"Lose yourself to become a winner "

As children, we played a game simply because we enjoyed it. Slowly, sport has evolved into an investment opportunity. Take the Cricket World Cup for example. Sadly, as the players become more and more involved in the championship, they forget the play. In fact, play becomes work. Only when players enjoy playing, they can perform their best.

Playing for India means fulfiling a billion people’s expectations and that is not easy. When players start playing to satisfy other people’s expectations, their minds are stressed and their physical activity also becomes limited.

When a man is truly happy and carefree, he can engage in incredible physical action. This is the main aspect of yoga for sport, that action can be performed without prior thought. With thought, intentions can be visible. So one does not think, one simply acts, as is needed in this moment.

When the players practice intensely, everything that they have to do on the field becomes their second nature. Action can simply flow out of them — as the game demands. This way, they can respond with agility to whatever the other team throws at them. With proper practice of yoga, bringing sufficient control over their mind and body, they can learn to act without prior thinking intelligently.

When playing a game, the cricketer should drop all identity. If the cricketer constantly thinks of himself as per his identity, it would be very burdensome. Once he becomes 100 per cent free of identity, he doesn’t have to play the game. It just happens.

That is how, a cricketing legend is born? For such a player, co-ordination is at its peak. He knows what he wants in his life. He is so committed to what he wants that it becomes a reality. If our cricketers can organise their energies, bodies and minds in such a way that they get more and more focused, everything happens at its best.

Cricket is just one form of activity the player has chosen. It is important that this person becomes truly aware — physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Then whatever game he plays, he will play very well.

What the player makes of himself is more important than cricket. Without bringing a certain quality into themselves, they cannot bring quality into the game. If they cultivate humility, they can aspire to reach unimaginable heights of performance. Humility is just acceptance of what is. Out of this acceptance, they can use their intelligence and act.

Accepting the other team is most important. When acceptance is total, there is no more opposition. Only if the other eleven people are there can a game be played — only then is a match possible. With acceptance, there is no tension. The other team’s capabilities and victory record will no more be a problem.

With total acceptance, their presence will diminish. This is a spiritual process also. When acceptance is total, the entire existence becomes a part of one. This is the way of nature.

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev is the founder of Isha Foundation. He is a yogi, mystic and spiritual master who is also deeply interested in cricket, golf and biking.
www.sadhguru.org

 

SOURCE: DECCAN CHRONICLE

LINK: http://www.deccanchronicle.com/other-realm/lose-yourself-become-winner-026

"God doesn’t look like you "

If there were no human beings on this planet, there would be no God-talk going on among the other creatures. Essentially, it’s a human thing. Human beings want explanations for everything, while other creatures are okay with what is going on with their
lives. Human beings want explanations because their intellect will not settle without answers.
So, if there were no human beings, none of the other creatures would be talking about God. The very idea that God is a big man up there has come because somebody told us that existence is human-centric. But, in reality, it’s not. Existence is definitely not human-centric; before you came it was there, after you go, it will still be there. So, earth being the centre of the universe and human beings being in the image of God has made humanity so absolutely crude and insensitive to every other life on this planet.
If only such things were not taught to us. If somebody had told you that God looks like every other creature on this planet and not like us, you would treat all of them with utmost gentleness, wouldn’t you?
This was actually done in Eastern parts of the world, where God is the very earth that you walk upon, the water that you drink, the food that you eat… There is no other God to talk to, so you walk gently upon this planet and your humanity gets expressed. Now, however, in the name of divinity, we have completely forsaken our humanity. If you forsake your humanity, you will not know any divinity.
So this idea that God is a big man or a big woman; the idea that creation is human-centric is a very damaging idea. Creation is not human-centric. You are only a small happening in the existence.
Tomorrow morning, if you, I and everybody else evaporates, there will be no disturbance. It will be just fine, actually better! There will be no ecological problems. We think too much of ourselves, that’s the biggest problem. As individual people, we think too much of ourselves. As humanity too, we think too much of ourselves. It is very important that we, as human beings, recognise that every other creature treats and experiences its life as important to itself as our life is to us.
When we say God, we are trying to refer to the basis of creation. Because we have no clue what its nature is, being human we try to give it a human form. But various other cultures on this planet have given it various other forms, too.
People worshipped buffaloes, elephants, snakes, cows, earth, fire, water. They gave it a form that they could relate to. In India, in every village you visit you will always find one tree being worshipped. Nowhere else in the Western part of the world is there any relevance for animals because people were made to believe that every creature is here only to serve you. This is a gross idea in a human mind, isn’t it? Modern science, unfortunately, is going in this direction. Right now we are only looking at how to exploit everything.
We won’t even spare a bacteria, an organism that we can’t see with our naked eyes. We know how to make use of it for our benefit. But after using everything for our benefit, it still doesn’t seem like we have been hugely benefited. This is because well-being doesn’t happen that way. Well-being will not come just because you try to milk the whole existence.

