Understand The True Nature Of Life w/ Sadhguru

Please stop and listen to me! This conversation is absolutely truly astonishing. I can tell you it altered my life personally, and I have not been the same since it took place This week, I wanted to explore the teachings and spiritual insights from One of the most sought after souls on the planet who helps us understand our existence in this life and how to live in a more blissful state today People from all over the world seek out his wisdom, and everybody from Tom Brady to Will Smith, myself and many others This is not a religious conversation at all! I’m honored to share with you my interview with one of the world’s leading enlightened spiritualists, Indian yogi Sadhguru. Sadhguru’s perceptions transcend time and culture. They are universal and simple, yet they are also profound in their clarity. You will hear KARMA defined in a way you’ve never heard before. Sadhguru challenges the fundamental concept of karma found in the identity and memory of our human condition, and the role karma plays in defining our personal being. One of Sadhguru’s important insights touches upon the right way to contemplate our limited time on earth and how doing so can add more bliss by living in the moment. Part of this is connected to letting go of the things that can weigh us down when we take life too seriously and learning to also live with more energy each day. We dig into the idea that we’re all creators, and how understanding our role in the world is what enables us to better create the destiny in each of us. This destiny is critical as we balance our pursuit of material things that so many of us chase while trying to create our idea of personal happiness. You’ll find yourself stopping to think about a lot of what we cover. You’ll also want to go back and listen to this episode more than once because it’s so densely packed with answers to the big questions we all ask at one point or another. I encourage you to open your mind and think about Sadhguru’s words and thoughts. I’m confident you’ll find yourself challenging some of the ways you think about your search for a more peaceful and blissful life. 👉 SUBSCRIBE TO ED'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL NOW 👈 → → → CONNECT WITH ED MYLETT ON SOCIAL MEDIA: ← ← ← ▶︎ INSTAGRAM ▶︎ FACEBOOK ▶︎ LINKEDIN ▶︎ TWITTER ▶︎ WEBSITE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Ed Mylett?

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• 0:45Ed Mylett?

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• 1:01Speaker 01

  Mr. President, my company, for me, of the explosion on our rig.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  On October 2nd.

• 1:06Speaker 01

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• 1:11Speaker 02

  Tom Cruise is. Digger got us into this mess. And Digger's gonna dig us up. From the director of Birdman and The Revenant.

• 1:18Speaker 01

  What would happen if I stopped growing? You starve, you freeze to death, that's what.

• 1:22Speaker 02

  With great power comes great deniability.

• 1:25Speaker 01

  I'm not the first nanny.

• 1:27Speaker 02

  Digger. See the trailer online. Only in theaters October 2nd. Rated R. Under 17. Not a minute without parent.

• 1:39Speaker 03

  This is The Ed Mileage Show.

• 1:48Ed Mylett?

  Welcome back to the program, everybody. Today's special because I just think I have a special being that I get to share my time with. Decided to turn some cameras and microphones on so that you get to watch this engagement with this very, very special person. So Sadhguru is my guest today. Most of you probably know who he is, but he's a yogi, he's a mystic, he's a visionary. I just feel like he's an enlightened, beautiful human. And every chance I get an opportunity to listen to him, read any of his work,

• 2:20Ed Mylett?

  I'm better, I'm just better for it. And so I'm hoping that that gift is extended to all of you here today. By the way, one gift I want to tell you, it's got a new book out on karma, A Yogi's Guide to Crafting Your Destiny. And it's spectacular, so I recommend you get that. But Sudh Gur, thank you for being here today.

• 2:38Speaker 04

  Namaskaram, thank you very much, Ed.

• 2:41Ed Mylett?

  This is wonderful. So, well, there's so many things. I wish I had five hours with you, but I don't. And so I got my own stuff I want to ask you about. But we should start with karma, since you've written a book about that recently. And I've always had this understanding of karma is it's kind of like, if I do bad stuff, bad stuff's going to happen to me. You know, if I do good things, good things are going to happen to me. But your definition is completely different. And I think it's beautiful. So could you share with us karma to begin the interview?

• 3:12Speaker 04

  Namaskaram to you, Ed, and all the people who are watching this show.

• 3:19Speaker 04

  Well, see, this idea of what is good and what is bad. Essentially, let's say you and me are walking on the street. Something that works for you well, you would think that is definitely good.

• 3:37Speaker 04

  But what works for you, if it is not working for me, I would think it is bad. So this simplistic judgment about life as to what is good and what is bad, first of all, needs to be lowered because essentially what supports life, what doesn't support life, support life, that is how we need to look at it, not in terms of good and bad. Because the ones we look at it in terms of good and bad, we will divide the world. Right now, this is what has happened. Through the ages, in the name of race, religion, nationalities, we are divided because two nations are fighting, both of them think they're right. Both of them think they are absolutely right.

• 4:19Speaker 04

  And they have, of course, once you think you are good, it will give you a right to kill. It's a license to kill. So, this, we need to lower it as a mature society as to what is good and bad. If we look at it fundamentally, what I do is good, what you do is obviously bad. So, we need to lower that pitch and look at it in terms of whatever we are doing, in thought, emotion, energy and action, whatever we are doing, does it support life? My life and every other life. When I say my life, not my activity, not my business, not my something else which is socially relevant. Because there, something may work for me, something may not work for somebody else.

• 5:02Speaker 04

  But what works for me as a life, definitely will work for you also, there is no question about that. So, it is time, human beings, look beyond these identities of, you know, nationality, race, religion, tribe, well, so many other things, it doesn't stop there. Even football club, you know, the people will fly, fight with each other because I support this club, you support that club. So, it is time with the way humanity is empowered right now. Like today, a thousand years ago, a thousand years ago, what a thousand men could do, today, one man can do, you know?

