Sadhguru

Arundhati Subramaniam

Description

This is the extraordinary story of Jaggi Vasudev or Sadhguru a young agnostic who turned yogi, a wild motorcyclist who turned mystic, a sceptic who turned spiritual guide. It seeks to recreate the life journey of a man who combines rationality with mysticism, irreverence with compassion and deep self-knowledge with a contagious love of life. Pulsating with his razor-sharp intelligence and modern-day vocabulary, the book empowers you to explore your spiritual self and could well change your life.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Penguin Books Ltd
• Date de parution: 15 novembre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 5
• EAN13: 9788184753110
• Langue: English

Extrait

ARUNDHATHI SUBRAMANIAM

Sadhguru
More Than a Life
Contents
About the Author
Praise For The Book
Preface
Introduction
Pure Awareness and Madness The Beginning of the Journey
Falling Upwards Lifetimes Three
This One Will Graze Human Beings The Black Sheep Who Turned Shepherd
The Man Who Went Up and Never Came Down From Motorcyclist to Mystic
Compassion as Conspiracy Preparing for Harvest
When the Divine Descends, You Just Accommodate The Deepening Pilgrimage, the Darkening Night
If You Drop Your Fruit Willingly, Stones Can Be Minimized Countdown, Crisis, Denouement
Time to Graze the Valleys of Life The Master, the Man and his Message
The Ball Game and Beyond The Master Plan
Illustrations
Postscript
Follow Penguin
Copyright
PENGUIN ANANDA
SADHGURU
Arundhathi Subramaniam is the author of three books of poetry, most recently Where I Live: New and Selected Poems , and a prose work, The Book of Buddha . As editor, her books include an anthology on sacred journeys, Pilgrim s India ; an anthology of Indian poetry, Another Country ; and a co-edited anthology of contemporary Indian love poetry, Confronting Love . She describes herself as a wondering, protesting, but committed Isha yoga practitioner and perhaps more of a devotee than she lets on.
Praise for the Book
Comparisons with Autobiography of a Yogi are inevitable but this book touches me even more because it discusses times closer to our own and also because its story continues to unfold even as we breathe . . . Subramaniam is a disciple but she has clearly not given up doubting. She is in awe of the Sadhguru but does not appear to have gone on the unquestioning horizontal mode. A delicious read. Not a book to be missed -Satish Purohit, Life Positive
An incisive, insightful, brutally honest book about a remarkably charismatic man. Completely devoid of myth or heresy. Written by an author who is intelligent and independent enough to get real -Prahlad Kakar, ad film-maker
A sacred book. It has given me answers for which I have been searching for years. Invisible question marks have been put to rest. I feel the excitement now of embarking on a great adventure of self-discovery. A masterpiece -Faiza Sindhi, CNBC
This book is alive. It can change lives -Anahita De Vitre, educationist
A superbly astute, insightful and honest account of a remarkable man s remarkable life. The work of a sceptical disciple if you like, this is an informative and exhilarating read -Ian La Frenais, screenwriter and producer
I came across Sadhguru s interview a few years back, and dismissed him as another Osho-wannabe. I wish this book was available then. It would have prevented the years of desperate search and seeking that followed. The author is a seeker herself, and she echoes many of the questions that a sceptical seeker will have. The answers are illuminating, and chip away at one s constructs about gurus and spirituality -Nanyar,Amazon I have very mixed feelings about all this “guru” business. But halfway through the book, I was inspired to make a trip to Coimbatore from my village in Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh, just to see this person, Jaggi Vasudev. Brilliantly written -Uma Shankari, farmer and social activist
What I love about this book is how the intelligence, precision and wit perfectly match the logic and clarity of Sadhguru s message. It is the first time I have read anything about him that resonated with me, coming from a place of awe and scepticism at the same time -Peter Lanyon, furniture designer
It reads like a whodunit. It makes all seekers want to get on a plane, train, bus, whatever, to get to the Dhyanalinga. Authored by a passionate and truthful writer, this book is a gift not just to Sadhguru disciples but to the uninitiated and curious everywhere. I felt I was holding Life in my hands -Urmila Banerjee, writer
I have read the book from cover to cover-every single word, some words, sentences and paragraphs more than once. There is nothing here that I cannot wholeheartedly agree with or that I feel the need to dispute . . . Beautifully written, with just the right balance of scepticism and belief -Jonathan Mosse, writer and photographer
The author is neither a blind believer nor a doubter, neither awestruck nor iconoclastic. The book captures the vibrancy and verve, the strength and integrity, the grit and audacity of a great spiritual master -Jyoti Swaroop, educationist
This book has left me humbled. Knowing the richness and enormity of Sadhguru s life through its almost energized words has deepened my own thirst, my own longing to know, to live more than a life -Shivani Aggarwal, artist