BY : SADHGURU JAGGI VASUDEV

SOURCE : THE ASIAN AGE
LINK :http://asianage.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1921:god-doesnt-look-like-you&catid=42:op-ed&Itemid=67

Unlock your energies through yoga

When we say 'yoga', for many of you it might mean some impossible physical postures. Yoga means to be in perfect tune.

When you are in yoga, your body, mind and spirit, and existence, are in absolute harmony. When you fine-tune yourself to a point where everything functions beautifully within you, the best of your abilities will just flow out of you. When you are happy, your energies function better. Have you noticed that when you are happy you have endless energy? Even if you don't eat or sleep, you can go on and on. So, just a little happiness liberates you from your normal limitations of energy and capability.

Yoga is the science of activating your inner energies in such a way that your body, mind and emotions function at their highest peak. When your body and mind function in a completely different state of relaxation and a certain level of blissfulness, you can be released from so much suffering. Right now, you come and sit in your office, and you have a nagging headache. Your headache is not a major disease, but it takes away your capability for that day. With the practice of yoga, your body and mind will be kept at their highest possible peak.

There are other dimensions to yoga. When you activate your energies, you can function in a different way. As you are sitting here right now, you consider yourself to be a person. You are identified with many things, but what you call 'myself' is actually just a certain amount of energy.

Modern science says that the whole of existence is energy manifesting itself in different ways. If this is so, then you are also a little bit of energy functioning in a particular way. As far as science is concerned, this same energy which you call 'myself' can be a rock, mud, tree, dog, or you. Everything is the same energy, functioning at different levels of capability.

Similarly among human beings, though we are all made of the same energy, we still do not function at the same level of capability. What you call capability or talent, your creativity, is a certain way your energy functions. This energy, in one plant it functions to create roses, in another it functions to create jasmine, but it is the same energy manifesting itself. If you gain some mastery over your own energies, things that you never imagined possible you will do simply and naturally. This is the experience of people who have started doing these yogic practices. It is the inner technology of creating situations the way you want them.

With the same materials that we build huge buildings today, people used to build little huts. We thought we could only dig mud and make pots or bricks. Now we dig the same earth and make computers, cars, and even spacecrafts.

It is the same energy; we have just started using it for higher possibilities. Our inner energies are like that. There is a technology as to how to use this energy for higher possibilities. Every human being must explore and know this. Otherwise, life becomes limited and accidental. Once you activate your inner energies, your capabilities happen in a different sphere altogether. Yoga is a tool to find ultimate expression to life.

SADHGURU JAGGI VASUDEV 


Source : The Times of India 
Link :http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life/spirituality/speaking-tree/Unlock-your-energies-through-yoga/articleshow/5239998.cms

Your Destiny is What You Make of It

All along, you've been shaping your destiny unconsciously. But you can also work on it consciously. If you make the effort to access your core and realise that everything is your responsibility, and shift your focus inside you, then you can rewrite your destiny.

All the time, your focus is scattered, because what you consider is 'you' and 'yours' is your house, car, wife, child, pet, education, position, and power. If you are stripped of all these things, you will feel like a nobody. So what you call yourself is what is spread around you.

'You' means it is you, not this carpet, wall, child, or anything else. 'You' is just you. Right now, you're not an established being; you are a scattered being. You are not you; you are a crowd. The crowd's fate is always predestined.

Once you act as an individual, the indivi-sible self can no longer be divided; it is this. It cannot be here and there. Once you become a true indivi-dual, your destiny is within your grasp; it is yours.

Those who are in a hurry to grow spiritually avoid getting into marriage, children and relationships because the moment you have a spouse, you get identified with 'this one'. Once you have children, you get identified with them. Now, 'you' includes them also.

Once you get identified with them, one by one, you get identified with too many things. Your identity gets scattered.

However, searching for the real 'you' does not mean denial of family or social situations. The root of all identification is in the two fundamental accumulations: body and mind. Once removed from these two, 'you' become free from all identifications. In this freedom you become the master of your own destiny.

The body is the source of all attachments. But you don't have to keep searching for non-attachment somewhere else. You don't have to go about distancing this and that in your life, but once you get scattered, your destiny becomes pre-ordained. Whichever way your karma is, it just goes that way.

The significance of Sanyasa or Brahmacharya is just this: Shifting the whole focus to you. When I say you, it is just 'you', not your body or mind. If you are unable to be like that, you just choose one more identity.

When you say 'you', make it 'you and your Guru'. You attach yourself to the Guru without any hesitation, because you have no entanglements from the other side. You can get as entangled as you want with him; for he is not going to get entangled.

