The Importance of Communication

You get a text or email, but your reply surprises the author. They don’t understand what you wrote or why you replied as you did. They are at a loss as to why you did not understand their questions or comments.

Sometimes we see a video, read an article, or listen to another person, but what you walk away with as your understanding is not the same as any other person involved. Why is that?

Communication, says Sadhguru, is not just about language or a particular message but about a profound interaction between various forces of life. He explains that yoga means union: that when you sit here, your individuality is just a small part, while life is a larger part.

Sadhguru: There are many ways in which you can communicate with everything in the world. There are some to whom you can communicate what you want with gentle words. There are some to whom you have to speak strongly. Some need an “injection,” depending on the type of “infection” they are suffering from. There are some who will understand if you just look at them. There are some you do not even have to look at – if I sit with eyes closed, they will get it. So, there are different ways to communicate. Which is the best way to communicate? The best way to do it is the way it gets across. Because communication means the other person should get it.

For me, language is just a means. I would rather shut up and sit in one place. But then, very few people will get it. So, you have to do a lot of talking – sometimes gentle, sometimes harsh, sometimes fiery. This is not just between human beings – this applies to everything. 

For some people, everything seems to be co-operating with them – the food that they eat, the water that they drink, the air that they breathe, the land that they walk upon, and all the creatures and plants. Everything seems to be co-operating with certain lives. With certain other lives, everything seems to be going against them. It is a question of communication. 

Communication is not just of language. Communication is not just a particular message. Communication is interaction between various forces of life. If you hold yourself as an absolute individual, then you are a nutcase that is hard to communicate with. If you understand that you are just a piece of life with the privilege of knowing some sense of individuality, then you are easy to communicate with. This reminds me of an incident that recently happened in the house.

Without Even Asking

Around Mahashivratri, I had a few guests at home, but also a lot of rats and squirrels. I do not mind them, but they were making noises throughout the night running on the tiled roof. I told someone, “If there were two snakes in the garden, they would control all these things.” Then one evening, when I was walking in the garden, a nearly six-foot-long snake showed up. I thought, “That’s  good. But why is there only one, not two?” 

The next morning, around 10:30, people in the house came to me terrified and said, “Sadhguru, in your bathroom, there is a big snake!” How did he get into my bathroom? We never leave any door open in the house because we have a lot of reptile experience behind us. You open a door, you walk through it, and again close it – this is the rule in the house. The snake had to pass through three doors to get into the bathroom. Somehow, at different times, when a door was open, he must have slipped through and gone into the bathroom. So, I picked up the snake and left him outside. I was still wondering, why only one? Then, a little later, another snake showed up – a little smaller one, about four feet long. I said, “Okay, this is good. This is as things should be.”

This is how life is. If you are yoga, not just practicing yoga, you do not even have to ask – what you need just happens. Not just in terms of garden snakes – in every aspect of life. If you ask, you will ask for something that you know. That will be a waste of life. What is the point of a life full of asking for stupid things that you already know? Things that you could not imagine, things that you have no clue about must happen to you – only then life is happening. And in a way, this is all a question of communication. 

When I say “communication,” people think in terms of texting or talking on their phone. That is also communication, but that kind of communication will keep the social situation going and nothing more. Social situations can keep you distracted – they cannot leave you fulfilled. Social interactions can keep you distracted and entertained for a while, but they will never work towards your fulfillment, because that is not their nature. 

It is important that if you sit here, you are in a profound communication with everything around you. Not saying anything, no particular message, just a profound interaction between you and all that is there. This is yoga. Yoga means union, that when you sit here, your individuality is just a small part – life is a larger part. And life does not happen in drops – it is one big happening. 

No Time to Simmer

It is a great privilege that, though we are just a part of this whole thing, life gives you an individual experience. Though we are really nothing, a speck of dust in creation, still we can sit here and feel like an individual. This is the magnanimity of creation. Your ability to communicate and interact with existence depends on how little of an individual you are. You made yourself too big, when actually, in this cosmic space, of which you do not know where it begins and where it ends, we are really nothing, not even a speck. But this speck imagines all kinds of things. And your life is ticking away. In spite of that, you take time to bullshit yourself endlessly about who you are. 

But you cannot work in the world if you are nothing – you’ve got to be somebody. Someone recently said to me, “Sadhguru, sometimes, these days, you are speaking in a very fiery manner.”  I said, “Always.” “No, Sadhguru. Do not do this. It looks like you have lost your cool.” I said, “How can I lose my cool if I have never been cool? I have always been like a volcano within myself, waiting to burst anytime.”  

Communication is as it is needed in the world. Action is as it is needed in the world. How you are within yourself is another matter. Look at Adiyogi – full of fire. And look at all the great yogis of the past – they were all full of fire. Only calendar yogis have a benign look on their faces.

Life and its many manifestations need to happen on full fire. There is no time to go on simmer. Only someone who is miserable and constipated in every way finds that life is too long, because they have never found expression to the various possibilities that a human being can be. They are trying to make their lives by accumulating a few things, people, and stupid stuff around them. If you are exploring the immensity of being human, it is a bloody brief life. When it is so brief, it is important you are on full fire. Otherwise, before you realize what is happening, there will be your funeral fire. There will be fire in the end, but that will be too late. Either you go on full fire now, or you go slowly, in installments. 

Those who want to get to the infinite in installments – all the best for you. No one ever counted “one, two, three,” and one day arrived at infinity. If you become a zero, if you are simply nothing, then you do not need to do anything else. But then you cannot function in the world. Such a state is also beautiful, but you will need care and support from people around you. But if you want to be fully into it and still be able to function in the world, it is important you are on full fire. That does not mean you have to reveal your fire every time. Once in a way, you can give someone a taste if they deserve it.

Footprints of the Past

Otherwise, the question is not about being cool or hot, peaceful, or fiery – the important thing is if whatever is happening within you, is it happening consciously or unconsciously? If consciously, you do whatever you do according to your intelligence or judgment at that moment, it is fine.