Forget Expectations, Just Hit the Ball! - Virender Sehwag with Sadhguru

This week's episode features Virender Sehwag, one of Indian cricket's most scintillating batsman. He holds the record for the highest individual score in one-day internationals and the fastest triple century in Test cricket. Fondly referred to in the media as the Nawab of Nazavgarh. Sehwag has opened the batting for India for over a decade and his right arm offspin has seen the Indian team through some tight situations. In April 2009, he was honoured as the wisdom leading cricketer in the world. Watch as Sadhguru and Virender Sehwag look at the very mechanics behind what it takes to successfully play both the game of cricket and the game of life. The critics or whatever somebody is criticizing me or somebody saying something gives… I'll become more determined to score runs also. But I'll get very disturbed very quickly also. So I know what I should do at that time. Should I reply to them? What is the most important part of your life is what's happening within you, isn't it? Yeah. Whether misery happens within you or joy happens within you, it only comes from within you, isn't it? So if joy is coming from within you, why can't you have it coming all the time? If it was coming in a daily tap, I know it goes dry. But if it's coming from within you, why can't you keep it flowing? Because we have not taken care of this, isn't it? How you are should never be determined by how somebody else is. Once you allow that, you will remain a slave to somebody all your life because they will decide whether you will be happy or unhappy. Yes. The question is not about justice and injustice, that's a different thing. But still whether there is justice or injustice, the most unjust thing that you can do for yourself and everybody around you, especially other people who have such a big expectation of you is that you make yourself unhappy. Because unhappy means unpleasantness. Unpleasantness means inefficiency of life. Inefficiency of life means you will get out in your profession. Inefficiency of life means you will get out in somebody else's profession, he will shoot a bad picture of me, somebody else will do something else. But in your life, inefficiency means you're back in the pavilion. So in your life, it's much more stark compared to other people's lives, because other people can explain. Other people can explain their inefficiency. You cannot explain your inefficiency, we see it and that's all. And there are so many expectations from people, from family, from friends that every time I walk on the field, I have to score runs and they want to see me on the field to score, you know, hundreds. So it's difficult to perform at every time. But, you know, the expectation is there when you, when I got out. So my son says, you know, Papa, why are you getting out every time? Why not be scoring 100 every time? So, you know, I can understand he's conscious, he's a child, he doesn't know anything, but still, he's expecting from his father that whenever he goes to the field, he can score runs, at least fifty or hundred. So that expectation is so much… Sadhguru You have more hundreds than fifties. Participant Yes. Sadhguru You're one of the few who has more hundreds than fifties. Participant Yes. When I got twenty-one centuries, I got twenty fifties and twenty-one centuries. And then later on, I score more fifties than hundreds. See, once you enter the field, once you go there and stand, you should not be anybody's husband, anybody's father, anybody's son, not even an Indian, you must just be a batsman. You got a bat and a ball coming, your business is just to hit the ball as it deserves. If you stand there as an Indian, one billion people will stand on your head. It's too much heavy weight to carry. You stand there as a father, your children will sit on your shoulders. Very difficult to play the game with two children sitting on your shoulders. You must leave all of them outside. When you go there, you're just a batsman and that's all your job is. You must exclude all these things. Participant But it's very difficult for me to, you know, leave that thought behind. Sadhguru But that also, there are methods. See, right now, I'm constantly involved with people day in and day out, twenty hours a day, I'm on and on and on with people seven days of the week. But if I close my eyes, the world stops for me, finished it is. The world doesn't even exist for me if I close my eyes. You must bring at least a little bit of this essence into your life that there is… See, you were born alone? Sadhguru Or were you born with one billion people? Participant Yeah, born alone. Sadhguru Alone. When you die, you'll die alone. Right now, within this body, you live alone. You may do many other things. All these other things come in between and go in between, okay? One way or the other. This being, this piece of life is a complete piece of life as creator has made. This doesn't become complete by making additions to it. It's incomplete human beings who invented those things. This is a complete piece of life. So, bringing this into your life, there are methods to do this, that every day if you simply close your eyes and sit for a few minutes, you must be able to shut off everything. If this happens in your daily life, when you go and stand there, it's