Sadhguru explains that anything beyond survival takes some striving on the part of the human being, and looks at how Inner Engineering is a powerful vehicle to naturally turn inwards.

Full Transcript:

Questioner: You’ve been touching upon this aspect of travelling inwards, looking inwards, can you elaborate on that. We would like to know how to do it. Yes, all masters say, ‘Go turn inwards, turn your indriyas inwards, travel inwards, seek yourself within.’ Some practical suggestions of how does how one goes about this? (Applause)

Sadhguru: Oh, it’s a popular question. (Laughter) So I don’t know what somebody else is saying because as I told you my main sadhana has been to remain uneducated and uninfluenced by anything around me. Is it… is it true that who you are today as a physical entity happened to you from outside? Is it true? I think many of you have been constantly attending spiritual discourses, that’s why you learned this, it doesn’t matter what ridiculous stuff I ask, you’ll say (Gestures)… (Laughter) - training, spiritual discourse training; whatever they say. (Gestures) Is it true that you created your body from outside? Is it true? Hmm? They’re saying ‘Yes,’ what is the problem? (Laughter) Did you create this body from inside or outside? From inside, so the source of Creation is within. When the body was this small also, it was there. Now also, it’s there - isn’t it?

So why is it that you are not in touch with it? It is very simple as we went through this already - your sense organs are outward bound. That’s the whole reason. You need to understand this. Suppose as a child you were lost in the jungle, no contact with any other human being and something edible came in front of you, would you take it and stuff it into your ears? Tell me yes or no? No, you would know where to put it. No training. Your mother did not tell you how to eat, but still would you know where to put it? Yes. So all the things that concern your survival process nobody need to teach you, anyway it is built into the system. Anything beyond survival if you have to know, then you need striving. Do you remember when you were four five years of age just to write A, B, C how complicated it was. Hmm? The damn ‘A’ you had to write it one hundred times to get it right. Isn’t it so? Do you remember? Just ‘A’ three lines, how complex it looked to you at that time. Today, if I ask you to write without thinking, without even a thought on your mind you can just write, why? Because of the striving that you put in there, isn’t it? If that striving was not there, even today your condition would be same, isn’t it so? To put those three lines you would still struggle. So you need to understand this, anything beyond survival process will not yield to you unless you strive for it.

Time 148:24

Now the question that you’re asking is, ‘Can you give me some tips here how to turn inward?’ Yes, I can give you tips but obviously you’re already a veteran, you’ve been to many places, you’ve heard many people and it’s not worked. Do you want this place also not to work for you? (Laughter) Are you determined about that? No. If that is so, don’t ask for suggestions. I don’t give any suggestions to anybody nor advices to anybody. There are methods. If you explore these methods, you will naturally turn inward. Instead of going through a process you are trying to intellectualize everything. It’s like this. Somebody wrote… See, all these spiritual books that you read, if you’re reading them it’s a sure way to see that you will never be spiritual. Yes, because you will know all the jargon but nothing will happen within you because you’ll intellectualize everything. Everything what should have been a living experience, you will make it into knowledge. That’s not going to work. So there are simple methods.

Now what we are offering as Inner Engineering is essentially this. If you give me twenty eight hours of focused time, your time, if you give me twenty six to twenty eight hours of focused time I will build a vehicle for you which will naturally transport you inward. But you want it today evening? Ahh… ‘Turn inward’ (Laughter) slogan, it’s not going to work. It is not going to work. You need to understand this, the body that you carry, the mind that you carry is a shell that you slowly acquired, isn’t it? It is a shell that you acquired; now it’s become all important. Unless you crack this shell and something of the within comes out of you, if the shell is not broken, you’re just a nut, you know? (Laughter) Yes? Only if you peel the shell, something else is there, otherwise you’re just a common nut, nothing else. Some are a little more complex, some are a little less complex, but that’s all it is. Because why I am saying this is – see, right now we’re all sitting here on a round planet spinning at great speed, traveling at great speed. The whole solar system is traveling. The whole galaxy is traveling actually. Nobody knows at what speed in which direction where, what is it going to bump into, because there also, there is quite a bit of traffic.

Today, they are saying there are over one hundred billion galaxies have been viewed through the Hubble Scope, you know? So when there are a hundred billion galaxies, there is every chance that we may crash, isn’t it? Yes or no? Two galaxies may hit each other, that is not the point. The point is just this, we do not know where it begins, where it ends, what’s happening. Still look at us sitting here as if we know everything and sitting here and talking to each other, how nicely we’re sitting. Not even on the North Pole where it’s a little firm - you’re sitting here, very dangerous, isn’t it? One minute, you should not exist.

Time 151:35

So, what I want to tell you is the scape of creation is such that it is way beyond your logical perception. Now if you ask me a question like this, I have to answer you logically, isn’t it? Yes? If I start speaking, if I say one illogical thing, your eyeballs will roll a little bit. If I say one more illogical thing you’ll consult your neighbor, ‘What do you think?’ If I say one more illogical thing, you will slowly sneak out. This is where you are. You’re sitting here not because you experience me in some other way; you’re sitting here simply because I’m making some logical sense to you, isn’t it so? And it’s an extremely poor way of being with me. An extremely poor way of being with me is to… You’re sitting here because the logic is making sense to you. It is not about that. If you can simply be with me right now, I’ll have you exploding, you don’t have to ask this question, I will make it happen for you right here. But no, calculations are going on, ‘Okay, if I go inward what will I get?’

See, you’re trying to fit everything into logic. You need to understand your logic fits perfectly well into life, but life will never fit into logic. If you stretch your logic too much… Suppose you wake up in the morning, tomorrow morning you woke up in your bed. When you wake up think one hundred percent logically, do not think of your life’s experiences, do not think about the beautiful things that have happened to you or that may happen today. Just think logically, do not think about your child’s face or the flowers in the garden or birds in the sky, nothing. Do not refer to anything which is experientially pleasant for you. Just think logically, ‘Now, you actually have to come out of bed’ - that is not a small feat for a lot of people. Then you have to go to the bathroom, then eat, go to work, eat, go to work, eat, next sleep, next day morning get up, do the same things. Next thirty, forty, fifty years you have to do the same thing every day. Think logically and see - is it all worthwhile? Do not look at your life’s experience, just hundred percent logically if you look at it, is it worth living? You need to understand, moments of extreme logic are moments of suicide. This is how slowly you are committing suicide in installments.

Now the question that you ask if I answer verbally I can only answer you logically, isn’t it? And that will never be right. That will never take you what is called inward because logic is the mind’s baby. Logic is the mind’s baby, that cannot penetrate inward. It can give you lots of intellectual circus and keep you going, but it will not take you inward. Inward will not be touched by your logic. So, me answering that question, ‘Do this, do that’ is not going to help. If you are willing to give your twenty six to twenty eight hours - is it too much? Twenty eight hours, is it too much? Focused time, if you give twenty eight hours, we will build a vehicle for you which will naturally take you inward, no question about it. Go ahead, please.