The Best Time to Dig Into Your Genius – Kagiso Rabada with Sadhguru Pt 1

00:03 - Nearly 9,500 miles on the motorcycle. Kagiso Rabada: And I thought I was living life. (Sadhguru laughs). . be so interesting to hear from you, you know, what you have made out of this lockdown.

00:17 - Sadhguru: The most important thing right now is to stay alive, ensure everybody around you stays alive.

00:23 - Kagiso Rabada: But when you look at things like ‘Black Lives Matter,’ I just want to have your take on what is happening.

00:33 - Sadhguru: What you need is an overwhelming sense of humanity. Have we locked it up inside or have we kept it active? Sadhguru: Namaskaram KG. What knocking off all the wickets, man? What are you doing, huh? Kagiso Rabada: I am trying. (Laughs) Sadhguru: Chennai Super Kings, huh? (Sadhguru Laughs)(Overlapping conversation) Sadhguru: Doing great, man, congratulations for being the highest wicket taker. Congratulations! Great job! Kagiso Rabada: Nice shades.

(Sadhguru laughs) Sadhguru: I’ve been on a journey for the last 36 days on a motorcycle. Just got here about three hours ago.

01:12 - Kagiso Rabada: I heard. Sadhguru: I’ve been crisscrossing…

01:14 - I mean, going around the United States, just got back today.

01:18 - Kagiso Rabada: And how was… how was it? Sadhguru: Oh, it’s been fantastic! I mean, we’ve captured a lot of video; we’re doing some work with the Native Americans and stuff.

01:28 - But it’s been spectacular! Kagiso Rabada: Actually, Casey told me about that.

01:34 - What… what exactly is that though? Just if you don’t mind giving me, just…

01:37 - You don’t have to talk too long about it. Sadhguru: This… this was titled as ‘Exploring Spiritual America’ so we connected with all the Native American nations; actually most people would not know that there are over 500 Native American nations of the past. Kagiso Rabada: Yes.

01:53 - Sadhguru: Well, they have all become reservations today, but still they exist; they maintain a certain status and they have their own spiritual process, their culture… Each one of them has their own separate language; like in Africa, each tribe has its own thing.

02:08 - I don’t know to what extent it is preserved in Africa today but these people are striving to preserve it.

02:14 - So my effort was one thing to bring the spiritual dimension of their life back into a thing because one very, very relevant factor in their spirituality is – see, these are people who did not live on the land, they lived as the land – they are the land, like that they lived.

02:36 - For them, ecology is not a textbook; it lives in their hearts. So I thought bringing that forth for today’s generation and tomorrow’s generation is very important. Apart from that, for most people in the world, Native American person means – they know Native American people only from the Wild West movies, where they’re always screaming on the horses and shooting at somebody, so, that is not what they are. They were evolved societies; they had cities of their own.

There were cities where there were up to 40,000 population at one time.

03:09 - I’m saying that is the level of organization and civilization that had happened.

03:14 - There was proper education; there was even higher education  for men and women in some of the tribes. Each one of them has a different language.

03:21 - It’s an elaborate process. The entire continent is full of such people, and they’ve lived here for over 40,000 years, the recorded aspect, the archaeological thing says up to 40,000 years definitely they were here; they could have been here even before that. So the idea is to make them visible in the world.

03:41 - And the idea is to bring out the positive dimensions of their life because they’ve been… I mean, they’ve been relegated to another status where they’re invisible.

03:49 - So as nations bringing them back. Well, they’re part of the United States Constitution and framework now, but culturally, spiritually, they are nations by themselves. So that was the effort. So we thought we will do it in 21 days on a motorcycle, but because we met so many people on the way and covered nearly 9,500 miles, on the motorcycle, it took 36 days.

04:14 - Just today morning we got back. (Laughs) Kagiso Rabada: Ah and I thought I was living life. (Sadhguru laughs) But yeah, you mentioned a great point. I mean, reviving, bringing awareness to…  to their culture. I think it’s probably a good thing, and also bringing awareness so other people that can recognize their culture.

