Adi Shankara's Superhuman Abilities: With Sadhguru In Challenging Times - 28 Apr

I'll skip the news items for you.

Because I'm sure all of you are keeping in touch,

Those who want to,

Those who don't want to know what's happening in the world,

Of course you can close your eyes.

Today happens to be Adi Shankara's Jayanti.

Well this Yogi Ruhtoa,

What you just chanted is his making,

An incredibly effervescent and energetic man crisscrossed this nation by foot in those days.

By the time he was thirty-two,

He went up and down,

Three times I think,

And also east to west and established spiritual process in his own way.

A bit too missionary like for my liking,

But probably those were the compulsions of those times and that's how he expressed himself.

And he left at the age of thirty-two.

From the age of twelve to thirty-two,

Twenty years,

He was on a mission.

A man,

An incredible man of phenomenal capabilities,

Almost superhuman in his intellect and established,

Kind of re-established the spiritual process in this culture a little over a thousand years ago.

And still is immensely valued.

If he was anywhere else in the world,

A man like this,

Around him a whole religion would have grown,

But because in this culture there was no such thing about growing a religion around any human being.

Even when Shiva came,

Rama came,

Krishna came,

A religion did not grow around them.

They became a part of the culture that was already there.

So this has always been the way.

So Shankara also became a part of this culture as one more luminary,

But not the source of everything.

That kind of attitude never existed in this culture.

Fortunately,

It still doesn't.

But Shankara did some incredible things.

As an intellect,

If people don't understand the other dimensions of what he did,

As an intellectual person,

There's rarely been another human being on the planet of his intellectual capability.

His scholarship,

By the time he was twelve years of age,

Was so phenomenal that there was literally nobody in the entire length and breadth of this country who could debate with him or make a point to him.

He always came out on the tops.

So his entire life,

The way he went about spreading his message is calling people for debates.

Debates that will run for weeks on end.

And in these twenty years,

He did not lose a single debate.

So,

Today is his Jayanti,

Which means his birth anniversary.

There are institutions in his name for maybe not in the same vibrance with which the man lived.

Just to tell you something about him.

He was a brisk walker obviously.

So he's always walking ahead and his disciples,

Few feet behind or a few yards behind or a maybe half a kilometer behind,

They're always trying to catch up and running behind him.

Because unless he stops,

They cannot stop.

This man just walks.

So when he stops to eat,

Everybody stops to eat,

Otherwise they keep going.

One day he was walking and outside a village,

He saw people drinking liquor and rolling around in so many conditions.

He just observed this.

He just walked in.

Those days and even today,

One of the favorite drinks in the villages is called toddy.

It comes from the palm tree.

It is something like the Western beer,

But it looks like buttermilk.

And it can be either very mildly alcoholic or it could be done very strong.

This place must have been strong because people were crawling around.

So he looked at this.

He walked into the toddy shop,

He picked up the whole picture of toddy and just drank it up.

And just walked down,

Didn't crawl.

So his disciples watched him drinking and then among themselves,

Well,

Our guru is drinking.

There is no need even to ask him anymore because he said the example,

When he walks,

We walk,

When he eats,

We eat,

Whatever he does,

We do.

Now he drank.

Next village,

We must drink.

They were making up their minds among themselves.

So next village came,

He was walking through and there he saw a blacksmith who was doing some work with molten iron,

Steel melted down.

He went,

Picked it up and drank it and walked on.

Of course they don't want to drink that.

So,

Almost a superhuman being,

A phenomena in his time,

After 1000 years he still lives.

People still,

A large number of people still practice and recite what he has done.

In many ways,

Well,

I don't take from those traditions,

But it is very much like that.

He wrote something called as Sandariya Lahari that means,

Eulogizing the phenomenal beauty of creation,

The power and beauty of creation.

So,

This was done so that the worship of the feminine lives in this culture.

When we were consecrating Bhairavi,

Certain things happened and certain people were drawn to this and they came and they attended the consecration.

After that they came and said,

Sadhguru,

What you are doing here is exactly what's written in the Sandariya Lahari.

I don't have that kind of thing.

My thing is only to close my eyes.

When I want to know something,

Close my eyes.

I can't read and get something.

Otherwise I would have been a professor by now.

