There is a way out of depression

Depression is becoming increasingly common. But you don't have to accept it, there is a way out of this condition

A sad young woman staring outside the window

Human mind is becoming depressed, simply because it has gotten lost in the logical dimension of the mind. Your intelligence says one thing, but the logical thinking says something else altogether. If you look at your life’s experience one little thing you feel, “Oh, it’s really worth living”. But if you think logically, is this life worth living?

Loss and logic

Let’s apply logic to its ultimate end in your life. Imagine you wake up one morning and lying down in your bed, you think 100 per cent logically; you don’t look at your life’s experiences. Do not think about the sunrise, do not look at the birds in the sky, do not think of your child’s face, or the flowers blooming in your garden, or anything. Just think logically.

Now you actually have to get up, that’s not a small feat. Then you have to go to the toilet, then you have to brush your teeth, then you have to eat, go to work, eat, work, eat, sleep… the next morning same thing. Next 30, 40, 50 years you have to do the same things everyday. Think logically, 100 per cent logically. Is it worth living? That’s why you become depressed.

Feeling empty

Also, with depression you’re never empty [like many people believe]. With depression you’re empty of things that you would want to have, but there is all other kinds of stuff going on, isn’t it? You’re only denied of things that you want. You want to be joyful, that is not there, but some other nonsense is going on at an enormous pace in depressed states. You try to drug yourself to emptiness, but still it doesn’t happen. With the drug, the sharpness of the pain is not there; it sort of dulls you a little bit. But even with the drug, you cannot take away the nonsense that’s going on.

But depression is not emptiness at all. In moments of depression, are you empty? So much is going on, but you’re empty of what you would like to have, that’s all. That’s why you are thinking or terming it as emptiness.

Depression is not natural

You think depression is natural. Once you declare that depression is a natural process, what is the way out? There is no way out. See, when you were born, as a child what was natural to you? For most human beings, except a few rare ones, to be joyful was natural. So do not declare depression as natural.

To be unhealthy, to be depressed, to be joyless, maybe you have a large company with you, you have the majority with you; but still it doesn’t make it the right or natural thing. It doesn’t make it effervescent with life. This is not the way of life; it is the way of the mind.

Life is enthusiastic

If you allow life to live, life is always exuberant. Just look everywhere—whether it is a plant or an animal or a worm or whatever—just see with how much intense life is going on in the world. Just dig under the lawn and see how much is happening. Is there anybody depressed out there? There’s tremendous enthusiasm.

Look at the little grass, uproot it and see, just see with the kind of enthusiasm that has gone into the root system. You put one little plant on top of that roof and just give it a little mud and nothing else. From there it will just keep two leaves for survival; it will put one single root down and run over 25 metres. Do you think it ever gets frustrated? Life energy knows no frustration.

Frustration is psychological

It is a limited mind, which knows frustration; because the limited mind works out of expectations, false expectations. When your expectations are not in line with life as such or when they are fanciful psychology and not life phenomenal, then—when it doesn’t get fulfilled—mind feels this is the end of the world.

So your getting frustrated is purely a psychological phenomenon. It’s not a life phenomenon. Even now mentally if you get frustrated and your mind says ‘no good living, let me die’—just close your mouth, hold your nose for two minutes and see; the life within you doesn’t say let me die, it says let me live.

So anything that you do against your own life is simple ignorance and stupidity. But right now you have gotten yourself into a mental state where you begin to work against your own life. Frustration, discouragement, depression means just this: you are working against your own life, but now depression has become celebrated around the world—intelligent people must be depressed. If you don’t have any depression, you are not intelligent. It’s almost coming there.

I say only if you are stupid, will you get depressed. If you are intelligent how would you be depressed? Where is the room for depression if there is intelligence? Only because you have put your intelligence on freeze, is there room for depression, otherwise there is no question of depression or frustration.

That’s all you can do

This incident happened in the great Christian reformer Martin Luther’s life. Because all his efforts had gone waste, he was totally discouraged and depressed and was sitting in great sadness and depression for three days. His wife was a very intelligent woman. On the fourth day, she went into the bedroom, wore black clothes; mourning clothes, and came and stood in front of him.

Martin Luther looked at her and he said, “Why are you wearing black clothes like this?” She said, “God is dead.” He said “What? How can God die? God is not dead.” She said, “No, God is dead, that’s why I am mourning.” He said, “No, that’s not possible.”

She said, “If you believe God is not dead, why are you sitting so depressed? Before you came into this world everything was going fine. After you go, everything will go on fine. When you are here, why don’t you just do your best and get lost?” That’s all you can do.

Magnifying lens over an exclamation markSpot an error in this article? A typo maybe? Or an incorrect source? Let us know!

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, lovingly called 'Sadhguru', is a yogi and profound mystic,a visionary humanitarian and a prominent spiritual leader. A contemporary Guru, who is as comfortable in jeans as in a loincloth, Sadhguru works tirelessly towards the physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing of all.

2 COMMENTS

  1. OMG THIS IS SO TRUE! Depression is a bunch of bullsh*t society has put into the minds of immature young teens. I love this article so much 😀

  2. Being depressed is something you can not control. And you can’t reproche to someone that he/she is depressed. Depression is a society problem that will only be solved if we listen to it, and to the people that are suffering.

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