In yoga, Sadhguru explains, the spine is considered the axis of the universe, as one’s experience of everything in the universe is conducted through the spine. If you gain a little mastery over the spine, you can control what kind of experience you produce for yourself.

Full Transcript:

Whatever the experience of life…whether it's light or sound, a taste, a smell or sensation, whatever the form of experience of pain or pleasure,every experience that you have is essentially conducted through your spine. If spine is taken away or what passes through the spine is in some way dislocated there will be no experience. We have always symbolized the spine as the axis of the universe because essentially you know the universe only from the (contes) context of your experience. There is no other way to know it. You do not know anything in this world without the context of your experience. Yes? You understand what I am saying? It's only by what's happening within you, you know…or you think you know. Because you know the existence only by the context of your experience and the basis of your experience is what is being conducted through your spine right now, spine is seen as the axis of the universe.
Today we know that the whole solar system is such a small blob in this cosmos. Tomorrow morning if this whole solar system evaporates there will be no great vacuum, just one little empty space. The rest of the cosmos will not even notice it. That’s how insignificant it is.So in yoga they went to a different dimension and said, ‘Your spine is the axis of the universe.’ They are not saying this because they believe that you are in the center of the universe; because you are capable of knowing the universe only from the context of your experience and the basis of your experience is in your spine.

If any individual has to truly determine the nature of his experience on this planet 100% then having a little bit of mastery over the spine becomes essential. Only that one who anyway determines the nature of his experience would dare to explore the full potential of his life because he wouldn’t hesitate to step into anything. If your experience is determined by anything other than yourself naturally you will try to avoid a few things and go after a few things.

Whatever you consider as those which instigate or stimulate pleasant experiences you go after that. Whatever you think will create unpleasant experiences you will go away from that. Once this division happens in your consciousness that you divide the existence into two knowing the ultimate unity becomes unnecessarily difficult. Why so much stress on joy, love, blissfulness is simply because of this so that your experience is not determined by something else. Once if you sit here and you think this tree creates pleasant experience for you and that tree creates unpleasant experience for you, naturally you will never step in that direction; you will only hang around here. That’s what is happening right now. That’s what's happening with every aspect of life. So once you divide the world… people who have been telling you silly things that you should love your enemies - I don't know why you have to make your life so hard. First make en… enemy out of somebody and then try to love him. (Participants laugh) It's very difficult. Isn't it very difficult? If you don’t make him your enemy it would be easy. You make him your enemy and then you try to love him - this’s an impossible condition. No?

They always want to set impossible things for you so that you’ll constantly go there. Let's look at the possibilities. Unless you do not divide the world it's very difficult to embrace the world, isn't it? In your consciousness if you divide that this is mine, this is not mine then trying to grab everything is very difficult. Either everything is mine or nothing is mine; this is okay. Nothing is mine, this is one way; it is okay. Or everything is mine, this is okay; it’ll work. These are workable solutions. ‘You are my enemy but I love you’ (Participants laugh) - this is very very difficult. It’s a torture. And the fundamental for dividing the world is somewhere one entity causes pleasantness, another entity causes unpleasantness within you; that’s why you divide the world, isn't it? It is essentially a survival mode. You know if you go here it’ll be unpleasantness; you know if you go there it’ll be pleasantness. So slowly you start going there, there, there not here; and after some time you cannot go there at all because you know the level of unpleasantness that happens within you. Only if you are determining the nature of your experience you can keep it pleasant within yourself no matter where you are. If people cause unpleasantness they can do it only around you, never within you.

Once this freedom is there it’s only then you can truly be inclusive otherwise you get stuck. Every little sound that you hear, see if you can conduct it through your spine. Everything that you see, see if you can conduct it through your spine. Right now I’m speaking, the sound itself is not flowing through this wire but in the form of electrical impulse it is going through this wire to the speakers and then bhoom! If I cut this that’s not going to work, this’s not going to work. Spine is just like this. Spine itself doesn’t know anything but it is conducting everything. Only the one who understands that all this bunch of wires out there can manage this sound properly how it should be... We have been having some trouble, you know, (All laugh) because too many wires. (Laughs) Only if you understand every wire that’s out there you can manage the sound just the way you want it otherwise in between so many things will happen.

The same with this one. If you have a little mastery over how it’s being conducted then you can ensure what kind of experience you’re producing for yourself; otherwise everything becomes accidental. Once the very experience of your life is happening accidentally, once your very way of being is accidental… if you are existing here accidentally then that’s like being a potential calamity, you know. Just the fear ‘what will happen to me, what will happen to me’ destroys everything. The beauty and the gracefulness of being human will be completely lost once the fear of ‘what will happen’ is there in my mind. You can…you know animals are doing quite fine; lot of…the temptation, any number of philosophers have gone into the forest, watched the quite gentle…can't say gentle, the quiet natural life that animals are having. People have been hugely drawn into it and they have tried to move into the forest and live just like them, simple. This draw is big time because of the chaos of human societies but what you need to understand is it's never going to work because the sense of peacefulness that an animal has is coming from a certain level of unawareness, a certain level of unconsciousness. You cannot fall back there, do what you want. Do what you want you cannot fall back into the unconscious nature of an animal. Nature has pushed you on into this level of consciousness; you try as hard as you want. You can try hard and become conscious; you cannot try hard and become unconscious, please see this. At least this much nature has taken care for you that you can only move forward not backwards.

Philosophers and others, various types of people have tried to live as simply as animals live hoping that life will become okay but it’s not worked. It is not the complexity of external situation which is doing this. It is just that we are not determining the nature of our experience within ourselves.