Mysore:  “Mysuru is one of the few cities in the country which is well-planned. More than 100 years ago, the city had the widest roads and all this is because of the legacy left behind by the Wadiyar dynasty. There is no other kingdom in Indian history which is more than 500 years old,” said Isha Foundation Founder Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev.

Delivering a talk after inaugurating the Sri Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar (SNW) Foundation at Jaganmohan Palace auditorium in city yesterday he said, “I am also from Mysuru. Mysuru District has the largest number of water bodies on the planet and most of it was constructed by the erstwhile Maharajas. But in the last 35 years many of them have dried up and only the Maharajas     cannot be expected to do everything, others should also work alongside.”

Lauding the efforts of Pramoda Devi Wadiyar in starting the Foundation, he said the beautification of Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery is very good. The Foundation has also embarked on other works which is noteworthy.

“India is a land of seekers. Hence, everyone here is used to asking questions. When Lord Krishna was delivering a sermon in Bhagavad Gita, all his dear friend Arjuna did was asking questions. And when Infosys Founder N.R. Narayana Murthy asked me how do I manage to talk about so many topics, I thought here is another question,” he said.

“When I came to the function I did not know what I would be talking about as I am uneducated and do not have any structure in my mind. But after Narayana Murthy asked, I thought I will talk about ‘Intelligence of Ignorance’ because in the cosmic space we are all just minuscule, compared to what is there all around us,” the Sadhguru said.

“Indians cannot stop asking questions and only thing an Indian can do is ask questions and this is an Indian question. But if you think you know, then there is no question. However, we are still asking ‘Who am I?’” he said.

Talking about good intentions, he said, people having just good intentions can end up doing terrible things and then regretted the excessive focus of education system on the intellect.

“Intellect is like a sharp knife which dissects, and for instance one is dissecting a frog to know about the functioning of its body, then man thinks he is doing something intelligent but all the time forgetting what the frog is thinking and if only man realises what it thinks then he will feel sorry. Knife itself is not dangerous but it depends on how one uses it. This is what education does without realising the true consequences,” he said.

“It always boils down to the question, ‘What about me?’ and this is a 21st century problem. But take away this question and I can make you a phenomenal human being. You keep thinking of the intellect and this depends on the amount of data stored in one’s mind. But wipe out the data and then what happens is like having Alzheimer’s where one is completely delinked from the data as the memory disc is taken away,” Jaggi Vasudev said.

“Everybody thinks that there is only one Narayana Murthy and one Sadhguru. But that is not a good idea at all because for a nation to progress, a million strong NRNs and Sadhgurus are needed,” the Godman said.

Talking about Charles Darwin’s theory that man evolved from a chimpanzee, he said that there is just 1.23 per cent difference in DNA between a man and a chimpanzee. The only difference then is the cerebral activity that a human possesses.

On Yoga, Sadhguru said that Yoga means creating a stable platform in life. “Seeing me driving cars and motorbikes, journalists sometimes ask me how I could be driving these vehicles as a Yogi, when in the past the Yogis and Gurus only walked. I tell them ‘you fools’ those days Yogis walked because there was nothing else and the difference was they walked faster and better,” he said.

Further, speaking about spirituality which again is a question he is frequently asked, he said, “Spirituality does not mean just being incompetent. If there is such spirituality then it should be banned. Yogis or Gurus must be involved in politics, science and one must think about humanity in this way. There was a time when women were punished for thinking but now things are changing.”

The nearly one-and-half hour discourse was followed by a question and answer session. Before the questions began, Narayana Murthy said that he wanted everyone to follow a tradition which he had been following since 40 years and that was that a woman should first ask a question followed by a man.

To Murthy’s question ‘What is ethical behaviour?’ Sadhguru said that a few things had been codified and one of them for instance was following traffic rules.

“The Mysuru – Bengaluru road which is 140 kms has 140 road humps. It would have been better if it had just been a mud track. We have fancy ideas but no ethics. What is always happening on our streets is conflicts because we do not stick to driving on the left side. These are the ethical issues,” he said.

Cauvery Calling

Sadhguru gave an alarming picture of River Cauvery and said that just like they had launched Rally for Rivers some time ago, Isha Foundation is launching another campaign called “Cauvery Calling.”

“We are talking to both the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu Governments to save River Cauvery. The Cauvery has depleted by 46 per cent and in the next 40 years there could only be sand left. The Cauvery basin is spread over 83,000 square kilometres and the only way to salvage it is by promoting agro forestry where a farmer who can earn Rs. 40,000 a year in a hectare of land can in 30 years earn Rs. one crore,” he said.

Crippled nation

People are always seeking what they do not know and they are too lazy and have idiotic beliefs. For example when people buy new vehicles in the city, they drive up the Chamundi Hill without having learnt to drive properly and putting complete faith in Goddess Chamundeshwari. This attitude results in a lot of accidents. There are 1,40,000 deaths on Indian roads every year and according to a UN study every four minutes people suffer fractures due to accidents, thus becoming a country full of cripples, said Sadhguru.