How To Be Really Successful? | Sadhguru Answers

             what does success look like, what does it take human being has come with such an open sense of possibilities. those who are committed to being successful with whatever they are doing one important aspect of their life is....that is what get you across so many lines in our life so many barriers in our life.  this happened in your school maybe later.. in your university later in your work it's happening to people maybe not everyone but a whole lot of people their commitment to success is weak. they want to succeed they will take three steps than something little interesting happens here they will go away. here they'll go away there they'll go with it.

         Hey, I want to live their commitment to success is weak in either situation around them in some way. you know situations can impede you from doing what you're doing very easily many times it happens to everyone but when this happens people weaken their commitment for their success. maybe physically they'll feel little weak they will weaken their commitment to success maybe their emotions lost around a little bit they will weaken their commitment to success this is very important right now. however long, it takes this virus you must come out of this successfully that means you must stay alive that's an important part and commitment to staying alive should not be slackened no matter what happened somebody very dear to us passed away all the more important we must live.... people around us are all sick all the more important we are healthy to take care of the people around us so our commitment to success should not weaken.

         Because there is social drama going on or physiological drama or psychological drama whatever happens your commitment to success should not weaken that is what get you across so many lines in our life. so many barriers in our life, so uh...what does success look like what does it take you must understand those who made any significant achievements in their life. oh, they did not you know I don't want to take any personal examples of anybody. I'm trying to avoid obvious things that are coming to my mind well you know, I know family and friends who always have their breakfast on time and after breakfast, of course, they must have coffee after coffee, they must light up a cigarette and sit there nicely. because they're trying to become peaceful and then they will go to work come back home exactly on time for lunch eat lunch rest for one or two hours sleep then evening have one tea and then smoke and then again go to work and at 8 o'clock 8 30 they're back home for dinner and then maybe other things drink and this and that and whatever well that's their priority. it's fine I'm not complaining it should not be that way but those who have been very successful either in music, sport, art, business & spiritual process. doesn't matter what those people never know when they ate when they slept when they got after known rest I have not seen such a thing in my life. so uh...those who are committed to being successful with whatever they are doing one important aspect of their life is they're not settling down, wherever it's a bit comfortable.  because comfort will happen when they lure you to in the grave very comfortable you are, you know have you seen how comfortable? they are once they're dead if you throw them there also they're comfortable if you lower them they're comfortable even if you burn them yes or no comfort will come right now. it's about ensuring, that there is the profoundness of experience and there is impactfulness of activity because if they had given you a limitless amount of time. 

        You could do all those things nothing wrong and not against them but they gave you such little time with such tremendous potential of being human that's the problem.  if creation had made you like an earthworm, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with an earthworm, it is just that it's a unipolar potential it can only do that much. an earthworm is not thinking of climbing a tree because it knows it'll be picked up by the birds,  it never has such aspirations it just wants to recycle the earth. you know it is beneficial to so many other lives including us, but its objective is very clear to eat and to reproduce and to die with very clear objectives that purpose to fulfil. he strives he I don't think he sleeps in the afternoon, I don't think so because many afternoons have seen earthworms they were all vigorously active but a human being came with too many potentials. because of that, it needs a certain level of striving for a human being to forget about the world to consider yourself successful. if your idea of success is you're doing little better than your neighbour, I call that sickness that is not a success.

       You are happy that your neighbour is worse than you is this sickness or success it is a sickness but in some way, you feel fulfilled with. what you're doing? let's consider that as a success, for now,  it is it doesn't matter whether you're better than somebody or worse than somebody that question should not even come up in your mind. but in some way, you feel you're using yourself fully and there's a certain sense of fulfilment in your activity.  well if you're capable of just closing your eyes and simply sitting without any activity that's fantastic but you cannot do that right now in the states that you are you can't simply close your eyes and become still.  you so being busy you will become preoccupied that doesn't mean you're improving that means you're regressing in some way the problem about this success. is people always making judgments, I did this I did that maybe this didn't work it's a mistake, that's a mistake there's no such thing in life see at one time you were a monkey.

