Be the change

Change in a human being is not just a question of changing attitudes or of opening up a little bit to somebody. It is about making an existential change within yourself as to how to experience and perceive life.

Fundamentally, it is the five sense organs that allow perception. The sense organs can only perceive everything in comparison. For example, if I touch a steel rod, it feels cool to me not because of the way it is but because of the way my body temperature is. If I lower my body temperature, it would feel warm to me. So the basis of your perception is always in comparison. What you perceive in comparison is not perception; it is a distortion of reality.

If one raises their perception beyond the limitations of the senses, it becomes such that there is absolutely no conflict within you. Medically it is known today that what we call the body and what we call the sensory body seems to be separate. At least some of you might have experienced this: at a certain moment in your life when you were extremely joyful, if you had just put your hand about eight or nine inches away from your body you would have felt sensations.

So the sensory body becomes bigger when you are very happy. If you are absolutely ecstatic, it could include the whole existence as a part of itself. Anything that you include into the boundaries of your sensation you experience it as yourself; and you have no problem with anything that is you. The whole science of what we call spirituality or yoga is just this.

The word 'yoga' means union; that means in your experience everything has become one. You have become so ecstatic that you have enlarged the sphere of your sensations to include the whole existence. You experience the animate and the inanimate as a part of yourself. For example, suppose for one moment if you experienced all the people around you as a part of yourself after that does anybody have to teach you morals? You would be in perfect harmony with all life around you. It is from this harmony, this inner experience, that we should bring change to the world.

So if you really want to be the change, it's time. We must bring about a culture where every human being on the planet invests a certain amount of time in his true inner well-being. 'Oh, will such a thing happen?' Nothing will happen unless we strive to create it. This is something that we must know.

Ranked amongst the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary, and a New York Times bestselling author Sadhguru has been conferred the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 2017, the highest annual civilian award, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service.

(Isha Foundation)