Jan 19, 2004, 12.00am IST
Consciously, why would anyone choose to be anything where he has to seek something from someone or something else? Maybe out of his helplessness he seeks, but consciously would anyone choose to do this? Wouldn’t every human being want to be hundred per cent within himself?
This doesn’t mean you have to become totally self-sufficient. Always, there is interdependence, but within yourself everything is there; you don’t have to seek anything from outside.
Even someone else’s company is not needed for you. If another person needs it, you will give it, but by yourself, you don’t need anyone’s company. Only for external things, maybe you will have to go to the world outside. This is ultimate freedom.
Spirituality is not to be taken as being only for those who can’t do anything in life. If you have the strength and the courage to take up anything in the world and do it well, then you might also have the capacity to turn spiritual.
Only if you have the will and ability to do something constructive in life, can you be fit enough to seek the spiritual.
Right now, there is this impression among many that only good-for-nothings turn to spirituality. Spirituality does not mean merely wearing ochre-coloured clo-thes and sitting in a temple or ashram. But living on charity will not get one anywhere. That’s not spirituality.
There are two kinds of people who depend on charity: Highly evolved thinkers like the Buddha, belong to the highest order of those who live on charity. Most others merely live off others.
A beggar on the street and a king sitting on the throne are both beggars. They are continuously asking for something from the outside. One looks for money, food or shelter. The other, the king, might be looking for happiness, or ways to conquer another kingdom.
Gautama, on the other hand, begged only for his food, for the rest he was self-sufficient. Others, however, beg for everything else but food. A spiritual person has earned everything else from within, so he begs only for food.
Whichever way you think is better, be that way. Whichever way you think is a more powerful way to live, live that way.
Once there is no hankering, we will come to know what love, joy and sharing are. Sharing has to be unconditional. Setting up a whole life of barter may be conve-nient, but it is the way of the weak. This weakness is the first thing that has to go if you want to meet Shiva.
There are two ways: Gnana and bhakti. Bhakti means you make yourself a zero, then you meet Him. Gnana means you meet Him on his terms, you become infinite. Otherwise, there is no chance of a meeting.
Love, or bhakti, looks like a much easier path. It is, but there are more pitfalls on that path than in gnana. With gnana you know where you are going, you know if you fall. In bhakti, you don’t know.
Even if you’re trapped by your own illusions, you will not come to know about it easily. In gnana, every step that you take, you know. I can’t say it is a hard path, but it’s the path of the courageous, not of the weak.
The way we think is the way we become. Whatever you hold as the highest, naturally all your energies get drawn towards that. Once you achieve that, once inner engineering equips you to live life effortlessly, it will put an end to all your daily struggles.
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev
Consciously, why would anyone choose to be anything where he has to seek something from someone or something else? Maybe out of his helplessness he seeks, but consciously would anyone choose to do this? Wouldn’t every human being want to be hundred per cent within himself?
This doesn’t mean you have to become totally self-sufficient. Always, there is interdependence, but within yourself everything is there; you don’t have to seek anything from outside.
Even someone else’s company is not needed for you. If another person needs it, you will give it, but by yourself, you don’t need anyone’s company. Only for external things, maybe you will have to go to the world outside. This is ultimate freedom.
Spirituality is not to be taken as being only for those who can’t do anything in life. If you have the strength and the courage to take up anything in the world and do it well, then you might also have the capacity to turn spiritual.
Only if you have the will and ability to do something constructive in life, can you be fit enough to seek the spiritual.
Right now, there is this impression among many that only good-for-nothings turn to spirituality. Spirituality does not mean merely wearing ochre-coloured clo-thes and sitting in a temple or ashram. But living on charity will not get one anywhere. That’s not spirituality.
There are two kinds of people who depend on charity: Highly evolved thinkers like the Buddha, belong to the highest order of those who live on charity. Most others merely live off others.
A beggar on the street and a king sitting on the throne are both beggars. They are continuously asking for something from the outside. One looks for money, food or shelter. The other, the king, might be looking for happiness, or ways to conquer another kingdom.
Gautama, on the other hand, begged only for his food, for the rest he was self-sufficient. Others, however, beg for everything else but food. A spiritual person has earned everything else from within, so he begs only for food.
Whichever way you think is better, be that way. Whichever way you think is a more powerful way to live, live that way.
Once there is no hankering, we will come to know what love, joy and sharing are. Sharing has to be unconditional. Setting up a whole life of barter may be conve-nient, but it is the way of the weak. This weakness is the first thing that has to go if you want to meet Shiva.
There are two ways: Gnana and bhakti. Bhakti means you make yourself a zero, then you meet Him. Gnana means you meet Him on his terms, you become infinite. Otherwise, there is no chance of a meeting.
Love, or bhakti, looks like a much easier path. It is, but there are more pitfalls on that path than in gnana. With gnana you know where you are going, you know if you fall. In bhakti, you don’t know.
Even if you’re trapped by your own illusions, you will not come to know about it easily. In gnana, every step that you take, you know. I can’t say it is a hard path, but it’s the path of the courageous, not of the weak.
The way we think is the way we become. Whatever you hold as the highest, naturally all your energies get drawn towards that. Once you achieve that, once inner engineering equips you to live life effortlessly, it will put an end to all your daily struggles.
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev
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