        All right this is not me this is that English man you know Charles darwin said you were all monkeys at one time you were a monkey just a brief while ago was it a mistake that you committed that you were a monkey or was it just a certain stage of evolution. was it a mistake or was it just a certain stage of evolution similarly since you were born because as a human being, you're born largely unformed, unlike other creatures.  if they are just their food is taken care of they know what to do with their life because the human being has come with such open sense of possibilities you come informed you don't come fixed you have to fix yourself different people throw different types of balls at you from all over your parents, your teachers, the school, the neighbours and the society and the world. throws all kinds of things at you to gather all this muck and make something worthwhile out of yourself, is your business that's your success it doesn't matter whether somebody thinks you're worthwhile or not you feel you're a worthwhile life good enough goo now the world may not recognize it doesn't matter but you know you're worthwhile.

Namashivayam...

 COPING with DEATH – Vedantic Wisdom for Overcoming Sadness, Grief, and Painful Memories.

         Over the years, many people have sought my advice after losing a loved one due to illness, accident, or old age. They ask how to overcome their sadness, grief and painful memories. Of course, I'm not a trained psychologist and can't offer psychotherapy, but the spiritual wisdom I've shared with them seems to provide a lot of strength and comfort. I'd like to share some of those teachings with you today. Before getting into this topic, it's important to properly understand the nature of both physical and emotional pain. When you're pricked by a pin, you feel physical pain.

       According to Charles Darwin, the famous naturalist, pain helps you survive. It calls your attention to a problem in your body that needs attention. If you didn't feel pain, you could die from something like a burst appendix. No doubt, pain is extremely unpleasant, but it's not your enemy; it's a natural and useful part of being human. Along with physical pain, we also experience mental or emotional pain. Just as physical pain arises from physical injury, so too, emotional pain, like the grief of losing a loved one, arises from emotional injury. That's why we speak of having a broken heart. And just as physical pain calls our attention to a bodily problem that shouldn't be ignored, emotional pain likewise calls our attention to a mental issue that needs care and healing. Some people downplay the significance of emotional pain. They say, "It's all in your head. Snap out of it." But emotional pain is every bit as real and agonizing as physical pain, maybe even more so. A child was once asked, "Which is worse, when you fall and hurt your knee, or when someone says mean things and hurts your feelings?" The child replied, "Hurt feelings are worse because when I hurt my knee, mommy can kiss it and make it better, but when my heart hurts, what can she do?" Also, a cut on your finger will usually heal in just a few days, but the heartache of losing a loved one can linger for months or years. 

      And even later, memories of someone's death can rekindle painful feelings of loss and grief, whereas remembering the cut on your finger won't trouble you at all. Based on all this, it seems foolish to downplay emotional pain. Fortunately, we're all created in such a way that our bodies and minds generally repair or heal themselves over a period of time. And, as our physical and emotional wounds heal, the pain they produce gradually fades away. But sometimes, children pick at a scab on their skin and hinder the process of healing. Similarly, some people pick at their emotional wounds, so to speak, by recalling again and again certain traumatic events they experienced. That, too, hinders the process of healing. 

      Therapy can help address this particular problem and enable the natural process of healing to continue unimpeded. But no form of therapy can remove emotional pain itself. It's a cliche to say, time heals all wounds, but there's a lot of truth to it. Just as therapy can't remove your emotional pain, so too, spiritual wisdom, including the teachings of Vedanta, is similarly incapable of removing emotional pain. Spiritual wisdom that culminates in enlightenment can indeed remove suffering, but suffering is completely different from pain, as we'll discuss shortly. Physical and emotional pain are natural and are experienced by every human being, including those who are enlightened. Enlightenment can't free you from headaches and stomachaches, nor can it free you from heartaches.

       I learned this many years ago when I lived with my guru at his ashram. One day, I noticed that he looked extremely sad, an expression I'd never seen on his face before. He told me that he just received a phone call, informing him that a dear friend of his died the previous night in a terrible road accident. Over the years, I saw my guru deal with all kinds of challenging problems and some pretty horrible situations without ever losing his serene disposition. And yet, due to his friend's death, he apparently felt tremendous grief.

We'll come back to this story in a moment.

Someone who can't feel sadness, loss, or grief is emotionally numb, psychologically anaesthetized in some way. Do you remember the old Star Trek shows that portrayed the character, Spock, as having no emotions whatsoever? Fortunately, enlightenment doesn't make you emotionless like that. Now then, what's the difference between pain and suffering? 

