Jaggi Vasudev

“Insight essentially means being able to see things other people are not able to see. This is the hallmark of leadership.”

“Corruption has seeped into every section of life.”

“It is important that global business leaders understand that they need to think beyond their quarterly balance sheets and see what it is that they are creating.”

“Spirituality is not about looking up or down - it's about looking inward.”

“At my ashram, people work long hours joyfully because they are inspired. When people are involved and joyfully doing something, they usually turn out ten times more and do more than what they would normally do as a duty.”

“A beard doesn't grow only on gurus; it grows on all men.”

“Discrimination will impair democracy.”

“We have to grow in such a way that our growth is not at the cost of something else.”

“Automobile companies are always allergic to any kind of environmental movement.”

“This is something that everyone has to understand: you don't win anything on your reputation.”

“In India, nothing is accomplished by policy changes alone. Unless people can relate emotionally to something, nothing happens on the ground.”

“When the Divine descends, you just accommodate.”

“Most creatures in nature die consciously. Cobras, for instance, choose a particular place on a particular branch of the tree. Many a times, I would try to force-feed them out of my misplaced compassion, but they would just puke and go back to sit on the same branch.”

“There is no good leader. First of all, if you think you are a leader, you are just messed up in your head. People should think you are a leader. If you think you are a big success, again, you are messed up. Other people should think you are a success.”

“Children never seek happiness: they are happy.”

“If a man aspires for a political career, he can start at 18 and go on and on. This is not true about women, who fall back when marriage and children happen, which are equally important. That is not gender bias.”

“My engagement with mountains, rivers, and forests has been right from my childhood. I have lived in the jungles by myself; I have floated down rivers. So, I didn't experience these rivers, mountains, forests as some mythological figures but as thriving, living entities.”

“If you look at the world today, lies are mainstream. Truth is a fringe phenomenon.”

“To be spiritual means you have cosmic ambitions. You want to know not just the whole creation but the Creator and the source of creation as well. To be material means you have petty ambitions of owning a house - or 10 houses - or a whole apartment building.”

“It is not predictions but plans that make the future. If you want predictions, it is because you do not have the ability to make a plan and fulfill it.”