• 5:44Speaker 04

  What thousand human beings could do, one human being can do today because of technology and the empowerment that we have had. With this kind of empowerment, these small identities as to who I am, can destroy us completely. There is no other crime on the planet, there is no other evil on the planet. The only evil is limited identity. I think this is me, you think that is you, and constantly in conflict with each other endlessly. And how men, how much damage we have caused to the planet, to the people, to each other, endlessly through the history of humanity, simply because our identities are limited. So karma means this, that what I think is my, what I think is me,

• 6:29Speaker 04

  is essentially a certain volume of memory within myself. There is an evolutionary memory which makes me think I am human. There is a genetic memory which makes me think I am an Indian belonging to a certain family and whatever else. And there are other kinds of memories, articulated and inarticulate memories, unconscious, subconscious, unconscious memories, which we have piled up within ourselves. It is just this memory which makes me who I am and it makes you who you are. It's your memory which makes you who you are, it's my memory which makes me who I am. So this is karma. What sort of memories we have, simply depends upon what sort of stuff we have been exposed to in our lives.

• 7:12Speaker 04

  Each one of us lived in different places, different atmospheres, so we have different types of memories. We don't have to necessarily determine our future based on our identifications of those memories. Right now, you are an American, it's just your memory. If you remove your memory, you don't know which nation you belong to. So similarly, every other identity is just a question of memory. We can use this memory to bring richness to our life, but we cannot use this memory to limit our lives. Because right now, when people get identified with that memory, it limits their life, their ability to experience life is limited.

• 7:51Speaker 04

  When I say life, I'm talking about life itself as we are and also the profoundness of our experience. Generally, when you, when people say life, they may be talking about their home, they may be talking about their family, maybe they're talking about their new car, these days it may be just a dog, we do not know what they're talking about. But I am talking about life in terms of this living thing, that is me, and the profoundness of experience, because our life is what it is only because of the way we experience it. What happens around us may not always be determined by us. Because in the surrounding atmosphere, there are too many forces, we have our peace, we

• 8:36Speaker 04

  can try to push it, we can try to make it bigger, but how we experience it is entirely within ourselves, that must be 100% in our hands. If this one thing happens, if you were determining the nature of your experience, would you choose blissfulness or misery for yourself? Blissfulness. Yes. What you want for, for your neighbor sometimes may be debatable, but what you want for yourself is 100% clear, right?

• 9:06Speaker 04

  So, one thing that will happen to you if you are blissful by your own nature is, you are no more in pursuit of happiness. Once you are not in pursuit of happiness, you are not a vested interest in this world. You are blissful by your own nature means, you will do only what is needed, nothing more, nothing less. Right now, we're ripping this planet apart. On what basis? Pursuit of human happiness, isn't it? Ten thousand years ago, what percentage of people were happy? When they were living in a cave? And today, with all the facilities that we have, what percentage of people are happy? I don't think it has changed in any big way. Comfort has come, convenience has come, pleasures have come.

• 9:50Speaker 04

  But blissfulness and joyfulness of life has not come to majority of the population, simply because they are always in pursuit of happiness. This is like you want apples, but you go near the apple tree and start digging, thinking it's a potato. No, if you want apples, you need to look up. Similarly, if you want happiness, if you want joy, if you want peace, if you want profoundness of experience, you must turn inward, because all human experience, pain and pleasure, joy and misery, agony and ecstasy, whatever and whatever, happens from within us. Experience of life is being generated from within us. If we do not take charge of this, we will be in pursuit of happiness.

• 10:34Speaker 04

  In pursuit of happiness, how much harm will cause to each other and to the planet? Endless.

• 10:40Ed Mylett?

  My gosh. I'm fifty years old. I've never heard it said that way, the pursuit of happiness. By the way, I love the word bliss. I use it all the time as you and I become more dear friends.

• 10:49Speaker 04

  It is in the constitution, pursuit of happiness.

• 10:54Ed Mylett?

  You're right. My goodness. So, this has been an interesting interview today because I'm so enthralled with what you're saying. I'm processing it as it relates to me. And I need you to be conscious that I ask things that, you know, can, you know, better everyone here today. One thing that's happened to me, just curious is what you think this is. I'm fifty, I turned fifty last week. And uh

• 11:16Speaker 04

  It is not a confession, it's okay, you can I'll take it.

• 11:21Ed Mylett?

  There's a pride associated to that and then there's a, I don't know, embarrassment or sadness. But I'm actually really grateful. But one of the things that's happened to me as I've gotten a little bit older is that identity thing you've described of the tribes I used to sort of take comfort in belonging to. I'm a this, I'm a that, I find less desirous, you know, to be along to a group. But what I'm curious about, I'm gonna tell you what happened to me as I get older and I'm interested in your feedback on this. The older I get, the more I contemplate the end of my life, the more I contemplate death. And I find that it causes me to want to live in the present much more. And that actually, the almost obsessive contemplation I have with death, I would almost say it's, to that point,

• 12:06Ed Mylett?

  I feel has caused me to live more blissfully in the moment. Am I crazy that that's the case? And is that a healthy thing to contemplate death of the body and the end of our lives?

• 12:18Speaker 04

  See, uh, this is a most fundamental factor in our lives. We do not know whether somebody will be successful or not. We do not know whether somebody will get married or not. We do not know whether somebody will bear children or not, but we know one thing, they will die, okay? I'm saying the most obvious fact about of our existence is we are on a limited lease of time. If we forget this, we will live a stupid life. If we think we are immortal, we are here forever, we will live an idiotic life.

• 12:57Speaker 04

  If you're truly conscious, not contemplate, do not contemplate death, that's like inviting, don't do that. But conscious that I am mortal, being conscious that I am mortal means I know I have a limited amount of time. If you're always conscious, not once in a way, once in a way, if you get conscious, you may get paranoid. But if you're always conscious, well, you will plan your life and live your life in a sensible manner. Because that's the most important thing. Because life is essentially a combination of time and energy. When it comes to time, there is nothing you can do. I know in America, it's fashionable to say, "Time management." I don't know how you manage time. Do whatever you want.

• 13:42Speaker 04

  You laser around, it'll roll away. You do, you do lot of activity, it rolls away. You lie on the beach, it rolls away. You climb a mountain, it rolls away. Sleep, it rolls away. All right? For all of us at the same pace. For all of us, it rolls away at the same pace. Nobody is able to turn it back. Many of them, "Okay, today I wasted my day. Can I roll it back and live it tomorrow?" There is no such thing. Every moment, every second is rolling away means... See, since we sat here together, both of us are about, I think about 12, 13 minutes closer to our graves. That's a fact.