    Simply put, pain can be either a physical sensation or an emotional feeling. Suffering, on the other hand, is your negative response or adverse reaction to that pain. Let me explain. When you have a throbbing headache that won't go away, you might get irritated, frustrated, or even infuriated by the nonstop pounding in your head. Getting upset because your headache won't go away is a kind of suffering. And that suffering adds to the misery caused by the headache itself. In this example, pain is the unpleasant physical sensation in your head, and suffering is feeling unhappy, resentful, or sorry for yourself because of that pain.    

      We can make the same distinction between emotional pain and suffering. When a loved one dies, emotional pain is the terrible anguish, heartache, and deep sense of loss you feel. Suffering, on the other hand, is the result of thoughts like, "Why did God let him die? How can I go on living without him? I can't bear this horrible sadness!" The bereaved often suffer like this, a lot. They might experience depressing thoughts, fear, anxiety, resentment, and regret. All this is suffering, and it adds tremendously to the terrible emotional pain they already feel. Returning to the story about my guru, after telling me his friend had died, he immediately walked into the lecture hall and taught a brilliant class, lively and full of humour.

     After class, he seemed completely free from any lingering sadness, even when he talked about the tragic incident. So, he apparently experienced emotional pain, but without all the suffering that usually accompanies it. It's indeed possible to experience both physical and emotional pain without suffering, without feeling unhappy or resenting the presence of pain. How? By discovering that physical and emotional pain doesn't truly threaten your wellbeing. The teachings of Vedanta can show you how physical sensations and emotional feelings arise in your mind as mental objects, and those mental objects become known to you.

       You are the observer of all such mental objects, including physical and emotional pain. You are the conscious being who's aware of their presence in your mind. They're revealed or illumined by your awareness, by the light of consciousness, so to speak. A traditional metaphor describes how the sun is utterly unaffected by all it illumines, whether it shines on a sacred temple or a pool of stinking filth. So too, your consciousness is utterly unaffected by all the mental objects it illumines. That means, when physical or emotional pain arises in your mind, becoming known to you as mental objects, your consciousness remains totally untouched, not troubled or disturbed in any way whatsoever. The problem here is, when physical or emotional pain arises in your mind, they probably seem to affect your consciousness a lot. 

       Unlike the sun, your consciousness seems to change drastically in response to whatever it illumines. But according to the sages of ancient India, neither the sun nor your consciousness is subject to any kind of change. They discovered how the experience of pain is misleading, and often misunderstood, and they showed this through another metaphor. This clear crystal appears orange due to its proximity to my robes. It seems like the crystal is affected by orangeness, but it actually remains perfectly clear, despite its appearance. Similarly, your consciousness seems to get affected when it reveals physical or emotional pain in your mind. But in fact, your consciousness actually remains unchanged, unaffected.

       This orangeness belongs to my robes, not to the clear crystal. So too, physical and emotional pain belongs to your mind, not to consciousness, the consciousness that's the essence of who you are as an aware being. Of course, profound teachings like these have to be thoroughly understood and personally realized. But with the help of proper guidance and spiritual practice, these teachings can transform your world view to such an extent that you no longer feel threatened by physical or emotional pain. Then, when you notice a throbbing pain in your head, you'll be able to say without a trace of sarcasm, "Wow! That's the most intense headache I've had in a long time." And, you'll be able to experience emotional pain without the dreadful feeling that you're not ok and you won't be ok until the emotional pain goes away. Pain and sadness are not your enemies. After all, you can leave a movie theatre with tears streaming down your cheeks and say, "That's the best movie I've seen in a long time!" If you can enjoy the sad scenes filmed on a stage in Hollywood or Bollywood, there's no reason to regret the sad scenes that play out on the stage of your mind.

Namashivayam....

What is prayer? Should You Pray To God?

 Sadhguru’s Eye-opening Answer

       Sadhguru: 

           Prayer means you're telling God what to do. You believe you studied your god’s representative. Meditation approach you just close up. If you simply close up everything that Wishes to occur to you will appear to you. So touching that measurement which Is past the physical manner You need to the touch that size which Is the idea of the physical. While you say that that is the premise of the Physical, what you are speakme is that You are not interested in the introduction however you're interested in the supply introduction. 

