Questioner: Sadhguru, many people keep a photo of you in their homes and offices. What is the significance?
Sadhguru: When consciousness evolves and crosses certain barriers, the body that bears that consciousness also evolves dramatically. When I went through a certain experience, my body also went through an enormous change in a very short period of time, which is not normally possible. If you keep your logical mind active and look at me, you will see me as a very fierce person. The more active your logical mind becomes, the fiercer I look. But when you keep your logical mind aside and look at me, you will experience me as an extremely gentle and compassionate person.
Patanjali and Vanashree at Dhyanalinga – Two Examples of Deities
A body is a form, and every form emanates a certain vibration. Apart from the consciousness that the body carries within, the body itself becomes a certain form. Based on this, there is a whole science of making deities. For example, Patanjali is a deity. Vanashree is a deity. Dhyanalinga is not a deity. We have been talking so much about Dhyanalinga, but we have said very little about these two wonderful beings. They are not as multi-dimensional, as exuberant, or as permanent as Dhyanalinga, but they have their own qualities.
We have kept them like symbols, but they are alive in their own way. As far as the shape and form go, they are not perfect, but they are reasonably alive deities. They have an impact and influence on people’s lives. They are quite powerful right now; but had they been created in a certain way, they could have become far more powerful.
Participants during a Samyama program with Sadhguru
The Incredible Potential of the Human Body
Similarly, the physical body can be made like a deity because how the chakras in the body are arranged is what you are. All your capabilities, limitations, and struggles are just a certain arrangement of these 114 chakras in different proportions, dimensions, and intensity. This arrangement defines the kind of person you are. Any sadhana that has been taught to you is oriented towards creating a certain alignment of these 114 chakras. Generally, we are talking about the seven chakras, but these seven are not everything. The other chakras also find expression on a daily basis, in every aspect of your life.
Forms can impress themselves upon your consciousness in many ways. Not just in your mental imagery – they can impress themselves upon your very energies.
So, apart from what my being is, this body is very different from others in many ways. It takes a deeper level of understanding of the kriyas and energy for one to understand how this body is different. The form itself has a certain impact. One aspect is that there is a visual benefit. Looking at something always has a certain impact because it reminds you of many things.
Forms can impress themselves upon your consciousness in many ways. Not just in your mental imagery – they can impress themselves upon your very energies. When people who sit with me in Samyama programs open their eyes after hours of meditation and look at me, my form easily gets imprinted into their systems. When that has happened, a photo would make a huge difference for such a person.
But even otherwise, the picture works like a small deity. It is not just your belief. If, instead of a picture, we make a different kind of form and give it to you, it will be even more effective. But a picture is also pretty good, and it definitely has a lot of visual and psychological impact.
Also, the photos we give are of such a quality that you cannot get attached to them in the usual sense. They create a sense of dispassion in a person. They raise your intensity in a way, and at the same time, they do not allow you to get stuck. That is why we generally do not give casual photos so that people do not take me home as a person but as a form which is sacred in many ways.
