Dig into Yourself to Find Bliss: Sadhguru

Q: You say that when a person is blissful, he becomes more malleable, more free, less burdened by individuality. What exactly is this bliss? Can you describe true bliss, Sadhguru?

Sadhguru: How can I tell you? This question may actually spring from a certain misunderstanding about the nature of bliss. Today even psychedelic drugs are being named “Bliss.” If you say “bliss” in the West, they will think you are talking about a particular tablet, a drug.

There is no such thing as “true bliss” and “false bliss.” When you are in truth, you will be in bliss. When you are really in touch with truth, you will naturally be in bliss. Being blissful and not being blissful is like a litmus test for you to see whether you are in truth or not in truth. This question is probably coming from a certain mindset: “If I am just watching the sunset, if I become blissful, is that true bliss? Or when I am saying my prayers, if I become blissful, is that true bliss? Or when I am meditating and become blissful, is that true bliss?”

Most people misunderstand pleasure as bliss. You can never sustain pleasure. But blissfulness means a state that is not dependent upon anything. Pleasure is always dependent upon something or somebody. Blissfulness is not dependent upon anything. It is of your own nature; once you are in touch with it, you are in it, that’s all.

Blissfulness is not something that you earn from outside; it is something that you dig deep into yourself and find. It is like digging a well. If you open your mouth and wait for the raindrops to fall into your mouth when it rains, a few of them may get inside. But still it is quite frustrating to quench your thirst by opening your mouth to the rain. Besides, the rain is not going to last forever. An hour or two, and then it is over.

That is the reason why you dig your own well ‒ so that you have water throughout the year. Whatever you are referring to as “true bliss” is just this: you have dug your own well into yourself and you have found water that sustains you all the time. It is not something that you open your mouth to when it rains. No, all the time you have water with you. That is bliss.

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.