Do we even know what existence is? In this two-part video, Sadhguru speaks of becoming free from genetics and external impressions, and of the trap of intellectualizing the existence. Only a mad man would expect existence to fit into his logic.

Full Transcript:

Sadhguru: What being on the path of the Divine means is that you don’t have your own nonsense anymore. Where does your nonsense come from? A bit from your parents, a bit from the society in which you live, rest you cook it up. (Laughs) Yes? Yes or no? Bit from your genetics, a bit from the external impressions; using these two things you cook up the rest.

What comes from external situations is all too much fragmented - bits and pieces. Maybe this information is useful for your survival - it is! What comes from your genes… You know Charles Darwin told you were a monkey. Yes? (Speaks in Tamil – not transcribed) So if you say, ‘My genetics decide who I am,’ the monkey business… the monkey business will not end ever, ’cause even now, your DNA is only 1.23 percent different from that of a chimpanzee. Your evolution is only that much. (Laughs) So, the more you depend on your genetics, the more of a monkey you become. I say a monkey because if you go by your genetics you become cyclical. If you travel like this (Moves his finger to make a circle), one moment if you’re not alert you will go off at a tangent. If you go like this (Stretching his arm straight, denoting a straight path), you may slow down, you may hasten, you don’t go anywhere.

So being on the path of Divine means, first thing to become free from your genetics. It is in this context, we say Shiva is swayambhu - that means he has no parentage. He dropped it. He cleaned his mother and father out of him. No father, no mother, just him, because genetics means repetition. Repetition means cyclical nature, cyclical nature means you’re going in circles, you’re not going anywhere.

So this ‘I’ business and all - you’re reading bits and pieces of Vedanta. Please stop that. Don’t read all this stuff… me and my consciousness and my witness and where is the witness witnessing the witness? …witness… witness… witness… witness… witness… you can go on endlessly. Witness witnesses the witness, and witness witnesses witness witness, witness, witnesses witness witness witness. This is just a mental game. Ignorant people acting like they know, this is what happens. Philosophies will flourish. Philosophies… The more philosophical a society is or the more philosophical a human being is, the more he is clearly declaring to the world that he is a pretender - what he does not know, he acts like he knows. Simple practical people they know they don’t know, and they’re proud that they don’t know. That’s the problem, but at least they know that they do not know.

So do not get into this trap of intellectualizing the Existence. Very confidently you use this word ‘Existence’, but do you know what is Existence? Does anybody know what is Existence? Does anybody know? Nobody knows.