Is existence perfect?
Questioner: Sadhguru, it has been said that existence is already perfect. There is nothing for us to add, nothing to remove. Why do we need to do something positive like yoga?
Sadhguru: If you say the world is perfect right now, it looks like you had a good breakfast. You ask the fifty percent of the population who don’t get to eat properly, if the world is perfect, and see. When the stomach is full we make one kind of philosophy. When the stomach is empty we make another kind.
If you think, “Existence is perfect, everything is okay with me and the world, why should there be any change?” then you must be living in a dream. If you look around, it does not matter what your philosophy is, you will see enormous suffering. If you relate to people, not just the man in the slum, even the so-called well-to-do, the level of suffering is untold. Too much suffering is happening in the world. Nobody with eyes can say it is perfect. I am not trying to paint a negative picture, but it is true.
Accepting somebody else’s suffering is easy, but when it comes to you, it is a problem and you can’t talk with the same nonchalance. Some time ago, I was in an international conference where discussions about poverty alleviation were going on. One very pious, religious looking person stood up and said, “Why are we discussing all these problems and trying to change these things? Isn’t this all divine plan?” If somebody’s stomach is empty, it must be divine plan. If your stomach is empty, you will have your own plan, won’t you?. If all the things that are happening around you are not perfect and you allow it to be that way, it will not be long before it catches up with you. Somebody is dying, it is okay; it is natural. After all, a tiger eats a goat. But tomorrow when your child gets eaten, then things will come up, isn’t it?
Existence is a mess right now. I am not talking about the larger existence, I am saying the world. If man disappears from this planet, then I would agree that everything is perfect. Then it is just a natural process. But the world is not in a natural order of life right now. It is a very unnatural order of life that we have created. If a tiger eats a goat, it just eats one goat every few days. But man’s nature is not like that. He wants to make a kill every minute of his life. This is not a natural order of life.
If you don’t bring sense into yourself, then one day, one man will rise who is so powerful he won’t let anybody live. Such things have happened in the past. Even now, there are many waiting for this. Fortunately, they are not so capable. If all the seven billion people on the planet industriously continue our present activities, then probably within twenty-five years the planet will be finished. Fortunately, half the people are lazy. The lazy people are saving the planet. The intelligent should save the planet, but right now, the lazy and the useless are saving the planet. That is not a good way to survive.
Anyway, when you go to your grave, you will be perfect. As long as you stand here alive, there is something we can do about it. We are just trying to do that. That is a sign of aliveness, that there is room for enhancing the possibility of life. There is something within you that will settle for nothing less than the infinite. It is anyway finding an unconscious expression; then why don’t we give it a conscious expression? That is what yoga is about. You are already seeking it unconsciously. We want to set up a process so that you seek it consciously. That is all the change we are trying to do. It is better to seek something consciously, rather than unconsciously.
| Named one of India’s 50 most influential people, Sadhguru speaks before millions annually around the globe, including to prominent leadership forums such as the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, TED, and the World Peace Congress. From ground-breaking yoga programs to projects for rural communities and the environment, Sadhguru’s Isha Foundation (www.IshaFoundation.org) serves as a thriving model for human empowerment, which is reflected in the Foundation’s special consultative status with the UN. |
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