SADHGURU Jaggi Vasudev, the same, has invited me “with friends and family” to celebrate International Yoga Day in Chennai on Sunday. He promises 5-minute, easy-to-practice Yoga sessions that will enhance health, joy, peace, love and success and help me cope with the hectic pace of modern life and realize my full potential in all spheres of life. I’m grateful. But I’ll pass up the Sadhguru’s generous invitation. Until now, I had no idea he was into Yoga. Nor Sri Sri Ravi Shankar who is celebrating International Yoga Day in New York, for that matter. But Baba Ramdev, yes. There was never any doubt. I’ve met and interviewed all three. And of the three, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev struck me as being unlike any spiritual leader modern Indian has known.
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev… discover peace within yourself.
He is like a rollicking Santa Claus, he has a thick grey-white moustache and flowing beard, mischievous dancing eyes, and he disperses peace, goodwill and joy with a Mysore accented “Ho-ho-ho” that shakes his belly. I met him at the release of his book ‘Joy 24 x 7’ which I thought was an appropriate title for a mystic whose inspiring sermons were delivered with humor and wit. With me, he struck the jovial note right away. Accepting my visiting card, he apologized for not having one himself. “You need to have a profession to carry a card,” he said, “I’m supposed to be spiritual, you see!” I liked him immediately. He was wearing a sports watch and carrying a cell. And he was dressed in clothes designed by himself – a loose, flowing kurta and dhoti, a colorful shawl, the turmeric turban, leather sandals. In this strange avatar he jets around the world reaching out to the emotionally bankrupt and spiritually challenged, embracing them with his simplicity and honesty, encouraging them to discover peace and harmony within themselves.
I asked the Sadhguru what was different between Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Baba Ramdev and himself. He stroked his beard and replied honestly, “I don’t bother to look at what they do because I’m dead on in what I do. I’m either 100 per cent clear or I don’t know anything. And what I don’t know doesn’t hassle me. The source of creation throbs within me. That is what drives me. If you are driven by anything else, it’s an absolute shame. Do you think I’m arrogant? No, this is clarity!” This is the same Sadhguru who addresses the UN’s global economic forums and peace summits. I wondered what international statesmen thought of him. “I don’t know,” he chuckled, “I don’t think they’ve taken a good look at me!” And what did he offer them – lessons in joy? “I get them drunk,” the Sadhguru joked, “I’m not a bottle, but what I have inside is overflowing. I speak a simple language that is related to everyone. This is not the Vedas. People say I’m so peaceful. Rubbish! I’m like a volcano. Peace is for the dead. Why rest in peace when you can be exhilaratingly alive?” It was hard not to like him.
I think Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev is as profound as he is pragmatic. He is as much at home in a loincloth walking barefoot in the Himalayas as he is wearing jeans and playing golf in Tennessee. And he is as comfortable riding a BMW dirt bike on an Arizona racing track as he is familiar with the 4×4 Volvo SUV he uses to zip down the National Highway. He handed me a copy of ‘Joy 24 x 7’ with some ceremony. Inside he had inscribed, “Know bliss, love and grace.” Looking deep into my eyes, holding my hands, the Sadhguru said, “Everybody is capable of joy. This is not something fluctuating on the stock exchange. It is within you. Outside, you have little stake in the world, you can decide few things. But inside, you have full stake, take charge of it.” Accepting the book, I asked him what kind of reading he did himself. “I don’t do any spiritual reading,” he replied bluntly, “why should I? I’m spiritual from within. My own vision never fails me. And I don’t want to clutter my mind with somebody else’s vision.” What did he read then, I persisted. “Dennis the Menace, Asterix and Obelix,” said Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev roaring with laughter at my amazement.
Mark Manuel 