Preface
T his book is a subjective account of one man s life journey—or more accurately, life journeys. It is emphatically not a biography, if the word evokes expectations of an authenticated catalogue of dates, times and events. It is based on my conversations with the subject, with those acquainted with him, as well as on archival material from the Isha Yoga Centre in Coimbatore.
When the subject happens to be a mystic, one inevitably enters the realm of the hyper-subjective. I have relied largely on Sadhguru s version of events—inner and outer—in the early part of his life. Subsequently, I have relied on the views and impressions of those who happened to be around him as his mission as a guru unfolded.
I decided to implicate my own journey as a seeker in the story primarily as a contextual device. It also seemed only fair to give the reader an idea of my own position (with its implicit biases and limitations) rather than assume a bogus omniscience as storyteller. It became increasingly apparent to me as the narrative progressed that it would be impossible to play the consistent role of an impersonal third-person narrator. As a result, I have consciously inserted myself into the tale at certain points, to ask my share of questions and counter-questions that I assume several readers will share.
I am grateful to all those at the Isha Yoga Centre who delved into personal memory and shared some of their deepest life experiences with me. This book would not have been possible without their generosity, their honesty, their insight. There are as many versions of Sadhguru as there are people who know him, and I encountered many simmering potential biographers on the way. This book claims to be no more than one non-definitive version of Sadhguru s life and the birth of Isha. Hopefully, there will be others.
My special thanks to Maa Gnana at the Isha Archives who attended to my many diverse requests with unflappable calm and an unwaveringly radiant smile; to Swami Chitranga and Swami Devasatwa who helped design the cover; and to Ravi Singh and Kamini Mahadevan of Penguin for the sensitivity and attention that they brought to the birthing of this book.
I am grateful, above all, to Sadhguru for the freedom he allowed me over this manuscript, for his ability to home in on detail without turning micro-managerial—and for the almost terrifying élan with which he leaves his life open , allowing readers of all persuasions to draw their own conclusions.
Introduction
I thought gurus happened to other people. Let me confess to my snobbery right away. I thought they happened to a certain kind of safari-suited Indian man and his docile status quoist wife. I thought they happened to those who knew the finer points of ritual red-tapism and pundit protocol, those who knew how to dive at holy feet and look ecstatic at satsanghs .
That s true on one level, but a somewhat facetious level, I admit. Let me also say that as a seeker (with my own share of torment and yearning), I had read enough to know all that stuff about masters appearing when students are ready. But what are the chances anyway of a master appearing on a peak-hour Mumbai local? Or at a poetry reading? Or a city bookshop or theatre or café? And what are the chances of a master speaking my particular language, figuring out my convoluted inner geography—my simultaneous need for guidance and dislike of guides, my need for a vocabulary that is sacred and yet secular? And what about my ability to turn mentors into tormentors?
No, gurus didn t happen to contemporary urban women. Psychotherapists happened to us. Books and conversations happened to us. Wittgenstein-and-Kierkegaard-and-Krishnamurti spouting friends happened to us. Gurus belonged to another era, another world—a simpler world where there were simpler divides between the leader and the led. The only guru I could envisage was the sage in a B-grade Indian mythological movie with a candyfloss beard and an air of constipated benignity.
Dead gurus were fine. They left behind words that provoked, challenged. That was a manageable bequest. But live gurus were unthinkable. Or to put it another way, I knew I didn t have the qualifications—social, cultural or historical—to deserve them.
Existential qualifications? I thought I had some. That is, if qualifications meant an absence. The unease, the out-of-kilter feelings, the what-does-it-all-add-up-to questions, the sudden fear of death on dawn visits to the bathroom —I d been there, done that. And while some of those clammy moments could be addressed by a poem, or love, or sex, or travel, or a book, or even chocolate, I knew there were others that couldn t.
And yogis? I thought they were a bit like unicorns. Near mythic. I thought they were to be found in remote Himalayan caves or in exotic spiritual literature (like Paramahansa Yogananda s Autobiography of a Yogi ). The only yogis I knew of were the kind who held classes two days a week to beat stress and combat diabetes .
Then I met Sadhguru.
Many things changed in my life after that encounter six years ago. I learnt, for one, that yogis exist. I mean, real yogis. I learnt that they aren t mere contortionists or New Age faddists; that they have at their disposal a time-tested and sophisticated technology of transform