Jeevan Parichay

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev is an enlightened spiritual master, a realized yogi and mystic from India who embodies the universal truths of the great spiritual masters of East and West, transcending all religious divide. He is a peace advocate, author, and poet. He is a visionary, humanitarian, and prominent spiritual leader. Sadhguru is the founder of the Isha Foundation, which has become the conduit for his work. Sadhguru has launched several projects to serve as models for rural upliftment, education reform, environmental stewardship, and holistic and healthy living. He has also introduced renowned initiatives for world peace, outreach programs for life-term prisoners, destitute children, and embattled women. Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev was born as Jagadish Vasudev in Mysore-Karnataka, India, in 1957, to a physician father. Right from childhood, Jaggi was quite different from the others. Preferring the wonder of nature and the eloquence of poetry to attending school, 10-year old Jaggi would often venture out alone on long treks through the surrounding mountain forests for days at a time. At the tender age of thirteen years, encouraged by his parents, he started yogic practices, like Pranayam and Asanas, under the guidance of Shree Raghavendra Rao more commonly referred to as Malladihalli Swami. Sadhguru excelled at school; and was a very bright student. Eventually he graduated with a degree in English Literature from the Mysore University in Karnataka. At the age of twenty-five, he underwent a deep spiritual experience which was to change the course of his future life. One afternoon, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev went to the Chamundi hills and sat on a rock with his eyes wide open. Suddenly, he had an out of body experience. He felt as if he was not in his body anymore, rather spread out everywhere, in the rocks, in the trees, in the earth. When he came back to his normal state, it was late in the evening. He wondered if he had hallucinated, but in the days that followed, this experience recurred and each time it left him in a state of utter bliss. This episode entirely changed his way of life. Jaggi Vasudev decided to dedicate his entire life to the sharing of those experiences. In 1992, Sadhguru founded the Isha Yoga Centre and Ashram at the foothills of the sacred Velliangiri Mountains at Poondi near Coimbatore, India. The Centre houses a 13 ft Dhyanalingam meditation shrine and a multi-religious temple completed in 1999. The Isha Foundation is also located on site. It is said that the Dhyanalingam has curative powers and bestows well being and prosperity. Since it is a meditation shrine, it is believed to be reservoir of energies from the people who have meditated there. People can sit inside the Dhyanalingam and meditate for as much time as they want. Sadhguru is a practitioner of yogic temple building and consecration, creating the Dhyanalinga yogic temple in 1999. The consecration process employed Prana prathista process. Ancient Indian alchemical processes were allegedly used extensively in the temple building and consecration. Contrary to science, it is claimed that the presence of solid mercury at room temperature can be observed in the building.