Choosing our spiritual path
SADHGURU: THE GOAL IS TO FREE ONESELF FROM ALL MATERIAL BONDAGES
THE very word “spirituality” means you are not trying to be like anybody.
It does not matter what you want to be in the world, in some way you are trying to be like somebody. For example, if you aspire to be a musician, you probably have someone in mind whom you want to emulate. You are thinking of a certain kind of music because you heard somebody and it made an impression upon you.
Whatever you do externally, you are always trying to either be like somebody or better than somebody. On the spiritual path, on the other hand, you are not trying to be like anybody, nor are you trying to be better than anybody.
Such a state where just being yourself is more than enough, is the goal of spirituality. It is the experience that “just sitting here, I am complete by myself. I don’t need to become anything or make myself into something. If I simply sit here, the entire world is within me. I am so absolute, all existence is within me.”
The ultimate goal is also such, and the process is also such, that it is not necessary to be like anybody. Each individual can be in his own way and still be progressing. “If each individual progresses in their own way, how will I know if I am making progress?”
When you walk on the inner path, why do you struggle to evaluate yourself? There is no need to evaluate. The evaluation and what needs to happen will happen in a completely different dimension.
You can’t do spirituality, you have to allow it. If you allow it, it will happen. To allow spiritual growth you need a certain level of maturity which just lets you sit down and do nothing. You are willing to allow whatever happens. If something truly wonderful has to happen, you are not needed. On the other hand, if you are satisfied with petty happenings, you can do it. But if you really want something enormous to happen, you are not needed. If you know how to keep yourself aside, it will happen.
This, above all, must be understood clearly: that which is not in your experience, cannot be understood. People are always trying to “understand.”
I recently saw a big book, Understanding God. They are even trying to understand God, that which created them! How do you get to understand that? You cannot understand anything which is in a different dimension than you are. The whole effort is to move to a different dimension. And if that is to happen, you must resist this urge to understand. You have to see that you cannot understand, and there is no need to understand. It is experiencing which takes you out of this dimension.
Try to understand a flower and see what will you understand? In your attempt to do so, maybe you will pull it apart, petal by petal. Maybe you will analyse everything about it and then you will conclude everything is proton, neutron, and electron. All that is fine, but you will not know anything about the flower. The only “understanding” that you need is, how you are bound at the material level. If you understand this and free yourself from those bondages, you will end up where you have to go. If I talk about the sky, it is no use. What are the ropes that are tying you down to earth? Your business is with these ropes that are tying you down, not with the sky. Once you untie them, you reach the sky, and when you do, you will know what it is. A Guru’s work is to show you where these knots are and to help you untie them. When you come close to the edge, maybe just with one knot left, then he can push you.
If he pushes you when you have many ropes tied down, it will damage you. He can push you only when everything is broken and just one single thread is hanging. He can afford to push you because you will not break, the rope will. But when you have ropes tied all over, if he pushes you, something of you will break.
Ranked among 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.