So,

The Devi,

At least they say,

It should be,

Is almost parallel to what Sandariya Lahari talks about in terms of worship of the feminine and how it should be done and whatever.

I do not know the detail,

I only know what they said and that kind of a dud,

Even after being told I still did not read it.

If all of you don't keep me this busy,

I could sit down and read maybe one day.

Anyway,

We wish to honor him today.

Today is his birth anniversary.

We bow down to him for the kind of being that he was.

We need to produce such people on this planet.

If we want humanity to rise to a new possibility,

We need that kind of effervescence that what the man carries is so valuable that he walks up and down this nation.

I'm saying this is not a small country.

One end to another is 4000 kilometers.

And within twenty years,

He walked three times up and down,

Once east and west.

That's not a small thing.

And all along,

Producing literature,

After walking the entire day,

Probably he sits in the night and writes these thousands of pages that he produced.

Most incredible control over language and a phenomenal expression of a very profound wisdom.

So,

We need to produce people like that.

I'm looking forward.

Please.

This question is from Shweta.

You often say that no one dies suddenly.

The process of death begins at birth and is completed one day.

You also say that as we grow old,

Our aliveness need not decrease.

Since we know that both the physical strength and mental alertness do decline after a certain age,

How should we understand that quality of aliveness that does not decrease as we grow old?

I have only experienced this aliveness in my meditativeness when it manifests as stillness.

Is that the aliveness you refer to or is there something else?

Is this Shweta talking about me?

Am I becoming dim?

Hello?

Those of you who've seen me for ten,

Fifteen years,

Am I becoming dim?

No,

She's saying with age you will become dim.

Well,

That nobody dies suddenly is a bit sensitive thing to say today,

Because so many people are dying suddenly,

At least in the experience of their friends,

Relatives and loved ones.

Suddenly virus,

Everything was fine,

Virus,

Gone tomorrow,

Too many people.

When a quarter million people have died in the last two months,

Because of one cause.

People die of various causes,

That's different.

But because of one cause,

Quarter million people die.

Somebody is making an estimate of this,

Some kind of calculation,

I didn't go through this properly.

But they made some calculation what is the weight of one single virus,

And how many virus does it take to kill one human being.

So,

So many people,

Three million people infected,

So many people dead.

So what is the number of virus,

So what would be their cumulative weight?

So till now,

The number of virus whatever the trillion,

Trillion virus,

Their weight amounts to one gram.

One gram of virus has the humanity on its knees.

One gram,

Can you beat that?

I want you to just see.

So,

This is not a time to tell people death doesn't happen suddenly.

The day you were born you were anyway started dying.

That is true when people come and sit in front of you for looking at the profoundness of life.

Not when people are battling with the pandemic.

You don't tell them don't worry death doesn't happen.

Suddenly,

The day you were born,

You got the virus,

Just a question of time.

Not a thing to say.

But anyway,

You're not asking a virus question I know.

Well,

This is not because I said.

Everybody who was born two hundred years ago is dead right now.

Is it confirmed?

All dead.

Everybody who lived here five hundred years ago,

All dead.

Everybody who existed thousand years ago,

All dead.

Even most people,

Almost all of them who were born hundred years ago,

All dead.

So,

Death has been an enduring process among us.

It did not happen suddenly.

Obviously.

It's always been on.

So at what point in my life does it start?

No,

Birth means death.

Birth is the beginning,

Death is the end of a certain process.

The physiological process of who we are and also to a large extent the psychological process of who we are,

Begins at birth and ends with death.

This is not my invention,

Don't blame it on me if you die tomorrow.

This is not.

.

.

Death is not my invention,

I just wrote a book on it.

Oh,

Sadhguru invented death,

Let's fix him.

No,

I did not.

People have been dying before I came and people will die after I'm gone.

So,

With age,

Body is becoming weaker.

Physical energies also become more feeble.

Well,

Your eyes may become little dim,

Hearing may go little like that,

Depends how long you live.

Virus willing,

You may live long.

See,

Fairway have come from God willing to virus willing.

So,

Depending upon how long you live,

Definitely your faculties will go down.

But aliveness is not about that.

Your faculties are just like physical capabilities.

Your ability to see,

Hear,

Taste,

Smell,

All these are physical capabilities.

They will definitely diminish.

How badly depends on how you keep yourself,

But it will definitely diminish.

