Mahasamadhi

[Key Elements]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

Reality is infinitely self-reincarnating. There can be all sorts of structures which define various beings, but ultimately the consciousness, the "substance" of it all, is one.

Could some structures get preserved in between physical deaths? I don't see why not. Reality seems to have an infinite memory.

If this is true, it would be nice to see where we're going after the ego really dies, and be sure of it. Why not go into a better phenomenon instead of this earth phenomenon? Or, why go into a phenomenon at all and become no-self? In your blog, you mentioned that life is a school. If all the lessons are learned in one's life, wouldn't we be in a better phenomenon or become one with the no-self? At least that's what I heard. Having choice is different from having free-will.

[Monkey-man]

Probs this infinite memory is infinite karmic stream

[Key Elements]

The ego doesn't know that. It only sees and experiences the phenomenon and not interested in going beyond that.

[AlwaysBeNice]

5 hours ago, Key Elements said:

If this is true, it would be nice to see where we're going after the ego really dies, and be sure of it. Why not go into a better phenomenon instead of this earth phenomenon? Or, why go into a phenomenon at all and become no-self? 

The ego only dies temporarily in ego-death and being enlightened is when living here and the ego, or reality, is seen through completely.

DMT probably allows for peaks into other non-physical realms, or read the accounts of NDE, or peoples experiences with deceased beings.

-

I agree that earth is a kind of shitty ass realm atm, but actually that's only from the contracted ego's point of view.

To awaken here is awesome and to awaken others is awesome (especially coming from such a place of deep ignorance), to build an enlightened society is awesome, to explore the universe (as a unified race) is awesome and interact with other civilizations is awesome.

And just actually having your human avatar is pretty crazy cool when you think about, interacting with nature is cool, interacting with other humans, having sex with them, making music with them, joking, experiencing personal and spiritual growth/opening.

All a very unique experience that you can't have just in spirit, which in my understanding also actually shapes a raw spirit (having incarnations), so then as spirit you navigate through life as spirit that knows the human experience, and thus has a reference point for itself, and then you can live on and help other physical beings in that way.

[Markus]

@BeyondForm Mahasamadhi is a real thing but it is so advanced and rare I doubt you'll ever have to worry about it. It can happen when all the blockages in the person's system (not counting purely physical things) have been dissolved and their energy reaches an immense stillness, which is paradoxically too overwhelming for the body to maintain, so it can leave the body.

There are people who've meditated for decades (known examples Adyashanti, Mooji, Rupert Spira, Peter Ralston, Shinzen Young, etc) and had all kinds of enlightements, insights, and experiences, yet they are nowhere near that advanced. It'll take incredible luck, grace, or multiple lifetimes of work to embark upon a state where you're close to mahasamadhi. If you're wondering how this could possibly be assumed, there are energetically sensitive people who can feel into someone's state and tell quite a lot of detail about it in some cases. Sadhguru is there (self-proclaimedly he's had multiple enlightened lifetimes) and his wife actually left the body. And these are the only known examples, out of countless yogis and gurus. So really, don't worry about it. 

Edited February 3, 2018 by Markus

[Key Elements]

@AlwaysBeNice I'm not talking about the physical being "shitty" and all that. It is still part of non-duality, and yes we are living in a world of abundance. I'm talking about the "spirit" or "soul" or "whatever you call that" not being influenced by the ego and actually knowing it's not going to be reincarnated for sure. Well, or at least having some hint of it.

[Monkey-man]

@Markus did Sadhguru mentioned if he is going to leave his body at some point or no?

[Markus]

10 hours ago, Monkey-man said:

@Markus did Sadhguru mentioned if he is going to leave his body at some point or no?

He was originally planning to leave after concencrating the Dhyanalinga. Which is why he put so much of his energy into it it damaged him physically. But for unknown reasons he decided to stay, and it's been nearly two decades since.

[BeyondForm]

On 02/02/2018 at 3:15 AM, Monkey-man said:

@BeyondForm since u already had ego-death, are you still identified with body/mind?

@Monkey-man Yes, to an extent, but I am very aware of when I am identified with it, and i am in a simultaneous state of witnessing (even when this happens) most if not all of the time - but I am by no means completely free of it or not at all identified with it. I know a lot of people claim being the witness as sort of 'winning the enlightenment game' but I don't mean it like that, it just becomes fact of the matter and in a way sticks with me through all experience.. You also then begin to realise how strange even the sense of normalcy is that comes with being in the ego state, the fact that it is a thing.. As I sort of stated in a previous post, the 'key to enlightenment' at any given moment becomes clearer and clearer the deeper I go.. You come into full consciousness by 'unreserved letting go of every and all form'.. For example, I can be out with my friends and it is very very real that I am a man in my early 20's drinking and socialising, but then I can go home, sit on my couch and surrender everything at once, and not long after the whole reality of this person disappears like a dream. I find the back and forth from ego to consciousness is very strange and kind of fucked though

I am still very early in the journey, there are so many levels to ego death and identification, it is unreal. 

