Great movements, revolutions, phenomenal things, which have changed human life on this planet, have happened not because something came thundering down from the heavens. When the necessary attention was paid, little things, done by a handful of people, blossomed into a phenomenal process.
If you give it enough attention and energy, what beats in one human heart—one human being’s thoughts and emotions—can inspire the whole world. For example, Mahatma Gandhi started his movement with just a handful of people. This handful snowballed into millions in a short while and became a great movement.
One reason why the majority of humanity lives a mediocre life is because they are kanjoos [meaning “stingy” in Hindi] about everything. They cannot smile fully or express themselves fully. When you are that kanjoos, life is also very kanjoos with you.
It is not the imminent danger of you being swallowed by something which limits you. It is calculation. A stingy man’s calculations are unbounded—they just go on and on. If they get one fruit, they would like to cut it into a million pieces, give one piece to somebody and keep the rest. Cutting a fruit into a million pieces could take half a lifetime. That is what is happening.
To give little, people take a whole lifetime. This life happens in a certain totality. Only one who gives totally will know life in its totality. Others will not know it. Those who are constantly trying to save themselves and everything that they have for the future, those who do not have a present, where will a future come for them? If you are missing the present, when the future comes, what makes you think you will not miss it? There is a story about Gautam Buddha. Not a true story. It is just a story. They say when Buddha attained nirvana and moved towards the gates of ultimate liberation, mukti, his back was facing the gate, not his face. So they asked him, “Why, Buddha, all your life you had this problem.
In the world, everybody is trying to become a king, everybody is trying to earn money and live in a palace. There also you went backwards. You moved from being a king to a beggar, from a palace to utter poverty. There also you were on reverse gear. Now because you did well, we opened the gates of ultimate liberation to you. Why are you turning your back to them?” Buddha said, “I have no intention of entering the gate, that is why I am looking the other way. I am just waiting for everybody to pass before I go. I am not in a hurry. I think it is a little unaesthetic for me to pass before others go.”
How many of you in the last 24 hours smiled at someone or something in such a way that tears came to your eyes? Why are you so kanjoos just to smile? You will not get dehydrated if you shed a few tears. If you dissolve yourself in the process of breathing and living here, then you are a solution for everything. Dissolution will not happen with calculation. Dissolution will happen in giving—just giving every moment of your life.
Try this: In the next 24 hours, you must know at least one moment of total giving. You must give in such a way that everything in you should melt. One moment of giving in 24 hours. Can you do that? Just become a process of giving. If that is not there, you do not dissolve. If you do not dissolve, there is no solution.
Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, a bestselling author and poet. He was conferred the Padma Vibhushan in 2017. Isha.sadhguru.org