Inner Wisdom: Harari’s Warnings, the Bhagavad Gītā, and the Yogic Path ✨

I was up a ladder painting the ceiling at my mum's house when these thoughts started turning over in my head. They stemmed from the ideas of the historian Yuval Noah Harari (author of Sapiens - an amazing book, by the way).

Harari has been examining the relationship between human knowledge and our self-destructive tendencies. He argues that our contemporary crises (ecological collapse from the unchecked development of artificial intelligence) arise primarily from corrupted information networks rather than from any inherent flaw in human nature. I disagree with him there, because I've always said that we humans are our own worst enemies. But I take his point 😵‍💫. He says that throughout history we've used "shared stories" to coordinate cooperation on a massive scale; AI, however, introduces a form of "non-human, autonomous intelligence that operates independently of human oversight". This inorganic information never rests, and it "threatens both our privacy and the integrity of democratic discourse". Harari's answer is self-correcting institutions and a deliberate "information diet", one that prioritises verified truth over fabricated or misleading narratives.

To put his thoughts simply: we humans are unbelievably intelligent and unbelievably stupid, all at once. Beacuse we are easily swayed in the face of any type of convincing information, whether it comes from a human or a robot.

Harari was saying this in 2024, but the great Patanjali said something very similar in the Yoga Sutras thousands of years ago: incorrect knowledge is a path towards suffering.

His observations resonate deeply with the principles of yoga as articulated in the Bhagavad Gītā and elaborated by the great Swami Vivekananda. The Gītā identifies humility and freedom from pride as the very foundation of knowledge.

In an age saturated with competing claims of expertise (from yoga teachers to physios), this teaching directly counters the ego-driven impulse to appear more knowledgeable than everyone else. And it's exactly that impulse that perpetuates the information distortion Harari (and Patanjali) warns about.

The earliest yoga teachers said we should not simply trust external processes or authorities. Instead, the yogi should practise rigorous self-inquiry and direct, experiential investigation to arrive at wisdom, at their own organic understanding.

Swami Vivekananda put the distinction plainly: "Knowledge can only be got in one way, the way of experience; there is no other way to know." He went further: "Do not believe a thing because you have read about it in a book. Do not believe a thing because another man has said it was true. Do not believe in words because they are hallowed by tradition. Find out the truth for yourself. Reason it out. That is realisation."

All of this stands in contrast to the modern tendency to project intellectual superiority, whether on Instagram or in person. When everyone (yoga teacher, nutritionist, physio) is competing to appear the most knowledgeable, they all contribute to the "collective pollution of information" that Harari warns against.

And yoga is the worst for this. How we sit in practice, how we get up from the mat, how we say things, what is yogic and what is not, how to backbend better, why you can't do lotus, what makes a yogi 🤔, whether you should squeeze the glutes, whether the shoulders should ever touch the ears - all of it is the pollution of a practice that is so simple in essence, made so complicated by people competing for views and likes. And most of them are getting their information from AI.

You should hear what I'm told about what physios say to their patients (one of my clients is a very well-respected physio). The information they give is sometimes in complete competition with what someone else has said - driven by who's right rather than by what is genuinely best for the patient.

One of the most underappreciated yogic practices, laid out in the older texts long before the postural saturation of today, is the student's ability to distinguish reality from illusion, to verify information against direct experience rather than against external volume or authority. The result shouldn't be passive acceptance, but informed, discerning engagement with both outside ideas and your own inner intuition.

In an era shaped by artificial intelligence and rapid (mis)information, integrating Harari's analysis with the teachings of the Gītā and Vivekananda gives us a coherent framework for resilience. Rather than relying on competing displays of knowledge, yogis (and, in fact, all of us) should find the strength, the resources and, most importantly, the TIME to seek an organic understanding rather than borrowed wisdom.

So rather than assuming whatever you hear next about your injury, or a yoga pose, or how to backbend, or why your shoulder hurts, or how to chaturanga - is right, take that information for what it is. Just information or someones theory or interpretation (nothing more). Just listen and then mix it with your own feelings and experience, do some research, and let an organic understanding unfold in its own time.

That is the key to wisdom and genuine understanding.

These ancient sources remind us that the most consequential information network of all remains the purified mind. Only then can organic wisdom arise, not as accumulated information, but as the living clarity that neither harms nor deceives.

This is why I'm so insistent that when I teach you (in class, on my online courses, or on the teacher training), I'm not actually handing you all the answers or giving you wisdom. I'm just trying my hardest to help you see the yoga world more clearly. I'm trying to help you declutter your mind from the endless misinformation in our little world. Ask yourself: are people sharing information to genuinely help, or do they have an agenda - likes, shares, and the illusion of authority?

The goal in 2026 shouldn't be the accumulation of knowledge, but the ability to discriminate between truth and fiction.

Namaskar

Zahir

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