Boundless

Ian Alfredo Magno . 

DURING the celebration of the International Yoga day, when asked by a participant why nothing special has happened to the latter since having joined Isha Foundation’s Inner Engineering Yoga Program, Sadhguru, its Founder, responded in a classic display of wit and clarity.  He emphasized that the idea is not to become special.  Rather, it is to become extraordinary.  Extraordinary – more ordinary than ordinary.  Sadhguru further expounded in utmost simplicity by saying, to wit:

“The sickness in the world is you always want to be better than somebody, which is a great sickness.  If you enjoy somebody else being less than you, I think it’s a sickness.  Right now, the whole thing is about who is number one, who is number two.  What’s wrong with number hundred, I’m asking.  Everybody has a place to fulfill.  Everybody has a role to play in the world.

“So instead of living by comparison, if you see how to make this life into a full-fledged life.  See this is what, by nature, every life is seeking.  Whether it’s an earthworm or a grasshopper or a tree, what are they seeking?  They’re just striving to become full-fledged, what they are, nothing more.

“But it’s easy to define what is a full-fledged earthworm, what is a full-fledged grasshopper, what is a full-fledged apple tree – we can define.  What is a full-fledged human being, we are not able to define.  Because wherever we keep you, you want to do something more, isn’t it?  Yes or no?  Whoever you are right now, you want to be something more.  If that something more happens, what?  Something more.  If that happens what?  Something more.  Let’s say we make you the queen of this planet (referring to a lady in the audience).  Don’t look at me ‘hopefully,’ I will not make such blunder, I’m just asking you (cracking a joke).  Suppose we make you the queen of this planet, would you be fulfilled?  You will look at the stars, isn’t it?  That is the nature of the human being.

“The very nature of who you are is, you want to expand limitlessly.  You want infinite expansion.  But unfortunately, you’re going at it in installments.  Can you approach infinity in installments?  Can you count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and one day say infinite, is it possible?  No, it’s endless counting.  The very nature of who you are is such, suppose I imprison you right now in a five-by-five cubicle in three days, you feel horribly imprisoned.  Then we’ll announce your liberation, and liberate you into a ten-by-ten cubicle.  You will feel wonderful for a day.  Again, you will feel imprisoned.  Now, we’ll liberate you into a hundred-by-hundred cubicle.  You will feel great for three days.  Again, the same thing.  It does not matter where I set the boundary.  The moment you can feel the boundary, you want to break it, yes or no?  So there is something within you which does not like boundaries.

“There is something within you constantly longing to become boundless.  But the only problem (pausing)…  This is a fantastic goal for you – you’re seeking to become boundless or infinite is not a small thing.  But the method you are employing, the vehicle you are using to get there is hopeless.  Because through physical means you are trying to become boundless.  The very nature of physicality or the fundamentals of physicality is a defined boundary.  Only because there is a boundary, physical is possible.  Right now we call this a physical body (referring to his body) because it has a defined boundary.  If I take all the boundaries of this body, can you call this physical?  So the fundamentals of physicality is boundary.  But your innermost longing is to become boundless.  Through physical means, if you approach boundlessness, it’s going to be an endless run.

“So the entire dimension of what is being referred to as spiritual is just this – Spiritual does not mean you see things walking in the corners of dark streets; spiritual does not mean you look up or down, no.  It is just that, your experience of life has transcended the physicality of who you are.  Because physicality, as we looked at it sometime ago, is something that you accumulated over a period of time.  What you accumulate, you can claim it’s yours.  But if you say it’s me, you kind of lost it, isn’t it?  Suppose suddenly I show you this glass (raising a glass of water), and this is my glass.  You will think, ‘Well, Sadhguru has some problem.  But let’s listen some more, people say he’s wise.’  After some time I say, ‘This is me’ (referring to the glass of water).  Then you will say, ‘Let’s go’ – because this is a clear case of madness, isn’t it?

“This is happening to you everyday.  Food that is on your plate, you eat it, and then it’s me.  Once you start thinking what is not you as yourself, your fundamental perspective of life is distorted.  From that distortion, whatever you do, it will only be a struggle because it will not find fulfillment.  At least you must be able to see what is me, what is not me.  This is the fundamentals of inner engineering – If you sit here, body is here, mind is out here, what is you is somewhere else.  Once there’s a little space between you and your body, between you and your mind, this is the end of suffering.  Because you know only two kinds of suffering – physical suffering, mental suffering.  Do you know any other kind of suffering?  This is the only two things which are bothering you.  Both these things are miracles.  Human body is a miracle.  Human mind is a fantastic miracle.  But both these things have become misery-manufacturing machines right now.  Simply because you have a stupid computer, and you have not even bothered to read the user’s manual.  This is the problem with you.  This international yoga day, you must at least start reading the user’s manual, what is the nature of this (referring to his body), let’s start looking at this.”

(Ian Alfredo T. Magno is a lawyer. He is Philhealth legal head. E-mail: ianalfredom@gmail.com)