DIGNITY COMES FROM STAYING TRUE TO YOURSELF DESPITE THE CIRCUMSTANCES, SAYS SADHGURU

TRUE dignity is known only to the one who has risen beyond sin and virtue and arrives at an equanimity that leaves him untouched in moments of success and failure, in recognition and persecution, in acceptance and resistance, in life and death.

It is this freedom within that brings dignity. It is not the fineness of the cloth or demeanour that is the basis of dignity, but liberation from the meanness of the mind that delivers us to an indiscriminate sense of love and inclusion, which flowers into dignity.

Dignity is not something that can be given or taken away. It can only be earned or surrendered. There will be dignity for all only when we include all as ourselves.

Unless a person makes himself in such a way that who he is, what he is, what he feels, thinks, and how he acts in his life is not determined by external forces or external situations, if he is in a state of reaction to the situation in which he exists, he will not know dignity. When he is free from this and he acts from within as to who he really is, only then he will truly know dignity.

In my work with all types of people, especially in impoverished societies, in rural India and the horrible slums of Indian cities, I have seen many, many faces of absolute dignity. I would like to bring a certain moment which completely overwhelmed all of us.

We have been doing certain programmes called “Inner Freedom for the Imprisoned” in prisons in south India.

We met a young man who had committed three murders and had been sentenced to

three life terms. Because he had nothing to lose, he was very violent inside prison and there was a certain fear and insecurity in him that as he was ageing, somebody else may come and take over his dominance in the prison. So he was unnecessarily violent. He told me his strategy was, at least once a week, he simply picked somebody and beat them up – just so that everybody knew who the boss was there.

We put him through a certain process of meditation and contemplation. He happened to be on the playground at one time and three other convicts attacked him, pushing him down and kicking him, but he did not react. He just lay down on the ground even while he was being kicked in the face.

Then, after they were finished with him, he got up and walked away. The next day, when we met him he told us about what happened. It brought tears to almost everybody in the hall.

He said, “Until now, I thought my power was to beat people up. Now I have realised I have a new kind of power – if somebody beats me, I have no need to beat them. I have no need to react.”

I think this is a true face of dignity. Dignity does not come because of poverty or riches or affluence. It comes because the way you are is not disturbed by what is happening around you.

■ Ranked among the 50 most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and bestselling author. He was honoured with the Padma Vibhushan, India’s highest civilian award, in 2017, for exceptional and distinguished service.