just a business between you and the ball, that's all. And that's all it should be. This business does not involve your family, does not involve India, does not involve anything. It just involves the laws of physics, the ball, the bat and you, that's all. Participant Really appreciate. I want to ask a question that when I'm playing, there is a couple of negative thought comes in my mind that, you know, when the bowler is running and he's taking… he's ready to deliver the ball, suddenly the thought comes, hit the ball. And that… if that thought comes, it's difficult to control that thought at that time because I'm about to play that ball. So, how I'll control that thought? What should I tell or what should I do to control that thought? Sadhguru Hit the ball is not a bad thought. Participant Yeah, it's not a bad thought but still, you know, I can't hit every ball. Sadhguru No, that is true. But looking at your track record, you hit the ball pretty well. So that thought is a good thought, not a bad thought. But it should not become a compulsive thought. And above all, this is something that all of us have to understand, whether you're playing cricket or you're running a business or whatever you may be doing, there is something called as reality. There is something called as impressions of reality that we carry within ourselves. Suppose you never played cricket in your life, for the first time, you stand there. If a ball comes at you, you would naturally like to look at it, how it comes and then hit it. Only because you played cricket for a certain number of years, now you have this thought because there is a score to fulfill and there are expectations, this time India has to win and so many things, you know. Expectations of one billion people, all that stuff. But actually, you don't play a game. I would call everything a game in life. Whether you're on a playing field or you're in a… any other field, it is a kind of a game. You don't play any game well. You don't win a game because you want to win. You don't hit a ball because you want to hit. It is only because you do something right, it all works. So if you want to do something right, you want to do anything right, first thing is we're able to grasp the situation for what it is. You're expecting the ball at hundred-and-sixty kilometers per hour. Suppose he lets it out at sixty kilometers per hour, it's the easiest things to hit probably, but you may miss it simply because you're expecting it to happen in a certain way. This expectation is coming because your memory is projecting into reality and making an unreal reality. So if there is an intelligent bowler, she reads this and he will make those things and it is not always the fastest bowler or the one who spins most who make… gets the wickets, it's one who reads the batsman's expectations and just does the reverse of that, who… who manages to fox the batsman. So it doesn't matter which aspect of life, whether sport or otherwise, the important thing is we are able to grasp what is there and do the appropriate action. In a sport, it becomes very, what to say, kind of focused because so many people watching and we know if you don't hit the ball right, all of us know it. Somebody is driving, if he… instead of missing the pothole, if he hits the pothole, maybe not everybody notices. Somebody is doing business, instead of doing the right thing, if he goes little off, maybe not too many people notice it. But in sport, if you don't hit the ball, if you don't take the ball in the center of the bat, all of us notice it. Not just you, not just the bowler, every one of us know that you didn't hit it right. So because of that, all this is building up. I was just talking to somebody and you know, they are just then… somebody was telling me, we got to beat Pakistan this time. I said, don't try to beat Pakistan, just hit the ball. If you want to beat Pakistan, they'll wage a war, okay? You don't try to beat Pakistan, all you have to do is hit the ball. If you try to beat Pakistan, Pakistan is not in the ball, it'll be somewhere there. In trying to beat that, all that will happen is you'll go and sit in the pavilion. That's all that will happen. In human mind, there is perception, there is memory, there is imagination. People are not able to keep these things separate. There is memory of the game, there is imagination of how you will carry the cup and there is a reality of a ball coming at you. It is only the reality that you can handle. Memory and imagination, you can only fancy with. One is about that which is over, one is… one is about that which is yet to happen. The reality is the ball is coming and you have a bat in your hand, you have to hit it the way the ball deserves it, not the way India deserves it, not the way Pakistan deserves it, not the way somebody else deserves it. You have to hit the ball the way the ball deserves it, the way it's coming. So, to keep this clarity of mind, there are methods with which you can hold your mind in such a way that this moment if I sit here, the memory of who I am, my parentage, my upbringing, my growing up, my things or things that I know, if all these things come right now in my mind, I will not perceive what is here. Memory will play. Memory is not a reality because it is about something that is over, which does not exist. That