- Sadhguru
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So suppose tomorrow morning, you go and really say “Good morning” to people, smile at them, talk to them; maybe you will waste five or ten minutes going into your office. But if people around you are happy, you will have a lot of extra time on your hands, because they will run around and do things better, isn’t it? If the people who are working with you are sitting there with a grouse, they will make your life miserable in so many ways, not just one way.
Now, you are asking, “Can I change my personality every day? Won’t it confuse people?” Not at all. They would enjoy you more. Isn’t it so? And will it bring down your efficiency of work? Definitely not. It is not because of the compulsion of the situation that you have gotten stuck with one personality. It is just that the whole construction of the personality has happened in unawareness; that’s why you are stuck with one personality.
Now you said, “We have one kind of personality at home, another with children, another with work and another outside.” If you look at it, it may not be true. You may be functioning in different capacities and the requirement of how you function may be different, but still the basic personality may be the same everywhere. The underlying personality is still the same. You can change that also. And it will be so much fun for you to change that because you will be able to experience a whole new person all the time. After all, it is your creation, so why should it be limited to just one way?
If God had fixed a personality for you, then that is all there is. But when you have built it, you can also change it like you change your clothes every day – in different ways, isn’t it? But most people cannot even change that; they have gotten used to a certain way of dressing, that is all. I think we should have done something today. Everybody should have dressed in a completely different way and come. Not your usual kind of clothes. Just loosen yourself up a little bit, it is important. The reason why the very essence of life is missing in people is that they have become stiff – and spiritual people are stiffer than anybody else, isn’t it? (Laughter).
See right now, you are stuck to one personality. It is just that your actions are different because the situations are different, but the person is the same because your personality has become you. You are completely identified with it. There is no distinction between you and your personality, isn’t it? You have become that. The mask has gotten stuck to your face now; you cannot take away the mask. If this mask has to come off, we need something to loosen the glue which has gotten stuck to it. This glue is the identification. So now, we are creating various situations where your identity dissolves in a certain way.
Meditation or any kind of yoga practice is just to loosen the identity so that there is a little more flexibility about it. Maybe the whole of it has not come off, but at least you can adjust it a little bit. Instead of the mask being totally stuck, at least you are able to take a little breather. The practices are giving you that much break, but if you work a little more at this, you can take the mask off and keep it aside.
When you come to advanced programs – when for three days or seven days you are in Bhava Spandana or Samyama1 – you will
simply forget who you are. It will become like that, because the situation created there is very intense and different; everything that you know as normal is broken. After some time, you do not know who is here. After the program is over and you come back, you just wonder, “Was it really me who went through all that?” Most people cannot believe that they actually went through Samyama (laughs), not only because of the meditation process, but because the whole situation is created in such a way that it does not assist your personality in any way.
So the whole point is to take off all the supports, because your personality cannot exist even for a moment without your support. Actually, if you involve yourself in any intense activity, your 1 Advanced Isha Yoga residential programs, designed to experience
deeper dimensions within oneself. Dissolving your Personality
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personality could loosen up a little bit – but that is haphazard. For example, let us say you go and play a game. In moments of total involvement, you may lose your personality, but that is a haphazard way of attempting it. Now, we are looking at how to approach it scientifically, how to dismantle all the scaffolding that is holding it up.
You may have noticed that people who are very committed and enjoying the process of working always have more flexible personalities than people who are working towards a goal. Have you noticed this? Just the involvement with work, total involvement; for those moments, the personality becomes a little loose. But people who are working towards a goal, those people have strong personalities, always.
The fundamental basis for your personality is likes and dislikes – “I like this, I don’t like this.” A complex system of likes and dislikes is what your personality is, isn’t it? See, what is the difference between you and the next person? Your likes and dislikes are different, isn’t it? Now, the whole purpose of yoga is just this: to help you go beyond these likes and dislikes. Whatever we are talking about, whatever we are doing is essentially to destroy the process of likes and dislikes.
Existing in the world with likes and dislikes is a very foolish way to exist, but unfortunately the logical mind thinks, “I will do what I like; this is my freedom.” All the time, everywhere in the world, people believe “doing what I like” is freedom. The very basis of your bondage is in your likes and dislikes, but your mind makes you believe that doing what you like is your freedom, isn’t it? Please look at it carefully, the fundamental basis of your bondage is in like and dislike.
