Sadhguru - Inner Management: In the Presence of the Master

Inner Management

& 2006 Isha Foundation

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Published by: Isha Foundation

15, Govindasamy Naidu Layout,

Singanallur, Coimbatore - 641 005. India.

Phone : 091 - 422 - 2319654

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Website : www.ishafoundation.org

First Edition : Isha Fest, September 2006

ISBN: 9781483506685

"Our lives become beautiful not because we are perfect. Our lives become beautiful because we put our heart into what we are doing."

- Sadhguru

Sadhguru is a self-realized and profound mystic of our times. He is an embodiment of the sages of the past who served as beacons of inspiration and guidance for entire civilizations; at the same time, he is acutely aware of current realities, making him a visionary humanitarian and a prominent spiritual leader of the world today. Also an author, poet, and internationally renowned speaker, Sadhguru's wit and piercing logic provoke and widen our perception of life.

As someone who belongs to no particular tradition, Sadhguru's guidance and powerful scientific methods are totally relevant to the modern individual and institutions, allowing them to cross their limitations into a higher possibility. In this regard, he has been able to touch millions of people, moving them towards realizing the ultimate potential within.

Sadhguru's multi-faceted personality can have a profound and enriching effect on anyone who comes across him, and yet it can also stir them into a state of confusion. At home in blue jeans as much as he is in a loincloth, or walking barefoot through the mighty Himalayas, or straddling a BMW motorcycle on the expressway, he shatters any preconceptions that one might have of a mystic.

In the Presence of the Master series are discourses and answers to an intricate array of questions, by disciples and seekers amidst the challenges of life. Engulfed by Sadhguru's presence, the seeker is liberated from the pain of ignorance, firmly establishing the spiritual process within.

In this volume, 'Inner Management', Sadhguru not only reveals effective tools to enhance our management capabilities, but also illuminates a way to open up a whole new dimension of life that frees us from the dependency on external influences.

If we want to live well, both externally and internally, how well we live here simply depends on how well we manage our surroundings and how well we manage ourselves. Fundamentally, life is management. The quality of your life depends on how well you manage your body, your mind, your emotion, your situations, your home, your communities, nations, your life in general and the world. But generally we are thinking of management only in terms of business management, or industry management; generally we are talking management only with economic situations, not life as a whole.

In many ways it is unfortunate that today the most predominant factor that rules the planet is economics. The other aspects of life have been totally pushed to the corner. When economics rules, when economics is the only thing that you think about, you will tend to become very gross and unhappy in so many ways. We are conducting various levels of programs for top level executives in major corporations in the world. What I see is, people who have failed in their lives, they are suffering their failure. People who have succeeded in their life, they are suffering their success. If you suffer your failure it is okay, because failure comes easy. But something that you worked for, something that you always longed for, something that you wanted to create in your life, when this happens, if you start suffering it, that is the real tragedy of life.

If you look at yourself and see, when you were five years of age, how happy you were, and today, how happy you are. If we make a chart out of it, is it moving upward or downward? In twenty-four hours time, how many moments are you really happy? If you look at this, is the graph going up or down? Down. So that means you are a bad manager, because after all, everything that you do in your life is in pursuit of happiness. You educate yourself, you pursue careers, you build families, you run after your ambitions. So many things you do, because somewhere you believe fulfilling those things will bring you happiness. After doing all that, if happiness is not multiplying, it is going down, that means you are a bad manager of yourself.

Anybody who does not know how to manage his own body, his own mind, his own emotion and his energies, if he is managing outside situations, he is only managing them by accident, not by intent the way he wants it. When you manage situations by accident, you exist as an accident. When you exist as an accident, you are a potential calamity. When you exist as a potential calamity, being anxious all the time becomes a natural part of life.

Anywhere you go today, people are talking stress management, especially in the United States. I cannot understand why anybody wants to manage his stress. I can understand if you want to manage your business, your finances, your family, your property, whatever, but why would you want to manage stress? It took me a while to understand these people have come to the conclusion that if they do things in the world, they are bound to be stressful.

Someone is not stressful because of what he is doing; someone is stressful because he doesn't know how to manage his own inner system. It is not the nature of the job which makes one stressful. You ask the top executive, he is stressful; you ask the office hand, he is also stressful. Everybody believes their job is stressful. No job is stressful. If you have no control over your own inner system, you will be stressful whether you do something or you don't do anything.

Fundamentally, management means we want to decide the course of our destiny. You want to have a certain kind of situation, both inward and outward. So everybody is a manager in his own capacity, but in different levels and different types. Whether you manage a kitchen where you cook for 4 people, or you manage a large industry where 10,000 people work, fundamentally, if you want to have a good kitchen or a good industry, you must be a good manager of that situation, isn't it?

If you have to manage 10 people or 10,000 people around you, you have to manage 10 minds or 10,000 minds around you, but if you have no management over your own mind, you managing 10,000 minds is going to be a disaster. If in the process of managing a situation we are destroying human beings, which is happening right now, then this kind of management is no good, because after all, the basic intent of every management is human well being. If management is for human well being, it is not only about producing something or making profit; people should rise to their full potential, not just in terms of work, but as human beings. If people work together, they should be able to rise to the peak of their love, peace, compassion within themselves.