Now or Never – Grasping the Chance to Evolve Spiritually
Sadhguru looks at what differentiates humans from other life forms, and on the importance of grasping the one-in-a-million chance to evolve spiritually.
Questioner: Sadhguru, when everything is part of creation, then everything about us – the body, mind, energy, and emotions – is also part of creation. When there is no greater intelligence than the Creator, where did we get misaligned and now have to struggle to get re-aligned?
Sadhguru: You are basically asking, where or why did we mess it up?
Any life form, even a single-cell amoeba is as much life as you are. It is fighting for its survival, it reproduces, it lives, it dies – everything. If you look at the whole life-scape on the planet, from a microbe to a human being, it is an incredible variety of life. But the simpler the life form, the more in tune with existence it is.
An amoeba is just floating around in a lake – it does not stick out and say, “I’m an amoeba.” It is simply a part of the water – you don’t even know it is there. Not just one – millions of varieties of microbes are all simply there. But don’t think they don’t have their individuality. They do have their individuality, they have their communities, they are waging wars against each other, they are fighting for survival, they are looking for new pastures, expanding their businesses. When they expand it into your body, you had it. If you look at it closely, you will see how strategically they are handling their life – whether they are ants, ticks, or bugs – they are all incredible creatures. How smart they are, how organized and strategic they are in every aspect of their life – whether it is their food, their business, their dwelling, or their reproduction.
They may have one-billionth of your brain, but for their life, they are smart guys. Do not underestimate a bedbug, or any piece of life for that matter. For his life, a bedbug has enough complexity of mind, enough complexity of body, he has everything to live a complete bug-life. The only thing is, because of a certain lack of evolution, his awareness is static – it is not so malleable and is not ready to fuse.
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I am talking about awareness in its purest sense. Awareness is not something that you do. Awareness is life.
So we are never talking about making a bedbug meditative. He simply sits still, unmoving, for hours and days on end. He will not waste a bit of energy. Only when he senses there is food and he has to move, he will move. Otherwise, he will simply sit there, conserving his energy. You need to at least learn sitting still from him. He can sit still, but he cannot meditate, because his awareness is static.
The thing about human beings is, awareness has moved from a static state to a more dynamic one. Because it is more dynamic, it is possible to make it cross the limitations of one’s physical and mental structure and touch the limitless awareness, which is outside. If it was a static, limited awareness, you could not break those limitations. Only because your awareness or your consciousness has evolved to a point where it is more fluid, malleable, and dynamic – you can make an attempt to beat evolution.
If you think it is not necessary to strive for that, maybe after two billion years, one day, anyway this limited consciousness will merge with the ultimate. But people on the spiritual path are in a hurry. They don’t want to go at the pace of evolution. They want to make it in this lifetime. Whatever is the ultimate possibility, they want to bring it into their life now. If you want to wait – no problem. The only thing is, next time around, when the same piece of awareness with all its karmic attachments or extra-fittings of karma comes back, it may not come with the possibility.
There are seven billion people on the planet today. How many of them ever get an opportunity to sit in one place for one whole week and meditate? Not even anywhere near 1% of the population. They will not get that opportunity even if they wish. Who knows what the situation would be for you next time around?
When the opportunity has come and consciousness has risen to a point where it is capable of understanding the possibility, one must go for it, all out. Never again it may come, or at least not in a reasonable amount of time. If a certain level of initiations has happened, reminders can come, but you know how easy it is to ignore reminders. You know how many times you have ignored the alarm in the morning. Especially the way the world is going, with the number of things happening around people, you can ignore just about anything. People are capable of ignoring a sunrise, a sunset, a monsoon, and anything else, because they are watching the television or they are texting.
So when the opportunity has come, if there is any sense in you, you have to make it. If you want to postpone it, don’t waste my time. My interest is only in those people who want to make it in this lifetime. Those who want to do it in another lifetime can go elsewhere. I don’t want to waste my time and life on them.
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This article is based on an excerpt from the April 2014 issue of Forest Flower. Pay what you want and download. (set ‘0’ for free). Print subscriptions are also available.