• 14:24Speaker 04

  If we are conscious of this, we would be very, very... We would see life as a very precious process, which it is. The most precious and wonderful and the grandest thing that's happening here is life. But people are frustrated. Thousands of people are killing themselves every day and miserably misery is spreading all over the world for some reason or the other. Okay, when people had to go to work, Monday mornings, they were miserable. Now, they don't have to go to work. They have to stay at home and work. Now, they're even more miserable. I'm saying they're just finding an excuse for everything. But the fundamental reason why people are miserable and why life seems to be so complex is

• 15:09Speaker 04

  your misunderstanding, your psychological process as existential. You're taking your own thought and emotion too seriously. You don't understand, you're creating it. Your thought and emotion is your creation. When you take it seriously and ignore the creator's creation completely and think what is happening in your head is the greatest thing, then you will, you will suffer and you must suffer. How else life will happen? When you can ignore the cosmos in contrast with your silly thought...

• 15:41Speaker 04

  If you don't suffer, what does it mean? You must suffer. There is no other way. Because that is the way life is. If you are not in touch with truth, you will trip and fall. That's the only way life can happen. Now, when we want to enhance our lives, people are always thinking they must live longer. That is not always in our hands. Yes, we can strive to keep ourselves healthy. We can strive to see that we are not infected by this nonsense that's happening in the world. And whatever else, we can take all the care. But still, it is not absolutely in our hands. Anytime, anything can happen to anybody, okay? That's always possible.

• 16:23Speaker 04

  Well, it seems somebody as big as a dinosaur got wiped out in a day because an asteroid hit, all right? Scientists are predicting, I know many times telling us, we, an asteroid just missed the planet by a million miles, something, something, whatever. Right. But I'm saying, there's so many things flying around. It can hit us. Earth can just spin off its orbit. It's possible, all these things are possible, all right? Above all, even if the Earth doesn't go anywhere, you or me can just fall dead, just any day. If we know that, if we know that we are mortal and there is no control over time, we can't slow it down, we can't roll it back,

• 17:06Speaker 04

  we can't roll it forward, it just goes at its own pace for all of us, then the only thing left in your hands is your energies. Your energies, you can pitch it up. You can, your energies you can enhance in such a way that your life looks enhanced. You don't have to enhance the time. You don't have to manage the time. It is just that if your energies are intense and up... What somebody does in ten years, you do it in one year. Now, if both of you live for a hundred years, it looks like you lived for thousand years. Simply because of the level of activity you perform and what you achieve in terms of profoundness of experience and impactfulness of activities. Because these are the only two things we have in our life.

• 17:51Speaker 04

  Our rest is all imagination. Our ideas of wealth, money, influence, nonsense, everything is just imagination. The only two things we have is, in terms of inner experience, how profound is my experience? In terms of activity, how impactful is the activity? This is all there is. There is simply nothing else in life. If you understand this, you will also understand, without profoundness of experience, you cannot create impactfulness in activity.

• 18:23Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 18:23Speaker 04

  If you create impactfulness of activity without profoundness of experience, your activity will bring enormous suffering to you. This is the nature of life.

• 18:34Ed Mylett?

  Oh. I have to tell you, it's interesting because I, a lot of achievers listen to this show. And if you're wondering where I discovered this beautiful man, this is enough to tell you. The club that I belong to out here, I want people to know, but Tom Brady is a member here. Our lockers are next to each other. And his locker was-

• 18:51Speaker 04

  What, is it a golf club?

• 18:53Ed Mylett?

  It's a golf club out here, yes.

• 18:54Speaker 04

  Then why are you leaving me out?

• 18:55Ed Mylett?

  You are invited at any point in time. But the whole thing is though, when we play, as I understand it, I can't be so concerned about my score. I have to enjoy the experience blissfully as we play. So, that's something you could definitely teach me on the golf course. But he was, he was, his locker was open and I peeked and your book was in there. And so on the drive home that day, on the drive home that day, I'm like, it's good enough for him. You know, I have this blessing, for whatever reason, that there's lots, millions of people listen to this show, right? So, I'm listening to it and you, it caught me within about five minutes. You said, "Most people think only other people die." And I had other people in the car. And I said, "Did you hear that?", which they didn't.

• 19:39Ed Mylett?

  I said, "I'm gonna replay this again." And it led me to this thing you said that was, "I've noticed when I suffer the most, I take myself too seriously." Like I'm more, like my importance, if I'm, you know, like, as I maybe, you know, as some beautiful blessings came away in the terms of, you know, influence or some financial rewards, you know, you can have a tendency to say, maybe I'm becoming a pretty big deal here. And said something, I'm being transparent, you said something that's impacted my life, which is that, you know, a lot of suffering has to do that maybe we just take ourselves a little bit too seriously in the scope of the world. And so, could you elaborate that on that thought and share that with us? Because I think everybody

• 20:24Ed Mylett?

  to some degree, probably causes suffering for themselves for this reason.

• 20:31Speaker 04

  See, in this cosmos, of which we do not know the beginning or the end, in this, this solar system is a tiny speck. If that speck tomorrow disappears, nobody will notice it. No alien lives are going to keep account, oh, planet Earth unrest disappeared. It just vanishes, it doesn't leave anything, no disturbance. In this tiny speck of a solar system, planet Earth is a micro speck. In that micro speck, California is a super micro speck. In that, you are a big man. This is the tragedy of humanity.

• 21:17Speaker 05

  Oh, that's awesome. So awesome.

• 21:20Speaker 04

  So how big a man I am, simply depends on how small my vision is.

• 21:28Ed Mylett?

  Wow. I was, I was, wow.

• 21:32Speaker 04

  You and me are just pop-ups on this planet. You know, like in the computer screen, a pop-up comes and vanishes because they paid only for two seconds advertisement.

• 21:44Speaker 04

  So just like that, we are a pop-up and we'll pop out. Before you and me came, countless number of people who thought they were smart, they thought they are kings, they are emperors. All kinds of idiots have walked this planet.

