Utter Freedom from Life and Death Sadhguru, Isha Foundation

If you just sit here as
pure life and simply look at
yourself, keeping aside what
your mother or your father
told you – even you thinking
you are a human being, a
man or a woman, all this
has been taught to you in
comparison with something
else. If you just sit here as
simply pure life, not as
somebody’s daughter, wife
or husband –if you are willing
to keep your identifications
down for one moment, you
will see that you are just
pure energy. It is a clear,
distinct experience for every
human being, if they are
willing. That is all life is.
What impressions you
take upon this energy which
is right now functioning as an
individual form is left to you.
You may allow your mother,
or a cinema star, or a book to
make a deep impression upon
you. I am not for judging whe
ther this or that impression
is better – some impressions
bring you happiness and
some impressions bring
you unhappiness. Whether
it brings happiness or
unhappiness, an impression
from outside is a certain
kind of limitation that you
are putting into yourself.
You are setting a beautiful
prison for yourself. Only
when you try to reach out,
do you see how restricting
it is. Maybe you never want
to reach out and are very
happy. I know a lot of
people who are happy just
eating dosa, drinking coffee
and sitting half asleep; that
is their idea of happiness.
But no being will ever be
satisfied with anything
limited. After some time,
this dosa becomes a cancer
in them. Not necessarily
a physical cancer, but it
bothers and eats them up
– just the comfort of life is
eating people up.
Affluent people are
suffering much more than
poor people because the
plain comfort of life is eating
them up. If you settle into
any limitation, this life will
not allow you to be there. It
wants to break the limitation
and go beyond. If you find
a conscious expression to
this longing, then we say
it is a spiritual process.
Everybody has this longing
to break the limitations and
become free. Whatever way
they know, they are trying
to become free in that way.
Somebody thinks if he
gets ten million dollars he
will be free, so he is working
towards that. Somebody
thinks if he gives away all
his money he is going to
become free, so he is doing
that. Like this, there are
different ideas of freedom
but either knowingly or
unknowingly, everybody
is longing to become free
from what is binding them.
What you want to become
free from depends on
what is binding you, but
fundamentally, everybody
wants to become free.
How free would you like
to become? If you really
address it, you will see that
you want to become utterly
free, isn’t it? What is utter
freedom? If you really want
to become free, you must
become free from the very
process of life and death.
You must become free from
your own body and from
your own mind. Otherwise
there is no freedom.