SADHGURU JAGGI VASUDEV JI
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev was born as Jagadish Vasudev in Mysore-Karnataka, India, in 1957, to a physician father. Right from childhood, Jaggi was quite different from the others. Preferring the wonder of nature and the eloquence of poetry to attending school, 10-year old Jaggi would often venture out alone on long treks through the surrounding mountain forests for days at a time. At the tender age of thirteen years, encouraged by his parents, he started yogic practices, like Pranayam and Asanas, under the guidance of Shree Raghavendra Rao more commonly referred to as Malladihalli Swami. Sadhguru excelled at school; and was a very bright student. Eventually he graduated with a degree in English Literature from the Mysore University in Karnataka.
At the age of twenty-five, he underwent a deep spiritual experience which was to change the course of his future life. One afternoon, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev went to the Chamundi hills and sat on a rock with his eyes wide open. Suddenly, he had an out of body experience. He felt as if he was not in his body anymore, rather spread out everywhere, in the rocks, in the trees, in the earth. When he came back to his normal state, it was late in the evening. He wondered if he had hallucinated, but in the days that followed, this experience recurred and each time it left him in a state of utter bliss. This episode entirely changed his way of life. Jaggi Vasudev decided to dedicate his entire life to the sharing of those experiences.
In 1992, Sadhguru founded the Isha Yoga Centre and Ashram at the foothills of the sacred Velliangiri Mountains at Poondi near Coimbatore, India. The Centre houses a 13 ft Dhyanalingam meditation shrine and a multi-religious temple completed in 1999. The Isha Foundation is also located on site. It is said that the Dhyanalingam has curative powers and bestows well being and prosperity. Since it is a meditation shrine, it is believed to be reservoir of energies from the people who have meditated there. People can sit inside the Dhyanalingam and meditate for as much time as they want. Sadhguru is a practitioner of yogic temple building and consecration, creating the Dhyanalinga yogic temple in 1999. The consecration process employed Prana prathista process. Ancient Indian alchemical processes were allegedly used extensively in the temple building and consecration. Contrary to science, it is claimed that the presence of solid mercury at room temperature can be observed in the building.
Isha Yoga Center also houses the Isha Foundation. Started by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, The Isha Foundation overseas the activities of 25 yoga centers, an orphanage, and medical centre in India, plus three yoga centers in the United States. The head office is located at the Isha Yoga Centre and Ashram, in Poondi near Coimbatore, India. Sadhguru teaches a form of Isha Yoga said to be suited to this time, being simple enough that anyone regardless can absorbed it into their daily life. Isha Yoga techniques include Shakti Chalana Kriya, a powerful Pranayama breathing practice, and Shoonya-an meditation, a transformative process of conscious non-doing with seated postures. Sadhguru has dedicated all his life in helping people along the road to greater health, freedom, love, and joy.These programs are offered to people ranging from the highly educated to the illiterate, from corporate leaders to prisoners. This centre also has the Isha Home School, which educates children in an interactive manner similar to the Montessori Method. As Sadhguru rightly puts, “Education is about making the child grow with an uncluttered intelligence. An intelligence that is not identified and entangled in culture, religion, ideology, or prejudice will naturally leads to ultimate blossoming of the individual”.
Project Green Hands an initiative to plant 114 million saplings to increase the existing tree cover of Tamil Nadu State by 10 % is spearheaded by Jaggi Vasudev. The project entered the Guinness Book of World Records for planting the maximum number of tree saplings on a single day. Vasudev was a key participant in the 2006 documentary film ONE: The Movie. Sadhguru’s efforts to promote peace, along with his teaching sessions, attract large crowds. In January 19, 2003, his talk attracted 120,000 people at Chennai in India.
Sadhguru spoke in four panels at the 2007 World Economic Forum, addressing issues ranging from diplomacy to economic development, education and the environment. In 2006, he addressed the World Economic Forum, the Tällberg Forum in Sweden, and the Australian Leadership Retreat. He has also served as a delegate to the United Nations Millennium Peace Summit and the World Peace Congress. He is the only speaker to have been invited to the World Economic Forum three years in a row. He was a delegate to the United Nations Millennium World Peace Summit -and a participant at the World Economic Forum in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev has dedicated his life to presenting powerful methods of self-transformation to people from all walks of life. He says, “This life for me is an endeavor to help people experience and express their divinity. May you know the bliss of the Divine.” At home in loincloth as much as he is in blue jeans, barefoot through the mighty Himalayas, or straddling a BMW motorcycle on the expressway, Sadhguru is the most unusual mystic that one can encounter. Marking a clear departure from mere customs and rituals, Sadhguru's scientific methods for self-transformation are both direct and powerful. Belonging to no particular tradition, Sadhguru incorporates and presents what is most valid for the contemporary life from the yogic sciences.
Sadhguru's vision and understanding of modern social and economic issues have led to interviews with BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, and Newsweek International. His insights are regularly featured in India's leading national newspapers. A well-known public figure, he regularly draws crowds of more than 300,000 people for his public talks and "Satsangs" (group meditation). The one quality that endears him to one and all is that of being a friend. Sadhguru often imparts the most profound teaching with utmost nonchalance. His uncanny sense of humor not only delivers the message, but also gives the seeker the much-needed break from the monotony that often sets in. His discourses, which draw listeners from various parts of the world, are far from fluffy or esoteric. Forthright, lucid, funny and vigorous, the path they enjoin is an age-old one of yoga and meditation. It's a path as old as Patanjali himself, but presented in a manner people can relate and understand easily and remember for a long time.
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev’s teachings are an outpouring of his inner being, which has risen from inner awakening and not derived from textual scriptures. He is one who embraces Truth and stands by it. He beautifully explains life through his poem, books and Satsangs. In a very simple way he brings out the divine bliss within us as he says, “Work is an expression of who you are. So who you are is what needs to be worked out”. Sadhguru bridges the gap between the known and the unknown, enabling all those who meet him to explore and experience the deepest dimensions of life.
