Sadhguru: One of the things my great-grandmother used to do was to take platefuls of her breakfast and go about keeping a little bit for all the creatures around – the ants, the sparrows, the squirrels, the rats… Before she even ate, at least three-fourths of her breakfast would go all over the place. When she put food for the many creatures, she would be talking to them – sometimes verbally and sometimes not. Naturally everyone dismissed her as crazy but I didn’t think so. Somehow, this fascinated me so much because she was just there with them. It looked quite natural to me – as you communicate with people she was communicating with them. It was very normal for her and as a child it was very normal for me – “Okay, she does that.”

Many times she wouldn’t eat and when someone would ask her why, she would say, “I ate with the ants.”

She fed them and felt full and it was real for her. It was not an emotional response. It was very real for her. It was only much later when I started experiencing things that every little thing she had done suddenly meant so much to me.