Shanmugam

yes...

I watched the first 30 minutes of the video.. So far, I found Kangana Ranaut (the woman in the program) sounding more spiritual than Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev himself.. She seems to see any kind of identification with nation, race, religion etc as the source of hatred. But throughout the talk, Sadhguru is insisting that India is the best country in the world. I really don't agree with this over-promotion of India. Because, in an attempt to glorify India he says incorrect things about India, and even over exaggerating. For eg, In one video he said that Darwin's evolutionary theory was stated by Indians 15,000 years before.. He used the 10 avatar concept as a symbolic representation of Darwin's theory. But in reality, 10 avatars are cherry picked and rearranged version of an original 24 avatar concept. This 24 avatar concept is in a totally different order. It was only later, especially after Darwin's time, the 10 avatar concept was born. Without knowing this, Sadhguru even went ahead and said that 'adiyogi' said Darwin's evolution theory 15,000 years before.. I have written about it here: http://qr.ae/TUI6vM I had already questioned his version of adiyogi story. His comments on evolution theory seems to indicate that this adiyogi story was his own creation. (There is indeed a concept of adiyogi in our tradition; but that is a lot different from and simple than the sadhguru's version). In the last 200 years, many people are known to invent such things to glorify India and most of them are baseless. They just take an ambiguous verse from a scripture out of context and interpret that in a way that suits their intention. Since I know basic Sanskrit myself, I can say that such interpretations are actually very funny. Sadhguru seems to be more supportive of the political party that is ruling our country, which also supports the ideology that Indians are better than the rest of the world.

@Pernani Simply put, motivation is what motivates a search for enlightenment... .. If one keep inquiring to see what motivates him to do anything in this life, that inquiry may actually lead to enlightenment... Enlightenment is a peak where everything that is considered as 'personal' converges; this separate 'personal' self is completely lost.. So, it is an end of a life that is all about a person and his history... Discovering the peak of one's potential which gives a person a tremendous freedom from self-concept or anything that is related to a personal story is enlightenment... Once a person truly realizes his nature, then his life is no longer about a story of a person. It becomes completely impersonal. It is the peak of life... After that, learning, growth and improvement may still continue but there is no craving for learning, growth or improvement. You don't rely on anything to give you a meaning for life or the fulfillment of the story of your personal life. So, the 'personal life' is completely removed from the equation. You may be able to relate with my story: http://qr.ae/TUIUX1 . Here I have explained many things, including what motivated the search for enlightenment.

thank you

Bhavacakra or Bhavachakra, known as the wheel of life is painted in the Buddhist temples in Tibet and India. It is a symbolic representation of the wheel of life. Here is the gist of Bhavacakra: Ignorance of mistaking non-self as self-leads to aversion and attachments. This, in turn, leads to volition, action and the pleasant or unpleasant consequences of the actions. Depending on the consequences, a person enjoys or suffers the fruits of his action. The 12 nidanas give a clear picture of dependent origination. It states that everything is interconnected with various casual links. Nirvana or liberation is the only thing which is not affected by dependent origination. The five aggregates are impermanent and clinging to them causes suffering. There is a way to get liberated. It is called as eightfold path. This is a mandala and can be used for meditation. To know more about the mandalas, read the following posts: A Shamatha Meditation Based on Symbolism, Visualization, Mnemonics and Classical Conditioning The Truth About Yantras, Chakras, Temples, Tantra and Agamas (I will make a detailed video about this shortly. Subscribe to my Youtube channel to watch the videos in time: http://bit.ly/shanmugamy ) This is how it looks like: Here are some useful infographics which give the details about various aspects of Bhavacakra mandala. (You can also interpret these realms as the periods of your current life. For example, a person might be in any of the following realms for a few months: Sometimes we are like devas, very happy and pleased; Sometimes like asuras, even though happy we don’t feel content and this leads to craving, attachment, and aversion; Sometimes like humans, being more responsible and showering love to friends, families, and others; Sometimes like animals, just eating and sleeping; Sometimes like a hungry ghost, deprived of our needs and feel totally dissatisfied, frustrated and helpless; Sometimes like beings of the hell, going through extreme suffering that seems to be endless. The idea is to convey that none of these states are permanent and a proper spiritual practice is the only way to find permanent bliss in life.)

