No Disasters, Just Situations

Questioner: Sadhguru, I had a big disaster in my life, several months ago. I lost my life savings – about half a million dollars – and it left me destitute. I almost thought that God had deserted me. I’d like to believe again in the Self and in the Divine. Could you help?

Sadhguru: Whatever I say, I am not trying to belittle your suffering, because in your experience, all that is real. But I want you to just look at your life carefully. When you were 10 or 12 years of age, were you happy?

Questioner: When I was 12, I was happy.

Sadhguru: When you were 12, did you have all these things that you recently lost?

Questioner: No.

Sadhguru: So you are capable of being happy without all this stuff. All this stuff is just frills of life. Hundreds of thousands of people on this planet did not wake up to see this morning, so isn’t it a fortune that you did? You are still alive – isn’t this fantastic? You could be gone the next moment, but you are still alive, all four limbs are intact – what more? When you wake up in the morning, don’t take this lightly – this is not a simple thing. Tomorrow morning, when you realize you are awake and you are alive, I want you to really celebrate that moment with a big smile, a laughter, or a scream if you want. Just understand the significance of this. You are alive – isn’t it phenomenal? When so many people did not make it through this night, you made it. What more? Just wake up with this awareness.

This is not a philosophy, this is a reality. Will you realize the value of life only when it is about to go away? Will that be the only time? Unfortunately, for most people on the planet, that is the only time. All their life, they complain. When they have to give up life, they cling to it. People who are constantly complaining about their life, if you point a gun to their head, they will cling; they will be terrified. Why? Shouldn’t they be extremely happy that all their troubles are going to go away in one shot?

What are you complaining about? You have not really looked at your life yet. You are just looking at all kinds of silly things around you – that is the problem. “Oh, that’s okay, Sadhguru – it’s easy for you to say this. But my money is gone. My partner died. My husband died. My wife died.” Yes, I know – I am not saying you should not value them. You must value them when you have them. The moment it is over, it is over. That is all it is.

When you have them, you complain, “All my miseries are because this man or this woman is like this.” If they fall dead, you also complain because you have nobody else to blame for your miseries anymore. If they are not there anymore and you are more miserable than when they were there, who is the problem? If you understand this, you will fix yourself.

There are only situations in life – there are no disasters. There are no great moments, there are no disasters, there is no suffering – there are only situations. When you know how to handle a situation, you think it is great. When you do not know how to handle a situation, you think it is horrid. These are all just things that you are doing – they are just situations.

Should new things happen to you or not? Do you want to die of excitement or boredom? – Please decide. The worst crime you can commit in your life is to die of boredom. My blessing to you is not that your dreams come true – my blessing is: Let your life happen in a way that you could not even imagine. If only your dreams come true… What is your ability to dream? If you had ten dollars yesterday, you will dream of a million dollars and nothing else. Your dreams are just enlarged and exaggerated versions of what you have tasted. Is that all you want – the same rubbish in larger proportions? Something beyond your imagination should touch your life.

Unexpected things are happening to you. Every situation is an opportunity. Either you can use it for your wellbeing or you can make suffering out of it. Let me tell you an extreme example. Maybe I have told you this in some form earlier, but you must listen carefully now.

This happened in 1940 or 41. There was a Jewish family in Austria. One morning, soldiers just walked in and vandalized the house. The two children, a thirteen-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy, were taken away in one direction; the parents and other adults were taken away in a different direction. The children were brought to a railway station. It was winter in Europe, cold. For three days, they were on the railway platform, waiting for a train to come. Children are children – the boys were kicking something around, playing soccer. Suddenly, the train came. Soldiers came with guns and said, “Everybody get in.” Everybody rushed into the cargo train.

When the train started moving and the doors were closed, the boy realized he had left his shoes on the platform. No shoes in winter could mean many things. When his sister realized that he did not have his shoes, she got so mad with him. Anyway the children did not know what was happening. All they knew was their parents had been taken away and they did not know where they themselves were being driven. “We are already in enough trouble and now you have to leave your shoes!” She held her brother by the ear, boxed his ears, and really scolded him. At the next station, the boys and girls were separated.

After the war ended in 1945, this girl, then a little over 17, came out of the camp and discovered that her whole family had evaporated, including this little boy. She never saw them again. When she realized that she was never going to see her brother again, what bothered her most was how she treated him when they were together for the last time, how she abused him. So she made a commitment to herself, “Whoever I meet in my life, suppose this happens to be the last time that I see them, I should not have to look back in regret.” Just this one simple thing transformed her life tremendously. In 2004 or ’05, she died. She lived such an inspired life. You meet people, right now we are here, and you do not know whether this is the last time we see each other. Since this could be the last time, we should not say or do anything that we will later regret.

It does not matter what life throws at you, what you make out of it is still yours. If you throw filth at a mango tree, it will make sweetness out of it. So if life throws filth at you, if you are alive to it, you can blossom into a fragrant flower. If you do agriculture or gardening, you will know filth is good. Only if you have a very sanitized mind, you think filth is bad. Believe me, filth is good. If somebody throws filth into your house, you can make flowers out of it.

In yoga, we always use the symbol of a lotus flower – just for this reason. A lotus grows best wherever the slush is thick – the filthier it is, the better. It is the same filth which blossoms into a beautiful and fragrant flower. Have you seen these symbolic images of yogis sitting in lotus posture, sitting upon lotuses, or with lotus flowers blossoming out of their heads? This is to show you, a lot of filth was thrown at them and they made flowers out of it. Do not carry a load of filth on your head. Life has thrown enough filth at you – it is time you learn to cure it into manure.

Do not carry the experience of life as a wound. Let it become wisdom. This is a choice you have. Out of every experience of life, you can make a wound – or you can make wisdom out of it. The harder life has been upon you, the sooner you should become wise.

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