In this day and age of social media, toxicity like trolling and mocking public figures has become all-too-common on the web. Be it celebrities, social workers, or spiritual leaders– it seems that anyone might be singled out for online abuse. While many people may not feel that often baseless and unreasonable online harassment is a wise, productive, or compassionate use of time and energy, such behaviors have undoubtedly become a reality for certain sections of society.
Instead of using a powerful tool like social media to spread knowledge and positivity, some popular content creators use it as a platform to attempt to undermine people who are actually taking constructive action to bring about a positive change in the world. Unfortunately, Sadhguru is no stranger to such attacks.
Referring to a recent video by YouTuber CarryMinati, Anant Goenka, the Executive Director of the Indian Express Group, asks Sadhguru whether parodies and trolls affect him. Sadhguru responds with his signature blend of disarming wit and boundless wisdom.
Sadhguru: “Are you saying ‘some’? There is nothing that I have not been accused of and abused of in everything that happens, but that’s their mind, what can I do? I made myself like this- what somebody says, whether they call me god or they call me a rogue makes no difference for me. I am not somebody who is made by people’s opinions- good or bad, it doesn’t matter. I made myself in a different way, so in terms of who I am and my experience of life, nothing changes, even if the whole world says the same thing. But definitely, in terms of effectiveness of work, yeah, it makes things unnecessarily difficult because all kinds of rubbish is put all over the place. The negative campaign is not in one place, it’s around the world, Indians have reach around the world. The incredible thing is, I have massive support in Pakistan- about the same size of population in India is against me.”
“It’s part of working in this world, there are a whole lot of people who have nothing significant to do in their life. Their only thing is, wherever there is something, they will attach themselves like fleas on it. It’s okay, it doesn’t hurt me, so if they don’t want these things to happen, they don’t want soil to be saved, they don’t want rivers of India to flow again, if they don’t want, that’s their choice. Unfortunately, I would like these things fixed. I’m sure most of you would like it fixed. Well, will everything happen, I don’t believe that everything that we aim for will happen, not in this generation. At least if we take a few steps, the next generation hopefully will take more steps, this is the only way solutions will come.”
Sadhguru: “I don’t know who this is you’re talking about, but I’m not surprised. If somebody is an influencer, any kind of influence, see this happens to you, you may be living somehow but suddenly you have a child, the moment they’re looking at you, if you’re smoking, you put your cigarette away. If you’re doing something else, you do that, why? Because the moment you’re an influencer in your home, the moment you’re influencing a young life, you try to change your life in some way to the extent possible for you. So, if you’re influencing, what is the number, 40 million, yeah, if you are influencing 40 million people, I hope you become a little more responsible. It’s very important.”
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