Think Twice Before Wearing Black Clothes – Sadhguru

Black is one thing you should never wear. This will determine the way your energy functions and the psychological stability you have within you. Adiyogi is known in many ways but one dimension of him is, that he is a vairagi or a bhairagi as it’s called. Raag means color, and vairag means to go beyond that which is color because color as we know it, color as our visual apparatus knows it, is only a certain breakdown of the white light. Something looks red not because it is red, but because of the entire spectrum of colors that exist in the white light, it holds back everything and reflects only red, or in other words, what it rejects becomes its color. That means the perception is completely wrong. You think something is red, it’s everything except red (Laughs) and you think it’s red because it’s reflecting red light only, the rest is holding back. So, something is white because it reflects everything as it is. So, if you move about in areas and spaces and situations where you have no control over what happens around you, always white was suggested.

If you walk out, white because you don’t know what’s happening, you don’t know what’s happening in the world around you, you don’t know what’s happening in whose mind, what thoughts, what emotions people carry. So, white gives you a certain protection because it reflects everything not just the light, the very energy. Black absorbs everything. If you’re in a space where you want to absorb what is around you, you must wear black.

But if you wear black in a place where you don’t want to absorb, but you wear because you look slimmer, (Laughter) then you will start accumulating all kinds of things. I would… It’s a very unpopular thing to say. I would ascribe at least 20-25% of psychological struggles that people go through, to remaining in black clothes for long periods, in all kinds of situations where they should not be. And I see… (Laughs) Because black is always bad, whether… (Laughs) Let me not get into this. (Laughs) But somehow black is considered negative, black is considered not so divine, black is considered devilish. The devil comes, he will come in black clothes. Based on this, people are wearing black for mourning. When somebody is dead, black is one thing you should never wear. If there is death around you, you must always wear white because you don’t want to absorb that kind of energy. But I see everybody is wearing black when there is death. Complete misunderstanding of life, no awareness at all.

You’ve just arrived at things intellectually that you think black means, signifies death. Yes, it does, I am not saying no. But do you want to become that or do you want to stay away from that? Those who are dead are dead. We respect that but those who are alive should stay alive, they should not become half-dead imbibing that kind of stuff. So if there’s anything that you don’t want to absorb, you must wear white.

All the other colors are in-between play but it is between black and white – white means complete reflection, black means no reflection, and in between is selective reflection. That’s for fun. But where we want to absorb something, we wear black. Where we want to reflect, then you wear white. So, just the reverse has been done for a long time. You don’t go with this on the street, you don’t go with this to the office I am saying black clothes, not just black, these particular clothes. You don’t go walk in the subway… I mean a railway station, not food, okay? (Laughter) It’s all getting mixed up. (Laughs) You do not go to places where you don’t want that atmosphere to enter you in black clothing because this will determine the way your energy functions, this will determine the psychological stability that you have within you and a variety of other aspects.

Color has its tricks, okay? (Laughs).