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What if everything you’ve ever known about achieving happiness is a lie? Imagine filling your life with every desire you’ve ever had, only to find your heart still aching for more. What if the secret to true contentment lies not in acquiring, but in letting go?
At an event in Bangalore in 2021, when Sadhguru was blessing people over the hard times during the COVID pandemic, some girl asked him, “If one has a longing for Emptiness and one experiences it at certain levels regularly but still hasn’t achieved it. How could they achieve it?
Sadhguru answers, “Emptiness does not come in installments. (Laughs) because Emptiness means That which is not. Why Emptiness is because fullness is no such thing; it’s just a word.”
But wait, Sadhguru said fullness does not exist. I titled fullness an illusion, yet people sometimes say, “Oh, now my life is fulfilled after getting this thing, marrying my favorite person, or after this and that. So what is it they’re talking about?
I agree with Sadhguru; Fullness doesn’t exist. It’s an Illusion of self. Let me give you an example: I will put one billion dollars into your pocket.
No, I have no such plans; I’m still collecting tips for a coffee. Suppose, just to titillate you, I will put one billion dollars into your pocket. It feels full for one day, but then you see some fancy multi-billionaire walking with ten billion dollars. Then suddenly, your pocket feels empty with one billion dollars.
Then let’s say I’m a generous person, and I put another nine for you; you have ten billion dollars. But in some way, it’s still less as soon as you google Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and other billionaires’ net worth. Suddenly, it again feels empty.
So, your pocket can never be complete, no matter how much you put in. Alright, but vansh, I’m an elevated person. I font look up to money to fill me up; now what? I am good at 1 billion or even less. Wait, but I never said your pocket is empty because you want more. No, Your pocket cannot be full because there will always be something bigger that will somehow cause you to feel you have less. Full does not exist.
Now think about this: What did your parents tell you in the first standard when you were a kid? Oh, this is very crucial for life that just pass this. We’ll take your head; when you passed your first standard, you felt like… what’s more… what is more to know in this world? You know?
Then they told you there is a goddamn second standard. And you went through this, went through this, then they said the tenth standard is a public exam, “That’s it if you do that…” This is the… your parents went on telling you, “This is the key aspect of your life; the tenth standard
is very crucial.” You believed. And you finished your tenth standard, and you’re feeling chest puffed up and thought you really know it.
Then they started bothering you the next day, “Which college will you join? Which college will you join?” Damn, bro. “What college? I thought I… Number ten I reached, perfect number!” Champion number, but no good; like this at every point. So how much ever we put into your head,
your head will never become complete.
One last thing: Now you will definitely trust why it is so. Well, initially, you just fell in love with only one person. Then, when you fall in love with one person, you know she produces one or two or three. Then you fall in love with all of them, but then they produce grandchildren like this. That also you loved, actually more than this one…
So your heart also cannot become full. Even if you fall in love with everything in the universe, it is still not full. Still, it is capable of taking more.
So your pocket cannot become full, your head cannot become full, your heart cannot become full. So fullness is an illusion that you chase; there is no such thing.
But Emptiness is possible. What is empty is never partially empty. Fullness is always partial. Emptiness is always total — when something is empty; it is absolutely empty. Also, you cannot catch Emptiness.
Okay, but how does one get Emptiness? How can one catch it and be free of all this crap? Well, don’t try to catch Emptiness; you can’t catch
emptiness; it’s not anywhere, but it’s total.
So, what do I do?
How do I empty myself? If I take a bucket, you might think I can empty it by throwing mug after mug out. If I take a well, I can empty buckets and buckets and buckets.
Well, that is not the way it happens. You become empty not because you have nothing; you become empty because you’re dispossessed.
You know, from this, I remember a very ancient tradition in India, Where people go to Kashi, “When you go to Kashi, you must
become dispossessed, there’s nothing more.
Have you heard of Kashi? Varanasi? Did you see this picture? This is Kashi, the most ancient city in India. It is known to be the first piece of land that came into existence after the almighty lord Shiva built this world — according to Hindu mythology and philosophy.
Well, there are many great mythological stories about Kashi, and I’ve known a dozen of them; just ask in the comments if you’re interested. Anyways, So, when you go to Kashi every day, you see hundreds of bodies burning there; you sit there for a few days or a few months, and when you come back, you’re dispossessed; you are not entangled with anything.”
Then people made it a little more, “You must leave some
money and come. You must leave something else and come.” These days, they leave only Pavakkai and come, the bitter gourd; anyway, they were not eating it. So that one they will leave it and come. “You must leave something and come. So I left bitter gourd because I don’t like it anyway.”
However, there are better ways to leave it. If you want to become empty,
what is needed is to get dispossessed. There are methods for
that.
But the central question is: Why to be empty? How is Emptiness better? Well, for me, only the realization that fullness is an illusion was enough to stumble on the path of emptiness, but now let me share what I learned so that you know what path to choose.
Well, emptiness does not mean that you don’t have anything. Simply put, I want you to come to a state where anything coming or going from your life doesn’t change your core inner being. This is when you are free of everything that’s been possessing you, making you feel that you can fill yourself up somehow. No, you cannot. And the good part is you don’t have to fill yourself up. Only when you are free of all biases and restrictions are you living?
You know, I couldn’t eat anything this other day while I was starving for 30 minutes. Only to realize I need to stop. Stop? Stop what? Yeah, I was running on my treadmill. After all this, you’ll ask me, am I okay? How is one supposed to eat while running? Well, that’s precisely what I am trying to convince you about.
All these things, those which promise to fulfill you, to advertise them just to make you believe that something is missing in your life that needs and can be fulfilled by something else. All this is a lie, A trap. I want you to break free of all these traps because only when you get rid of all this will you focus on what’s important, which is your inner being. You spoil your existence.
But doing this is as challenging as it might sound theoretically. But I will tell you everything you need to know in my scope. The next episode will undoubtedly be about how to achieve emptiness once you’re ready for it.
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