I have had these thoughts too You may resonate with my life story that I have narrated here: http://qr.ae/TUIUX1 Anyway, the only answer is meditation and nothing else...

In the last two years, I came across many traditional minded people, who are Indians. They don't want to let go of certain images, including the deities, symbols etc because of too much attachment to it. This also makes them to remain superstitious forever. For those people, these meditations are useful. This is actually an old idea. Even during or just after Buddha's time, many deities of folk religions were absorbed into Buddhism and made as the images for meditations involving complex visualizations. The whole Vajrayana is based on this. Basically, when you try to convert religious people to spiritual people, they feel comfortable when they see that they don't have to let go of these images.

True... There is a room for literal interpretations but that has already happened over the centuries.. So I wanted to make a few articles regarding Tantra, concepts of Vajrayana Buddhism etc but provide explanations which are psychological. So I have given some disclaimers on such posts here: https://nellaishanmugam.wordpress.com/a-shamatha-meditation-based-on-symbolism-visualization-mnemonics-and-classical-conditioning/

When you wake up from a dream, how do you know if you are still not dreaming?

You are welcome..

@Salvijus Sadhguru is not stupid.. He certainly knows this: A person who understands people's gullibility is certainly intelligent. But intelligence can be dangerous too. Anyway, I see that Isha devotees are these days becoming too much interested to either prove someone as 'stupid' or 'not stupid'. Let go of dragging 'stupidity' into everything. A person who is wrong is not stupid. Neither you, nor me, nor Sadhguru is stupid.

@MM1988 This is an age-old superstition in India. If you want to know a lot more like this, you don't have to go to Sadhguru. I will give you my grandma's phone number... https://www.hindustantimes.com/science/lunar-eclipse-astronomers-dispel-superstition-about-eating-during-the-eclipse/story-tT8mciP2YUlmTYv62egEQL.html

.. It is called Amygdala hijack: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amygdala_hijack

Thank you.. Happy to hear all that and glad to know it has been helpful. Yes, a lot of misunderstanding is possible when it comes to the spiritual path. So it is natural for many people to disagree in the beginning and agree with me later.

...probably.. I thank @Salvijus for asking me to get a life.. Because it is these comments which make me write more. Want to read an interesting but real story? It will give a taste of how I lived my 'life'. Here it is: http://qr.ae/TUIUX1. It is detailed than the 'Journey of a seeker' story that I wrote in my blog. I am pretty sure people will enjoy it. Have also added two more videos:

Go here: https://realyoga.info/resources/ . You can download video demonstrations.

The Truth About Yantras, Chakras, Temples, Tantra, and Agamas: https://nellaishanmugam.wordpress.com/2018/06/05/the-truth-about-yantras-chakras-temples-tantra-and-agamas/

thank you.. The replies from three people here defending Sadhguru in this context are actually pretty revealing on what my whole point is all about. First of all, there is an unwillingness to listen and try to attack the person who says it instead. This is how they respond to any criticism. I am just saying that this is dangerous. That's all! When the doors of listening to any disagreement with patience are closed and when the reactions are not friendly, it is not a good indication. (In case anyone here wants to read those links, here is the link again: http://bit.ly/ishacult . The page has many links about many things.)

