Using science and technology, much has been done on this planet in pursuit of human wellbeing, especially in the last hundred years. With this, definitely much comfort and convenience have come our way. Never before could another generation even dream of these kinds of conveniences and comforts. But has humanity really become well?
If you look at the world and especially at western societies, for example, the United States, over 40 percent of the people have been on some kind of psychological medication to keep themselves balanced. This is not wellbeing. Human beings are not well because though we took care of the outside, we never bothered to take care of the inside.
Real human wellbeing will happen only when a man is peaceful and joyful within himself. The home that you live in, the car that you drive, the clothes that you wear, the people you have around you and all that you worked for is just waste if you do not know how to be peaceful and joyful within yourself. Only when you are peaceful and joyful by your own nature will you pursue life without any fear or anxiety.
As long as there is a fear, “what will happen to me?” within you, you will only take half strides in life, never full strides. So if a human being wants to find his full potential, the first thing is, there should be inner stability of peace and joy within himself so that he can explore the possibilities of life. Otherwise, he will have one big hesitation about life because his happiness will be accidental.
No matter who you are or how powerful you are, outside situations are not always going to be 100 percent in your control. This is because the outside situation involves a million different ingredients. You do not even know what most of those ingredients are actually.
You try to control those few that you know but you do not even understand the rest so there is no question of controlling them. You are just hoping it will all fall into place. But when it comes to the inner situation, there is only you. This inner situation at least must happen your way. If this does not happen your way, you are a lost cause.
This is why people are getting stressed and burnt out. Stress is not because of the nature of your work, stress is your inability to manage your own system. If you really want to bring quality into your life and perpetuate that quality into life around you, the first and foremost thing that you need to do is that you establish your inner realities in a certain way, with certain stability that what is within you—your mind, emotion, and your system—do not go through upheavals to face the challenges of life. Only when there are no inner upheavals and inner issues, can you handle the outside issues well?
So is there a way to create an inner situation? Yes. As there is science and technology to create external situations the way we want them, we have a whole science and technology to create inner situations the way we want them.
As we have engineered the world the way we want it, we can also engineer our interiority the way we want it. So if you truly want to enhance the quality of your life, you have to take this step and be willing to invest a little bit of time for your inner wellbeing. If this is done, you will see a remarkable change in the way you function. The necessary technology is there—I call it Inner Engineering, the peak of wellbeing.
Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary, and bestselling author. He was conferred the Padma Vibhushan in 2017. Isha.sadhguru.org