Life and Death

Death is the most profound and mysterious aspect of life for most of humanity because no
matter what stories people have heard, they still can’t figure out what it is. Neither science
nor philosophy is able to figure out what death is.

Death seems to be very mysterious and profound simply because of short-term memory
loss. If your memory was such that, every day when you wake up in the morning, you do
not remember that there was a previous day, you do not remember that you actually went
to sleep, all you know is you came awake, then every day, it would feel like you are in a
wonderland and it would be most mysterious. The few hours of sleep would have been the
most mysterious and profound aspect of your life simply because you do not remember that
you actually went to sleep and woke up. The mystery and profoundness of death is just the
same. Death is a mundane thing, nothing profound or mysterious about it. It is something
that happens to people over and over again. The spiritual process is not about death – you
are seeking something which is deeper than death. It is about becoming free from that
which is the root of death, which is actually birth. To become free from birth is naturally to
become free from death. So the spiritual process is not about life or death. Body is life and
death – the spiritual process is about yourself, which is neither life nor death.

Birth and death are just pottery business – picking a piece of earth, shaping it into a human
form and of course, making it walk and talk. This pottery business which turns into puppetry
after sometime is a simple trick. To know the play from the point of view of the audience is
one thing. To know the play from behind the stage is completely different. Once you start
looking at the play from the backstage, after sometime you are kind of done with it. You
may enjoy the mechanics of it, but you are no longer excited by the story of it, the play of it
because you know how it is all put together. Only those who have short-term memory –
every day they come and sit in the same play but they have forgotten the previous day's
memory – for them it’s very exciting and challenging.

Ranked amongst the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and a New York Times bestselling author Sadhguru has been conferred the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 2017, the highest annual civilian award, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service.