On 29 April 2019, Sadhguru was at Columbia University, New York as part of the Youth and Truth movement. Considered among India’s 50 most influential people, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, bestselling author and poet. At the University, he was questioned, “as business leaders, what role can we play to unite this world?”
Sadhguru: Do not take this thing about becoming a missionary for something because then, without knowing what’s happening to you, one day you’ll be totally skewed and off the place and you’ll be the source of the problem. Once you take on something with missionary zeal you will see you will get so badly identified with it and you, yourself will become a source of the problem.
When I was 13-14 years of age, I almost got into armed struggle. This is the time we think armed struggle is the only way to find solutions for India. Then I saw people who were espousing these teachers and openly in schools and in colleges professors talking about how you should join the armed struggle. A particular professor who had sway on a few of us, his son and his daughter were twins. Both of them were my classmates. Already in another 3 4 days, we were supposed to leave to the jungles of Andhra Pradesh to go and fight.
Then, I asked this fellow. His name was Ajay. I said, “Hey, so if we’re all going what are we taking?” He said “No I’m not coming. My father doesn’t want me to go. ” So he wants us to go. But he doesn’t want his son to go. Then I said, “what is this about I thought we are all in the revolution”. The girl isn’t going because only the boys were going, but the boy was supposed to go as he’s my age. But his father is saying no you cannot go because you can’t die there.
One thing we must understand is that the moment we speak about justice, unknowingly, we will speak about revenge. Is justice needed? Absolutely. But I’m saying the moment you start talking about it it’s like freedom.
The moment you say freedom you’ll start doing freaky things. Because freedom is a consequence. So is justice. It is a consequence of a mature society. Justice is not a cause you take up because the moment you take up it as a cause you’ll see divisions happen. You vs me will happen. Once this happens, even for the right reasons, all the wrong things will happen. So it is important to know what is the cause and what is the consequence.
