Sadhguru looks at the root cause of stress, and how harnessing the external situation depends on how well we can harness our own intelligence and body.

Full Transcript:

What you have to do in the world is different. How you do it, is different. When you talk about pressure you are not talking about what to do and what not to do. You're talking about ‘how’ of life. If running a design school is becoming a big pressure, living as a, whatever, a businessperson is becoming a pressure, don’t do it, just walk the beach – but there also pressure, isn’t it? So the pressure is not because of the job or the position that you have taken. Pressure and stress is happening because you do not know how to conduct your body, how to conduct your mind and how to conduct your emotions. This human mechanism, this is the most sophisticated gadget on the planet. Have you read the user’s manual?

Interviewer: No.

Sadhguru: That’s the whole problem (Laughter). If you deal with that, outside situations are a play. To what extent can you play? Maybe you cannot play like me but you will play to the best of your capability, and that’s fine. You don’t have to play like somebody else, but you must play it to the best of your capability. If that doesn’t get explored… When you’re pressured, it will not get explored. When you’re pressured, when you’re stressed, you will not live to your full capability. Even the silly things cannot be done when you’re under pressure. If you’re in a certain level of calmness and sweetness within you, your body and your intelligence will work at its best. So this is about playing this life out, this is not about proving something to somebody. It is just that if you want to succeed… It’s only success that ultimately everybody around you will respect, okay? If you want to succeed, you must learn to harness your physical body and your mind to the fullest possible way. So only two things, and of course harnessing the external situations but that harnessing the external situations essentially depend upon how well you can harness your own intelligence and your body. Now, when you’re… when you’re creating pressure, on one level what it means is you… your intelligence has turned against you. It’s not working for you, it is working against you. Nobody has to cause misery to you, you’re on self-help (Laughs).

Interviewer: So you are saying that happiness can only come when you achieve success?

Sadhguru: No. No, no, no, no, I didn’t say anything like that. I am saying only if you’re happy your body and mind will function at their best. If they function at their best, depending upon your individual competence and the situations around us, how they play out. Your success is not just about your competence, there’s also a situation. How all these things come together – that will lead to a certain level of success. So I’m saying the way you are is the first step. What you do is the next step. But everybody is trying to fix it the other way around and it’ll never work.