Can't go to the moon in your Mercedes: Sadhguru

Dubai - The 'humour quotient', a phrase one gentleman in the audience had used, was high.

Sadhguru is apparently tireless. The 59-year-old founder of Isha Foundation, Padma Vibhushan awardee, speaker and author of most recently Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy had at least three back-to-back events in Dubai on Saturday. He was first at the Global Education Skills Forum in Atlantis Hotel in the morning. After a change of ensemble, at 2.30pm sharp, he appeared at a wedding hall in Barsha for a talk on "Life Audit", presented by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India UAE. And later in the evening, he was set to appear at Roda Al Murooj Hotel in financial Centre for three hours of a "mind elevating and soul searching endeavour".
Minutes into his afternoon session, Sadhguru said he was told this is the largest overseas assembly of Indian chartered accountants. "In a country where there is no tax, what the hell are you doing?," he asked. And so, he received his first hall-full round of applause and laughter.
Occasion appropriately, he mentioned 'audit' and 'accounting' several times, even the odd mention of balance sheets, and the 7.3 billion people on the planet who need joy.
How joyful is your life? How joyful are you? Are questions he posed at the audience. He said people should do a life audit every year - "am I a little better or a little worse?" The quality of your life, he said, is not driven by the size of your house - or cage, as he once put it. "The exuberance and joyfulness you feel define how fully you're living."
He referred to statements he's previously made, in other talks available on YouTube, about how this is the generation with the most comfort and convenience, but "can we also claim we are the most joyous, loving generation?"
Sadhguru remained seated for all of the talk, on a stage done up with a blue background and two yellow pots of peace lilies, bigger planters at the back, and a couple of copper vessels to his right. At one point, he picked up a flower to smell its fragrance. At another point, a branding board behind his seat that said 'Life Audit' fell down, and he said, "that wasn't me." The 'humour quotient', a phrase one gentleman in the audience had used, was high. A nice line emerged from his interaction with another gentleman.
Sadhguru asked: "What do you drive,"
He said: "A car."
"Yes, I know a car, which car?"
"A Mercedes."
"Well, the Mercedes may be good for Dubai but you can't go to the moon in your Mercedes. We'll need the Indian Navy to pull you out." Point being, if you want to touch boundlessness, physical needs or possessions are not good enough.
"Human beings are like caged birds. The comfort of being confined is such, there is no scope for the adventure of flying. those who leave footprints will never fly, but your life will soar and soaring changes the atmosphere." More applause.
For a Saturday afternoon, an impressive 1,250 people turned up to listen to Sadhguru. After the talk, one of the audience members told Khaleej Times what she was most impressed by in his talk, was his point about people aspiring to be living temples. He had said to the audience: "If someone else's well being becomes more important than your own, you become a living, walking temple."
One of the volunteers at Isha Foundation told Khaleej Times that Pankaj Mundra, chairman of the Dubai chapter of CA has that ability, to organise an event like this in three days and pull it off smoothly.
nivriti@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai