An Important Step To Take During COVID Pandemic | Sadhguru

Speaker: Seeing this rapid spread of this virus and so many people are dying and the hospitals are stressed out and how to deal with this in normal way. So I leave it up to you to see how you can help them to really think through this and try to bring the best aspect of their inner… so that they can eliminate the fear and be brave and very confident about themselves. Sadhguru: Well, I'm not trying to belittle the present problem. Yes, it's a massive problem. The situation in India particularly is grim. Now, the choice that we have is this, when the outside situations go against us, we will also turn against ourselves or when the outside situations go against us, we will stand up 100% for ourselves. What does standing up for ourselves mean? If you are for yourself, keeping yourself joyful, exuberant, alive is most important. And there is substantial medical data to tell you that when you're joyful, when you're exuberantly involved with life, your immune system, your whole body, every aspect of your body functions way better than normal. There is substantial medical evidence for this. There is no question about it anymore, there are no doubts about it anymore – it's well-established. So, one important thing we need to understand is, right now, everybody's talking about gloom and doom. The logic behind this is, so many people are miserable, so let me also join that and be miserable. This is not a solution. You must make up your mind whether you want to be a part of the solution or part of the problem. If ten people are miserable and you also join them in their misery, you are part of the problem. If ten people are miserable, if you can in some way create a lighter atmosphere for them and for you, then you are part of the solution, on one level. Above all, unfortunately modern life has become like this – there is no contact with the earth, there is no contact with natural water bodies, there is no contact with the five elements in nature. Everybody is living and working in a box, which is always at seventy degrees centigrade… I mean seventy degrees Fahrenheit or something like that. Everybody in controlled temperatures, in boxes we are living – you may call it an apartment, you may call it an office, but it's actually a box. So now the virus is trying to change your lifestyle. Every one of you were complaining about, you know, if you're working in Bangalore or Delhi, you are complaining every day, your commuting was taking one-and-a-half to two hours of circus through the traffic. Now, you're spared all that. So don't go on complaining endlessly. There is no need to complain, only our lifestyle is changing. Our life, we must protect with responsible and conscious behavior. Nothing about our life has changed, only our lifestyle is changing. But if you're misunderstanding your lifestyle as life, then of course, you will suffer. So, let us bring this sense to ourselves – what you wear, what you drive, where you live is not the point. How you live within yourself is the point and right now, this pandemic… always this is the point but this pandemic is bringing it up front, in front of everybody to decide whether your life is important or your lifestyle is important. Lifestyle becomes important because we keep on living in comparison to somebody else, that you want to live little better than somebody else. You want to have more than somebody else. You want to be better in every way than somebody else around you. Let's leave this silly way of existence. Let's organize our lives in such a way that you're joyful, you're well, you're healthy, your family is joyful, people around you are joyful, and well – this is life. Do not make a problem out of just a simple shift in lifestyle. But staying alive is important because life is precious. Lifestyle is not precious, life is precious. This shift in your fundamental understanding of what is life and what is lifestyle has to happen. If you do this, a whole lot of unnecessary stress you're building in your mind will come down significantly because you're not going to restaurant, it's blocked; you're not travelling, it is blocked. Well, your expenses have come down. Even if you earn less, it's not really a problem. Your only problem is somebody else may be living better than you that should not be an issue for you. Better life is not in the makeup that you wear, better life is not in the clothes that you wear, better life is not in the car that you drive. Better life is in the way you are within yourself. If this fundamental priority you change, not for the sake of pandemic, for your sake; not for the sake of the virus, for your own sake if you make this shift, you will see… There are a few issues and problems with the pandemic. The problem is people are losing their lives, that is the only problem, otherwise this is not a problem. Unfortunately, people are losing their lives because no nation can be equipped to provide hospitalization for its entire population or a major segment of the population. So, the important thing is, one way or the other we may get an infection, the important thing is to postpone it as much as we can. So, this is why the vaccination drive is very, very important. Vaccination is not an ultimate solution, but vaccination pushes the problem. By pushing the problem, we will not overwhelm the medical institutions and medical infrastructure, with this fatalities can be brought down significantly, people need not lose their lives. But the fundamental responsibility that all of you must take is – you must take this commitment, “I will not get infected. Everything that I have to do for this, I will do. But if it so happens, somehow I got infected, I will ensure that it does not go to one more person,” this much commitment you must take. Why I'm saying this is, the significance and the simplicity of this pandemic is this – it is not being carried by mice, it is not being carried by a mosquito, it is not being carried by some other bird or animal or something; this is carried by human beings. Because we are the only sole carriers for this virus, the simplest solution is that we maintain some protocol, so that we don't spread. If you are not the spreader, that's it. If every citizen takes this step, that's it. It's done.