Sadhguru on Alcohol and other Intoxicants
Question: I have a college-going son. When my husband comes home after office parties where he has had a few drinks, my son is very upset. My husband says, “You can’t avoid drinks in such places. You will look like an alien.” My son is confused. I am worried.
Sadhguru: If the son comes home drunk, I am sure the father will be upset. If the wife comes home drunk, I am sure he will freak out, isn’t it so?
Right now, we are creating a culture in this country that is very consciously engineered by commercial forces, not by people’s choices. There was a time where if you did not smoke, you were not a man. This is over. Now they are making you feel if you do not drink, you are not a man. And if you are a successful man, you must drink. So we are creating a culture that is not towards wellbeing. This is a culture that is being nurtured by commercial forces who are interested in selling what they want to sell. Commercial forces are made in such a way that if you are willing to eat mud, they will advertise and make you eat mud; they have no issues with it.
Whether to drink or not is your choice. The difference between death and life is – in death you are not alert, in life you are capable of being alert. In sleep you are not alert; in wakefulness you are capable of being alert. Life happens to you only when you are alert and awake. A drink is intoxication, which is taking you away from alertness. Your evening drink or your office party drink seems to be such a big relief right now because you do not know how to make this mind into a blissful process.
If your mind is stressed, tense, and miserable, intoxication looks like a great relief. If you give this message to your life energies, that anything that moves away from life is a relief, then somewhere, the life within you understands that you want to move towards death, and maybe it will deliver you there very quickly.
Right now, your mind is a torturous process. Drink is the only break you have. I can teach you a method with which you can keep your mind in such a way that every moment of your life, your mind is blissful. If you become blissful by your own nature, would you want to intoxicate yourself? You would not want to.
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