04:38 - I mean, they probably do recognize it. But I mean, you’re right, when I was young, I probably watching TV and I see them in those, you know, in those movies, the wild, wild west movies, and I guess it’s about learning about each other as human beings.

04:53 - So I think, that’s a great, great initiative.

04:55 - Sadhguru: I think Africa also has a similar situation.

04:59 - I don’t know to what extent it’s preserved today.

05:01 - But I mean, it had a similar situation where tribes had their own cultures, languages, everything. I have been in northern part of Africa, to some extent, traveling, I met those Maasai people. They’re just incredible people and we met the Zulus and stuff. I don’t know, if you come from some background like that, if you can tell us something.

05:21 - Kagiso Rabada: Of course, I’m from the Venda. I’m Venda myself, but my family is very culturally mixed. I would say in South Africa, we speak our native languages. South Africa has 11 languages and people in South Africa, they are quite rooted in their culture. Umm, but I mean, I mean, if… if you have any ideas, and you want to come on board, and it’s all about learning, right? You can, everyone can learn from each other. I mean, being at the IPL as well I learned quite a few things about Hinduism.

05:56 - Sadhguru: Mhmm. Kagiso Rabada: I’ve learned about Muslims.

06:00 - Because we are in an environment where we’re just around different… different people who come from different backgrounds. So… Sadhguru: So Venda… Venda tribe has a language of its own? Kagiso Rabada: Yes, it does.

06:15 - Sadhguru: What’s it called? Kagiso Rabada: It’s, it’s called Venda.

06:17 - Sadhguru: Oh. Okay. Kagiso Rabada: So, yeah, it’s called Venda. Yeah.

06:20 - Sadhguru: So on the cricket field you can curse people in your language, nobody understands. (Laughter) Kagiso Rabada: I’ve been in a bit of trouble for cursing people in English. (Laughs) Sadhguru: Don’t do that; in your language, you must do. (Laughs) Kagiso Rabada: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.

06:38 - But I’m so glad to really speak to you. I think it’s… it’s quite cool.

06:42 - We, my friend and I, during the lockdown. We were like, “Hey, let’s do something. We’re not playing any sport.

06:49 - There’s no work. Let’s get together. Let’s… let’s get creative. “ So we started a podcast and then I remember I asked you a question just before I was going to tour India, but then I had a tear in my… grade one tear in my… my groin, in my abductor, but now I’m all good.

07:08 - And so I was like, “Hey, why don’t we speak to this man? Because I think he is…

07:16 - he’s got wonderful perception (Sadhguru laughs) and (Unclear) be so interesting to hear from you, you know, what you… what you have made out of this lockdown. And you know things are like crazy:  people have lost jobs; people have lost family members; economies are breaking down. You know,  people are in their homes; they can’t get out. But now, things are sort of returning to, you know, the normal way of how it used to be.

07:49 - But you know, how do people cope with what is happening around them? You just almost have to look a bit deeper, but spiritually how? What do you think? Sadhguru: One thing is… yes, people are trying to get back to how it used to be.

08:07 - Kagiso Rabada: Yes. Sadhguru: But please don’t call it normal.

08:09 - Kagiso Rabada: Yeah, it’s not normal. (Sadhguru laughs) Sadhguru: That’s not really normal. Kagiso Rabada: Yeah.

08:14 - Sadhguru: Ah… If you look back, how it used to be 100 years ago, if you look back, how it used to be 500 years ago, 1000 years ago, how it used to be in 2019 is definitely not normal. At least, every creature on this planet does not think we are normal.

08:31 - They think, we are the virus on this planet. Kagiso Rabada: Yes.

08:35 - Sadhguru: You know. I’m saying, if any other creature, any other species, had done what human beings have done to this planet; I’m sure we would have found a chemical bomb, a nuclear bomb, all kinds of stuff; maybe we would have poisoned them, something; and we would have made sure the entire species is obliterated, right? But right now it’s us who is doing this. This is a good time for us to sit back and look:  what are we doing; what is really normal for us.