The moment you are ripe, you can drop the relationship. With other relationships, it is never so. If you get entangled, even if you want to become free, the other will not let you go.

Either you can reshape your destiny or, if such awareness does not come, the Guru can help you do it. You just create a longing to grow, to dissolve, to know. What has to happen will happen. Once you become an individual, your destiny becomes yours.

If your destiny is in your hands, you would naturally choose freedom and not bondage because the deepest longing of every life is to become free from the very process that one refers to as life or death.

So once your destiny is happening in awareness, the next step will just happen by itself, because life within you has the intelligence to choose freedom, not bondage.

Only because your destiny is being created in unawareness, you go about weaving bondage around yourself.

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev

source : The times of india
link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/SPEAKING-TREEBRYour-Destiny-is-What-You-Make-of-It/articleshow/398734.cms

Look within to transcend your habits

Our habits are related to our self-image. Change this image and you've changed the habit.

Every human being has created a certain image, a certain personality of himself, and all his habits—like smoking for instance—have become second nature to him. Now, how can we work on them?

The way the mind works

The more you say, "I don't want something", that [thing] becomes the basis of your mind and starts to rule it.
Let's do an experiment right now. Don't think about monkeys for the next 10 seconds. Hmm, try it… only monkeys come to your mind, isn't it?
This is the nature of your mind. You can't do anything head-on with your mind. You need to understand the process of your mind and see what to do with it.

Giving up a habit

Now, people always come to me saying, "I want to give up smoking, what should I do?" I tell them, you are not smoking right now, why would you smoke otherwise? Your body is not the kind of machine that smokes; automobiles do, but not your body. If you don't want to smoke, don't smoke". Then they say, "No, no, I am a smoker I am trying to give up smoking and it's not working." The question is not about smoking or not smoking.
It happened like this. A man and his lady neighbour were great friends. One day they were driving somewhere and as soon as the car was parked, his hands were all over her. She said, "You fool! What are you doing? I thought you are a decent fellow and I came with you, what is this nonsense?" He said, "No, I gave up smoking."
If you compulsively give up something, this is what will happen to you. It will take shape in some other way.

At the root of habits

Now, what is it that you are trying to do with smoking? Probably you are down, you are trying to stimulate yourself with nicotine, or psychologically you feel incomplete. By holding a cigarette in your hand, you feel little more brave, and man-like.
Kids start smoking because they want to grow up soon. A 10-year-old kid wants to smoke because he wants to become a man instantly. When he inhales and blows the smoke into somebody's face, he feels like a man. Not anymore, but it was so 10 years ago. 

Struggling to quit is futile

Once there was a Sufi saint called Ibrahim. One evening, two of his disciples were sitting very morose in the garden of his ashram/centre. One said to the other, "I want to smoke but we are on a spiritual path, how to smoke?" The other one said, "Even I want to smoke; I don't know what to do."
Then they decided, "Let's ask the master whether we can smoke." In the past, there have been many Sufi saints who smoked constantly.
So the next evening, one disciple was sitting in the same spot, totally miserable. The other disciple came there, smoking. The first disciple said, "Hey! Why are you smoking? Master told me not to smoke." The other disciple asked, "What did you ask him?" The first replied, "I asked him if I could smoke when I am meditating." "That's your problem," said the second monk. "I asked him whether I could meditate when I am smoking, and he told me to go ahead."
So don't try to give it up, bring awareness into your life. Bring awareness to every aspect of your life; you will see that everything that is not necessary will simply fall by the wayside. If you try to give it up, you'll only struggle.

Your image of self

The image that you have created within yourselves has nothing to do with reality. It has nothing to do with your inner nature. It is a certain image that you have built, most of the time unconsciously. Very few human beings have built a conscious image of themselves. All others have built images according to whatever kind of patterns or external situations they fell into. Everybody has some image of what they are.
Now, why don't we create a new self-image consciously? The way you really want to be. If you are intelligent and aware enough, you can recast your image into a totally new image, whichever way you really want. It is possible. But you should be willing to leave the old one. This is not pretension. Instead of acting unconsciously, you act consciously. You can create an image that supports you best; that kind of image, which creates maximum harmony within you; that kind of image, which has least friction.

Your image and your inner nature

You create an image, which is closest to your inner nature. What kind of an image, do you think, is closest to your inner nature? Please see. The inner nature is silent, not dominant, but very forceful. Very subtle, yet very forceful. Now that is what we need to do: the grosser elements within you—your anger, your limitations—must be chopped off. Create a new self-image, which is subtle, but tremendously forceful.
You work on the self-image before actually sitting for a process to fix a new image on you. One that is the best for you and everybody around you. Think about it for the next one or two days and create a proper image for yourself. What should be the fundamental nature of your thoughts and emotions? Before we create something, let's really see, if what we are creating now is better than what we have.

