CONTENTS Lead Article A Sense of Wonder Sadhguru on a Fresh Approach to Life 4 Musings How to Make This Your Last Lifetime? Sadhguru on How to Create a Supportive Situation for Growth 7 Information Overrides All Else Sadhguru on the Thread That Runs from One Lifetime to the Next 9 Leela Series The path of the playful – part XLVI: Bhima and the Aghori 11 In Conversation with the Mystic Youth and Education in India Sadhguru in Conversation with Actor Siddharth 13 News & Happenings Sadhguru at the Aditya Birla Financial Services Group 14 First 21-Day Isha Hata Yoga Program Concluded 15 Fourteen Years of Dhyanalinga 16 Isha Kriya Meditation Camp for Sanitation Workers 17 Sadhguru Spot The Human Calamity in Uttarakhand 18 Upcoming Programs and Events Isha Yoga – Program Highlights 20 Isha Recipes For Healthy Living Kofta Curry 21 Zen Speaks: A Water Buffalo through a Window 23 FOREST FLOWER August 2013 3 SADHGURU A Sense of Wonder Sadhguru on a Fresh Approach to Life The following is an excerpt from a talk by Sadhguru during a 3 ½ Sathsang for meditators at the iii, McMinnville, Tennessee, on 25 April 2013. You should see how men in rural India squat. One thing is, if you are sitting out in nature, there are ants, bugs, ticks, snakes, and other crawling creatures. Any bite will get more serious when it goes beyond the limbs. Another thing is, he just sits and wonders about everything. I would like you to try this. Just sit outside at sunset and wonder. Forget about all these things they told you, that the Earth rotates and that is why the Sun disappears below the horizon, what the distance between the Earth and the Sun is and all that. They say it is 93 million miles to the Sun. This is just a number. Had they said it is just a few thousand miles to the Sun, still you could not have gone there; still you would have believed it. Whether it is a few million miles or a few thousand miles does not make any experiential life impact on you. If you just sit there, wondering about everything, it becomes so apparent that something beyond you is functioning. Right now, with all these lights on, music playing FOREST FLOWER August 2013 in your ears and the phone screen in front of you a conspiracy to bullshit you? I am not saying it is all the time, you think you are the universe. You so – suppose it is so. are moving away from reality and exploration – everything is set. If you simply sat there, who could Modern science exists only for the last few hundred not wonder what this is all about? Where does it years, but religion as you know it is at least 2000 come from? How does it happen? Even a half-brain years old. With the advent of science, what people would wonder about it. believed for over 1500 years suddenly sounded ridiculous. What is the guarantee for you that what When people wonder and wonder, when they strive you celebrate right now as science will not look to know, a few of them break through. Everyone ridiculous in a few hundred years? “Science has looks, but these two eyes show you only that produced technology; we can do so many things.” which is physical, and not even that just the way People who used to believe what you think is it is. These two eyes are largely functioning based ridiculous right now also did a lot of things. on the memory that you have gathered. If you wipe out your memory, your ability to see will be The Third Eye is significant because it is a thoughtless considerably reduced. Let’s say you go out on the eye, not glazed by the past. Only an eye that is not street, a thousand people are standing there and glazed by the past can perceive the present and among them, there is someone you know well; you conjure up the future without delusions. You can will see that one person’s face more clearly than the never grapple with the realities of existence with rest of the faces. That is because there is memory. these two eyes. It is because of this that when people looked and looked, and they saw these two eyes are To at least 30–40%, your vision depends on your insufficient, they strived inward to evolve another memory. In that sense, it is a cultivated vision. dimension of seeing. Thought and emotion are constantly playing Wherever that dimension evolved, tools were through it. People say, and it is true, your eyes are created that led people to knowing. Wherever that a window to your thoughts and emotions. If you dimension did not evolve, wherever only muscle want to size up people, you have to look into their evolved, force was the way. There, they insisted eyes. If you hate them, you have to look into their that you must believe what they say; to wonder was eyes. If you fall in love, you must look into their a crime. If you wonder, you will question. If you eyes. Especially if you think you are falling in love question, someone must have an answer. If someone with them, you definitely want to know what is asks a question and the other one doesn’t have an happening with the other person. You want to see answer, the questioner – though the question their thoughts and emotions, so you look into their is coming from ignorance – seems to be more eyes because to some extent, these are the windows intelligent than the one who cannot answer it. to their thoughts and emotions. A question is not knowledge – a question is an An eye that is not glazed by a sheath of memory, admittance of ignorance. But one who does not a thoughtless eye – simply able to look at things admit “I do not know” is unwilling to admit that he without memory – is what is being referred to as is ignorant, which establishes him in his ignorance. the “Third Eye.” People who look with these two One who questions is ignorant but he has the eyes alone become fearful of existence, because possibility of moving out of it. One