“What is normal for a human being” is something,  I think, the whole world needs to look at it. It’s unfortunate, over a million lives have been lost; yes, it is true.

09:12 - Many, many people have lost their loved ones; more than anything, not only losing the loved ones, they’ve not been able to tend to them in the final stages.

09:21 - They have not even been able to attend funerals.

09:23 - Governments are burying or cremating people, which is a terrible thing.

09:28 - And of course the economic loss, the loss of jobs, loss of, you know, closure of businesses, all this happening.

09:36 - You must understand I also lost my job (Both laugh) completely because in the last, you know whatever we had planned for these two years 2020 and 2021 — I’m telling you, because our programs were all planned 18-20 months ahead — everything is just wiped out.

09:57 - Kagiso Rabada: Yeah. Sadhguru: You know, we have paid including South African trip — you know, I was supposed to come there in the month of June — all hall rents, advances being paid. Right now, we are struggling to get back the money from the halls (Laughs) because two years, whatever we had planned, everything is gone, all right? So…

10:19 - This is true for a whole lot of people. Kagiso Rabada: Yeah.

10:23 - Sadhguru: But it’s for us either when outside situations do not go the way we expected them to go. This is a time for human beings to dig deep inside and see in what way we can break our limitations, and do something absolutely new, something innovative, something… This is the time to explore human genius.

10:44 - When everything is going good, you don’t have to, you can just go like a standard person, all right? Whatever you call is normal. I don’t like to be normal (Laughs) because normal people don’t do anything significant.

10:57 - Kagiso Rabada: Yes. Sadhguru: So this is the time for everybody to dig into their genius.

11:02 - This is a time for everybody to turn inward and question: What is my life about? What is this all about? Because we are just here for a brief amount of time.

11:11 - In this time, it’s very important at least we are crystal clear: What is it that we want to do with this life? Where do we want to invest this life? This must be clear to every human being. Unfortunately, I would say, 90 percent of the people have no clarity about where they want to invest their life; simply by chance, they’ve gotten into something, because they have a qualification they’re doing something, because they were in a place they’ve gotten into something, you know,  outside influences are determining what we’re doing.

11:39 - This is not the nature of the human being. It’s human consciousness, which must determine how the outside situation should be, but right now we are allowing outside situations to determine how the human consciousness should be. This is a tragic situation for humanity because it’s only human that we call as a being. All right? We don’t call your African lions as lion beings; we don’t call elephants as elephant beings.

12:06 - You can’t call even a rhinoceros a being, all right? Kagiso Rabada: Yes.

12:10 - Sadhguru: You call only human a being Kagiso Rabada: Yes.

12:13 - Sadhguru: because this one is supposed to know how to be. (Tch) Kagiso Rabada: Yes.

12:17 - Sadhguru: If you know how to be, what is the problem? If you really know how to be right now, what is the problem? If you know how to be, you will keep yourself in the best possible way, right now whatever the situation. It doesn’t matter what is the situation.

12:31 - Whatever the situation, you will keep yourself in the best way.

12:35 - Right now, this virus has come; compared to what generations of people have gone through…

12:41 - Let’s… let’s say, you look back on the last three generations;  let’s say in the last 100 years, what people have gone through…

12:47 - They’ve gone through World War I. They’ve gone to World War II. They have gone to— gone through Spanish influenza where millions of people died; I don’t know what’s the number but a very big number died. And they didn’t have medicines. They didn’t have the facilities that we have.

13:02 - Nobody could speak to each other on social media. Look at this, you’re in…

13:06 - what, Dubai or Sharjah? Where are you? Kagiso Rabada: Dubai, right now. Yeah.

13:10 - Sadhguru: You’re in Dubai, and I’m speaking to you here from Tennessee.

13:13 - Was this possible for your grandfather or my grandfather? Could they talk to each other? There’s no way. Kagiso Rabada: Yeah.

13:20 - Sadhguru: So with all this technology, with all this facility, with everything that we have, our survival is better organized than ever before. We should not be complaining.

