3 December 2012 FOREST FLOWER

CONTENTS
Lead Article
Why Yoga?
Sadhguru on Transforming Oneself from a Person to a Presence 4
Musings
Enlightened but Still Not Free?
Sadhguru on the Difference between Enlightenment and Liberation 7
Fan Club or Spiritual Process?
Sadhguru on How to Experience His Presence 8
Loss of a Child
Sadhguru on What Parents Can Do for a Child Who Passed Away 9
In Conversation with the Mystic
How to Eradicate Conflict in Society
Sadhguru in Conversation with Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan Part 5 12
Leela Series
The path of the playful part XXXVIII:
The Three Worlds 14
Sadhguru Spot
In Time for Formula 1
From Sadhguru Spot of 7 November 2012 16
Sharing Experiences
My Eternal Guru
A Poem by an Isha Meditator 18
Upcoming Programs and Events
Isha Yoga Program Highlights 20
Isha Recipes For Healthy Living
This Month: Broccoli Fry 21
Zen Speaks: The Order of Life and Death 23
The following is an excerpt from a darshan with
Sadhguru at the Isha Yoga Center, Velliangiri
Foothills, India, on 30 October 2012.
Of all the things in the world, of all the things
that a human being can do, why yoga?
Everything that human beings can do is essentially
an expression of who they are. Yoga is diametrically
opposite to this because it is not an expression
of who you are it is about determining as to
who you are and what you want to be; it is about
changing the very fundamentals of your existence.
Today there is substantial scientifc evidence that
the very fundamentals of the activity of your brain,
your chemistry, and even your genetic content can
be changed by practicing different systems of yoga.
This needed no confrmation because we have
always witnessed this.
Yoga needs much more involvement than any other
things that you do, which are merely an expression
of who you are. If you fnd full expression through
any particular activity, it may also leave you
somewhat transformed. If you cook with all your
heart, some transformation may happen. Taking
care of a cow can change your life. If you sing
with all your heart, some transformation may
happen. If you dance with all your heart, some
transformation may happen. Absolute involvement
in a particular activity has a certain impact, but
it does not determine the nature of who you are.
Yoga is not an expression, it is a method, it is a
means, it is a technology through which you can
change the shape of who you are literally and
otherwise. Who you are right now is a combination
of things. The karmic substance that you carry
because of that you chose a certain womb the
genetic material, and whatever kind of impressions
have gone into you since the moment you were
born experiences, situations, thoughts, emotions,
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SADHGURU
December 2012 FOREST FLOWER
WhY YoGa?
Sadhguru on Transforing
Oneself fom a Person to
a Presence
relationships, associations, and whatever else all
these things make you a certain kind of person.
This is a very western thing but it is very much
there in India today too because a lot of Indians
are far more western than westerners. People say,
Im a morning person. Im an evening person.
What they mean is, I cannot stay awake in the
evening, so Im a morning person. Or, I cannot
wake up in the morning; that means I am an
evening person. Not only that, it is going so far
that some are BlackBerry people, some are Apple
people. These are not just instruments that you
use you get identifed with them. The world
is getting divided in so many ways. There are
chapatti people, there are rice people, there are
dosa people, there are idli people there are all
kinds. What kind you are is essentially a certain
type of compulsion.
You put yourself into the process of yoga because
you do not want to be this kind or that kind
you want to be the kind that you are required to
be in a particular moment. If it is morning, you
are a morning person. If it is evening, you are an
evening person. If you are not required to be a
person, you are not a person. You become fexible.
We work on this fexibility with your body to
start with; afterwards, it should come to every
aspect of your life. Your physical structure, your
psychological structure, your emotional structure,
your karmic structure everything should become
fexible, so that it can be whatever it is required
to be; so that it is not stuck with being this way
or that way.
Yoga as a process, as a method, as a technology, as a
science is essentially about breaking the limitations
of this concretization that we call personality to
evolve from being a person to a presence. If you
are a person, this means you formed a shell you
can operate only within that shell. If you break
the shell, you will no more be a person but simply
a presence as life is, as God is just a presence.
If it is encased in a shell, it is a person. Yoga
means, slowly you are working on making this
shell thinner and thinner, more and more porous,
so that one day, you can exist without a shell.
All aspects of physicality are cyclical. Planets
are going around the sun, the solar systems are
moving everything in the cosmos is cyclical. The
more identifed you are with your physical system,
the more cyclical you are too. Your experiences
are cyclical; the process of life is cyclical. If you
watch carefully enough, even the situations that
you face in your life come in cycles. Yoga means
on one level to break the cycle of life. Because
if you are going in circles, it just gives you the
impression that you are going somewhere, but
you are not really going anywhere; you are going
through the same thing again and again.
Yoga means to open up the circle and stretch it
out like a straight line so that if you follow the
line, you go somewhere; you are not going round
and round. Do not experiment with this now, but
lets say you have been doing sadhana for two,
three, or fve years and then you stop it for three
months, you will see so many compulsions that
were long time gone suddenly become a part of
you again. These compulsions will come back if
you break the sadhana because nature is not going
to release you so easily. You have to keep working
at it; otherwise you must be happy doing the
circle. If you become conscious and you can see
the whole circle of your life, it looks like a circus,
and defnitely you do not want it to continue
forever; you want to do something about it.
