By Sadhguru – Founder, Isha Foundation

Sadhguru: There are only two kinds of people in the world — mystics and mistakes. If you perceive everything the way it is, people label you a mystic. If you don’t perceive life as it is, obviously you are a mistake. Everything that you have ever experienced has happened only within you — whether it is the breeze, light, sound or just anything.

If you did not have eyeballs, you wouldn’t see light. If you did not have an eardrum, you wouldn’t hear sounds. Your entire perception of life is happening through this mechanism that you refer to as “myself.” So, if you do not understand how this piece of life happens, maybe everything that is happening to you is distorted. When everything gets straightened out, we say you are spiritual.

Right now, your experience of life is essentially the way it is projected on the firmament of your mind. Let’s use the analogy of a mirror. If you had a mirror at home that changes shape every day, it would be useless. This is why Patanjali gave a very simple and technical definition for yoga. When people asked, “What is yoga?” he said, “Chitta vritti nirodha.”

If all the modifications of the mind are flattened out, that is yoga. That means you immediately see everything the way it is. If you see everything the way it is, you will see the oneness of the existence.

Another problem is having a mirror that remembers. Let’s say your mirror at home retains just ten percent of everything that it reflects. It would become useless in a very short while. For a mirror to be useful, one thing is it must be perfectly flat. Another thing is nothing should remain on it. Only then will it show you things just the way they are. It is the same with the mind. This is all we have to do — a little bit of work to flatten this mind and ensure nothing of the past remains. When it looks at something, it just looks at something.

Right now, the moment you look at something or someone, a thousand things of the past immediately start to run. If you learn to look simply, without even recognising whether this is a man or woman, tree or animal, soil or rock, if you simply learn to look, you will see everything just the way it is. Just bring this into your life: never look up to anything, never look down on anything. See everything just the way it is.

If you are not capable of simply seeing everything the way it is, at least look up to everything that is around you — man, woman, child, animal, insect, inanimate things, everything — including what you are stepping on right now. If you have the capacity, look down on everything. That will also work, but that is a very hard path. If you want to feel pleasant and be part of a social situation, looking up to everything is the option.

If you look up to one thing and look down on another, you have divided the existence within yourself. In this state of fragmentation, your own mind will get fragmented. Suppose you have a broken mirror, if you see one, it looks like a million. In this state, you will never see reality the way it is.

“Chitta vritti nirodha” means it is not a fragmented mind throwing up a thousand things every moment. It is simply showing you what is there, without prejudice, without the influence of past impressions, without the karmic stuff, without genetic influence — simply seeing everything as it is. Till you come to that place, it is best to look up to everything.

[Ranked amongst the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and best-selling author. Sadhguru has been conferred the “Padma Vibhushan,” India’s highest annual civilian award, by the Government of India in 2017, for exceptional and distinguished service.]