Enlightned Masters: Jaggi Vasudev

Jaggi Vasudev

Born into a Telugu family in Mysore, Karnataka on Tuesday 3 September 1957 to Susheela and Dr. Vasudev, Jagadish was the youngest of four children – two boys and two girls. His father was an ophthalmologist with the Indian Railways and as a result, the family moved frequently. At a young age, Jagadish, or Jaggi as he came to be known, developed an interest in nature and would frequently go into nearby forests, sometimes for up to three days at a time. At the age of 12, he came in contact with Malladihalli Sri Raghavendra Swamiji who taught him a set of simple yoga asanas, the practice of which he regularly maintained. Sadhguru states that "without a single day's break, this simple yoga that was taught to him kept happening and led to a much deeper experience later.

After his schooling at Demonstration School, Mysore in 1973, he graduated from the University of Mysore with a bachelor's degree in English literature. During his college years, he developed an interest in travel and motorcycles. A frequent haunt of his and his friends was the Chamundi Hill near Mysore, where they often had gathered and went for nocturnal drives. He also traveled to various places in the country on his motorcycle. This experience made him resolve "to earn some quick money," and just ride off somewhere where people couldn't stop him. This led him to open several successful businesses after graduation, including a poultry farm, a brickworks and a construction business.

Spiritual experience

At the age of 25 on 23 September 1982, Sadhguru rode up Chamundi Hill and sat on a rock, where he had a spiritual experience. Sadhguru describes his experience as follows:

"Till that moment in my life I always thought this is me and that's somebody else and something else. But for the first time I did not know which is me and which is not me. Suddenly, what was me was just all over the place. The very rock on which I was sitting, the air that I breathe, the very atmosphere around me, I had just exploded into everything. That sounds like utter insanity. This, I thought it lasted for ten to fifteen minutes but when I came back to my normal consciousness, it was about four-and-a-half-hours I was sitting there, fully conscious, eyes open, but time had just flipped."

Six weeks after this experience, he left his business to his friend and traveled extensively in an effort to gain insight into his mystical experience. After a year of meditation and travel, Sadhguru decided to teach yoga to share his inner experience.

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev quotes

Life is far beyond meaning, Life is beyond meaning and that’s why it is so beautiful

When you wanting to know something is so Intense that you are willing to die for it, then knowing is not far away.

If you are rooted in reality there will be no fear.

The fear is simply because you are not living with life, You are living in your mind.

Man needs entertainment simply to hide his madness. If he was perfectly sane, he would not need entertainment. He could just sit and watch this bamboo grow. He does not really need entertainment

Till something becomes a reality in our life, if we talk about it, it amounts to lying. The whole world is lying to themselves and to everybody about God.

Once the stillness comes into your life, then the mind also becomes absolutely still. When your mind becomes still, your intelligence explodes.

You can be deeply involved with everything, but still not be identified with it any more.

Sadhguru Jaggi vasudev 'bullshit' joke

(This is a funny joke, often told by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev to emphasise on the importance of right philosophy)

It once happened, on a certain day, a bull and a pheasant were grazing on the field. The bull was grazing on the grass, the pheasant was picking ticks off the bull; they are partners, you know?

Then the pheasant looked at a huge tree which was at the edge of the field, and very nostalgically said, "Alas, there was a time when I could fly to the top most branch of the tree, but today I do not have the strength even to fly to the first branch of the tree"

The bull very nonchalantly said, "That's no problem! Eat a little bit of my dung every day, you will see, within a fortnight's time you will reach the top of the tree."

The pheasant said, "Oh, come off it! How is that possible?"

The bull replied, "Really, please try and see. The whole humanity is on it, you could try, too."

Very hesitantly, the pheasant started pecking at the dung, and lo, on the very first day it reached the first branch of the tree. In a fortnight's time, it reached the topmost branch of the tree. It just went and sat on the topmost branch and just enjoyed the scenery. The old farmer saw a fat old pheasant on the top of the tree. He took out his shotgun and shot him off the tree. So the moral of the story is: even bullshit can get you to the top, but never lets you stay there.

So if you are seeking a life of fulfilment, joy, peace and well being within yourself, don't try to fool yourself in some way. You must do the right thing, otherwise it won't work

Masters Musings - Jaggi Vasudev

When your happiness is dependent upon what is happening outside of you, constantly you live as a slave to the external situation.

Do not try to live by morals, ethics, slogans. These are all very poor substitutes for awareness. Be conscious and aware, you will see life the way it is.

If you can joyfully accept the consequence, do what you want; if it is that you will cry when the consequence comes, better be conscious about what you do.

A humanity which has done nothing for its inner well being – how can it create external well being? How do you expect it to work?

If a man is intelligent everything that happens is an opportunity; if a man is stupid everything that happens is a disaster.

When any being calls or really yearns, the existence answers. If the thirst within you is strong enough, God always answers.

If you want to know the joy of activity, first and foremost thing is that you must know how to give yourself to activity with total abandon.

Blissfulness is not a rare visitor in your life, blissfulness is your constant companion, because that is the nature of your being.

(Laxmi - Alaxmi

Sadhguru tells us a story to illustrate that there is no right and wrong in life. The beauty of existence lies in doing what is appropriate, rather than relying on morals and ethics.

There is a beautiful story. The two wives of Vishnu, Laxmi, the goddess of fortune, and Alaxmi, the goddess of misfortune—both of them believed they were the most beautiful. So, on a certain day, they came and asked Vishnu, “Which one of us is the most beautiful?”

Vishnu said to Laxmi, “When you are coming, you are the most beautiful.” And he told Alaxmi, “When you are going, you are the most beautiful.” Fortune is coming, misfortune is going—aren’t they most beautiful?

That’s a smart answer, but what is the correct answer? Who is really beautiful?

It is not just about a woman’s beauty, about anything in the existence, there is no correct answer. There is only an appropriate answer. This is an appropriate answer. Life is not about correctness, life is about appropriateness. So then what is the correct thing to do? There is no correct thing to do. What is the appropriate thing to do is the question. Only then you will be able to receive life.)

Sadguru's Poems

My Master

I let the whole world go by
Of spiritual and material, of land and sky
I searched in the mother’s womb and in the lover’s
bosom
But such a one I did not find
Till I crawled to him like a worm

My Master

What can the poor Guru do?
All I have done is do and do
After seeing All that is there to see
He comes to Teach Me how to Be

My Master

The breath that passes out
Will not come back
The Guru who touched and left me
Left me not and need not come back.

The Boundless has been bound

The beauty of the limited
Obscures the Unlimited
The puny Man overshadows the Divine
The many foldedness of the echo
Shall not obliterate the Eternal

( Sadguru ..