• 21:56Ed Mylett?

  Yup.

• 21:57Speaker 04

  Where are they right now? They're all topsoil.

• 22:00Ed Mylett?

  You're so right.

• 22:01Speaker 04

  And this also will be topsoil. Unless some friends fear that you may raise from the dead and they bury you real deep.

• 22:09Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, that for me was a life changer because even the way I, I'll be sure with you, just the gift you gave me, I, I think about that often. And even when I pray now, I find myself, I get on my knees. People say, why do you pray when you're on your knees? It just reminds me of how small I am. And just these little gifts you've given me about, it doesn't mean as a human, I don't struggle with going back to these ego-driven things, but I find my most blissful. By the way-

• 22:34Speaker 04

  In Indian temples, I'm a celibate. In the Indian temples, when they pray, they go into a posture called sashank. That means they go flat on the ground like this, like entire body on the floor. Because this is a way of expressing in front, you know, when you're thinking of that, which is the source of creation. Creation itself, you're not able to figure. The source of creation, obviously you've not figured anything about it. You are like a worm, you must crawl.

• 23:04Ed Mylett?

  No, I, I, that's, guys, I hope, I don't know if you're listening to this right now or watching it, but I hope that there's this part of you that's pulled over almost and you're, you're writing and contemplating this. This is one of those conversations that you're gonna listen to multiple times. And this source of creation thing, you say, you say something, you say, I had a, I had a good friend of mine on a few weeks ago named Erwin McManus. He's a pastor of a very large church. And I thought, I wonder if the messages will be very different because I knew you were coming on. They weren't. And one of the things that he discussed in great detail is that we are creators, that there's a creator, but we are also creators. And you talk about, it surprised me a little bit that a pastor felt that way. And then he backed it up with different scriptures that he believes in.

• 23:49Ed Mylett?

  It's really a beautiful conversation. And you talk a little bit about this as it relates to karma and destiny as well, that destiny isn't necessarily something that's predictated that's going to happen anyway, but that we have a role in creating it as well. And the way you say it, I've never heard before. So can you, you know, enlighten us about that? Because I think everybody struggles. Do I rely just exclusively on my prayer or on emptying my mind if I meditate? Or whatever my faith is? What's my role in creating my destiny?

• 24:20Speaker 04

  See, we are misunderstanding destiny as a physical situation. It is not the physical situation which determines the nature of your life or the quality of your life. You can be sitting in a rock and be blissed out.

• 24:37Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 24:38Speaker 04

  You can be sitting in the most comfortable palace, but be miserable.

• 24:43Ed Mylett?

  So true.

• 24:43Speaker 04

  So destiny is not in terms of physical arrangements we make. Unfortunately, in the world today, particularly in America, this has gotten out of hand. People think their physical arrangements are more important than their experience of life. Because they did not focus on this, because they focused too much on physical arrangements, now the only way you can cause experience to yourself is through chemicals or alcohol or something else.

• 25:13Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 25:14Speaker 04

  Because they're trying to earn the experience chemically, because physical situations will mock at you after some time. You live in a palace and you don't even know how to sit in ease. You have the best sofa to sit on, but you cannot sit in ease. Now, the only way you will seek inner well-being is through chemicals and abuse of other things because you're trying to create an experience. But you must understand, human destiny is not in the arrangement of physical things or material things around us. Human destiny is in the way we are experiencing life right now. How profound and fantastic is my experience this moment is the important thing.

• 25:58Speaker 04

  Right now, what kind of arrangement I have around me? All I have is two cameras and wires and wires.

• 26:07Speaker 04

  And there are some wonderful people, of course.

• 26:11Speaker 04

  I'm saying, it is not the atmosphere, it is not the arrangement. It is the way you are. If you do not fix this destiny for yourself, which is 100% in your hands. What arrangements we are in right now may not be 100% in your hands. Like some of, you know, unfortunately, some very important people in India, very rich and very successful people, lost their lives in the last few weeks. Well, the arrangement that you have around you is no more the palatial building that you live in. It's only the hospital with pipes and tubes and, you know, wires and whatever else. Which is the same thing everybody gets.

• 26:54Speaker 04

  Maybe doctors paid little more attention to you, but it doesn't matter. It didn't help, I'm saying. So, I'm not saying this in any mocking way. All I'm saying is, right from an early age, we must realize, we must tell our children, the future generations must know, the quality of life is determined by how I am, not what is around me. Not the expensive car, not the home, not the clothes. It doesn't matter. See, all the richest people in America today wearing all tone clothes. This is all desperate ways to experience something. These are all desperate ways to somehow... But right now, we have structured a society where our idea of well-being is being little better than somebody else.

• 27:37Speaker 04

  This is being inculcated into us from our kindergarten school, that you must be number one. See, if I have to be number one, where should you be? Maybe number 10.

• 27:51Speaker 04

  Who, where should others be? Maybe in number seven billion, all right? So, my whole idea of well-being is that everybody should do worse than me. This is sickness. This is not well-being. This is not joy. This is not blissfulness. This is sickness that I enjoy, that you are not doing well. Or as well as me, at least.

• 28:15Ed Mylett?

  How do you balance that with wanting to do well? In other words, one of the things that's amazing about you, and I think it's why people like myself connect with you so deeply from the, not equating us, but you know, if you do research on this beautiful man, you know, Will Smith, there's other of these, what I would call achievers are really, we gravitate to you. And there's a part, I'm sure you've been asked this before, that I say sometimes, "Well, some of those things about my desire to grow or expand have served me." Is there a place where we meet, where we understand what to separate from outcome, that getting this house, or this jet, or this plane is not going to deliver me this bliss that I want? But at the same time, I guess is it,

• 29:00Ed Mylett?

  is it the concept of just wanting to grow? That's the healthy part of it, so that we do expand in our life to some extent? You understand what I'm saying? There's this balance between letting it come to us and not seeking it in the, at the expense of another person, but at the same time of wanting to grow and explore and contribute and even achieve more. How do you feel about that nuance where those two things meet?

