A Recipe for Self-Transformation By Sadhguru

On a certain day, Shankaran Pillai’s wife was particularly incensed at her husband. So she made some soup and added five extra spoons of chilli and served it to him. It was steaming hot and she wanted to see what would happen. She wrung her hands. But he was reading the newspaper. Then she said, “The soup is ready.” Once again she said, “The soup is ready.” And then again she said, “The soup is ready.” He replied, “Hmm…”, “hmm…”, “hmm…” and kept reading the newspaper.

She wanted to see whether it would really work or if the chilli powder was not strong enough. She thought to herself, “Let me check.” She took a spoonful and swallowed it. It just exploded in her mouth! Tears welled up and started flowing. Just at that moment, Shankaran Pillai put his newspaper down. He looked at her and asked, “Why are you crying?” She said, “You know my mother died just last year and how much she loved this soup. When I saw this bowl of soup, it reminded me of my mother and tears came.” “Oh, is that so? Don’t worry, what to do? We all lose our mothers and fathers some time. It’s all right.”

Shankaran Pillai went back to his newspaper with the soup, and while reading the newspaper he put it in his mouth. It exploded like dynamite, because this was a full spoon. Tears came into his eyes. Then she came and said “Oh, you are also emotional about my mother!” He said, “No, no, I am not crying because your mother died. I am crying because that good mother went but she left you here!”

This is not the way to live. When you live, people should enjoy your presence. When you die they should miss you. If the reverse happens, that means we have lived the wrong way.

You may not be able to drop wholesale and at once, all your limitations, prejudices and the nonsense that people around you suffer. But you can start with at least one. At least one of these should go because without transformation, if you are, just talking about spirituality and acting spiritual, this is no good. Please make some transformation happen so that when you live, people enjoy living with you, and when you die, they will miss you. That is how you should live.

Ranked amongst the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and bestselling 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.