Questioner: What’s for me the purpose of
life,
if you can give an insight on that?
Thank you.
Sadhguru: Isn't it fantastic that if there
is no purpose,
you have nothing to fulfill,
you can just live?
Hmm?
No,
but you want a purpose
and not a simple purpose, you want a God-given
purpose.
(Laughter)
It's very dangerous.
People who think they have a God-given purpose
are doing the cruelest things on the planet.
Yes or no?
They are doing the most horrible things
and they’ve always been doing the most horrible
things
because when you have a God-given purpose,
life here becomes less important than your
purpose.
No,
life is important.
Life is important -
when I say life,
I am not talking about your family, your work,
what you do, what you do not do, you party
I am not talking about that as life.
This is life, isn't it?
Life is within you or around you?
the ambiance of life
you’re mistaking the ambiance of life for
life.
Your home, your family, your workspace, your
party
this is all ambiance of life.
This is not life, isn't it?
Yes or no?
Participants: Yes.
Sadhguru: You’re mistaking the ambiance
for the real thing.
No.
Life is important
because it's the only thing you know,
you don't know anything else.
Do you know something else?
Rest is all imagined stuff, isn't it?
The only thing is that this is beating and
alive and that's all there is.
So, is this important?
It is of paramount importance.
Not you as a person, that’s not important,
but you as a piece of life
it’s very important
because that is the basis of everything.
When I say that is the basis of everything,
the universe exists for you only because you
are, isn't it?
Yes or no?
The world exists for you only because you
are,
otherwise it won't exist in your experience.
So, in every way this is important.
So, what is the purpose for this?
See, if you had a purpose and if you’ve
fulfilled it,
after that what would you do?
After that, what would you do?
Bored, isn't it?
It is just that life is so intricate and so
phenomenally intricate
that if you spend a 10,000 years looking at
it carefully,
you still will not know it entirely.
If you spend a million years looking at it
with absolute focus,
still you will not know it in its entirety.
That’s how it is.
There is...…Is there a meaning to it?
The greatest thing about life is that there
is no meaning to it.
This is the greatest aspect of life that it
has no meaning to it
and there is no need for it to have a meaning.
It is the pettiness of one’s mind that it’ll
seek a meaning
because psychologically you will feel kind
of unconnected with life
if you don’t have a purpose and a meaning.
People are constantly trying to create these
false purposes.
Now, they were quite fine and happy.
Suddenly, they got married.
Now the purpose is the other person.
Then they have children.
Now they become miserable with each other.
Now the whole purpose that I go through all
this misery is because the children.
Like this, it goes on.
These are things that you’re causing
and holding these as purposes of life
and is there a God-given purpose?
What if God does not know you exist?
No, I am just asking, by chance.
(Laughter)
I am saying in this huge cosmos,
for which God is supposed to be the Creator
and the manager of these hundred billion galaxies,
in that this tiny little planet
and you
Suppose he doesn’t know that you exist,
what to do?
Possible or no?
I am sorry, I am saying such sacrilegious
things
but is it possible or no?
What if he doesn’t know that you exist?
What if he doesn’t have a plan for you?
(Laughter)
Suppose, he doesn’t have a plan for
an individual plan for you,
don’t look for such things.
The thing is the creation is made in such
a way that
Creation and Creator cannot be separated.
Here you are a piece of creation.
At the same time, the source of creation is
throbbing within you.
If you pay little attention to this process
of life,
you would not need any purpose.
It’ll keep you engaged for a million years
if you want.
There is so much happening
so much means so much unbelievable things
are happening right here.
If you pay enough attention,
a million years of existence, it’ll keep
you busy or more.
Right now, the need for purpose has come
because you’re trapped in your psychological
structure,
not in your life process.
Psychologically your
your psychological structure functions from
the limited data that it has gathered.
Within that it rolls and right now,
your thought and emotion has become far more
important than your life.
Isn't it so?
Isn't it so?
So, because of this you’re seeking a purpose
as an escape from the trap
that you have set for yourself.
It is a trap set by you.
You can easily come out of it.
If the trap was set for you by somebody else,
difficult to come out
because they’ll set the trap in such a way
that you cannot come out, isn't it?
I am…
I am talking about life not marriage,
that’s what I mean.
(Laughter)
That’s what.
(Laughs)
So this is a trap set by you.
This is easy to come out,
but that is the whole thing.
Why it is so difficult is
now you’re identified with the trap,
you like it.
You like it because it gives you a certain
sense of
safety and security and protection and individual
identity.
If you build a cocoon around yourself,
it gives you safety,
but it also imprisons you.
Walls of self-preservation are also walls
of self-imprisonment.
When it protects you, you like it.
When it restricts you, you do not like it.
That is why we have doors.
We like the walls because it's protecting
us,
but we have doors so that we can open it and
get out when we want to.
It doesn’t matter how nice it is, we still
want to go out, isn't it?
So that is how it is with every trap that
you set.
It doesn’t matter how nice it is, you still
want to go out.
So, the psychological wall that you’ve built,
which gives you some sense of identity,
which gives you some sense of being a person
an individual person and which gives you security
beginning to experience it like a trap;
somewhere you want to break it.
So, one way of not breaking it is to find
a purpose.
Those who find a purpose in their life,
they become so conceited.
They will live within their own trap forever
thinking that they’re doing the most fantastic
thing.
First thing you need is balance.
If you have balance, then you can climb.
If you don’t have balance, it's better you
stay on the ground, isn't it?
It's not safe for somebody who is not balanced
to climb high.
It's best you stay close to the ground.
You should not climb.
So, first thing is to establish a balance,
then you loosen your psychological structure,
then it's a wonderful thing.
If you are loosening your psychological structure
without balance,
which lot of people are doing today
see, why does somebody want to drink alcohol
or take a drug
because it loosens your psychological structure
and makes you feel liberated for a moment
but without the necessary balance
you have not worked for the balance, but you
got freedom.
Freedom without balance is destruction, anarchy,
isn't it?
So, first thing is to work for balance,
an enormous sense of balance
where even if you dismantle your psychological
structure,
you can simply live here.
Dismantling your psychological structure is
an important process
because that is your trap,
that is your security,
that is your stability
at the same time, that’s your trap
because the walls are set, you feel secured,
but that’s also your trap.
If you dismantle your trap,
you also dismantle your security, isn't it?
You also dismantle your sense of purpose.
You also dismantle everything that matters
to you.
So, that will need balance.
Without balance, if you dismantle you’ll
go crazy.
But, don’t look for a purpose
because if you look for a purpose, you are
seeking madness.
If you find one, you are sure mad.
Yes.
(Laughter)
If you think you’ve found a purpose in life,
you still… you’re for sure gone crazy
because only the insane people have purpose
or people who have a purpose are insane in
many ways.
These are things that you create in your mind
and believe it's true, isn't it?
Right now - ‘fighting for my country is
my purpose’
right now if it's necessary, I’ll fight
knowing fully well it's an unnecessary bloody
fight.
Yes.
Then you’ll fight only to the extent it's
necessary.
If you think this is your purpose,
you would want to destroy the whole world
for what nonsense you believe in, isn't it?
If something is needed, we will do it
with… with absolute involvement.
There’s no other purpose.
The purpose of life is to live and to live
totally.
To live totally does not mean party every
night.
(Laughter)
To live totally means
before you fall dead, every aspect of life
has been explored
nothing has been left unexplored.
Yes?
Before you fall dead, even if you do not explore
the cosmos,
at least this piece of life (Referring to
oneself) you must know it in its entirety.
That much you must do to yourself, isn't it?
That’s living totally that you experience
the whole of this,
all dimensions of what this is.
(Gestures)
You did not live anything untouched.
You just do that.
That will take a long time.
That’s good enough purpose for you.
(Laughs)
Sadhguru: What is the goal of human life?
What is the purpose of human life?
Or in other words, why life?
That’s the question.
When it comes to life and existence, you never
ask why.
When it comes to fundamental existence you
never ask why
because if you ask why then I have to tell
you a story.
When I say a story, even if it’s a real
story, you know, a real story,
whatever I speak if it is not in your experience
it is just a story.
The only option that you have is either you
believe me or you disbelieve me.
Yes?
If you believe me it doesn’t get you any
closer to truth
If you disbelieve me, it doesn’t
So, you never ask why.
Right now, you are here with life.
Why such a question has come, ‘what is the
goal of life?
Because the process is not enough, isn't it?
Yes?
The process of life is not enough somehow.
Suppose you were bursting with ecstasy every
moment of your life, such a question would
never come,
what is the goal of life?
Because to live is the goal of life, to live
and to live totally.
To live totally does not mean party every
night.
To live totally means,
when you are here you must experience all
aspects of life and go.
Whatever this is, every aspect of what this
is must come into your experience before you
fall dead.
Isn't it so?
Yes?
This must happen, isn’t it so, for every
human being?
Or do you want to just experience 10% of you
and go away?
You must experience what this life is, totally,
isn't it?
Before you go you must experience this.
If you do experience that then such questions
will never arise in your mind
because that’s not the way existence is.
Logically your question is very correct, ‘Ok,
I’m living here, what is the goal of my
life?
If I tell you, the goal of your life is, ‘you
must attain to God.
So, we are making lots of assumptions, isn't
it?
(We are assumption) We are making assumptions
about various things which are not yet in
our experience, isn't it?
The moment you make assumptions about things
which are not in your experience,
you will become hallucinatory.
99% of the world’s religion is hallucinatory,
please see.
Because you are assuming things that are not
in your experience and working with that which
you have assumed.
The moment you give power to things that you
have assumed, your mind will just fly off
into all types of imagination
and it will be more real than real.
See, your imagination can be more real than
real.
