Sadhguru Meets an Enlightened Vegetable Vendor

Sadhguru: Then I see a man sitting there selling vegetables, who is shining. He just looks at me, our eyes lock, lock up with each other, then he bursts out laughing. I also laugh. Then he's telling me his story. This is one thing that human beings have not come to terms with. If you become conscious of this, all the tremendous possibilities of being alive will become yours. You are called a “Human being,” I want you to get the meaning of this – human being means not that you know how to run, not that you know how to jump, not that you know how to do circus in life, you know how to be, tch, ah! “Human being,” means you know how to ‘be’. That's one thing you don't know, unfortunately, right now. Now, if you have to be, we have to come down to a few fundamentals. Are you mortal or immortal? No, no, no, look at it and tell me. Are you mortal or immortal, genuinely tell me? Hmm? Oh, that means you're saying you will die one day. It’s okay? It's okay, you will die one day? I will bless you with a long life. But you will die anyway with the blessing. Because this is the nature of life. It has to die, isn't it? And how glad I am that you will die. Because if you lived forever, tch, tch, tch, tch, tch, it would be lot of trouble, isn’t it? With a brief amount of time what a mess we're making. Suppose you would not die, ufff ,total mess, isn't it (Laughs)? It’s good to die. Hello? Is it good to die? Participants: Yes. Sadhguru: At an appropriate time? Not today, at an appropriate time, is it good for all of us to die? Participants: Yes. Sadhguru: I want you to understand this. This is one thing that human beings have not come to terms with. If they just learn to handle their mortality gracefully, life opens up in tremendous ways. Right now, yes, Sadhguru, but my hororscope says I will live till ninety (Laughter). Your hororscope may say whatever. Even the man who wrote your hororscope could have died before his hororscope said so. The only reason, the only reason you behave reasonably sensibly is because you are mortal. Yes or no? Participants: Yes. Sadhguru: If you are immortal, what all you would do? Oh my God. When you're driving in Kolkata, there are some immortal people crossing the street (Applause). You've seen them, right? Immortal they are. If an automobile touches them, there is an enormous amount of pain involved. And there could be death. In spite of that many people are going about the way they're going. Just imagine if you made that person immortal. The level of atrocity that would happen in this world. So, the only reason why a lot of people are behaving reasonably sensibly is because of mortality. Have you seen some friend or maybe it's just you, going on totally, wantonly, suddenly, your doctor told you, you are… it looks like your kidney or your heart going down? Maybe you have, if you don't correct this, maybe in six months you will die. Suddenly did you see how disciplined they became? They got up in the morning, did their yoga, ate right, did everything right, have you seen these people? Entire life transformed. Simply because they were reminded of mortality. I must tell you, this happened many years ago. I'm in Bangalore city. I like to go to vegetab… vegetable markets. If I'm driving across somewhere, I see a vegetable shandy (shanty?), going on a weekly shandy (shanty?), I will stop and I will walk through, I will bargain everything from chicken to eggs to vegetables to that crazy root which will make you invisible, everything, I just like to interact. Anyway, I'm not going to buy vegetables or chicken, I bargain with all of them then give them some money and go away. Because for the time that I took, simply bargaining, not buying anything, because I have no place to buy and take it (Laughs). So, like this one day I'm in the vegetable market in Bangalore city. Then I see a man sitting there selling vegetables, who is shining. I just look at him. “My god, what the hell is he doing in the vegetable market?” He just looks at me. Our eyes lock… lock up with each other. Then he burst out laughing. I also laugh. Then I walk up to him and say what the hell are you doing here? And he said, “Come, come.” He opened up his little vegetable shop and asked me to sit down. So, both of us sat in the shop. Then he's telling me his story. He was doing his normal life, wife and two, three children and whatever. One day he fell ill, then… so ill that they admitted him into a government hospital, a general ward. They put him there. Every day they thought he will die, but he did not die. Every day they thought he will die; he did not die. Two, three months went on, then there was no space, so they put him in the corridor outside. Because this guy doesn't live, doesn't die. So after about three months, his wife stopped coming. She lost her patience. How long to come and sit with him? This fellow doesn't live or die. Four months or little more than four months, he was lying down there in the hospital corridor. Somebody was throwing some scraps at him and he did not know… Every day he thought he will die today but he would recover the next day morning. Again, he thinks he will die, it went on like this. After four months, slowly he recovered, but in the meantime something fantastic happened to him. Everything just blew, every day he thought today's the last day and then he opened up shining blissful human being. Again, back to vegetable selling. Wife gone, children gone, everything gone. Above all he is gone. Just staying in contact with mortality for four months did this to him. This is important. You must stay in touch with the mortal nature of who you are. This looks like a bizarre thing. “Oh, why is he talking about death? We want to live.” What you don't understand is, I can say right now that you're living or I can also say you're dying. You’re actually dying. One day the process will be complete. Yes or no? Hello? They are just two words for the same thing, isn't it? Right now, we are dying slowly. One day it will be complete. Today it's on, is it on or no? Today the death is on or no? It is on. So, what you call as life and what you call as death are not two separate things. It is one thing happening (Applause). If you become conscious of this, all the tremendous possibilities of being alive will become yours.