Sadhguru explains about what an aura is and how it exists on the periphery of a person. Since a person's aura is more superficial than the skin it should not be of interest to a spiritual seeker. A person on the spiritual path should be focused on the core of his being and if a seeker works on the core, then the aura will reflect this naturally.

Questioner: Namaskaram Sadhguruji, could you please explain me what is aura?

Sadhguru: What is?

Questioner: Aura, A-U-R-A, aura.

Sadhguru: Aura? Oh! Every substance on the planet has a certain field of energy around it or what you see as substance on the planet is actually energy. It's a scientific fact that the whole existence is energy. One part of the energy has manifested itself into a certain level of reverberation which makes it a physical form. Another part of the energy does not manifest itself into a physical form but it still has a form. So, that form which is not yet physical or refuses to become physical but still maintains a form, that’s an aura… or that’s being called an aura. Auras are of many kinds. One can carry from a pitch black aura to a pure white aura. Between these two, there are a million shades. Essentially the physical, mental, emotional and energy status of who you are right now in a certain way is represented by your aura; or it's visible through the aura. Too many fancy things have been told about it by the… particularly by the new age community today. Lot of it is fiction but there is some substance to it.

I don’t think you should concern yourself about such things. Don’t try to see people’s aura. Aura is the periphery of the person. I would like you to look little more at the core of the being rather than looking at the surface. Surface is for the doctors because they want to fix some physical part that may be going wrong with somebody. Surface should not be the interest of a spiritual seeker. This is more surface than the skin; what you call as aura is even more superficial than the skin because it's even further out. So, it may have certain… if one has the necessary insight…may have certain, give you certain access to the nature of the person but you're only looking at the psychological, emotional and physical structure of the human being. It is best people on the spiritual path ignore the aura, yours and everybody’s… and focus on the core. If you're focused on the core you will have a wonderful aura. If you're focus is on the surface you will have a miserable aura. So don’t keep looking at other people’s aura and your own. It's time you looked at the core of this one and that one. If you look at the core of this one then naturally you will see the core of everything because in core ‘this and that’ doesn’t exist. In core only this exists. On the surface ‘this and that’ exists.

So, you know people said beauty is skin deep. Yes certain type of beauty is skin deep. You wouldn’t like somebody with their skin peeled off. If you saw somebody’s skin peeled off you wouldn’t think they're beautiful even if they're the same people; that way - yes. But aura is not even skin deep, so it's not worth spending time on it. If you become conscious of the core the surface may be just visible to you, but you trying to see and read people’s aura is a stupid thing to do; you'll waste your life trying to do such things. If you're conscious, if your perception is enhanced you may see things. It's good to see things which are there. If you start seeing things which are not there, that’s…you have to…you're graduating from ashram to asylum. If lot of you go in that direction we can transform the ashram into an asylum. Yes. So, it's very important we want to keep this as an ashram. You want to make it into an asylum? Hum? No. We want to keep this as an ashram. So please, if you want to keep this as an ashram you must be focused on the core, not on the surface. Too much surface means we’ll make the place into an asylum. All kinds of nut cases who believe they're spiritual, there are too many like that on the planet, they are the biggest deterrent for other people to seek any spirituality. Because of too many nutcases like this, right thinking people who are little more sensible don’t want to have anything to do with spirituality. So, please don’t make this into an asylum. If you need to go we will promote you but don’t turn the place into an asylum.