Whatever you do in the world is only a reflection of who you really are. You may have great intentions, but fundamentally, everything that you do only spells out who you really are within yourself. Most of the pain and suffering inflicted upon humanity has been caused only with good intentions, not bad intentions. Most of the slaughter and killing has happened on this planet only with good intentions.
If you look at the world, the fight is not between the good and the bad. It is always the good people who are fighting each other. The man who is labelled as a terrorist in the world thinks he is very good. The more good he thinks he is, the more horrible he becomes for us. It is not bad people who fight each other, it is always good people with good intentions who fight. The crusaders who slaughtered millions also did it with good intentions. Even Hitler, who caused so much pain and suffering on this planet, had only good intentions. He wanted to create a super world. What a great intention!
Whatever you do in ignorance, even if it is with good intention, will cause harm to you and the world around you. Today, we are seeking happiness so vigorously that the very life of the planet is being threatened. Science and technology could have been a great boon for humanity but instead, we have driven this earth to a point where we could be heading for a global suicide. We are on the edge of it in many ways and all with good intentions.
In the last hundred years, with the aid of science and technology, much has been done on this planet. There are many comforts now that even royalty could not have dreamt of a hundred years ago. Despite all that, humanity is not happier or more peaceful than what it was a hundred years ago.
Fundamentally, every human being first needs to work on himself. The first and the foremost responsibility of any human being should be to single out his interiority and become a joyous person. When you are happy, you are a very generous human being, aren’t you? When you are unhappy, you are a dangerous person. So the first and foremost responsibility is to establish yourself as a joyous human being.
If this does not happen, with good intentions we will cause great suffering on this planet which is what is happening today. How can you manage the world when you do not know how to manage your own body, mind or emotions? If you do not know how to take care of yourself, you will definitely not know how to take care of the world. So, the first and foremost duty and responsibility of every human being is to settle himself or herself—one’s inner being, and become joyful by your own nature. Once a person is joyous, he will only spread joy in the world.
Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and bestselling author. He was conferred the Padma Vibhushan in 2017.
Isha.sadhguru.org