What you are at twenty,

You will not be at eighty in terms of your.

.

.

Both physical and mental capabilities probably.

But does it mean to say it is lowered level of aliveness?

You need to look at this.

Aliveness means fundamental life.

This life has various accessories for it to make itself present now.

To be present,

It needs a physical energy,

A physical body,

Neurological system,

Intellectual process,

Mental processes,

And the five senses.

These are all projections that it slowly put out.

When in your mother's womb those two cells met,

You had none of these things.

You had none of those things.

You could not see,

You could not hear,

You could not taste,

You could not smell,

You could not do nothing.

Slowly it put itself out.

It is like,

It's a beautiful thing,

I don't know why they broke it.

Anyway,

It's beautiful still.

So,

The tree standing there,

The leaves,

The branches and the flowers are something that it put out.

Similarly,

You put out many things,

Your physical body,

Your mental capabilities,

Your five senses.

These are all accessories,

Extensions that we put out so that we live as a competent life.

How well you put it out,

How well organized this whole organization is,

This is an organization.

We can call it an organism,

But an organism is an organization of its own.

So it organized all these things.

Evolutionary process if you look at it,

Over a period of time,

We organized our capabilities more and more and more.

You are a little more capable than an amoeba,

Aren't you?

No,

No,

Don't underestimate you see what the virus is doing.

One gram I believe.

So,

This organization grew,

Because of that certain capability,

Certain impact.

But this is all done by the life.

Or if you don't understand or if there is too much misunderstanding,

Or if the word life is too spread out,

Let us say the source of life.

That which is the source of life,

Which is life itself,

It's easier,

Simpler and more appropriate to call it life.

Because it is life,

These are all extensions and accessories.

This was not enough,

Legs were not enough,

So we got a car.

Car was not enough,

So we got an airplane.

Like this we put up accessories.

Now,

People are very angry with me because I said if you buy a car,

Eight years you must use,

So many people are so angry with me.

Okay,

You can reduce it to six years or five years,

But fix some time.

You know,

How many human beings on the planet,

How many cars on the planet,

How many computers on the planet,

How many everything on the planet,

We need to make up our mind.

Similarly,

How much extension you want to do,

Also you must decide,

Isn't it?

All of you decided,

What is your topmost weight you will go to?

Hello?

Yes,

You must decide.

I've stayed the same till I was.

.

.

Since I was nineteen years of age,

I'm still the same weight.

This damn gravity,

What was all on my shoulder slowly because of gravity,

Little.

.

.

Nah,

It's a gravitational pull.

I've yielded a little bit to the planet.

So,

But I've maintained the same weight.

All of you also must decide how much extension you're going to do,

Both physiologically and physically,

Materially,

How much extension,

Everybody must decide.

Otherwise,

Organization itself become a.

.

.

Becomes a limiting factor.

Your very organization becomes a terribly limiting factor.

So,

You are mistaking your organization for yourself,

That's why this question is coming.

Yes,

Organization,

However well you manage it,

After some time it'll tch,

Tch,

Tch,

Because it's material organization,

Unless it's completely renewed,

It tends to deplete.

Whatever is hardware will deplete,

Whatever is software,

You can update.

The whole karmic process is about this,

That if you wish,

Spiritual process is just about updating your karma,

So that you take newer and newer karma which is in the stock,

Normal people.

.

.

See I'm calling them normal,

Because they're majority,

I also want to be safe.

I'm saying idiotic people,

That's what I mean by normal.

Idiots in the world will always see how to have limited karma.

One who is on the spiritual path,

Who is on fire,

Wants to download the whole warehouse.

But he knows if he downloads the whole warehouse,

The hardware itself may break,

It's too much.

So,

Keeps upgrading,

Keeps on taking up more trouble.

Because we want all the troubles to be done as quickly as possible,

Constantly upgrading or downloading more and more.

So it looks like those who are on the spiritual path seem to be in terms of life situations,

They're little more tortured than others.

But it's okay,

As long as you're suffering,

Load is not a problem.

Load is not a problem.

Everybody goes to the gymnasium and does this,

This,

This.

They're carrying loads,

Because they think their body will improve with that.

So load will only strengthen you,

Unless you suffer the load.

If you're suffering the load,

Then it's a problem.

The problem is not with the load,

The problem is that you are a suffering creature.

