Guruprasad குருபிரசாத் விஜயராவ்

So, you can think that survival means two meals a day, or you can think survival means Bentley, so it’ll keep you busy a little longer. Still, survival is a process. As long as there is survival, there’s an instinct for survival, and there is a longing to expand within the human being. For most human beings, these two things are mixed up. It is their instinct for survival that is finding expression as their longing to expand.

It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are—anybody wants to be something more. If that “something more” happens, you want to be something more again. You can go on like this endlessly. How much more? Whatever you want—if I make it true for you right now, the next moment you’ll be thinking, “What more?” Suppose I make you the king—not of England, but of the planet—will you be fulfilled? No. You’ll look at the moon, you’ll look at other planets, you’ll look at other galaxies. If I give you one galaxy, you’ll ask, “What about the other galaxy?”

There is something within a human being that wants to expand limitlessly. I’m not saying it’s not good. I’m just saying you’ve constipated that longing to expand—that’s why you suffer. When I say “constipated,” I mean right now you want to expand limitlessly, but can you expand this body limitlessly? Please don’t. Physical expansion is a limited expansion, yet your longing is to expand limitlessly because there is something within you that doesn’t like boundaries.

See, if I imprison you in a 5×5 cubicle, you will feel terribly imprisoned. Then tomorrow, I’ll announce your liberation and release you into a 10×10 cubicle. You’ll feel wonderful for two days, then you’ll feel horribly imprisoned. Then we’ll release you into a 100×100 cubicle. You’ll be fine for a week; after that, you’ll feel miserable. It doesn’t matter where I set the boundary—once you feel the boundary, you want to break it.

There is something intrinsic within you that doesn’t like boundaries. This is a consequence of the evolution you’ve gone through. Once your neocortex flowered, you don’t like boundaries. But you’re trying to expand in an infinite way by counting: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Can you ever count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and, one day, say “infinity”? You’ll only get into endless counting—that’s all that’s happening.

That’s why I said your longing to expand is a limitless process, but right now you’re constipated—you’re going one little step at a time. Constipation means just this: it happens little by little. What is the means to become a boundless expansion? If you look at that, then we say consciousness. This is what raising human consciousness means. You realize physical expansion is not realistic. We can make physical arrangements as we want, as we need, for our convenience and comfort, but that is not the way to expand.

Expansion needs to happen in a way that is not physical in nature. Then you can also own the universe. I can also own the universe. When you say, “Hey, where am I going wrong?” the wrong is this: the fundamental wrong is this—what is not you, if you think it’s you, then you’re trapped in that. If you think, “I am this chair” because you sat on this chair for a period of time, and you think you are this chair, now this chair will go with you, stuck to your backside wherever you go. That’s a very ugly thing to do, isn’t it?

It’s the same thing right now. Your thought—you think it’s you. Your emotion—you think it’s you. Your physiological stuff—you think it’s you. It’s pretty ludicrous. Just because everybody’s got this chair stuck to their backside, it looks like it’s normal. After all, it’s convenient—wherever you go, you don’t have to look for a chair; you’ve got a chair fixed.

The thing is, your identity—whatever you are identified with—that becomes a part of you. If you sit here just as life, what is your problem? The only problem is you’re identified with things that you’re not, so there’s a whole lot of confusion about everything. If you’re successful, you suffer; if you fail, you suffer.

Is there one thing that human beings are not suffering? Just tell me. Somebody’s poor—they suffer their poverty. Somebody becomes rich—they suffer the taxes. No children—they suffer that. Give them children—every day, pain, something or the other. So, it looks like the whole life is suffering. Somebody makes a philosophy: “Whole life is suffering; you must go to heaven.” If you know that much, why are you not gone? You are not gone because you don’t know a damn thing whether there is a place better than this somewhere or not. You don’t know—you’re just claiming these things to somehow fix your psychological sloshing that’s happening inside.

You’re making up things to somehow believe something so that your psychology won’t just splash all over the place and go crazy. You’re trying to hold yourself in place, telling yourself fairy tales. All right?

So, what I’m saying is, do you believe that if you want to navigate your life through this time we have in a sensible manner, the most important thing is to see life as it is? If I don’t see things as they are in this room, I’ll walk into this table, I’ll bump into somebody, I’ll do crazy things every day. If I see very clearly, navigating myself through all these cables and tripods is not a big problem. Hello? But if I don’t see, if there’s no clarity of vision, if I’m not seeing things as they are, then what a mess it is—every little thing.

