Who is Jaggi Vasudev?
Jagdish Vasudev, also commonly known as Sadhguru, is a renowned Yogi and mystic. He founded the Isha Foundation, which operates Ashrams and Yoga centres worldwide, including India, the USA, England, Singapore, Lebanon, Canada, Malaysia, Uganda and Australia, to carry out educational and spiritual activities.
Sadhguru’s early life
He was born Jagadish Vasudev on 3rd September 1957 in Mysore, Karnataka. He was a very talented student and completed his Degree in English literature from Mysore University. Even as a child, he exhibited unique tendencies. At 13, he started practising yoga under his guru Raghavendra Rao.
Jaggi Vasudev’s teachings
Vasudev said he had a spiritual experience at age 25, which made him leave his business and travel extensively. When he was 25, he began touring the world and taught Yoga. He travelled all over Karnataka and Telangana on his motorbike to teach Yoga. It was in 1983 that he gave his first Yoga class in Mysore. He developed his own style of yoga, which he named Sthiti Yoga. He started meditating, leading him to teach people yoga and share his spiritual experience.
Spiritual experiences
Sadhguru devotes his life to physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. At 25, he underwent profound spiritual experiences, further changing his life. One day, he went to Chamundi Hills, wherein he experienced his body no longer with him. This is not only a rare case; Sadhguru generally felt such experiences.
Sadhguru’s Isha Foundation
Sadhguru’s Isha Foundation, besides promoting Yoga known as Isha Yoga, is also working towards providing quality education in the rural parts of the country called Isha Vidya. Besides Coimbatore, the Isha Foundation also has a centre in Delhi and the Isha Institute of Inner Sciences in McMinnville, Tennessee, USA, where Yoga programmes and outreach activities for spiritual seekers are provided.
Sadhguru’s social initiatives
Besides being a Yogi, Sadhguru has actively advocated for the environment, especially climate change. He founded Project Green Hands, a grassroots ecological initiative that was awarded the highest Indian environmental award, Indira Gandhi Paryavaran Puruskar, by the government of India. He had also initiated the Save Soil campaign.
Yoga programmes
The yoga programmes offered by Sadguru are being provided under the umbrella of Isha Yoga. The word Isha means formless divine. Isha Yoga’s flagship program is ‘Inner Engineering’, where individuals are initiated into meditation and pranayama. He also conducts yoga classes for corporate leadership, called ‘inclusive economics’. Spirituality is also one of the core components of Isha’s yoga programmes.
Awards
The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Vibhushan in 2017. Besides this, he has received many other national and international awards.
Adiyogi Shiva statue
The Isha Foundation built the 34-metre-high Adiyogi Shiva statue in Coimbatore, which was declared the largest bust by the Guinness World Records.
Sadhguru’s publications
He has authored several books, including the bestseller — Inner Engineering: A Yogi’s Guide to Joy. Some of his other important books are:
- Encounter the enlightened
- Mystic Musings
- Joy 24×7
- Pebbles of Wisdom
- The Mystic Eye
- Essential Wisdom from a Spiritual Master
- Flowers on the Path
- Himalayan Lust
- Eternal Echoes: The sacred sound through the mystic
- Circus of the mind
- Unleashing the mind
- Good and Bad divide the world
- Enlightenment: What It Is
- Sacred Space for the self-transformation
- Ancient Technology for the Modern Man
