Sadhguru speaks about how the new year should be an occasion for us to evaluate whether we have moved forward or backward as a human being. He looks at how this is a time to create an ambitious plan for the next year, to become a better human being within ourselves.

Full Transcript:

Sadhguru: Please open your eyes.

Supposed to be the last day of the calendar year,

So this end of the year - we need some measure, otherwise if there was no count of New Years and some of you counting your birthdays. I don’t trust you on the birthdays because you may keep on counting eighteen, eighteen, eighteen, eighteen (Laughter). At least you say this is going to be 2015, I’m sure you’re not going to say 2014, 2014 next year, no (Laughs). So we will stick to the New Year. The idea of counting time is because we need some measure, we need some kind of milestone just to know “Are we going forward or backward in our lives.” I want you to look 2014, you as a human being - not your business, not your career, not other things, those things matter but you take care of that but as a human being have you moved fod… forward or backward? This is something that you have to evaluate today, you must evaluate every night but if you are a lousy accountant of life, at least once a year you must evaluate.

If you evaluate once a decade it’ll be too late, believe me, you can’t fix it. Once a day, once a week, once a month, if you are evaluating, you will be able to take corrective measures in one’s life. At least once a year if you are evaluating – “Have I moved forward as a human being or have I become backward?” Simple way of checking this is 2013 how I was, 2014 am I a little more joyful human being, am I little more relaxed, am I little more compassionate, am I little more loving, you just have to check. Don’t… Don’t go by your family’s judgment because there may be many local prejudices you know (Laughs), we don’t know - vested interests. Family, neighbors, friends, these are all vested interests. If you don’t do what they think you should do, they will think you have fallen, tch (Laughs).

Time 40:39

Thirty-three years ago everybody thought I have fallen and lost my mind, okay? Today the same people clap their hands, that’s different because… that’s for a different reason but I’m saying even if you’ve taken up positive steps somebody else may be saying something. So I don’t want somebody else’s evaluation of who you are. Within yourself sincerely you look and see have you moved forward as a human being? Because you are one year closer to your grave, tch, are you going to at least die as a better human being if not live (Laughs)? Suppose you and me die tomorrow morning, are we dying as a little better human beings than what we were a year ago - this is an important question. If we live, wonderful! Suppose we die, there’s no regret (Laughs). Very important or no? Hmm?

Participants: Yes.

Sadhguru: If we live as better human beings, wonderful for us, wonderful for everybody around us. Suppose we die, at least there is no regret what a horrible creature I am and I’m dying and everybody will be glad, that’s different (Laughter), So if you are going to make people around you joyful and relieved only when you die tch, that’s (Laughs)… that’s not a good way to live. They are joyful because of your presence is good. They are joyful because you’re absent is not a good thing, that’s important. It’s important to check this and the coming year you must have a plan how to become a better human being than the way I was in 2014. I want you to have a clear cut plan, “How am I going to be a better human being, what is my plan.” You must have a plan of your own. We can help you with a GPS (Laughter), how to negotiate your plan, but you must have a plan.

Time 42:51

Don’t wait for cosmic geometry to come together. Cosmic geometry is in a wonderful place, otherwise it would have crashed. Only because cosmic geometry is perfect, it is going on, isn’t it? Did you see any extra noises, loud noises coming up today morning when the sun was coming up? Friction - kut, kut, kut, kut, kut, kut, kut, (Gestures) it came up like that like a (an?) old machine (Laughter)? Very smoothly it came up, isn’t it? Hmm? Absolutely smooth, you didn’t even notice it (Laughter), tch, tch, so smoothly it came up. So the cosmic geometry is going perfect. You don’t worry about where the stars are, what is the arrangement, is it okay, not okay, it’s perfect. It is you, are you going to ride it or are you going to be crushed by it, that’s a question. So, you must have a clear cut plan for 2015 – “How am I going to be a better human being within myself.”

What happens around you is a consequence of the way the world is running and the way we conduct things, many things. Consequences are okay but how we are is very important because this is what determines the quality of who we are. What happens – we have little more, little less, this happens, that happens, that is not the quality of your life, that is just the content of your life.

Time 44:26

Content should not decide the quality, it is always the context which decides the quality of one’s life. So the coming year, the plan tch must be good, a workable plan. Hmm? I want you to be an ambitious plan, not a stupid, silly, tiny little plan, a very ambitious plan – “by the end of this year I must be in this kind of a state.” Hmm? Time to plan, the coming year we have a clear cut plan and we work through the plan, a deliverable plan, an ambitious one, not a small one. I want all of you to evolve a plan like that, if necessary write it down – “This is how I’m going to be in the coming year,” whatever is your idea of being better human being. You don’t have to go by my prescriptions but if you’re better you must be functioning within yourself at least with less friction, less struggle, less turmoil. Yes? That’s an indication that you’re better.

This coming year we have a significant event coming up - United Nations has declared the World International Yoga Day (Applause). That means those of you who are living in the Yoga Center or associated with the Yoga Center means this is your day. Tch, first time in the world you know (Laughs). Since Adiyogi, over 15000 years ago, since then many things have happened in terms of propagating yoga, in terms of reaching out, many administrations in the form of kings took to yoga and did things. When Krishna was here, this was… maybe people don’t recognize him unfortunately for this tremendous effort that he took to have political system and the spiritual process fused as one, this is what he wanted to achieve. And he’s not being credited with this. People are only talking about the excessive butter he might have eaten (Laughter) and the girls and the flute and the cows and the dung and whatever (Laughter). No, that is not what his life is about. His life is that he strived throughout his adult life to bring the political process and the spiritual process as one.

Time 47:22

He started over 1000 ashrams acs… across the northern plains of this country. Nobody acknowledges him for that, this is the body of his work because he did not want spiritual process to be an archival process somewhere in some ashram. He wanted this to spread across the society, above all those who rule the nations must be spiritual in nature. This was the intention and always mingling and handling kings and their affairs but he himself chose never to become a king. He was a kingmaker in many ways but never a king, he had the armies to become a king. There was land on which his people lived, so he could have become a king effortlessly. If he wanted to become the king particularly the Pandavas, who would have given up their whole kingdom and said, “You be the king,” there’s no question about that. But he never ever became a king, only wanting to get the spiritual process and the elec… and the political process together. This was the whole effort.