If you are not suffering,

What is the problem with the load?

You will become very strong.

There is a beautiful parable in the yogic culture.

That is,

It once happened.

One young man took his cattle herd for grazing in the forest,

Which was normal part of life here,

Because this is a pastoral culture,

Largely the wealth in this country was not land,

Was always animals,

Cattle.

How many cattle do you have?

That's your wealth.

So,

He took his herd to the forest,

There for the first time he actually witnessed a cow delivering a cough.

This is a tender moment.

If you see how it happens,

Then you are,

You know,

It's a wonder of the wonders that a new life just falls out like that.

And the tiny little thing on fragile legs like that.

He felt so touched by this.

He picked up the cough,

Put it on his shoulder and walked back home.

He got so immensely involved with this little cough,

Every day he carries it to the forest,

Grazing and again bringing back on his shoulders.

Eight years passed away,

He was still carrying.

By then his reputation had spread across the whole region.

He's a superman,

He carries a full grown bull on his shoulders and walks.

Because the cough puts on weight slowly just like you.

No,

No,

No,

You're all good.

He never realized out of his love he just carried this cough every day.

Every day it puts on a few grams.

After eight years he's become a full grown bull,

But he carries and walks.

So his reputation spread right across the region as a superman who can carry a bull and walk.

So this is what load does to you,

That it will make you so strong,

You can't imagine.

But if you suffer the load,

Why should I carry this damn thing?

Then it's a big problem.

So one who is on the spiritual path is always seeing how to download new software and deal with it,

Not postpone it for tomorrow.

Not postpone it for another time,

We want to deal with it now,

Everything that's there in this,

All the stuff,

Whatever,

Good,

Bad,

Ugly,

I want to handle it now,

Not tomorrow.

Are you okay?

Everything,

Good things,

Bad things,

Ugly things,

Nonsense,

Whatever it is,

We want to deal with it now.

We want tomorrow like that.

We don't mind today working our life out because we want to be done with everything and if we sit tomorrow,

We must sit like we are the beginning of creation.

The beginning of creation everything was still.

Like that you must be able to sit because the beginning of creation is also invested within you.

When I say life,

I'm talking about that,

That which began everything is sitting within you.

How will that diminish with stupid hundred years that you may live?

Virus willing.

Your hundred years is stupid nonsense for that which begins life.

That is throbbing within you.

You have forgotten,

You think your little finger is the center of the universe.

Yes?

No,

I'm saying yourself,

You are not even a little finger.

You're not even a little finger for this creation,

I want you to know.

But when you think my little finger is the center of the universe,

Well,

You're normal and stupid.

Yes.

Because largely people have made it very normal to be stupid.

Unfortunately,

We are trying to set up a new normal that to be immensely capable,

To be untouched by the process of life,

But absolutely involved with life in every possible way,

But untouched by it.

This is normal,

Because this is the origin of life within me.

It's untouched by anything that's happening.

We want to be like how the creation and the source of creation is.

Everybody is trying to say that their mental extensions,

Whatever they have done,

They are saying that madness of the mind is the way life should be,

Or is the way life is.

No matter.

.

.

I've been talking to various groups of people,

No matter what you say,

In the end they ask,

But Sadhguru,

How to handle this anxiety post-corona?

So,

You're also asking me the same question.

First of all,

You accused me that I invented death.

I only wrote a book,

You must read it.

Because it handles certain aspects,

Which are inevitable in everybody's life.

If you approach it with ignorance,

You will deal with it one way.

If you are a little pre-informed about certain things,

You can deal with it a little more consciously and well.

If you don't live well,

At least I want you to die in style.

That's all I'm saying.

If you live in.

.

.

If you live really well,

Fantastic.

Right now,

Our idea of living well needs to be hugely modified.

Because when we say somebody is living well,

That means they're wearing five kilograms of gold,

And one diamond is stuck in their head so that the.

.

.

In their forehead so that their third eye cannot open,

It's damaged.

They're eating more than what they should eat,

They're wearing more than what they should eat,

They're.

.

.

Where they're using everything more than what they should use.

That is not living well.

Living well means if you sit here,

If you pay enough attention,

You are the very source of creation.

This is living well.

It's my wish and my blessings.

You must know this.

This is living well.

This is living well.