Reading as a habit and as a culture must be nurtured. The impact of reading is totally different from watching videos or playing computer games – it is not the same thing. It exercises your mind and your insight in a completely different way. The younger generations will hopefully be brought more into reading than watching videos and this and that. Yes, the audio-visual media could be very educative, it is powerful too in its own way but reading has more intricacy and more depth to it. There is more profoundness to reading compared to watching a cinema or something else.
If the larger public was reading more than what they are doing right now, if they just sat down, focused on something and read, they would be much quieter, more thoughtful and would look at life with a little more depth because it is a kind of dharana that you are doing. You are remaining focused on something – that is dharana. It is a kind of sadhana because it definitely enhances the way your mind functions. I think in today’s society with the fascination for electronics overtaking everything else, it is very important that we as a society don’t lose the culture of reading.
Right now the main problem with life is just that people have lost the intricacy of looking at life with more depth. There is no profoundness to life. People look at everything on the surface and I think that is encouraged by the audio-visual media. I am not against it because it is a great media by itself, but I don’t think it is a substitute for reading.
Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic and visionary, and a prominent spiritual leader. An author, poet, and internationally-renowned speaker, Sadhguru’s wit and piercing logic provoke and widen our perception of life. isha.sadhguru.org
Sadhguru, Isha Foundation
