Urgency on the spiritual path

— Sadhguru, Isha Foundation

Once you begin to understand and realise the limitations in which you are living, there will naturally be an urgency on the spiritual path. Only people who have glorified their limitations have no urgency. If you do not glorify your life, if you just look at it bare – the way it is – you will see, “Okay. This is just a piece of flesh.” There is another dimension to it – that is different. But right now, you just see it as it is. If you simply do this, you will understand what kind of terrible limitations you are living in. The moment you realise this, there will be an urgency. You cannot help it. Otherwise what is the urgency? There is a whole eternity ahead of us. But you do not have that kind of time. Existence has the time, but you do not.

Gautama the Buddha was a prince – he had everything that anybody would want in the world. He had a loving wife and a little infant who was very dear to him. A man like Gautama who was so sensitive would definitely have had immense love for his wife and child. He was certainly not callous. But the moment he realised the limitations in which he was living, there arose such an urgency that he did not even have the time to awaken his wife and convince her. The prince left his palace like a thief in the middle of the night.

The moment you begin to see the limitations in which you exist, wanting to go beyond that is a natural urge because there is something inside you which cannot exist within limitations; and this is your biggest fortune. By glorifying their lives, people are tranquilising this fortune. People are driven by their hormones, their chemistry, or something else, but they have to glorify it in so many ways, otherwise it will all feel dirty. It is neither dirty nor beautiful. It is just life; it is bare. If you are willing to see, there is beauty in bareness. People have added so many frills in their lives that now, they do not know whether they are really clothed or not. That is why they are afraid and so terribly self-conscious all the time. If you cut down all the frills, either your basic raiment or your nakedness will be clear to you. Once it becomes clear, you will experience a great sense of urgency.