What kind of choices do you make in different situations that you face in your life? Are the choices arising from exclusiveness or inclusiveness? Are the choices arising from the needs of the body or the nature of the being? Are the choices arising from your...
Modern science and the yogic tradition agree that the core of the cosmos is essentially stillness. Although we know of Big Bangs and exploding galaxies, the larger part of the universe remains still. This, in yogic parlance, is Shi-va, ‘that which is not’. This is the...
Yoga is not an exercise form as is commonly misunderstood today. “Yoga” literally means union. But in your experience right now, there is you and there is the universe. When life gets a little acidic for whatever reason, it is you versus the universe. That is a bad...
How does one escape this entanglement-avoidance trap? This question confuses many. In a state of confusion, everything around you sticks to you! It is like you are covered by a super-glue coating, and every speck of dust adheres. Acquiring karma has nothing to do with...
Those of you, especially the young people, who are still unencumbered and unentangled, I want you to look at how you want to live your lives. Is all you want to do just eat, sleep, reproduce, and die one day? Or do you want to create something bigger than yourself? Do...
An individual human being becomes who he or she is only because of what he or she perceives. You are who you are right now only because of what you have perceived in your life until now, and you will be who you will be only because of what you will perceive in future....
Being involved but not entangled is the essence. Just do your practice in the morning. And throughout the day, be aware of the other aspects that were taught to you. You have to make it in such a way that every aspect of your life becomes yoga. Sitting, standing,...
There have been teachers who taught goodness to people. There have been others who taught evil to people. But there have also been teachers who did everything to destroy both good and evil so that life may happen just the way it should, not by some principles of...
The whole purpose of yoga is to set up various dimensions in you which are not you. What I mean by “not you” is: whatever you are identified with is what “you” are right now. But to set up a space within you beyond your limited identifications is yoga. Initially, it...
Everything that we recognize as life is movement. The planet is moving and that is why it churns up life. If it were still, it wouldn’t be capable of life. So there is something called movement in which every creature is involved, but if there has to be movement, this...
There are many dimensions to hatha yoga. One fundamental aspect of it is to knead the body. Life is kneading you in so many ways. You can either enjoy it or suffer it. You can either mature and blossom, or get crushed by the process. This is the choice you have. Hatha...
Human beings who do not break their self-created boundaries will remain trapped in them. Breaking your limitations is an essential part of your spiritual growth. This spiritual process is not based on a scripture, philosophy, or dead tradition – it is a living thing....
The word health comes from the word whole. When your body, your mind, your emotion, your energies are in tune with each other and you feel wholesome within yourself, that is when you feel healthy. A large number of people in the world, including many who considered...
When a drama happens, there are three sets of people. One is the audience, another is the actors, yet another are those who make the play happen, such as the director and the stage designers. Out of these sets of people, the director understands the drama better and...
Everyone experiences life according to his or her individual sensitivities. Some people take great pleasure in food, others in the body, music, art or some other expression of life. But in their very nature, external pleasures cannot be sustained. The only sustainable...
What you call peace, is a certain kind of chemistry; joy is another kind of chemistry; anxiety is another kind of chemistry. Every human experience has a chemical basis to it. Recent research into the human brain has yielded some incredible results. An Israeli...
There is something within you which cannot stand boundaries. Or, in other words, there is something within you which wants to become boundless. What can be boundless? A physical form can be small or big, but never boundless. There is something within you which is...
You can go far in life only when you can leave your past. This is like a snake shedding its skin. One moment it is a part of the body, the next moment it is shed and the snake goes on without turning back. If every moment, one is like a snake leaving the skin behind,...
Yoga is not a morning-evening kind of practice. There is a practice but that is not the only aspect. Every aspect of your life, the very way you walk, breathe, interact – everything should become a process of yoga. Nothing is excluded from this. Yoga is not...
Internally, all of us are equally capable, we are not capable in different ways. There is no human being on the planet who has never been joyful. Every human being has been joyful at some point, that means he’s capable of joy. It is just that he’s unable to stay...
True human capabilities will find expression only in absolute relaxation. Your mind and body will work best and find fullest expression only when you are joyful, peaceful and quiet within yourself. ~ Sadhguru
The moment we utter the word ‘meditation’, there are all kinds of misconceptions about it. First of all the English word ‘meditation’ doesn’t mean anything in the sense, if you close your eyes and sit, in English we call it...
Hatha yoga is not just about bending and twisting the body. Essentially, it is about consciously working towards eliminating all that is compulsive in us – compulsions that we have carried on over millions of years of evolution. What distinguishes human beings and...
