A ladder to the Divine

A seeker suffers much more than others because he knows the pain of ignorance. Most people in the world do not know the pain of ignorance. If you do not know the pain of ignorance, if you are the kind who is happy if you eat a pizza, you have no real longing within you.

I am not saying you should not enjoy your pizza, it is just that if you think that life is complete by eating a pizza, sleeping and indulging in this or that pleasure, then you still do not know the pain of ignorance.

The pain of ignorance should tear you apart. Only then will the longing to know become intense. If the longing to know becomes intense, it is just one moment. The reason why it seems to be so far away is simply because the necessary longing has not come – it is off and on.

If the longing becomes so intense that, “Till I know I cannot sleep, I cannot eat, I cannot breathe,” if it becomes like that, then in just one moment, you will know. Because what you are seeking is not sitting on the mountain or floating in the clouds. It is within you.

Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you.” If the kingdom of God was somewhere up in heaven and you do not care to go there or you are fine being here, it is okay. But if the kingdom of God is within you and you miss it, that is tragedy, isn't it? It is right here and people are missing it.

I have always described yoga as a ladder to the divine. Let us look at it through an analogy. Suppose you have always lived within a fort with fifty acres of land and a big wall around it. Initially, if the wall is big enough, it all seems to be okay. You feel quite all right. But then suddenly, you look up, and the birds and the wind seem to be going beyond the fifty acres.

There is something within you which gets into the madness. People around you who pretend to be sane – the so-called worldly-wise people – will tell you, “Stop that nonsense. Just do what you have to do here. Do not have such fancy dreams.” But you cannot suppress this. If you suppress it and if it does not find expression, you will suffer. If it seeks expression, you will suffer even more.

So what do we need to do? We need to build a ladder. A ladder cannot happen accidentally. You need a technology of building a ladder. That is what all the yoga is: just to build a ladder where you slowly go up, step-by-step.

Every day, you keep up the practice and you will see, the way you experience life and the quality of your life will gradually change without even your notice. Slowly, step-by-step it will change and deliver you there.

By: Sadhguru