 

Edited February 4, 2018 by BeyondForm

[BeyondForm]

On 02/02/2018 at 3:36 PM, Leo Gura said:

@BeyondForm Yes, enlightenment is facing your very real death. It ain't no joke. Good for you for taking the plunge.

As far as Mahasamadhi... I am unsure. Part of me feels those yogi like to exaggerate, and part of me feels that Mahasamadhi is a real thing. I wouldn't be surprised if it was possible.

But why worry about it? It's a very advanced thing. It will not happen to you by accident. The whole point of Mahasamadhi is that you make a deliberate choice to do it.

Just as a fact: you don't see too many people falling dead at meditation retreats or yogic ashrams. If Mahasamdhi happened accidential (oxymoron) then you'd see a lot more corpses carried out of those places.

@Leo Gura Thanks for getting back to me. Yes, I have certainly found death to be the key 'theme' of enlightenment & realisation as I move forward. Contemplation of it (and thus disillusionment of the ego) has really been the key factor in my ability to go deeper (and dis-identify with the body-mind on greater levels) in this journey. I once heard it said by a teacher (I believe it was Adi Da) that we basically live in a world that is in complete utter denial of death, everyone is  walking around pretending that their experience isn't temporary and that death isn't real. He almost defines the ego itself as a denial of death (and hence a denial of reality), and that death should be faced in every moment by becoming aware of the body (and thus the fact/limit of mortality) in full. The 'jump to consciousness' then happens on it's own accord when death is realised and surrendered to. 

With mahasamadhi I am basically on the same page, I feel as though it is exaggerated but at the same time I'm forced to believe in it when a guy like Saddy G makes the call.  It's just that (as someone else pointed out in a reply), he goes on about it occurring accidentally, not purposefully, in many of the videos, hence my concern. But I had wondered that about the dead body scenario in retreats etc... and also the fact that there are so many other 'liberated' teachers alive and well.. and I guess that is certainly enough evidence not to reject it, but for it to be of no concern. I guess it's just that, like many others on here, pretty well all of my spiritual education has come via the teachers such as sadhguru on the internet... and before you know it a few years later down the road you find yourself neck deep in some very extreme experiences without anyone else to really relate them to or gauge whether this beginner stuff or you're getting in the deep end. It was really until I started having these more death-like experiences that I gauged 'shit is real' and started to relate this mahasamadhi matter back to myself and my experience.  



 

 

Edited February 4, 2018 by BeyondForm

[BeyondForm]

On 02/02/2018 at 8:42 PM, Speedscarlet said:

@Leo Gura that’s wrong. Mahasamadhi happens accidentally far more than you think. Have you seen this video: 

@BeyondForm hate to scare you my friend. But it’s true.

@Speedscarlet As I find myself repeatedly saying haha, "Hence my concern." 

Edited February 4, 2018 by BeyondForm

[BeyondForm]

On 02/02/2018 at 9:22 PM, Edogowa Conan said:

@Leo Gura India has the longest experience with spirituality than anywhere else in the world. Zen and other types of Buddhism all came from India. 

And even if nirvikalpa samadhi doesn’t kill you, it’s a good precaution to wear that snake ring.

@Edogowa Conan Funny side note on the snake ring.. I actually bought one and was wearing it for a while but in the end I took it off. What it meant and represented psychologically in a way became a road block for me because.. as I have learnt, the whole spiritual process is unconditional surrender and letting go.. Yet I was carrying with me an object that literally held the meaning in my mind of "holding on to the body and not surrendering". I also was carrying the belief that the ring was actually doing something.. i.e. by wearing it you basically have to believe it's keeping you bound to the body. It was like wearing a spiritual safety harness. The whole thing felt weird, counter-intuitive and just a bit off to me (also considering that by wearing it I was enforcing the belief I had in this mahasamadhi business to a greater extent... not that it's not a real phenomenon, but for anyone that doesn't have the perception of sadhguru, it is literally only a belief, there's no perceived reality of the snake ring binding the soul to the body or something along those lines). 

I assume this sort of thing would be why Sadhguru stated that he never told anyone why they had to wear the ring when going to the ashram, he just made them wear it. It would obviously be different for him if (I can only assume) he is actually in a state of perception where he somehow sees the interaction between consciousness, energies, the copper ring.. how it works etc. (again I'm only speculating), but for anyone else it's just a belief to be carried around. 

[BeyondForm]

19 hours ago, Markus said:

@BeyondForm Mahasamadhi is a real thing but it is so advanced and rare I doubt you'll ever have to worry about it. It can happen when all the blockages in the person's system (not counting purely physical things) have been dissolved and their energy reaches an immense stillness, which is paradoxically too overwhelming for the body to maintain, so it can leave the body.

There are people who've meditated for decades (known examples Adyashanti, Mooji, Rupert Spira, Peter Ralston, Shinzen Young, etc) and had all kinds of enlightements, insights, and experiences, yet they are nowhere near that advanced. It'll take incredible luck, grace, or multiple lifetimes of work to embark upon a state where you're close to mahasamadhi. If you're wondering how this could possibly be assumed, there are energetically sensitive people who can feel into someone's state and tell quite a lot of detail about it in some cases. Sadhguru is there (self-proclaimedly he's had multiple enlightened lifetimes) and his wife actually left the body. And these are the only known examples, out of countless yogis and gurus. So really, don't worry about it. 