who refuses whichever way they look, they cannot figure out a to acknowledge his ignorance is investing in his thing. I want you to try this – look as hard as you ignorance, and he will get a lot of dividend. want with these two eyes – you cannot figure out a thing. What you read in the science textbook is not Shankaran Pillai and his wife moved to the United the point. You still do not know whether it is true States and set up their home. His wife is excited or not. How do you know if the whole science is not about being in America. She wants to throw away FOREST FLOWER August 2013 5 everything old and buy everything new. She is of creation, is most important; otherwise, life is trying to be American. How can you be a citizen of cyclical. There is nothing wrong with that; it is just the United States if you don’t shop at least twice a a trap. What’s wrong with a trap? Actually, traps are week? Even the government encourages everyone much safer. If you trap a coon or a coot, he is much to shop, because otherwise the economy will go safer than if he crosses the highway. The highway down. So she takes to this policy and wants to spend. is not the only thing that could kill him; there are Coming from a traditional Indian background, so many predators. If he steps out into the jungle, Shankaran Pillai wants to save. In India, we always he may not last the night. If you trap him and keep look at our savings; here you look at your credit him here, he is definitely safer. But give him all the rating. So Shankaran Pillai says, “No, this is not the food that he wants, still the first opportunity he gets, way to go. This is it; you cannot spend anymore. he wants to chew through your cage and get away, You have shopped enough.” She flared up and said, no matter if he puts himself to risk. The coots and “You don’t even have the courage of the bureaucrats the coons have this much intelligence – what’s the and the politicians.” problem with you? Once you are infected by memory, you are a slave Only human beings with so-called evolved of karma. This is what karma means – that the past intelligence prefer the trap. This evolved intelligence is glazing your eyes. You cannot see the present the is like a womb that just aborts. There is no purpose way it is. It doesn’t matter how smart you think you to it. Human intelligence has been aborted by many are, once your eyes are glazed with memory, once things. One is rigid dogmas; another one is – in they are influenced by the past, when you conjure reaction to these dogmas – distrust about everything. up the future, you invariably become delusional. If you want to touch dimensions that are not yet in This delusion leads to what the sages called samsara. your experience, just sit and wonder. Samsara means your life has become cyclical. When you are going in circles, you are not going anywhere. Something goes on, but nothing purposeful. The Third Eye, which is not a window to your thoughts and emotions but a window to the source 66 FOREST FLOWER August 2013 HHooww ttoo MMaakkee TThhiiss YYoouurr LLaasstt LLiiffeettiimmee?? SSaaddhhgguurruu oonn CCrreeaattiinngg aa SSuuppppoorrttiivvee SSiittuuaattiioonn ffoorr GGrroowwtthh The following is an excerpt from a Q&A session with Now he got confused. From a frayed coat and worn Sadhguru during a 3 ½ Sathsang for meditators at out shoes to an Armani suit and a Ferrari. Not the iii, McMinnville, Tennessee, on 27 April 2013. knowing what to do, he went to his rabbi and said, “I went to my accountant; this is what he told Meditator: Sadhguru, you said that if we have a me. I went to my lawyer; this is what he told me. certain seeking within us, we do not necessarily I just don’t know how to go now.” The rabbi said, have to come to the ashram. How far does your “Listen to me. There was a nice Catholic girl. Her connection with seekers like us go? And how to name was Mary. Mary was getting married and make sure that this is our last birth? her mother advised her that for the wedding night, she must buy a nighty that is all buttoned up, Sadhguru: So the question is, “Will you guarantee full sleeved, puffs on the shoulder, well below the my liberation?” ankle; because she must present herself as a good wife to her new husband. But her school time This brings me to a very nasty joke. A man got a friend came and gave her a red-colored negligee. 1 notice from the IRS that he has to come to the That means it is negligible; the kind of thing where office for some enquiry. IRS agents are trained to the neckline is below the navel. Mary got confused turn your brain inside out; it is like an inquisition. and came to me.” He was very nervous. He went to his accountant and asked, “What do you think, how should I go?” The The man said, “Why are you telling me about this accountant advised him, “Go to the Salvation Army Catholic girl? I have to go to the IRS; I am not counter, buy a really old suit that is frayed at the getting married.” “Just listen. So I told Mary, ‘It doesn’t matter what the hell you wear; on day one, collar and crumpled, to make you look poor. Also anyway you are going to get the works.’” So if you get a pair of old shoes with different colored laces. go to the IRS, anyway you will get the works, no Don’t take your Mercedes; take a taxi; then walk up. matter what you wear; whether you drive a Ferrari When they see you so poor, they will for sure know or you go there walking. that you are not a rich guy dodging taxes, and let you go.” He got the frayed suit. He got old shoes and Liberation does not require physical proximity; it changed the laces. He prepared everything. can be done in so many ways. Physical proximity is for constant guidance to go deeper. This does Still he was nervous. So he went to his lawyer and not mean