When we watch the daily news, we are often confronted by images and stories of violence, fear, anger, and sadness. Even though we may want to reach out to all those suffering, it is easy to feel powerless to help solve the problems we see around us. However, it doesn’t take money, political power or fame to make a difference in the lives of others. As Sadhguru explains in the article below, if we want to empower others and make a difference, we must first focus on empowering ourselves.
Sadhguru: You must understand, a human has to become a human being. One does not land here as a human being — you have to evolve. You do not become a human being just because you are born out of a human womb. What is human is so complex and so beautiful, you have to make it; it is your project. Your mother just delivers you as raw material. You are not delivered as a wonderful being. How wonderful a human being you become depends on how well you conduct this project. So, you are beginning to become a little sensitive to someone else’s suffering. Good. You are on the project.
Let us say half the world is miserable — it is, actually. If you make yourself miserable, are you adding to the problem or are you a solution? They are miserable for one reason, you are miserable for another reason. This does not solve the problem. You are only adding to the problem. Only if you are joyful and you know what it means to live beautifully can you create it for someone else. How can you make it happen for someone when you don’t even know what happiness is? If you are concerned about life around you, the first thing you must be concerned about is yourself. If you do not know how to take care of this life, how will you take care of some other life? If you know how to keep yourself in the best possible state, then you also know how to take care of someone else. Otherwise, with good intentions, you will cause misery to everyone in the world. More misery has happened on this planet with good intentions than with bad intentions.
If you want to make a difference you need capability. Without that, nothing happens; you can only sit in your house and complain about everything. If you are interested in doing something, the first thing is to see how to enhance your capabilities and your own ability to deal with life. Otherwise, how are you going to reach out to anyone and do anything? There are too many people in tea shops in every street corner who know how to run the country! They are advising the Prime Minister, they can be batting coaches for Tendulkar. Right there in the teashop, revolutions happen and they change the world. But the moment the tea is over, the revolution is over. Just being concerned and emotionally charged about a problem is not a solution. The solution will come only when we empower ourselves. If you do not take time to empower yourself, we will create more and more horrible situations on this planet.
If you are concerned about humanity, please empower yourself that no matter what kind of situation you are placed in, you are not going to be broken and shattered by the situation. You will do the best you can do. First empower yourself. That is yoga, a technology to empower yourself.
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