The physical in the existence is constantly under threat because the physical is always within limited boundaries – it is always demarcated. With anything which is demarcated, there is always a fear of losing it. For instance, this physical “you” is constantly under...
A significant thing that every human being has to do is to structure their psychological and emotional framework around the most fundamental fact of their life – their mortality. Only when you do this will you naturally become eligible for a spiritual process, to a...
To be loving every moment of your life – not only if a certain situation occurs, or if you see a certain person – if you are simply loving, indiscriminately, your intelligence blossoms in a completely different way. In making choices, intelligence gets crippled. To be...
In yoga, we look at the human body as five sheaths. The first sheath is called annamaya kosha or the “food body,” because what you call as the physical body is just a heap of food. The second sheath is called manomaya kosha or the mental body. These two layers can...
Searching for truth is itself a big illusion because whatever we term “the truth” is always and everywhere. We don’t have to search for it or seek it. It always is. The only problem right now is you are capable of experiencing life only through the limited dimension...
Stress is just an inability to manage the inner situation, not the outer situation. Essentially, the quality of our lives changes and transforms not because we change the content of our lives, but only because we change the context of our lives. If someone is living a...
There are doors of opportunities and possibilities And there are doors of deeper perceptions In opening doors of opportunity You shall access new ways to live In opening doors of perception You shall experience richness of creation Through opportunities you may gather...
In yoga, we look at a human being as five sheaths or layers of body. Three – the physical, the mental and the energy body – are physical realities; maybe subtle but still physical. The other two – the etheric body and the bliss body – are in a different realm. The...
Hatha yoga is a preparatory process of yoga. The word ‘ha’ means sun, ‘ta’ means moon. ‘Hatha’ means the yoga to bring balance between the sun and the moon in you, or the Pingala and Ida in you. You can explore Hatha yoga in ways...
Every human being has at least one drop of sweetness in them. Why don’t we see this? Please do this with everyone around you – try to recognize that one drop of sweetness in even those people who you otherwise consider to be horrible. Only if you recognize it in...
If you have read what has been written about cancer, you may have noticed that opinions and concepts seem to change frequently, sometimes dramatically. But the fundamental physiology, the chemistry, and the very basis of your existence has not changed. So why is it...
Cancerous cells are present in all our bodies. In the yogic system, we describe cancerous cells as being similar to, let’s say, criminals in a society. If there are a few individuals here and there who commit petty crimes, it doesn’t really affect the society. But...
“Consciousness” is a highly abused word, used in many different ways. First of all, let me define what we refer to as consciousness. You are a combination of many things. As a piece of life, as a body, you are a certain amount of earth, water, air, fire, and akash or...
‘The full moon day in the month of Ashadha (June-July) is known as Guru Purnima. It falls on 31st July in 2015, and honours the ancient lineage of enlightened beings who have graced the world with their presence, imparting the knowledge of the...
This is the time of year when the Aadhi Yogi’s attention first fell upon the seven now celebrated disciples. We are in the month when an ascetic and yogi, who is completely uninvolved with what is around him, is beginning to get involved. Slowly, the intention of...
Living a life of fulfillment, living a life of knowing, living a life of merging with the universe, becoming larger than the physical self is the only worthwhile thing to do. If you have paid attention to life and you are not a deprived human being, you will know the...
Spirituality essentially means an all-inclusive experience. When there is an all-inclusive experience, being concerned and caring about everything around you is very natural because anyone who looks into himself, anyone who turns inward, naturally realizes that his...
A compilation of events around the world, conducted by Isha Foundation on June 21, International Yoga Day. From Sydney to Beirut, from the US to China, and even 35,000 ft up in the air on SpiceJet flights, Isha Foundation volunteers conducted sessions of short,...
‘We are using people and loving things. This is a complete misunderstanding of life. Things were made to be used. People were made to be loved.’ – SadhguruIn every relationship, you experience moments of true love, but do they seem to come and go? What if...
The United Nations’ declaration of International Day of Yoga on June 21st comes at a critical time in the history of humanity. It is of much more significance than a few more people twisting and turning their bodies. For the first time in the history of the UN, 177...
Questioner: Sadhguru, can you tell us what kind of food we are supposed to eat? Why are meat and meat products not considered the right kind of food for people on the spiritual path, and how is seafood different? If this is just about killing or violence – isn’t a...
Over 15,000 years ago, Adiyogi explored the human mechanism, the cosmic space and the relationship between the two. As he expounded the various tools that individual human beings could use to explore both dimensions, he envisioned that the entire humanity would take...
The moment I say “spirituality”, people say, “Yes, I want to be peaceful.” You do not have to walk the spiritual path for peace. A glass of wine could do it or take a long walk and then lie down in the shade of a tree; you will sleep...
