Sadhguru answers a question from Juhi Chawla, and explains what sets human beings apart from other life on the planet. He looks at how most human beings have turned these possibilities into problems.

Full Transcript:

Juhi Chawla: Okay, Sadhguruji when you said about the common person and the special person, I know some teachers have always told us and why your own parents always tell you that you know – you are special, each one of us is unique and each one of us is special…

Sadhguru: No. No, my parents told me you’re freaky (Laughter). See, they never said, I’m special.

Juhi Chawla: We’ll come back to our parents now and… and I remember… I remember this part, I am not sure whether I heard it at your discourse or on a DVD of yours, where you said… It was about you know people being special and us always thinking that God knows of us. And you said something like, “Do you know all the grasshoppers in your garden?” So, of course all of us have said, “No”. So, you said something like, “So, how does God know each one of you then?” And I was devastated because I always thought somebody up there knows me, cares about me and I’m special.

Sadhguru: You thought… you thought you’re number o…. you thought you were number one in his books, is it?

Juhi Chawla: Well, I’ve been told since I was kid, you’re special, you’re unique and God cares about you.
Sadhguru: Let me tell… See, if when somebody says you’re unique, it’s an insult (Juhi Laughs). You know… It’s like this – in this vast cosmos, this solar system is just a speck. Tomorrow morning if the whole solar system disappears, vanishes, evaporates, nobody will even notice it. Maybe it’s not even in the accounts books of creation, it’s so small. In this speck of a solar system, planet earth is a super speck. In that, Mumbai is a micro super speck. In that, you are a big man or a woman (Laughter). It’s a hilarious problem. This is a very immense existential problem, you know. This is because we have lost perspective as to who we are, what we are, our psychological realities have become bigger than the cosmo… than the cosmic reality. That is a big problem. It’s time you step out of your cinema… I‘m… I’m not talking about the Hindi cinema, I’m talking about the cinema that everybody’s playing in their own minds. See, a cine… See right now they darkened this whole hall because it works best that way. This is the basic technology of a cinema, if you do not darken the cinema hall, if you light it up and play a nice cinema, it’s not going to work. You have to darken it. So, I’m saying, a cinema of your mind because it’s a dark space. Every thought is enlarged, playing out bigger than the cosmic space. Today, everything in the cosmos is happening perfectly well, but you have one nasty thought crawling in your head and it feels like a bad day, isn’t it?

Juhi Chawla: Yes. Yes.

Sadhguru: So, that’s because your psychological realities, your petty creation has become larger than the creator’s creation. You lost perspective of life. That is the fundamental basis of all this confusion and suffering. If you see who you are, the micro speck that you are, you wouldn’t imagine that God is made in your own image and he looks like you and whatever. Okay, if… if we were all buffalos, we would definitely think God is a big buffalo (Laughter).

Juhi Chawla: Okay. Okay, so what is it really? Please tell us the… Please define it for us, what is it? What is going on – this life, this love. All these emotions that we go through in our lives, all these thoughts that we create for ourselves, what is going on?

Sadhguru: See… These are all human possibilities and capabilities. Every possibility becomes a problem for those who do not explore the possibility in it’s right perspective. Thought is a tremendous possibility. An ant cannot think like you, he can work better than you, he’s more disciplined, he betters main… better traffic rules than you, there’s no traffic jam out there (Laughter), okay but he cannot think like you.

Juhi Chawla: Yes.

Sadhguru: That sets up apart. This is a possibility. But now, this possibility has become a problem for ninety percent of the humanity. Now they’re freaking because they can think and they’re thinking all the wrong things. Their thoughts have become nasty; if they were pleasant they would have enjoyed their thought process. Because it’s become nasty, it’s becoming a (an?) ailment, isn’t it? People are suffering their thoughts immensely. Because, they do not know how to keep it pleasant, nothing has been done towards it. So, what is a possibility always becomes a problem if you do not explore it in a right perspective. So your thought and emotion has become a problem, now love affair is a problem, you’re making all kinds of things out of it, which are all coming from this misunderstanding, not understanding this thought and emotion is generated by me, I can generate it whichever way I want. If nastiness is what you like, you do it. I don’t care if that’s what you like but you’re suffering it. If you’re suffering it, you shouldn’t be doing it.

I am not telling you, be loving. What is your choice – pleasantness or unpleasantness? If unpleasantness is your choice, you enjoy it and do it, what’s my problem? You want to drink poison, what is my problem? I am just telling you this is poison, this is this – drink whatever you want, but by choice. Don’t drink unconsciously, that’s stupid. That’s not befitting of a human being, a human being means we are far more conscious than every other creature on this planet – that’s what sets up apart. Every other creature eats but we can eat consciously. So our eating becomes, so many things. Every creature has sexual drives, they go and fulfill it whichever way. We can do it consciously. So, we become something something. We’re doing the same things but we’re doing it consciously, suddenly there is a magic about it, not because sex is magic, food is magic, no. Because we can do it consciously, every basic act like eating and copulating becomes magical because we can do it consciously.

If you leave that one thing, if you exclude that one thing from your life that you are not conscious about the way you think, the way you feel, the way you act, the way you move your body – if you’re not conscious about it everything can turn ugly, everything can become nasty. So it is this which sets you apart from every other creature. So, a dog is walking on the street, if you show it a biscuit it will wag its tail, if you do this (Gestures), grrr it will do. If this is what you are that if somebody is nice it you, you will wag your whatever, if somebody’s not nice to you, you will bite them. I’m saying what… where is evolution in you? Forget about civilization, I’m, talking about evolution. Where’s the evolution, where’s the sign of evolution I’m asking? (Applause)