Question: What’s your take on the importance of imagination? Could you speak about its role in creating new things?

Where memory ends and imagination begins

Sadhguru: When we say imagination, one distinct problem that I have noticed with a massive percentage of people is that they do not know the distinction between their memory and their imagination. They always mix these things up. This is why when people start talking about their lives – not necessarily with any intent to distort something – they end up mixing up memory and imagination.

For those who want to really create something valuable in the world, there is a particular form of Yoga through which you can work to create a clear distinction between what is memory and what is imagination. If you create a distinction between memory and imagination, you will see that who you are right now becomes very, very alive and significant.

Every moment, the grandeur of creation is happening. But people do not experience it because they have no control over their memory or their imagination. They are suffering what happened ten years ago, and they are suffering what may happen the day after tomorrow. They are not suffering life – they are suffering these two faculties. 

It is this vivid sense of memory and this fantastic sense of imagination that makes human beings stand out among all other creatures on the planet. But this is what human beings are suffering. They are unable to handle their own memory and their own imagination.

Everything that human beings have created has come from their imagination.

The human mind is capable of more

Many philosophies say, “Don’t think about the past or the future – just be in the moment.” You do not have to try to be in the moment. Anyway, you are in the moment – you cannot be anywhere else.

What these philosophies are essentially saying is: do not think about the past, do not think about the future. If that were the case, you would be happy with the brain of an earthworm.

The cerebral capability that human beings have today has come after millions of years of evolution.

People who do not learn how to handle their cerebral capabilities end up suffering them and, unfortunately, weaving philosophies like “Just do one thing at a time; don’t think.” A human being has the capacity to think many things at a time and still do everything properly.

When imagination becomes a living force

Imagination is a powerful tool. Everything that human beings have created has come from their imagination. Without the data of past experiences – without memory, there would be no imagination. But when you want to imagine something, you must be able to distinctly separate your imagination from your past experiences. Only then does imagination become a powerful force.

When your imagination is not constantly influenced by your memory, you can infuse your life energies into it and make it a living manifestation.

A fundamental step for creating with your imagination is to train your ability to see things with absolute clarity. If you pay close attention to what is around you and observe it in great detail, you strengthen this ability. For example, if you look at a flower, see it in absolute detail. The idea is to be able to recreate that flower just as it is in your mind.

If you hold a single thought and keep your life energies focused on it, it will manifest.

The problem is that your imagination is constantly shifting. You are imagining so many things that it becomes diffused. If you hold a single thought and keep your life energies focused on it, it will manifest. 

If you want to create your life the way you want, you have to be able to hold a thought for a certain period of time. If you can do that, your life will become your making. Right now it is an unconscious, accidental making. You can make it a conscious process.

Tantra: the technology of imagination

The entire system of tantra is based on this. In the United States, when people hear the word tantra, they often assume it refers to unbridled sexuality. That is a misunderstanding. Tantra is essentially a technology – a set of methods for using your mind and your energies in a particular way.

By empowering your imagination with your own life energies, you can manifest living realities. You need to make your life energies fluid enough so that you can direct them whichever way you want. Then, if you imagine something very clearly and infuse it with your life energies, it will come alive – wherever you want, with whomever you want. Time and space are no restrictions.

Tantra employs elaborate and sophisticated levels of visualization to the point where it manifests. Making a mental process just like a physical process is what tantra is trying to do. It aims to make imagination so strong that, after some time, it becomes like physical reality.

Nikola Tesla, when he was in the university, once saw a DC[1] motor that was very inefficient. He told his professor, “I can build a better one.” The professor made fun of him. For seven years, he simply kept the idea in his mind and worked on it. In his mind, he built it, ran it, observed where the friction points were, corrected them, and perfected the AC[2] motor.

Then he came to the United States and drew it on a piece of paper, and it worked. The creation was already complete in his head. The physical part was just execution.

Tantra is essentially a technology – a set of methods for using your mind and your energies in a particular way.

The line between what is imagination and what is real is very thin. You can actually create a ghost or a god – both are possible. Through systematic processes, imagination becomes a tool that can break through the limitations of one’s present existence and deliver one to entirely new dimensions of experience and reality.

In the tantric system, a particular goddess is imagined consciously in intricate detail – everything from her clothes to her jewelry to her fingernails. Over a period of time, it is no longer imagination; it becomes a living reality. It becomes a living force in the tantric’s life, which he can use in many fantastic ways.

You can create any form you want, manifest it, and make it walk. For instance, one could create a personal zoo in the mind, a world by itself where animals are not locked up but are all over the place.

The rhinoceros in the garden

When I was just seven or eight years of age, I was very involved with the local zoo in Mysore. All the animals there mattered a lot to me, and I wanted to have a rhinoceros as a pet.

So in my mind, I created a rhinoceros piece by piece, millimeter by millimeter, imagining every bit of it, along with a small garden where this rhinoceros lived. It became a living experience for me.

A cousin of mine came to stay with us and study because he was not studying well at home. My father was supposed to be a great disciplinarian, so the boy was sent to live with us. He was one year younger than me.

When I told him about the rhinoceros, he wanted to come and see it. I walked him through my garden, and after a few visits, he wanted to go there every day. Soon he started crying about it. My mother thought I had driven him crazy. She said, “What have you done to this boy? Where is the rhinoceros?” I said, “No, no – it’s my rhinoceros. This fellow is crying for my rhinoceros.”

It actually became a living experience for him. It was all in my mind.

From that day, many possibilities like that have happened. If your imagination is vivid enough and powered by your life energies, it becomes a living reality.