Engineering Yourself for Wellbeing
Sadhguru, Isha Foundation
QUESTION: How do I get to know myself fully? Sadhguru: You just need to be introduced, that’s all! You are paying too much attention to everything around you and not enough attention to yourself. But the quality of your life is essentially determined by how you carry yourself, not by what kind of clothes you wear, what kind of car you have or what kind of home you live in. How joyful you are feeling within yourself this moment, is what determines the quality of your life. But nothing has been done about this.
People think joy will happen as a consequence and they set impossible goals for their happiness: ‘If I have to be happy, my wife should be like this, my husband should be like that, my children should be like this, the world should become some other way.’ These are impossible conditions people have set for their happiness and peacefulness.
A lot of people have given up their aspiration to be ecstatic and blissful and have compromised for peace. ‘If I am peaceful, it is enough.’ Even the so-called spiritual leaders are going about saying that peace is the highest goal in life. Peace is not the highest goal in life. If you want to enjoy your lunch today, you must be peaceful. If you are not even peaceful, there is nothing in your life that you can do in a worthwhile way.
To be peaceful essentially means your system is at ease and you are not messing up your mind. If you know how to conduct your mind, emotions, body and energies, you are peaceful. This is not rocket science, it is the most basic aspect of your life. Even your dog knows how to be peaceful. He may not be ecstatic, but if you give him his food, he sits peacefully.
Peace has nothing to do with the external activity that you do. It has something to do with how your system is functioning. If you are not peaceful, essentially it means your body, mind, chemistry, emotions and energy are not taking instructions from you. They are doing their own thing. Once your machine is not in your control, being peaceful is impossible.
For example, if you get into your car and when you want it to turn one way, if it goes the other way, can you peacefully drive this car? No. Anxiety is natural. This is what has happened to your vehicle. It is out of control because you never did anything to find out where the steering wheel is.
This human body is not as simple as a car. This is a super-supercomputer. The problem is, most people have not even bothered to find the keyboard. They think if they do something, somehow it will work. When you are given such a highly sophisticated machine, if you do not conduct it properly, it will cause many problems.
Right now, for most people, the body is just working accidentally. The human system is so sophisticated, if you hold your hands with your palms facing upward, it will breathe one way. If you just turn your palms downward, the very way you breathe changes in your lungs. You can try this and check for yourself. With everything that you do, fundamental changes are happening in this machine because it is such a sophisticated machine. You don’t have to even touch something. If you just wish it, it will happen. When you have such a sensitive and sophisticated machine, if you operate it like a blacksmith, being peaceful will be difficult.
Peace is not the highest goal in your life. It is the most fundamental requirement. Do not ever set peace as the highest goal. If you do that, you will only rest in peace. If you want to conduct any situation in your life sensibly, to be peaceful and happy is fundamental.
Unfortunately, such a fundamental thing is rising to heaven these days. People think they are going to be peaceful up there, not here, because they never paid attention to the internal mechanism of how a human being functions, and what is the basis of everything that is happening within.
This takes a little bit of attention. That is why our basic program is called ‘Inner Engineering.’ We have engineered the whole world the way we want it. Much comfort and convenience has come, but wellbeing has not come and wellbeing will not come. Wellbeing will come only when your being is engineered the way you want it.
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.