Seeing yourself the way you want

Choose a time when you would not be disturbed. Sit comfortably with your back rested and relax.  Now, close your eyes and visualise how other people should experience you. Create a whole new human being. Look at it with as much detail as possible. See if this new image is more human, more efficient, more loving.
Visualise this new image as powerfully as you can. Make it alive within yourself. If your thought is powerful enough, if your visualisation is powerful enough, it can even break the bonds of karma. The limitations, the karmic limitations, can be broken by creating a powerful visualisation of what you want to be. This is the opportunity to transcend all your limitations of thought, emotion and action.

By sadhguru jaggi vasudev
source : complete well being
links :http://completewellbeing.com/article/look-within-to-transcend-your-habits/

What's wrong with this world!

If you are disgusted with all the crime and misery, and want it to stop, guess where you need to start? Right, with you!

How does one tolerate all the crime that is going on in this world? I am asked this question a lot. But it’s not a question of toleration. If you tolerate, you will go crazy. You need not have to tolerate; you can only do what you can do about it. You cannot reverse what has happened.

The culprit is also a victim

Now one thing is, [when you look at crime] you are looking only at that person who is abused as a victim, but the person who is abusing is also a victim in so many ways, because in many ways he is degrading himself. The worst thing that any human being can do to himself is to degrade himself like an animal, which for some reason he is doing. Though it may give him some pleasure or joy or power or something at that moment, still, in many ways, it is a tragedy for him as well.
So it is not that one is a victim and the other an assailant. Both are victims. Many things like this are happening in the society; it is not just an individual act; it is a complex process of many things that are happening. So should you allow it to happen? No, you do whatever you can do to see that those things don’t happen.

What you can control

But those things do happen. So what you can do, you do, but you cannot change all of it. It doesn’t matter what kind of a person you become; even if you become a super-human being, you will never have absolute control over the external world. Whether it is your institution or your family or the world, you will never have total control over the external situation. But you can have total control over the internal situation. This is always possible.
Now, the external has gone out of control, for some reason, people are killing, people are raping, people are doing all kinds of ugly things in the world. So, because the external has gone out of control, does it mean you should allow the internal to also go out of control? If your external situations are going out of control, is it not important to at least you keep your interiority in control?
Now that man has gone insane; he is into that kind of act. If you are also going insane with anger and hatred for that man, what is the difference? He raped, so you want to kill. What is the difference? That does not mean you should not do something about the situation. What you have to do, you do. But when you do it with anger and hatred, it is of no value—whatever you do.

Anger is like rape

Unfortunately, for most people, fear, anger, hatred, are the most intense situations in their lives. Their love is never so intense, their peace is never so intense, their joy is never so intense, but their negativities are intense. So they experience power in negative situations. As you experience power in anger, the rapist experiences his lust as power.
It is the most powerful situation that he experiences in his life, where he physically imposes himself on somebody else. He feels powerful. That is why he is going for it. And that is exactly the justification you are giving to be angry. It’s not different. Just the acts are different. One is socially approved and another is not. That’s all. Otherwise both these actions are coming from the same basis.

Acting from intelligence

Now you think that you can change the world, or you have the capacity to move yourself only with anger. Why? Why can’t you move with love? Why can’t you move with compassion? Why can’t you move out of your intelligence as to what is needed around you? Okay, not even out of love; at least out of your intelligence you do what is needed for the society around you. The most beautiful things will happen when your actions spring from your intelligence and not from your anger.
How you respond depends on what kind of situation you are in, who you are, what your capabilities are, what means you have to do that sort of a thing. You cannot respond in the same way in every situation. If you have the power and the means to do something effectively, you can respond in one way. If you do not have the power and the means to respond at that moment, maybe your response is to keep quiet at that moment and see what can be done later. But this is not done in vengeance or revenge.

Functioning from love

You don’t want this to happen, either to the victim or to the assailant. Both are in some way being degraded in their life. One is doing it to himself, another is being subjected to that by somebody. You don’t want this to happen to either of them, not just one. Only then you can say that you are functioning from your love.
Otherwise, you are functioning only from your identity as a woman or man, which will not create a healthy world. Since people always act from their identity of belonging to a certain group, or religion, or race, or country, or sex, all this misery has happened. If you act without identity, you just function out of your intelligence and see whether you want this or not.

Finding a solution

How you respond depends on what means you have. All of us cannot respond in the same way to a given situation. It depends on what means we have in our hands at that moment. If you get into wild reactions out of your emotions, you will not bring any justice. You will not bring any well-being to the world. You will just counter one evil with another. That is definitely not a solution. Only when you act without identifications, and function out of your intelligence, can there be a solution to this.

By : Sadhguru jaggi vasudev
source : complete wellbeing
link:http://completewellbeing.com/article/whats-wrong-with-this-world/