I / ,--- • Jir1111/r1 (ftfti&br'/' H()mP Bio rv-rid<>:; i,!rnfllt><; 1\<;ftt-,0:-w t,PW'> fn'lli'lr: r,.cvt>rt1.-...,. Ink'> ,•r.cr,in, f.111.,..11 !t;.'>U<' Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev "TruthCan Only Be Experienced" By Kavila Chhlbber In lhe courseor my car�r M a journ�Utt, I have tost count of thenombec of times. devoteesand theif divine gurus and <lvine motherst hemselveshave a00>stedme to 'itlethem or the organlzatlonsthey represent a plug. Wille I ha ve met m any of them, I have to say, none of them impre ss ed me enoughto wantt o meet them again, Some a re involved in great philan thropic work an d ;_...;:...:...-...il...L--,------''or me that was enough to wt them some slack,but it wasn'te nough fOl me towant to e ngage themIn any U'ld of dlaJogue . I also&aw that m any of them wereo ffering oldwin e in new bottles in the n ame of newly createdknowl�dg e. a ndwhi le there i&no such thing as an original word, I wish they had given crecitwhM e ii was clle. Somewere pas;slng off andent tradltloMI wisdom from lnclaM their owndl scO\l'el'y. W\at caughtmy flyewhen I first pk:ked aup book <:ailed Mystic's Musings,was ·the fact thatthe man whose wordswere captured 'MlhlnIts l nterfors rode a motor bike.M I began reac:lngthe book,I was struckby the bluntness.and the thought provoking ob$ervatlons tha1 he made. I en<ted up by giftingthat book toseveral frie nds and relatives,the reason? That book made methink. This was �Ile •k.ickass guru, and a breath of fresh •lr I thou�t.I heard mos.�y positivettl ings about him, and as isnor mal, a fewneg ative things. Thosefew who camed 'isgruntled were either scared out of fheir witsby some inten se experiences they had d.rring the exercises they ha d to go through as part ofthe cour ses, others because the y were toldnot to talk aboutlheir e xperie nces. thou"1te vecyone was being cliqu sh, some found h m aloof and others didn'tlik e som e of his s i i devotees. Allo f them howevers.ald that this was one of th e me&thonorabJ e foundationswh ere n ot a penny was wastedot misus.e d. 11\naly met Sact,�ruJagg l Vasudev, thefounder of l$h& Yogafoundation a ooupleof weeks ago.The foundation Is described at a nonprofit. noo-poll Ucal and non refigloU$organization. I t "doesnot p,ornoteany particular k:leo logy, rellglon, race, but transmitsi nners.dences of unlversat appeal�. I saw a m�n wfth razor Sharp l'ltellgence,an Irreverent s.enseof hum01, a $harp wit. wh0$e command<¥Ver the Enghh languagewas il1l)eocable and hfs take on life made a lot of sense. There was no question that was out of bounds,and things that werenegative �md seemed to botherh is devotees, were laughed off by him. 'Pe ople elther klve meo r hate me .� should anyone get upset if some on e says something negative about me?', he tells me: I guess it roostbe because they love you,'I had said shr uggin g my shouldersas we sat downfor this Interview. His response wa s, "Love sho uld not m ake you bli n d. It shouldm ake you thi nk mored early." And so began the lir&tof many convee&ations I hopeto ha ve withthis lntti"1ing man. This ise p rhaps just th e tip of the icebefgas tar asth e wide range oftop ics that he can &peak on,but I fe lt It wouldb e ea&ier to start by touching on varfousthi ngs and then perhaps do a series and take one particular subject at a time. Sadhguru just as I was coming to see you I saw this little piece in one of the newspapers which said that one doesn’t know about India being a super power but when it comes to mysticism, the world looks to Indian gurus as the help button on the menu. You’ve been all over the world and spoken at many international events, what is your take on all the divine gurus traversing the globe these days? India as a culture has invested more time, energy and human resource toward the spiritual development of human beings for a very long time. This can only happen when there is a stable society for long periods without much strife. While all other societies were raked by various types of wars, and revolutions, India remained peaceful for long periods of time. So they invested that time in spiritual development, and it became the day to day ethos of every Indian. The world looking towards India for spiritual help is nothing new. It has always been so in terms of exploring the inner spaces of a human being-how a human being is made, what is his potential, where could he be taken in terms of his experiences. I don’t think any culture has looked into this with as much depth and variety as India has. Mark Twain visited India and after spending three months and visiting all the right places with his guide he paid India the ultimate compliment when he said that anything that can ever be done by man or God has been done in this land. So definitely as humanity, today we have reached many peaks in terms of science, economics or technology but if we do not heal the inner damage then all the power that technology has given us will only be used destructively. We are already on the verge of threatening the extinction of the planet. If human beings are not tempered from inside there will always be conflict. I don’t know about the other gurus traversing the globe, but my endeavor is and theirs should be also, to aim at the political, economic and other areas of leadership. If some element of spirituality enters the life of these leaders, it could change the complexion of the world in a very short time. It is a priority and is beginning to happen but not significantly. There are so many gurus that even the people get confused. So are the world leaders also confused when there are so many of them around. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Sri Sri Ravishankar went to Lebanon and Srilanka respectively but it seemed to be a waste of time. It was not a waste of time. It was a good PR exercise. No the world leaders are not confused. They simply don’t listen because they don’t think most of the divine gurus are worth listening to. Some of them have started listening to me, but the numbers are still very few. Unfortunately a lot of these gurus go as a religious group and that is looked down upon. So what is the role of the guru, what should people be looking for? I see most of them churning out old wine in new bottles. I know all the people you have in mind. I know you are a journalist and you will put it everywhere but I have to say this. I will be ashamed to be grouped with them. Guru means one who is the dispeller of darkness. By reading and translating two chapters of the Bhagwad Gita does not make you a guru. There was a time when interpreting a book was important because only one man in the village could read. Now every body can read as we continue to try and create a literate world around us. So why do you want to interpret that book for the people? Let every one read the book themselves and understand it the way they want to. A guru is not here to interpret scriptures and books. He is here to bring out the possibilities within you that by yourself, you may not be able to explore because it may be in a totally different direction from the way you may be looking. I’m an uneducated guru. I don’t know the scriptures, I have not read the Vedas and I didn’t bother to read the Bhagvad Gita. I’m about life-I’m not about heaven. Its not a popular thing to say, but I believe that the whole effort of the guru should be to help the seeker deepen his seeking, not to give him answers. If I give you the answers then the only option you have is to either believe me or disbelieve me. If it is me you believe then you are not getting any closer to finding answers to your seeking. If you don’t believe me, you aren’t getting closer either. All you’ll have will be an interesting story that I told you, to tell others, who in turn will tell others and it will all continue to be distorted and add to all those distorted stories that have been going around for years and have messed up people’s lives so badly. If a human being says I don’t know something, then the possibility of knowing is open in his life. When a man believes he knows something that he does not know he is a mess because he believes something he does not know. I come from only my experience and the only thing that I know for sure is this piece of life. I don’t know anything else.