By SADHGURU, Isha Foundation
IN YOGA, we look at life as two ingredients – time and energy. Our whole striving in life is we want our time to be over before our energy is over. But you will see a whole lot of people where their life energy is over, but their time is not over, which is not good. You call this by various names – Alzheimer’s, dementia – but essentially in life terms, your energy depleted before your time ran out.
Time is running at the same pace for everyone. But you can manage your energy. The whole system of yoga is to raise your energy so that your ability to be conscious is high and your energy is high. When your energy is high, time just rolls and your time will run out before your energy. How long you live is up to you and so many other factors, but it is very important that a human being maintains the fundamental aspects of his life consciously. That is what sets us apart from other forms of life on this planet.
In terms of life, the spine is such an active place that you can very easily rejuvenate and regenerate the cells that have been lost there. It is also very easy to do that in your brain. If people who are suffering from dementia and the like do the right kind of things, they could regenerate that. There is substantial scientific evidence for this. Even in your life right now, how many neurons are active or present varies in a big way, depending on how you are using your mind. When you are a little down or intoxicated or depressed, the number may be much less. By doing the right kind of things, you can enhance this. Definitely, this would be a boon for every human being, it does not matter who he or she is. The world could do with a little more intelligence.
Henry Markram has done a phenomenal amount of research on the brain in the Blue Brain Project. This is the first time that the human brain has been fully mapped. That is, they are creating a virtual, electronic brain. They will have a simulated human brain with a keyboard attached. Right now your problem is that you have a brain, but you do not have the keyboard –something
works, something does not work. If you could have a full-fledged keyboard to your brain, if you could type out whatever you want, you would become a thousand times more capable than what you are because this brain is capable of such complexity of action. This brain is such a complex machinery, most people have never trained as to how to use it. It would take a certain level of dedication and focus to learn to use it. I think most people are only using a fraction of the capabilities of their computer. There are so many ways to use that machine, but not everybody knows how. The same is true with the brain. Everyone’s brain is capable of many things, but this is not at your fingertips – that is the problem.
Ranked amongst 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 of India in 2017, for exceptional and distinguished service.