These repetitive cycles of compulsiveness come
from various types of memories in the system.
There is a huge volume of memory karmic
memory, genetic memory, mental memory, and
psychological memory every kind. If this memory
was not there, your body would not even take a
form. Your body knows that it has to take this
form. Memory always means that which is past. If
the memory that you carry is the only thing that
determines the nature of who you are right now,
that means you are past, or life is past you. There
is no real life; it is just a play of memory.
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December 2012 FOREST FLOWER
If you watch a movie in the cinema, it is so big
and so real, more real than the real; it becomes a
bigger reality than the actual reality because it is
so exaggerated. But all this is just memory being
played out. Whether it is recorded in a flm or in a
digital format or whichever way, it is just memory;
it is already over. Even your thoughts, your
emotions, your compulsions, what you like, what
you dont like, whom you love, whom you dont
love whatever is in your mind is all memory; it
is already past. Yesterday you loved somebody
with that memory, you live today. Yesterday you
disliked somebody with that memory, you live
today. So you are trying to live that which is over.
If you try to live that which is over, that which is
will bypass you.
Yoga means to liberate yourself from the
information that determines who you are right
now. The information that determines the color
of your skin, the information that determines the
shape of your body should not determine how
you think, feel, and experience your life but
unfortunately, it does. If this information does not
determine anymore how you are right now, then
you are moving into yoga. The daily sadhana is
just to slowly, gradually create a distance from that
information you dont have to lose it. People
say, I want to forget. If you forget, you will do
the same stupid things all over again. Never ever
forget. The more unpleasant your life has been, the
more you should never forget.
This is not about forgetfulness but about being
able to carry. Today you have memory sticks.
If it is all the time plugged in and all of it is
playing, you will go crazy. If you carry it in
your pocket and when you want, you stick it
into your computer, then there is no problem.
The memory is still there but not compulsively
working through you. Once you have this freedom
that if you want, you can activate the memory;
otherwise, you can keep it aside then memory
is not a problem. But right now, memory is a
problem because it is playing up all the time.
Yesterdays love, yesterdays dislike everything
has determined who you are today. It will not
allow you to experience what is today; it will not
allow you any possibility of life; you will be like a
broken record, just going on with the same thing.
I dislike this person. I dislike this person. I dislike
this person. Yesterday, he did something and you
disliked him there is no need to dislike him today.
But the memory is playing up. Whether you like
him or dislike him, both ways it is an old record
playing, which will not allow you any perception.
Unless you begin to perceive life in larger and
larger doses, there is really no experience of life,
just the mind playing the same record over and
over again.
Yoga means breaking this cycle. Nature will not
release you from it just like that; it needs a certain
amount of work. If you want to be released just
like that, you have to release yourself from the
body itself. The foundation of information that
we carry has constructed this body the way it is.
To stay in the body, which is the way it is only
because of its memory, and not to be a part of that
memory; to live in it and not to be of it, will not
come easy. I am not saying it is diffcult, but it
needs to be worked at.
The sadhana is just about this. However simple
the sadhana is, if it is worked at every day, slowly
you can see a certain level of freedom happening
within you. It will slowly release you. If you want
to go rapidly, there is a lot more to do. If you dont
mind going slowly, there is something to do. So
tomorrow morning sadhana.
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December 2012 FOREST FLOWER
Questioner: Sadhguru, you mentioned that the
Buddha said after his enlightenment that he was still
not free. Does this mean that after enlightenment,
there is still karma? Are enlightenment and
liberation not the same thing?
Sadhguru: Karma means action. How does
yesterdays action live in you today? Only because
of memory. If yesterday lives in you today, it is a
virtual life. People are talking about virtual realities
today. This is nothing new people have always been
in a virtual reality. They are either in yesterday or
tomorrow. This has always been a human problem
people are not in reality; they are in the virtual
reality of their own mind. Your psychological
realities are virtual realities, not actual realities. And
all your suffering generally comes from the virtual
reality; very rarely somebody actually poked you.
The rest of the poking is only done by you. Most of
the suffering, people do to themselves.
There is something called memory and there is
something called imagination. Most people do not
have a line between the two. They are using memory
as an armory and are fring their imagination. If
somebody said something yesterday, this memory
and your imagination come together today, multiply
a million-fold in your head and drive you crazy.
People have not done the needed work to create a
distinction between the two. When you are given
such a sophisticated mechanism as the human mind,
you need to learn how to use it. If you use it by
accident, it will create problems. Because societies
have given up this work, everybody from the age
of three is trying to become a doctor, an engineer,
or today, an IT professional. Why do they want
to become IT professionals? They want to make
money. You cannot be any more stupid than that.