That’s all the problem. The problem is not that what you’re doing is wrong; the way you’re seeing it is wrong.

You’re identified with things that you’re not, so there’s a whole lot of confusion about everything. If you’re successful, you suffer. If you fail, you suffer.

Is there one thing that human beings are not suffering? Just tell me. Somebody’s poor—they suffer their poverty. Somebody becomes rich—they suffer the taxes. No children—they suffer that. Give them children—every day, pain, something or the other.

So, it looks like the whole life is suffering. Somebody makes a philosophy: “Life is suffering; you must go to heaven.” If you know that much, why are you not gone? You’re not gone because you don’t know a damn thing about whether there’s a place better than this or not. You don’t know. You’re just claiming these things to somehow fix your psychological sloshing that’s happening inside.

You’re making up things to somehow believe something so that your psychology doesn’t splash all over the place and go crazy. You’re trying to hold yourself together with fairy tales.

What I’m saying is, do you believe that if you want to navigate your life sensibly through the time we have, the most important thing is to see life as it is? If I don’t see things as they are in this room, I’ll walk into tables, bump into people, and do crazy things every day.

If I see clearly, navigating myself through all these cables and tripods isn’t a big problem. But if I don’t see, if there’s no clarity of vision, if I’m not seeing things as they are, then what a mess it is—every little thing.

That’s the problem. The problem is not that what you’re doing is wrong; it’s that the way you’re seeing it is wrong.

You think those people who committed suicide, everything was wrong with their life? No, not everything was wrong with their life. A few things, as it goes wrong in your life, my life, everybody’s life. Some things don’t work all right in everybody’s life. Something doesn’t work in the outside world. If everything is working for you, obviously you’re living a very petty life.

In my life, 95% of the things that I want don’t happen. Only 5% happens because I’m trying to fix everything in the world. Most of the things don’t happen. So, if anybody wants to die of frustration, it must be me. But I will not, because no matter what, I will die blessed out. I live blessed out. I die blessed out because what I do, what the situation is around me, and how I am are never connected. I am the way I am. I’ll do my best.

See, the problem is too much spiritual jargon is going all over the world because every idiot who’s read two books can write the next book. There was a time when people read 10 books and then wrote one book. That was called plagiarism. Now they read two books, and they write the third book. Just about everybody is writing. It’s all right. It’s freedom of expression. They can write what they want. But these are two things: there is expression, and there is perception. Which should you invest in more? If you perceive well, your expression will be valuable. Right now, everybody’s on an expression binge without perceiving a damn thing.

Why it became like this is the dogmatic religious beliefs which did not allow people to think for themselves. If you thought anything other than what’s written in the book, you’re dead. They made this for a few centuries. So, suddenly, when they broke away from that and started thinking for themselves, they suddenly thought this is liberation, and they idolized human thought. We crafted the whole education system on the planet based on that.

Today, you’re just using one dimension of your intelligence, which is intellect. Thought process is thought to be everything, where one of them went to the extent of saying, “I think, so I exist.” I’m asking you, do you exist because you think, or because you exist, you think? You may think if you want, or you may not think. It’s up to you.

So, because you exist, your existence is important. Your existence is it because you’re seeing me that you exist? Even if you close your eyes, you still exist, isn’t it? If you don’t hear anything, you still exist. So, your existence is fundamental. These are all activities of seeing, hearing, smelling, thinking, emoting. These are all activities of your existence, the life that you are. But we got it all upside down, and how do you expect it to work?

Because another aspect is, if I ask you a simple question, would you want your intellect to be sharp or blunt? Sharp. If I give you a sharp instrument, let’s say we give you a very sharp knife. Now, you must be very conscious of how you move your hand. If you’re a little “la la la la” kind, “la la la la,” if you do, intestines will come out. We don’t give a knife to a child’s hand only because of this, because his hand is not steady. Not because the knife is dangerous. Never in history has it ever happened that a knife jumped up and stabbed somebody. It never happened. Believe me, I’ve been following the news.

It is only the hand that wields it. It can cut a vegetable and make your meal, or it can do surgery and save somebody’s life, or stab somebody and take their life. All these things, the hand can do, not the knife.

So, right now, your intellect is a sharp instrument. Once you have a sharp instrument, you must know how to hold it. This is simply not there. Everybody’s cutting themselves up, and they think something is wrong with life. You can call it stress, anxiety, misery, whatever you want. Essentially, you have a sharp instrument, and you’re unconscious, so you’re cutting yourself up.

