Sadhguru (Jaggi Vasudev) - Enlightenment : what it is & Leave death alone

Enlightenment: What It Is

Sadhguru

Copyright 2012 Isha Foundation

First Edition: December 2012

ISBN: 978-81-87910-61-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews.

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Isha Foundation

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Introduction

What does it really mean to know yourself? How does it feel to have no more questions about life its meaning, its purpose, its glaring inequalities? What does it mean to reach, not just a roadblock, not a fuelling station, not a cul-de-sac, but the actual end of the journey? What does it mean really mean to be enlightened?

In an intimate encounter with Sadhguru, one of the most profound mystics of our time, a group of listeners shared not just their curiosity, but their confusions. It was a unique opportunity to sit face-to-face with a realised being, and the questions flowed thick and fast. In his inimitable style, precise and humorous, logical and compassionate, Sadhguru responded to some age-old questions about what it means to live in the realm of the mystic and why some get there and some dont.

Death, by contrast, remains a more democratic destination. Unlike enlightenment, which seems often unfairly (as one questioner put it) to be the preserve of a lucky few, death is the proverbial leveller unambiguous and inexorable, not to mention invariably inconvenient, if not downright terrifying. Even those who claim to be unafraid would concede that they cannot be indifferent to the fact that they have no clue of what happens when the curtains drop. And drop they always do.

Arundhathi Subramaniam

Enlightenment: What It Is

The most difficult thing about enlightenment is that it is too simple.

Questioner: My basic question is what does enlightenment feel like?

Sadhguru: What does it feel like? Let's say you have never had the experience of drinking water and I have, if I try to describe to you how it feels to drink water, it doesnt matter how articulate I am, will I ever get it across to you?

Questioner: Try.

Sadhguru: Could you ? Could you describe to a man who has never had the experience of drinking water, what it really feels like to drink water? Something as simple as that won't get across, isn't it? If people talk about anything which is not in your experience, it doesnt matter how articulate they are, invariably it only leads to misunderstanding. So let's not talk about how it feels. Let's talk about what it means technically. If I say how it feels, I will end up saying things which you cant take. Because when we use language, I have to take care that I am logical.

What you are referring to as enlightenment is not a logical process. It is well beyond that. If I speak illogically with you for the next five minutes, you will want to leave. You will sit here only if I speak logically. That means you have made it very clear to me: dont talk enlightenment. We will talk around it, but not it.

So what is it that we are referring to as enlightenment? There are various levels of experience that human beings are going through. Some people know just food and sleep; some people know how to create something; some people know action; some people know art; some people know music; some people know drugs, sex, so many things. But if you look at it carefully, whether a human being is out to make money, have pleasure, or go to heaven, he is always seeking to have a larger slice of life. Whether he wants to go to the temple or to the bar, he is still trying to have a larger slice of life. That is the only intention - to enhance the present level of life to something more.

You have had pieces of life - some of them have been good, maybe some of them bitter, but you have had a certain slice of life. Suppose you had the whole pie for yourself, I would call that enlightenment. You are not seeking pieces anymore. You have become very greedy; you want all of it. Everything that can be known experientially, you want to know right now. If you do manage it, that's called enlightenment. Is it very difficult? Not at all.

The most difficult thing about enlightenment is that it is too simple and it is most obvious. Because it is so obvious, the whole world misses it. If it was somewhere up on the moon, by now everybody would have gotten it. But the problem is it is right here within you but your whole focus is out. Right now your whole perception of life is only through the five senses. Everything that you know right now has entered you by either seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting or touching. This is the only way you know the world, isn't it?

If you shut down these five sense agencies, you will have no experience of life or of yourself. This is what is happening to you when you fall asleep. When you fall asleep, you are very much alive - the body is alive, the mind is on, the world is on - but all of them have disappeared in your experience simply because the five senses have just shut down, that's all. Sense organs are the only means of experience for you right now. Sense organs, in the very nature of things, are outward-bound. Even if you drop a pin, you can hear it. But so much activity is going on in this body, can you hear it? No. If an ant crawls upon your skin you can feel it. But there is so much blood flowing inside, can you feel it? No. Sense organs are essentially outward-bound. Because of your dependence upon the sense perception, turning inward and knowing the inner dimension seems to be so out of reach. That's only because you do not have the right kind of instrument or the right kind of vehicle to turn inward. It is like you want to eat a chocolate, but you want to eat it through your ears. Quite impossible, isn't it? You just have to understand, it can only go into the mouth, not in the ear. Enlightenment is that difficult.

Questioner: It never seems that easy.

Sadhguru: I am saying it is that difficult. Even if you use both ears, still the chocolate won't go down. Even a piece of it won't go. You just have to use the right inlet. It looks impossible because people do not make the necessary effort to find which way. They want to go the way they know. It is like you are riding a bullock cart, but you want to go to the moon. Somebody gives you a horsewhip and tells you, Really whip the bulls, you will get there. You won't get there.

The reason why it has become so difficult is because too much nonsense has been spoken about it. If nobody had said anything about it, many people would have found their way. Too much nonsense has been said and a whole lot of confusion has been created. People have read and written too many things without knowing what it is. People have said too many things without having a clue what they are talking about, which has left so many absolutely confused. At least if people shut up, human intelligence is capable of knowing this. But that is if a human being grows up with an uncluttered intelligence. When I say uncluttered - if your intelligence functions without being identified with anything in particular, then knowing the inner dimension becomes a natural process. Right now that possibility has been taken away because right from day one, parents are working hard to get children identified with their family and their stupid values and whatever. The teachers are working super-hard.

On a certain day, a bull strayed into the forest. He saw lush green grass and he went grazing, deeper and deeper into the forest. After a few weeks of living there, he grew fat - all food and no work. Then, an old lion, who was well beyond his prime and was having difficulty hunting wild animals, saw this fat bull. Easier to stalk and kill a bull than a deer, you know? So he looked for his time and pounced on the bull, killed him, and ate him up. His stomach became real full. He roared with great satisfaction. A few hunters passing that way heard the roar, tracked down the lion and shot him dead. The moral of the story is: when you are so full of bull, you should not open your mouth!