@Markus Thank you  

[Shanmugam]

This forum was doing perfectly fine until Sadhguru entered this forum... Just because he is a famous figure, has a long beard and millions of followers, there is a tendency in people to take everything he says as true. I myself fell for this trap and remained in this trap for many years... And I have seen enough of  him to confidently say that he just makes up a lot of what he says...

 

 

[Shanmugam]

It is a long post...  But I have made a few things clear about some of the myths that Sadhguru is promoting...  In a few minutes, I will also post a blog post regarding his wife's death that was written by another long term follower of Sadhguru..

[Shanmugam]

Here is the excerpt of the blog post I was talking about:

Controversies are not new to Isha Foundation or Sadhguru. The bigger the controversy, the brighter Isha seems to shine after it. In the above excerpt from her book, “Sadhguru: more than a life” (referred to hereafter as just the “book”),  author Arundhati Subramanian was referring to the aftermath of the death of Sadhguru’s wife Vijji whose death caused the biggest controversy and test of faith in Isha’s history.  The Tamil press accused Sadhguru of murdering his wife while Sadhguru maintained that his wife attained “Mahasamadhi” (enlightenment by leaving her body voluntarily). In the end, Isha and Sadhguru triumphed. The police closed the case as they found no evidence after their inquiries and this allegation is now forgotten. But when we pause for a moment and think, we still find lot of unanswered questions. Just keep asking “Why?” and it opens the door. In this article, I look at some of these questions. 

Sequence of events

I first read about Vijji’s death in Sadhguru’s book “Mystic’s musings“. That is the first time I learnt that Sadhguru was married and had a daughter.  In this book, Sadhguru gives fascinating details on the consecration of Dhyanalinga, the purpose of his life. Sadhguru, his wife Vijji and his disciple Bharati were involved in intense spiritual practices for the consecration and Vijji suddenly left her body (attained Mahasamadhi) on 23rd Jan 1997.  Vijji’s intentions for Mahasamadhi were not a secret. She expressed her strong desire to leave her body in this Yogic way to many people including Sadhguru before. But she was not an accomplished Yogi and Sadhguru did not expect that she could pull it off. Even though Sadhguru’s Dhyanalinga consecration was seriously impacted due to the unexpected exit of Vijji,  he was proud of her spiritual achievement as a Guru.  In Mystic’s musings, he reveals intricate and mystic details about Vijji’s Mahasamadhi.  Among other things, he explains why Vijji chose that day to leave her body –

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On January 23rd, this cluster of planets centred on the first degree of Aquarius, joined by the Sun with the Full Moon opposite them all. This pattern may also be seen as a symbolic representation of the long heralded ‘dawning of the Age of Aquarius’. It is also the Thaipoosam, a day that many sages of the past had chosen for their own Mahasamadhi.

Vijji was cremated the next day in the presence of a thousand people. The samadhi of Vijji is in the current Isha ashram in Coimbatore. It is said to have lot of positive energy vibes and is considered very sacred.    

A controversy broke out 8 months later when Vijji’s father Ganganna filed a complaint with Bangalore police accusing Sadhguru of murdering his daughter.

 

Why would Sadhguru’s own father-in-law file a complaint on him? Isha’s explanation was that a disgruntled family member of an Isha devotee provoked Sadhguru’s in-laws and influenced Vijji’s father to file a case.  As one can imagine, all hell broke loose and the local Tamil media had a field day covering the issue.  Sadhguru was on a US tour when this happened, so naturally he was not in the ashram when police visited it for their investigation (Here critics wrongly allege that “Sadhguru ran away to the US” without realizing that he was already in the US when the case was filed).  They  found no evidence for the allegations after their inquiries.  There were many witnesses around when Vijji died and her cremation was also witnessed by many. So the case was closed and Sadhguru was freed of all charges.  But, of course, critics still claim that “Sadhguru murdered his wife” when they only have  speculation and no proof for their charge.  So it is understandable that Sadhguru gets angry when the case is mentioned.  He gives a detailed reply about these incidents in his Tehelka interview –

Quote

“Is an FIR filed? No. Have they arrested me? No. Have they interrogated me? No,” he responds. “Why would they not arrest me if there was some substance?” He says a case was filed eight months after his wife died, and the media went ballistic because a powerful banker who disliked him funded the campaign. According to him, despite this and the resulting political pressure, the DSP refused to arrest him because there was no case — they’d spoken to people at the ashram. He adds that she’d announced to many that she was planning to leave her body and there were witnesses when it happened.

