Sadhguru: More Than a Life

This man has all the answers to life! A must read!

Made me cry plenty of times. One of the only authors I follow every step of their way.

It's a little book, but packed with wisdom and knowledge. Sahdguru always delivers great messages. Very happy with my purchase.

Interesting book.

This book is captivating from beginning to end. So expertly portrayed, you really feel like you’ve gotten a good grasp of what it is that Sadhguru is all about and why his journey has brought him to where he is today. The illustrations towards the end of the book were also very well received. I could easily recommend this one. Great read.

A captivating chronicle of Sadhguru's life. Its rare to get the true biography of a mystic but the author (Arundhathi Subramaniam) has carefully penned words from a neutral stance. This is to get the reader not thrown off by the unbelievable events that have taken place in his life. Yes a mystic life is supposed to be magical or else why would anyone look at mystics in reverence. The important part is its true. The book takes you to a point where a lot of us can't comprehend, as spirituality and mysticism takes you beyond the logical dimensions. The struggle that Sadhguru took and is still taking just to get people to the next level from wherever they currently are is far bigger than what you would term as an "herculean task". But he does it as a breeze. A very interesting read for those who want to understand why its very important to get to the next step from where they are, however small it may be. An excellent attempt by the author to bring to light a mystical life in the hands of a common man.

When I got this book in my hands, I couldn't stop reading, because every chapter was exciting and written with the passion of a person who truly dedicates her emotional approach to understand her guru and write a picture of him that would really touch the hearts and inflame the spirit of people around the world. I was following his video series on youtube since a longer time before I bought this book, but it is indeed worthwhile. There are details not mentioned ever in his videos, there is much about his youth, his moneymaking, his personal life with his wife and daughter. The chapter about the unplanned Samadhi of his wife really made me cry and long I would have met her too in person. The story of the Dhyanalinga and many more experiences are reported in a really magic way, I liked this book more than any criminal story as it is criminally inspiring and also provoking the question - which path do I like to walk in this life and where is the final goal. ...

If you are planning to learn from a Siddha (a very special category of Indian Gurus) through Isha Foundation, I strongly recommend that you read this book before taking any Inner Engineering classes online or in-person. Your ability to understand Sadhguru will improve and your questioning / swirling mind will slow down a bit. Your receptivity to the initiation process and to receive the instructions to learn the sacred Kriyas will improve beyond your imagination. Do not get confused with brain-washing. You don't need to change your religion or an existing relationship with a Guru. Isha Programs are very agnostic to religion. Sadhguru is least interested in your belief system. He does not want to give you any new ideas. He only wants to share tools that you yourself can apply and see the results on your own. Read this book and learn following from Isha Foundation. Your health and life will improve so much, I don't care to waste words on what you are going to see for yourself. - Surya Kriya - Inner Engineering Online - Shambhavi Maha Mudra One Day - Hatha Yoga (for the courageous) - Upa Yoga (for beginners) - Anga Mardana (for body builders)

The book is written in an intimate, but also in honest way. It tells the story of Sadhguru's life from a normal persons' perspective, from a perspective that could be mine, too.

Loving this book. Captivating and well written. What an amazing life Sadhguru has lived.

Passionnant. Se lit comme un roman. Une vie (et plus ) haute en couleurs, en passions, EN PRÉSENCE. EN PUISSANCE. A LIRE.