Traditionally, there were sadhanas set up as to
how to make use of this mechanism in the highest
possible way. Individual people may have somehow
managed to create a clear-cut boundary between
their memory and imagination, but there are no
social and educational tools available today to
distinctly separate the two. If you do not separate
your memory and imagination, you are for sure
heading for madness. Has it not happened many
times some incidents occurred in your life, you
were racing towards madness, but then somewhere
you got back to your senses? Maybe by reading a
book or turning on the television, by talking to a
friend or going to a psychiatrist in some way you
dealt with it and put brakes on your madness.
So, this is a question of memory. When I use the
word memory, you may think about your mind
and how much memory you have. But your mind
has just a miniscule of the memory that you carry
in your body. Your body has enormous memory. It
still remembers how your great grandfathers nose
was; he is still sitting in your face. Your body still
remembers how your forefathers were thousands
of years ago, how their skin texture was. Your
body has phenomenal memory; your mind has
very little memory. When Gautama said after his
enlightenment, Till I get rid of all these thousands
of lifetimes of memory, Im not really free, he was
saying that he knows the way to freedom but till he
sheds his body, he is not really free because all these
dead people are still living through him. He was
looking at everything very clinically. Had he been
expressing himself poetically, he would not have
said this. It is not that he was sincere and somebody
else is not it is just a question of expression.
Sadhguru on the Dierence beteen Enlightenment and Liberation
EnliGhTened BuT STill NoT Free?
December 2012 FOREST FLOWER
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Fan CluB or SPiriTual ProCess?
Sadhgur u on How t o Expe r i e nc e Hi s Pr e s e nc e
The following is an excerpt from a darshan with
Sadhguru at the Isha Institute of Inner-sciences,
Tennessee, USA, on 9 May 2011.
Questioner: Every day at 6:20 p.m., we sit and try
to tune in to your presence. But if I am honest, for
me it is just not the same as when you are here
with us. I am wondering how I can improve that
because I would like to have your presence inside
me all the time.
Sadhguru: A man was standing on the scale in the
bathroom and trying to pull his belly in with both
his hands. His wife looked at him and said, John,
it doesnt work like that. Just because you pull your
belly in, your weight will not go down. He said,
Thats not it I am trying to see the display. So
you must see what is in the way. Not the belly,
something else must be in the way. If it only works
when I am physically here and talking to you or
doing something else, this will not be a spiritual
process; this will be a fan club. We did not intend
to start a fan club. We wanted to start an active
spiritual process.
As long as your body and your mind are important
to you, you will naturally experience it that way.
There is nothing wrong with that, but at the same
time, if it is just limited to that, then as I said, you
are just forming a friendship or becoming a fan
club. But actually, I am important in your life only
because I can be something more than this body
and this mind. So do not limit it to relating to my
body and mind. Hold the belly back so you can read
the display. What is getting in the way is that for a
long time, your idea of yourself and of someone else
has only been body and mind. So if you do not see
somebody, in your perception, they are not here.
Not too long ago, I was to speak to a popular
football club in the UK who are in the English
Premier League. Two of the boys who had done
the Inner Engineering Online program asked for
a few minutes of private time with me. Then they
told me, Sadhguru, I dont want anybody to know.
Dont tell anybody. I said, Yes, what happened?
He said, On the ffth day of the Online program,
I was crying, man. I was crying! He is a massive
football player with hundreds and thousands of
fans, so he did not want anybody to know that he
is sitting in front of his computer and crying. He
asked me, What do you think happened to me? I
said, From being a bull, you are transforming into
a human being.
So pull the belly in and sit. It will work.
December 2012 FOREST FLOWER
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The following is an excerpt from a darshan with
Sadhguru at the Isha Yoga Center, Velliangiri
Foothills, India, on 12 September 2012.
Questioner: Sadhguru, I lost my daughter last week
and I came to the ashram to do the Kalabhairava
Karma
1
, so I feel I have done the best that I could do
for her. I just wonder if there is anything else I can
do for her and for myself.
Sadhguru: You must pardon me what I am going
to say is not intended to hurt you. It is just a little
technical I want you to look at it that way. I could
speak a few words of solace instead but that would
not be a solution for you. You would only feel good
for today, and tomorrow morning, it would be the
same again. I want you to listen to this carefully.
If any of our children die before they are four years
of age, you will see people will work themselves
into pain; but actually, there is no pain, there is
no wrenching feeling within. People think this is
because it was only a few years, but that is not true.
You can get attached in a day. There is no actual
pain simply because that life was not full-fedged
yet. Now that the medical interference has become
a little too much, it is no longer so, but earlier, many
children died before they were four years of age a
lot of them without any ailment, simply like that,
because before four years of age, that life is not yet
fully established in the body.
When your child is an infant, you have the most
contact with him or her. But in spite of them being
so much with you, before four years of age, you
are physically not so strongly connected to them
because they themselves are not very strongly
connected to their own body, so the same has not
happened within you very strongly either. Only
if you are willing to observe life very carefully,
you will know this. If you look at it just from an
emotional perspective, even before the child is born,
you are already attached to it.
