Limitless Emptiness: Sadhguru on What Makes Him a Guru

Questioner: For those who have been initiated by you, things are happening in ways beyond our understanding. Still I am wondering, or maybe even more so, who are you really? And how do you function as a Guru?

Sadhguru: As a person, I am quite terrible. As a Guru, I am absolutely empty. I am a Guru not because of my knowledge. I am a Guru because my ignorance is totally limitless, and that is all that matters. If something within you becomes limitless – whatever it is – it will work. If you become limitless ignorance, it will work. If you become limitless love, it will work. If you become limitless anger, it will work. If you become limitless in anything, it will work.

I found being limitless in ignorance is the easiest way. My whole spiritual process started because I realized I did not know anything, and that is not a small thing. What is limitless cannot be small. If you try to become limitless in knowledge, how much can you know? How much ever you know, it is still limited. I realized the trick of existence – what is labeled as knowledge is ignorance; what is labeled as ignorance is true knowing.

Because I am like empty space, I have become a doorway for Adiyogi to function through me. If you meet me on the street, my head is empty. If you look behind the person, you will find nothing. And when it comes to the person, I have been changing it every few years. People have been confused and confounded about that. I always warn those who have been around me for a long time that I am going to change my personality, but in spite of that, many of them get shocked – some hang on, some fall off.

The person is crafted in such a way he is terrible enough that you do not want to have anything to do with him, but at the same time, he is sweet enough that you cannot leave him. If I become a little more terrible, no one will be here. If I become a little sweeter, no one will be able to leave for a moment. I keep myself on the edge so that they cannot stand me, but they cannot be without me, because that is needed for them to seek.

If they sense me as too sweet, they will make me bigger than their seeking, which is not good. If they sense me as too terrible, they will give up their seeking, which is not good either. I am crafting a personality that creates enough of both so that their seeking never dies. Even if they look beyond for no other reason but being tired of me, it will work. A Guru is not a goal. A Guru is a means. A Guru is like a doorway. If you pass through the doorway, you find reality.

It is good to go through me, because it is one of the few empty spots that you can find. Everywhere else, it is opaque – full of knowledge, full of scriptures, full of conclusions. A doorway has to be empty. Only if you can pass through it easily, without any struggle, it is useful. So, do not try to find something in the door. If you find something in the door, it is a closed door.

I am not a destination, just an open doorway – a doorway to all that we refer to as Adiyogi – a doorway to all his knowing, to all the possibilities that he was. A doorway without a doorkeeper. If you are willing to go through it, no one can stop you.

Editor’s Note: A version of this article was originally published in Isha Forest Flower July 2015. Download as PDF on a “name your price, no minimum” basis or subscribe to the print version.