Instead of identifying with what kind of thoughts or emotions you are getting, just see that in the larger perspective of life you are a tiny speck of dust. In this cosmos, our galaxy is a small happening. In the Milky Way, this Solar System is a speck. In that tiny...
Only freedom can be infinite. Bondage cannot be limitless. Only freedom can be limitless. This is not just semantics and ideas. In terms of life’s experience, don’t waste your time talking about or thinking about freedom or the Ultimate. The body is a limitation, the...
You complain when life is happening to you in great measure. It is because you look at certain situations as good and others as bad, or certain situations as desirable and others as undesirable, that you ask yourself why these things are happening to you rather than...
There is a lot of “yoga” happening in the world today that has very little to do with what yoga really is. Several myths about this ancient practice have long been masquerading as facts. It’s time we demystify yoga, in Sadhguru’s very own words. Myth 1: Yoga comes...
Let’s look at what may be considered the very basic unit of Hata Yoga: the asana. People today think of asanas as impressive body-twisting postures that are essentially about fitness, flexibility or building muscle. Whereas ‘yoga’, by its very definition,...
Happiness does not only come from achievement. When you were a child you were simply happy. That is your nature. If you go against your own nature to be happy, you will never get anywhere. To be happy is not the ultimate aspect of life. It is the fundamental aspect of...
Peace is achieved in different ways. Let’s say you eat to a full stomach and lie down, just see how peaceful you are. Somebody else may drink alcohol and become very peaceful and so on. Whenever your ego is satisfied, you are very peaceful. Wherever you go, in that...
If you had a choice between pleasantness and unpleasantness, between joy and misery, between beauty and ugliness, what would you choose? Definitely, you would choose joy and pleasantness. But why is unpleasantness happening? Why is misery happening? Simply because...
There are two ways people can suffer. Generally, people think in terms of physical suffering and mental suffering. Physical suffering could be caused in different ways but 90% of human suffering is mental, which is caused within ourselves. People create suffering for...
As there is a science and technology for external wellbeing, there is a science and technology for inner wellbeing. Yoga is an inner technology. This is a deeper understanding of your own body, mind and energy, and about creating an inner situation where you are...
As a human being, your only duty is that you grow to your full potential. If you grow to your full potential, your very way of being is absolutely useful. The best things will happen around you. If you do not know how to make yourself happy, is there any possibility...
“I think it is better I tell you what is not yoga. So much misinterpretation of the word has happened that speaking about what is not yoga is more relevant. Standing on your head, holding your breath or twisting your body is not yoga. Yes, these are various yogic...
The very fundamentals of spiritual longing are to transcend the limitations of the physical. For an individual, the most intimate part of physical creation is his or her own body. So the very basis of a spiritual process is to explore the possibilities of the body and...
When we say “Shiva,” there are two fundamental aspects that we are referring to. The word “Shiva” literally means “that which is not.” Today, modern science is proving to us that everything comes from nothing and goes back to nothing. The basis of existence and the...
Of all the human pursuits, striving to transform oneself into a higher possibility is considered the most sacred. It is this pursuit that fulfils the purpose of the human form and it is this pursuit that brings well-being to all life. ~ Sadhguru
The word “ha” means sun; “ta” means moon. Without the sun and the moon, there is no Hata Yoga. The postures in Suryanamaskar are preparatory or balancing in nature between the Ida and Pingala (the left and right energy channels). Largely, it is called Suryanamaskar...
It is only when you confront the mortal nature of your existence that the longing to know the basic nature of life arises in a human being — when it dawns upon you, in an experiential manner, that you are here with an expiry date. This longing and, in turn, this...
If life happens, death is a natural process. Being afraid of a natural process is unnatural. This fear has come because of a certain sense of ignorance and unawareness. We are not in touch with reality and we have gotten deeply identified with this body. This has...
Today modern science is proving that everything you know as life, everything that you know as existence, as cosmos, as galaxies, it is all just one energy manifesting itself in millions and millions of ways. This is an experiential reality in every yogi. The word yoga...
The spiritual process is not about causing a particular event. It is about causing a certain way of being that whatever the situation, it turns into a fortune. Those who look at certain situations as fortune and certain other situations as misfortune are the...
Experience these deep Mystic Chants and open to new possibilities…Stillness, Boundless, Unlimited & Infinite… “Vairagya” literally means “transparent.” Just as clear flowing water in the river acquires the color of the soil beneath, one who is...
Karma is the accumulated impression of past activity, either of thought, emotion or physical action. The quality of the karma that you gather is not necessarily in terms of action alone; it is also in terms of the volition with which action is performed. This moment,...
