Sadhguru explains that the purpose of yoga is to create a space for that which is “not you”, and also expands on the topic of avadhutas.

Read in Telugu: అవధూతలు ఎటువంటివారు??

Sadhguru: The whole purpose of yoga is to set up various dimensions in you which are not you. What I mean by “not you” is: whatever you are identified with is what “you” are right now. But to set up a space within you beyond your limited identifications is yoga. Initially, it starts as a tiny speck. If you start clearing space for it, if you unload your bullshit, this space starts expanding. A day comes when it occupies everything, and your bullshit just floats around. If you want, you can pluck and use it, otherwise you are untouched by it. When you become like that, we say you have become truly meditative, you are in samadhi, an equanimous state where this or that doesn’t touch you.

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Avadhutas

Without an armory of bullshit, you cannot live in the world. You won't know any game. You will become like an avadhuta. These days, everyone is taking on the name, “I am avadhuta; you are also avadhuta.” That’s different. An avadhuta is someone who is in a certain state where they become like infants – they don’t know anything. You have to feed them, you have to make them sit down, stand up. They are simply so ecstatic that they do not know how to handle any other aspect of their life.

Without an armory of bullshit, you cannot live in the world. You won't know any game. You will become like an avadhuta.

Such a person has dropped his mind completely – he is totally free of bullshit. You have to take care of him like a baby; otherwise he won't be able to exist in the world. These states may not last forever, but can last for certain periods. There are people who remain like avadhutas for years. It is a very blissful and wonderful state, but then you need someone to take care of you, otherwise you cannot live like that.

For me, it would be so simple and easy to push people into those states. It is very blissful and wonderful, but where do you get people to take care of them? With the social situations in the world today, it will not be seen as a positive development. People will think such a person has lost his mind and needs to go to the asylum. He will be very blissful but this doesn’t matter to them.

Such states were celebrated in India – avadhutas were worshipped. There have been some very wonderful avadhutas in South India that we have been in touch with. They were such incredible beings, but without support, they cannot exist.

If you transcend all duality, and there is a clear space within you, dualities just function outside of you.

For small periods of time, it is good for people to go into those states because it is like sweeping the bottommost floor in your karmic structure. It is like the karmic structure has 110 floors, and in this state, you are sweeping the bottom-most floor, which you don’t get to do in other states – it would take enormous awareness for a person to go that deep and clean himself. But in this kind of state, one can scrape the bottom very easily. He is not doing anything, he does not know anything, but he has no karma, no bondage, so everything is cleaned up for him.

Yogis remain in such states for certain periods of time because it is the quickest way to become free. But at the same time, almost always, avadhutas cannot leave their body as avadhutas. That is one thing that is set up in the human consciousness. You cannot leave the body in that state. When you have to leave the body, you have to come to your awareness. And in those few moments of being out of this state, you can once again create karma. We have known such people who lived as avadhutas, almost completely free, but at the last moments, when they came out of this state, again they were back into their karmic structure. Just simple karmas, no big deal, but they didn’t know how to disentangle themselves.

An Armory of Bullshit

So, without an armory of bullshit, you cannot live in the world. This “bullshit” is springing from a misunderstanding between the dualities that are constantly functioning within you. If you transcend all duality, and there is a clear space within you, dualities just function outside of you. If you want, you can play the game, otherwise you are fine the way you are. Then bullshit is not a part of you, but you got a stock. If you want, you can use it, but it's not you anymore.

Editor’s Note: Find more of Sadhguru’s insights as he explores the realm of the enlightened in the ebook “Encounter the Enlightened.”

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