Derek White

I think we should be here to share our experience and ask genuine questions. I sometimes find people being sarcastic and judging people (like their age) which I find counter productive. If you disagree with someone just say it directly, there is no need to be insulting here.

Check your glasses' number. HAhaha

@Annoynymous Yes, his spiritual talk is fine but his politics is definitely biased.

I think this is very interesting. I respect his opinion, but it is so wrong to say 'illiterate university students went crazy'. The UN, Nobel laureate Ramakrishnan, and many other 'literate' people have criticized the act. university students are not illiterate. There are detention camps in India and the govt hasn't provided any proper guidelines on how to prove citizenship (actually it has stated the ration 'aadhar' cards, birth certificate, or voter cards are not enough). This has actually been tried in Assam (state) many years ago and failed, that's why that state is seeing many protests. The main problem protesters have is poor people don't have any documents to meet the extensive citizenship requirements that govt will set. They don't want genuine citizens to go to these camps, which would just be Muslims cause they are the ones which are excluded and therefore have to prove their citizenship. There is fear cause the ruling party has a history of Islamophobia, blocking internet, and its actions in Kashmir. One thing I've noticed about India is that no matter how many fascist things the goct. does, blocks the internet, messes up Kashmir or how many politicians say hate speech against Muslims, somehow 'the left' and 'liberals' always get the heat. Also be respectful in the replies please.

@Annoynymous Do you know he had a twitter poll asking if people support the act and then his organization deleted it when the majority of replies where ‘no’ (Sadhguru supports the act). And then he says he’s not political ?. There are enough winks and nudges for the faithful to know which way to swing.

@Leo Gura Unfortunately that’s true ? @Annoynymous He did say he has influence and it’s pretty clear he cooperates with them and they help spread his foundation, obviously it’s not a direct quote. Everyone who follows his content knows which party he is the closest to. I mean, he is in various committees like education, agriculture; advices the government in agriculture and various other issues, in turn they bring his yoga program to people in the army and various other government employees, promote it and much more that we don’t know. It’s obvious he has vested interests, other parties might not be this kind to him.

@Nahm Yes, as long as there’s an ‘I’ but I think you can transcend that and see things the way they are. So why do you think there are ‘good’ thoughts? Thoughts are thoughts aren’t they?

No? But why? Is it too hard or impossible? Honest question.

Isn't using any other language against forum guidelines? What does this mean? *moderator removed comment by OP*

@Harikrishnan Lol Can't you see, only one with vested interests in Sadhguru here.

There are just so many contradictions with him. I don't think he is completely transparent. Sadhguru: "Don't believe anything I say. Belief is BS." Also Sadhguru: "By the way, yogis can raise the dead and a do bunch of other cool stuff. Don't believe though, even though you're gullible people" Sadhguru: "Psychedelics have no spiritual significance." Also Sadhguru: "Cobra Venom gives me something greater than life. Nine-poisons mixed together can enlighten you." Sadhguru: "I would never ask anyone to vote for a political party. That would be killing democracy." Also Sadhguru: "I have influence in the ruling party, invited their top members to inaugurate my statues, never criticized them, and support them whenever they need me. I also criticize any opposition to conservatism." Sadhguru: "Religion to responsibility." Also Sadhguru: Singing praises to Hindu gods. "I am a slave to Shiva." proceeds to do all the Hindu rituals. Sadhguru: "I don't identify with any place or culture." Also Sadhguru: Has never actually criticized any Indian religion or culture. Has never talked about spirituality in the west although he talks about it in other places in the east all the time. Also criticizes west all the time. I think he's purposely controversial and not transparent. His teaching are also not very clear like Leo's, he just wants people to take his program, he's not interested in teaching through talking or explaining.

@Leo Gura I agree with everything but did you hear Sadhguru said? He's said, "illiterate youth in universities went wild." There are two Nobel laureates speaking against what's happening and many 'literate' people all over the world. That was such an ignorant comment. I feel like Sadhguru is supporting the Nazis and has no understanding or respect for people who disagree with him. Didn't expect this from him. Disappointed.

Well, if you could be passionate about anything that you needed to do then that would be ideal. But right now you are only passionate about a few things so we tell you follow your passion because then you can have a good life and only a few people do that so it's not a disturbance to society. But yes, ideally you should be passionate about everything, that would be an enlightenment state I think.

Actually just listen to @Nahm's answer, he articulated it well. But one question @Nahm, If thoughts are images, representations of data from senses, then shouldn't we not feel good or bad, just like we don't feel good or bad when we look at something other than thought without judging it? One could think of a brutal murder scene and not feel 'sad' if one truly looks at it with detachment.

