The Way of Shiva and Buddha – Sadhguru

Meditator: Namaskaram, Sadhguru. I just want to know the basic difference of
the way of Shiva and the way of Buddha. Sadhguru: It’s very easy to talk about Buddha’s
way because it’s very logical,it’s quite simple actually, and it’s very long-drawn-out
process. Generally the methods that Gautama gave to
people were always a question of a few lifetimes. You can clearly see this today, the Buddhists
are always talking about this, particularlythe Tibetan Buddhists who are the best known
Buddhists in the world today for whatever political reasons. They’re always talking about a few lifetimes
of work. So, if you have that kind of patience that
you are willing to work for a few lifetimes,Gautama’s way is a very efficient, very
logical, scientific step-by-step process thatone can take, because this is a path of awareness. The significance of walking the path of awareness
is – there are milestones on the waywhich tell you, you have come one mile, two miles,
ten miles, it tells you where you are,that is the most important aspect. That is without too much trust or devotion
you can still grow, because you have a methodto hang on to – you just keep doing it, keep
doing it, keep doing it. It clearly shows you that you’re progressing,
but with Shiva there is no such guaranteeand he doesn’t fix milestones. You don’t know whether you are going forward
or backward but you are going somewhere, that’sall you know . It’s like falling into a bottomless pit. That sounds terrifying. I want you to understand this – a bottomless
pit is the safest place to fall into . A pit with a bottom is dangerous . A bottomless fit… pit is absolutely safe. Your life is done, if you just jump into it,
it’s done; simply you fall. If you ever do… has anybody done sky diving?Hmm?You did?So, if you have a free fall, then if you do
not open your parachute for a few thousand feetyou don’t know whether you’re going
down or going up, nothing, it just feels likeyou’re floating around and it’s wonderful. Only when you look down the damn planet is
coming at you at a tremendous speed . If this planet is taken off, this is a great
experience. Only if you look down, it’s just coming at
you at tremendous speed, that’s the only problemFalling is… don’t understand the falling
as a negative thing. Falling is a great thing. Did you ever fall in love ?Only when you hit the bottom, then it gets
bad . If you fell into a bottomless pit then there
is no problem. So, Shiva is a bottomless pit. His methods are very different but you cannot
limit him that way, because with seven differentdisciples, the seven Sapta Rishis, the celebrated
rishis of the yore, he taught seven basic waysin which a human being can explore his
consciousness. From these seven, in multiples of seven it
went further and one-hundred-and-twelve different wayshe explored and he said, ‘This is all. ’There is a beautiful story… no time for
stories . So, he expounded one-hundred-and-twelve different
ways as to how a human being can attain to his peakand these one-hundred-and-twelve
are the one-hundred-and-twelve chakras inthe body. There are one-hundred-and-fourteen, but two
of them are outside the physical body. He left those two and he said one-hundred-and-twelve
different ways of attaining when you are embodied. That means every chakra in the body, every
meeting point of the energy system -one particular way of attaining. So, he did not leave anything out. So, Buddha is a small part of his work. I want you to understand, Gautama himself
didn’t go simply sit in the forest. The eight years of his sadhana he spent with
various teachers across the country and thewhole spine of this spiritual process, this
knowledge, has essentially come from Shiva. Wherever it is, whichever part of the world
it is, the basic spiritual process comes fromthis spine and it’s been taken to different
parts of the world in so many different forms. They look so different because these one-hundred-and-twelve
different ways look absolutely different fromone another. So, what is the difference from Shiva and
Buddha is not an appropriate question. Which aspect of Shiva did Buddha explore?He explored the path of awareness, which is
one aspect. It’s very uni-dimensional but the significance
of Gautam Buddha is- he is very scientific,clinical. He appeals to the logical mind, but he is
like, he also sat like thisMany times he was an ascetic, he just sat
unmoving but many times he was a mad dancingdrunk. He was in all kinds of states because he didn’t
limit himself to any particular dimension,he just explored every aspect of life. So, what you call as Buddha’s way is just
one aspect of these one-hundred-and-twelvedifferent ways. And so many others have brought so many other
aspects, but individual ways. Of these seven disciples, of these seven Sapta
Rishis, the one who walked south…south means anything South of Himalayas is south;
I am talking to all the Mumbai people . Anything South of Himalayas is south. So, Agastya walked south and he became particularly
active beyond the Vindhya Mountains. You know that story about Vindhya Mountains
bowing down to Agastyamuni and he never came backso you know that story. No?You must learn something about India . So, particularly the Deccan Plateau he spread
himself in such a way, every human habitationin Deccan Plateau he touched. Wherever you see you will hear something about
Agastyamuni and he started thisAction for Rural Rejuvenation, he did not leave a single
human habitation; he brought spiritual processto everybody’s life, the whole population. They say he lived over 4000 years. We don’t know how long he lived but definitely
his life span was not a normal span of life,it was extraordinarily long. When you just calculate the mileage that he
covered, if you had put a speedometer on himand seen how many miles he covered, you could
see it’s an extraordinarily length of time. We don’t know whether it’s 400 years or 4000
years. People say it’s 4000, but definitely he lived
very long and he touched every habitationand made sure a spiritual process became a
living reality for them. We are still enjoying his work, I want you
to know. The Southern part of India is still enjoying
his work. A certain… without knowing why, a certain
level of settled nature that you see is his workbecause he brought yoga into people’s
lives without a label, without a format,just like life process. As you wake up in the morning, brush your
teeth, cook, eat, all this he made it intoa spiritual process and we are still enjoying
the benefits of that . If you look at any spiritual process anywhere
on the planet you will see it is not outsidethe one-hundred-and-twelve ways in which Shiva
explored this. So, comparing Gautama and Shiva is inappropriate. I have great respect for Gautama. He is a great being, no question. His work is phenomenal. He caused a huge spiritual wave which is still
on after 2500 years but it is not comparable…it is no way comparable. All we can say is Shiva’s work contains
Gautama’s work as a small element. It is less than 1% because out of one-hundred-and-twelve,
Gautama explored one and the important thing ishe marketed it well and he encouraged thousands
of people to take the path – that’s his successbut Shiva is little too inebriated
to do marketing . You should do marketing for him. He is… he won’t do marketing, but still
I have to… generally it’s believed,this is somewhere 40 to 60,000 years ago that he
started his work but after 60,000 years or40,000 years it is still alive, you can’t
kill it. Hum?You still can’t kill it, isn’t it?By the time I am done with my life, I am sure
I will leave him little more popular thanthe way he is today .