13:30 - This is the time to dig in and see what… how life evolves for us, and we must see what best we can do.

13:36 - My only concern is, people should not starve in this time.

13:40 - For that, we’ve been making efforts around our areas. We’ve been feeding people 16 to 18,000 people continuously; we’ve been cooking and feeding. Many other organizations, the governments, everybody is doing their bit.

13:52 - In today’s world where food is so well organized, nobody should starve to death that much we must take care. If nourishment is taken care of, you shouldn’t be really cribbing about so many things.

14:04 - Other things are there. What we have today, suppose we lose – suppose we have a car and we lose it – we’re crying about it.

14:12 - Well, your grandfather did not have a car, and he was fine, isn’t it? Walking? Hello? So what is a big deal we are making about all this.

14:20 - It’s not necessary to make such a misery out of life.

14:24 - Right now, most people have more time than they ever had for themselves, their family and everything that also they’re complaining. People are going into mental illness pandemic. Now people are predicting suicide pandemic. Well, if the virus doesn’t get you, you will get yourself, is it? What is the logic behind that? The most important thing right now is to stay alive.

14:47 - Ensure everybody around you stays alive. See, right now, in the India yoga center, we have nearly 4,000 people, not a single infection.

14:59 - Here we have a little over 100 people, not a single infection. We traveled 16 of us, 17 of us… We traveled – across America where there was heavy infected areas, but not a single infection.

15:11 - So this is all it takes, a little responsible conscious action.

15:15 - That’s all it takes from the human being because that is what is expected of a human being that he is supposed to know how to be. If you know how to be, this virus is not a challenge.

15:25 - Kagiso Rabada: Yes. Hmm. I think that’s very interesting, you know, what I took from that is digging into your genius. And when you are thrown with adversity, you know, how you respond to it, it is very… actually it is very similar to sport, because you do go through a lot of ups and a lot of downs. When you are down, as a sportsman, particularly, that’s when you actually learn the most about your game.

15:53 - And when it’s going well as you’ve… as you’ve stated, that’s when you don’t really need to do anything different. So that’s… that’s something that people can really take on board.

16:07 - That’s really lovely. I like that phrase – dig… dig into your genius. That’s… that’s really phenomenal. And also counting your blessings umm and…

16:20 - no… not complaining about things that are kind of trivial.

16:26 - Having food, a basic need like food is the most important thing and the best thing.

16:33 - Sadhguru: I must tell you this, in southern India even today, if you go into rural India – maybe it is true in Africa also – Kagiso Rabada: Yeah. Sadhguru: In southern India, when somebody wants to greet you, in the villages I’m saying, they will ask you, “Oota ayitha? Saptingla?” What it means is, “Have you eaten?” Kagiso Rabada: Oh, right. Sadhguru: Because in their mind, if you’ve eaten, there can be no other problem. What other problem do you have? Have you eaten? That’s the greeting? Nobody will ask you, “How are you?” Nobody will say, “Good morning”; the morning is already good.

17:02 - The only problem is you, isn’t it? If you’ve eaten, you shouldn’t have any problems.

17:08 - That’s what I’m saying. If you are nourished, beyond that, rest is all extra.

17:14 - As a generation of people, we have more things than any generation ever had. We have more conveniences. We have more comforts.

17:23 - We have more technologies. We have more access to everything, like never before in the history of humanity. Never, never anybody had these things, isn’t it? But we are complaining like never before. (Laughs) Global now, the complaints are not local anymore.

17:39 - Everything is global because they’re on the Facebook.

17:42 - Kagiso Rabada: And Twitter and Instagram Sadhguru: Yeah.

17:48 - Kagiso Rabada: And speaking… speaking about global stuff.

17:51 - And social media, especially, I actually came across you on social media,  I think a lot of people would have. Umm when I was about 20-21, I was searching on YouTube, looking at spiritual videos and obviously, you came up. That’s how I got to know you.