I am sitting with the ashram residents said, “My accountant gave me this advice. Do you every day and guiding them to do this or that. think this is the appropriate way for me to go?” Why people live in a certain energy space is, The lawyer said, “If you listen to that guy, you are what they cannot get with their minds, they want finished. Get yourself the most expensive suit, and their epithelial cells to get. Right now, if I ask see that the brand, Armani or something, is visible. you what the temperature is, you will open your Rent a Ferrari; park it in style, and go there. Only phone and check. But your epithelial cells know money begets money, and if you show that you are what the temperature is and they are doing what is really well to do, the wealthiest are the ones who necessary for that; even just the surface cells may are freed from taxes. This is the way of the world. be a little more intelligent than you. The cells that Just do that.” are deeper down know too many things. 1 Internal Revenue Service: U.S. government agency responsible for tax collection and tax law enforcement FOREST FLOWER August 2013 7 People who live in such energy spaces are trying to society is structured based on the familiar. If there is mature into a situation where they don’t have to be anything unfamiliar, they want to shoot it. anxious about what will happen, because that is not the way to approach it. Even if the end is assured, In that context, living in a space that supports you don’t you want the journey to be beautiful and is good. But you do not necessarily have to go to a miraculous? If you want the journey to be magical, certain place; you can create such a space in your you have to be in a certain space that allows magic – home. You can be a little unreasonable. You can in terms of social structures, energy structures, and create a situation in your home that is not based on people around. Unfortunately, most places were not the familiar, where people need not be the way you created for something beyond the logical to happen. expect them to be. They can be whichever way, but If you do something which is not logical, you will you go about your way. If anyone in my home – have flashing lights and sirens in front of your house – either my parents or later on my wife and my this is generally the situation in today’s world. But daughter – had expected the familiar, they would if you go to places like Nepal, Bali, or Kashi, the have gone bonkers. I could be completely different whole space is geared for the magical. If you walk from moment to moment, from day to day. It is very in Bhaktapur, every two steps, there is a temple; difficult to live with a person who is wonderful at every two steps, there is a deity reminding you of one moment; next moment, you don’t even know something of the beyond. who the hell he is. But if they had tried to restrict the unfamiliar, I wouldn’t have been there – as Today, people are walking around there like tourists, simple as that. It is simply not possible for me to be but there was a time where for every step, there just one way. was a mantra; there was a certain kind of worship; there was a certain attitude. In India, inside a temple It is not that intentionally, you are being complex, apart from the main temple, there will be unreasonable. It is like the weather. It depends on ten other temples. When people go to the main what I am doing within myself on that day. It is deity – let’s say it is Shiva – they will be one way. not that I ever announce, “Today, I am in silence. Outside, there is Ganapati; they will be in a different Today, I am doing mantra. Today, I am preparing way. Their mantra is different; their attitude is for something. Today, I am working something up different; their emotions are different. When they within me.” There are days when I am extremely move on, there is Devi, and for her again, everything talkative; we talk, we discuss, we do things, we play, is different. It is incredible to see how these simple we dance, we sing. Next day, you may expect the people come and change from place to place, from same thing, but that is not going to happen. Not that god to god. How they approach them is so inbuilt I am trying to freak you out. If I am doing something into their systems that it simply happens. else within myself, I may not utter a word for the next three days. I may not look at you. I may not This malleability is needed within a human being. be interested in you. I may not even recognize your This is the reason why all these things were existence. Hats off to my wife who managed all this. created – so that you become a completely different Without that support, either I would have walked person from place to place. When you are able to out, or I should have given up what I was doing, consciously become a different person within a which was simply not possible. few minutes, when everything is changing within you for a particular purpose, when you can alter So create a home where the familiar is not the basis from this to that, from that to this, you become of your family. Create a home where people can be emotionally very stable. When your emotions are the way they want to be and it is not considered stable, you are always looking for the magical, the wrong. Just try and see. It’s a challenge. unfamiliar. Magical means unfamiliar. But now you are only looking for the logical, because the 8 FOREST FLOWER August 2013 IInnffoorrmmaattiioonn OOvveerrrriiddeess AAllll EEllssee SSaaddhhgguurruu oonn tthhee TThhrreeaadd TThhaatt RRuunnss ffrroomm OOnnee LLiiffeettiimmee ttoo tthhee NNeexxtt The following is an excerpt from a Q&A session with in small intricacies, but you know it’s generally the Sadhguru during a 3 ½ Sathsang for meditators at same