     There, if you pass and stand in front of the creator, at least there you have to hold your thoughts down, is not it? Your ideas must be saved down for a while When the author is right here. is not it so? Isn’t he the largest idea? It is like, there has been a man in Pennsylvania; Wherein you from? Participant: Seattle. Sadhguru: ah, it rains, It doesn’t flood there. That’s why we ought to position Seattle on the coast. Otherwise, it'd flood, you realize, that region. So Pennsylvania, there has been a man in Pennsylvania. As soon as there has been a massive flood and… Are you okay if there’s a joke interior a comic story? You all proper?

     The flood turned into starting to take place, the water changed into filling Up and there has been a completely enthusiastic young journalist Who's reporting degree with the aid of degree, hour through the hour as to How the flood is progressing, you recognize? Due to the fact, this is journalism; any individual is drowning, Document to the world, ‘this guy is drowning, observe him drowning’, take it at the video and display it to all of us How a person drowns. You don’t throw the goddamn digital camera and Get the man, no, You show the complete global How a man can drown in a flood. So those aren't the days of video cameras. 

     Only, you recognize, Morse code is how the document is being filed. So he filed a file, very eloquently he said, ‘as god sits and watches, The water is filling up on this part of Pennsylvania And homes are taking place and This and that’ and defined it in very eloquent phrases. Then without delay, he got a Response from his editor, ‘leave the flood, interview god' (chortle). God is sitting and watching, He concept he's someplace right here. ‘forget about approximately the flood, interview god.’ They didn’t get to interview him, It persisted.

       Many homes drowned, many humans died, However, one man survived. This man who survived went to NY metropolis And shared amongst humans How he survived a Pennsylvania flood In which such a lot of people died. People amassed. Then he went to Boston and talked about How he survived a Pennsylvania flooded greater humans accumulated. Then he got here to settle and He shared, extra human beings gathered. Then he began his avenue show, metropolis to city speaking and Talking approximately how he survived a Pennsylvania flood. He became a well-known speaker in the USA And then clearly, You recognize, each American has to write an e-book inside their lifespan.

       So he wrote an e-book, How he survived a Pennsylvania flood. It became well-known, he spoke anywhere And his engagements end up worldwide. He became a millionaire, offered thousands and thousands of books All his life he best spoke about How he survived a Pennsylvania flood. And one day he died, now not in a flood, He died and they had an assembly. He went through the pearly gates and There was an assembly of human beings and There has been a possibility to speak, a few humans Ought to speak. So he told his associates, ‘i will percentage my revel in approximately How I survived Pennsylvania flood.’ Anyone nudged him and stated, ‘there may be Noah inside the target market.’ okay? So now you don’t move to stand in front of that which Is the basis of the advent and throw your thoughts at him. You are his idea. sure?

         You are just a figment of his idea. If he withdraws his concept you’re gone. So that you don’t place your thoughts. So this is the essence of meditativeness. Prayer method you are telling God what to do. You believe you studied your god’s consultant. Meditation manner you have understood your limitations, Now you just shut up. In case you just close up, simply shut up on all stages, Everything that needs to manifest to you will take place to you. All of the schoolings is simply to help them to close up, Which you don’t throw your silly ideas at the creator, You just shut up.

    Likewise, during the day and night in full consciousness and in a dream it's happening. If you really realize only one percent of your activity your life will definitely seem random to you, with 99 percent of the activities you do you will exercise unconsciously definitely life will look like a sum of coincidences. If one of those coincidences suppose it happened someone who fell on the street, resulting in a concussion, and then, all at once would begin to master mathematics well in a very great way but it was only one.  

    Thousands of other people would just bruise their skulls and they never got out of it or would die, or would they live on, they continued to live with great restrictions, so live randomly ... something like a wheel of fortune, This is not a way to exist well. To sum it up, whenever an accident occurs, we are talking about fate, some of you even say god he does those things to me and we don't know what harm it will do to us, chance can cause this or that ... 

        But that's not the way the world works if we do not begin to take responsibility for our actions if we ignore the fact that man creates his own destiny. Well ... if they ignore it will still run into problems and like this ... although they still will not completely dead, but ... to be human, that is, we can...

Why are there so few FEMALE Rishis and Gurus?