 

Questions remain

For Isha devotees, the above facts are enough proof that this case was a malicious attempt to defame Sadhguru and derail his spiritual movement.  But if we take a neutral stand and employ the “Why” tool, we see that there are many answered questions. First, let us consider Vijji’s father. Per the details in the “book”, Vijji was a divorcee and had an abusive marriage before meeting Sadhguru.  Vijji’s father was very happy when she got married to Sadhguru. The “book” also mentions that  Sadhguru healed him and thus he had great faith in Sadhguru.  Presumably, he knows about Vijji’s intention of Mahasamadhi too as she told about it to many people including her own daughter.  Thus Vijji’s father was happy about her marriage, had trust in Sadhguru and knew about the mystic happenings around her.  Yet he filed a complaint accusing Sadhguru of murder. Why? According to the “book”, a disgruntled uncle of a meditator “proceeded to instigate a smear campaign by provoking a family (Vijji’s parents) that was at the time at its most vulnerable. Vijji’s parents were swayed by the man’s outrage”.  Wait!  Wasn’t Vijji’s father supposed to tell this “uncle” –   “Get away from me!  I know my son-in-law and I completely trust him! My daughter attained Mahasamadhi, which is a great spiritual achievement.” ? Why did he get “swayed” by this uncle instead? Also how did this “uncle” get the idea of instigating Vijji’s parents in the first place? Were there rumors floating around the ashram after Vijji’s death and he knew that Vijji’s parents were unhappy?

It seems that Vijji’s father somehow got disillusioned and lost trust in Sadhguru. We do not know why. One possibility was that something serious must have happened between Vijji and Sadhguru in their marital life. In Isha circles, Vijji and Sadhguru are often portrayed as an “ideal” couple, like Shiva and Parvathi.  Per the “book”, there were conflicts between them due to the possessive nature of Vijji but nothing too serious was hinted at. But the reality may have been different.  An anonymous blogger commented on director Shekar Kapur’s 2008 article on Sadhguru about their “fights” –
 

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Jaggi and Vijji lived as “ONE” ?!!! – Somebody wrote this here. Let him go to Tirupur, check out with people with whom Jaggi and family stayed during the early 90s. They did have verbal fights. ( just like any other family)

Or the Best person would be is Mrs. Bagyam Srinivasan who took Jaggi from Mysore to Tirupur and introduced him to whose who of Tirupur. Without her Jaggi would not be what he is today. But Jaggi ditched her nicely, to eliminate the traces of his history. After all, his fav. method is “use and throw”.

Here comes another truth.. Jaggi was not Vijji’s first husband….she was somebody’s wife and Jaggi took her when he came to coimbatore/tirupur. You may wonder whats special abt “tirupur” as the ashram is in “coimbatore”. Tirupur is so special because Isha yoga centre was first registered in Tirupur as a trust. But Jaggi threw out all the old trustees who were with him at the time of registration.

 

Of course, we cannot take a random anonymous blogger’s comment as a proof of anything, especially when the blogger seems to have a dislike and disrespect for Sadhguru.  Note the interesting factual details provided in the comment. It seems that Vijji was still married (and did not yet take divorce from her abusive ex-husband) when she fell in love with Sadhguru. We can find multiple people online who knew about these fights and Vijji’s past. So it is possible that there were serious fights (we do not know what these fights were about) between Vijji and Sadhguru and Vijji’s father knew about these.

Next, it is puzzling that no doctor was called to examine Vijji after her Mahasamadhi. Yes, there were people around when she died but it seems that her death was confirmed just by Sadhguru and not by any independent medical authority. If a meditator leaves his body tomorrow during an advanced meditation session in Coimbatore Ashram before Sadhguru and Sadhguru proclaims that he attained Mahasamadhi and cremates his body without waiting for his parents, it would surely raise a lot of eyebrows.  The exact same thing seems to have happened for Vijji and no one finds it odd. Also it is a general custom to not cremate the body of an enlightened being. Sadhguru himself explained the logic for this once – that the causal body tries to enter back into the body after death and thus it is necessary to burn the body. By implication, an enlightened person’s body need not be cremated as there is no causal body waiting to be reborn again. Thus we find that enlightened beings are generally buried (not cremated), though this is a not a strict rule. So cremating Vijji’s body even before her parents could get a last glimpse and even though it is not a custom does seem very odd.

It is also interesting to note the accusation of an “illicit relationship” with an ashram inmate. Many critics think this inmate is Bharati, Sadhguru’s disciple who was part of the Dhyanalinga consecration. This is a very vulgar allegation but let us again remember that the complainant was Vijji’s own father. So did Vijji suspect any “affair” and tell her father? Was Bharati the reason for the fights between Sadhguru and Vijji? The “book” hints at the conflicts between Vijji and Bharati. Both were possessive of Sadhguru in different ways, it says. Vijji could not accept that her dear husband became a Guru for many people. It took a while for her to become part of Sadhguru’s mission. For example, she did not initially join Sadhguru when he was building the ashram in Coimbatore. She was working in Bangalore instead and this irked Bharati.  So it can be said that Vijji had a complex relationship with Sadhguru’s Guru role and with Bharati. Sadhguru took notice of this and made specific attempts to reconcile them. In the end, the “book” says that Vijji was very convinced about Sadhguru’s mission and participated very enthusiastically in the Sadhana. But was there more between Vijji and Bharati that the book did not mention?

