Sadhguru Pros and Cons

[AtmanIsBrahman]

This is my personal impression of the pros and cons of Sadhguru and his teachings.

Pros:

1) Obviously, he has very high levels of consciousness. God realization?- I'm not sure, but he has definitely had some awakenings. 

2) He seems to be great at the embodiment side of spirituality-- he has a conscious, loving aura and something about him just radiates consciousness. Also, the Isha Foundation, which he created, is one of the best organizations for increasing the consciousness of humanity that I know of. 

3) Sadhguru is good at using parables or stories to point to spiritual truths. This makes it easier to understand what he is pointing to without him explicitly saying it. 

4) He claims to live in constant bliss, so if that's what you're going for he might be good to learn from.

Now the juicy bit...

Cons:

1) Sadhguru is awful at conceptual things. He has no grasp of science whatsoever. Yes, he is a spiritual master and so you might think he "has no need" for science or something, but the truth is that it shows a smidge of closed-mindedness in him.

2) He clearly has a preference for Indian culture and Hinduism. It's obvious from his videos that he sees Indian culture as supreme and looks down on other cultures to a certain extent.

3) He may have killed his wife.

4) Sadhguru might take Hinduism literally. If you watch enough of his videos where he goes in depth on spiritual topics, he tends to bring up Hindu terminology a lot, such as Shakti, Krishna, Atman, Paratman, and some other words I'm forgetting. It's hard to tell whether he actually has construct awareness about Hinduism and isn't mistaking the map for the territory when it comes to these concepts. In his rare videos where he actually answers stuff like "what is the origin of reality," he tends to answer in terms of Hindu ideas of different deities, making it unclear whether he actually is conscious of the answer to some of these questions

 

Interesting Questions to Contemplate

1) If Sadhguru is lacking in ability to explain things, should that cast doubt on his level of spiritual realization? Does enlightenment always come with the ability to explain it? (at least in some limited way)
2) Does high conciousness automatically make you not care about concepts (as is the case with Sadhguru) or is it an aspect of the person's personality?

 

Anyways, hopefully you got something from this post. I'd like to hear your guys' thoughts on Sadhguru.

 

[OBEler]

You missed a good point on pro list: he has very good courses. Inner engineering total and so on.

I took a lot knowledge out from these courses. Shambhavi mahamudra is powerful.

 

He seems closed minded sometimes but did you watch his contact with an intelligent energy somewhere in the mountains so out of this world so that he describes this as an alien being?

That shows he is open minded for new unusual discoveries outside of Hinduism 

Edited May 28 by OBEler

[Ishanga]

Sadhguru with Scientist...

Super Brain, Epigenetics & More: Bernard Carr, Christof Koch, Rudy Tanzi, Deepak Chopra & Sadhguru

 

Is Consciousness a Miracle? | Harvard’s Cognitive Scientist Prof. Steven Pinker & Sadhguru

 

Cosmologist Bernard Carr Explores the Mysteries of the Universe

 

Neuroscientist David Eagleman with Sadhguru

 

Memory, Consciousness & Coma [Full Talk] | Sadhguru at Harvard Medical School

 

Mind, Brain, and Consciousness – Neurologist Steven Laureys in Conversation with Sadhguru

 

"The Ideal Education" - Sir Ken Robinson with Sadhguru

 

Dr. Ben Doolittle in Conversation with Sadhguru at Yale School of Medicine

 

What Yoga Says About Quantum Physics

 

[Ishanga]

52 minutes ago, AtmanIsBrahman said:

This is my personal impression of the pros and cons of Sadhguru and his teachings.

Pros:

1) Obviously, he has very high levels of consciousness. God realization?- I'm not sure, but he has definitely had some awakenings. 

2) He seems to be great at the embodiment side of spirituality-- he has a conscious, loving aura and something about him just radiates consciousness. Also, the Isha Foundation, which he created, is one of the best organizations for increasing the consciousness of humanity that I know of. 

