All those who’ve absorbed his insightful take on life and living on YouTube and Instagram are used to his brilliant sense of humour. At ITC Sonar’s conference room on Saturday evening, a bunch of journalists experienced it first hand. “I only look dangerous. I won’t eat you! I am not as dangerous as I look!” he laughed when one of us asked him if she could go sit beside him. An instant ice-breaker. What followed was an attempt to soak in as many life lessons as one could in a short window right before he took the stage as the keynote speaker at Infocom, an ABP initiative, to talk about ‘Building of A Nation’.
Sadhguru. Yogi, mystic, visionary and the founder of Isha Foundation. Dressed in his trademark style with his signature headwrap and his stole. Excerpts from his chat with The Telegraph.
Sadhguru, how are you so cool?
Cool? I thought I was hot! (Laughs)I just live and everybody thinks it’s cool. Maybe they are cold... (laughs). This is a change of terminology from ’70s, ’80s to now, the 21st century. At that time, if somebody was something that other people were aspiring for, (they would say)... ‘He’s hot! She’s hot!’ Now, you are saying ‘cool’! (Laughs) I don’t know what happened to the temperatures, maybe it’s global warming, because temperature is a contextual thing! (Laughs)
You keep talking about acceptance, but why is it so difficult to accept?
Who said it’s difficult? See, if you make false conclusions, it’s difficult to accept reality. This is the most important thing in your life that you are not a conclusion. Death is the only conclusion we have to this life. So, here itself if you start concluding, without knowing why, you start dying. When you are five-six years old, you are exuberantly alive. That’s how you are made. Now, slowly people’s faces become longer and longer. So, you are practising death as if you are worried that you may not die. I am reassuring you death is super efficient. It will get you anywhere. You don’t have to work for it. (Laughs) Life is something which is never perfect and you have to continuously keep working for it. There is no such thing as perfection in life. Whatever you do, you can do it better. Isn’t it? But death is perfect. When you die, you are perfectly dead. Did you see anybody imperfectly dead? Did you see anybody half dead? Half alive people there are plenty. (Laughs)
Should we be scared of death?
It is up to you.
How does one overcome the fear of death?
What is there to overcome? (Laughs) You just have to die! (Laughs)
When did you accept your mortality?
At a very early age. See, if you say, ‘I don’t want to die’ and develop fear of death, in no way are you going to ward off death. The only thing you’ll do is you will avoid life. You are talking about acceptance as if it is some difficult exercise. To live well and consciously, you have to be alert to it. If you just live, one day you’ll die. Why are you making such a big fuss about it? It’s the nature of life. What do you have to do about it? ‘I will accept it’. You do whatever, anyway you’ll die. You are talking like, if you don’t accept, it won’t come to you. No, no, it will come. Don’t worry. (Laughs)
People are suffering their own intelligence. If we take away half their brain, they are all peaceful. Essentially what they are saying is if you take away all the possibilities that have been invested in us with millions of years of evolution, if we take away all that, then you are peaceful. This is the silliest way to live because you are making your own intelligence, possibilities, empowerment, into your problem. Everything that’s your solution, if you turn it into your problem, you call that intelligence? Everything that’s a problem, if you turn it into your solution, that is intelligence, isn’t it?
Right now, what are human beings suffering? Only their intelligence. If you had the brain of an earthworm, you’d be peaceful and also eco-friendly! (Laughs)
When you see your old blackand-white pictures, what do you think he would tell you now?
He is still the same man. Nothing has changed. Somebody even tested my cellular level age and said I am still 25. (Laughs)
What is the secret?
The secret is to be alive. You all are planning death, practising death. Don’t do that. Death does not need practice. It happens perfectly. Life needs a lot of practice.
What is your tip for all those who feel trapped in life with an urge to come unstuck?
They want to execute certain desires but due to circumstances can’t. How do you keep calm? I am part of promoting Swiss tourism... they have been asking me to make videos. That country runs on tourism. People ask me why are you doing it with Switzerland... not doing it in India. Well nobody asked me to do it here! (Laughs) We were in Lausanne and the tourism secretary asked me ‘Sadhguru, where do you go for a vacation?’ I asked him, what is that? He asked where I would go and unwind. I said I don’t wind myself up, why will I unwind? (Laughs)
So, the first thing is you make one mistake and then you make the next mistake. Well, that’s good for the economy, but it’s not good for you.
Despite knowing that, you can’t stop...
Like I said, the next five or 10 seconds, can you sit here without thinking about a monkey? You haven’t paid attention to the mechanics of the body or the mind. Simply blundering through life because you are interested in conquering the world. There is no world to conquer. You will die one day. If you know how to manage this, you will live wonderfully well.
What is joy? Have you been able to unlock the casket?
(Laughs out loud) All locks burst open a long time ago.
We all want to know what your daily regimen is...
Regimen? What is that? Nobody knows when I’ll go to sleep and wake up. Yesterday, I landed in Kolkata at 1am. Since morning, I have been busy. Now, I am going to Bangalore and probably I will land at 1am. Tomorrow is a full day. Day after tomorrow is World Soil Day. Next day, that same evening, I am in Coimbatore. Only because of coronavirus, at least I am sleeping in the same bed for a few days at a time. Otherwise, if I sleep on the same pillow two nights, it is a luxury. (Laughs)
So, you don’t believe in schedules, like the doctors would tell you?
I am not a patient to listen to doctors. Sick people listen to doctors because something has gone wrong. I make sure nothing goes wrong with me. It’s sense. It’s not hard work to live. The problem is everybody is trying to imitate somebody else. There is an evolutionary problem. Another synonym for imitation is monkeying. Well, I thought we came out of it! Do you still have a tail? (Laughs)
You need to evolve. There are ways to evolve yourself. That’s what I am telling you.... Handling your well-being through belief systems, philosophies, ideologies are going to go away. You will approach your human well-being also with proper science and technology. This is what yoga is. You have to use it. You don’t have to believe in it. If you use it, it works.
How many hours do you dedicate to yoga?
Twenty four hours... I have been asking for more, they are not giving me (laughs).
Where do you get your sense of humour from?
Because look at you, how funny you are with a (mask)! (Everyone goes ROFL!) The world is very funny because most people are in a state of self torture. You can sit with them and cry with them or laugh with them. There was a stage in my life where I looked at them and cried, but then I realised this is not a solution.
Since it is the season of football, we have to ask you, are you watching the World Cup?
It is a beautiful game. I have played soccer and about 11-12 years ago, I tore the ligament on my left knee... and I was all packed up. We were opening our Delhi centre and at the dinner table, someone brought a golf kit and placed it next to me and said ‘Sadhguru, you are too old for the other games. You play golf!’ So, I am hitting a golf ball these days.... I enjoy everything. I am just joyful.