One can also ask the question, “How did Sadhguru, the great mystic, not realize that Vijji may leave her body and stop her?” After all, Dhyanalinga is the purpose of his life and he knows that there were going to be impediments. Vijji was publicly expressing her desire for Mahasamadhi and so Sadhguru should have taken it into consideration. Yet, we see that Sadhguru was very casual about this. In fact, the “book” surprisingly mentions that the Dhyanaligna consecration would have completed on the day of Vijji’s death but Bharati had to attend an event at her daughter’s school and so it did not happen!  This sort of casualness is unthinkable for a consecration of such enormous significance.  Yet we find this strange mix of casualness amidst the utmost spiritual seriousness of the atmosphere. Thus we are told that Sadhguru did not think that Vijji could attain Mahasamadhi and even if she did, he thought she would plan for it after the consecration!  And he did not take any “mystic precautions” to ensure that she did not leave her body (Sadhguru claimed several times that he could stop his disciples from leaving their bodies). So Sadhguru behaved like an ordinary husband and underestimated his wife! Guess fate is mysterious to grasp even to the greatest of the mystics!

As they say, what is not revealed often reveals more than what is revealed.  We were never told that Sadhguru was a teacher with Rishi Prabhakar’s Siddha Samadhi Yoga (SSY) (Not to be confused with Sadhguru’s own Sahaja Stithi Yoga, the earlier form of Isha, which also acronyms to SSY. See my article about Sadhguru’s Rishi Prabhakar connection here for more details).  It seems Vijji was also a teacher with SSY.   In fact, according to one blogger, she was a “superstar teacher of SSY while Sadhguru used to be an introvert sweet husband”.  It seems that Vijji was with SSY even before Sadhguru joined it.  The Gomatagiri camp which started the love story between Sadhguru and Vijji as described in the “book”  was apparently an SSY camp.  Assuming that at least some of these things are true (I am pretty sure about Sadhguru’s involvement with SSY as a teacher. A very reliable friend told me that he meditated with Sadhguru in SSY back in those old days. I have no reliable sources for the other claims but it is worth noting that multiple people claimed the same things), we can see that Vijji’s past is not entirely revealed.  Again, we do not know why Sadhguru never speaks about these things from his past.

Finally, let us now consider the Mahasamadhi claim itself. Isha and Sadhguru keep saying that Vijji strongly desired Mahasamadhi and achieved it in the end. They imply that her death is thus very simply explained, as if Mahasamadhi is a common cause of death in India.  When Vijji’s own father was not convinced of her Mahasamadhi, how can Isha expect that the whole world would believe it? So it must be recognized that Mahasamadhi is a sufficient explanation for the Isha devotees but not for the rest of the world. For example, had the case went to court, Mahasamadhi explanation would not be considered as a proof. So Isha should get less defensive about Mahasamadhi, explain the sequence of events more clearly and clarify some of the questions discussed above.

Suppression of the controversy

While the Vijji death controversy was widely covered in the local Tamil media,  the English media did not appear to pay much attention.  News presence on the internet was almost non-existent in those days.  So most of the later Isha followers did not even hear about the controversy even though they knew all the spiritual details surrounding Vijji’s death from “Mystic’s Musings”.  When some of them learnt about the controversy later, they were shocked.   Here is how user paulpembroke describes it in his Guruphiliac forum post (this forum is possibly the first place on internet where this controversy was widely discussed) – 

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I was an isha practioner for 9 years and dumped it about a month ago when I read about the murder charges against sjv in 1997.  There were serious cracks forming for me during the samyama I attended in 2009.  But, I figured I’d stay with it go give it a chance.  Well, I did all of the practices after samyama – 4 hours a day – and didn’t notice any difference.  Then when I read about the murder charges it was like a switch was turned off inside me and I had no desire whatsoever to continue.

What interests me in this description is the “switch turned off” part. Many people get devoted to Sadhguru not because he is charismatic and speaks very convincingly. These qualities may attract them towards Sadhguru but their faith often develops suddenly and unconsciously. These devotees discover one fine day that “a switch was turned on” deep inside them. It is interesting to see that the same switch can get turned off too! But the switch does not get “turned off” because of any random doubt or controversy. It requires a special discovery, something unacceptable to the devotee. But what is “unacceptable” varies greatly among devotees. For example, paulpembroke’s faith is broken after learning about Vijji’s death controversy. But I was not bothered at all when I first learnt about this controversy through the Guruphiliac forum.  After all, one does not expect Sadhguru to say in his “Mystic’s Musings” book, “You know what, they also accused me of murder!”.

So acknowledging the controversy does not harm Isha or Sadhguru. After all, they have a very good defense against it.  Yet we find that Isha volunteers were unnecessarily defensive about the controversy in the Guruphiliac forum.  Many of them were unwilling to consider any questions about Vijji’s death. For them, Mahasamadhi explanation was more than enough and only the spiritually ignorant would doubt Sadhguru.  In fact, they did not even like anyone mentioning the controversy. If this is the attitude in a forum, one can imagine how Isha volunteers would guard Sadhguru’s Wiki page.