Physiologically, your connection increases in a
dramatic way after the child crosses somewhere
between 40 to 48 months. At that time, something
is happening in your body, but most people miss this
Loss of a Child
Sadhguru on What Parents Can Do for a Child Who Passed Away
1
A ritual performed for the dead, offered at the Linga Bhairavi Temple near Isha Yoga Center
December 2012 FOREST FLOWER
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experience. At four years of age, the child is running
around, wanting to see the world. So people are
concerned with other things where the child is
going, the school admission, and all that. Otherwise
they would notice that at that time, something
clicks in within them because that being and its
body clicked in, approximately 40 to 48 months
after its birth. When that clicks in, you come to a
certain ease because it becomes a part of you. You
dont have to consciously hold it anymore; a natural
holding is happening.
You will see that if a child dies before four years of age,
people will be disappointed, emotionally disturbed,
but not grief-stricken. This is because that being has
not yet connected with that body. And you must
understand that you are only a provider of the body;
you cannot create a being. It is not in human hands
to create a being; you can only facilitate a body. So,
only when that being really clicks into the body that
you provided, something clicks in within you and
occupies a certain space within your own system. If
we just check somebodys energy, we know whether
they have had children or not because your children
occupy a certain space within you.
This physiological connection is very strong till the
child becomes 21; after 21, it starts dissipating once
again. This is a beautiful natural system of caring for
the offspring, bringing it up, and also being capable
of releasing it when you have to. If somebody comes
to me and says, Bless my children, I will ask how
old they are. If a child is below 21 years, you can
bless a mother or a father and have a deep impact
on the child. But if the children are over 21, they
have to come and be blessed by themselves because
in that case, blessing the mother or the father is of
no consequence for the child.
It is always best if we die before our children die
that is the natural order of life. But sometimes it
happens the other way around. Most people believe
it will never happen to them, but it can happen to
anybody. Once it has happened, it is time to look
deeper within yourself and understand this whole
process, how profound it is, how binding it is, and at
the same time, how liberating it can be.
When you die, you want your child around you.
Traditionally, they said the son, because practically,
it was only possible for the son to be around; the
daughter would often be somewhere else. The reason
why a child should be around is, there are methods to
make use of that little pocket, that little empty space
within you which is occupied by that being whom
you refer to as my child. And if he does the right
things, he can liberate you. Those people who live
completely unaware and do not do anything about
themselves depend upon their children to liberate
them. And that became a whole tradition by itself.
Varanasi is known for this. People come either with
their aged parents who want to die in Kashi, or their
parents have just died and they come with the ashes
because they somewhere understand they could
liberate them. But today, there are very few people
who know how to do these things properly. It has
become a mere ritual.
Generally, peoples interaction with each other is
only physical, mental, or emotional it never goes
beyond that. We believe that this is everything
about that person. But when a person sheds his or
her body, the mental structure is gone, the emotions
are gone, and the body is surely gone. So everything
that you knew about this person is gone. And that
being that you have always held as your child will
be as much a stranger to you as just about anybody
else.
So as a parent, you have a little space occupied by
the quality of that being that you consider as your
child, but your children dont have that little space
within them occupied by you. The future generation
occupies a little space in the past generation, but the
past generation cannot occupy, in the very nature of
things, a space in the future generation. Because of
this, as a child grows and becomes close to 21, if you
look at them, they look like absolute strangers to
you; you cannot believe that these are your children.
Is this the same little baby that I brought up? You
cannot understand what they are doing because you
do not have an abode in them but they have an
abode in you.
If you want to infuence your children, dont try to
December 2012 FOREST FLOWER
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do too many things with them. You must just be able
to identify this little space within you. If you keep
it in a certain way, things will happen okay. This is
a remote control that a parent has about a child. If a
child dies, within the frst 11 days, the Kalabhairava
Karma defnitely does something signifcant. If
you want to do anything apart from that your
thoughts, your emotions, and your actions have no
infuence over your child who is no more. But if you
turn inward, if your way of being becomes pleasant,
it has a tremendous infuence because if that little
space becomes pleasant, that being will experience
pleasantness. Till that being fnds another body, you
can infuence it. Once it fnds another body, you
have nothing to do with it anymore. Then somebody
else claims it as my child and a whole new drama
begins again.
One thing that all of us need to understand is,
children only come through us, they dont come
from us. It is a privilege that somebody chose to
come through you, that you could be a passage for
another life. We dont own them, we cannot claim
rights over them; they just came through us. You
must cherish that privilege. From the moment
your daughter was born to you until for some
unfortunate reason she died, she enriched your life
in so many ways which one may not realize at that
time; but now if you look back, you will see this.
You just have to cherish that. And if you want to
infuence her, make yourself as pleasant as possible
that is the only way you can infuence her. If she
was your mother, you could infuence her in other
ways. But with your child, the only way you can
make it pleasant for that being is to make yourself
absolutely pleasant. Because that little space that
this being occupied, its quality and dimension is still
connected, until that being fnds another body.
For many people who have lost children, you will see
that till a certain point, they could not believe that
they will ever recover from this. But suddenly one
day, it does not seem to matter anymore; everything
seems to be normal and fne. If you observe the way
your body behaves, your breath, the nature of your
hair, the nature of your fngernails, the texture of
your skin, all these things, you will know when this
being has found another body; it will show. I wont
say how because if I do, people will start imagining
all kinds of things.
