Q: I’ve heard that Samyama helps to drop your karma but I wanted to ask how that works and also if it helps you to escape the cycle of death and re-birth?

Sadhguru: Essentially all spiritual process is to put your life on a fast forward. If you go by the normal course of things, it may take a long time. So, spiritual process is for those people who are in a hurry. They want to get to the goal at the quickest possible time. If you tell me how quick you want to get there, we can key up your sadhana to that extent. But you must understand when things are moving very fast, there is a certain discipline you have to maintain. If you’re walking along the street or if you’re walking through the forest path, if you see tamarind, your mouth will water. You can pluck them, even the flowers are good. You can eat the tamarind flowers a little bit.
So, it’s nice if you’re walking. You can climb the tree, eat all the tamarind you want and go. If you’re riding a bullock-cart, you must be quick - what is available, chuk you must pluck. You can’t select and pluck. You’re going in a car, then plucking will be little dangerous. If you pluck, it may just cut through your hand. If you’re doing something else, if you’re flying an airplane, you cannot even imagine such things. You don’t put your hand out at all.

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You want to know the very source of life, if such a longing has come, you have to make a little more serious effort. Samyama is just that.

So people choose the journey according to their willingness. People should choose the mode of journey according to their willingness as to how much they’re longing to get to their destination or how much they’re enjoying the journey and don’t care about the destination. It’s not that they don’t care - nobody can say they do not care. When they sit down here, they don’t care because it’s comfortable. But when time passes they will care. Everybody wants to get to the destination. The question is just how long are you willing to wait?

Samyama is a certain kind of process, where we are putting you on fast forward, but in an extremely safe atmosphere. If you try to do it by yourself without a protective atmosphere, it could be dangerous. People can blow their brains off, if it doesn’t happen in a protected atmosphere. The reason why we’re fixing such stringent filters is because we want proper discipline and focus towards what’s being done. Otherwise, even going by bus, if you hold on to the tamarind tree, either the bus has to stop or you have to leave your arm there and go. One of these things has to happen. Otherwise you shouldn’t stick your hand out. You simply watch the world go by. If you’re walking it’s not like that, but it takes a long time. Even to get to Coimbatore it may take a very long time.

Samyama is that dimension, where what is opaque we want to make it transparent.

So Samyama is neither dangerous by itself nor is it something that somebody is ready or not ready for. Everybody is oriented towards it, but without the preparatory steps definitely they may find it difficult; without the necessary longing they may find it difficult. So I would say if all you’re thinking of is a good life - good life means, peaceful, joyful, loving life - then Inner Engineering and Bhava Spandana is good enough for you. But you want to know the very source of life, if such a longing has come, you have to make a little more serious effort. Samyama is just that. That is, you slowly learn to keep yourself aside, which you will be willing to do only when you understand that you are the only barrier in this creation. At the same time, you can become a doorway, if you wish. This is like a door. If a door is closed, it is a barrier. If it’s open it’s a gateway, isn’t it? So you are just like that. You can become opaque and become a block. Door is closed means, even metaphorically if I say the doors are closed for you, that means you can’t go. If there is a door, there must be a way to open it, isn’t it? It may be closed right now, but if there is a door, there is a possibility. If all of it was sheet rock, then it would be different. Now it is a door. Somebody has closed it all right, but if you’re willing, you can open it.

So Samyama is that dimension, where what is opaque we want to make it transparent. If that is not possible at least to make it translucent, so that even if it doesn’t let you pass, at least you can clearly see there’s another dimension to life. Once you have seen, you cannot fool yourself. You know you have to go there.

Editor's Note: Learn more about the Samyama program.