Mystic’s Musings By Sadhguru – Founder, Isha Foundation

Is it possible to love a person and by doing so feel oneness with God? Or is this just a romantic notion?

Sadhguru: There is a longing in every human being to be something more than what they are right now. If the only thing that you know is your body, it will find expression as sexuality. You may give all kinds of colours and names to your sexuality, but fundamentally, you are trying to make someone that is not you a part of you. If this same longing to include someone finds an emotional expression, you say you are in love.

Physical union is only momentary, while on an emotional level, you can make the sense of oneness last for months or years, if you are willing. If you look at the many romantic stories in lore and literature, we eulogise someone who holds on to an emotional union for a period of time, because when people are in love, they are beautiful. Emotions are the strongest force in most people — even in those who believe they are intellectual.

Let us say a man and a woman are seriously engaged with each other. But then, one of them finds a wonderful book. Suddenly, fictional characters become more engaging than this beautiful woman or man sitting next to them. Once the intellect is fired up in a certain way, emotions recede. Intellect is dry, but it has a different kind of sparkle. It makes the world transparent.

If you use your intellect properly, it will give you access to things that you never thought possible. Emotions have more beauty and colour. That is the nature of emotions. At the same time, the way you think is the way you feel. You cannot think one way and feel another way.

Are thoughts just sprouting in our heads or can we direct our thoughts?

Sadhguru: Thoughts do not spring up out of nowhere. They arise from the data that you have gathered. You can only produce combinations of the existing information. How exquisitely you do that depends on the kind of mind you have. But back to your question — can your love affair make you touch another dimension?

Essentially, it all comes down to a longing to include something that is not you as a part of yourself. You consider what is within the boundaries of your sensation to be “you”. Whatever body weight you have now, all these kilograms were food that was somewhere outside of you at some point. Once the food that you eat gets integrated within you, you consider it as yourself.

So, whether it is sexuality, a love affair, ambition, conquest, spirituality or devotion — essentially, you are attempting to experience something else or someone else as a part of yourself. If you do it through your body, we call it Karma Yoga. If you do it through your intellect, we call it Gnana Yoga. If you do it through your emotions, we call it Bhakti Yoga. If you do it through your energies, we call it Kriya Yoga. These are all the ways in which you can achieve a state of yoga.

[Sadhguru, a yogi, is a visionary, humanitarian and a prominent spiritual leader. An author, poet and internationally-renowned speaker, Sadhguru’s wit and piercing logic provoke and widen our perception of life. www.ishafoundation.org]