In 2007, 10 years after the controversy broke out,  someone posted about the controversy surrounding Vijji’s death on Sadhguru’s Wiki page –

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Sadhuguru’s wife Vijji died under suspicious circumstances while undergoing a bout of deep meditation in Vasudev’s ashram. Mr. Vasudev was arrested by the Coimbatore police but was eventually released. Controversy still surrounds the mysterious circumstances surrounding Ms. Vijji’s death!

The content was not malicious and the reporting was factual. Isha volunteers could have edited it to add more details that show Sadhguru was innocent. This was what user rogermathworks  appeared to do but later Isha Foundation removed all traces of this controversy with the comment “Removed lines that are clearly defamatory against Sadhguru”!   It did not occur to Isha that Sadhguru’s Wiki page is not Sadhguru’s personal website where they can decide what content to post. Anyone can post any content on Wiki and the job of Isha’s volunteer reviewers is to verify facts and remove malicious content. But here they removed an inconvenient factual detail! It is worth noting that another reviewer objected to this removal and added back the content with the comment “I for one read these reports in the Indian newspapers and Mr. Vasudev had a newspaper response to this controversy. It is better to have the controversy in the open rather than fester in solitude”.  This wise suggestion was ignored and the content was  removed again! 

We can understand Isha’s intentions here.  They want newcomers who are interested in Sadhguru to not get side-tracked by the controversies surrounding him! It would be unfortunate if people miss to experience a real Guru because of a fake controversy.  So they want to control it. Fine! But they should do so by providing strong explanations and not by removing the content itself. It is a disgrace to Isha that they removed the Wiki entry on this controversy in the past. To correct this mistake and to check if Isha volunteers still continue to show this attitude, I did a little experiment several months back. I added a new section on Vijji’s death and provided an explanation which is supportive of Isha and Sadhguru. Even then, my section was removed eventually by an Isha volunteer with the comment, “This content described how a police complaint was filed against the individual discussed in this article but this information is of no relevance as no allegation was proved to be correct. In India, it takes no effort to file a complaint against anyone”.  Isha devotee’s faith and commitment towards Sadhguru always amazes me!  But I am still hopeful. When I checked Sadhguru’s Wiki page today, I see that someone re-added my content. Now there is a section called “Controversies” which discusses Vijji’s death controversy and the Adiyogi statue controversy. This is the right approach and I hope it stays this way! 

Conclusion

So can we conclude that Sadhguru killed his wife? Not at all! If someone like me who just reads a book and does some research on the net (that too only English sources), thinks that he found the real cause of Vijji’s death, he is gravely mistaken! The only sane position we can have about this incident is to accept Isha’s version, the version verified by the police. It would be ridiculous for anyone to claim that Sadhguru murdered his wife just because there are several unanswered questions. Yet, this is what we repeatedly hear from Sadhguru’s critics. May be I should not even use the word “critics”. These people are just a bunch of folks filled with hatred for Sadhguru and often have a vicious agenda against Isha. They are happy to make grave allegations and are too lazy to consider all possibilities or do any research to dig out the truth. It is sad to see some of the so called “journalists”  also doing this. Thus investigative journalism is reduced to bringing out an old clipping of Indian Express and then name-calling. Where is the real journalist who can investigate this matter without an agenda?

I also think that Isha devotees should get more inquisitive. Faith is a great thing and Sadhguru is a wonderful Guru. But complete submission to an organization or a Guru is never good for anyone. Faith should not mean just an obligation to prove Sadhguru’s critics wrong. It must be a freedom to question things and a courage to accept mistakes from Isha/Sadhguru’s side too. After all, didn’t Sadhguru say that, “To be on the spiritual path means that you have not made a conclusion about anything, you are seeking. To be a seeker means you want to know. One can seek only when one does not know!”? 

So in this article, I just tried to establish that there were aspects of Vijji’s Mahasamadhi story that were not sufficiently addressed in the official version from Isha and Sadhguru. The official story from Isha emphasizes the spiritual side of Vijji and downplays her human side. Here, I must give credit to Arundhati Subramaniam for her book. She did a splendid job in exploring Vijji’s personality and her state of mind in a honest way. But she seems to accept Sadhguru’s Mahasamadhi version without asking too many questions.  I tried to go beyond the skepticism shown by her in this article. In the end, I was left with a strange feeling about Vijji. It feels like we never knew her fully, even after Arundhati’s great portrayal of her as a mother, wife and Guru-maa (and Sadhguru’s heart-touching anecdotes about her). There is possibly a side of her which is not in public domain (and will never be). So as people bow to her in respect, I find myself asking her, “Vijji-maa, who are you really?”

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[Shanmugam]

Here is another one (from https://sadhgurukilledhiswife.wordpress.com/):

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev's wife died on January 23, 1997. The reason for her death has been explained as mahasamadhi.

Mahasamadhi is defined as follows:

Mahāsamādhi (the great and final samādhi) is the act of consciously and intentionally leaving one's body.[1][2] A realized yogi (male) or yogini (female) who has attained the state of nirvikalpa samādhi, will, at an appropriate time, consciously exit from their body. This is known as mahāsamādhi. This is not the same as the physical death that occurs for an unenlightened person.

But did Viji really attain mahasamadhi?