If meaning is subjective doesn't that imply meaningless also subjective? No, meaning is subjective and meaninglessness is objective. You CREATE meaning/significance, you don’t need to create meaninglessness it’s just there.

@Inliytened1 Humm I see. I thought he was referring to finite mind.

@Inliytened1 Thanks @DLH You're not saying thoughts create reality right? Like you can imagine a ball in front of your eyes and it won't just become a physical reality. The ball I mean, thoughts I get are physical. I thought thoughts come from memory and memory from past experiences.

@Lento At my current understanding I don't understand anything you're saying. Maybe you're right Idk. Beliefs are thoughts aren't they? And reality is not thoughts so beliefs are irrelevant. I think Bhakti yoga is to elevate your emotions through devotions. You can do it on idols, but also on anything in else. @Serotoninluv Thanks for visualization comment.

@Serotoninluv Excellently put ?. What about visualization? Can’t we visualize and achieve goals in the physical world? What are your views on visualization and changing ‘reality’ through visualization? @Lento I see a lot of people here like you are misunderstanding spirituality as being about beliefs and stories. *cough @Bill W *cough. You could use them to get solace and balance for a short time. They are pleasurable but cause almost all your problems. It’s a serious mistake on their part. I am not saying this to offend people, just telling them where their wrong and misunderstood Leo.

@Leo Gura You should talk about this in detail in a blog post or a video. This could change how we achieve our goals. I suspect this works for non occult activities too. This could change how we view motivation all together.

@Spiral_Wizardry_Fan Firstly, thanks for your reply, I appreciate it. Well, I don't quite agree. I think BJP is trying to spread its religion and not nationalism or patriotism, except in a religious way. Many of its members are stage red/blue in places like UP. It openly supports Godse, the guy who killed Gandhi, and disrespects icons people loved. IMO it is really stage red appealing to blue folk, cause blue means you have integrity, all their leaders openly lie and there is so much corruption. They have no ideology or set of values, they just want power, in truth. Just like Trump who has aspects of red is attractive to blue folk but with steroids. I think your assumption a bit over the top here. Plus the eco. is down because of these guys. I mean, there is no way of knowing this for sure. As far as I know he shouldn't have said that, so many smart people are protesting, he is using a straw-man. He is wrong and hypocritical many times. Lastly, Idk whether the above mentioned theory is true. It might just be that it's just a religious conservative backlash to secularism. It might be both, a backlash and a sort of unification. The congress DID do many things to help the poor and was a liberal secular party at least in demeanor. There is no way of confirming any of the caste unification thing, I was just guessing, I don't actually know. It might be the opposite cause BJP does support manusmriti and orthodox Hindu ideas. All I know is they're flirting with extremism, I don't want a genocide or riots.

@Apparition of Jack Yea, Sadhguru himself said he has influence in the government in a recent interview so maybe that's why he is not criticizing it. I mean, the current Prime Minister, Modi, went to inaugurate his Adiyogi statue. Sadhguru is in the education committee, provides guidance on agricultural issues and so much more we probably don't know. There is also this thing about a united Hindu identity. Before, the Hindus were divided among caste lines when it came to elections and parties did little to solve that. So now, since 2014 you have the current ruling party which has sort of united the Hindus. This is like a stage blue party uniting other stage blue parties (and maybe purple/red smaller parties) under a larger identity, 'Hindu', as opposed to caste identities. Idk how this is happening on the ground though. Basically I think India is going from caste -> religion. So in a twisted way the ruling party is 'uniting' Indians. Hopefully we can go religion -> nationality -> humanity fast, some people are lagging behind. But yea, you can't ignore the fascistic nature of BJP, I mean, all they had to do was write 'persecuted religions' or 'religious minorities' instead of mentioning a select few and all the drama would be avoided. It's also worrying cause this sets a precedence for future laws on religious ground and possibly laws that link citizenship to religion.

Isn't that why the Yang Gang supports him, cause he's not too progressive?

@Tiny Nietzsche You could, but you’ll suffer if something bad happens to them or when they change or leave you or when they treat you like a slave. I mean this is quite basic stuff.

Hey, so I was just thinking about which one of the three, seriousness, playfulness or involvement, is superior. Many spiritual teachers say “don’t be serious about life”, “life is play”, etc. But is this really true? I find to get anything done you need to be serious about what you’re doing. Isn’t seriousness involvement? Or are they different? Even when you’re playing a game, say chess, you have to take it seriously to enjoy it. The more seriously you take it the more fun there is. So maybe this goes full circle? I wanna know what you think.