which does not exist, if it impedes into that which exists, you will miss that which exists. This is so in everybody's life. But in a sportsperson's life, the effect of that is immediate. In other people's lives, it'll pay out and they will see it after some time that it doesn't work. But with your life, it's right there. You're either at the crease or you're sitting up there and clapping for somebody. It's very clear. So, because of that, it stands out. But this is true for everybody's life. So, doing… See, when you're given such a sophisticated mechanism called mind, human mind is not a simple thing, it's a magnificent mechanism. Even if you buy a phone, a simple phone which they're calling it smart, it's not as smart as you, okay? But even if you buy a phone, you have to read a manual which runs into twenty pages of how to use it. They're not telling you how it works. They're only telling you how to use it will take a certain amount of study. If you want to know how it works, it will take much more amount of study. Did you ever read the user manual for your brain? No. That's the whole thing. We are not looking at how this works. Simply, we are trying to use it. By nature or by accident, people may get to use it, but not consciously. Participant 1 But is there is a method or… There is a method. It's a very established method. Participant 1 Okay. My next question is, is that only how I'll control that thought? Don't try to control it. You need to liberate yourself from this. See, I'm not talking about controlling your mind. I'm talking about liberating it from all kinds of additions that it has added on. If you control your body, if you control your mind, what it means is, your control means to hold it within certain limits. But you become who you are in the world only because you cross the limits. Only because you cross the limits that other people never cross, you become whoever you are in the world. So the method should be not of control, but of liberation. Over a period of time, you gather a body and a certain level of mind. These two, if we know how to use it to our advantage, it'll work one way. But a whole lot of humanity uses their body and their mind to their disadvantage. Their body and mind are the biggest problems that they have in their life. To make this body and mind in such a way that you don't have to control them, what would you like to control? You would like to control something that's gone berserk. You would like to control something which is destructive. Why would you like to control something that is creative, something that is competent, something that is capable? Why would you like to control that? Would you like to control your intelligence? Because if we… if there is a certain level of ignorance, you want to control it. Would you like to control your intelligence? Would you like to control your physical strength? Would you like to control anything? You would want to liberate it. You would want to focus it. You would want to put it into proper use. If this has to happen, the most fundamental thing, there are various other methods, if you have the necessary time, more sophisticated methods can be approached. Necessary time does not mean you have to spend twelve hours a day or something. If you spend twenty to thirty minutes a day, you can do miraculous things for yourself. Because you know how to play the game, you know how to do all that, all that it takes is little more clarity at that moment, and the body and mind responds with much more ease rather than tension and fear and anxiety, it responds with ease. There is substantial scientific and medical information today to clearly say only when you are at ease, your body and mind functions at its best. We have given it to the cricket team also, I don't know if it reached you. This is called as Isha Kriya. This is a simple process. The important thing is to make a distinction between what is you and what is not you. When I say what is you and what is not you, whatever you associate yourself with, after some time you start experiencing it as myself, because somewhere in your mind you identify with it. Starting from the most fundamental thing, it goes into various things, which causes enormous amount of disturbance and misery. But the most basic thing which breeds this is your own body and your mind. When we say your mind, your mind is largely the thought process and emotions that go on there. This thought process and emotion mainly happens the way it happens because of the type of memory that you have gathered there. Obviously you gathered memory over a period of time, isn't it? The body, the physical body, from the time when you were born and how you are today, you gathered this over a period of time. Anything that you can gather can be yours, but can never ever be you, isn't it? So to create a distinction between what is you and what is not you, if this distinction arises, which is what Isha Kriya does, if you bring this distinction into your life, you will see suddenly your ability to use your body and your mind is phenomenally enhanced. Many, many fold, the same body and same mind, simply because you are not tangled up with it, you can use it so much better, simply because there is a little bit of space between you and your body and you and your mind. This is guaranteed from me. Thank you.