The Most Important Things in Life to Fulfill Your Potential

“Touching the ultimate, rather than defining yourself through patterns of thoughts and emotions, is the greatest and one of the most important things in life you can do.”

—Sadhguru

Yogi and mystic, Sadhguru, looks at the most important things in life that can help every individual live a full-fledged life and blossom to their fullest potential.

#1 Reflect what is around you

Sadhguru: Your inner world – if you want to call it that – should only be a reflection of what is around you. This may be diametrically opposite to some moral theories that say the outer and the inner should not touch each other, otherwise you would immediately get corrupted by everything around you. That is not true. You get corrupted by what is around you only when you have opinions about everything.

You look at one thing as good, something else as bad. You get attached to what you consider as good. You desperately try to avoid what you consider as bad, and of course that will rule you from inside. This is not the way to be. Seeing everything just the way it is – that is the way to be within. If you see something other than what is there, it means you are contaminating the world with your opinions and prejudices.

Creation is made so that you see it the way it is, not to make it the way you want to make it. This is an obscenity that humanity is committing upon the Creator’s creation. Such a magnificent creation – what is there for you to do? Absorb it, if you can – nothing more – and even that is not simple because creation is phenomenally multi-tiered. There are not just things; so many phenomena are happening right here – one inside the other, all in one space, all in one time.

Everything that you think is past, everything that you think will be future is right here. If you see everything the way it is, if the whole creation reflects within you, if you can contain creation the way it is within you, you become the very source of creation. That is the way to be, inside and outside.

#2 Don’t be a psychological case

Either you exist here as a piece of creation, which is pretty good, or you become like the very source of creation, which is fantastic. But being a psychological case is not a good thing. To be just a psychological case, you need not have put your mother through the trouble of delivering you. She could have delivered a file, and someone could have studied the case. It is not worth being a psychological case. If you consider only your thoughts and emotions as your life and there is nothing beyond that for you, you are a psychological case. You should not die as a psychological case – a bundle of thoughts, emotions, opinions, and prejudices. You must become a vibrant, full-fledged life. These are the most important things in life.

Touching the ultimate, rather than defining yourself through patterns of thoughts and emotions, is the greatest and one of the most important things in life you can do. You should strive to become an absolutely full-fledged life. A full-fledged life does not mean going out and doing all kinds of exploits in the world. It means allowing yourself to grow to full depth and dimension. Every human being should do this.

#3 Doing what’s really needed

What we do is determined by what is needed. These days, wherever I go, people recognize me as someone who planted so many trees, educating so many children, built so many hospitals, and so on. I squirm at the thought that this is what I am known for. It is most unfortunate that most people cannot think beyond food, education, and things like that.

Suppose the country or the world was doing really well – everyone had enough to eat, everyone was well educated, everything was happening well – what meaning would it have to start an Isha Vidhya school and to give a midday meal? Right now, when the children have not eaten properly, the midday meal seems like a great blessing. It is a blessing only because of the cruelty of poverty. It is not a true blessing. Only because we created human beings without having the necessary food for them, serving them a meal feels like a great thing. I don’t think it is. It is unfortunate that such things are still needed in the world.

Even if everyone had eaten well and they had everything they wanted, enhancing the experience of life to its ultimate possibility would still always be relevant. Ultimately, this is the purpose of all life – to blossom to its fullest potential. Whether it is a little plant, a tree, an elephant, an ant, a man, or a woman – the ultimate goal is to become a full-fledged life.

But being in the world, we have to play some game. Let us play a game that is of maximum usefulness and meaning to everyone around us. If you reflect creation just the way it is, there is no personal need to play a game and no compulsion to be a part of any game. Whether you withdraw into a cave or plunge into the marketplace, it is still a game. The only way to not be part of any game is to dissolve. That is a great thing to do, but when human beings attain to a certain clarity within themselves, they are of immense value to everyone around, so it is good if they hang around for a while and bring a little more clarity to others.

Editor's Note: This article is based on an excerpt from the March 2014 issue of Forest Flower, available as “pay what you want.” (set ‘0’ in price field for free). Print subscriptions are also available.