• 29:26Speaker 04

  Let me tell you this. This incident happened probably when I was nine, maybe max 10, I'm not sure, nine or 10 years of age. Well, I came home, you know, normally, well, in those days, I think still it's in practice. In school, every month, they will give you a report card, which you should take it home and get your father or mother sign it. So, in my house, it was fixed that my mother will not sign it because she is too gentle. She may just sign it. So, my father is a person who must see it and sign it because he is critical enough to look at things. So, one day, I handed over my report card and went about my business. He opened it after some time and he saw,

• 30:09Speaker 04

  I, my rank was 33, I was 33rd rank. So, my father asked, "How many children are there in your class?" I said, "33."

• 30:24Speaker 04

  Then he said, "Are you not ashamed?" I said, "I got the highest number, thirty-three, I thought is the highest number in my mathematical calculation." The guy who gets only one must be a very poor guy, I got fifty-three, all right? Tell me, would you like one million or thirty-three million? So I'm saying this whole idea, you want to be better than somebody is a sick idea that's instituted into our education systems, into our social structures everywhere. So about how can we do well? See, for this, you don't have to go to any scripture, guru, philosophy, nothing, you

• 31:09Speaker 04

  just have to observe life. Right now, there is an olive tree here, there is a apple tree there. Is olive tree thinking, can my olives be bigger than the apple? No, it is only striving very hard to be the best possible olive tree, isn't it? None of the other lives, whether from ant to elephant, is trying to be something other than who they are. Human beings have this problem. Why this problem has come is just this. See, for every other creature, nature has drawn two lines within which they live and die.

• 31:50Speaker 04

  For them in their life, ninety percent of their lives are fixed by nature. Maybe for individual creature, there is a ten percent latitude. I'm saying these numbers off the cuff, okay? This is not like some scientific numbers. But for a human being, only ten percent is fixed, ninety percent is full latitude as to what they can do with themselves. Or in other words, for human beings, nature has taken away the top line. You could be anything you wish to be. Or in a way, I would say even the bottom line, because many people, many human beings make themselves worse than beasts and brutes around. Because there is no beast and brute as far as I can see. Because I have been in wildlife, I have been in wild situations.

• 32:35Speaker 04

  I never found any animal, a tiger, or a lion, or an elephant, or a bison, ever behaving irrationally, ever behaving in such a way, simply wanting to cause damage to somebody. I have never seen one animal like that. I have spent so much time in wildlife. So, it is a very wrong analogy to say that if somebody is behaving in a terrible way, you say you are a beast, you are a brute. These are all wrong words. You say you are behaving like a man.

• 33:07Speaker 04

  Because it's only human beings who are exhibiting these qualities. These qualities, human beings are exhibiting simply because they are not able to handle their freedom. They are not suffering their bondage, they are handling, they are suffering their freedom. If nature had put two lines for them also, like every other creature, ah, they would be fine. They didn't have to pray, they didn't have to meditate, they didn't have to do anything, they would just live within those two lines, live. You know, be born, grow up, reproduce, die one day. Essentially, this is all generation after generation is doing. They imagine all kinds of things, but this is all they are doing. But the human possibility is, we are not doing something very different from other animals.

• 33:49Speaker 04

  We are doing the same things. Only thing is, we can do it consciously. This greatly enhances the profoundness of our experience. This greatly enhances the impactfulness of our activity. We are not doing anything other than what an ant is doing. It is born just like us, it grows up, it lives, its traffic lanes are better controlled than ours, you know? Nobody is over speeding, nothing happening, they are all in perfect order, and they will reproduce and they'll die one day. This is all a human being also is doing. But we are imagining all kinds of things, and every one of these things, we do it with great amount of fuss. Just see growing up, how much fuss.

• 34:34Speaker 04

  Tell me one thing that human beings are seeing as not a problem. If you are a toddler, you have a diaper problem. You are a teenager, you have a hormonal problem. You are middle-aged, life is a crisis. Your old age is horrendous. Tell me one thing that human beings are not suffering. Everything, life and death, they suffer. This is simply because we evolved to a place where our experience of life is left in our hands by nature. This is the credit we have gained by evolution. Millions of years of natural process through which we have arrived at this place where in terms, evolutionary terms, we are on top of the world.

• 35:19Speaker 04

  But, human beings are not feeling top of the world because they are not experiencing life. They are only experiencing their own thoughts, emotions, ideas, prejudices, philosophies, and belief systems, which they think is reality. No, these are things you make up in your head. You make up these things and you believe this is reality. When you think make-believe is real, if you don't suffer, how? You must suffer. You will suffer. If you think the mirror is actually a doorway, will you walk into it or not and knock your head? That's all that's happening.

• 35:55Ed Mylett?

  We don't have to believe our own thoughts, do we?

• 35:58Speaker 04

  Oh, you made it up. You should know that you made it up. Make it up in a way that it works.

• 36:05Ed Mylett?

  You said... My gosh, I... I almost feel like you live with me.

• 36:11Speaker 04

  Let me tell you a joke. Can I tell you a joke, Ed?

• 36:13Ed Mylett?

  Please, please.

• 36:16Speaker 04

  It happened on a certain day. A lady went to sleep. In her sleep, she saw a hunk of a man like you. And he was just staring at her. Then he started coming closer, closer and closer. He came so close, she could even feel his breath. And she trembled, not in fear. And then she asked, "What will you do to me?" The man said, "Well, lady, it's your dream."

• 36:51Speaker 04

  What's happening in your head is your dream.

• 36:57Ed Mylett?

  That's awesome. Oh my goodness.

• 37:02Speaker 04

  See, what's happening in your head is your dream. Right now, people's problem is not that life is not happening the way they want it. Even their dream is not happening the way they want it. That's their problem.

• 37:16Ed Mylett?

  And part of that dream, oh my gosh. It's almost like, by the way, you knew what I wanted to ask you next too, because we've talked about this thing that, well, I want to get these things for bliss. The other, I feel like epidemic, I know you know this, is I need this other person to feel peace or bliss. There's this feeling that I'm missing a person in my life. That if I had this relationship, if this other person loved me this much, if I could share this experience with this other person, I'm going to delay my bliss until that happens. It's not always just stuff, wouldn't you agree? It's also this, I know we need one another. I know there's energy between humans.

