Enlightenment is never far away - Sadhguru

Enlightenment is not something that happens. It is always there. The sadhana, or yogic practices that one does on the spiritual path enable you to see that it is there. You are not doing sadhana to construct divinity within you. Many people talk about self-development, but self is one thing you cannot develop. You can develop the mind, you can develop the ego, but how can you develop the self, which is absolute and boundless?

Only that which is incomplete can be developed. If something is already all-pervading and eternal, how can you develop it? So, sadhana is not about building something. It is not about creating divinity within you or becoming enlightened. The source of creation is already there within you. Sadhana is just a way of opening your eyes. Sadhana is like an alarm bell. The whole thing is just a process of waking you up, waking you up to another level of reality.

There is no such thing as self-knowledge. There is just self. That is all. Jesus made this clear. He talked about himself and his father in heaven, but at one point he said, "I and my father are one." The you that is beyond all limitations and that which you are referring to as the almighty are the same.

To experience this, you must become willing to transcend your limitations. This willingness is surrender. The only barrier to it is your identity with the limited nature of your body and mind. If you are willing, who can stop you? The sadhana is just to make you willing. Enlightenment is never far away, but to make a person completely willing takes time because there are layers and layers of resistance. It takes time to work through the resistance, to become absolutely willing. It need not necessarily take time, but generally people do take time.

India is a very ancient culture that has produced many enlightened beings. This is a culture that has always said that the only way to transform oneself is to turn into a god. Yoga is a scientific tool to realize and experience this. In yoga we have no incarnations of God. We see the possibility that even you can become godlike, blissful and all-seeing.

Let this be clear. Yoga is a technology, so there is no question of it working for one person and not working for another. Your telephone, television and computer work for everyone -- even though most people do not have a clue as to how they work. You just have to learn how to use them. Similarly, most people will never understand how yoga works. Factors such as age, attitude, or karmic situations can decide how quickly it works, but it definitely works whether you can immediately notice it or not. Some people will catch fire like gasoline, some will burn like paper, others will burn like wet wood, but yoga can definitely hasten everyone's evolution.

If enlightenment is the one and only purpose of your life and all your energies are focused in this direction, it is not far away. The problem is that people have so many other priorities, so spirituality is kept on the side. What you are seeking is within you. If it is the only priority of your life, nothing can stop you. If you are willing, what is within you cannot be denied to you even for a moment.

Right now, you are the divine but unaware of it. Whatever you are unaware of, does not exist for you; you must understand that. If you are sitting down and an elephant is standing right behind you and you are unaware of it, it does not exist for you. Only when you become aware of it does it exist for you. Similarly, although God is within you, as long as you are unaware of your God-like nature, it doesn't exist for you. When someone becomes aware, he also becomes aware that everybody carries the same potential.

Life as you know it is not a barrier. If realizing your ultimate nature is the only priority in your life, everything you do will naturally orient itself toward that. Your work, relationships, love, money -- even your very life's breath -- will orient themselves toward your ultimate nature. The experience of every little thing you do becomes extremely fulfilling and joyful when it is done in the light of great purpose. Once your ultimate nature is your only priority, the life process will become a joyful and fulfilling process.


Sadhguru: In India, enlightened beings have been referred to as Dwijas. Dwija means twice-born. Once, you were born out of your mother’s womb; it happened unconsciously. You did not make it happen – nature did it for you. When you were born, you came with a certain innocence and blissfulness. A child is innocent and blissful by himself. But since this blissfulness did not happen consciously, anybody can corrupt it in no time. In no time, they will take it away… For some of you, it was taken away by the time you were 12 or 13 years of age; for many it was already taken away when they were 5 to 6. Children are becoming tense at 5 to 6 years of age today because their innocence gets corrupted in no time, depending upon the volume of influence that people around have on them.
Now, if you have to be born once again, you must die first. If you are not willing to die, the question of being reborn doesn’t arise. This does not mean dying physically. If you leave this body, some other nonsense will be waiting for you. But if you die the way you are, if you destroy everything that you called “myself,” then you are born once again. This kind of birth happens 100% consciously. Once again you become blissful and innocent, but fully aware. Now, this blissfulness cannot be taken away by anybody. So, what you call “enlightenment” means a conscious self-annihilation.

Right now, most people are not thinking of enlightenment. They are just trying to live a little better. They want to live a little more peacefully, joyfully, more efficiently, more effectively. We can use yoga for that also. It is a poor way of making use of yoga because yoga is capable of delivering you to another dimension of life; but it’s okay. If people are not satisfied with what they are seeking in their lives, they will never seek anything higher. If you talk about enlightenment to somebody who is hungry right now, he only thinks of food. Whatever people feel is missing right now in their life needs to be taken care of to some extent. Otherwise they will not seek anything higher.

