Sadhguru looks at the nature of desire, and how a human being is always seeking the boundless. He explores how spirituality is about consciously moving from “more” to “all”.

Full Transcript:

Participant: Sadhguru, you have, you know, written a piece on karma, where you have made a statement that you will not grow unless you create the innermost desire to grow. So could you elaborate on those thoughts on karma?
Time 48:04

Sadhguru: See, desire is not something that you have to create. Is there somebody without desire, however religious you are? Is there somebody here without any desire? People have tried these teachings with you and they have not worked, isn’t it? They told you, you must give up your desire, you must be satisfied with what you have, you must be content - has it worked even for one human being on the planet I am asking? Has it worked? A teaching that does not work is just rubbish, isn’t it? But it’s gone around for too long because of so many reasons, we will not go into that. Desire is not something that you create. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you are; there is something within you longing to be little more than who you are right now - yes or no? Yes? If that little more happens, what? Little more. If that little more happens, what? Little more. That little more happens, what? I can go on like this. If I… Why you’re going bit by bit? I will make you the king or queen of this planet; will you remain fulfilled? Don’t look at me hopefully, I will not make such a blunder (Laughter), I am only saying. If you become the king or queen of this planet, will you be fulfilled? No. You will look at the stars, isn’t it? So there’s something within you which is longing to become boundless, to become infinite. Now you’re approaching the infinite in installments. Tch…tch…tch… this is not a good way to go. In installments can you ever get to the infinite? Can you count one, two, three, four, five and one day say this is infinite. You’ll only become endless counting. You’ll not know the infinite. This is not the way to approach the infinite.

So the desire is just this. There is something within you which is always longing to become boundless. If I set a boundary for you - suppose I imprison you in let’s say, a five x five cubicle, you’ll feel horribly imprisoned. Tomorrow, we’ll liberate you into a ten x ten cubicle - you’ll feel wonderful for a day and again you’ll feel imprisoned. Next day we’ll liberate you into a hundred x hundred cubicle. You’ll beel… you’ll feel great for three days. Again the same thing. It doesn’t matter where I set the boundary. The moment you can feel the boundary, you want to break it, isn’t it? This is not something cultivated within you. This is not your entrepreneurial spirit. This is the nature of life. Life wants to be something more, all the time. How much more? Limitlessly more, isn’t it?

So, ‘more’ is not what you’re looking for. ‘All’ is what you’re looking for. If you want to take all, can you conquer it? If you want all… if you want ‘more’, you can conquer. If you want ‘all’, can you conquer it? Can you earn it? So you need to look at it now. If you want ‘all’, what should you do about it? If you look at that, you’ll naturally turn spiritual.