• 37:58Ed Mylett?

  But there's also sometimes an unhealthy, false belief that you need another person before you can have permission for these beautiful emotions. True?

• 38:09Speaker 04

  See, first of all, you must look at this carefully. Because essentially, you, what people are saying by making these statements is that creation has made a mistake.

• 38:23Speaker 04

  Is this life a complete life or is this half a life? You make up your mind. If this is a complete life, it should be fine by itself and then it will interact with many things out of its joy. Now, this is what I said in the very beginning. Is your life in pursuit of happiness? Or is your life an expression of your joy? That's the thing. As long as there is fear of suffering in you, you will never walk full stride in your life. Always, what is it that holds back people? What will happen to me? What will happen to me means what? Will I suffer? Will I die? These are only two things, right? What else is there? What will happen to me?

• 39:05Speaker 04

  What will happen to me means simply this, will I suffer? Will I die? This is all there is. There is no other thing that you fear. Your suffering and your death. So right now, if you make yourself in such a way, no matter what happens, this is how I am. I am blissful by my own nature. Wherever you send me, this is how I am. Once it's like this, now there is no fear of suffering. Once there is no fear of suffering, you will walk full stride for the first time in your life.

• 39:35Ed Mylett?

  Gosh, that's so awesome. And as I walk that full stride, I'm talking to myself whispering, by the way, just so you know.

• 39:42Speaker 04

  No, you're trying to motivate yourself, inspire yourself. No, no, no, you need to liberate yourself.

• 39:49Ed Mylett?

  Do you, in that liberation,

• 39:53Ed Mylett?

  it's interesting. If you come to a conclusion as to why we are here. So I think this great answer of life is that, that, you know, that there's this, the contemplation of death helps us realize that that is an inevitability. Has anyone ever asked you that before? Like, why are we here?

• 40:13Speaker 04

  You're essentially asking why life?

• 40:15Ed Mylett?

  Yes, yes.

• 40:18Speaker 04

  See, such a question comes to you only in some way when life has become burdensome. Everything may be good. Good will become terribly burdensome after some time. All the good things in life will become very burdensome over a period of time. When life becomes burdensome, you ask this question, why life? See, the moment you ask why, I have to tell you a story. Okay, shall I?

• 40:47Ed Mylett?

  Please.

• 40:48Speaker 04

  One day, God had nothing to do. He was playing marbles. One marble shot up like this and became planet Earth. And then, shall I continue?

• 40:57Ed Mylett?

  Yes, please.

• 41:00Speaker 04

  This is a ridiculous story. Of course, the moment I say it, you will reject it. But I could tell you a more elaborate, believable story. That is what the danger is. When I tell you a stupid story, you can easily reject it. If I tell you a more complex story that is believable, that's when the danger happens, that you move from reality to belief systems, that your belief, what you do in your head, becomes more real than the creation itself.

• 41:29Speaker 04

  The moment your... what is happening in your mind becomes more real than the creation, this is called madness. This may go off in many other names. This may go off as society. This may go off as a football club. This may go off as religion. This may go off as philosophy. But essentially, it is madness because you have made your psychological reality larger than the creation itself. This is madness. This madness may be selling well in the world right now.

• 42:03Ed Mylett?

  Crazy question for you. Because everyone... This is the most, you know, I don't know. I've never had a more interesting conversation in my life. So, thank you for me.

• 42:16Ed Mylett?

  Very emotional, very reflective for me. And I know it is for so many. So I'm asking you a light question because I'm just curious. If you don't know about this man, he's interesting. When did you start riding motorcycles?

• 42:31Ed Mylett?

  Like, you guys, you know, if you're watching this on video, you probably have a picture in your head of the person you know in your life most that is a motorcycle rider, right? And I love this because I just think it's the beauty, the beautiful expression of a human being. And I'm researching you. And I'm watching these like incredibly long rides you go on too. Why do you do it? I'm curious, why do you do that?

• 42:56Speaker 04

  We have to go somewhere in some way. Because, you know, like a lot of people are bringing their motorcycles to put my autograph on it.

• 43:03Ed Mylett?

  I'm sure.

• 43:03Speaker 04

  Recently, recently, somebody brought his motorcycle. So I wrote on his tank, the motorcycle tank, which was a BMW motorcycle. I wrote on this tank, "Four wheels for comfort, two wheels for love of life." That's why. So when did I start riding? I don't want to talk about it because I'll have to say something illegal. I started riding when I was 12. But I got my license, yeah, I got my license the day I turned 18. Within three days, I applied for my license and within the next two and a half, three months, I had my license. But I started riding when I was 12.

• 43:43Ed Mylett?

  When did you, were you always this way? Meaning always somebody, what I mean by this way, I just mean, I don't know if I would call it curiosity, wise.

• 43:56Ed Mylett?

  There's a beautiful, non-judgmental kindness in the way that you interact with other humans. And I'm wondering, did that happen as you became an older person and wiser? Or was this something that you knew about your being as that?

• 44:13Speaker 04

  You dared to call me old? How dare you call me, I'm old?

• 44:17Ed Mylett?

  Well, I already told you that I'm 50. Here's what I know, I'm pretty clear, here's what I do know. And this is just a judgment call, I could be off. You're older than 12, based on the story that you just told me. So, older than 12. Did you know at 12, when you got on that motorcycle the first time, that this is sort of who I'm gonna be in life and what I enjoy doing? I noticed things about humanity and this earth? Or did that, was there an event that took place that caused you to become more this connected human being? Or was it just wisdom and growth over the time you're alive? I'm just interested.

• 44:54Speaker 04

  Well, when I was 12, I was still having evolutionary issues. I was still like a little monkey who would climb anything that I saw and ride anything that I could ride, alright? And of course, at 12, when you ride, it's a stolen motorcycle. Stolen means my father's scooter or my guest who comes home and just you say, "I will clean your machine and then I will ride it a little bit and come back like this." It's stolen moments, not stolen machine, but stolen moments.

