Jaggi Vasudev, popularly known as Sadhguru is a visionary, yogi, and humanitarian with a difference.
Jaggi Vasudev, popularly known as Sadhguru is a visionary, yogi, and humanitarian with a difference. He is the founder of Isha Foundation, a famous Yoga center based in Coimbatore and Tennessee in the United States. Sadhguru is also a prominent speaker who draws people from across the globe with his mystical charm and spirituality. Today, People from all corners of the world have realized the health benefits of yoga and Ayurveda. So, they make them a part of their health and fitness regime. Sadhguru has made a lot of contributions to the field of yoga and made it popular.
Early Life
Jaggi Vasudev was born on 3rd September 1957 into a Telugu family in Mysore, in the Karnataka District. His father Dr. Vasudev was an Ophthalmologist with the Indian Railways and because of this reason, the family frequently moved. He got his bachelor’s degree in English Literature from the University of Mysore. During his young age, Jagdish developed an interest in Motor Cycles. He also loved traveling.
First Spiritual Experience
His first spiritual experience was at the age of 23 when he sat on a rock at Chamundi Hill. He started meditation and traveled extensively after this mystical experience. After a year, he started conducting Yoga classes across Hyderabad and Mysore. But he gave those classes without taking fees. Later he founded Isha Foundation, a spiritual non-profit organization.
Multi-Faceted
In the field of yoga, the contribution of Sadhguru is commendable. Besides being a yogi and a visionary, he is an opinion maker and a speaker. He can draw lakhs of people to listen to his speech because of the right combination of pragmatism and wisdom. We can understand from his life and work that yoga is not just an outdated art form but a modern science relevant and beneficial to all times.
As a well-known speaker, Sadhguru is among the most sought-after spiritual leaders in the world by many esteemed global forms. They invite him to address different issues like social, environmental, human rights, and business values. Sadhguru or his foundation does not promote any race, religion, or ideology.
Isha Foundation
Isha Foundation is based at the Isha Center at Coimbatore and at the Isha Institute of Inner Sciences at McMinnville in Tennessee in the United States. The main aim of this center is to offer Yoga programs. One can learn yoga from its centers under the name Isha Yoga. Enter Isha Yoga and the rejuvenation center can be a wonderful experience because it makes your body, mind, and soul refreshed and rejuvenated.
When it comes to Yoga, one cannot find any better place to learn it than India. There are numerous rejuvenation centers and retreats in this country where you can get into the mystical deep inward journey for inner peace and strength. Isha Foundation is one of the most popular yoga training and rejuvenation centers in the country founded by Sadhguru.
Get more information about Isha Foundation & Sadhguru from the following links:
http://www.ishafoundation.org
http://isha.sadhguru.org/
If you go by economics then nothing in the world is free, not even your mother’s love. In that case, how can one think that running such a huge organization like Isha is possible without the flow of money or commerce?
Free food distribution – Whoever comes to the Isha yoga center is served free food in the evening, throughout the year.
Monuments and spiritual centers – Sadhguru has built the Guinness Book of World Records listed monument Adiyogi. He also runs several centers across India and outside India, and running these costs money.
Free education – 64 percent of students in his school get a full scholarship, and most of them come from poor villages of Tamilnadu.
Spreading environmental awareness – With Rally for rivers, Cauvery calling, and the Save soil movement he is spreading environmental awareness.
Free yoga programs – It is true that he charges money for yoga programs but not all yoga programs are charged, for example, Yoga programs in Tamilnadu villages, and prisons are conducted free of cost.
Planting trees for free – Today he is asking money from people to plant trees under Cauvery’s calling mission. However, he is been planting trees for more than two decades now and they were all done without external funding. In 2007, the then Congress government also recognized his environmental work and awarded him Rajiv Gandhi Paryavaran Puraskar.
COVID relief – During the COVID pandemic, he extended support to the nearby communities by distributing ration kits, healthy drinks, etc.
Rural rejuvenation – He organized several health and community-oriented programs in the Tamilnadu villages.
Residents – There are a few thousand residents staying in the Ashrams, they also need to be taken care of.
No donation boxes – One peculiar thing i have noticed about the Isha Yoga Centre is that, unlike other temples in India, i could not find a donation box over there. However, they do have donation desks, which you can approach if you wish to donate. In my view, this is a good way to increase transparency in the system.
These are the main expenditures of his organization but none of them is the real thing that he offers. He has built consecrated spaces like Dhayanalinga and Linga Bhairavi which are priceless and no one is charged to visit them. Not only we but the coming generations will also benefit from them.