Sadhguru: When I was a little boy, one person I liked very much was my great-grandmother. She lived to the age of 113 and was known to be a devil of a woman, not because she did any evil to anyone but because she laughed like a devil, people said.

She lived to the age of 113 and was known to be a devil of a woman, not because she did any evil to anyone but because she laughed like a devil, people said.

If she laughed the whole street reverberated. Women of her generation were not supposed to laugh like that. They were supposed to be controlled in their laughter. But this woman let off such hoots of laughter that the whole town would know. So she acquired a reputation of her own because she laughed like a man, which according to people meant she must be a devil! In many ways she was considered too weird to be in the family because she was always doing things that people thought was crazy. Much later I realized the significance of the things she did but at that age I just liked what she was doing and was deeply drawn to it.

I saw my great-grandmother in many states when I was very young. I would ask her, “What's happening with you?” She would let out a hoot of laughter and say, “Oh, you’ll know some day,” and she would just laugh.