• 45:28Speaker 04

  So till I was eighteen, by sixteen, seventeen, people started giving me their vehicles because I was riding well and whatever. But by eighteen, I was there fully. So, the important thing is, you know, like this, this happened to me, I should say. When I was, let's say, four, four and a half years of age, one day I suddenly realized, I don't know anything. Don't know anything means don't know anything at all. That is, you know, if, if I hold a glass of water in my hands, I don't know what this is. I know I can drink it, it'll quench my thirst.

• 46:11Speaker 04

  I know the many ways I could use water, but I don't know what it is. Actually, even today, that's a fact with all the scientific knowledge, you still do not know what water is. It's the only substance found on the planet which is in all the three states. Two-thirds of the, your body is water, planet is water, but we still don't know what it really is. We know how to use it, we know how to abuse it, but we don't know what it is. This is so with every single atom, right now. We do not know what it really is. So I will just realize, actually, I don't know anything. Anything means anything. So I started staring at everything. If I find a dry leaf, I would be looking at it for hours on end.

• 46:55Speaker 04

  If I sit up in my bed, I'm just sitting like this, staring for the whole night. So my father, being a physician, started thinking that I need psychiatric evolution, I mean evaluation, that is, he started saying, this boy is simply staring at something all the time. It looks like he's lost it, you know? And he's thirty-third out of thirty-three. I got thirty-three out of thirty-three. So, and my problem was, I just look at this, I still don't know what this is. So I'm not able to shift my attention to anything else. So, so I, if I open my textbook and sit, it's a rule in the house from seven in the

• 47:37Speaker 04

  evening to nine, two hours, all of us, four siblings, we must sit and study our, whatever we have. If I open my textbook, I find a little spot on the page. I just remain with that spot for next two hours. And I realized that the real crux of life is in your attention, not in what the hell is written in the book. So I started paying attention to everything and everything to such a point that it led me... People thought I've lost it. Some people thought I must be stupid. I have nothing going on. But if I looked at something, if I looked at people,

• 48:21Speaker 04

  I would know so many things others wouldn't have dreamt of because my attention was absolute towards anything. I must tell you this, this happened about 15 years ago. This school where I studied nearly 50 years ago, they came to invite me for their 125th anniversary of the school. Then I said, see, you know, I have not just been a not-good student. I have not even been a student. I only came there when it was absolutely necessary. Otherwise, I was gone somewhere. So why me? Why are you asking me to come? I am not a good inspiration for your students. They said, no, no, our school has produced film stars. Our school has produced cricketing stars.

• 49:06Speaker 04

  Our school has produced union ministers. But you are the only mystic. You must come. I said, okay. And I went there. Well, I stood up to speak in that corner angle, same oppressive buildings. And then suddenly I remembered, I was around 12, less than 13 years of age. In that particular classroom, I just looked at it and I remembered that on a particular afternoon, a teacher is trying to get me to respond to a question. Those days I was made like this. For days on end, I wouldn't say anything because I don't know anything. What do I say? You mean you would not speak at all? You're saying you would not speak? No, nothing at all.

• 49:50Speaker 04

  I wouldn't speak for many days because I'm still trying to drink in life. I haven't understood a goddamn thing around me. All right? I haven't understood a leaf. I haven't understood a glass of water. What am I going to talk about? So I just looking at him.

• 50:08Speaker 04

  For about thirty-five, forty minutes, he tried his best to get a response from me. But I don't even hear him after some time. After some time, you know, like I, when I sit there, I can see his past, present, and future, but I can't hear what he's saying because it doesn't matter to me what he's saying. Then after thirty-five, forty minutes, he got so frustrated, he came and held me by the arms and shook me violently like this and said, "You must either be the divine or the devil. I think you're the later." Till then, my problem was, "What is this? What is that? What is that? What is that?" I had a question about everything. I had a billion questions going in my head.

• 50:53Speaker 04

  But I knew one thing, this is me. Suddenly, this guy confused me about this also. Now, I looked at myself, "Is this God? Is this devil? Is this something else? What the hell is this?" I never had such a question till then. I was sure this is me. Suddenly, this man confused me about this also. So, I started staring at myself. It didn't work, so I started closing my eyes. And there began my journey of spending more time eyes closed than eyes open.

• 51:19Ed Mylett?

  My gosh! So, you, you spend more, is that true to this day? Do you spend more time with your eyes closed than your eyes open?

• 51:28Speaker 04

  Uh, not now. These days, you know, last thirteen days I've been driving, I had my eyes open.

• 51:33Ed Mylett?

  You, um, by the way...

• 51:36Speaker 04

  I drove a camper all the way from Tennessee to Florida, to Los Angeles. Yesterday evening, I just came in on a little camper, being pandemic-free, you know?

• 51:44Ed Mylett?

  Pandemic-free. He's being, as usual, incredibly humble, but everybody, this is, I'm gonna ask you one last question, but I just wanna say something for you. Well, I love you, and I'm so grateful. And you're one of the...

• 51:58Speaker 04

  You won't love me at the end of the golf game, okay?

• 52:00Ed Mylett?

  Okay. Well, that may be true. That actually...

• 52:05Ed Mylett?

  I certainly don't love golf at the end of every golf game, so maybe I should stop doing it. But I just want you to know and everyone to know that you're one of the great forces for peace and good in the world. And his foundation has 11 million volunteers. I mean, there's reasons why he was invited back there. He's being very, very humble. You just, I love being present with you. I find myself not wanting to be anywhere else, and I thank you for that. I guess what I would do last, because I want to be respectful of the hour that we committed to one another, and I would literally go six hours, and I hope someday you'll bless us by coming back. I want to remind everybody to get his book on karma that's out, that I've already read.

• 52:47Ed Mylett?

  But I also just ask you, if you could just give some advice. There's people watching this saying, "I want more bliss." I have this pattern of not having it, though. This pattern of my thoughts. Maybe as a young person, people installed some of these identities into me hundreds of different times that I didn't have, I didn't get afforded the chance to be present with myself more often and kind of undo a little bit of that. Would there just be any parting counsel you would give to someone who's listening or watching this, they stayed the whole interview, and I just want more bliss and peace in my life? And you've covered so many things, but is there an additional thing you would share last?