Isn’t it so?
You go and sit in a cinema, it is just two
dimensional,
just play of light and sound, but its impact
is much more than the life itself.
Isn’t it so?
Yes?
You went and sat in an IMAX theater?
Its impact is bigger than life, isn't it?
But is it bigger than life,
do you think so?
Is it really bigger than life?
Not at all.
It is just that imagination has such power.
Imagination, thought, emotion - all these
things are a way to pave the way.
Now, I have a thought: ‘I want to go to
New York.
This paves the way.
Once I say, ‘I want to go to New York, now,
ok, how to go?
Shall I buy the ticket,
shall I walk it, what shall I do, shall I
drive?
It’s paving the way.
But if I sit here and go on thinking New York,
I’'ll never make it.
Thought is not a reality that takes you there.
It only paves the way,
it makes you willing, that’s all.
Yes?
Thought and emotion only makes you willing.
It’s never the real thing.
But once you start giving too much significance
to your thought and emotion,
it starts seeming like as if it's the real
thing, more real than the real.
What you’re thinking in your head is more
real then what’s around you.
Isn't it so?
Yes?
That’s the whole problem with life right
now, that your thought and emotion has become
a bigger reality then reality itself.
Now, this is like, you know, if you go probably
in the countryside,
there will be - what do you call them?
We call them hand post.
What do you call them here?
You know?
A hand post?
What do you call it, something - a marker?
[Participant] A sign post.
[Sadhguru] A sign post.
Ok.
So, these are called hand post usually
because they used to be made like hands at
one time, you know,
like this it used to be.
[Gesture] Have you seen them?
Like this,
it says, ‘this way to New York.’
So, you go and sit on this and you think you
are in New York.
That’s not New York, isn't it?
So, thought is only a sign post.
It points you in the direction you want to
go but it never takes you there.
It cannot take you there.
But people who think it is taking them there
have become hallucinatory in such a way that
even reality cannot get them out.
Even if you (pick) poke them with a knife,
they will not know.
They are somewhere else.
Their thought and emotion is far more important
than that.
This is a scourge which has taken humanity
in such a big way,
such a big way and of all the type of thoughts
and emotions that we generate,
the religious thought and religious emotion
or spiritual thought and spiritual emotion
are most dangerous
because they are powerful, empowered by the
other worldly.
Because of that kind of power, it just rules
people.
It just rules people so deeply and we can
always see that some other religion that you
don’t belong to, what stupidity,
what nonsense they are doing but what you
are doing is just never visible, isn't it?
Yes?
Isn't it so?
Isn't it happening every day?
Because once the thought and emotion becomes
powerful you start believing it.
Once you start believing something which is
not yet in your experience,
you are a dangerous human being.
Because all the conflict on the planet, even
today what’s happening,
though people try to project it as, ‘it
is good versus evil,’
though people are trying to project it as
good versus evil,
it is not about good and evil.
It is always about one man’s belief versus
another man’s belief.
Isn't it so?
Hum?
Always, between one man’s belief and another
man's belief.
Why can’t we be sincere enough to simply
see,
whatever we do not know as we do not know?
What is the problem?
This is the biggest human problem.
They can’t see that they don’t know.
They have to bullshit themselves all the time.
And this is not a joke.
This is a terrible tragedy on the planet,
isn't it?
This is not a joke.
This is not a simple thing.
It has cost phenomenally for human life on
this planet,
phenomenally and still continuing to cost.
But, what we think and feel is so important,
isn't it?
So, what is the goal?
What if there is no goal?
What will you do?
Will you die, tomorrow?
Suppose there is no goal, what to do?
You want to die?
Isn't it wonderful, there’s nowhere to go?
(Laughs) Yes?
Isn't it really great, there’s (no way)
nowhere to go?
You don’t have to work your way to heaven,
you can just live here happily!
No, no, no, we are going to heaven.
If you are so sure you are going to heaven
what are you waiting for?
[laughter]
If you are so dead sure, you are anyway going
to heaven,
what are you waiting for?
I can’t understand the logic.
[Questioner] Waiting for the ticket.
[laughter]
[Sadhguru] Waiting for the ticket! [laughter]
All you have to do is, go and cut your throat
in front of the temple, you understand?
Whichever is your favorite temple, it will
happen.
People 100% believe, ‘after I die I will
go to the lap of God.’
If you are going to the lap of God you should
not delay it.
Really.
Isn't it so?
Such a sacred duty can you delay it?
You must go, today, not even tomorrow.
No, you want to live long.
So, why are you postponing such a wonderful
opportunity?
That’s because you are full of bull.
[laughter]
You tell yourself things which are not yet
a reality for you.
I’m not questioning whether these things
exist, not exist.
But it’s not yet a reality for you.
If you talk about things which are not yet
a reality for you - to put it very bluntly,
it just amounts to lying.
This lying has cost phenomenally,
for individual human beings and for the whole
humanity in a big way.
