More than a one-track mind

THE LONGING FOR KNOWING WILL NOT HAPPEN UNLESS THERE IS A HUNGER: SADHGURU

THERE are so many things that one can do in this world – you can walk, you can swim, you can dance, gossip, love, drink, do drugs. And yet, for ages, why is it that human beings have longed for something beyond?

When they got too busy with their survival, for some time they rested this longing. But the moment their stomach was full, once again they started. If this body was indestructible, this longing to know something of the beyond would not have risen because then you would think this body is the ultimate.

You may not always be conscious of your mortal­ity, but at the slightest provocation you become conscious of it. Somebody you love went out and did not come back at the appointed time. You start worrying: “What happened, what happened?”

This fear arises because you are thinking: “Did something go wrong?” You think of injury, pain, disease – all these things are just stepping stones to the last one – “Did he fall dead somewhere.” “What could have happened?” is just a reminder. Some­where you know that you can be terminated.

“I am a full-fledged life here, knowing so many things, alive, with so many thoughts, so many emo­tions, so many ideas, so much capability, but one day it is going to go poofff,” this is something that human nature is unwilling to accept.

There are all kinds of arguments. Some people say there is something more; others say there is nothing more, you are just a mass of cells and one day you will disintegrate. Some people say you will land up in the lap of God, and that is where you came from. There are all kinds of stories and arguments.

Though people have argued for a thousand years or more, no one has been able to come to a conclu­sion; unless you have a single-track mind where you do not want to look at anything else, then you have an answer.

But if you have more than one track in your mind, you will not have an answer. You will only have more questions. The more arguments you get into with somebody, the more questions – and not an­swers – will pop up in your head.

People have propounded every kind of answer they could think of, but it has not solved anything because this is a trick solution. If you want these kinds of solutions, there are many. The question is, are you simply in search of solace, where you need someone to tell you: “Everything will be okay, there is a party waiting on the other side,” or have you become insane and cannot live without knowing?

The longing for knowing will not happen unless there is hunger for knowing. You know, there are mothers who beat their children because they do not eat well. They carry the child around all the time, and when the child does not want to eat, they start forcing them.

Many such mothers approach me complaining: “Sadhguru, my child is not eating, I am afraid.” I tell them: “Just leave him with me, he will eat.” Because we will make him run, we will make him walk, we will make him play, we will make him climb. After that, whatever food is given to him, he will gobble up!

If you want to eat well, you do not need encour­agement or coaxing, you need hunger. If you want to know, you must know the pain of ignorance, not somebody’s lecture or grand words. If the pain of not knowing is burning within you, you will know. If you are hungry, you will find something edible.

Aren’t all creatures on this planet finding their food somehow? Where you think there is nothing, they are finding something. In the middle of the desert, they are finding something because they are hungry.

People have always tried to kill your hunger with false food, with their own ideas which give solace for a certain period of time and only slow you down. It does not matter for how long you slow down, when the moment of death comes, suddenly you know that you know nothing about life or death.

So if you have passed storytelling, if you have passed entertainment – I am not saying you should not enjoy those things, but you know the limitations of those things – then it is time for a genuine spirit­ual process.

• Ranked amongst the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and best-selling author. Sadhguru has been conferred the Padma Vibhushan by the government of India in 2017, one of the highest annual civilian awards, ac­corded for exceptional and distinguished service