To know what you need to know

If the need to grow is deep within you, if that is your aim, first of all you should be clear about what is there in your experience and what is not. Clearly mark what is there in your experience and what is not. What is there in your experience, you know. What is not there in your experience you need not say it does not exist; just say: “I don’t know.” If you have reached this state, growth will happen by itself. What you don’t know, if you accept that you do not know it, there will be growth. Instead, whatever you do not know you start believing in and think you know everything. Now, if growth has to happen within you, you should see what is there in your experience right now. Right now, what is there in your experience? You have experienced your body to some extent, you have experienced your mind to some extent and you have experienced the world to some extent. In some moments, you might have also experienced to a certain extent the energy which makes this body and mind function. Beyond this, you have not experienced anything. Everything else is just imagination. Whichever way society has taught you, your imagination is that way. Look into what is there in your experience and what is not. And all that is not there in your experience you accept as, “I do not know.” This is very, very essential. Otherwise, this whole life will pass in pretensions.

You don’t have to come to any conclusion. What you do not know, if you accept as, “I do not know,” then the search will happen within. Whether it is God, whether it is truth, if you have to search, where should you search? You should search within, isn’t it? If you have to search within, if you have to realise within, there is a need for the necessary tool, isn’t it? Now, you have the urge to know the depth of the ocean. Is it possible to do that with a foot scale? Is it possible? Is it possible to measure the depth of the ocean with a foot scale? You will come back with the conclusion that the ocean is bottomless. But that is not the truth, isn’t it? To go inward, you need to have the necessary tool. What is there with you right now to go inward? What tool do you have right now? Just your five sense organs. You have nothing else to search. These five sense organs can realise only materialistic things. Isn’t it so? There is no chance of experiencing what is beyond the materialistic world with these limited tools.

Now this body is sitting here; this is very important right now. You have to feed it, you have to clothe it, you have to decorate it, and you have to do so many things to it. There is something invaluable within you and till now you have not experienced that. This something which is within you, if it goes away tomorrow morning, nobody wants this body after that. Even your city municipality does not want it after that. Isn’t that so?

Only because the fruit called life is inside this peel, this skin has so much value. What happens if the fruit within is gone? There is nothing after that. But you are not bothered about the fruit. You are very much occupied with the peel. If you keep on eating the peel all your life how would it be? Bitter isn’t it? But the problem with the peel is that there is some sweetness here and there. Because of its association with the fruit, there is sweetness here and there. Now your whole life is about searching for that sweetness. If you struggle a lot, you will find some sweetness here and there. Instead of this, if you are able to realise the fruit beyond the peel, you can always be joyous. There is every possibility that you can be in this sweetness always. Had this peel been completely bitter, you would have all been enlightened by now. The trouble is, there is some sweetness here and there and you have gone after that sweetness and forgotten the very source.

Extracted from the book ‘Mystics Musings’ – Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev

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Published on 27^th April, 2004