Nature is of two kinds. One is physical nature, another is that which is beyond the physical. The physical in you knows only two things—self-preservation and procreation. For self-preservation, you fight for food, clothing, housing, a car and so many other things. As societies grow into various states and human beings grow into various status situations, they raise their survival standards accordingly. For one person, survival may mean one meal a day. For another, survival may mean a Mercedes-Benz.
Wealth and sexuality, or self-preservation and procreation are two things that bring so much violence and struggle, and which are taking up an enormous amount of human energy. Spiritual paths always handle these two aspects first—through conscious poverty and by moving away from sexuality because if you take away these two things, your identification with the physical body will slowly disappear. Once that happens, you will no longer be a biological entity. That means you will no longer be a part of the animal kingdom.
The fundamental goal of spirituality is to not belong to the animal kingdom because there is another nature within you which constantly wants to expand. It does not matter where you are, it wants to continuously expand. Whoever you are, you want to be a little more than what you are right now. If that ‘little more’ happens, you want to be still more—you want to be a ‘little more’ endlessly. You incessantly seek expansion. How much expansion? Endless and boundless. But the very nature of the physical is defined by a boundary. Without a boundary, there is no physical. So, when you seek boundless expansion, there is a longing within you to go beyond the physical.
If you become conscious of that nature which is beyond the physical, you will become spiritual. You will no longer be a biological organism. You will not be ruled by your biology and the laws of the physical anymore. That is the fundamental of a spiritual process because you are truly free only when that dimension enters you. Otherwise, with civilisation and education, you only pretend and hold back your animal nature.
Right now, in the great cities of the world—New York, London, Paris or Los Angeles—see what happens if you take away the law and police for three days. You will see how uncivilised everything is. People will behave worse than cavemen. Cavemen had no police but they still managed themselves. Civilisation is just a chain that you put on yourself to try and hold yourself down. Once in a way, you forget your education and civilisation and then either in your home, office or on the street—somewhere—your animal nature bursts forth. If you are just biology, that is how you will behave.
Freedom is not about controlling, it is about transcending. You cannot control biology. You have to transcend it. Only when the other dimension becomes active and awake in you and you are conscious of it—when something more than biology and physicality happens to you—then physicality is not a problem. Not that it goes away, it just becomes insignificant. It is not something that draws or compels you anymore. There is no longer any compulsiveness in you. Now life becomes choice. You are not driven by the body, you drive the body the way you want.
If we really want to create a culture of peace—not a society which is held down by law but a truly civilised society—it is extremely important that in every society, a spiritual process is set forth right from the birth of the child.
Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, a bestselling author and poet. He was conferred the
Padma Vibhushan in 2017. Isha.sadhguru.org