18:10 - And I would watch videos here and there. So it’s actually quite cool that I’m chatting to you now. But when you look at things like “Black Lives Matter”, and in South Africa, there’s… there’s also campaigns like “Farmers Life Matter” and other people say, “All Lives Matter. “ As a sportsman, you know, I get asked that question a lot of times, and it’s doesn’t have to… For me, it’s not about cricket; it’s not about politics; it’s not about business; ‘All Lives Matter.

’ As you’ve stated, it’s about human beings, right? But I just want to have your take on what is happening on that front, in humanity around the world, when it comes to lives mattering.

18:57 - Sadhguru: Yesterday evening, I was in Memphis, I was at the Martin Luther King Memorial, Dr Martin Luther King Memorial, wherein that hotel Lorraine, where he was shot. So when you go into this museum – it’s not it’s new to us; we know this – it’s heart-rending, just seeing those images; not just about his death, but what he was fighting for, what was happening in the country.

19:27 - It’s… it tears you apart. It may be half a century ago or a century ago, but when you look at it, just the images are… and the statistics are unbelievable.

19:40 - 12. 5 million African people were captured and brought as slaves.

19:46 - So when you look at these images, it’s heart-rending. But if you invest in the wounds of the past, you will also become wounded. When you’re wounded, when you’re in pain, when you’re in anger, when you’re… when you’re in resentment, you cannot think straight; you will get poisoned.

20:08 - And with this poison, nobody else dies but you. Resentment, anger, hatred are poisons that you drink, but you expect somebody else to die. Life doesn’t work like that.

20:21 - It kills you in so many ways. So the thing is whether we want to invest in our dead fathers…

20:30 - It’s not that we don’t respect them; it’s not that we did not value them; it’s not that we have no regard for them, but still,  we cannot invest in the dead. We have to… we have to invest in the living and the next generation and the unborn child, we must invest in him and her.

20:46 - That’s what is important. So bitterness is not going to help us, but at the same time, you cannot forget what’s happened.

20:55 - There is no way to forget that; everybody should remember, from both ends, everybody concerned must remember what we have done to other people, as human beings.

21:06 - And for those it’s happened also, they must remember not to grow in resentment and anger but to ensure that such things don’t happen to anybody else.

21:16 - Because I want you to understand, the people who did the most horrible things on this planet, when they were doing it, they thought they’re doing the right thing.

21:26 - Kagiso Rabada: Yes. Sadhguru: They thought they were doing the right thing.

21:29 - That is the worst part of humanity that you can twist your intelligence whichever way you want and you can do the most horrendous things to another human being and think you’re doing the right thing.

21:41 - So this is the problem with belief systems, with philosophies, with ideologies, because they will twist your mind to believe this is the right thing that you’re doing. Because many religions in the world clearly say that it is perfectly okay to take a slave.

21:57 - Kagiso Rabada: Oh really? Sadhguru: Yes, yes. The scriptures in the world say this; not one, many.

22:04 - Kagiso Rabada: Okay. Sadhguru: So, people have always been quoting that. This is all right.

22:08 - This is what is said in our book, this is what we do.

22:11 - But if you allowed your humanity to overflow, you knew that it’s not good.

22:17 - If you just what you are doing to the other person, if you are giving him 100 lashes, if you just took one lash on your back, you would know… you would know this is not the thing to do, isn’t it? If you put your child there and gave ten lashes, you would know this is not the thing to do. But you instead of awakening your humanity, everybody’s busy cooking up belief systems, philosophies, ideologies – how much bloodshed has happened, because we believe something, because we are adhered to an ideology, or to a philosophy; how much has happened around the world.

Some have been recorded; most has not been recorded, believe me.

22:58 - Recording has happened only in the last 100-150 years to some extent.

23:02 - Before that people did all these things without any problems, and they did not feel bad about it because they… it was endorsed by their scripture or their philosophy or their ideology or whatever their morality they had. You don’t need morality; you don’t need ethics; you don’t need anything.

23:21 - What you need is an overwhelming sense of humanity that all of us have.

23:27 - Have we locked it up inside or have we kept it active? That’s all the question is. .