Sadhguru unearths the key to a fulfilling life in this thought-provoking piece. Learn the art of joyful living and working, and how to navigate the challenges of feeling underappreciated. A transformative read that redefines the meaning of success.
Questioner: Most of us today seem to be very busy people. What kind of advice would you give us to manage our time better and lead a more meaningful life?
Sadhguru: From my observations, meeting people of all kinds of backgrounds around the world, most of them are more preoccupied than busy. This is because their own thoughts and emotions are issues that take up a lot of their time. Even when they are working, there is a lot of struggle within them. If you are involved in any kind of sport or creativity, you will know that a little struggle can cause the ball, your raga, or your painting to take a different direction.
What could be done simply is done with a lot of difficulty. This is mainly because human beings have been given a mind, which is like a phenomenal computer, but they are trying to operate it without reading the user’s manual. That is why individuals struggle with their own thoughts and emotions for a lifetime, until their last day. If they learn to sort out these aspects early in life, I am sure they will be able to work fewer hours and be more productive.
My effort is to bring the possibility of living life with ease to people, not with struggle. Generally, people are taught to work hard, not to work joyfully. No one has told them that their work should be an expression of their joy or love. If you work hard, life will be tedious. Something is hard only because you do not know how to do it. If you knew how to do it well, you would do it with ease.
If you try to do something without learning how to do it, without investing enough time in perception, focusing only on expression, then life becomes a big struggle. People may believe they are doing many things, but in reality, most of them are only eating, sleeping, reproducing, and dying one day. And about that, they are making such a big fuss.
Every other creature, from an earthworm or insect to anything else, earns their own living. They eat, sleep, reproduce, and die. They are able to do all this with just a millionth of the human brain. But with the big brain that they have, human beings struggle – not with the things they do, but with their own intelligence. The greatest benefaction of life, which is their intelligence, has become a problem because they do not know how to use it. It constantly works against them.
People may refer to this as stress, tension, misery, depression, anxiety, or madness. Essentially, it is their intelligence working against them. This is the fundamental focus of my work – to ensure that the body and mind work for them. If this happens, living blissfully, gracefully, and effectively becomes a natural consequence.
Questioner: If someone feels their efforts aren’t being recognized, how can they motivate themselves to keep improving and not give a damn about what other people think? What advice would you give to people who think their work isn’t adequately acknowledged?
Sadhguru: “I do not give a damn” is not going to work. At the same time, many people may feel that their efforts are not yielding the desired results. In your assessment, you may be doing great, but the world has to recognize it too. Others must recognize the value of what you do – only then will it find recognition. If you feel what you do is valuable, then do not bother about other people’s recognition.
Not because what you are doing is great, but because it is useful to them, they will say, “Oh, this is wonderful.” So, “I do not give a damn” definitely does not work. Whether others recognize you or not depends on how useful what you are doing is to them at a given time. It depends on the specific job you have taken up.
Today, wherever I go, people are saying things like, “Oh, he is a Yogi, a mystic,” but they do not know what a Yogi or a mystic is. I have been saying the same things for decades, but no one thought anything of it. Now, all around the world, people are clapping their hands. All the recognition means nothing to me.
If someday, everyone comes to understand the true essence of being a Yogi and feels inspired to become one, that would be wonderful. And of course, there already are people who are inspired by it. But even people who are close to me, including my family, would not think much of me being a Yogi if I were sitting under a tree without any recognition in the world.
Today, because of the international recognition, everyone is saying, “He is a great Yogi,” without knowing what a Yogi truly is. It is just that many people see that it is useful to them. People do not recognize the quality of who I am – they recognize my usefulness to them. Only a handful of people recognize the quality of what I am. Others do not even know what it is, and that is okay.
If your work is an expression of your joyfulness, whether there is recognition or not, what does it matter? You find an opportunity to express your joy. When you look at your life, what is the quality of the moments when you are in pursuit of your happiness, and what is the quality of the moments when you are expressing your joy? You will see that the best moments in your life are when you are expressing your joy. When your work is an expression of your joy, these will be the best moments of your life.