See, whatever you call it, you call it by whatever name you want—stress, anxiety, tension, depression, bipolar, this one, that one, many things. I was talking to some of the top psychiatrists in the UK, and they told me there are 72 varieties of psychological ailments. I thought there might be half a dozen, but they said there are 72 varieties of psychological ailments. I was really surprised. 72? That’s like a golf game.

Then I asked, “What are these?” They told me quite a few things. One of the things they told was compulsive nose-picking. Even if they’re bleeding in the nose, they can’t stop it. That explains everything. Everything, in a way. Compulsive nose-picking.

Leave the nose-picking; it’s compulsiveness. You’re compulsive in your thought, compulsive in your emotion, compulsive in your actions. That’s all the problem is. How do you fix compulsiveness?

If this room is dark, how do you fix it? Let’s do one thing: both of us fight with this darkness and push it out of the window. There’s no such thing. If you turn on the light, it’s gone. So, there is no substitute for consciousness.

If you become conscious, compulsive behavior is gone. Suppose in thought, emotion, action, and energy, you are not compulsive, that you can create whatever thought you want, whatever emotion you want. Would you keep yourself blessed out or miserable? What’s your choice for yourself?

Every human being, for themselves, they want the highest level of pleasantness. So, the intent is already there. I don’t have to inspire them to be blessed out. There’s no such philosophy. Every human being wants the highest level of pleasantness for themselves.

Those who think it’s up there, they’re the ones who created heaven. They said there is a place that is always pleasant. But they don’t have any proof that we are not already in heaven and making a mess out of that.

Hello, this is planet Earth, and it’s a fantastic place. It’s the most fantastic place we have seen in the known universe. Everybody who thinks there is one, they must go today. If they have better accommodation somewhere, then London, should they not go? Did people not rush to America at one time? Why are they not going? No, they want you to go.

This is not good. See, whatever kind of mental ailment you talk about, essentially, when your intelligence turns against you, there’s no power in the universe that can help you. But why is my intelligence turning against me? Somewhere, we have not learned how to handle it, isn’t it?

Your education systems, your society, nowhere is there anything to teach a child how to handle their own intelligence, their own emotions, their own thoughts. There is no such thing. All fixing, mechanic shop, you know, repair jobs everywhere. Leave the repair jobs.

The simple thing is this: the reason why people are struggling with this is they have—pardon my words, but otherwise people won’t get it—they have a mental diarrhea. This doesn’t create anything except distress. Anything that runs loose without your control is called diarrhea.

Why has it happened? Even today, even if somebody gets physical diarrhea, immediately somebody will pop a pill. But traditionally, what we do, if somebody has diarrhea, the first thing is we understood we have eaten something wrong. The first thing we did was just don’t eat, just drink water and wait.

Next, identify: what did I eat yesterday or today morning? What happened to me? What is it that I consumed which caused this? And avoid that. But no, we will plug it in.

No, if you plug it in, it’ll all rise within yourself. This is all that’s happening right now. Our way of doing life is very forceful. There is no overthinking.

I’m saying people, people are not thinking enough. This is a serious problem, but they think they’re overthinking. They are not overthinking; it’s a diarrhea. It’s happening. Why is it happening? Something wrong has gone in—food has gone in. What is the wrong food? This is all it is. The moment you identify yourself with something that you are not, your mind—you cannot stop. Do what you want, do whatever you want, it will not stop. See, what is it that human beings are suffering? What happened 10 years ago—they’re still suffering. What may happen the day after tomorrow—they’re already suffering. What happened 10 years ago—is it here now? Does it exist? No. What may happen the day after tomorrow—does it exist here? No. So, if you’re suffering something that does not exist, what does it mean? It is insanity.

That’s why I’m saying, once you start doing this, how far you go, when will you graduate, when will you end up in a doctor’s place, when will you end up in an asylum—is a question of time. But now, world bodies are predicting it’s going to happen on a large scale very soon. So, let us say such a terrible thing—we had to face that we may lose our child. Tell me, can you do the best for the child if you are in your sanity, or is it good to go into insanity? Sanity will make a difference. Maybe we can save the child, maybe we cannot, because all aspects of life—we don’t determine. Our experience, we can determine.