• 53:29Speaker 04

  Sid, the thing is just this. This is the bane of the world right now. Particularly, United States of America, I must say this, because people have become goal-oriented.

• 53:42Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, they want it, yeah.

• 53:43Speaker 04

  They want something, always. So in yoga, we have a saying like this, which says, "If you are focused on the goal, that means your one eye is on the goal. That means you have only one eye to find your way." Very inefficient. You will have desires and desires, more and more misery. You will not get there because your one eye is on the goal. You must understand, this whole karma thing is just about this. What karma means is, it is a bank of memory. It is an unconscious software that you wrote for yourself. If you can do something unconsciously, you can also do it consciously.

• 54:24Speaker 04

  See, right now, if I move my hand unconsciously, I can also move this consciously. Similarly, if I can generate a thought unconsciously, I can also make it consciously. So essentially, the fundamental problem is this. That as a human being, you have been given intelligence and faculties which no other creature has. This sort of intelligence and faculties, you can only handle if you're conscious. If you live unconsciously, you will poke yourself. See, right now, the problem with most human beings is, they have a sharp mind. They don't know what they're doing, they're keeping poking themselves. What is the torture they're going through? Their own thought and emotion, isn't it?

• 55:09Speaker 04

  It is their cerebral capacity which is making them suffer. If they had the brain of an earthworm, they would all be fine because whole of California is trying to be eco-friendly. They would be very eco-friendly and peaceful, no meditation needed, no prayer needed, no yoga needed, nothing is needed. Earthworm is doing fine for his capacity of life. It is a human being who is not doing fine because for this capacity of life, you need to conduct this consciously. Otherwise, it's not going to work, it's just not going to work. Do what you want. So forget about becoming rich, forget about becoming blissful, forget about going to heaven. Just this much, this moment, can you do it consciously?

• 55:53Speaker 04

  If I say consciously, immediately now the key word in America is mindful. Become mindful. No, no, no, mindfulness is just alertness of the mind, which will help you to survive better. It will not evolve you to another dimension. Being conscious is not an effort. Because, right now, only because you're conscious, you know that you're alive, isn't it?

• 56:16Speaker 04

  Yes. Question is to turn up the voltage on this. It's like this, there are now these lights are here. They have dimmers, you know, there is a rheostat dimmer that you can lower the light or increase the light. What is it that you're doing? You're reducing the wattage. Right now, let us say there is a light here which is capable of thousand volts or watts. And now it is a ten watts. What do you see? Just a spot on the floor. Only what is there in that spot you see. Rest of it doesn't exist in your experience. You increase the wattage. What happens? You will see that much space. You increase it more, you will see that much. If it fully lights up, you see everything that is there in that room. Right now, this is all you need to do.

• 56:59Speaker 04

  You need to engage in something that enhances the life forces within you. You can build your body, but big body is not going to take you anywhere. There was a time, a man with big body would be the king, all right? Because he could beat everybody down. Now, if you have a very big body, they may make you a security guard or something else, all right? I'm saying, you want to keep your body well, that is fantastic. It's your business to keep it well. You want to keep your mind well, very, very important. You want to keep your emotions sweet and well, fine, fantastic. But the important thing is, the life process should enhance itself. As there is a science and technology for external well-being and comforts and conveniences,

• 57:44Speaker 04

  similarly, there's an entire science and technology for inner well-being, which in the east we called as yoga. But that came here to California. Now, it has become a fashion. Just wearing a certain kind of clothes and twisting and turning has become yoga. No, this is an entire science as to how to handle the human mechanism in such a way that it will function at its peak. You don't think about the goal. Because the goal that you think of is just an exaggeration of what you already know, isn't it? What is the goal you will think of? If you know million dollars, you will think hundred million dollars. If you know billion dollars, you will think hundred billion dollars. If you know this much pleasure, that much pleasure. If you know this much knowledge, that much knowledge.

• 58:27Speaker 04

  Whatever your imagination or your goals are only exaggeration of the past. Do not get stuck in this, you will waste your life repeating the past. Enhancing the past in so many ways. Nothing new will occur in your life if you do this. So if you want to explore this life fully, you do not determine where you should go. You just enhance this, power this up. Let's see where it goes. It should go to a place that you could not dream of. I bless people and say, "May your dreams not come true." People say, "Sadhguru, Sadhguru, what?" I said, "See, your dreams are just an exaggeration of petty things that you know in your life." Something that you could not dream of should happen in your life.

• 59:10Speaker 04

  For this, you need to engineer your interiority in such a way. You need to do some inner engineering in such a way that all stops are removed in terms of experiencing life and enhancing life. What happens in the world is the times in which we live. It's not all about us. If we were a thousand years ago, I'm going back to the caveman again and again. Maybe it was all about how you could wield a stick better than me or I could do, do, throw a stone better than you. This is what our life would be. Today, we are thinking something else. What we are doing in the world today is not all our doing. It is a consequence of times in which we are born and in which we exist. So the most important thing is the enhancement of this life.

• 59:54Speaker 04

  People say, "No, no, no, I want to help everybody." That's not the point. If this life is, if the tree grows big, it does not have to think, "I have to give fruits and flowers and shade to people." It will anyway happen. Instead of growing the tree, you are trying to create a shade, you are trying to make fruits and flowers. You will end up with plastic fruits and plastic flowers where there will be no sweetness or fulfillment in that.

• 1:00:19Ed Mylett?

  My goodness, my goodness. I am, I've spent an hour of life with you and I'm an hour closer to death and I am grateful that I spent this hour this way. My life is better.

• 1:00:31Speaker 04

  I can, I can teach you how to kick the can of death a little further.

• 1:00:35Ed Mylett?

  That's our next conversation. Now you've got me really curious, but you got me very curious. I love you. I'm grateful for you.

• 1:00:45Speaker 04

  Thank you. Thank you, Ed.

• 1:00:46Ed Mylett?

  Everybody, follow anything you can from him. And I don't think I have to ask you to share this conversation. I think you're compelled to do so. Thank you again. God bless everybody. Max out.

• 1:00:59Speaker 04

  Thank you.