, or a healthy mind, if you don't create the necessary atmosphere, there is no prospect of things happening well.
There were these four friends, who tried to run a business in partnership. But, no matter what they did, their business ended up as a failure. One after the other, they tried their hand at several businesses, but nothing worked and soon they lost all their money. Then one of them suggested that they buy a car and start a taxi service in Chennai. So, they somehow managed to buy an old Ambassador. They parked it at the Chennai central railway station, but no customer came. They moved to the bus-stand, still no customer. They drove all over the city, yet couldn't find a single customer. Do you know why? Simply because all the four were sitting in the car!
They had the desire to run a business, they wished for their business to be successful too. But if this is the way they went about it, would they ever be successful? In the same way, whatever you want in life, if you don't understand what's needed and try to do something about it, some work might happen at the end of it, but there's no chance of reaping any fruit from such work. If you want to do yoga, you have to understand what kind of atmosphere is needed for it. If you eat 20 dosas at 10 pm and plan to do yoga at 7 the next morning, your body will say, 'Hey, rest now, do it tomorrow'. If you eat a little less, it will be awake at 4 am. If you just take a cold water bath, your body will say, 'You can do yoga'.
You have to create the necessary ambience. If you create the resolve in your mind, and necessary settings for the body, you will be eager to do yoga. If you continue doing it for a few days and start reaping the benefits, then there will be no need for anyone to remind you to do it. You will do it all by yourself.

What If you could wake up everyday with Sadhguru's Voice

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Shambavi always comes to my rescue

Today I was calculating over the monthly expenditure I incur every month. What was revealing was purely disturbing whereby my monthly expenses are more than the income I earn. My father wants to play the role of the boss whereby he decides how to expend money but does not want to know whether the shop is in profit or loss. This thought about the situation which is going beyond my control, kept running in my mind again and again. I was in depressive state. So when I came up in the evening to my home, it was my usual time for evening practice. But because of the depressive state, there was a temptation today to skip the practice. But in the time like this, I always remember Sadhguru's words "The outside situation is beyond your control but what happens within you is always under your control". So I went ahead with my Shambavi Practices. Has it always happened, I came out refreshed, away from the dark clouds of depression.

My experience always says that how much ever the thought might be depressing, it cannot hold over you forever. Even today, though the situation over my father's behaviour has not changed but those thoughts are not clouding over me, like in the past. Life is open, to be explored in other dimensions. Thoughts always stay for a certain time. If one stays has a witness, they will pass away, leaving no scar of the past. So I learned a key.

Even during the practices, I notice that there are tempting thoughts, depressive thoughts, angry thoughts, happy thoughts but I have taken a decision that I will be seated for the next 40 minutes, no matter what my thoughts says. Usually thoughts are the extension of the what kind of society you are exposed to. As we can observe that society always harbour violence, aggressiveness in a deceptive state. So it is we, who have to decide, whether we want to live a life of selfish human being or the way shown by Sadhguru. This is bringing me to live life with clarity.

Make your practice a joyful experience

Quotes from the book "Glimpse after Glimpse" by Sogyal Rinpoche, a tibetan master.

"There are many ways of making the approach to meditation as joyful as possible. You can find the music that most exalts you and use it to open your heart and mind. You can collect pieces of poetry, or quotations or lines of teachings that over the years have moved you, and keep them always in hand to elevate your spirit. I have always loved Tibetan thangka paintings and derive strenght from their beauty. You too can find reproductions of painting that arouse a sense of sacredness and hang them on the walls of your room.

Listen to a cassette tape of a teaching by a great master, or a sacred chant. You can make of the place where you meditate a simple paradise, with one flower, one stick of incense, one candle, one photograph of an enlightened master, or one statue of a deity or a buddha. You can transform the most ordinary of rooms int an intimate sacred space, an environment where everyday tou go to meet with your true self with all the joy and happy ceremony of one old friend greeting another."

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"When I teach meditation, I often begin by saying "Bring your mind home. And release, And relax."

To bring your mind home means to bring the mind into the state of Calm Abiding through the practice of mindfulness. In its deepest sense, to bring your mind home is to turn your mind inward and rest in the nature of the mind. This itself is the highest meditation.

To release means to release the mind from its prison of grasping, since you recognise that all pain and fear and distress arise from the craving of the grasping mind. On a deeper level, the realization and confidence that arise from your growing understanding of the nature of the mind inspire the profound and natural generosity that enables you to release all grasping from your heart, letting it free itself to melt away in the inspiration of meditation.

To relax means to be spacious and to relax the mind of its tension. More deeply, you relax into the true nature of your mind, the state of Rigpa. It is like pouring a handful of sand on to a flat surface, and each grain settles of its own accord. This is how you relax into your true nature, letting all thoughts and emotions naturally subside and dissolve into the state of the nature of the mind."

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My Own experience :-

The first thing I do in the morning when i wake up is take the keys and get ahead towards the temple to fetch flowers. It has been a beautiful experience, making an offering before I start my kriyas. Lighting up a deepam, placing the flowers in the bowl of water so that the flowers can stay fresh for whole day long, lighting up the incense sticks, leaving the place spellbound by the aroma of Sathsang. I always cherish this feeling of sacredness. The only question is that Can we carry this sacredness with us for whole day long? Can we maintain the silence within the disturbance of the noise in the marketplace?