Who is Shiva: Man, Myth or Divine?
Sadhguru: When we say “Shiva,” there are two fundamental aspects that we are referring to. The word “Shiva” literally means, “that which is not”. Today, modern science is proving to us that everything comes from nothing and goes back to nothing. The basis of existence and the fundamental quality of the cosmos is vast nothingness. The galaxies are just a small happening — a sprinkling. The rest is all vast empty space, which is referred to as Shiva. That is the womb from which everything is born, and that is the oblivion into which everything is sucked back. So, Shiva is described as a non-being, not as a being.
On another level, when we say “Shiva,” we are referring to the Adiyogi or the first Yogi, and also the Adi Guru, the first Guru, who is the basis of what we know as the Yogic science today. This first transmission of Yogic sciences happened on the banks of Kanti Sarovar in the Himalayas, where Adiyogi began a systematic exposition of this inner technology to his first seven disciples, the Saptarishis. This predates all religion. Before people devised divisive ways of fracturing humanity to a point where it seems almost impossible to fix, the most powerful tools necessary to raise human consciousness were realised and propagated.
Because India is a dialectical culture, we shift from this to that and that to this effortlessly. One moment we talk about Shiva as the ultimate, and the next moment we talk about Shiva as the man who gave us this whole process of Yoga.
When there is conflict and discord in the immediate family — with one’s parents or siblings for example — irrespective of what the reasons may be, how does one arrive at some harmony?
Sadhguru: So many times, every one of us is trapped with people and situations we definitely do not want to be in. Where we are is never entirely our choice. But what we make out of it is entirely our choice. Exercise it. If you exercise it, the outside will also slowly become a choice. Over a period of time, you will see that, naturally, situations will arrange around yourself in a most beautiful way.
My experience of the world is too fantastic. Wherever I go, people are in tears of love and joy. This is because I have taken time to arrange myself in such a way that no matter where I am, I am like this only. Slowly, the world is imitating what I am. You also do this. Do not worry whether the world arranges itself in a certain way or not — it will invariably happen over a period of time. The first thing is you arrange yourself in such a way that you are a beautiful human being. People are bitter because their experience of life is bitter and unfulfilled, and this bitterness comes out in the form of conflict. Set an example for them that there is a way to live differently. In Yoga, one of the most enduring symbols has always been that of a lotus flower, because a lotus flower grows best wherever the slush is thick – the filthier, the better. Such filth transforms into such ethereal beauty and fragrance.
How do we prepare our children to withstand the competition, the pressure, the kind of lifestyle that other children have?
Sadhguru: The pressure is only because you are putting two absolutely unique beings in comparison. Is there one more person exactly like you on this planet? No. There is only one like you. That is so for your child also. Each being is an absolutely unique being. But now you are trying to put them all into the same compartment and compare them with something that they should learn — ABC or 123 or something — and make them feel better or worse about it.
It is you who brought that competition and comparison, because for most parents it is not about education, it is about the “first rank.” All they want is that their children sit on top of every other child’s head. They are not interested in learning; their whole effort is to somehow sit on top of the pile. Everyone wants to sit on top of the pile, but everyone cannot sit on top of the pile. Only a few can. The others will naturally end up at the bottom and if our focus is just to sit on top of the pile, naturally they will get suffocated under the pile.
True human genius will not flower if this kind of education happens. When you are trying to race with somebody, you are only thinking of going one step ahead of him. You will not think of what your ultimate potential is. True human capabilities will find expression only when you are joyful, peaceful and quiet within yourself.
