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Sadhguru
meets Radha Kapoor and Ashni Biyani
How can corporate
India cope with pressure? Why play golf? What makes India tick? What about
that beard? Spiritual leader Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev sits down for a weighty
and playful conversation with two young CEOs
Radha Kapoor and Ashni Biyani, two of India Inc’s
young CEOs, were thrilled when asked by ET Panache to interview Sadhguru
Jaggi Vasudev, one of India’s intriguing mystics. They arrived for the
meeting, held at Palladium Hotel on a balmy Saturday afternoon, prepared
with a bunch of questions. While stimulating answers were to be expected
from the race car driving guru, what floored everyone was Sadhguru’s sense
of humour. Excerpts from a conversation that ranged from golf to cola to
inner well-being.
Radha:
When I started playing golf, I was told
it’s a man’s game. And a boring game at that. I feel it’s a mind game and
helps me focus. You too play golf. What are its benefits?
Sadhguru: We are
talking about golf ? If you are playing any other game, the ball is coming
at you from different angles and velocity. In golf, you got to hit a
sitting ball. You may even beat a world champion at one or two holes, which
you can’t do in any other game. If you were to play soccer with Lionel
Messi, you wouldn’t even touch the ball. Golf is basically about geometry
and your ability to gauge how things are, the terrain, the distances and
exerting the right amount of swing and force.
Radha: How can young people in positions of power be taken seriously and be
respected by the old guard?
Sadhguru: I don’t
think this is an issue. If somebody exhibits a certain level of confidence
and success, nobody is looking at your age.
Ashni: You inspire us. What inspires you?
Sadhguru: Nothing
inspires me. I am bored with everything but I do it with absolute
intensity. There are other things I could do for which very few people are
ready.
Ashni: Like what?
Sadhguru: That cannot
be explained in words. Like I could do poof (clasps his hands) and take you
into a very different dimension of experience. But not many people are
prepared for that level of perception. Almost 90 per cent of my life is
dumbed down activity.
Ashni: All gurus adorn a beard. Is that a branding thought?
Sadhguru: I thought
you were old enough to know this. A beard doesn’t grow only on gurus, it
grows on all men. The advantage of this look is that for ten years if I
don’t have a mirror, I still look the same. Nature did not intend anything without
purpose. I believe in geometry and design so the design is like this
(pointing to his flowing beard). I use it to the fullest benefit. But you
please don’t try it.
Radha: Today we are dealing with a lot of pressure and are living to please
others rather than being true to ourselves.
Sadhguru: Today, if
you don’t please others, they will make your life miserable. If you have to
live in a society, you have to please a few people. When you are talking
pressure, it’s the how of life. If while running a design school, living as
a business person is becoming a pressure, don’t do it. The pressure is not
because of the job or position but because you do not know how to conduct
your body, mind and emotions.
Ashni: In modern times, business is governed by facts and data. What is the
role of intuition or belief?
Sadhguru: Belief in
what?
Ashni: Belief in the vision of the founder… belief in values?
Sadhguru: The problem
with the founders is that they will anyway impose their vision on you. So
whether you believe or don’t, doesn’t matter. Why should you believe in
values? If you recognise that a certain value will produce results, you do
it that way. If you recognise that a certain other value will not work for
you, drop it. Why should you believe in it? Belief means, something that
you do not know. You want to assume and bring a certainty to something that
you do not know. That means you are concretising your ignorance. There is
no need to believe anything. What I know I know. What I do not know, I do
not know. What’s the problem?
Radha: If you were given a choice to be the brand ambassador of a brand,
which one would you pick and why (besides Isha Foundation)?
Sadhguru: Wow! You
want to offer this to me? Which brand should I choose? I never thought of
that. I don’t think they would choose me as a model for anything. Imagine,
Guru’s choice—Coca Cola! I don’t think it would work.
Ashni: I understand you listen to a lot of
classical music, so do I… do you believe it has healing powers?
Sadhguru: First, let’s
understand what music is. It is a certain arrangement of sounds. If
arranged in a certain way, it becomes noise, if arranged in a different
way, it becomes music. Classical music involves mathematics, a mathematical
structure is being built. Without any words music can bring tears, joy and
set moods. Will people get healthy and well with it? Definitely.
Radha: India has a rich culture and tradition. Today’s youth is westernised
and not patriotic enough. How can we create more awareness in our youth?
Sadhguru: I don’t think it’s about patriotism or nationalistic emotions.
It’s not about being against something imported. Almost all cultures
largely were built with the intention of survival and material well-being.
This culture was designed consciously for the inner well-being. Because
here we understood that by arranging material things around you, only
comfort and convenience will happen, wellbeing will never happen. All the
affluent cultures are displaying this. A large section of people are on the
verge of madness. Every day if they don’t pop a pill they will go off.
Above all when it comes to clothing, in terms of textile, no nation, no
culture ever, anywhere in the world has produced the variety of textiles
that India has produced.
Ashni: What according to you is the biggest strength of India today?
Sadhguru: The most fundamental strength of India is that we are a land of
seekers. Seekers of truth and liberation. Not a land of believers. We are a
Godless nation. For millennia we have been told, your life is your karma,
it is your making. This is the fundamental strength. We have to bring this
back, that we are a land of seekers. We don’t believe in something that is
just told to us. It doesn’t matter. Krishna said it, Ram said it, Buddha
said it, it doesn’t matter. Right now, in a very drastic way, seeking has
come down in the country. Because of which today if the Western nations
open up their visa procedures, 80 per cent of Indians will swim across the
nations and go away. In other words you are holding over 800 million people
within the borders of your nation forcefully. That is a prison, not a
nation. Only a fundamental spiritual thread keeps us loosely tied together
as a nation. It is in the hands of young people like you to strengthen
that. And 20 per cent of your wardrobe must turn Indian.
b y NANDINI RAGHAVENDRA ETP140404
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