Let us first look at her pics. See how she looked during those days and how young she was:

People who say that she went to mahasamadhi are just repeating what Jaggi Vasudev said or what others are saying. I have never come across anyone offline or online who was actually present when it happened.

It is said that there were hundreds of people who witnessed it, but who knows? Does just saying that over and over again make it true? Even if they were present at the event, what exactly did they witness? Did they actually witness Viji sitting in front of them fully alive, being in meditation and dropping dead finally? Did all this happenbefore their eyes without missing any details or did they hear such a news when Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev just came out of the room and told them that Viji had left her body?

This incident happened many years ago and it is easy to convince people that she went to Mahasamadhi by repeating the story over and over again. If someone wants to believe in something, they just have to hear it over and over again. Because, if everyone in Isha maintains the same thing, you would never question it even though you were not present in that place.

Very important point: In our country, nobody cremates someone who attains Mahasamadhi. It is a custom to bury people who attained Mahasamadhi.

Now, consider the following points:

1.Viji, Sadhguru’s wife, was cremated; not buried. Why?

2. She was cremated immediately and Jaggi Vasudev didn’t wait for his father in law to reach there in spite of the requests. The request made by Viji's own father to wait was ignored. Why?

3. His father in law made a police complaint later that he was suspicious about Viji’s death and that Viji might have been murdered. It is true that anyone can make a police complaint and that doesn’t mean that the allegation is true. But the person who made the complaint was not just anyone, but Viji’s own father. Why? Think about it…

4. Viji was very young and her daughter was too young to lose her mother. Jaggi said Viji had planned her mahasamadhi few months before her death. No mother will do such a thing to her child and leave her child orphan. Why would anyone be in such a hurry to leave their body?

5. She didn’t even wait to see the completion of the consecration of Dhyanalinga. As per Jaggi’s own words, he has been working towards the consecration for three life times. He even decided where and in which womb Viji and others close to him should be born. His sole reason for being born this time was to consecrate Dhyanalinga. Even then, she irresponsibly left her body before the consecration was complete though she knew that she was also playing an important part in the consecration by forming an energy triangle with Jaggi and the other woman Bharti. And Jaggi, who had a lot of control over in which womb Bharti and Viji should be born, had zero control over her mahasamadhi. Why?

6. According to Jaggi, Viji was not an accomplished yogi. So it is a mystery how she learnt the art of leaving the body at will. Because, leaving the body at will is something that cannot be done so easily even by the advanced yogis. How did Viji, a normal householder and not an accomplished yogi was able to leave her body at will?

7. According to Jaggi, he has the power to peg people down if they are about to leave their body because of enlightenment. Still, Jaggi was not able to hold Viji down and stop her from leaving the body. Doesn’t it sound strange?  Here is an excerpt from the book "‘Enlightenment - An inside story" and here is what Jaggi Vasudev said in that book:

Quote

 

Have you noticed in India, most of the Enlightened beings died very young? Any number of them, by the time they are thirty-two, they are over. Have you noticed this? Because, retaining the body needs lots of tricks. Realization is one aspect, but what the science of this body is, is another aspect. If you do not know the science of the body, if you do not have a grasp and control over the science of how this life and body are functioning in tandem, you cannot retain the body.

So you will have to play some tricks to retain the body. Various kinds of tricks are played by various Masters, but generally, only those who are on the path of Kriya generally manage their body; others cannot hold on to their body.

This is the reason why generally, when people attain to a certain peak, we will not let them reach the ultimate peak; we peg them down there. I have lots of people around me like this — they are just one step behind. They are in a certain exalted state, they have grown close to it, one more step means they will leave, but we will always hold them down there, so that their physical bodies run their full course. They have much more sense than other people, they are good manure for the world so we want them to be useful in the world. We want to enslave them and use them for everybody's wellbeing, otherwise all the beautiful people will leave. (Laughter).

So we don't let them go, climb the final step, until their bodies wear themselves out through the natural process of living. When they go beyond a certain age, then we take off the peg — then it is up to them. Until then we fix them down, because if full Enlightenment happens they will not know how to sustain the body unless they put in an enormous amount of study. You don't like that? Personally, even I don't like it, but I have some social responsibilities. (Laughs).

 

So, Why wasn't Jaggi Vasudev able to stop Viji from leaving her body when he is able to stop everyone else in the ashram from doing so? He goes on to the say that since Viji was no more, he had to play the role of Viji as well and that not only delayed the consecration for another two years but it also caused severe damage to Jaggi's body. According to him, he was almost dead in the process. Why didn't he avoid all this trouble by 'pegging down' Viji?

8. Viji was not happy with Jaggi’s association with Bharti. It is mentioned in the book ‘Sadhguru: More than a Life by Arundhathi Subramaniam’ that the couple actually had quarrels regarding that.

9. Of course, police dismissed the case due to the lack of evidence. But you need to understand that if you give money to police in India, they will do anything. Our police department is not 100% free of corruption yet. A case can be dismissed if the sufficient bribe is paid.

