Sadhguru, born Jagadish “Jaggi” Vasudev, is an Indian yogi, author and founder of the Isha Foundation, based in Coimbatore. [1] His YouTube channel, with more than 12 million subscribers, describes him as “a yogi, mystic, bestselling author, and poet.” [2]
Who is Sadhguru?
Sadhguru was born on 3 September 1957 in Mysore, in what is now Karnataka, into a Telugu family. He studied English literature at the University of Mysore, then went into business, first with a poultry farm and later with a construction company. [1]
He was not brought up in a spiritual household. On 23 September 1982, he rode up Chamundi Hill and sat on a rock, where he had his first spiritual experience. Soon afterwards he closed his businesses to travel and teach yoga. He taught his first class in Mysore in 1983 and went on to ride his motorcycle across Karnataka and Hyderabad, holding classes. [1]
In 1992 he founded the Isha Foundation, and in 1994 he opened the Isha Yoga Center near the Velliangiri mountains in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. [1] He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Inner Engineering: A Yogi’s Guide to Joy and Karma: A Yogi’s Guide to Crafting Your Destiny. In 2017 he received the Padma Vibhushan, one of India’s highest civilian honours. [1]
He has led environmental campaigns including Project GreenHands, Rally for Rivers, Cauvery Calling and Save Soil. In 2022, as part of Save Soil, he completed a 100-day motorcycle journey from London to India. [1] His channel offers talks, guided meditations and the free Miracle of Mind meditation app. [2]
His teachings in brief
- Keep a joy account. Am I a little more joyful than yesterday?
- Remember life is brief. Let it sharpen your priorities.
- Own your experience. Karma means “your making.”
- Set aside what is not you. A nightly practice.
At a glance
Known for: Inner Engineering, Isha Foundation
Topics: Yoga, meditation, joy, karma
Format: Talks, Q&A, guided meditations
Base: Coimbatore, India
YouTube: @sadhguru
Good fit if
You like short, witty talks with a single practical takeaway, you’re curious about yoga as an inner practice, or you want a simple daily meditation.Our take
A lively, humorous teacher of yoga and inner well-being. Start with his five tips for joy, then try the free Isha Kriya or Miracle of Mind meditations.Sadhguru’s key teachings
These ideas come up again and again in his talks, explained in his own words. Tap a card to read more.
The daily life audit
Sadhguru compares joy to business accounts. You don’t keep accounts “only for the sake of IRS,” he says, but to know “whether you’re making a profit or loss.” [3]
So he suggests a daily check: “Am I little more joyful today than yesterday?” He adds, with typical humour, “If you had done this since you were five years of age, you would have been ecstatic by now.” [3]
His measure is simple. “There’re only two things. How joyful are you and how much joy do you give to people around you?” Joy, he says, “is not a goal by itself but it’s a necessary ambiance for life.” [3] Everyone has been happy, he notes. The problem is that “they are not able to maintain it,” so you need “just little tools to make sure that you don’t sink.” [3]
It’s a brief life
His second tip is to remember that life is short. If you wake up tomorrow morning, he asks, “is it not a fantastic thing?” [3]
Most of us aren’t conscious of our mortality, he says, and so we waste time. “If you were conscious, would you have time to crib? Would you have time to fight with somebody?” [3]
He insists this isn’t gloomy. “Death is not a negative thing; it’s the only thing which has added value to your life.” You don’t have to think you will die today, just remember “this is a brief life.” His suggestion: “Just do this for two days and see.” [3]
Karma is your making
Sadhguru calls this “the fundamental aspect of yoga.” Karma, he explains, is “not something that drops upon you from somewhere, karma means your action, it’s your making, it’s your doing.” [3]
“Your life and the experience of your life is entirely your making,” he says. Until that sinks in, “you will not make the necessary changes.” [3]
He gently pokes fun at the habit of blaming others: “Yes, I know it’s my karma but you know my husband, what he did?” His point is that responsibility gives you power: “The moment you see it, you have the ability to change it.” [3] His book Karma: A Yogi’s Guide to Crafting Your Destiny explores this in depth. [1]
Bad food for the mind
Asked how to stop overthinking, Sadhguru uses a vivid image: an upset stomach. When your digestion is upset, the first thing you do is stop eating what caused it. “You eat bad food and then try to stop diarrhea, it’s not going to work.” [4]
The “bad food for the mind,” he says, is identification: “You have gotten identified with things that you are not.” Then the mind “will run endlessly,” whatever technique you try. [4]
If you “keep a little distance” from what is not you, he says, “mind will become still. If you want you can use it, otherwise you can keep it,” like a hand you move only when you choose. [4] He calls himself “very active and involved but not identified.” [4] See our overthinking guide.
