Sadhguru answers a question about Saligram, a rare piece of stone, which is like a micro cosmos. He explains that if one does find a genuine Saligram, it could make your life if you know how to use it. Otherwise it can be disastrous.

Questioner: Yeah, saligramam is a special kind of stone; they say you can consecrate it in a different way. Is there any specification, like what kinds of materials we can use for such kinds of practices or consecrations and what is the specific, this thing, of saligram?

Sadhguru: Saligram, generally what you find in the stores is mostly an egg-shaped stone. Children who could not buy marbles used to pick stones in the rivers and play games with it, you know. Yes? Children who can't buy glass marbles went to the river and picked up round shaped stones and started playing with it and somebody made the… a simple game a very serious thing. So, most of the saligram that you see are just stones without any particular… they're just nice stones. I hope people start… stop picking them from the river beds because at this rate… I was telling them when we went to Kailash, everybody wants to pick up a stone. There was a time when people were walking from here, from Tamil Nadu people walked all the way to Kailash. If ten people started off, only two people came back. At that time it was okay for those people to bring two small pieces of stone all the way because anyway they wouldn’t bring this big (Gestures) stone carrying… walking all the way back. They brought two small stones for the eight people that they left back there; that was okay. Now you're going in vehicles very comfortably and you want to load up bagfuls of stones and come home, at this rate, I was just telling them, ‘If this happens, in a few years the whole of Kailash will be in Tamil Nadu.’ (Laughter) We're transporting the whole mountain piece by piece (Laughter); the number of people that are going and we are planning to take thousands of people. So, please leave the Kailash stones in Kailash, it's no good for you. (Laughs) You want to carry some water, it's okay. Water migrates without your permission. Stones still don’t migrate. So, wherever these stones are from, Ganga, Yamuna, wherever, if you’ve picked them up, please carry it all the way back and throw it back into the same river because if the life in that river has to happen, all these things are needed.

Time 56:47

Saligram is particular kind of stone which is extremely rare to find. Generally ___ sea anemones are being sold as saligrams. Any piece of stone is being sold as saligram; those are not saligrams. Or people are molding them in various kind of resins and selling them; definitely that is not saligram. Saligram is a rare piece of stone which… which is one in a billion if you manage to pick it. And even if you pick it, you may not know the difference unless you're of a certain kind. And if you happen to pick a genuine saligram… Everything in English, what to do? They’re asking questions in English, can we go on?

Meditators: Yes.

Sadhguru: Okay. If you do happen to pick a genuine saligram, then you're in real trouble because you should know how to manage this, otherwise you'll be in lot of trouble. It can also make your life if you know how to use it. It’s a great treasure if you know how to use it, otherwise it can be disastrous if you do not know how to use it. People who are living in family situations, simple lives without much discipline, without much focus, without much awareness should never ever keep a saligram in their home. If they do they could go through any amount of turmoil. We have seen such families. Somebody, you know, two-three generations ago your grandmother, grandfather, somebody brought a saligram, they…they made their life out of it but after they died the next generation do not know how to keep it and those families go through such turmoil and such horrors which are unimaginable because they simply do not know how to manage the energy. It is like you have a powerhouse, you have a power generating source in your house and you don’t know how to manage the energy and you will be constantly in trouble, isn't it? Whatever you touch, you will be in trouble. So, this is just like that; it's a tremendous power store house of energy. It is like a mini cosmos. It is a micro cosmos in its own way because it carries the same type of energy as cosmos would in its magnified version.

So, this thing about seeking ekamukhi, seeking saligrams, please leave these things alone; this is not genuine spiritual process, this is souvenir collection, you know, wherever you go you want to pick up something and think this is sacred, that is sacred. Everybody wants a ekamukhi - you yourself have many faces. (Laughter) When you have many faces, if you wear a ekamukhi you're asking for trouble. If your whole life is just one pointed and then you wear it, it's a great thing. Your life is going in different directions, you're playing many roles, you have different faces for different people that you see in your life… don’t you? Don’t you have many faces? I'm asking. When you have many faces, if you wear a ekamukhi you're looking for trouble; just like that. Stop looking for these fanciful things. There is something that you can do with this one (Referring to oneself); let’s do that, instead of going about looking for fancy pieces of something in a riverbed or on a tree or wherever else, leave them. If you deserve such things, it will come to you somehow, but I don’t think you need them right now.