Sadhguru speaks about the spiritual process as being a journey from untruth to truth. Untruth essentially means being entangled in one's identifications. Going beyond these limitations is a way of realizing truth or one's ultimate nature.​

Full Transcript:

Sadhguru: If… If every day if one’s life, if every hour and moment of our life, if it has to be a forward movement, if it has to be a process of growth and not stagnation, it is important that we are in constant communion with that which is the ultimate truth. In identifying ourselves with limited aspects of who we are, we are identified with many things. If you… I have seen in the families, sometimes different people have different plates to eat. In case you change the plates and give, there will be a big argument. The plates don’t taste nor can you eat them. It neither tastes good nor does it nourish you (Laughs), but the plate – ‘This is my plate; I will not eat in your plate’ - a very important thing.

So anything that you touch, anything that you sit upon, anything that you set your eyes upon, you get identified. What this means is – let's say you don't know how to drive… there are many people who are doing this, particularly I see two wheeler drivers, you will see their brake light is always burning because they got the brake half down and their one leg is down. This man is heading for a big mess. (Laughs) If you want to ride, both your legs should be up and your leg should be off the brake unless it's needed. Have you seen people going around with the brake light on, all the time? Because they got the brakes, because they think it's safe to keep the brakes down. As you get identified with this thing and that thing and that thing you’re throwing your anchor, hoping your ship will go somewhere. It’ll only sink. There’s only one place it can go. Not like this (Laughs), it can go only like this. (Gestures)

So Sathsangatve Nissangathvam means – what these four lines are trying to tell you is just this, that if you’re in communion with truth, your associations will be just associations, not attachments. You will know involvement in life, but you will not know entanglement in your life because… not because it's right or wrong, with brakes on if you try to go somewhere, you will burn yourself up and then you think life is a miserable thing. Yes, if you have brakes fully on and try to drive, it is… driving is a miserable process, no question about that. So if one has to constantly be on the move, if one has to let his life fly, not crawl; if one has to evolve, if evolution is an ongoing process for you, if your idea of evolution is only to the extent that Charles Darwin endorsed it - that is your spine got little shorter - you know, it used to be long and hanging out, now it got little shorter - you can sit little more comfortably. You don’t have to roll it up. If that is all is the idea of evolution, that’s one way to live - little better than a monkey, but much more troublesome than a monkey, much more destructive than a monkey. If that is the idea of evolution, it's fine, but if your intention is to evolve as an ongoing process - every day, every hour, every moment, if you want to evolve, the brake should go off. Only then it’ll roll.

If you are driving a car or whatever, you don’t have to keep the throttle on all the time; if you have it on for some time and then leave it depending upon the kind of terrain you’re doing, it’ll keep rolling. As long as you don’t touch the brakes, it keeps rolling. Life is like that too. Spiritual process is like that too. Sadhana is like that too. You just press it and leave it; it keeps running unless you’re braking all the time. Whatever you see, you’re getting attached to it. Whatever you see, you’re getting identified with it. If you identify yourself with anything that is not you, obviously you’re not moving from untruth to truth, you’re moving from truth to untruth, from reality to hallucinatory process. In this, one will not evolve, one will just entangle because in this you will not know the nature of your existence. In this you will not touch anything that is real. The psychological drama will rise in such a big way it will raise so much dust in your head that you can't see what is in front of you. If a dust storm comes up here, if… now they’ve… you know they’ve grown grass and this is not possible; suppose a dust storm came, you’re sitting here, Dhyanalinga is here, but you cannot see because there is a screen. This is what is happening because you’re constantly raising the muck because you’re identifying yourself with things that you’re not. The moment you’re identified with something that you’re not, you’re moving not from untruth to truth, but from truth to untruth.

So, what is the nature of my relationship is not the problem. The problem is that you’re identifying yourself with that. You’re using substances other than yourself to create a sense of self. There is nothing in the Existence which will substitute the self, because the only way, the only and only way you can experience anything for that matter is through the self, there is no other way. Your very existence is self-ish – you must separate the word. (Laughs) Your very existence is selfish because everything that happens, happens only through the self. There is no other way. So if you keep this just as it is, it is capable of reflecting the whole cosmos for you. If you muck it up, it doesn’t even show you what's right in front of you.

So if you are in a state of nirmoha or non-identification with anything other than what is this (Gestures), you will come naturally to an unwavering way of being. Once you’re unwavering in your purpose, liberation cannot be denied to you. There is no way it can be denied to you. The reason why this life does not get to its natural destination is every minute you’re changing course. Every minute the focus of your life keeps shifting, every minute whatever you set your eyes upon it gets identified with it. So after some time it just does not know where to go. It just will not know where to go. It will be one confusing mess. Suddenly life looks unnecessarily complicated. The complication is only in your psychological process; life is pretty simple. Birth is not in your hands; you’re just born and you have to just die one day, really. Is anybody else making anything else compulsory for you? Is anything else compulsory? Birth is compulsory, death is compulsory – in between whatever the hell you want, simple, isn't it? ‘No, no, no, but, but, but, but, but…’ But that’s all yours. Only two things nature has set for you, you’re born, you have to die. Aren’t you glad you have come with an expiry date? Hmm? Aren’t you glad? Hmm? I’m glad. (Laughter) If there was no expiry date, could we make you meditate for a moment?

Suppose you were immortal. (Laughs) Oh my God! Could I tell you anything? (Laughter) Only because there’s an expiry date and the time ticks… ticking (Snapping fingers), whether you live or you don’t live, whether you do something or you don’t something… don’t do something it just keeps going because it doesn’t wait for you. If you could halt it, you wouldn’t meditate - please see this. You wouldn’t do anything, because you cannot halt it, just going. By the moment it's getting closer; you think you’re going to get married? I’m telling, that may happen on the way. You’re going to die, that’s for sure. Yes? (Laughs) So there’s only one compulsion that you have to die; before that whatever you do is yours. If you just understand this much – when you were born there was no compulsions, you could be whichever way; only compulsion is stomach. Once stomach is full, there’s only other compulsion that you have to die one day. Rest is easy, you know. You can complicate it if you want, but it's actually very easy. You can do whatever you want.

Such a simple process your mind complicates it like crazy, insanely crazy. It makes it so complicated – waking up in the morning is such a complex process (Laughs), going through the day is an unbelievably complex process. Everything, just everything has become so complex. If you had to run… conduct (Audio disturbance), see? If you have to conduct the audio system, I’m sorry. (Laughter) If you had to conduct your breath, if you had to conduct the rhythm of your heart, if you had to conduct the circulation of blood, if you had to conduct the cellular process, if you had to conduct the chemistry of your system – oh, can you imagine, just conduct your breath for ten minutes, let me see. It goes all over the place. If only if you had to conduct the life process, I don't know what would have happened to you. You don’t have to conduct it, it's all free. Breath is happening, everything is happening. Yes? Whether you are aware or unaware it's happening. Whether you care about it or you don’t care about it, it's happening. See, this is on, life just happens, you just have to die and that also happens. You don’t have to do it. Just allowing everything to happen to you gracefully - that is all. Allowing life to happen gracefully and when death comes, allowing death to happen gracefully, that's all.