Yoga is taking over the world. And how! As thousands upon thousands of people step on their mats across the globe this International Day of Yoga — we take our place, warmed up and ready, beside one of the biggest champions for the practice — Sadhguru.
Although, between helming the non-profit Isha Foundation with a whopping nine million volunteers, churning out a steady stream of spiritual discourses on YouTube, and now, a new book out titled Flowers on the Path — we have to wonder when in the world the mystic ever finds time for some Shavasana!
From asanas to cricket to cocktails - Sadhguru’s latest read takes us on a rollercoaster ride of knowledge, gleaned from the most unexpected places.
After all, how often do you find a chapter on the disease by a man with a flowing white beard, under the title Saturday Night Fever? Excerpts:
Tell us more about this new book.
Most of the time, people who live in the ashram assimilate what I have spoken, and it is printed. So, there is a certain rawness to many of my books — because it worked for people who have seen me speak. Now, when they read this, it is just like I am speaking to them.
Transitioning from spoken word to written word is a different thing altogether. When you speak, there are gestures and expressions that you make that go beyond words, which are lost in the written word. At the same time, the written word is for a larger reach. So, for this book, I read through every piece of it, making it like a written word, without changing the context of what is being said.
One of our favourite phrases in the book is ‘a guru mixes the right cocktail’. In the age of loneliness, stats increasing — what is your recipe? Give it to us ‘neat’, please!
I am not against technology. Technologies were created to support human beings to better their lives. If you use it properly, social media can be a wonderful tool. These are conveniences that have come our way, but how we employ them in our lives is the question. People have a dozen love affairs going on Facebook, but they can’t get along with the people around them. This is because, on social media, you can say pretty things to someone and then move on, but if you have to actually love somebody next to you, it takes involvement...
What learnings did your motorcycle days elicit?
There was a time when I criss-crossed India on my motorcycle. I did not ride with a destination in my mind – I simply rode. The terrain of India just grabbed me. The motorcycle, me and the earth became one, so much that I would ride sometimes three days and three nights, without sleep.
And, of course, the people. I never stayed in a hotel. I just rode into a village somewhere, walked into someone’s house and told them, “I’m hungry and I need a place to sleep.” Not once did anyone refuse me. I did not have to know people to make them a part of my life. I did not have to own the land to make it mine. I think that is the biggest lesson that came to me with my motorcycling — that I did not have to possess anything to make it mine. I have already made all of you mine.
What is the prescription for happiness?
What you need to understand is that all human experience has a chemical basis for it. What you call as joy, misery, stress, anxiety, agony and ecstasy are different kinds of chemistry. In other words, what you call as yourself right now is a chemical soup. The question is, are you a great soup or a lousy soup? You are capable of joy, but you have not engineered yourself to stay there. Isn’t it important that we engineer ourselves the way we want? The situations of your life may not be in your hands, but the experience of your life must be 100 per cent in your hands.