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“When a person doesn’t seek anything but still he can act totally, with utmost intensity, then there is a way. If you seek, then something else happens; you get entangled with this, then nothing happens. So the whole process of spiritual dimension or the path is just because people don’t get this distinction. They have a mind which doesn’t allow them to be intense and involved with anything where there is nothing to get. That is the reason why it seems to be a great sadhana or struggle; otherwise, it is nothing. If you see this aspect, if you just eliminate this one calculation – “What can I get?” and simply you know how to throw yourself into everything that is around you, then 90% of the sadhana is over in one stroke. Simply, it’s over.”
- Sadhguru
Isha Foundation is a 100% voluntary organization. Every single action and activity of the Foundation and its worldwide Centers is done on a volunteer basis. Isha offers an opportunity for the volunteers to be involved as part of Sadhna. Volunteers will meet on 27th April, Sunday at 5pm at If you can not attend but wish to volunteer pl contact Kapil 98102 80333. For directions to the venue, pl contact Thambi 98185 36226. Pranam. |
Inclusive
Expansion
THE WEEK, p 40. April 20, 2008.
GUEST COLUMN
By Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev
A whirlwind of economic activity is happening in the world, especially in India, today. Our economy is growing like never before. Everything is bursting at the seams; just holding it in place has been a huge circus for everybody involved. This could either bring a lot of well-being, or lead to a total destruction.
Of four major forces in the world-politics, military, religion and economics-that decide the quality of people’s lives to a large extent, the economic force seems to be the one capable of bringing about some unification and sensible action. The other forces are merely dictated by belief. People of two different religions or politicians of two different ideologies can never come to an agreement. Only a businessman will be willing to make a deal-even with the devil if it is a good deal.
Today’s corporations have grown to such size that they are as big as governments. Their goal is no longer just profit, but expansion. That is why today’s corporate leader is required to travel extensively, handle a variety of issues and complexities and, above all, deal with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures. Therefore, a truly successful corporate leader should be versatile and able to multitask in complex situations. If any human being has to handle very complex issues on a daily basis, it is very important that he is spiritually equipped.
What we refer to as spirituality is the technology for inner well-being. Unfortunately, in the course of transferring spiritual processes through generations, cultural and religious influences become part of it. A spiritual process that is free of cultural and religious trappings is most needed today. It need not be taught as a philosophy or a belief system. It can be imparted as simple methods that would naturally lead to a more inclusive way of experiencing life.
It is important for the corporations to cultivate a favourable atmosphere for this. Meditation spaces in corporate centres will bring a great sense of harmony and well-being in individuals and the organisation. This will pay off in a big way.
The people who make decisions for everybody should be in a good condition because their decisions affect many. I want to shift the business community from operating for limited ambitions to a larger vision. I want to see them more joyful because joyful people are more generous, more sensible, more flexible and always more life-oriented. It is very important that they are more peaceful and joyful from within, and not because of the quarterly balance sheet.
If that does not happen, the economic forces can be deadly dangerous. Right now, we have made economics the most important aspect of our lives. When the economic engine drives everything, then naturally we become very gross, because it is all about pulling and pushing and somehow being on top. There is no room for any subtleness, gentleness or concern when competition rules.
In the past, over-ambitious and ruthless people led the economy. But now there are many truly sensitive and wonderful human beings on top. But even they are thinking in terms of “goodness” or, in other words, they want to make a lot of money and do a little bit of charity. Charity is neither sustainable, nor a solution.
The economic engine runs only if people keep buying and buying. So we try to include more and more people into our list of clients or customers. The idea is to include the whole six-and-a-half billion people on the planet. Right now, only about 40 per cent of the world’s population is involved in economic activities in a meaningful way. If you exclude the other 60 per cent of the population, neither your market base nor your human resources expand. Expansion is inclusion. You can expand either by conquering or by including. Conquering is a violent way of doing things. So we need to have a model where all businesses can work with more inclusion. That is why we are talking about inclusive economics. It is a gentler way of doing business.
When I was invited to the World Economic Forum for the first time, a particularly belligerent CEO came up to me and asked, “What are you doing here?” I knew that he would not understand anything except his own jargon. I said, “Today, 50 per cent of the world’s population is still hungry. When a man is hungry, talking to him about meditation, enlightenment, and spirituality is obscene. It is vulgar. So all I am doing here is expanding my market base!”
If we want a more gentle and a compassionate economic process, it is not charity but inclusiveness that is needed. If there is no sense of inclusiveness in individual human beings the systems they create or actions they perform will never lead to inclusiveness. Individuals who do not experience this inclusiveness end up creating very exclusive processes. It is the exclusiveness of the rich that has rendered the world unjust and inhuman. Spirituality is about living here in an all-inclusive way, experiencing everything as a part of yourself. One basic aspect of spiritual process is that it makes one an all-inclusive human being. At the same time, it will hugely equip the individual to be more efficient, more capable, more balanced and more productive. This is good for business. This is good for the world.
The author is founder of the Coimbatore-based Isha Foundation.
Sadhguru says, “”I can do what I like”… is freedom and “I can only do what I like” is not freedom but bondage”
Bondage with Coffee:
If you are addicted to coffee and one fine day when you are about to sip your coffee someone takes it away from you and you scream, “Don’t I have the freedom to drink my cup of coffee?” Is this freedom or bondage? See for yourself…
Waking Up:
Let us say, you wake up regularly at 8 am and one day someone asks you to wake up at 7.30 am you would say, “No, I wake up only at 8 pm”…Is this freedom? Freedom means you can do anything you like. If you need to get up at 7 am you have to get up at 7 am and not say that 8 pm is my only time to get up 
Man’s Freedom:
Once Shankaran Pillai went to the bar with his friends and when the clock struck 8 pm, he put down his half-full glass and started walking towards the door.
All his friends were asking him to at least finish the glass and go, but he kept walking. His friends said, “We know why you are walking out, you are afraid of your wife. What are you? Are you a man or mouse?”
Shankaran Pillai turned back, kept his hands on his hips, stared at them and said, “I am the Man in my house, if I was a Mouse my wife would be afraid of me” )
He walked slowly thinking of what to say to his wife and when he reached home, his wife was waiting for him at the door steps with a roller-pin.
She shouted, “You fool, can’t you come on time before 8 pm, you have started drinking again…”. Shankaran Pillai went slowly and closer to her and took a sudden leap over her and started running inside the house.
He is a small and fragile guy, he had lots of hope that she could not catch her. He started running all over the house and went to the bedroom. He went under the bed and there he lied down with his hands at the back of the head.
His wife is a bit hefty so she can’t get under the bed. She said, “You fool come out of the bed, you coward…”.
Shankaran Pillai replied, “I am the Man of the House and I can lie down wherever I wish” )
This is his freedom and that is the same way how Man is behaving now…
Freedom is not living without rules but freedom is living by following rules 
- Excerpts from Sadhguru’s talks…
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