Exploring the wisdom of Sadhguru: A spiritual guide for modern living

In a world bustling with the chaos of modern living, individuals seek solace and meaning beyond the mundane. Sadhguru, a renowned yogi, mystic, and spiritual leader, has emerged as a guiding light for many on the journey of self-discovery and inner transformation. Through his teachings, he invites people to explore the profound dimensions of life, encouraging a holistic approach that transcends cultural and religious boundaries.

Sadhguru was conferred the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 2017, the highest annual civilian award, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service. He is also the founder of the world's largest people's movement, Conscious Planet - Save Soil.

In this exclusive interview, Sadhguru shares his profound insights on spirituality and more.

1. There's a misbelief that you can't be spiritual if you are materialistic. How would you debunk this and how can people balance both?

Sadhguru: There is no such thing as the material world and a spiritual world. Life comes as a whole. This distinction of what is material life and spiritual life has come from a certain level of ignorance. When you sit here, can we separate whatever you are referring to as the spirit in you from your body? Your body is the material; it is the earth. So how can you separate the material and the spiritual? There is no spirit without material, and there is no material without spirit.

Whatever material that we handle - our homes, relationships, money - are external arrangements that we make in our lives for our external convenience and comfort. Similarly, whatever inner arrangements we make for our inner well-being are spiritual. Can you live if you have fantastic outside arrangements but internally you are a mess? Or if internally you are blissful but you have no food to eat? Both of them need to be organised. But with how much balance? The priority that you give to each is an individual choice. One has to do it according to individual needs.

As far as I can see, everyone is striving for happiness, everyone is striving to be free. That means every human being is seeking spirituality. A few are striving consciously, most are striving unconsciously. If you find unconscious expression to it, it gets labelled as materialism. If you find conscious expression in it, we call it a spiritual process. Isn't it better to seek consciously with eyes open rather than closed?

2. You initiated the Save Soil campaign earlier this year. What led you to start it?

Sadhguru: If you look at the way life happens on this planet, the microbial life in the soil is the foundation for all other life. The basis of all life is in the first 12-15 inches of soil. But today, around the world, soil degradation is happening at a rapid pace.

Half of the world's topsoil has been lost. In normal agricultural soil, the minimum organic matter should be between 3-6 per cent, but in large parts of the world, it is well below 1 per cent. Right now, United Nations statistics say that we may have agricultural soil only for another 80-100 crops. This means in just 45-60 years, there could be severe food shortages, and getting rich soil will become the basis of wars on this planet. This is why the Conscious Planet - Save Soil movement is aiming to bring about a global policy that there must be a minimum of 3-6 per cent organic matter in agricultural land.

With the Save Soil movement, we have successfully turned the world's attention to soil. We have reached over four billion people. Many UN agencies have joined us and 81 nations are in the process of framing soil policies. For the first time, at UNFCCC COP28 Dubai, soil is playing a crucial role in the Climate Action agenda also.

So, the narrative around soil has shifted conclusively. I am very sure soil policies will be implemented. It is only a question of ensuring a quick pace so that we turn around from the disaster before it is too late.

3. Inner engineering is one of your highly popular courses. What led you to introduce it?

Sadhguru: When I was growing up, I had a cloud of a billion questions, and no one seemed to be able to answer them. So I grew up a super-skeptic. I got into business early and was very successful by small-town standards of the 1970s. Everything I wanted was happening in my life, so I was not looking for anything. I had been practicing Yoga since I was 12 years of age for physical and mental well-being, but I never thought of anything spiritual. Being spiritual was impossible.

Then, one afternoon on September 23rd, 1982, I had a little time to spare between two business meetings. So, I rode up Chamundi Hill in Mysuru. There, I sat on a huge rock, which was my usual place, with my eyes open. After a few minutes, I had an experience that left me forever transformed. Suddenly, I did not know which was me or which was not me. What was me was all over the place. Every cell in my body was bursting with a new, indescribable level of ecstasy. All I knew was that I had hit upon a goldmine within myself that was dripping ecstasy, that I did not want to lose even for a moment.

Since then, my life has been an effort to rub this bliss off on people because every human being can know this. My effort has been to create mechanisms so people can experience this. This is what Inner Engineering is.

4. In what ways can inner engineering help people transform their lives?

Sadhguru: We need to understand that our physical and mental health are both fundamentally our responsibility. The source of our well-being, joy and love is invested in us. This is what Yoga is about - how to live with exuberance and ecstasy every moment of your life. This is the most needed thing in the world right now.

Today the World Health Organization is talking about a mental health pandemic. In the United States, the Surgeon General says one out of two people is lonely. This is not just in the United States. It is starting to happen across the world. Do you think we have enough psychiatrists to handle 8.4 billion people? No.

As there is science and technology to fix the external situations, there is a whole science and technology to fix the inner situations. This is what we are calling "inner engineering." You can change the very fundamental chemistry of who you are.

Inner engineering is offered as a technology, not as a teaching, a philosophy, or a belief system. The highest level of technology on the planet is the human system itself. Even a supercomputer is a small thing compared to the technology involved in the making of the human system. My work is to help people to use this technology to its fullest.

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5. You also speak about science and spirituality. How do you think they complement each other?

Sadhguru: Unfortunately, people think that science means doing things only with the physical existence. You are not existing here as just a physical body. You are much more than that, isn't it? Just putting a heart, liver and kidney together will not make you a human being. There is something else in you. So if you attend only to the heart, liver and kidney and forget about that something else, you cannot refer to yourself as a scientific person - you are oblivious to another level of reality. So, science should not be understood only as the physical sciences.

If you make a method and a proper process for the spiritual process, it is also a science. There is absolutely no conflict between whatever you refer to as modern science and the spiritual sciences. Knowing how to be within yourself and transcend the limitations of who you are is also science. Initially, science was only thinking of providing human beings with more conveniences and comforts. It is only today that science is thinking of breaking barriers and going into new frontiers. So now, science and spirituality are both seeking liberation.

If your life is well taken care of outside, then you have more time and energy to focus on the inward. So in fact, external science and technology are of great service to the spiritual sciences because only when people's physical needs are taken care of, when people feel that they should feel fulfilled, yet, they are not that is the time for spirituality.

6. How can one navigate through the complexities of modern life while maintaining a sense of inner peace and tranquility?

Sadhguru: Right now, the biggest problem with the modern world is that we are too goal-oriented. We want to enhance our activity without enhancing who we are. This is why everyone is talking about being stressed. You are stressed because you have enhanced your activity without enhancing yourself.

It is like this: you want to race on the Formula 1 track, but you have a Maruti 800. It is a wonderful car to go to your office. But if you get it onto the F1 track, the four wheels will fly in four different directions. That is all that is happening to you - you are aspiring for something that you have not upgraded yourself for. Now, the activity that you really want to do is freaking you out.

If you enhance yourself sufficiently, whatever activity that comes your way will be just child's play. This is not just about growing in physical or intellectual strength. It is about enhancing the very life that you have. If you enhance the very life that you have, you can perform whatever activity you have to with ease and joy.

There are ways and methods with which you can enhance this life. This is what inner engineering is about. You can enhance this life in such a way that whatever you have to do, you can do it like play. It is my wish and my blessing that everyone should know the joy of playing through their life rather than stressing through it.