Mental Illnesses Are Growing Like Never Before: Sadhguru, Founder, Isha Foundation

The 60-year-old bike riding, golf-playing, yogi, mystic and visionary Sadhguru, founded Isha Foundation with human wellbeing at its core. He has over seven million volunteers in more than 250 centers worldwide. 

His tryst with spirituality happened at the age of 25. He has not looked back ever since with followers from all walks of life. Today, Sadhguru is ranked amongst the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru has been conferred the "Padma Vibhushan" by the Government of India in 2017.

In an interview with BW Businessworld, Sadhguru, founder of Isha Foundation shared his views on a range of topics.

You have followers from every stratum of society. What do you think makes your construct of spirituality stand out and be so highly followed?

In the pursuit of inner wellbeing, some people believe something, some people adhere to some philosophy, some people go to the temple, the mosque, or elsewhere. Different people do different things, but it is essentially based on their belief. Isha Foundation is a non-profit, international organization focused towards offering inner well-being in a scientific manner, not with philosophies, ideologies or belief systems, but with tools for transformation. It doesn’t matter what you believe or disbelieve – if you learn to use the tool properly, it works. Today, Isha Foundation has a very large family around the world. The essence of our work has been to take away the cultural trappings from the spiritual process and present it as a science, as a technology. We are hugely accepted in all kinds of forums basically because we don’t subscribe to any particular religion or belief system. 

Mental health diseases are on a rise today, why do you think that is so? What can be done to curb this?

Mental illnesses are growing like never before because we are pulling out all the social and cultural supports that people have without replacing those supports with alternatives. If people become conscious and capable within themselves, everything would be fine even if you pull out all the supports. But without giving them that competence, if you just pull out the supports, people will crack up.

The human body is a very complex chemical factory. Managing it from the outside is very difficult. You could manage it from inside, but you must have access to your insides! Yoga gives you access to the very source of creation throbbing within you. The most phenomenal engineer is within you. It is from this basis that we offer Inner Engineering – engineering your interiority to take charge of life.

Social media was intended to bring people closer, today it has become a tool for anti-socialisation and mindless engagement. What are your thoughts on device, disease, and disconnection in this light?

Today, eighty percent of social life is happening on Facebook for a lot of people, not in their neighborhood. Because it’s very easy to have a social life with faceless people! They are having 2500 friends, but in their life, they can’t make friendships with three people. I am telling you, we are creating a sick humanity. Why do people have such a compulsive urge to post pictures of themselves and whatever thoughts come to their minds on social media? Essentially, this is because their experience of life does not go beyond the boundaries of their thoughts and emotions. Life can be significant only if you enhance your ability to experience beyond your psychological and emotional framework. The extent to which you are able to experience something depends on how conscious you are. If you turn up your intensity, your consciousness will increase as well. You will start perceiving things that you never thought possible until this moment. But the real problem is compulsive behavior and not social media.

There is much talk about mindfulness today in the Indian corporate scenario. Despite belonging to a tradition of mindfulness, why has it failed to permeate our workplace?

You must understand this mind is not a simple instrument. It has a million different levels to it. If you try to watch your mind, if there is any effort from you, that effort is coming from the mind. You are using the mind to watch the mind – that is, you are trying to catch the thief with another thief. But the basis of meditation is to set up the distance between you and the process of the mind. You don’t try to watch the mind. You just sit there. After some time, a distance has arisen. You are not watching what’s happening in the mind. It’s just passing.

Whatever Gautama Buddha spoke about mindfulness, and the way it is happening today is very different. The Western mindfulness is more an analysis of the mind. There is no need to analyse the garbage. We want to go beyond that, isn’t it? So, I would say you should not do any mindfulness, just live mindlessly. People are trying to practice mindfulness because they are desperately trying to be aware. Awareness will not happen to you because you aspire for it. You must generate the necessary energy. If your energy is at a higher plane, awareness is very natural. 

In India, there have always been Gurus. Today the concept has become fashionable. What are your thoughts on this?

Today many people have gone Guru shopping. A Guru is not a person. A Guru is just a device. The whole process of self-realization means someone has transcended his personality and then carefully crafted a personality as it is necessary for the kind of role that he wants to play. When it is a conscious construction, it is just a device. It is not bondage anymore. Any moment, he can just pull it down. A Guru is not here to give intellectual teachings because that which is not in your experience cannot be taught to you intellectually. It can only be taught to you by taking you to a different dimension of experience. To take a person from one dimension of experience to another dimension of experience, you need a device which is of a higher level of intensity and energy. That device is what we call as the Guru.

A lot of cases have been filed against Gurus which has created a negative perception. How does one choose a Guru?

Here and there, there have been a few exploitative forces. Because of that, there are some sections of media trying to paint the whole spiritual process as exploitative - it is not true. There are thousands of gurus who are doing absolutely fabulous work. Unfortunately, corruption has seeped into the sphere of life. That does not mean all has gone bad.

Now about finding a Guru – don’t try to choose your Guru. If you deepen your longing, the guru will find you. Because if you try to choose a guru, you will try to find a guru with whom you are comfortable, who supports your ego. The very nature of the Guru’s work is to befriend you in such a way that he can stomp on your ego and still you can't run away. When you sit with him, everything in you feels threatened, but at the same time you badly want to be there – then he is your Guru. Because if he does not threaten your limitations, then what is the point?