What is not you
He offers a simple practice to do before sleep. Sit on your bed and “discount everything that is not you.” [4]
Go through it item by item. “This house in which you are living, is this me? No.” Then your loved ones, who are wonderful, but not you. Then your clothes, your body, your thoughts and your emotions. [4] He jokes that children are harder: “Oh, little difficulty, but no, they are not me.” [3]
“Keep everything aside,” mentally, not physically, and practise every day. “One day, when you successfully keep everything aside that you are not, what you are will be there.” [3] See our meditation guide and mindfulness guide.
Love as the way you are
Sadhguru describes love as “basically the sweetness of your emotion.” Since you can feel love for someone who isn’t even present, “it’s got nothing to do with anybody.” [3]
He asks whether your ability to love is “on self-start or is it on push-start?” [3]
His exercise: “For 5 minutes every day, go sit with something that does not mean anything to you, may be a tree or a pebble or a worm or an insect.” In time, he says, you’ll find you can look on it with as much love as you hold for the people closest to you. “If you can look at everything lovingly, the whole world explodes into a beautiful phenomenon for you. You realize love is not something that you do, it is the way you are.” [3]
Videos with Sadhguru
Hand-picked from his official channel and checked one by one: practical talks, guided meditations and interviews.
Start here
Guided meditations
The mind and emotions
His story and work
Articles about Sadhguru
Sadhguru’s books
His two bestsellers are the best introductions to his teaching.
Find his books in your country: US · UK · Canada · Australia · India.
Inner Engineering and free resources
Inner Engineering is his main online program. It includes Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya, a 21-minute practice, a 10-minute Upa-Yoga practice and “invaluable insights about life.” [5] It runs in seven steps over about 22 hours: six self-paced steps, then a live weekend session. [5] It is available in several languages, including English, German, French, Spanish and Arabic, with scholarships and special pricing for students, seniors, military and police. [5]
His channel also links to the free Miracle of Mind meditation app, available in English, Hindi, Tamil, Spanish and Russian, and to the Sadhguru app. [2]
Inner Engineering is offered online and in person, so it’s open to people in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Europe and India. Prices vary by country.
What the Research Shows
Sadhguru teaches from the yogic tradition rather than from science, but meditation and mind-wandering have both been studied.
- Meditation. A large review found that meditation programmes helped reduce anxiety, low mood and stress. [6]
- Being present. People were happier in the moments when their attention was on what they were doing. [7]
Watch: Sadhguru on TikTok
Here are two short clips from Sadhguru’s official TikTok account on ideas covered on this page.
See: Sadhguru on Instagram
Here are two posts from Sadhguru’s official Instagram account.
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
Frequently asked questions
Who is Sadhguru?
An Indian yogi and author, born Jagadish Vasudev in 1957, who founded the Isha Foundation.
What is the Isha Foundation?
A foundation he set up in 1992. It runs the Isha Yoga Center near Coimbatore.
What is Inner Engineering?
His online program, including the 21-minute Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya practice.
What books has he written?
Bestsellers include Inner Engineering: A Yogi’s Guide to Joy and Karma: A Yogi’s Guide to Crafting Your Destiny.
Is there a free meditation?
Yes. Try Isha Kriya on YouTube or the free Miracle of Mind app.
What is his advice on overthinking?
Keep a little distance from everything that is not you.
Where should I start?
His five tips to always be joyful.
Sources
- Sadhguru, Wikipedia
- Sadhguru on YouTube: About
- Sadhguru: 5 Tips To Always Be Joyful
- Sadhguru: How to Stop Overthinking?
- Inner Engineering, Isha Foundation
- Goyal et al., Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being, JAMA Internal Medicine 2014
- Killingsworth and Gilbert, A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind, Science 2010
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