Does Spirituality Make You Special?

For many people, the reason why the spiritual path seems to be a struggle is that their culture and social situations have always taught them to be special. So one's whole life effort becomes focused on this. To be special means to have something others do not have, but wanting to possess something that others do not have is not "special" -- it is a convoluted sense of wellbeing. Right now, if your only joy is that somebody else does not have what you have, if this is the only pleasure in your life, we call this perversion, not special.

People can find pleasure in all kinds of things. Once it happened -- two men were captured by fierce cannibals from a neighboring tribe. After a meeting with their headman, the tribe decided to cook the men alive. The men were placed in a pot of water, and as the fire started burning and the water became hotter and hotter, the older man started laughing -- really laughing. So the younger man said, "Are you crazy? Do you know what is going to happen to us? Why are you laughing?" The older man said, "I just peed in their soup!" So people find pleasure in all sorts of perverted ways.

Spirituality is not about becoming special. It is about becoming one with everything. This wanting to become special -- this disease -- has come to people simply because they have not recognized the value of the uniqueness of their being. By living on the surface for so long, their whole effort has been to be special. As long as this effort is on, you are only working counter to the spiritual process. The whole dimension of spirituality is to melt and become one with existence, not to stand out like a sore thumb.

In so many ways, the mind always wants to be special. That is the nature of the egoistic mind. Logically, it can only compare. The moment this comparison comes, competition starts. And the moment competition starts, your life sense will disappear because now it is only about being better than others. It is because of this foolish endeavor that we are in the ridiculous situation of having to teach people about their own nature. We have to remind people about their own original nature simply because they are just lost trying to outdo someone or everyone around them.

Some time ago, our yoga program brochures used to say: "From Ordinary to Extraordinary." People thought they would become special by doing the program and would ask me "Sadhguru, how will we be special?" And I would always tell them, "You are going to become "extra" ordinary -- more ordinary than other people."

The more and more you try to be special, the further and further you get from the truth. So much suffering and mental illness have come from this desire to be special. So instead of deriving perverse pleasure from the fact that somebody does not have what you have, if you genuinely make the effort to become one with everything, then this internal struggle will completely go away. If you recognize your uniqueness and also every other being's uniqueness, you can neither become less nor more than anyone else.

Rediscovering the Ancient Science of Yoga

The word yoga literally means "union." When you experience everything as oneness in your consciousness, then you are in yoga. To attain that unity within you, there are many steps. Hatha yoga, for example, is one step. Hatha yoga means you start with the body; the body itself has its own attitudes, its own ego, its own nature. For example, you say, "Starting tomorrow, I will get up at five in the morning and go for a walk." You set the alarm. The alarm rings. You want to get up, but your body says, "Shut up and sleep!" It has its own way. So we start with the body. Hatha yoga is a way of disciplining the body, purifying and preparing it for higher levels of energy.

All of us are alive; all of us are human beings. But all of us do not experience life at the same intensity because our energy levels are not the same. Our pranic energies are not the same. Different people experience life in different levels of intensity. Take, for example, a tree. A tree is just a tree. Most people will not even notice it, but one person will see the tree in great detail, an artist may see every shade of it, and somebody else sees not only the tree but also the divine in it. Everybody sees, but seeing is not the same because the level of intensity with which we experience life is not the same. So we start with the body because that is something that we all know.

The whole process of yoga is to take you from something that you know to the next step -- the unknown. If we talk about something that you do not know, either you have to believe it or disbelieve it. Suppose I start talking about God. You either have to believe my God or disbelieve my God, which will only take you into flights of imagination, not into growth. So we talk about the body. This is something that you know -- you know you have a body -- so we take the body to its peak. Then we talk about the breath and then the mind; that is also something that you know. You can only grow by taking the next step from where you are right now. Realizing where you are right now and taking the next step is growth.

The science of yoga is almost like a physical science. Suppose you mix two parts of hydrogen and one part of oxygen; you will get water. If a great scientist puts it together, it is water, and even if an idiot puts it together, it is still water. Similarly, in yoga, if you follow specific practices, only a certain result will happen. Whether a great yogi does it or an ignorant person does it, it does not matter. If one does the practices and spiritual disciplines properly, the results will arise.

These yogic systems have been identified for thousands of years, throughout the history of yoga. To start with, you work with the body, then you move to the breath, then the mind, then your inner nature. Many systems have been created that focus on just one step, like the body or the breath. But these are only different aspects of yoga. There is really no such thing as different branches of yoga. It is important that, in a very balanced way, all of these aspects are addressed as one unit. Otherwise, if you work with just the body, it is only preparatory in nature. So there is really no division as such. Yoga is a union of all steps -- cultivating the body, breath, mind and the inner nature.