My family is so large, almost every other day I am burying somebody who’s very dear to me. I don’t let anything drive me into insanity. This is a brief amount of time that you have as life here. We create many things. You’re creating businesses. I have large movements where millions of people are involved. There are relationships. You cannot take these things lightly because other lives are involved, but you cannot prevent anybody from dying. You can attend to them. If something is going to happen to them, you can make attempts to save them, but you cannot prevent anybody from absolutely dying, including yourself. This is a fact. So, the only two things that we have are a certain amount of time and a certain amount of energy. This is all that you call life. What do you want to make out of it? You want to make a mess out of it?

See, the thing is, first of all, they’re living an emotionally constipated life. They only loved their child. I saw everybody as mine. Everything that happens hurts, but that’s part of it. If you walk in a forest, there are thorns in your feet, but this doesn’t mean you don’t enjoy the forest, all right? I have done this to myself—that nothing happens within me the way I don’t want it. If that was your situation—nothing happens within you unconsciously. Everything that happens, happens the way you want within yourself. What is the experience that you want to have right now? It is always determined by you. What would be your choice—grief and misery?

See, you are the only creature who can decide your way of being, no matter what is the surrounding. Every other creature is an instinctive reaction to what’s happening around them because they are only fired by their survival instinct. They don’t have any other aspiration. Once their stomach is full, their life is settled. For a human being, stomach empty is only one problem; stomach full—100 problems, because life doesn’t settle with survival. You want to be something else all the time. The problem is, you’re a being. You’re supposed to know how to be. How far away have human beings gone from the definition or that aspiration?

If I want, do I do? If I want, I can be loving. If I want, I can be joyful. If I want, I can be sad. Yes, when somebody dear to you is no more, you allow yourself that, but do you stop doing anything? No. See, if you get absolutely committed to your purpose, you will be called a fanatic. If you’re willing to do whatever it takes to achieve that, you’ll be called a terrorist. So, there is no purpose to life if you are not a vested interest, and you can be not a vested interest only when you’re joyful by your own nature—that how you are is determined by you.

So, this is the fundamental you have to set—that your experience of life is determined by you. When I say experience of life, people are always thinking experiences happen because of external stimuli. No. If you dream of a tiger, you can experience fear, isn’t it? You can dream of somebody beautiful and experience love, yes or no? So, I’m saying all experiences are caused from within you. Human experience happens from within you, never from outside of you. There may be a stimulus. I’m asking you—your peace, your joy, your love, your blissfulness—would you want to keep it on self-start or push-start? You want push-start? Don’t be on push. Inner experiences are all on self-start.

The outside world will never happen 100% our way. Little bit your way, little bit my way, little bit somebody else’s way—that’s how it should be. See, if everything happened your way, where the hell do I go? It doesn’t happen your way or my way—it’s fine. It is only fine if you’re joyful by your own nature. But if your happiness depends on what happens on the outside, then you being happy is a remote possibility. Do you think your life is worthwhile? Your life is worth investing about 32 hours of focused time upon it. If you think so, you should do that. This is what the process that I have called it as Inner Engineering.

32 hours of focused time—a book is just a large brochure because there is a practice involved. When I say a practice, it’s a simple practice, which is only 21 minutes. To teach this 21-minute practice, we take 32 hours of orientation because, without that, it won’t happen. You need to understand how the mechanism of your own thoughts works. Why are they hitting you? If your hand is punching you in the face, why is it doing that? You need to understand. Otherwise, just holding it down is not the answer.

This is the most sophisticated machine on the planet. Have you read the user’s manual for yourself as a life? So, when do you want to do it? Towards the end of life is when people think they should do it. It’s like you got yourself an iPad—should you read the user’s manual in the first three days, or after three years when you’re getting rid of the machine?

The thing is, it’s inbuilt. You have to just pay attention. All your sense organs are outward-bound because they are survival instruments. Your sense organs—your ability to see, hear, smell, taste, and touch—are essentially your survival instruments. Life cannot be enhanced by them. You can only survive better. If you see better than me, you can survive better than me. If you hear better than me, you can survive better than me. But this life will not feel enhanced by perceiving more through the five sense organs. And they’re all outward-bound.

You can see me, but can you roll your eyeballs inward and scan yourself? No. You can hear so much happening in the body, but can you hear that? No. So, all your sense organs are only to perceive what’s happening around you, not to perceive what’s within you. To perceive within you, you need to turn inward. That needs a little effort because it’s not survival. Something has to be done.

You know how to write the English language. To learn that damn 26 alphabets, it took some effort, didn’t it? And it took some guidance because anything that’s beyond survival needs striving. That striving is missing in society. Anything that’s not survival will not come naturally—you have to strive.