           Now, please don't think I'm sexist or inclined to ignore the accomplishments of women. The fact is, there are relatively few major female figures in the entire history of Hindu spirituality, and even fewer in the tradition of Advaita Vedanta. There were a handful of female rishis like Gargi and Maitreyi, and later devotional icons like Andal and Meera bai. But hardly any women prior to the 20th century are acknowledged today as great spiritual leaders. No doubt, many female saints and gurus lived in ages past, but their lives were apparently omitted from recorded history, perhaps because those history books were written mostly by men.  

           Hindu culture, like most world cultures, is androcentric or male-centered, and has been for millennia. This is an unfortunate but undeniable fact. Until recently, government, business, science, religion and spirituality have all been more or less the exclusive domains of men. Women, on the other hand, have generally been relegated to domestic domains. Nowadays, all this is changing rapidly. Nevertheless, past generations of India's religious and spiritual teachers lived in a highly patriarchal society in which male gurus taught their male disciples. To make matters worse, many of them had adopted celibate lifestyles, and for that reason, they vilified women as a threat to their celibacy. 

           Today, educated people readily acknowledge the complete equality of men and women in all spheres of activity, so there's no justification for gender bias of any kind. And from the standpoint of advaita, non-duality, your true nature, the inner divinity called atma, is pure consciousness - unborn, limitless and eternal. As such, atma is neither male nor female. Your body is male or female, and your mind contains both masculine and feminine traits. But atma itself is genderless. In spite of the gender bias woven into Hindu culture, there are some traditional stories that actually portray women as being equal to or even superior to men, especially in spiritual matters. One of those stories is found in the Yoga Vasishta, a massive scripture of 29,000 verses, attributed to Valmiki, the author of the Ramayana.

         The Yoga Vasishta is full of amazing stories, including one about King Shikhidhvaja and Queen Chudala who reigned in the kingdom of Malava. Their love for each other was so strong that they were virtually inseparable. They did everything together - they ate meals together, they took long walks in the forest together, and remarkably, they ruled the country together. Contrary to convention, Queen Chudala was an equal partner in running the kingdom. As they grew older, their thoughts gradually turned away from worldly concerns and towards spiritual growth. They sat side by side as they listened to gurus, studied scriptures, and meditated for hours each day. Eventually, the queen became enlightened. She discovered her true nature, the inner divinity, atma. She realized that her essence as pure consciousness was utterly unaffected by worldly troubles, completely untouched by pain and suffering. As a result, she remained perfectly peaceful and content at all times, even in the most difficult of situations. Queen Chudala continued to accompany her husband in all their activities, but the king noticed a difference in her. She seemed more beautiful and radiant somehow. When he asked her what had changed, she replied, "I have transcended this worldly plane and realized my true nature as atma, pure consciousness." The king laughed in disbelief and said, "Only great sages can realize atma. How could you, a mere woman, have realized it?" Queen Chudala just smiled and chose to remain silent. She felt sorry for her husband. His ignorance was so deeply engrained that it not only prevented him from seeing her inner transformation, but it also prevented him from discovering his true divine nature. Consider this. The king and queen were both engaged in the very same spiritual practices, so how is it that she gained enlightenment while he remained immersed in ignorance? It's a fact that before you can gain the highest spiritual wisdom and become enlightened, you must first become fully prepared; you have to be a fit aspirant. For example, before you can study integral calculus, you must first master algebra and trigonometry. So too, before you can gain knowledge of atma, you must first master your mind and emotions. Your mind must be capable of one-pointed attention and deep concentration.

         Your emotions must be completely purified, cleansed of desire and free from attachments of any kind. Queen Chudala had gained these qualities in full measure, and therefore, her spiritual practice culminated in enlightenment. Her husband, on the other hand, lacked those qualities and continued to struggle. King Shikhidhvaja became increasingly anxious about his lack of spiritual progress. Whenever the queen tried to offer him some advice, he wouldn't even listen. Eventually, the king announced to his wife, "Today, I am going to renounce worldly life and retire to the forest where I can meditate without distraction." The queen told her husband that it's really not necessary to renounce worldly life to gain enlightenment. Not surprisingly, her words fell on deaf ears. The king left the palace and traveled far, to the foot of Mount Mandara where he built a crude hut of sticks and grass and undertook a life of extreme austerities. 

