Spiritual leader Sadhguru on tapping the human potential

We as humanity have not focused on human resource in its real sense. We have invested a lot in maintaining a human being where he is right now, but we have not truly invested in developing a human being in such a way, that we open up the human possibility to its fullest potential.  

A few years ago, when I was in Davos at the World Economic Forum, a certain professor from Harvard University came up to me and said, “Oh, you are that amazing tree planter.” I said “No, I am not a tree planter.” He said, “No, no, you planted millions of trees.” “Yes, we did that, but I am not a tree planter.” Then he asked, “What do you do then?” I said, “I make people flower.”

A true HR department means you must know how to make people flower.

Making people flower 

To make a human being flower, what are the necessary conditions? Your body, mind, emotion, and your energy need to be cultivated to their full scope and dimension. Unless you do the right things, right things will not happen to you. This is how life works.

If this is true outside, this is also true inside. But before we do the right things with other people, first of all we need to do the right things with ourselves. If you were doing the right things with yourself, you would be in utmost pleasantness. After all, essentially everyone is seeking pleasantness inside and outside.  

Right now, your experience is unfortunately determined in reaction to external situations. Whatever kind of situations you are living in, not a single person on this planet happens 100 percent the way you want them.

If this is so, at least this one human being – you – must happen your way.  But right now, your joy, peace, and wellbeing is so fragile. Anyone can shoot it down.

When your wellbeing is so fragile, being anxious is normal. When anxiety is normal, madness is just one step away.  

Especially if the outside situation becomes unpleasant for some reason, it is all the more important that you keep your insides pleasant. If we want to truly develop human potential, the most fundamental thing is we must create a situation where pleasantness is a conscious choice, it is not something that happens to you because someone is wonderful to you.  

If the best has to come out from a human being, the first thing is, you must know how to keep yourself joyful so that you can keep everybody around you joyful. If everyone who is working for you is really happy, they do not need much management.

A joyful man is a wonderful human resource always. If I meet you when you are very happy, I am sure all of you are wonderful human beings. If I happen to meet you when you are angry, frustrated, and unhappy, you could be a nasty human being. I am not saying you are, but possible. So, this is the basic thing which we have not attended to.  

I must tell you, I manage an institution with over two million volunteers around the world. We are doing a variety of activities. We are into business, construction, furniture, we have a craft industry, a restaurant, and we have rural activity in over 4600 villages in Southern India as well as activity around the globe.  

I want you to understand what it means to manage a volunteer. In any management, one of the key factors is if you do not perform, you will be fired. A volunteer means you cannot fire him! A volunteer means they are not trained for the job. All they have is enthusiasm – no training. If anyone has to go crazy, it is me.

Accessing the source of creation

Your body, your mind, your emotion, and your energies can be constantly enhanced and made to function in a better way than they are right now. The very source of creation is throbbing within you every moment, but you are not aware of it.

This body has been created from within, not from outside. What you call as your body is an accumulation of food. You provide the raw material, but the making of the body is happening from within.

Instead of living here as an accumulation of food, and an accumulation of impressions which you call as your mind, if you had access to the source of creation within you, you would live a very exalted life. That is when we can say you are truly developing human resource, not just by training them to do this and that.  

This must happen to every human being, and it is not far away. Your joy, misery, agony or ecstasy always happen within you. This is the essential human predicament – your senses are all outward bound, but the seat of your experience is within you.

If only you were aware of how the seat of your experience happens, would you make your experience of life pleasant or unpleasant? Definitely pleasant. If you were in utmost pleasantness, you would function at your best.  

We have built all kinds of infrastructure on the planet but we have not built much infrastructure for the inner wellbeing of a human being.

How a human being is within himself is most important if we want to bring out the best in that person. Otherwise, we will remain a crippled humanity. I want you to see HR in a much larger perspective than just running your company, hiring and firing people.

If we really want to develop human resource, we as individuals, as families, as communities, as nations, as humanity as a whole, have to invest something into developing a human being into a much bigger possibility than the way he is right now.  

‘Human is NOT a Resource’ conclave has been envisioned by Sadhguru. Building on this insight, the conclave brings together thought leaders, business, and HR heads to discuss practical steps to enable a paradigm shift from human beings as resources to human beings as possibilities. 

To register online, follow this link https://www.ishaeducation.org/human-is-not-a-resource/preregistration/

Also read: Here's what Sadhguru has to say about life, stress, and loss