Who or What Is God Really?

A spiritual seeker asks Sadhguru an age-old question with a twist: “What is God?” As a departure from traditional beliefs, Sadhguru’s response might surprise you. Read on to get new insights into this most existential topic of all.

Questioner: What is God, how can we see it, and how can we get it?

No Gender Means One Less Problem

Sadhguru: So, you have already decided that God is “it,” which means neither a man nor a woman. Anyone who firmly believes in the dogmas of their own religion, would be offended when you call God “it.” You would be in real trouble, but you solved lots of problems for me just by taking away the gender.

Why did this God-talk arise in human mind in the first place? There is enough to do on this planet, but still people are constantly talking about God and Heaven. Fundamentally, this question of God has come up because creation around you is so complex and so magnificent that obviously the question arises as to who created all of this. It may be an unvoiced or un-worded question, but it is there from the moment you were born and looked around. You are constantly in touch with creation, and whether you like it or dislike it, whether you can appreciate it or not, whether you enjoy its aesthetics or not, its enormity cannot be ignored. Naturally, there is an unvoiced question in every human being – “Who made all this?”

Why Science Only Deepens the Question

With all the advancement of science and technology, we can do so many things we never believed possible even twenty-five years ago. The advancement of science and technology should have brought human beings more clarity, but the opposite is happening. In fact, all the certainty that people thought they had about life is going away. As science progresses, it is proving that you actually do not know anything.

Naturally, there is an unvoiced question in every human being – 'Who made all this?'

“What could have created all this, including myself?” This is a question that is always there, not only in your mind but in every cell in your body. Whether you consciously express it or not, it will not let you rest for a moment. It is constantly pushing you on and making you seek something that is beyond the present limitations of your understanding and perception. Whether you are trying to conquer countries or just make a little more money or build your house – the longing is to somehow expand the scope of your life.

Where the Search for God Actually Comes From

There is a deeper question behind it, and the life within you is constantly trying to find a solution to it. What you are asking is, “What is the nature of my existence?” Or, to put it in usual spiritual parlance, “Who am I?” People have been asking the same question forever. Does it make sense to you to ask someone else who you are? But that is what everyone is doing in the name of spirituality. If you are looking for the source of who you are out there, no one can help you. We can give you nice stories if you want, but stories will not take you an inch closer to reality. You can entertain yourself. You can speak with great authority about the stories that you have read. It is one of the biggest professions on the planet. People go on repeating something that was written in a book, again and again. Why do we not have the sense to understand that it is not taking us any closer to the truth? It does not take any enlightenment to see this, it just takes a little bit of sense. But that is the problem. The world is full of good people, not sensible people.

The First Step Towards Knowing

If you really want to find an answer, the first and foremost step you need to take is to clearly see, “I do not know.” If the pain of not knowing tears you apart, knowing is not far away. I could tell you a long story about God being a coconut, how he is right up there and full of sweetness, liquid inside and solid outside, and so many things. This may sound ridiculous, but I can make a nice story out of it if you want. Whether you believe me or disbelieve me, it does not get you any closer to reality. If I tell you a fantastic story about what God is, however beautiful the story is, it does not get you an inch closer to reality. So, what is it that you are looking for? Are you looking for entertainment or are you really seeking?

The most fundamental step that you need to take to know your self is to make yourself into a 100% “I do not know.” People have not realized the immensity of “I do not know.” Because of this, they are corrupting “I do not know” with all kinds of stupid belief systems. If you deepen your “I do not know,” knowing is not far away because what you are seeking to know is not sitting up on a coconut tree. The idea of God has entered your mind only as what is the source of creation. When we say creation, we are obviously talking about physical things, like trees, birds, animals, human beings, planets, and stars. So, what is the closest part of creation for you? Obviously yourself.

Where to Find God?

When you were born, you were so small. Now you have become this tall and big. Did you go for weekly stretching to make yourself a little taller and bigger? How did it happen? You might have provided raw material from outside, but the source of creation is functioning from within you. Whatever you refer to as the Creator or God is functioning from within you. If God was sitting on the coconut tree or in heaven, I would not have bothered. But when the source of creation is sitting within you and you miss it, it is a tragedy.