So, we are with you in your grief. Stay here for some
time. We will see that you turn pleasant and in turn
she turns pleasant.
For information about the Kalabhairava Karma and Kalabhairava Shanti rituals for the
deceased that are being conducted at the Linga Bhairavi Temple and the Nirkaya Sthanam
(an especially dedicated pond at the Isha Yoga Center),
please visit www.lingabhairavi.org, call 94433 65631 or 94864 94865, or send an email to
kbprocess@lingabhairavi.org.
December 2012 FOREST FLOWER
Sadhguru in Conversation with Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan
How to Eradicate Confict in Society
In the most recent episode of the In Conversation with the Mystic series, which took place
on 16 June 2012 in Hyderabad, Sadhguru and Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan discuss a range of
subjects from morality to politics and corruption, nation and society, and the spiritual and
temporal. The following is the ffth part of their conversation.
Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan: Sadhguru, I entirely
agree with you that unless unity and order are
kept even above liberty if there is a clash, we
are in danger. Could spirituality be the glue to
keep the country united? If the emphasis is on
a spiritual tradition which is beyond a certain
religion or beyond a certain philosophical tradition,
then that will be perfectly all right. But if, in the
name of spirituality, a certain religious persuasion
or a certain philosophical tradition is propagated
in a very pluralist country like India, the dangers
of disunity are even greater, some people could
argue. This mix of religion and politics has done
us a great disservice. So how do you distinguish
between religion, politics, and a spirituality that is
true and all-encompassing?
Sadhguru: Let us frst of all make a distinction
between religion and a spiritual process. A religion
arises because people have a set of beliefs. A belief
arises because somebody says this is it. If nobody
listens to that, they will say that God said it, and
everybody will sit up. And in case there are still
some people who dont listen, they will be told,
If you dont listen, God will come and burn you.
Then those will also listen. This has been the
method of religions. Essentially, believing means
you do not know but you make a strong assumption,
and that becomes your belief. So essentially it is
institutionalized ignorance.
If you believe one thing and I believe the same thing,
we are both friends. But if you negate something
that my God said, initially I will tell you, Please
dont do it. If you dont listen, I will want to put
you in Gods lap so that you will be well. [Laughter]
The moment you believe something that you do not
know, you have started a confict. The confict might
not have erupted yet but it will erupt someday. That
is the reason one should understand the distinction
between believing, knowing, and seeking. When
you say you are a religious person, you refer to
yourself as a believer. That means you have assumed
something and concretized the assumption and you
want other people to concretize that assumption too.
When you say you are on the path of spirituality,
you are saying you are a seeker. No seeking can be
genuine if you assume something. You can seek only
when you have realized that you do not know. If
you do not know, you have no cause to fght with
anybody; you have nothing to protect.
Spiritual process will remove confict entirely not
just in the society. It essentially removes it within
you because social confict is just a manifestation of
the confict that is happening in individual human
minds. If I am fred up that you are transgressing on
my beliefs, I will gather people around me and start
something against you. What started in my mind
manifests in society, not the other way around. With
the spiritual process, the very root of confict is taken
away. Spiritual process also means coming from the
false identities that you have taken on to the reality
of who you are. You are just a piece of life and this
life cannot happen here without being connected
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December 2012 FOREST FLOWER
with the whole existence. Only if this becomes
a living experience for you, you should take the
responsibility of other peoples lives, not otherwise.
So always in this culture, when somebody had to
become a king, frst he had to take a spiritual step
because he needs inclusiveness. If he does not care,
if he does not include the people as his, it does not
matter what his intentions are, what he does will
not be good for the people. For this inclusiveness to
occur, the spiritual process not only has to touch the
population it frst must touch the leadership.
There are many things that need to be done in
the country. But the most important thing is
transformation within the leadership, because if
you become a political leader, every thought and
emotion that you generate, every action that you
perform is going to impact millions of people. It is
a tremendous responsibility and a privilege. When
you have such a privilege, the frst thing that you
should do is to enhance and fx yourself. Your idea
of fxing yourself may be with morals or ethics,
but just as somebodys belief and somebody elses
belief will clash, your ethics and somebodys ethics
will clash somewhere.
When you have a set of ethics, and you think
this is it, you are also a kind of religion. I am
the only irreligious person here because I have
no values, no ethics, no beliefs. But if I look at
people, I do not know which is me and which is
not me. I see myself as everything and that is all
I know. This will not clash with anything; it is
guaranteed that it will not confict with anything.
When people frst took up a certain set of beliefs,
it actually worked for them. But as the numbers
increased, confict erupted. Similarly, when you as
an individual take up a set of morals or ethics,
initially, it will work wonderfully for you. But
if you gather huge numbers behind you, people
with these ethics will clash with people with some
other kind of ethics, or with no-ethics people.
The spiritual process is not a religious process.
In this country, we have 33 million gods and
goddesses because we knew the technology of god
making. We understood God is our making. You
can make anything you want into a god. If we look
at life closely enough, there is no piece of creation
without the hand of the Creator in it. Lets take an
atom; we know there are protons and neutrons.
