Perception or Inertia – Your Choice
“The greatest ignorance is to think that you are not ignorant.” —Sadhguru
Last week, some people were commenting on my suggestion not to have food during the lunar eclipse, calling it superstitious and unscientific. They said they had food and they did not die. I was wondering, were they disappointed? First of all, let us understand what superstition is. Superstition is to make conclusions without any perception about a certain subject. This is the nature of life: Your perception and experience of life depends on how sensitive you are. Perception will not come through intellectual accumulation. If those who read a high school textbook think they are scientists, what can I say. A genuine scientist, who has probed into any aspect of life with a certain profoundness, will not speak like this.
As a yogi, as far as possible, I will not consume anything more than an hour and a half after it has been cooked. Why we are serving the food the way we do in the ashram is because we are hoping that people will graduate from being yoga practitioners to yogis. Not just bending and twisting but beginning to feel the union in existence. For this to happen, the body has to be sensitive, and it has to have the least possible level of inertia. If you eat food which has deteriorated in some way – it may not be rotten, nor will it kill you – it is just that it will lower your perception.
In my experience of life, lowered perception is death. At least the death of the yogi. The man may live – the yogi will be dead if he loses his perception and his sensitivity. If the death of sensitivity does not matter to you, you can eat what you want; you can eat garbage and still survive. People are eating food that was cooked days, weeks, or even months ago. If they don’t feel the difference between freshly cooked food and food that has been refrigerated for ages, what can you say. But for sure they do not have the sensitivity that I am talking about. This is what causes inertia. They may be sleeping eight to ten hours a day – that is death to me. Ten hours of sleep, that is over forty percent of death in twenty-four hours. So, if you wish to live like that, you can eat whatever you want.
I am not a scientist, nor do I wish to be one. Neither am I reading books, nor am I researching anything, nor do I have a lab in my backyard. I just pay attention to this human mechanism that is me. I keep it in a certain way, which takes a lot of work. And for anything that happens in nature, I observe what is happening with me, and that is what I am speaking about. I am also observing life around me, for confirmation. Every insect, worm, bird, animal, tree is saying the same thing. If you are only going to discover this after many years and a few billion dollars of research, it is up to you.
Some so-called scientists do not have anything to do with real science. A scientist who has looked at something with profoundness will not speak this way. It is just that there are “internet scientists” who think they know every science, because they are on the internet. Something as simple as realizing that alcohol, tobacco, and red meat are bad for your health took so many years and billions of dollars of research. What is a recent discovery for them has been an eternal wisdom for us. For example, I was in conversation with an Indian-origin doctor in the United States, who is credited with discovering how the atrium functions in sucking back blood to the heart. When I saw his videos and scientific papers, I could not believe that until a few years ago, the medical science did not know that. The yogic system has always focused on that. In yoga, we are interested in our blood being as pure as possible. An increased level of impurity in the blood means you lose perception. The level of perception that you have determines the quality of your life. How profound your perception is has always been the concern of this culture.
If you think only if something is written in a book, it is true, it means you are superstitious and religious. There is nothing scientific about that. Obviously, a lunar eclipse does not mean that the moon quickly makes the twenty-eight days’ journey in a matter of a few hours – it is only covered by the shadow of the earth. It is like when it is night for us, the sun is still there but we are on the side of the earth that faces away from it. In your experience, does night only mean absence of light, or is there a phenomenal change in the very way life happens from day to night? If you just look at every insect, bird, animal, tree, or even a rock, you will see there is a difference.
If you sit outside at night with a little openness, you will know it is not just about the absence of light. There is a difference in quality between day and night. Someone may say, “This is all rubbish – there is just absence of light.” That is also what some people say about the eclipse. It doesn’t matter. I am saying, during the eclipse time, don’t cook food and eat. Eat well before or after. This is life sense, not internet science. This is a Sadhguru – that means he knows life from within. That’s about it. I am for those who are interested in life.
The greatest ignorance is to think that you are not ignorant. Whatever is not known to you cannot exist is the crown of ignorance. I request all the internet scientists, eat some fresh food, keep yourself healthy and perceptive to life. Eat during the eclipse if you wish. You won’t die – it is just that inertia will build up. If you don’t mind inertia, go ahead. For those who are drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, and consuming whatever else, it may not make any difference. It is like if you take a high-performance car and fill it up with low octane petrol – your car may stop within a few kilometers. For high performance, you need special petrol.
If you want to be high performance, you need to look carefully what kind of fuel goes into you. If you are a junk machine, eat whatever, drink whatever, live whichever way you want. The nature of life is such that the earth, the sun, and the moon have a significant impact on the system. If you are conscious of their ways, you can ride these natural forces and make your life effortless and easy. If you are not conscious, these same cycles could crush you – everything will be a struggle. All the best till the next eclipse. Just don’t let your arrogance born of ignorance eclipse greater possibilities of life.
Love & Grace,
Sadhguru