       The queen awoke one night in her luxurious bed and wondered about her poor husband sleeping on the hard ground in a grass hut. She felt sorry for him and wanted to know if he was ok. Because of the tremendous intensity of her meditation practice, she had developed several yogic powers, known in the scriptures as siddhis. One of those siddhis enabled her to leave her body and travel through space. Using that siddhi, she traveled to Mount Mandara to see her husband. From a distance, she could tell that he was still struggling to control his unruly mind and break free from all attachments. She wanted to help him, but she knew there was nothing that could be done until his ascetic practices finally helped him acquire the full measure of preparedness he needed for enlightenment. In the king's absence, Queen Chudala ruled the kingdom with skill and justice for eighteen years. Then one day, using her siddhis, she went to see her husband again. He had grown quite old, but she could tell that he had acquired the intellectual and emotional preparation necessary for enlightenment. 

           All he needed now was a little more spiritual instruction from someone who was already enlightened, as she was. Yet, she knew that he would never accept her instruction. So, she used her siddhis to transform herself into a wise sage named Kumbha and then she approached her husband in disguise. The king recognized Kumbha's great wisdom and immediately accepted him as guru. Then, Queen Chudala, in the form of Kumbha, was able to impart to her dear husband the teachings he needed to gain enlightenment. This story shows the unfortunate consequences of the king's sexist attitudes. If he had accepted his wife's spiritual guidance at the outset, he could have gained enlightenment without having to leave his comfortable palace and live in a crude hut for eighteen years. This particular message of the story is especially relevant for us right now. 

            Too many men around the world still fail to draw upon the wisdom and skills of women, excluding them from many domains in life simply because of their gender. By doing so, those men forfeit fully one-half of the precious human resources available to them. Queen Chudala had the skill to rule her kingdom and the wisdom to free her husband from suffering. So too, women today have the ability to improve the quality of life for their families, for their communities, and for their countries. When more women are empowered to use their skills and wisdom in all aspects of life, the world will be a better place...

Namashivayam.....

 Who is Shiva and Why Does He Matter? 

      A being of enormous proportions and phenomenal capabilities arrived in the upper region of the Himalayas. Many thousands of years ago, this being who came to be known as the RDO ghee or the first yogi transmitted the science of evolving human consciousness willfully to the subtly. She's the celebrated seven sages of seemingly celestial origin. These seven sages infused with the sacred knowing of Eastern mysticism that predates all religions carried it around the globe and to this day it continues to live and flourish in various manifestations and distortions the spine of knowledge that the RD yogi created remains a living force for enlightenment. 

          After thousands of years, this timeless knowing still permeates almost everything that can be called spiritual on this planet today close to two billion people worldwide are actively drawing from this spine of knowledge under different names different forms, and different manifestations in every part of the world.  Remnants of the ancient yogic wisdom are still practiced in its multifarious forms irrespective of cultural or religious background this is a fundamental possibility that has evolved from this one idea that he put in those seven people's minds. He made them thirst for something beyond the limitations of the existence he put this hunger into their stomach, he put this hunger into their hearts that they want to be something more than what we normally know as a human being.

      Every creature has come with a framework in hand that can do certain things. I'm sure some champion hands can do little more but within that framework,  a tiger can do something but within that framework, an elephant can do something but within that framework, a human being can do something within that framework a certain dimension of, whatever he put this idea that you don't have to limit yourself to your dimension you can transcend this there is another way to be a completely different way to be this idea.

     He not only gave the idea and the part he also gave a method to go there it is that this one idea that the human being can strive to evolve beyond the dimension of his present existence which is the basis of this whole civilization and culture it does not matter whether somebody calls himself a Hindu or a Buddhist or a Jain or a Sikh or whatever all of them are striving for this one idea that they want across these limitations and attain to liberation the idea of Mukti.

 Mukti

      The whole culture is the centerpiece is Mukti Blissey everything that we are doing here in this culture is essentially towards that that there is a possibility of transcending all limitations and getting there has never been a more revolutionary idea on this planet since this time nobody has come up with a more revolutionary idea than this that you can transcend the very limited the very dimension in which you exist........ to be continued  

Namashivayam....