The power of our mind
SADHGURU: ONLY THOSE WHO ARE JOYFUL WILL BE ABLE TO VALUE THEIR LIVES
FOR MANY people today, the human mind is increasingly seen as a source of torment rather than wonder.
You develop resentment, anger and hatred – poisons you drink and then expect someone else to die. Life does not work like that. If you drink poison, only you die, not someone else.
Unfortunately, a miraculous instrument has been turned into a miserymanufacturing machine. Your mind should work for this life and keeping your mind life-friendly is your business. After all, your mind is your employee. If you do not know how to handle the people who work for you, they will turn into your enemies. That is the way life is. You need to get this straightened out.
If your mind is working against you, the first and foremost thing that you should do is take a break from everything that you are doing. Your work, your family – everything – take a break and go to an appropriate place. Do something about this human being. Fix this before you enter the world because once you live in this world, either you must do something good to yourself or you must do something good to people around you.
If you are joyful, then it does not matter whether you care about anyone else or not, because at least you are joyful. Either that or, you should be doing something nice for someone around you. It is important you take some time off and work upon yourself.
People always think they have something important to do. If that is the case, you must work upon yourself because in everything that you do, who you are will find expression. Even if you have very good intentions, if you have poison in your head, with good intentions you will inject poison into the world.
More damage is happening to this world with good intentions than with bad intentions.
For example, Adolf Hitler once said that everything he was doing was his duty to his forefathers. The most dangerous thing is that he was not a liar, he believed that this was true. This is what empowered the man so much. Within a short span of time, the way he organised the whole nation and made everybody believe whatever he believed in is not a simple amount of organisation. He was able to do this because the man believed a hundred per cent he was doing the best thing that could be done.
Your good intentions are not going to save the world. How you are is what matters.
How you are will change only if you can breathe, walk, lie down, sit down and do everything joyfully. If you cannot do this, everything else you do will be poison. Only when you are pleasant within yourself, you feel pleasant about everything around you. Only when you feel pleasant about everything around you, you move around with a certain sense and value to life around you. Otherwise, it does not matter how much morality you carry in your mind or how many scriptures you remember, you will find ways to do the most cruel possible things. The first and basic responsibility for a human being is to ensure that he or she is a joyful human being. Otherwise, nothing else really works.
One thing we need to understand is whatever may be happening with your life, there may be many things going on, but you are better off than when you were born because you came with nothing. Now you at least have something, so you are on the profit side. Look at the beauty of life: you came with utterly nothing. Whatever may be happening in your life right now, you are still in profit, not loss. You cannot complain! n Ranked among the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and bestselling author. Sadhguru has been conferred the “Padma Vibhushan”, India’s highest annual civilian award, by the government in 2017, for exceptional and distinguished service.
Q&A with Zahra and Alisha Janmohamed
What is your favourite type of cuisine? Without question our favourite cuisine has to include spice, flavour, and look appetising. So, in short, our favourite is Indo-Chinese although Thai comes a very close second.
Who is your favourite chef?
Besides our parents, we do not really have a favoured chef; we do, however, watch cookery shows.
Do you have a favourite cookbook?
Our recipes have been passed down through generations and have consisted of trial and error. Although recently we have learnt from TikTok too.
Do you prefer to eat out or eat at your home and why?
Pre-pandemic we would have never declined the opportunity to eat out. However, throughout lockdown we have experimented with different flavours and have found new favourites. So at the moment, home cooked food is preferred.
Which is your favourite spice or ingredient and why do like it so much?
It is a close toss up between chilli and garlic as both bring their own personalities to liven up the dishes with a burst of flavour. Additionally, these spices can be used in a variety of cuisines.
What is your most useful kitchen gadget that you couldn’t do without?
Other than good quality knives, pots and pans, an air fryer is a must. It has revolutionised our cooking methods and use of oil.
During lockdown you both wrote a cookbook, what inspired you to do this?
Our inspiration to collect and compile recipes from female members of our family was to be able to keep recipes safe and available to members of the family through the generations. We spent the majority of the first lockdown gathering and experimenting different recipes and choosing which to include and which to discard.
Who is your biggest fan?
I find this question troubling, but I guess it would be our family.