The Foremost Quality of a Spiritual Seeker

“If you are a past seeker, we are just neighbors. If you are a seeker now, I have something to do with you right now.”

—Sadhguru

Questioner: Sadhguru, what should be the foremost quality of a seeker?

Sadhguru: If you are a genuine seeker, that’s all that is needed. If your seeking is the only quality you have, that is definitely the most important thing. Most of the seekers are only off-and-on seekers. In 24 hours, how many of you are even conscious of your seeking, and how many moments?

“No, no, I have done so many programs. I even did 55 days of Hata Yoga.” What you did yesterday is not the point. This happened to Charles M. Schwab. Schwab became one of the big steel magnates on the planet at one time. Before he stood on his own feet, he was working for Andrew Carnegie, another great entrepreneur. One day, he sent a telegram to Carnegie, saying, “Yesterday, we broke all the records.” So immediately, Carnegie sent back a message, “But what are you doing today?”

That’s all I am asking you – what are you doing today? People think, “Sadhguru…no compassion in him. It doesn’t matter what we have done, once again he is asking, ‘What have we done today?’” Because if you are a seeker, what you were yesterday doesn’t mean anything to you. “What have you done today?” is the whole thing. The psychological survives, nourishes and flourishes on the past. The existential is of the now.

Unless you are truly concerned about what you are doing today and how you are right now, how can you still be a seeker? “No, I have been a seeker for 10 years.” – That doesn’t mean anything. Are you a seeker now? Because the existential is only now. The rest is all psychological. I see a lot of past seekers. They have been seekers for 25, 30 years – veterans. What to do with that? Only if someone is hungry now, you can serve them food, isn’t it? If someone is alive now, you can feed them. Somebody was – what can you do with them? So if your seeking is in the past tense, it doesn’t mean anything. Are you a seeker now, right now? If you are, that is what means most to me because only then can I do something with you. If you are a past seeker, we are just neighbors. If you are a seeker now, I have something to do with you right now.