There is some force that is making all this happen.
If you eat a banana, within yourself, this banana
becomes a human being over a period of time.
There is an intelligence that makes this happen.
This intelligence that we call the source of creation
is in every piece of creation. If you recognize this, an
atom could be your god, an ant could be your god,
an elephant could be your god anything could be
your god. Because we understood this, we went on
creating gods. People say India has too many gods; I
feel we dont have enough gods.
We had 33 million gods and goddesses when our
population was the same number. Because of
external invasions, they made you feel ashamed of
your gods, so people stopped being creative. If you
had 1.2 billion gods and goddesses, there would be
one for every one of you. There is something called
Ishta Devata. If you dont like any of the gods that
are there, you can create your own. If I have my god
and you have your god, we will never fght. Only if
my god has a following, we are going to fght. If my
god is only my god, we are not going fght. This is a
simple understanding we came to long time ago. All
you want is an entity that you can relate to without
any inhibitions this is a human need that cannot
be taken away. Whoever may be around you your
family, your friends still there are inhibitions.
You want somebody with whom you can be just
yourself. This is a fantastic therapy for you. There is
no person on the planet whose life is as sweet as the
life of a devotee.
It is a childish idea if, because you are human, you
think a big human being is sitting up there and doing
things for you. But if you created your own god, you
would know very well that it is your creation, and
still it would work wonderfully well for you.
13 December 2012 FOREST FLOWER
The following is an excerpt from a Q&A with
Sadhguru during Leela, the path of the playful,
a unique exploration into the mystical realm of
Krishna that took place at Isha Yoga Center in
September 2005.
Questioner: I have a question about the last part of
chapter 1, verse 35. What are the three worlds that
Arjuna is referring to?
Sadhguru: This is Arjunas question: Oh Govinda,
of what use is a kingdom and happiness when those
with whom we may enjoy these are now arrayed in
battle? When teachers, fathers, sons, grandfathers,
maternal uncles, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brother-
in-laws, and other brethren are standing here ready
to fght, risking their lives? I have no desire to kill
even those bent on killing me. Oh Krishna, I am not
ready to fght with the sons of Dhritarashtra even in
exchange of the three worlds, much less an earthly
kingdom. Oh Mahadeva, we will only incur sin by
killing these aggressors. It is not right for us to kill
the sons of Dhritarashtra and our friends. How can
one be happy after destroying ones own family?
It is interesting that Arjuna is referring to Krishna as
Mahadeva. Usually, the word Mahadeva is reserved
only for Shiva. Here, he is referring to Krishna as
Shiva himself.
So what are the three worlds? This world, the
physical reality, is a play of fve elements. But even
after the play of fve elements is over for a being,
life is still on. That life which is still on has been
categorized as swarga and naraka. Today, because of
English language, the interpretation of naraka and
swarga has become narrower; they have translated
naraka and swarga as hell and heaven. Buddhists
talk about the lower world and the higher world. It
is not that one is up and the other one is down. Up
and down are more metaphorical, more in terms
of your understanding and experience. Depending
upon their nature, some beings get into a torturous
state. Even living within the play of elements, some
people have become a torture within themselves,
some people have become joy within themselves. All
of us have come with the same ingredients, but just
see how different each one of us has become. One
is in fear, another is in anger, another is in anxiety,
another is in joy, another is in love. The same
ingredients, but each one turned out differently.
The importance of human life is, you have come
with discretion. You can employ your discretion to
enhance yourself. The words heaven and hell have
wrong connotations, so let us call one a blissful world
and the other one a torturous world. Either you have
become bliss or you have become a torture. Once
you have lost your body, you have no choice; you
have no discrimination capabilities because with
your body, your intellect is gone too. Because the
intellect is gone, you just move according to your
tendencies. If you have created a torturous tendency,
you cannot stop it. The torture just goes on till that
energy works itself out to a point where the being
can fnd another body. These beings who exist in
the torturous world and in the blissful world have
been categorized in different categories. Yakshas,
gandharvas , devas, and others are all blissful beings,
but they are at different levels of blissfulness.
Out of the three worlds, only in this physical
world, where the intellect is active, you have
discrimination. You can make something out of
yourself. In the other two worlds, either you suffer
Leela Series
The path of the playful
Part XXXVIII
The Three Worlds
14
1
Different kinds of celestial beings
December 2012 FOREST FLOWER
or you enjoy, according to the tendencies that
you have created. Unfortunately, for most human
beings even now their tendencies are carrying them
on not their intelligence, not their awareness. If
you live by choice moment to moment, I am sure
that you would choose to live blissfully, joyfully,
and lovingly. But that is not happening 24 hours
of the day, simply because you are going by your
tendencies, not by your choice. Though you have
the discriminatory capability, you use it only here
and there. If your intellect and discriminatory
process were truly active, you would not be
subject to the tendencies within you. No matter
what karmic tendencies are there, no matter what
outside forces are provoking you, if you functioned
according to your discrimination, you would just
be the way you wish to be in this moment. This
possibility, capability, and power exist only when
you are as a human being in this world. In both, the
tortuous world and the blissful world, you have no
such possibility, capability, and choice.
