Amateur vs professional

Question: As a professional, if I am too saintly, work will not happen. Is anger the path for me?

Sadhguru: We always use the word “professional” in the context of saying that someone did something without any emotion — someone did just what is needed. When someone is just doing what he is trained to do, where is the room for anger or anything else?

It is good to function as an amateur rather than as a professional. Generally, you use the term “amateur” to describe someone who does not know what to do. But I am not talking about a novice. I am talking about an amateur. An amateur is somebody who does things because he is passionate about it; he sees meaning to what he is doing. A professional does not see much meaning to it. Something is being done because something else will happen out of it. A life like that is very barren. Unless there is involvement in what you do, unless it means a lot to you, the work that you do is just a waste of time and life, both for yourself and for everyone.

Involvement does not come because you do certain things. If there is involvement, certain things will naturally happen out of you — that is beautiful. If you do the same things without involvement, it becomes ugly.

If you function as a professional, your life is ugly. If you are an amateur it is okay, but if you are a volunteer in the world, it is wonderful. If you are always willing to do what is needed with great passion, life becomes very beautiful. What the end result is, who is in the way, who is supporting you, who is not supporting you — nothing matters. Whatever you do is being done with such tremendous involvement that everything that you do is beautiful.

One problem you have is that you are a professional; another thing is you have an anger problem too. What is the role of anger? People do not move when you say something, so you think anger will get them to move. What is needed is not anger but involvement. If people around you see that you are doing things with great passion, why would they not move? When you are doing everything with great passion, everyone around you will be moved.

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, an internationally renowned spiritual leader, is a visionary, humanitarian, author, poet and speaker. He can be contacted at www.ishafoundation.org