Sadhguru

Jagadish Vasudev, commonly referred to as Jaggi, was born on 3 September 1957 in Mysore, Karnataka, India. He was the youngest of five children to Susheela Vasudev (mother) and B.V. Vasudev (father). His father was an ophthalmologist at the Mysuru Railway Hospital and his mother a homemaker.[2][3]

Vasudev married his wife, Vijikumari, in 1984.[4] In 1990, Vijikumari and Jaggi had their only child, Radhe.[4] Vijikumari died on 23 January 1997.[5] Radhe trained in Bharatanatyam at the Kalakshetra Foundation in Chennai.[6] She married Indian classical vocalist Sandeep Narayan in 2014.[7]

After completing his formal education, Vasudev was uninterested in post-secondary schooling. One year later, however, he enrolled at the University of Mysore, where he studied English literature. While studying literature, Vasudev received second rank.[3] Although his parents wanted him to continue his education with postgraduate studies, Vasudev disagreed and began a career in business.[8]

After graduating from the University of Mysore, Vasudev went on to build his first business, a poultry farm, in Mysore.[9] Vasudev explained that his motivation to start a poultry farm was driven by the serenity it yielded in the hours he wasn't working.[3] The business required minimal attention throughout the day, so Vasudev was able pursue other interests during his time off, like writing poetry.[3] The business grew profitable, but his family repeatedly criticized and opposed his decision to work with poultry.[3] This led Vasudev to enter the construction industry with a company named Buildaids.[3] He started the company in partnership with a friend, who was a civil engineer. Though Vasudev had no formal engineering training, he used the experience gained from building his poultry farm in his new endeavour.[3]

At the age of 25, after a series of spiritual experiences, he shut down his businesses and began to travel and teach yoga.[3][8]

In 1983, he taught his first yoga class, in Mysore. He began travelling across Karnataka and Hyderabad on his motorcycle, conducting his style of yoga classes, known as Sahaja Sthiti Yoga, subsisting on the income from his poultry farm rental and donating the funds received from his students.[8]

In his earlier years, Vasudev had a love for driving motorcycles.[3][10] One of his favourite places to drive was the Chamundi Hills in Mysore, though he sometimes drove much further, including to Nepal.[3][10]

In 1992, Sadhguru established the Isha Foundation[11] as a platform for his spiritual, environmental, and educational activities.[12][13][14] In 1993, he began searching for a location to establish an ashram to cater to growing interest in his yoga classes.[3] In 1994, he purchased land near the Velliangiri mountains in the Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu, and inaugurated the Isha Yoga Center.[3] Since establishing the Isha Foundation, he remains its head. The organisation offers yoga programmes under the name "Isha Yoga" and is run "almost entirely" by volunteers.[15][16] The foundation aims to improve the quality of education in rural India through an initiative called Isha Vidhya.[17] It has also launched projects and campaigns focused on environmental conservation and protection, including Project GreenHands, Rally for Rivers, Cauvery Calling, and Save Soil.[18][19][20][21] Vasudev recently completed a journey on his motorbike from London to India to raise awareness about the Save Soil campaign.[21]

Sadhguru has authored over thirty books, including The New York Times's bestsellers Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy[22] and Karma: A Yogi's Guide to Crafting Your Destiny.[23][24][25]

Sadhguru is a frequent public speaker who has been invited to address many prestigious forums and conferences across the globe, such as the United Nations' Millennium World Peace Summit, the British House of Lords, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the International Institute for Management Development.[26] He has also spoken at the annual World Economic Forum in 2007,[27] 2017 and 2020.[28][29]

Jaggi Vasudev with wife, Vijaya Kumari

Sadhguru has received attention from celebrities, political leaders, intergovernmental organizations, and members of the public interested in his social and environmental campaigns and spiritual teachings.[35] In May 2022, he addressed the leaders of 195 countries at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification to speak about the "Journey to Save Soil" campaign, focused on raising awareness about soil degradation and the benefits of using organic matter in farming.[36][37][38] Trevor Noah hosted Sadhguru on The Daily Show to discuss Save Soil, and similarly, Joe Rogan has spoken with Vasudev on his podcast.[21][35] On World Environment Day, Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, attended an event with Sadhguru to discuss efforts to improve soil health.[39]

Some critics have said that Sadhguru shares the ideology of the Bharatiya Janata Party's Hindu nationalism (Hindutva),[40][41][42][43] and that he takes an "intolerant nationalist" stance in his media appearances.[40] Sadhguru has also spoken in favour of the 2019 Balakot airstrike, the introduction of a comprehensive GST, and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, while denouncing the Thoothukudi protests as a peril to industry.[44][45][46] Vasudev accuses leftist liberals of aiding and abetting militancy in Kashmir and has suggested that Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid, known for their involvement in the JNU sedition row, should be put behind bars.[47] Critics have questioned the non-political label that he has assigned himself.[35]

Some Indian environmental activists have accused Sadhguru of greenwashing.[48]

Sadhguru has also been accused of promoting pseudoscience and misrepresenting science.[49][50] He propagates the claim, unsupported by science, that cooked food consumed during a lunar eclipse depletes the human body's pranic energies.[51] He also perpetuates numerous myths regarding clinical depression and opposes the potential prohibition on the use of mercury in traditional Indian medicine, despite the substance's extreme toxicity.[52][53] His views on the Higgs boson and alleged benefits of vibhuti have been rejected as unproven by science.[54][55]

Sadhguru has repeatedly claimed to be able to solidify mercury at room temperature; these claims have been debunked.[56]