Isha Yoga is offered in such a way that all dimensions are included but nothing is compulsive. When we initiate people into the kriya, it is taught in such a way that everything is available. We don’t want to deny anyone enlightenment just because they don’t know it. We want to create a taste of another dimension so that they will seek it. At the same time, nothing is forcing itself upon you; you can use it any way you wish to. If someone were an ascetic and a “fulltime” yogi, I would initiate them in a completely different manner where the way they should go is compulsive. But generally, I will not initiate someone in a compulsive way. I initiate them in such a way that they can make use of it in many different ways and it still stays alive.

Seeking physical wellbeing is one thing. Seeking enlightenment is something else.Seeking physical wellbeing is one thing. Seeking enlightenment is something else. To enhance physical wellbeing, you need to learn different techniques of self-preservation. Enlightenment means a conscious annihilation of yourself. For most people, it will take a certain amount of time and maturing to understand that whatever you make yourself to be, in the end, it is frustrating and not enough. However wonderful you make yourself, still it is not enough. Only when you disappear, everything becomes wonderful.

So, if right now all someone wants is to be peaceful and happy, and do better in the activities they are doing – let’s have that, it’s okay. That doesn’t mean enlightenment is ruled out, but such a longing has not come yet. Still, the basic longing is to live better. You are not yet finished with life – you want to live well. When you have lived enough and you know that living better is not going to get you anywhere, then you want to go beyond life.

Spirituality: A Homecoming

An 84-year-old man went to the doctor. The doctor said your heart is not doing too well. Then the old man asked, "Should I give up my sex life?" The doctor looked at him and asked, "Ok, which one do you want to give up, thinking about it or talking about it?" This is the kind of spirituality that is going on today, thinking about it and talking about it. But you cannot think about spirituality nor can you talk about it. It is the very root of what you call as life; one has to just sink deeper into it. We are trying to live life, but we are not allowing life to happen in its full glory. When you allow life to happen in its ultimate glory, that is spiritual process. Spirituality is not about moving away from life but about becoming life. It is not about going somewhere, it is a home-coming.

The moment I say "spirituality", people say, "Yes, I want to be peaceful." You do not have to walk the spiritual path for peace. A glass of wine could do it or take a long walk and then lie down in the shade of a tree; you will sleep peacefully. Spirituality is not for someone who is seeking peacefulness. Spirituality is for someone who is seeking ultimate liberation, who is willing to shed everything that is false and arrive at the true nature of one's existence.

Why it is stressed that the human life is of significance is simply because it is the only life here right now which can use its discretion to go beyond its compulsions. No other life on this planet has this intellectual discretion. This is not a small gift. This is not a small possibility. Just having this discretion, even if you have not exercised it to its fullest extent yet, it is a tremendous possibility.

When people asked Gautama the Buddha, "Why are you spending time with these thousands of people who are no good for anything? You are a spiritual teacher, you should spend time with a focused group." Gautama said all of them are Bodhisattvas, that is why. Bodhisattva means a potential Buddha. Right now one may be living a limited life, but one has the potential. As long as the seed is intact, it is just a question of finding fertile soil, that's all. And the seed cannot be destroyed. A seed which looks like a dead pebble, which looks inanimate, can become a great flowering if you just give it the possibility.

So allowing this possibility to take root and to flower is the whole process. This is not a social process; this is not a psychological process. It distresses me to hear many so-called "spiritual" teachers going about talking as if spirituality is just a question of attitude. "Just change your attitude, be loving, everything will be ok." If you are loving, the life process can become pleasant. Nothing spiritual will happen to you. Pleasantness is a good way to live, for sure an intelligent way to exist, but it does not deliver you anywhere.

What we refer to as the spiritual process is that which delivers you to a dimension that is beyond your current perception of life. It is not a picnic, nor is it a journey. It is a pilgrimage. What is the difference between a travel, a journey and a pilgrimage? People move from one place to another for a variety of reasons. There are explorers who are always looking for virgin land that they want to put their footprint on, they want to prove something. There are travelers who are curious to see everything, so they travel. There are tourists who just go to relax. There are other kinds of tourists who just go to escape from their work or family. But a pilgrim is not going for any of these purposes. A pilgrimage is a way of getting yourself out of the way; if you do not budge, it is a way of wearing yourself out. A process of destroying all that is limited and compulsive and arriving to a boundless state of consciousness.