The 7 Chakras and Their Significance to Your Life

Chakras are energy centers. Although most people have heard of seven chakras, there are actually 114 in the body. The human body is a complex energy form; in addition to the 114 chakras, it also has 72,000 "nadis," or energy channels, along which vital energy, or "prana," moves. When the nadis meet at different points in the body, they form a triangle. We call this triangle a chakra, which means "wheel." We call it a wheel because it symbolizes growth, dynamism and movement, so even though it is actually a triangle, we call it a chakra. Some of these centers are very powerful, while others are not as powerful. At different levels, these energy centers produce different qualities in a human being





Fundamentally, any spiritual path can be described as a journey from the base chakra, called the
"Mooladhara," which is located at the base of the spine, to the "Sahasrar," which located at the top of the
head. This journey of movement from the Mooladhara to Sahasrar is from one dimension to another. It
may happen in many different ways, and various yogic practices can effect this movement.
Mooladhara is really made up of two terms: "Moola" means the root or source, and "adhar" means the
foundation. It is the very basic foundation of life. In the physical body, your energies need to be in the
Mooladhara chakra to some extent. Otherwise, you cannot exist. If the Mooladhara chakra alone is
dominant, food and sleep will be the predominant factors in your life.




We can speak in terms of lower and higher chakras, but such language is often and too easily
misunderstood. It is like comparing the foundation of a building to the roof; the roof is not superior to
the foundation. The foundation of the building is more basic to the building than the roof, and the
quality, life span, stability and security of the building depends, to a large extent, on the foundation
rather than the roof. But in terms of language, the roof is higher, and the foundation is lower.
The second chakra is "Swadhisthana." If your energies move into Swadhisthana, you are a pleasure
seeker. The Swadhisthana chakra is located just above the genital organs. When this chakra is active, you
enjoy the physical world in so many ways. If you look at a pleasure seeker, you will see that his life and
his experience of life are just a little more intense compared with a person who is only about food and
sleep.


f your energy moves into the "Manipuraka" chakra, located just below the navel, you are a doer in the
world. You are all about action. You can do many, many things. If your energies move into the "Anahata"
chakra, you are a creative person. A person who is creative in nature, like an artist or an actor, is
someone who lives very intensely -- more intensely, perhaps, than a businessman, who is all action.
The Anahata literally means the "un-struck." If you want to make any sound, you have to strike two
objects together. The un-struck sound is called "Anahata." Anahata is located in the heart area and is like
a transition between your lower chakras and your higher chakras, between survival instincts and the
instinct to liberate yourself. The lower three chakras are mainly concerned with your physical existence.
Anahata is a combination; it is a meeting place for both the survival and the enlightenment chakras.
The next chakra is the "Vishuddhi," which literally means "filter." Vishuddhi is located in the area of your
throat. If your energies move into Vishuddhi, you become a very powerful human being, but this power is
not just political or administrative. A person can be powerful in many ways. A person can become so
powerful that if he just sits in one place, things will happen for him. He can manifest life beyond the
limitations of time and space.


If your energies move into the "Agna" chakra, located between your eyebrows, you are intellectually
enlightened. You have attained to a new balance and peace within you. The outside no longer disturbs
you, but you are still experientially not liberated.
If your energies move into "Sahasrar," at the crown of your head, you become ecstatic beyond all reason.
You will simply burst with ecstasy for no reason whatsoever.
Chakras have more than one dimension to them. One dimension is their physical existence, but they also
have a spiritual dimension. This means that they can be completely transformed into a new dimension. If
you bring the right kind of awareness, the same Mooladhara that craves food and sleep can become
absolutely free from the process of food and sleep. If one wants to go beyond food and sleep, one needs to
transform the Mooladhara to an evolved state.
To move from Mooladhara to Agna, from the lowest of these seven chakras to the second highest, there
are many procedures, methods and processes through which one can raise his energies. But from Agna to
Sahasrar, the sixth chakra to the highest chakra, there is no path. You can only jump there. In a way, you
have to fall upward. So, the question of going step by step to that dimension does not really arise. There
is no way.


It is for this reason that spiritual traditions have emphasized the significance of a guru's role in one's
realization; guru literally means "dispeller of darkness." You can only jump into an abyss -- the depth of
which you do not know -- if you have an absolutely insane heart, or if your trust in someone is so deep
that you are willing to do anything in their presence. Most people, due to a lack of either of these two
aspects, just get stuck in the Agna chakra. When this happens, peacefulness is the highest state they will
know. It is only from this limitation that there has been so much talk about peace being the highest
possibility. But for someone seeking their ultimate nature, peace is only the beginning; it is not the
ultimate goal