Question: Is belief in God a pre-condition for leading a meaningful and joyous life? In other words, can you lead such a life minus God?
Sadhguru: Can you live better minus God? I don’t think there is such a possibility. What is it that you call as God? Whatever the source of creation is, that is what God is. Can you live without the source of creation? Because there is a source of creation, there is a creation. Can you live well minus the source of creation? There is no such possibility. Can you live without the awareness of the source of creation? Yes, but not too well. But if you are aware, conscious and in direct contact with the source of creation, you would live absolutely well.
Well into the 22nd century, a group of scientists decided to go and meet God. They went there and said, “Hey old man, you have done pretty well with the creation. Thanks for that, but now we can do everything that you can do. We think it is time for you to retire.” God said, “Is that so? What all can you do?” “Well, we can create life.” God said, “Let me see.” So they picked up a little bit of soil and made a little baby out of it; it became alive. God said, “Ok, that’s impressive. But first get some soil of your own.”
Whatever you do, it is only from the source that is already there. Minus that, how would you do anything? There is no minus that. You can either be in access or not in access to God. If you live without access, you may have some capability, but also great struggle. That is what is happening right now with so many people. If you are in access, you will live in absolute ecstasy and capability.
Question: What can I do if people expect more than I can give joyously?
Sadhguru: People around you always have expectations. No matter how much you give or do, you will never fulfill anybody’s expectation in this world. Has anybody fulfilled all your expectations? No, and neither will you fulfill anybody else’s expectations. So do not go about trying to fulfill them because their expectations are their limitations and do not ever fulfill people’s limitations. If you support somebody’s limitation, you are digging their grave with very good intentions. Most of the time, please see, you are doing this to people whom you love. You work against your loved ones by always supporting their limitations because you do not have the courage to become unpopular with them, and that is very sad. If you only want to become popular, you are a vested interest. If you truly love somebody, for their wellbeing, you must be willing to become unpopular with them.
Question: I think my anger comes because of my childhood abuse. How do I move on?
Sadhguru: For many people nowadays, whatever has happened in the past has become an excuse for what they are right now: “I am like this because somebody abused me.” I am not saying this without any concern or lack of compassion for such things, but this problem has taken on major proportions. If they do something nasty and somebody asks them, “Why did you do such a thing?” people say, “When I was a child, you know what my father did to me?”
I am not trying to belittle somebody's unpleasant experiences. I know there is pain behind it, but do we want to continue to harvest pain or do we want to convert this pain into wisdom and harvest wisdom out of our experience of life? That is a choice every human being has. Especially if you have been abused, if you have been put through unpleasant situations in your life, you should be sensible enough not to put anybody else in those situations. Isn’t that an intelligent way to be? But many people just use the unpleasant experiences in their past as something to hide behind.
If something unpleasant happens to us, what should be our first thought? “This should never again happen to me or to anyone.” This is very human. But now, because something unpleasant happened to you, if you do that to everybody and say, “I am doing this because they did it to me” – this definitely needs to be looked at. Especially if you have been abused and you know the pain of being abused, you should ensure it never happens to anybody.
(Sadhguru is a Yogi, mystic, visionary and a New York Times bestselling author. He is also the founder of Conscious Planet – Save Soil)