3) Sadhguru is good at using parables or stories to point to spiritual truths. This makes it easier to understand what he is pointing to without him explicitly saying it. 

4) He claims to live in constant bliss, so if that's what you're going for he might be good to learn from.

Now the juicy bit...

Cons:

1) Sadhguru is awful at conceptual things. He has no grasp of science whatsoever. Yes, he is a spiritual master and so you might think he "has no need" for science or something, but the truth is that it shows a smidge of closed-mindedness in him.

2) He clearly has a preference for Indian culture and Hinduism. It's obvious from his videos that he sees Indian culture as supreme and looks down on other cultures to a certain extent.

3) He may have killed his wife.

4) Sadhguru might take Hinduism literally. If you watch enough of his videos where he goes in depth on spiritual topics, he tends to bring up Hindu terminology a lot, such as Shakti, Krishna, Atman, Paratman, and some other words I'm forgetting. It's hard to tell whether he actually has construct awareness about Hinduism and isn't mistaking the map for the territory when it comes to these concepts. In his rare videos where he actually answers stuff like "what is the origin of reality," he tends to answer in terms of Hindu ideas of different deities, making it unclear whether he actually is conscious of the answer to some of these questions

 

Interesting Questions to Contemplate

1) If Sadhguru is lacking in ability to explain things, should that cast doubt on his level of spiritual realization? Does enlightenment always come with the ability to explain it? (at least in some limited way)
2) Does high conciousness automatically make you not care about concepts (as is the case with Sadhguru) or is it an aspect of the person's personality?

 

Anyways, hopefully you got something from this post. I'd like to hear your guys' thoughts on Sadhguru.

 

I would say he "chooses" to use the Indian or Hindu culture as a representation of sorts, I've studied most al of his videos, he says many times he doesn't identify with India or anything else in that matter, but he has to wear something right? He also designs all of his clothing and I think he wants to keep parts of that culture, the way the make the cloths and the material (its a sort of art form in india, very complex and sophisticated) alive and vibrant as it is dying from what he says...

What is closed mindedness anyways? I think from his perception he sees things in many different ways, and of course being as public as he is sooner or later he is going to have to give an opinion of sorts on current events, so if you don't agree with it is that then considered closemindedness? 

As for his wife, you really think he would have gotten this far if he did it, and his daugher would have anything to do with him? When his wife did Mahasamahdi he was not near the popularity he is today, the Dylanalinga was not yet completed and he wasn't advertising or travelling and promoting like he is now, so he was not even known very  much, so to say he had connections back then with government is dumb, local ppl were after him for setting up the ashram and such so he would not have gotten away with it if that was the case... They have accused him of most everything, he talks about it often...

Again once as I have said before, Once You start to do BIG THINGS in this world, enemies will rise up against You in strong and varied ways, because those enemies have lots to lose, they don't want anything to change because they make huge profits off of it, the small group of Elites, while the rest of us slave away and work daily to just get by...

 

Edited May 29 by Ishanga

[Ishanga]

 Exploring 40,000 Years of Mysticism & Culture | Ride with Sadhguru, Sadhguru meets Elders of the Lakota and Crow Nations on his way to Mato Tipila, a place of great sanctity to many indigenous nations. As a brilliant moon lights up the striking Bear Butte, Sadhguru guides a group of volunteers through a powerful meditation, before continuing the journey to the Bighorn Medicine Wheel in Wyoming.

 

[Ishanga]

Its quite clear that Sadhguru has engaged with the Scientific community, publicly and in private lol!!

 

Sadhguru - 83 Universes Have Dissolved, This is 84th Universe

 

Edited May 29 by Ishanga

[Ishanga]

@AtmanIsBrahman Whats going to happen next is your going to accuse me of being a fanboy and idolization and therefore without any credibility, but that is not the truth, I'm more researcher than anything, and I've done his programs, they are work effectively, and that is what really counts, not what he says or does... 