There are any number of stories in India how
devas or gods, if they want to advance themselves
from the state they are in, come down as human
beings and do the necessary sadhana because here,
there is discriminatory ability. If you are holding
a body and you dont employ your discrimination,
you just foat along by your tendencies as if you
dont belong to this world of possibility but to that
world of passivity. You will get there. But right
now, this world is most important because you
have discriminatory capabilities here. Employ your
discrimination. If you employ your discrimination
24 hours of the day, you will be blissful there is
no other way to be.
An Invitation to the Divine
Suryakund
If you transform mud into food, we call this agriculture. If you make food into flesh
and bone, we call this digestion. If you make flesh into mud, we call this cremation.
If you can make this flesh or even a stone or an empty space into a divine possibility,
that is called consecration.
Sadhguru
To accommodate the growing number of seekers coming to receive the Grace of the Dhyanalinga, the
Suryakund, a new Theerthakund for men, will soon be established. At the beginning of Uttarayana a time
of great spiritual signifcance, when the suns run shifts to the Northern Hemisphere, Sadhguru will
consecrate the three rasalingas of the Suryakund.
North India: 98106 55004; consecration.delhi@ishafoundation.org
Central India: 98203 36823; consecration.mumbai@ishafoundation.org
Karnataka: 96323 33111; consecration.bng@ishafoundation.org
Andhra Pradesh: 99488 75588; consecration.hyd@ishafoundation.org
Tamil Nadu: 0422-2515300; 83000 11000; theerthakundconsecration@ishafoundation.org
Friday, 21 December 2012, 8:
3
0 a.m.
to
Saturday, 22 December 2012, 11 p.m.
Isha Yoga Center, Velliangiri Foothills, Coimbatore
For registrations, please contact:
Consecration
16
Sadhguru Spot
Musings from the Master
In Time for Formula 1
Excerpted fom Sadhguru Spot of 7 November 2012
Last two weeks have been a blitz of travel and
activity after the wonderful Bhava Spandana
weekend in Tennessee and a quick dash to the
big island of Hawaii for a few important and very
interesting meetings. First time on an island with a
live volcano. Washed tracks of black lava leftovers
and pockets of lush green. Fabulous blue-green
ocean and manicured golf courses. Wish there was
more time to explore the island.
Thanks to Air India, now you can skip the European
stopover to land in Delhi in time for the Formula
1 race. Only second time in India. My interest in
machines goes back to early childhood; from some
extensive travel in early teens peddling across
southern states to motorcycling to crisscross India.
Those were the days when travel was just travel and
no other purpose. These travels gave me such an
intimate view and experience of India. I feel like I
know every type of Indian very intimately.
Those were days of wild riding, eating off
roadside dhabas, sleeping in forests, on beaches,
in mountains, and many a times just off the road
upon the motorcycle. My memories of these rides
are vivid and rich with human faces and variety
of terrain that I enjoy immensely. In all this,
my only companion was the throbbing internal
combustion engine that took me around. Racetrack
is a celebration of this incredible product of human
genius. The screams of a Formula 1 machine need
to be heard to be believed. Incredible machines and
driving skills. Only sad part was our own F1 driver
from Coimbatore crashed out of the race midway.
Since then, a quick two-day trip to the ashram,
Literature Live festival in Mumbai, an event in
Rishikesh and one more at Goa, and here I am at
the India Economic Summit. It is well past midnight
and tomorrow is a long day. We will say something
of the Mumbai and Goa events in a week. There
have been a few very interesting moments.
Visit: Sadhguru.org/spot for weekly updated
Musings from the Master
Love & Grace
December 2012 FOREST FLOWER
Hawaii
Hawaii
Environmental Presentation for World Peace in Rishikesh from 23 Nov 2012
Sadhguru at the Formula 1 India Grand Prix in Delhi on 28 Oct 2012
18
October 2012 FOREST FLOWER
Lonely and sad my moods would swing
with a wish that if I had wings
in a fash I would fy
high and high in the sky
happy and free in the clouds
where glee and joy knew no bounds
to a land unknown of grief and dismay
and make my heart feel happy and gay
where anger and frown never stayed a while
and faces around were glued with a smile
But in my head now I hear a scream
Its time to come out of the dream
into the world full of bodies without a soul
and in their hearts a deep dark hole
I had nowhere to turn, had nowhere to go.
this is just something I think you need to know
I dont know what made me trust you
I still remember the day when I told you what Ive been through
I thought I should run away, go hide in a hole
but then you really brought out my true soul
As each day grew longer
our trust became stronger
each time I wanted to cry
you stayed there right by my side
Tank You
Akshay Sivasailam
My Eternal Guru
EnJoY LiVinG in DeVis GraCe
As even a most potent seed needs fertile soil to find full expression of life, a
consecrated space is the need of every human, to blossom and transcend the
limitations imposed by karmic and social situations. Sadhguru
A Linga Bhairavi Yantra will benet you in many ways:
For more information,
please contact +91 94425 04720
or yantra@lingabhairavi.org
The next Yantra Ceremony at Isha Yoga
Center will be held on the full moon night of
28 December 2012.
With the Linga Bhairavi Yantra and Linga Bhairavi Avighna Yantra, Sadhguru offers you the
privilege of turning your home or business area into a consecrated space. These yantras are living
representations of Linga Bhairavi through which you and your family can constantly connect to Devi
and beneft from her Grace.
