Question: Is there anything in the yogic way of life to remedy dry eyes

Sadhguru: We must make you cry! Generally, when most people complain of dry eyes, the eyes are not totally dry, they are just going through a certain amount of dryness. If there has been a surgery or some serious damage that makes it irreparable, then you will have to use something like tear drops that are available in the pharmacy. But if this is not the case and the eyes have not been through serious damage, there are other ways to do it.

There are kriyas in yoga through which you can activate your tear glands, but the best thing that you could do is to use ash gourd. This is a vegetable that is generally referred to as winter melon in the United States. It is a greenish-grey vegetable, which has a dusty ash color on it. If you wipe it, it comes off on your hands, which is why it is referred to as an ash gourd. If you grate it, it is very juicy. Water just flows out of it. You can take this grating when it is dripping with its juice, and put a heap of it on your eyes and lie down for 10 minutes. Then take it off and wash with cold water. This will help.

Question: Is it better to “crack the whip” with people to get things done

Sadhguru: If you want any work to be done, whether you are running an industry or a family or anything for that matter, you will always get the best out of people when everyone around you has fallen in love with you in some way. But before they fall in love with you, you must fall in love with them, irrespective of how they are. Only when people love you will they do the best that they can do for you.

If you give people the whip and are forceful with them, if they are helpless they will take the whip today. But tomorrow, when they are strong, they will give you the whip. This is crude management which has not worked. It may work out in one instance but if you keep whipping people, they will listen to you only as long as there is strength in your arm. One day when they have had enough of your whipping, they will break your arm. But if you build a very loving relationship with people around you, it will always work; whether you are there or not there, whether you exist or you do not exist, it will still work.

Question: I wish to follow my guru as much as I can, but sometimes I get these doubts if I am doing the right thing?

Sadhguru: The question you are asking is, “How do I know if my guru is taking me for a ride?” Let's come to it directly. Let me tell you, you are always being taken for a ride, because you are still not yet in that state where I can either expose or impose or even tell you what enlightenment is about.

It is like how mothers in India have an entire technology of how to stuff the child with more food than he would normally eat. They will take a whole plate of rice and whatever else, and when the child says “No this is too much, I am not going to eat it,” the mother says “Ok, eat one half of it.” As the child begins to eat this half, she again mixes everything together. Then again the child says, “No way, it is too much.” Again the mother makes it half, and says “Ok, only half of it I will give you.” It goes on like this till the plate is empty. Unknowingly the child eats up the whole plate of rice. Definitely the mother is taking the child for a ride, isn't it?

Similarly, the guru is also constantly taking his disciples or devotees for a ride, because if you really tell them what they are supposed to swallow, they will just say this is impossible and run away. Because people like everything in installments, a Guru also has to take you for a ride in installments.

Enlightenment will never happen in installments. It is whole or nothing, but your willingness comes in installments. So, you are slowly taken for a ride – making you a little more willing gradually.

(In his Ask Sadhguru column, the spiritual leader talks about intelligence being important to live life sensibly)

(Sadhguru is a Yogi, mystic, visionary and a New York Times bestselling author. He is also the founder of Conscious Planet – Save Soil)