Most Spiritual teachers today, including the one that create4d this forum, offer really no programs/methods, just teachings, intellectualizations and beliefs systems, which everybody already has, at least with SJV he offers much more than that...

Edited May 29 by Ishanga

[AtmanIsBrahman]

1 hour ago, Ishanga said:

@AtmanIsBrahman Whats going to happen next is your going to accuse me of being a fanboy and idolization and therefore without any credibility, but that is not the truth, I'm more researcher than anything, and I've done his programs, they are work effectively, and that is what really counts, not what he says or does... 

Most Spiritual teachers today, including the one that create4d this forum, offer really no programs/methods, just teachings, intellectualizations and beliefs systems, which everybody already has, at least with SJV he offers much more than that...

I'm not going to accuse you of being a fanboy. I generally agree that what sadhguru does is good, I was just trying to point out some limitations of his teachings.
 

That being said, the last video you shared about the 84 universes is an example of where Sadhguru tries to go into scientific and conceptual topics and ends up spewing nonsense. Hopefully you can see that there being exactly 84 universes is a ridiculous notion.

[AtmanIsBrahman]

2 hours ago, OBEler said:

You missed a good point on pro list: he has very good courses. Inner engineering total and so on.

I took a lot knowledge out from these courses. Shambhavi mahamudra is powerful.

I haven't looked into his courses, so I didn't mention them. 

2 hours ago, OBEler said:

He seems closed minded sometimes but did you watch his contact with an intelligent energy somewhere in the mountains so out of this world so that he describes this as an alien being?

That shows he is open minded for new unusual discoveries outside of Hinduism 

I've seen some of his videos on aliens, which seem interesting. What I mean about his Hindu bias is that he explains existential things with a Hindu framework, and I'm not sure he realizes that it is just a framework.

[Salvijus]

A good question to ask is, how do we know that what we percieve as a limitation in someone's behavior is not just our failure to see deeper intelligence behind those actions? This question becomes especially significant when we're talking about mystics and such I would say. 

The answer i believe is. You can't know. All you can do is keep growing and keep an open mind and your opinion about mystics and their hard to understand behavior will keep changing every day. In the meantime, the only thing worth being concerned with is if this being can help me reach the next stage of development or not. 

Edited May 29 by Salvijus

[Applegarden8]

Hinduism IS to be implemented and taken literally, because those sutras, pointers and teachings work. For example, Mahabhatata war really happened. Rama lived way over his lifetime etc. All of the hindu stories have some relevance, even today, ok, maybe those stories are not so literal, but have a perspective, and still some stories are quite literal, like when Shiva opens his third eye, the whole existence burns. That means that the dimension of third eye makes everything sense perception phenomenon irrelevant in your existence, that, however, is literal.

[hyruga]

Sadhguru likes to exaggerate stuff sometimes. Like for example he will say 'Nobody believes in heaven now'

Oh really? Zero person?

And sometimes he says factually wrong stuff.

"70% are depending on pharamaceutical drugs while the other 30% turn to the streets for drugs" meant as a joke but factually wrong.

[woohoo123]

This is related to your science point but I’m generally quite sceptical when I hear spiritual teachers talk about health. Especially when they present their health as a result of their ‘consciousness’ rather than their lifestyle.
 

Things like you only need to sleep x hours a day if you do this etc. I don’t think a lot of them are very expressive of their own physical vulnerabilities and tend to present an aura of ‘I am above modern medicine because of my spiritual prowess’. They could totally just get cancer and die like anyone else but I don’t really see him presenting that image. It has more of a ‘lost in holiness’ , ‘I can mentally manipulate my biological processes with the power of my mind’ kind of feel

then it can be quite disillusioning when he actually ends up in hospital and requires modern doctors to save him. Then he will say things along the lines of ‘I am very well and recovering faster than the typical patient’ but I didn’t see anything mentioning like he could just die from random medical issues beyond his control. At least this is the impression I get from watching him

Edited May 29 by woohoo123

[OBEler]

3 hours ago, hyruga said:

Sadhguru likes to exaggerate stuff sometimes. Like for example he will say 'Nobody believes in heaven now'

Oh really? Zero person?

