Sadhguru talks about the difference between understanding and experiencing something, and the need for a longing in order to transcend the present dimension of one's existence.

Full Transcript:

Sadhguru: Who wants to understand? (Few Laugh) What do you want to understand?

Questioner: What I am along with my body, I want to experience it.

Sadhguru: Oh now you are changing the track, you are like which party are you? No you are changing your position too often that’s why I am asking. See initially you said you want to understand; now you say you want to experience.

Questioner: I want to understand to experience it. (Laughter)

Sadhguru: You want to understand to experience it. If you experience it you will have no need to understand it, isn’t it? If you eat something, you experience that, do you understand that?

Questioner: No.

Sadhguru: You don’t care, you experienced it, only if you want to manufacture this… you eat a rasagulla, you experience it, it’s nice. Now you want to start a rasagulla factory, now you want to understand everything about rasagulla. If you want to just enjoy the rasagulla you don’t have to understand anything, you just have to have a sensitive tongue, yes? If you take rasagulla and keep it in your hand, ‘I want to understand this, I want to understand this…’ (Few Laugh) hand cannot taste rasagulla. (Few Laugh) If you put it upon your tongue only you experience rasagulla. So, these are two different aspects, experience will transform your life, understanding comes in only if you want to transform others’ lives. So understanding later, right now you want to experience, there are methods and methods and methods to do this. How? You are asking, let’s not go into how, how badly do you want it, that’s the question because what you are asking is; I want to transcend the dimension… the present dimension of my existence. No transcendence will happen unless… nobody will cross any dimensional limitations unless you’re truly, truly, longing for it. Yes? You won't even pass a tenth standard examination if there is a reasonable amount of longing, isn’t it? Yes or no? You won't transcend from school to college if you do not have a certain level of longing. From college to your masters you will not transcend unless you have a little bigger longing, from masters to a PhD you will not transcend unless you have a much bigger longing, isn’t it?

So to transcend from one dimension to another you need a certain level of longing. So I am asking you how badly do you want it. See this is the problem with me, I am not simply saying, ‘Don’t worry, you just say Ram, Ram twenty five times a day (Laughter) it will happen,’ this is the problem with me because I am not here to solace you and let you sleep tonight, I am here to awaken you in such a way that you can't sleep. (Laughter) You can't go to sleep till you… ‘till I know this I can't sleep’ - if you become like that you will know today. If you can ask this question and go home, eat well and sleep, we don’t know when it will happen. Not because it’s far away, not because it’s difficult because there is not enough longing, not enough fire in the belly, so you don’t move. This is so with everything in life.