During a Satsang celebrating Sadhguru’s birthday on 3 September 2012, Sadhguru revealed some of his plans for Isha’s future after he leaves his body, outlining the strategic blueprints to protect Dhyanalinga as the main source of energy and ensure the spiritual possibility he offers will be available for many generations to come. Particularly relevant for today’s Isha meditators, he disclosed the nature and duration of his presence after his physical departure.
Questioner: In the Buddhist tradition, it is said that Masters are reincarnated many times to help their disciples. Why is there no such tradition in the Yogic culture? And why have you said you will not return again?
Sadhguru: I can confirm that for sure, I am not coming back because my expiry date is long overdue, to an extent that people who are more perceptive see that I do not even exist. I am not on the account books of humanity – that is what gives me so much freedom. Stretching it one more lifetime is not going to happen. Even this life is only because I got entangled in the project of consecrating Dhyanalinga. Otherwise, I would not be.
In the Buddhist tradition, it is like this: Gautama Buddha was constantly on the move, trying to transform the kings. He knew that if he transformed the kings, transformation of society would happen much more rapidly than if he had tried to work with “ordinary” people. So he spent most of his time with the kings. To the over 40,000 monks he had in his lifetime, he gave processes.
Buddhist monks may be chanting for hours and hours. Another practice Gautama taught many more people is Vipassana, which is just watching bodily sensations and thoughts for extended periods of time. These are laborious processes, but the beauty of these processes is that you can teach them without any preparation.
You can teach such kinds of practices – in Isha it is Isha Kriya – to anyone because they do not induce drastic physiological changes. All other practices that we teach involve drastic physiological changes, including measurable medical parameters. Within just two to three weeks of practice, significant changes will happen in one’s physiology. When such changes are involved, preparatory steps are very important.
For practices that do not entail any such changes, where it is just a matter of awareness, no preparation is needed. You can teach Isha Kriya to anyone; if they keep on doing it, they will slowly evolve. Most of the processes that Gautama taught were like this. Only with a few close disciples, he did different kinds of processes, which, unfortunately, are barely alive today.
Me coming back would be a crude technology. We are establishing a better way of doing things.
What Gautama taught to the masses are spiritual processes that do not involve intricacy, preparation, or sophistication. They are simple methods that everyone can do. After 2500 years, only such processes have lived on, but it is wonderful that after such a long span of time, they still exist.
Because of the nature of these practices, Gautama himself said that most people will have to work for many lifetimes of preparation, experiences, and eight stages of samadhi. Yoga also talks about eight dimensions or stages of samadhi. Gautama said one has to soak in one level of samadhi in one lifetime, and then the next one, and so on, and eventually, you will dissolve. Many lifetimes seem unthinkable for today’s mind. Even spending that many days on a program appears to be impossible. So, because this is how the Buddhist tradition is structured, they come back and evolve slowly.
Probably in the next few years, we will bring forth methods that people can work with without any kind of assistance. They will not need an energy space or any kind of support – they can do it by themselves. As a first step, we have released Isha Kriya. We will come out with many other practices that whole populations can do without any danger of getting lost somewhere, because it is a slow process.
Suppose you travel towards a destination without GPS; if you are walking, the chances of getting lost are minimal because you are moving slowly. You can ask whoever comes by, correct your course if necessary, and keep going. If you are riding a bicycle, it is a little difficult to talk to anyone while riding; you may have to shout. If you are riding a motorcycle, the chances of getting lost are much greater because you cannot talk to anyone. Suppose you are flying, most probably you will get lost if you do not have GPS.
From the time I leave, for eighty years, my presence will be much stronger than it is right now.
This process of coming back is because of very slow, laborious processes, and the wisdom behind that is that no preparation is needed, which means you can transmit the process to the masses, and still it will be a pure method. We will come out with many practices like that. While I am still around, I can do mass transmission intricately, where I adjust a very intricate process to a particular group of people. We will slowly roll out mass processes because that will be a long-term insurance.
So, why am I not coming back? There is a certain span of time that a life can run. Even now, without the support that I take from a few people around me, I would not be able to keep my body intact. I am doing fine for now, but without a little bit of support around me, it would not be possible to maintain the integrity of my body at all because it is well past its expiry date.
Whenever I decide to leave, it may either be on a particular day or any time after a certain point. How to go – whether to crash a car or a helicopter, or jump off a mountain or drown in a river – we may leave it to nature. I am not trying to make fun of things, but I do not want it to be such a serious moment, where everyone thinks “Sadhguru is going to leave today” and creates a big drama. It is better that you read it in the newspaper.
From the time I leave, for eighty years, my presence will be much stronger than it is right now. That means I want to see all of you dead before I withdraw my presence. Eighty years is almost like another lifetime. The presence will be much stronger than the way it is right now because I will not have the burden of carrying a physical body. For physical presence, we will establish various systems.
To protect the place, we will establish teams to manage Dhyanalinga because it is the mulasthana or source of energy for us. Only when Dhyanalinga reverberates, will the spiritual movement be on. Otherwise, it will just become talking spirituality. People will read books and think they know without knowing, which is dangerous. Books should be only inspiration, never a spiritual process.
It is important to keep the energy source intact and protected with the necessary sanctity. That is why I am thinking of Kshetra Sanyasa, that is, people who take Sanyas in such a way that they will not leave the premises. And we also want to create Kshetra Palakas, long-term defenders of the sacred space.
Only when Dhyanalinga reverberates, will the spiritual movement be on.
We also want to establish a financial infrastructure that will ensure that the place maintains itself for a long time to come. In this culture, for every temple they built, they always made sure there were a few thousand acres available for revenue. Unfortunately, in this generation, all of it has been taken away either by the government or by squatters. Most temples have nothing.
So, we will create management structures, financial structures, and defenders of the space, to ensure that it lives for a very long time as an energy space.
We are building the civil structures to last for three to five thousand years. When the civil structures last, it is very important that the human infrastructure, which is key to maintaining them, also has that kind of longevity, or at least to some extent. For a minimum of seven, eight hundred years, all these things must be taken care of. Because I trust the energy so much, I am sure it will throw up many wonderful beings; maybe in this generation, or in the next few generations, it definitely will.
Me coming back would be a crude technology. We are establishing a better way of doing things. It is wrong to think that if Sadhguru is not there, what will happen?
Some people say they want to attend only a class conducted by me. I tell them, “Go to the teachers’ programs. They are better trained than I am for sure.” I say this because no one trained me. Later, many people come back to me and say, “Sadhguru, my teacher is the best teacher.” And some people tell me, “Sadhguru, this teacher, our teacher, is even better than you.” That is all I have been wanting to hear that our teachers, our volunteers, and our people in the ashram are better than me. That means I have done well.
So, do not get into this mode, “Please come back Sadhguru!” That is not necessary. The next generation we produce should be far better than us. All the younger people, will you make this better than what we have done, or will you make it worse than what we have done?
