Q: Pranam Sadhguru. My question is really burning. Along with smaller desires, I had the desire for the Ultimate. I am in a dilemma now because those smaller desires are still there. I am wondering, with these smaller desires and also keeping this Ultimate desire in mind, will I be able to make it anywhere? I don’t understand the meaning of transcending. How to transcend these smaller pleasures in life and look at the ultimate in absolute sense so that my path becomes quicker?  

Sadhguru: So, you are burning with small desires. The basic mistake is that we are trying to separate the Ultimate and the immediate. You cannot separate them. There are probably many Sampangi trees in this city. If this little flower blossoms on the street side, though it is so fragrant and beautiful, you will probably choose to ignore it. This little flower that you are capable of ignoring, if it has to blossom, the source of creation must be functioning within it. Do you think it is also functioning within you? How about an ant? If you observe an ant, the efficiency of locomotion on his six legs is so fantastic. It is such a fine mechanism. The source of creation is definitely involved, and is as involved in the ant as it is involved in anything else.
 

Paying Profound Attention

From the smallest thing to the biggest thing, nothing is happening without the hand of the Divine involved in it actively, every moment. Your smallest thought, your biggest thought, your mundane thought, your heavenly thought, all of these have the same energy playing behind them. However profane or superficial your thought may be, if you pay a profound sense of attention to it, it will become a spiritual process. Something as simple as moving your little finger – move your little finger while paying absolute attention to it – it will become your spiritual process.

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If you see one thing as sacred and another thing as filthy, you are lost.
 
 
What is mundane and what is sacred is your making. It is not existentially true. The mundane and the sacred exist not because of the nature of something, but because of the type of attention you pay to it. If you pay the same kind of attention to everything, you will see, everything will become sacred. That is what India is. That is the beauty of India.

Today, when you walk on the street, you may walk past a garden where there are a few stones. If someone comes along tomorrow and puts some vibhuti or kumkum and a flower on one of the stones, the next time you walk past the stone, you naturally bow down to it. It is the attention that you are paying to it that makes it sacred immediately. It always was what it was, but you were missing it. Now, because someone put a symbol on it, you see it.

This is why, all the things that you apply to a deity, you also apply to yourself. You put kumkum on the god, you put kumkum upon yourself; you put vibhuti on the god, you put vibhuti upon yourself, because it is important that every human being is given the same kind of attention. If you stand in front of another human being the same way you stand in front of your god in a temple, you will see the same thing will happen.

If you see one thing as sacred and another thing as filthy, you are lost. There are only two ways to approach life. See everything – yourself, your mother, your father, your God – everything as filthy. You will make it. It is a very hard but quick path. Or you can see everything as sacred. You will make it. This is a pleasant path. Whatever suits you, do that.

Editor's Note: Find out more about the incredible potential every human being carries, in the free ebook, “From Creation to Creator”.