FEATURE STORY

The Edge of Time: Why Touching Your Being Makes Life a Celebration

Time is a precious but ever-fleeting aspect of our lives. To make the most of it, Sadhguru provides his insight on the nature of time and how to experience true celebration by tasting the ultimate drink that is life.

From Time to Timelessness

Sadhguru: Time is a strange thing. It is the only thing that you have, actually, but you can neither give it nor take it. Whatever you do, you can only lose time. No matter what you are doing with your life – whether you are sleeping, awake, or unconscious – you lose time. You cannot fast forward it, rewind it, or slow it down. It just goes on of its own accord, unconcerned about you.

In the body, you are a creature of time; but as a being, a timeless presence. Life is in the timelessness of our existence. If you do not delve deep enough and find the taste of timelessness, you shall forever be a loser – because the only commodity you have is time, and you keep losing it all the time. Tasteless, senseless, ruthless cycles of time just go on and on like a grinding mill. A little bit of the juice of life is stored in the body, a bit more in the mind, and much more in your emotions. But the fruit of life is in your being. And this magical being is not accessible to a logical fool.

If you do not delve deep enough and find the taste of timelessness, you shall forever be a loser.

“How to live without logic, Sadhguru?” Logic is the foundation of your life. If you do not have a stable, strong foundation, you know what problems one has. But if you live in the foundation of your house, below the ground, it is like you are living in a dungeon. You will never taste the sweetness of fresh breath, the warmth of sunlight, the spring blossoms, and the grandeur of sunrises or sunsets. You will only know dank survival process.

Time is a cycle, going round and round. You have a sense of time because the hands of the clock keep making circles. You have a sense of time because the Earth spins once, and you call it a day. The Moon goes around the Earth, and you call it a month. The Earth goes around the Sun, and you call it a year. These measures of time are fixtures in your mind that are culturally reinforced; but existentially, they are meaningless.

The True Meaning of Celebration

“Sadhguru, are you trying to tell us that we should not celebrate the New Year?” You should celebrate everything. People think they need an excuse to celebrate. I appreciate that, but I do not need an excuse. Celebration happens in you not because of a certain event but because you burst forth in exuberance. When this life becomes exuberant, everything is celebratory.

If you do not know how to be exuberant and celebratory in your existence, all celebrations are desperate efforts to drown or cover up something – either your anxiety or fearfulness about something, your anger and hatred about something, or your aggression toward something. To hide and drown these things, you are trying to act like you are celebrating.

Celebration is not an act. Celebration is the way you are. Celebration is not limited to a particular moment. It is happening all the time. Life is a celebration. Celebration does not mean that we have to do a particular thing. The question is, is your life bursting forth? I appreciate the excitement of people wanting to go to the party, but if you meet them the day after, they are usually not well.

Celebration is not an act. Celebration is the way you are.

If you want to be as exuberant on the next day also, then I would say get drunk 24 hours a day like me, but such a drink is not to be found outside. This can only happen when you are the drink. Life is the ultimate drug or drink. Life is the highest level of intoxication and awareness at the same time. If you do not touch that, then you have to do these measly, constipated celebrations.

Let us say I just poke you with a pin – it goes to the very core of who you are because that is the nature of pain. Unfortunately, most human beings understand pain as profoundness. No – profoundness can happen in joy, in ecstasy, in love, and, above all, in peace. If a very profound sense of peace descends on you, you do not need anything else. But for most people, the most profound peace they ever experience happens only when they rest in peace.

Shankaran Pillai and the Self-Deceptive Nature of Calculations

It once happened. Shankaran Pillai had an ailment; so he went to a doctor. The doctor told him, “You have only a maximum of three years to live.”

Shankaran Pillai went and told his friends, “The doctor has given me only three years to live. What do I do?”

Then they said, “Why don’t you get a second opinion?”

So he went to another doctor. And then he thought, “Why just a second opinion? Why not a third and fourth?” He went to yet another two doctors. Then he came back very exuberant and happy.

His friends asked, “What happened? Did the other doctor tell you something different? Do you have more years?”

“No, no. I went to four different doctors, and all of them gave me three years each. So now I have twelve years!”

Transactions are needed in the world. You can do them to the extent that they are needed for yourself, the community, the nation, or whatever you are working for. But transactions do not determine the nature of your existence and the nature of your time here.

Essentially, if you become a slave of time, you become a slave of the transactional world. You start believing that you are giving and taking many things, that you are acquiring something and losing something. No, the only possession you have is time, and you are losing it all the time. Unless you touch the timeless dimension of your being, there is nothing to gain.

Unveiling Your Being

In this creation, what you think, feel, and transact today has no meaning. Existentially, it does not leave any imprint. The question is, has your being been unveiled, or is it veiled with transactions? If your being has been unveiled, then it has an impact on creation. Otherwise, you can wear what you want, you can look as pretty or handsome as you want, you can say the smartest things in the world – only within your social nonsense does it makes some difference. It is only relevant to that extent. You are a person and a social component, but above all, you are a life, a being. Only after that do we have these social roles to play.

In this creation, what you think, feel, and transact today has no meaning. Existentially, it does not leave any imprint.

So, what is coming for us this year? You must understand that in the making of this body, though the basic ingredient of genetics came from your parentage, the material came from the food that you eat. The building happened because of the life that you are, because of the being that you are. How it got built depends on how you are. If you manage to unveil your being, then your body, your mind, your emotions, and your transactions in the world will largely go where you want them to go.