To operate sensibly, even in the physical realm, even to operate with your work or family, likes and dislikes are a barrier; they make you do stupid things. If I feel, “I like this person, I don’t like this person,” now I cannot function as it is needed in this moment,
isn’t it? Now if I say, “I don’t like this person,” even if this person is doing something wonderful, I cannot see it anymore. Do you see this happening to yourself? Now, if I say, “I like this person,” even if they are doing terrible things, I cannot see it any more. Because the moment you get trapped in this like and dislike, you have no discretion. Your intelligence is forsaken. You being aware is simply impossible once you get trapped in likes and dislikes.
The moment you say, “I like this,” getting identified with it is very normal. It is a natural process. You don’t have to say, “I am going to identify with this light bulb.” If you just say, “I like this light bulb,” you get identified with it. The process will just happen. Life is set up in such a way for you that it happens automatically; you just have to sit here and enjoy the bounty of life. But now the problem is, we are set in the wrong direction, so life naturally creates suffering.
Suppose it was all in your hands: you have to like it, you have to get involved with it, and everything is up to you. It would be a terrible effort to live, isn’t it? Now, it is all set up well. The whole software is so well set up that if you just say, “I like this,” getting involved in it, dreaming about it – all these things just happen by themselves, isn’t it? Everything that is necessary to take you in that direction just happens. So this is just life assisting you, but it has no discretion of its own; if you like hell, it will take you to hell.
Once, a lady who was the HR director of a corporation died and went to heaven. There, Saint Peter said, “We will give you a choice because you are the first HR person to come to heaven. If you want, you can stay in heaven – you got the passport. But before you go to heaven, if you want, you can also have a view of hell. If you wish to stay there, you can do so.” The lady said, “No, why would I want to go to hell? I want to go to heaven.” He said, “Wouldn’t you want to just have a look at it?” She said, “Okay.”
They went zooming down in the elevator. The elevator doors opened into a beautiful garden where very beautiful people were swimming and sunbathing by the poolside. There was a wonderful
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golf course and a nice clubhouse – the works. She thought, “This is a great hell!”
Saint Peter then said, “Okay, now you can have a view of heaven, then you choose.” They zoomed up in the elevator. There, the doors opened and she saw lots of clouds, people were floating in the clouds, playing harps. She said, “Okay, this is also fine, but I think I’ll go to hell. Anyway, all my friends are there, and there’s golf too.”
So they went down again, and again the doors opened. But this time, it was a harsh desert. Everybody was all skin and bones, without food. Everything was in a terrible condition. She said, “What is this? Last time when I came, there was a garden, there was a pool, there was a golf course. What happened?” So Saint Peter said, “That was just the first day, you know.” (Laughs). “Now, you are staff. That was the interview, now you are staff. All your life you did this to people. So this is your choice.” (Laughter).
Is there anybody working in HR here? (Laughter). If you are an HR person, when somebody new walks into your office, you are supposed to size them up, to see where they will fit into this whole machine of an organization. So, if you are willing to look, people’s personalities are always hanging out. They need not say or do anything. If you just look at them properly – you don’t need any great yogic intuition, just the simple observation of a person, the very way they stand or sit, the way they hold their hands, the way they smile, the way they do things – you will see their personality just hanging out of them. It is so obvious to everybody except you. (Laughs). That is the whole problem.
I
n Indian culture, whenever a village, town, city orany kind of human habitation was formed, people first created a temple, or a consecrated space around which the habitation evolved. History is full of examples where people themselves were so poor that they lived in huts with thatch roofs, but always built exquisite temples in their towns or villages. Such was the importance given to the idea that human beings must live in consecrated spaces.
It is in this tradition that the Isha Yoga Center, situated at the foothills of the Velliangiri Mountains in Tamil Nadu is dedicated to the most sacred of all human pursuits – that of self-transformation.
A place where every aspect of life has been minutely crafted by Sadhguru himself, it is not only dedicated to the purpose of self-transformation, but also engineered towards it in many ways. The center provides not only the space but also the tools and methods, energy and guidance, and most of all, the Grace of the Guru.