thing. You would like to see what’s next. the iii, McMinnville, Tennessee, on 27 April 2013. To put it simply: you know you are alive right now Meditator: I’ve been hearing people say things like, and you are going to die one day. Essentially, the “I want this to be my last lifetime.” Can you explain body is something that you gathered. Though you the concept of lifetimes? have eaten food from American soil, you still look African. If I eat American food for 50 years, I will Sadhguru: This is an Indian problem. They have still look Indian. Why? all been around for 100,000 years. [Laughter] They talk about having lived for many lifetimes without Meditator: Genetics? having any experience of it. We are seeing if we can get them into the experience, because at least Sadhguru: That’s just a word. I want you to look at psychologically, they are a little prepared. Where do it in a more fundamental way. If I build a building you come from? from local material, it will look in a certain way. But if I build different human bodies with the same local Meditator: New York. material, they will still look Indian or African or whatever else. By eating American soil, slowly, we Sadhguru: Do you want one more life in New York should become like Native Americans, but we don’t. City? If you live this life fully, would you like to If you live here for hundreds of years and don’t mix, see what’s beyond it, or would you like to walk the people who come out of you will still look the same. New York streets once again? If you have lived a Look at it mechanically. Why is it that if you put the complete life, you have seen everything; there is same material into different human bodies, each one nothing more to see. You can go on getting involved of them will continue to look in a particular way? FOREST FLOWER August 2013 9 It is a certain type of memory structure. Food and it is very obvious – we can see what kind of skin all other inputs may come from New York City, you have, what kind of nose you have and things but your skin, your nose, your eyes, and your like that. The other information is not so obvious, body are still African. There is a certain element but it is definitely there. Even in a just born child, of information in you before you are born. That you can see from one child to another, they carry information determines how you look, how you different information that makes them behave think, how you walk, how you move – everything. differently. Mothers who have more than one child Do you think there is only information that is clearly know their children don’t behave the same connected with the body, no other information? way, though the genetics are the same. If you go into a maternity hospital and look at the just born, each one of them behaves differently. The From the day they were born, even children of information is not just about the body; there is other the same parents display completely different information that goes beyond that. characteristics. Obviously, they are carrying information that is beyond what you transmitted in Don’t believe all this talk about lifetimes, but the form of body. Genetic information is being passed this much is very clear: you gathered your body on in the form of body, but the other information is from American soil, but the information is from way bigger than that. To realize that takes a little somewhere else. You build this kind of body more attention. To understand the nature of it, how because the information is overriding the material it is stacked up, what we can do with it, is a different that you gather. aspect altogether. This body is an accumulation of the food that you Spiritual process is interested in this information have eaten. If the food is grown in Tennessee and because if it has such an overriding power, you better eaten by you, you are in some way consuming the look at it. It has the power to override whatever Tennessee soil. This area used to be Cherokee land. atmosphere you live in. It may be overriding all The Cherokees lived here for thousands of years; your intentions. You are sitting here and trying to they ate from this land and looked a particular way. meditate, but it may be doing its own thing. It is. People who lived in Africa for many thousands If you do not look at how to in some way loosen of years looked a certain way. Before people this information, if you do not look at how to keep could travel, intermingle, and mix, people looked this information aside, if you do not look at how to distinctly different in different parts of the world. transcend this information, transformation is just It is an anthropological fact that the weather, the empty talk. It is not going to happen because this land, the atmosphere – everything shaped people information will override everything. Unless you in a particular way. Now, even if I shift from India distance yourself from that information, do what to Tennessee and eat as much Tennessee food as I you want, it keeps on making you do the same things want, I will still not resemble a Native American over and over again. In the yogic system, everything person. The information that I carry within me is that we do is towards cultivating a body, cultivating overriding the material. a mind, cultivating an emotional system that will slowly distance itself from this information. This information that overrides everything else here right now is not the memory that I have gathered in this lifetime, but the information that comes from before my birth. This is what we are referring to as karma. There is a huge volume of information. The information that you carry right now is not concerned with the physical body alone. There are other dimensions of information. With the physical, 1100 FOREST FLOWER August 2013