In a Yantra Ceremony, you can receive your consecrated and personalized Yantra directly from Sadhguru.
This sacred process includes a powerful initiation that will connect you with the energies of Linga Bhairavi.
It enhances the physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing of all those in its sphere
It creates the right kind of atmosphere for a healthy, successful, and prosperous life
Physical contact with the yantra brings a profound transformation in your energy system so that you can
blossom to your full potential
The presence of Devi creates a conducive atmosphere for your spiritual sadhana
The linga shaped-form will sustain its energy for hundreds of years, enabling you and generations of your
family to enjoy the benefts of living in a consecrated space
Linga Bhairavi Yantra
Linga Bhairavi Avighna Yantra

20
Program Highlights
These programs are conducted in English, unless indicated otherwise. Current at the time of print, however subject to
change. For full program schedules and updates, please visit our website: www.ishafoundation.org.
Date Program Place Contact
29 Nov - 2 Dec 2012
INSIGHT: The DNA of
Success with Sadhguru
and Dr. Ram Charan
Isha Yoga Center,
Coimbatore, India
94430 09000
leadership@ishainsight.org
www.ishainsight.org
9 - 12 Dec 2012
Shoonya Intensive
Residential Program
Isha Yoga Center,
Coimbatore, India
0422-2515300
programinfo@ishayoga.org
13 - 15 Dec 2012
Hata Yoga
Residential Program
Isha Yoga Center,
Coimbatore, India
0422-2515300
programinfo@ishayoga.org
21 - 22 Dec 2012
Suryakund
Consecration
Isha Yoga Center,
Coimbatore, India
0422-2515300, 83000 11000
theerthakundconsecration@
ishafoundation.org
28 Dec 2012
Yantra Ceremony
with Sadhguru
Isha Yoga Center,
Coimbatore, India
94425 04720
yantra@lingabhairavi.org
8 - 12 Jan 2013
Chamundi
Sacred Walks
Chamundi Hill,
Mysore
94881 11555
info@sacredwalks.org
www.sacredwalks.org
18 - 20 Jan 2013
Inner Engineering
with Sadhguru
Thyagaraj Sports
Complex, INA,
New Delhi, India
96500 92100, 88600 41275
delhi@ishayoga.org
9 - 10 Feb 2013
Shambhavi Mahamudra
program with Sadhguru
London ExCeL
London, UK
+44-7765567347
info@sadhguruinlondon.com
15 - 17 Feb 2013
Inner Engineering
with Sadhguru
R.R.C. Grounds,
Secunderabad,
Hyderabad, India
85000 61000, 85000 62000
hyderabad@ishayoga.org
24 Feb - 3 Mar 2013
Samyama
Residential Program
Isha Yoga Center,
Coimbatore, India
0422-2515300
programinfo@ishayoga.org
24 Feb - 3 Mar 2013
Pancha Bhuta
Sacred Walks
Tamil Nadu/Andhra
Pradesh, India
94881 11555
info@sacredwalks.org
www.sacredwalks.org
December 2012 FOREST FLOWER
21
Isha Recipes For Healthy Living
BROCCOLI FRY
PREPARATION METHOD
Separate the broccoli into small florets and then cut into small, even-sized pieces.
Heat oil in a pan and add the fenugreek and cumin seeds. As they begin to change color, add
the red chili powder, followed by the broccoli pieces and saut well.
Sprinkle a little water. Add salt to taste. Stir and cover the pan with a lid. Open the lid once
in a while to stir the broccoli. Once the broccoli is cooked, add pepper powder and cook for
half a minute.
Remove pan from heat, add the lemon juice, stir, and serve.
INGREDIENTS
1 medium-sized head Broccoli
1 tablespoon Sunfower oil / olive oil
1 teaspoon Fenugreek seeds
1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
1 teaspoons (or to taste) Red chili powder
To taste Salt
1 teaspoon Black pepper (freshly ground)
1 tablespoon Lemon juice
1.
2.
3.
4.
Broccoli is a member of the cabbage family and was originally cultivated in Italy. Its
health benefts are many:
Broccoli contains three phytonutrients that have a strong impact on our bodys
detoxifcation system.
It is a rich source of a particular favonoid that helps to battle allergies and
infammation.
It contains vitamins A and K, which help to keep the metabolism of vitamin D
in balance. Vitamin D promotes the bodys absorption of calcium and thereby
sustains and promotes bone health and growth.
It is high in dietary fber, which helps to lower cholesterol and facilitates digestion.
It improves eye health due to high concentrations of two carotenoids lutein and
zeaxanthin which play an important role in the health of the eye.
The glucoraphanin from broccoli can be converted into sulforaphane, which
promotes healthy skin.
21 December 2012 FOREST FLOWER
22
April 2012 FOREST FLOWER
22 22
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