Our whole effort is to somehow see that people do not cause this tragedy to themselves that when the very source of creation is throbbing within themselves, they never even notice it. I cannot live with that. If you want to know it, you will not know it by dissection. The only way is to turn inward because the seat of experience is within you. When the seat of your experience is within you, and you try to do anything outside, it is like trying to have lunch through your ears. You will see how difficult it is. But if you did it the right way, you can do it effortlessly. That is how difficult spirituality is. You are trying to do it somewhere outside, that is why it is so difficult. If you turn inwards, it is simple and natural. It is the way life is.

If the pain of not knowing tears you apart, knowing is not far away.

Yoga & Wisdom

Yoga is not about taking your limbs where you want; it is about taking you where you want.

Stretching your muscles and ligaments or twisting your bones alone will not help. That could be done through surgery or some other manipulation of the body, but that is of no significance because you are not just a physical manifestation. You are a combination of physical, psychological, emotional, and energy processes. All of them are ruled by what we call consciousness. To become an invitation, you must make yourself conducive on all levels. The life that you are has to become willing. Just twisting, turning, doing gymnastics, and stretching your body may have some collateral benefits or sometimes cause collateral damage.

Many sports persons who stretch themselves in such a way look fantastic when they are young and athletic. But by the time they are forty to forty-five, they are ruined. They are going through an endless number of surgeries. Many athletes die early. This is simply because they stretch the body in a way that it is not conducive to the system. Maybe they win a gold medal, but it does not really serve any purpose. I have met so many champions, and the level of insecurity and daily struggles they have is shocking. Sportspeople should be joyful – at least they are playing. But if you look at their personal lives, very few of them are enjoying their success and living well; all others are stressed to the limit.

This is because developing the body or a skill alone does not make life conducive. It is important that all aspects are handled properly. If you want to be a Yogi, then bending the joints is not enough. We do not want to break your calcified skeletal system, but we need to bend those aspects in you that are far more rigid than the bones. If these aspects of you become flexible, then you become an invitation. You do not have to go and sit in a temple for that. Wherever you are, this quality is always there. This is becoming a Yogi.

What Shapes Women’s Appearance and Body Image?

She can wear what she wants; it is not my business. But if she is wearing this only because that is what sells, there is something wrong in society. What she wants to wear is her choice. But when someone else is determining her choice, it is not a choice at all. It is important for young boys and girls to understand that their body is their business. People should be involved with your intelligence, competence, and genius. Everyone on the street need not be involved with your body.

I am not trying to decide what the dress code should be. A man should not decide a woman’s dress code. Right now, it looks like it is man’s perversion that decides a woman’s dress code. This needs to change for women to be free. The focus has shifted from man’s muscles to his cerebral activity. Similarly, the focus has to move from a woman’s body to her cerebral activity. The way women present themselves now is not how women actually are – it is how a man expects women to be. Women think that this is what is expected out of them.

This is a sure way to destroy the beauty of the feminine in the world. Right now, people understand the masculine as the ideal of success. If you want to succeed, you have to be like a man; you have to show your muscles. This must change. In one way, this is a consequence of the economic engine driving everything in the world. When economy is the only thing that matters, everything is a marketplace. In the marketplace, if you give less and take more, you are considered smart, and if you give more and take less, you are considered stupid.

In the whole society, everyone should try to do their best for everyone else.

The Feminine Quality that Can Transform Society

I have seen women working in so many ways – my own mother, sisters, aunts, and many other women. When they are at home, they give themselves totally, because they are doing something they love to do. They are doing things for people that matter, so what they get is not important to them. That is what makes their lives beautiful. This should not only happen at home. In the whole society, everyone should try to do their best for everyone else. This is the nature of the feminine.

Right now, wherever you go, the idea is to give less and take more. Whether it is marketplace or marriage, the same thing is happening, and no one is happy. No one can relax their guard. Everyone is guarded against each other all the time because every place is a marketplace. Everywhere you go, you are seeing how you can profit. That is not how human beings can live well.

The Most Beautiful Thing, According to Sadhguru

I live among volunteers who are always trying to give their best in any given situation. People ask me, “Sadhguru, of all the things in your life, what is most important to you?” I say, “The sort of people I have gathered around me, who are willing to give their lives without any expectation, this is what is most beautiful about my life,” because that is what is most important in the world.

When every place is a marketplace, it means we are always trying to take advantage of someone. When your mind becomes a marketplace, there will be no consciousness, no finer aspects of life, and no room for the feminine in the world. The masculine will rule. It is all about conquest and exploitation. It is not about love, inclusiveness, or involvement with life. Where there is no unbridled involvement with life, there is no life at all. You can know life only with involvement. There is simply no other way.