Questioner: Namaskaram Sadhguru, you mentioned that you or someone else can intervene after death only if the Karmic shell has become really thin. But earlier, you said that anyone who sits with you will not come back for another lifetime. I’m a little anxious now – are you going back on your promise?

Life: narrow or expansive

Sadhguru: Now, you are some kind of disciple! Instead of telling me, “Sadhguru, I will make it as thin as you want or need,” you are asking me, “Sadhguru, will you promise me, and will you not go back on it?”

The problem is, people have taken their individual experience of life far too seriously. They do not understand that this individual experience exists out of the sheer magnanimity of creation – nothing else. The plug can be pulled at any time. A virus or some other event, and you are gone. Today you are fine; tomorrow you may be gone.

This is how fragile your individual existence is. At the same time, it is built in such a way that it can last and persist. How persistent this individual life is simply depends on how identified it is with its individual self, and on the fundamental structures that form this individual life.

If you capture only a little bit of life and get identified with that, you will remain limited to it.

You are essentially a life, then a body, then a little bit of a mind. Out of this combination, you become a person. Because you become a person, you accumulate a lot of things in the world – a home, a family, all kinds of accessories. You even have a Guru. But essentially, you are a piece of life.

When it comes to the body, we can say, “This is my body – that is your body.” When it comes to the structure of our mind, we can say, “This is my mind – that is your mind.” But when it comes to life, there is no such thing as my life and your life. It is one great phenomenon of life happening. You can capture a little and claim it as yours, or you can continuously enhance the volume of life. You can only enhance it if you are not identified with the little that you have gathered.

The little that you have gathered is based on a variety of parameters: the privilege of birth, and then the growth of body, mind, and activities. Whether this life becomes something more depends on many things. If you capture only a little bit of life and get identified with that, you will remain limited to it.

The promise of the seeker

I thought you are a genuine spiritual seeker, so I said, “If you sit with me, this is it for you.” Are you going back on your promise that you are a seeker? If you are a seeker, that means you are always seeking – you are not just identified with what you have.

If that is so and this life keeps expanding, the Karmic structure becomes thinner and thinner. If you really allow it to expand, it will become flimsy. I said, if you make it very thin and flimsy, it will be easy for me. But now you are holding me to my promise: “It does not matter, Sadhguru – I am thick as a wall, but you promised.”

I am not going back on my promise. Let me explain the process to you. After that, you can choose whether you want to be thick or thin. I think this question is coming because you are a little thick in the head – “thick” means strong, you know.

The nature of the nut

The most prevalent nut at Isha Yoga Center is the groundnut; I did not say popular – prevalent. A groundnut is not really a nut; it is a legume. But because it grows in the ground and needs some protection, nature gave it a shell. With that shell, it pretends to be a nut, just like you. It is not really a nut, but it acts like one. Most people go through their entire life acting like a real nut.

Death cracks the nut. The shell splits, and the physical body and the mind come apart. But an inner layer of protection remains – like the papery thin skin on the groundnut, which is called testa. This is very important.

As long as this layer remains intact, even if the outer shell breaks, the nut can still sprout, grow into a plant, and multiply. If you leave the skin on, one nut can sprout and become many, and those many repeat the process and become many more.

Death cracks the nut. The shell splits, and the physical body and the mind come apart. But an inner layer of protection remains.

What I promised you is that when the time comes, I will peel this layer for you. If you are well-soaked and the layer becomes really thin, we can easily remove it. If not, I will have to use my nails to forcefully remove it. That will hurt. The choice is yours.

Once you remove this thin layer, the nut is still there, but it can no longer sprout. Since it is a dicotyledon, it becomes two, and after that, it cannot sprout. The fundamental mechanics of resprouting are taken away simply by peeling this thin layer.

Sitting vs. being

I said “if you sit with me for a moment” – it does not mean you just came, sat here, and left. Maybe “sit” was not the right word – maybe I should have said “be with me” instead. I believed if you are here, you are with me, because that is how I am. When I am here with you, I am here with you. I believed you were also like that, so I said, “if you sit with me.” Then you come and sit there thinking: “Okay, I sat. What happened?” What can I do?

I am not going back on my word. If you really sit with me, if you are really being with me for a moment, it sets off a mechanism for the peel to naturally come off. Whether it will come off effortlessly or painfully depends on you, but it will come off.

Still, the nut will be there. It cannot sprout, but it hangs around. This is the promise I made, and I will stick to it. But I thought we would raise your aspiration beyond merely not sprouting.

Beyond non-sprouting: dissolution itself

If you do it while you are alive, it is most fantastic. But let us say you worked on it; it became loose, but still you could not dissolve. So you died. When you are freshly dead, that is when complete dissolution is a good possibility.

Dissolution will not happen without some cooperation. Whether you will let me dissolve you, or whether you will only let me take away the peel so that you cannot sprout and take your own time to dissolve, is up to you. I promised you that, and I will stick to it.

Do not only think about how you will get liberated. Also think about how you can strive with stronger intention to reduce the labor for your Guru.

Now I am upgrading my promise, not going back on it. It is not just to make sure we prevent further sprouting – dissolution itself can be done if only you are in a mode of cooperation. If you are like a rock and want to dissolve, it will take a million years. But if you become sweet like sugar, or at least like salt, we can dissolve you within minutes.

Do not only think about how you will get liberated. Also think about how you can strive with stronger intention to reduce the labor for your Guru. If that is how you are, then there are ways to hasten your sadhana.