@who chit, First of all, I am not trying very 'hard' to convince... I only do things which are easy for me these days and that is producing great results... But let us first see what is actually quite revealing about the nature of your comment... Do you know what is a healthy conversation? The best way to have any conversation to discuss something is to avoid personal attacks. First of all personal attacks like this is a fallacy and doesn't really do anything to refute what is being said. I have presented a video and have given a whole bunch of links... Does talking about me and my intentions even matter here? Let us say that I am indeed doing all this to create some traffic to my website. How does that refute anything that I have said in those links? The nature of your comment reflects the whole point of what I am trying to say. So thanks for helping me here. Do you see my point now? I am giving you certain things for you to read and go through but you are coming to a conclusion without even taking your time to go through them. This is exactly what a typical Sadhguru devotee does and this is exactly what I am trying to say. Second, it is not that people cannot think for themselves.. But we are hardwired and designed to be biased. Bias is a gift of nature that helps human beings to focus more on their own survival. So bias exaggerates things which are self-serving. When you have been following or listening to any guru for that matter with great reverence, some bias tends to grow, attachments tend to happen and we may start believing in things or taking things for granted. This bias then has the capability of hiding the truth of anything from you. I clearly told you that I am aware of the political situation in Tamil Nadu and I doubt if anyone else here is even aware of it.. He has made many comments recently in the media which clearly revealed that his intentions do not seem to be what he claims them to be. So, you are not even willing to accept the truth that I may be aware of a few things about him that you may not be aware of. Go through the links and let us see if you can first open-mindedly read them. I have gone beyond psychological bondage and found my freedom; I am just pointing the way so that others can see the path for freedom too. And if I see people about to fall into a pit, my natural response is to try to stop them. It is up to you if you want to listen to it or not... I don't lose anything, period...

@John Iverson Do you have any idea that you have already been brainwashed? What you just wrote reflects that.. I have given you some links showing clear evidence for many things I have said.. if you want, read them and refute them.. Otherwise, 'thank you very much for preaching and enlightening me and making me aware that it is my 'ego' which is doing all this..wow, I didn't know that!!!!! You must be a mind reader!'

First of all, for me Sadhguru is just an excuse. The reason why you see many posts is that those posts were actually created as responses to some replies previously given by certain Sadhguru devotees. As I tried to make people understand, eventually the number of posts increased. But for me, he is just the greatest example that I have ever seen for a person who so convincingly appears to be the greatest help but is actually the opposite. He has been a part of my life and I indeed have a lot of memories to share which is about him and his ashram. But I know that it is very difficult to convince a person on this if he is already impressed to some extent. The problem here is, coming to conclusions with limited exposure. There is a difference between knowing Sadhguru for a while and knowing him in and out for the past 16 years while being in the same state where he lives (political state). Seeing how he has been speaking in Tamil media recently, it is more likely that all his so called ‘humanitarian’ activities are done to increase his PR, get tax exempt and are unbelievably exaggerated. I still give him the benefit of doubt while more than 95% of people in Tamil Nadu see him as a complete fraud when it comes to the claims of those humanitarian activities. One thing that I don’t find in many of the Sadhguru supporters here in this forum is the lack of open-mindedness. (Not even being open to the fact that a person who knows sadhguru for 16 years and has been living in the same political state where Sadhguru himself has set up his ashram may be right in what he says.) In fact, his recent comments about Sterlite issue and Salem green corridor issue in Tamil Nadu seem to be clearly showing that he doesn’t care about either environment or people. Both those projects are being carried out only because they are beneficial to corporate companies but completely against the welfare of the common people. We do not have a good government in Tamil Nadu now and there is a complete lack of democracy. This is being used by corporates, corporate gurus, and politicians who benefit from each other. This is not to say that there is nothing good about him. The programs offered in Isha (even though most of them were the direct rip off from Rishi Prabhakar’s programmes, the person whom he never acknowledged) are good and effective and Isha, in general, is a good place for meditation, as I have been there multiple times. But the problem is in Sadhguru’s talks. He appears to be an expert for people who hear certain things for the first time. But as you explore things out of Isha, you will eventually know that many things he says are half-baked, misleading and cause barriers instead of helping anyone. Anyway, when a person is about to fall into a pit, all I can do is shout and warn him that there is a dangerous pit ahead. I don’t lose anything. All I am saying is that anything he says has to be scrutinized very carefully and one should be very careful in not becoming lost, by identifying with a guru, a brand or organization. Because his talks are capable of strengthening identification and promoting prejudice. I could only understand it after 14 years of close association. Thankfully, my association with teachings of other gurus like Osho, Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj helped me to see through my own madness and attachment I had on him. I know very well that a person who is impressed by Sadhguru will see what I am saying as a joke. If you do, then wait for another 5-10 years. Many of the people who disagree with what I am saying now will agree with me by then. @brovakhiin @Hansu @John Iverson

@AstralProjection Stripping happens in both strip clubs and meditation retreats; the former is about stripping the clothes and the later is about stripping the illusions..