And sometimes he says factually wrong stuff.

"70% are depending on pharamaceutical drugs while the other 30% turn to the streets for drugs" meant as a joke but factually wrong.

Nah... people should just get what he means.

If you say nobody does xy, this is always wrong because there are exceptions always.

[OBEler]

3 hours ago, hyruga said:

Sadhguru likes to exaggerate stuff sometimes. Like for example he will say 'Nobody believes in heaven now'

Oh really? Zero person?

And sometimes he says factually wrong stuff.

"70% are depending on pharamaceutical drugs while the other 30% turn to the streets for drugs" meant as a joke but factually wrong.

Nah... people should just get what he means.

If you say nobody does xy, this is always wrong because there are exceptions always.

[OBEler]

3 hours ago, hyruga said:

Sadhguru likes to exaggerate stuff sometimes. Like for example he will say 'Nobody believes in heaven now'

Oh really? Zero person?

And sometimes he says factually wrong stuff.

"70% are depending on pharamaceutical drugs while the other 30% turn to the streets for drugs" meant as a joke but factually wrong.

Nah... people should just get what he means. He just simplified. It's better to listen to

If you say nobody does xy, technically this is always wrong because there are exceptions always. But including all exceptions in your statements gets annoying. most people get that if you just simplify that they know that you know that there are exceptions.

Sadghuru is a great speaker especially  because he can simplify statements.

Edited May 29 by OBEler

[Ishanga]

20 hours ago, AtmanIsBrahman said:

I'm not going to accuse you of being a fanboy. I generally agree that what sadhguru does is good, I was just trying to point out some limitations of his teachings.
 

That being said, the last video you shared about the 84 universes is an example of where Sadhguru tries to go into scientific and conceptual topics and ends up spewing nonsense. Hopefully you can see that there being exactly 84 universes is a ridiculous notion.

He said that there were 83 Universes in the past, and that this one is the 84th, and the remnants of the past ones, for some of them are still present and can be accessed, I'm not into this stuff but there is a cosmologist right there so why would he embarrass himself in front of him on purpose..I just posted a bunch of videos with him talking with scientist, they seem to think what he is saying as legit, are they lying???

[OBEler]

1 hour ago, Ishanga said:

He said that there were 83 Universes in the past, and that this one is the 84th, and the remnants of the past ones, for some of them are still present and can be accessed, I'm not into this stuff but there is a cosmologist right there so why would he embarrass himself in front of him on purpose..I just posted a bunch of videos with him talking with scientist, they seem to think what he is saying as legit, are they lying???

 This statement that there were exactly xy universes in the past can only be a statement of a sci-fi Autor and not a real scientist.

[Ishanga]

13 minutes ago, OBEler said:

 This statement that there were exactly xy universes in the past can only be a statement of a sci-fi Autor and not a real scientist.

He's stating his understanding of Yogic cosmology, I don't know either way, but does anyone else know either way, does any scientist know for a fact what was there before this universe and what will be there after this universe dies???  Plus he doesn't state to be a "scientist" your putting words in his mouth, he states to know the Yogic science via his own experience within himself, that is his claim, the problem is it puts one in a place to either believe or disbelieve but there is a third choice to do neither, and just explore for yourself within yourself to find truth...again he is stating this in front of a western cosmologist, I didn't see him claim to him that he is doesn't know what he is talking about, he just states that is new information for him and shows an interest in yogic cosmology... Of all the interactions with scientist that Sadhguru has had, there seems to be a good sharing of information btwn the two (except with Prof Plinker who's a staunch materialist) and relatively seem to be of similar understanding off things on a relative basis, since Sadhguru is not a trained or educated scientist in any field so he does not have the exact expertise or language that these other scientist have in whatever field they are expert in...

Edited May 30 by Ishanga