By SADHGURU, Isha Foundation
SADHGURU: Great movements, revolutions, phenomenal things which have changed human life on this planet have happened not because something came thundering down from the heavens. When the necessary attention was paid, little things, done by a handful of people, blossomed into a phenomenal process.
If you give it enough attention and energy, what beats in one human heart - one human being’s thoughts and emotions - can inspire the whole world. For example, Mahatma Gandhi started his movement with just a handful of people. This handful snowballed into millions in a short while and became a great movement.
It is just that normally, most people are not given to that kind of passion to pay attention to something continuously. They pay attention intermittently, so it never picks up that kind of momentum.
One reason why the majority of humanity lives a mediocre life is because they are kanjoos [meaning ‘stingy’ in Hindi] about everything. They cannot smile fully or express themselves fully. When you are that kanjoos, life is also very kanjoos with you.
It is not the imminent danger of you being swallowed by something which limits you. It is calculation. A stingy man’s calculations are unbounded – they just go on and on. If they get one fruit, they would like to cut it into a million pieces and give one piece to somebody. Cutting a fruit into a million pieces could take half a lifetime. That is what is happening. To give little, people take a whole lifetime. This life happens in a certain totality. Only one who gives totally will know life in its totality. Others will not know it.
When people have to get something, they lose all logic. When they have to give something, they get perfectly logical! This excessive calculation about everything has made human beings - who could have lived like fragrant flowers - go around like thorns. People keep asking me this question: ‘We all come from the same source. Why is it that one flowers and another does not?’ It is simply because they are saving for the future. This is like a listless dog which hides his bones here and there and then forgets where they are. People have hidden all the wonderful nature that a human being could hold deep within themselves for the future because they are going to heaven and they want to be loving and joyful there!
If you keep a ship in a harbor or a dock, it is very safe, but unfortunately a ship was not built to be kept in the harbor. A ship was built to sail the oceans. Those who are constantly trying to be safe and to save themselves and everything that they have for the future, those who do not have a present, where will a future come for them? If you are missing the present, when the future comes, what makes you think you will not miss it?
There is a story about Gautama the Buddha. Not a true story. It is a story. They say when Gautama attainted to nirvana and moved towards the gates of ultimate liberation, mukti, his back was facing the gate, not his face. So they asked him, ‘Why, Gautama, all your life you had this problem. In the world, everybody is trying to become a king, everybody is trying to earn money and live in a palace. There also you went backwards. You moved from being a king to a beggar, from a palace to utter poverty. There also you were on reverse gear. Now because somehow you did well, we opened the gates of ultimate liberation to you. Why are you turning your back to them?’ Gautama said, ‘I have no intention of entering the gate, that is why I am looking the other way. I am just waiting for everybody to pass before I go. I am not in a hurry. I think it is a little unaesthetic for me to pass before others go.’
People are always trying to find a quick-fix solution to divert themselves from the stinginess of their mind and heart. How many of you in the last 24 hours, smiled at someone or something in such a way that tears came to your eyes? Why are you so kanjoos just to smile? You will not get dehydrated if you shed a few tears. The problem is calculation.
If you dissolve yourself in the process of breathing and living here, then you are a solution for everything. Dissolution will not happen with calculation. Dissolution will happen in giving – just giving every moment of your life. Just becoming a process of giving. If that is not there, you do not dissolve. If you do not dissolve, there is no solution.
I want you to try this: In the next 24 hours, you must know at least one moment of total giving. You must give in such a way that everything in you should melt. One moment of giving in 24 hours. Can you do that?
Ranked amongst the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and a New York Times bestselling author Sadhguru has been conferred the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 2017, the highest annual civilian award, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service.