Virender Sehwag asks Sadhguru a question during the 2015 Guru Purnima sathsang at Isha Yoga Center. He wonders why most people don't seem eager to share their knowledge with others.

Full Transcript:

Arundhathi: I’m afraid I will have to read the question while we sort out the audio issue. The question is – why don’t people just share their knowledge Sadhguru, why do they withhold it? Why don’t they share it the way you do?

Sadhguru: Oh! This is the age of intellectual property (Laughter/Applause). Somebody even wants to patent yogasanas. You can patent the asana but still you can’t get into it (Laughter). You may have patented all the difficult asanas but can you get into it - that’s the question. So, we have come to a place in the world, where everything is monetized. Everything has a commercial angle to it. So, because of that, as people have been miserly with money, now they are miserly with knowledge, because you know, knowledge is money. So they are miserly with that because it’s money in some way. So, this monetizing of everything can really destroy many things in this world.

In this culture, we always fixed it like this – spiritual process, health-related things and education, these three things should never be commercialized. Everything else can be commercialized. These three things should always be offered (Applause). The question is only about the qualification of the recipient. All kinds of people come and say, “I want to go, I want to do this, I want to do that.” Two days later, they won't be here. So, the question is only about the qualifications of the recipient. If that one thing is ensured, knowledge should be offered irrespective of corrus… commercial interests that are involved in it. But today, everything is commercialized and in many ways, you can’t help it because the whole momentum is in that direction.

Virender may be willing to share his knowledge. He may teach ten different people how to hold the bat, how to hit the ball, how to stand, how to do this, how to do that. But how many will go about scoring double centuries after double centuries (Laughs) (Applause) because to get a qualified recipient is not easy. It’s not easy. Knowledge may be there. When it comes to experiential knowing, how many people are willing to receive it? Everybody says, “Yes!” I every day meet people – “All the way, Sadhguru, I want to go all the way” (Laughter). Tomorrow morning, they are crying because somebody said something. They want to leave. Day after tomorrow morning, their uncle’s daughter’s birthday they want to go (Laughter). I am not saying there’s anything wrong with your uncle’s daughter (Laughs).

Time 39:00

All I am saying is your interests are many. That means you are not going anywhere. You can dabble with many but there must be one direction to life, otherwise you are not going far, you’re going to wander around here. If you want to go, penetrate through something and go a distance, you need some one-pointedness. People come here, they say, “Sadhguru, you give me any kind of sadhana. I am willing to die, Sadhguru” (Laughs). I say, “Don’t die, hold it (Laughter). I am willing to offer anything, but hold it, we will see, we will go step by step.” Three days later, they come and say “Sadhguru, you know Sadhguru, I have… I have found somebody Sadhguru, I think for lifetimes this person must have been waiting for me. I saw this girl and phoo” (Laughter/Applause). Now… Now there is a spiritual angle to it. “It looks like for lifetimes we have known each other” (Laughter/Applause). If you have known somebody for lifetimes and you didn’t make it, it’s best you keep away from them (Laughter/Applause) because for most people, their direction of life keeps changing every other day. It’s hard to offer anything, it’s all bits and pieces.

Of course, there are also people who think... See knowledge is not something that you own because knowledge is not about you, knowledge is about the creation, about the nature of the creation. What is already there is what you have absorbed. You didn’t invent it, you didn’t come up with it, you only saw it. This is why the language in this country is very clear. When it comes to any kind of spiritual dimension, we are only talking about realization. Realizing means something that was always there, always right here, but you were so stupid you didn’t see it, today you saw it. I realized. I did not attain, I did not arise, I did not climb somewhere, I just realized. But the thing was always here. So, what is here all the time as truth cannot belong to somebody. Nobody can stop you from it but those who have access – if they have truly accessed – they will never block you, they will never hold back. Only those who have accumulated from books and stuff, they will hold back because any accumulated stuff is limited and it will get over. If you give away everything, it will get over tomorrow morning, you won’t know what to do. So, you will hold it and be miserly because you have gathered it.

What is gathered you can hold back, what you have realized you cannot hold back because it’s an endless run. You only constantly wishing there is somebody here, who can soak it up as fast as you can give it. That is the problem. The problem is of lack of receptivity, not of holding back (Laughs) – if you really know. But if you have acquired knowledge you will be miserly because you can only acquire that much, you don’t want it… don’t want it to get over. Knowledge is like money again (Laughs), it can get over (Applause).

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