'Today, With the Tools of Science and Technology, We Have Brought Ourselves to a Self-Threatening Situation'

In the legion of India’s saints and ascetics, SADHGURU JAGGI VASUDEV, somewhat stands apart.

- Madhumita Chakraborty

He is a mystic, with many accolades to his name, including the Padma Vibhushan, for endeavours to elevate humankind, not just to another level of consciousness through yoga, but also through pursuits to save soil and preserve and protect the earth's ecology. Sadhguru has addressed the UN World Headquarters, the World Economic Forum, the World Bank, the House of Lords and varsities like Oxford, Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Wharton and MIT. He is the founder of the Isha Foundation and a New York Times bestselling author for a plethora of books on subjects as diverse as yoga and human relationships. Sadhguru discusses his latest book Enlightenment — A New Beginning with Madhumita Chakraborty of BW Businessworld. Excerpts:

You describe ‘enlightenment’ as a “heightened level of perception”. What would you say are the fundamental differences between “enlightenment”, the Brahmanical pursuit of “self-realisation” and “Moksh”?

In the Yogic culture, we have both negative terminology and positive terminology. We say nirvana and shoonya, which mean non-existence. At the same time, we have positive words such as mukti and moksha — the ultimate freedom. They all mean the same thing. One means liberation, another means non-existence. What word we use depends on who we are addressing.

Whether we call it enlightenment or mukti or nirvana or moksha, what it means is freedom from the very burden of existence. That is ultimate freedom because as long as you exist, you are bound in one way or another. If you exist in a physical way, it is one kind of bondage. If you leave the physical body and exist in some other way, there is still another kind of bondage. Everything that exists is ruled by some law. Mukti means you have broken all laws, and all laws can be broken only when you cease to exist.