Is MahaShivRatri Relevant If You’re Not A Hindu? | Sadhguru #MahaShivRatri2022

Sadhguru: There are things happening in the world which affects every life. It's my intention, it's my wish and my blessing that you must ride this. It doesn't matter where you are, you don't have to believe or disbelieve anything – you just have to experiment a little bit. You must learn to ride the tsunami of Mahashivaratri. Questioner: Hello, Sadhguru! I have been following you for quite some time through YouTube, and I also follow the spiritual practices that you offer. But as a non-Hindu, I don’t know if I can relate to Shiva. Is Mahashivaratri still relevant for me? Sadhguru: Oh! (Laughs) Mahashivaratri is of significance because of the planetary situation. So, Mahashivaratri is relevant for every life that's upon this planet. When I say every life, if you're a worm, an insect, a bird, a tree, an animal, particularly if you're a human being because to benefit, to really benefit, you need a vertical spine. Fortunately, we, the human beings, are the only ones who have attained to this possibility of keeping our spines vertical when we wish to. Those of you who have gone down (Gestures lying down) wherever you are, time to keep it erect because on this day there is a natural upsurge of energy, doesn't matter (Laughs) what religion you belong to, what culture you belong to, if you have a spine (Laughs) and it is vertical, you can immensely benefit. But even if you're an invertebrate, you can still benefit. Well, there is a lot that we can say about this as to how it happens. But to give a very simple example, all of you know that today our modern ships are nuclear-powered and you know, they're of a different kind. But still, for a sailor, but especially if you were a sailor, 100, 200 years ago, where you were depending upon the sails, the tides in the ocean determined where you go and when you go. Tide essentially means because either a full moon or because of new moon, those two to three days the entire ocean rises. Tch, tch, tch, millions of trillions of tons of water rises. You must know this – 96.5 percent of water on the planet is in the oceans and it rises significantly on that day, on those few days rather. This is also one of those days. So, all the fluids in the world are rising. When the ocean can rise, yourself, wherever you are from, whatever culture you are, whatever you believe or disbelieve, your body is nearly two-thirds water. When the ocean can rise, do you believe the water in you doesn't rise? Is it possible? Because you're not born in India, it is not rising for you? It does. Anyway it does. If you're conscious, you can make use of it for your well-being. Of the twelve to thirteen Shivaratris that appear in a calendar year, this is called Mahashivaratri in the month of Magha, where it has maximum impact on the system simply because of the tilt and the position of the planet in relationship both with the moon and particularly with the sun. So, what you believe and disbelieve, what culture you come from, what you look like, doesn't matter. There are things happening in the world which affects every life. Mahashivaratri is one of them – it affects every life. Those who are conscious can make use of it to become exuberant, ecstatic lives. You also know on full moon days and new moon days, those who are unfortunately… those who have unfortunately lost their mental balance and who are in serious conditions, let's say in institutions, those days all the institutions take extra, extra care because those days one's madness is also exaggerated. Because this is not about madness or meditativeness, it is just an upsurge. When there is an upsurge, when there is a big wave, if you know how to ride the wave, it will be great joy. If you do not know how to ride the wave, you will get crushed by the same wave. Somebody who is an expert wave rider, his dream is a tsunami (Laughs). He would like to ride it. But the word tsunami would strike terror in most people's minds. So this is the same way. There is a little bit of a tsunami within you. It's my intention, it's my wish and my blessing that you must ride this – you must ride this towards your well-being, you must ride this to become an exuberant and ecstatic human being. It doesn't matter where you are, you don't have to believe or disbelieve anything – you just have to experiment a little bit. If you're against experimentation because you're attached to some dog… dogma, some fundamental belief systems, well, you can still experiment, but if you are against experiment, obviously you're fearful of the truth. Through… Truth is not a bad thing. Truth seems to threaten you only because you've invested heavily in falsehood. If you've not… If you have not invested in falsehood, what is the problem with truth? That is the best thing that can happen. But truth can dismantle things that you have invested in. This is a brief life. There are only two things to your life – when it comes to your experience of life, the profoundness of your experience; when it comes to your activity, the impactfulness of your activity. This is all there is to life; rest is all nonsense made up in your head, of wealth and fame and this and that. This is all in your head. There are only two things – profoundness of experience and impactfulness of action. This is all there is to our lives. If you want this, if you want to craft your life in such a way that you determine how profound your life is and how impactful your actions are, then you must make use of these forces, you must learn to ride the tsunami of Mahashivaratri (Applause).