10. Her own daughter Radhe doesn’t seem to like him much. Check her facebook profile (Radhe Jaggi) and check all her posts. Only recently, she posted some pics with the ‘Rally for rivers’ logo. But other than that, she mostly doesn’t talk about him in her posts and she doesn’t even have one picture of Jaggi in her album. No daughter will do something like this especially when her father is very famous, unless the daughter has some hatred towards her father. Of course, there may be instances when she gave performance in Isha yoga centre. And I have seen Jaggi sharing posts regarding Radhe’s dance performance. But Radhe herself mostly doesn’t seem to care about her father or talk about him much. Radhe may know the truth about her mom’s death.

Now, considering all the above facts, it is difficult to answer these questions if we accept that she died because of Mahasamadhi.

But everything seem to  fit very well when we even assume for a minute that Jaggi killed his wife because of his relationship with Bharti , bribed the police to dismiss the case and created a fake story of mahasamadhi.

I leave the conclusion to you people who read this answer. If anyone really thinks they can solve the puzzles in the above 10 points properly with valid reasons, let them comment here and explain.

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There was an interesting comment on this blog post which is also worth reading:

Sadhguru talks about the special astrological alignment (“That day was a very special day in terms of the way energies were moving for this planet.There was an exceedingly rare and archetypically appropriate planetary alignment, a moment in time expressed in the heavens as a perfect six-pointed star. This pattern comes on the exact day where three outer planets, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune are conjoined together for the first time in almost two hundred years. On January 23rd, this cluster of planets centred on the first degree of Aquarius, joined by the Sun with the Full Moon opposite them all. This pattern may also be seen as a symbolic representation of the long-heralded ‘dawning of the Age of Aquarius.’”) but he makes several strange statements. Although these 3 outer planets were conjunct around that time, only Jupiter and Uranus were in Aquarius and Neptune was in Capricorn. They can’t possibly have formed a 6-pointed star with such a tight conjunction/opposition. These aspects are also not considered the beginning of the age of Aquarius – that is some new age nonsense. But more curious still is the fact that his references are to Tropical (Western) astrology, not Sidereal (Indian) astrology, so it makes me wonder why, and who is giving him this information? I know that he is surrounded by Westerners, especially women, who take care of his hair and makeup among other things, so he clearly has a strong influence from non-Indians. This I guess explains the mixture of ancient wisdom and new age nonsense that we hear in his talks.

Edited February 5, 2018 by Shanmugam

[Leo Gura]

57 minutes ago, Shanmugam said:

 

Sadhguru looks an Indian Rupert Spira.

No wonder he lets his hair grow out!

P.S. Of course you're gonna be accused of murder if your wife does Mahasamadhi. No ordinary person would understand such a thing.

[Shanmugam]

@Leo Gura  Do you have the time to read the complete post and actually see certain questions that are raised?...

Whenever I say anything about Sadhguru, the discussions suddenly takes a different shape... Whether Mahasamadhi is true or not is different and I don't have any trouble to see anything as a possibility. But the question here is not about whether Mahasamadhi is true or not, but it is about whether Sadhguru is genuine or not? Do you see the difference? And I can bet all my money to say that he just makes up things most of the time and he repeats what he has read the rest of the time...

Let me give one other example..Read this carefully:

Sadhguru is very keen about controlling population and he has insisted many times that it is not really necessary to become a father of a child if you really don't need a child. I agree with this and it makes perfect sense.

But he got married after his enlightenment and his wife was also a yogi. What is the need for a child? But in order to justify the fact that he became a father of his child, he said a very big lie! He said that in Rig veda, it is written that only a grihasta (married)  yogi with a child will be able to consecrate Dhyanalinga. And guess what! There is no mention about linga in all the four Vedas. The idea of a linga actually evolved from a concept of an infinite shaft that connects heaven and earth and this is mentioned in a later veda which is Atharva veda. And certainly, there is no mention about Grihasta yogi being capable of consecrating a dhyanalinga.

What is more ironical is that he himself has said he never read any scriptures!

My concern is, a whole bunch of population who are sincere seekers, are slowly being misled by Sadhguru. He reinforces the illusion. His main business is selling consecrated spaces..

You seem to believe that Sadhguru is a realized person. I used to think this way too. But do you have open-mindedness to question this assumption? Do you see a possibility that Sadhguru's enlightenment is half-baked (he certainly had some experiences though) but distorting and misrepresenting some ancient teachings for his own benefit?

Of course, you can dismiss everything by saying 'ordinary people cannot understand this'... But people can't repeat this like a parrot for everything that is said by a famous figure who has a white beard...

I know you have been supporting Sadhguru, but do you have the open-mindedness to see that much of your assumptions about him could be wrong? Do you have the open-mindedness to consider that a person who has spent much time in Sadhguru's ashram, attending his satsangs, being a hardcore fan of Sadhguru for over a decade, attending his programs etc may have more chance of being right than you?

Sadhguru is the real life 'Kumare'...

[Speedscarlet]

@Shanmugam Did the police come before or after her body was cremated? Because if they came before, and sadhguru did actually kill her, they would have found some kind of stab wound or poison in her body. Mahasamadhi does not leave such marks. 

Btw what does consecration of dyanalinga mean?

Edited February 5, 2018 by Speedscarlet