More than a life – SADHGURU by Arundhathi Subramaniam BOOK REVIEW He baffles me and continues to do so. He is a mystic but still a mystery. He is referred to as Sadhguru. In his own words “When someone comes from their scholarship, they are referred to in different ways. If someone comes from an inner experience, they are referred to as Sadhguru. The word “Sadhguru” is not a title. It is a description. Sadhguru means “uneducated Guru.” I am almost hundred percent spiritually uneducated. I don’t know any scriptures, I have not read the Vedas and I didn’t bother to read the Bhagavad Gita. I come only from my inner experience and the only thing I know for sure is this piece of life from its origin to its ultimate.” For many of us brought up on a diet of the archetypal saffron clad sloka chanting Gurus, Jaggi Vasudev remains an enigma – the jeans clad motorcyclist mystic, the snake handling charmer, a fakir dressed in long flowing robes, a turban on his head, an overgrown white beard or a modern day Moses. All this aside, he is a charmer. He seems to have the answers to all the questions thrown at him by the media and the likes of Barkha Dutt or the retorts of die-hard atheists like Javed Akhtar. What captivates is his erudition and his slightly nasal but deep voice which holds the listeners attention. Whether I believe all that he says or not, I like to listen to him. Arundhathi Subramaniam in her brilliant Introduction to ‘More than a life – SADHGURU’ says that “the book is an attempt to share some of that sense of wonder that these years of knowing Sadhguru have been about. More fundamentally it is an attempt to tell the story of an exceptional man.” The blurb on the back cover says ‘This is the extraordinary story of Jaggi Vasudev or Sadhguru – a young agnostic who turned yogi, a wild motorcyclist who turned mystic, a skeptic, 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’. Arundhathi says that her book is a subjective account of one man’s life journey – or more accurately, life journeys and is based on conversations with the Sadhguru and with those acquainted with him, as well as archival material from the Isha Yoga Centre at Coimbatore. Herself a skeptic she says “Gurus didn’t happen to us 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 – 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 candyflos beard and an air of constipated benignity.” Strong words one would agree, but that was all before she met with the Sadguru. It was in 1997 that she says something decisive happened in her life, she felt she was dying, nothing physical or psychological or depression. In short, one can decipher it is that strange feeling of impermanence of one’s own existence in this world. I may equate it with Sartre’s ‘Nausea’. She says “This strange encounter with death had brought with it an unambiguous picture of what really counted.” She became seeker for she did not want the comfortable uncertainty of the committed agnostic; she wanted the clarity of one who knew. After a prolonged experimentation with various methods and yoga, she came to the conclusion that the answers if any, were to be found within oneself. Then in May 2004 she attended a talk by someone called Sadhguru. That perhaps was the starting point for this book – a way of understanding who this man was and what was it that he conveyed. A skeptic in the beginning, one gets a feeling of a slow but a steady transformation into a believer. This book is a fascinating journey of a man born Jagdish Vasudev to a Sadhguru. One may or may not believe all that is written in the book about the life of Jaggi Vasudev especially where he talks of his various previous births and the quest to establish the Dhyanalinga, which reaches fruition only in this birth. I am a skeptic, but I also want to believe. I have not been able to grasp the significance of the Dhyanalinga being made up of pure energy and the processes involved in establishing it. After listening to his various conversations I cannot but agree with Arundhathi when she says “What has always fascinated me about Sadhguru is his breathtaking sweep of knowledge about varied aspects of life and the effortless manner in which he seems to garner it.” It is not my aim to put down here the life story of Jaggi Vasudev, it is done in a riveting manner by Arundhathi. I found the book engrossing felt totally involved reading it. But I would like to quote some portions from the book here which I found illuminating and of significance to our own questions. “The mystic is just someone who has realized what is there. Others don’t because they’re too self-engrossed to pay any attention to life” “Liberation is not my idea; it is the fundamental longing in every form of human life.” “Destiny is hundred percent your creation. Even now that is so. It is just that you are creating it unconsciously.” “Self-Realization is less about getting somewhere than about realizing there is nowhere to go. It entails not an acquisition of knowledge, but an unlearning of received wisdom. What was limited knowing has become boundless unknowing. That’s wonderful enough for me.” As a conclusion I quote Arundhathi once again “I remember what I wrote in my first article on him five years ago: ‘Let’s say we disbelieve the whole story about his yogic mastery and enlightenment. We’re still left with an interesting deal. There’s brazing wit, a refreshing lack of piety … a razor sharp intelligence … a contemporary vocabulary, the teaching of a meditation process that requires no faith, only committed practice. Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev wears the air of a man who’s figured out how to lead a life of sanity. Perhaps that is enough?’

Good