My introduction to Sadhguru was through the Youtube videos of a witty man talking about life and scientifically explaining the traditions the people uphold. On digging deeper, I found out that Sadhguru has elaborate explanations on various topics and his convictions to raise the consciousness in humans lead me to implement some of his teachings and even attend one of the courses he designed.
There are several Sadhguru’s Books that I’ve read and several more which I have stumbled upon. Isha Foundation has a lot of volunteers who deserve credits for bringing out books that are compilations of Sadhguru’s teachings. Without any further delay, I will share some of the most gripping and life-enriching Sadhguru books.
5 must read Sadhguru Books
1. Inner Engineering
A phenomenal non-religious book on mysticism, yoga, well-being, inner peace, and more. It has been structured in two parts:
The first part is devoted to making the reader understand the various processes in yoga and debunk myths. It also introduces readers to various dimensions and the non-physical experiences that are unknown to many.
The second part of the book deals with the various aspects of what life is and gives numerous exercises and practical experiments for the readers to try and have a glimpse of “out-of-this-world” experiences.
There are a few things that I absolutely love about this book. Firstly, the way in which Sadhguru has explained some of the simplest things in life makes you understand its profound impact. It makes you realize that perspectives can change an insignificant routine to a life-changing experience.
Secondly, this book steers far away from any religion, beautifully explaining its difference with spirituality. Thirdly, unlike most of the books, it does not stop at giving you hopes of the so-called “unrealistic expectations”.
This Sadhguru book repeatedly asks the reader to experiment with what has been conveyed and gain the knowledge of peace, well-being and out of the body sensations through an experiential process.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and learned a lot from it. It is not a manual to bliss and harmony but a catalog of what is possible. There aren’t any step-wise procedures but that is something the reader is expected to explore, experiment and seek post reading the book.
Best quote from the book: “Yoga is not about being superhuman; it is about realizing that being human is super.”
2. Mystic’s Musings
This book is a collection of interactions Sadhguru had with his disciples and people who were close him at various points in time. It’s a voluminous books that contains words of wisdom spoken by Sadhguru over a span of 10 years.
Mind you, this isn’t a light read. Sadhguru is known to convey his thoughts in an articulated manner and simplify a lot of complex topics to make people grasp the essence. However, this book by isha foundation has the potential to not just amuse you but provoke you in certain aspects.
This book is extremely suitable for people who are looking at getting some thought provoking insights from Sadhguru. It covers topics like yoga, neutrality, the essence of life and death. It’s for someone who is looking to know about what karma means and how it affects the beings. This is one of the very few Sadhduru’s books that you would want to read multiple times.
3. A Taste of Well Being
When I had been to Sadhguru’s ashram to attend the inner engineering course, we are asked to eat only the food provided by them and the time they had scheduled each day. The snacks and meals were vegetarian and sometimes even vegan. They were extremely wholesome and very tasty. I didn’t crave for meat on those days at all.
Sadhguru beautifully explained how food, like many other things, have some essence of life in them that determine how it affects our body. Broadly, there are 3 types of food or Pranas that the food contains. Food can be positively Pranic. Consuming these will help you maintain a pleasant state of mind throughout the day. Then there are negatively Pranic foods which upon consumption leads the mind to be in a very erratic state. Finally, there are neutrally Pranic foods which don’t do anything to your body other than inducing some lethargy.
Food cooked at the Isha Foundation kitchens were truly detoxifying for me and I had an amazing experience. This book is about this. It helps people to cook the right kind of meals from salads, curries, grain-based meals, and much more. It describes the life that food contains and provides a wide variety of healthy recipes. A highly recommend this book for those who are trying to look for healthy food. The best part is that you can actually see the difference within days of starting to consume them.
4. Emotion and Relationship
Emotion, The Juice of Life and Relationship, Bond or Bondage are two books in one. The combinations of these two Sadhguru Books in one makes perfect sense as the two topics complement each other and go hand-in-hand. These books aren’t there to help people get the best relationships in their life, but to explain how it works and we can make it work to our fullest potential.
The book Emotion deals with how we are the creators of emotion and how we fall into depression quite often. Sadhguru explains how any emotions starts to exaggerate itself before converting and manifesting as depression among us. This book not only talks about how emotions need to be kept in check but, how to express them in a wise way. he also explains how many emotions from the past grips us an effects us tremendously and what we can do about it.
The second book relationship talks about how we are misguided on what relationships are and how we misinterpret them most of the times. It’s a beautiful book that talks about the various types of relationship that we have and what we must expect and how we should respond. Sadhduru says that it’s quite easy today for bonds to become bondage. So, we need to realize the things that keep relationships lasting and joyful and this is is a book that conveys how that can be achieved.
5. Sadhguru: More than a life
This isn’t one of Isha Foundation or Sadhguru books, but about Sadhguru himself. Author Arundhathi Subramaniam has written a beautiful book capturing the essence of what Sadhguru is. We, as seekers of truth or even trying to understand what spirituality is, have a lot of questions to which we haven’t found convincing answers. Through Sadhguru books and videos however, I have been able to get highly convincing answers to some of my questions. However there are many more the remain and I have had a feeling that Sadhguru has the answers to many more of them.
Through this book, the author has presented parts from Sadhguru’s teachings and discourses. She has also added the conversations that she has had with him. She has asked questions that we generally have as seekers and there are some very good answers to them. This is the book for you if you want to know more about Sadhguru himself than his teachings!
Have you Read Any?
These are just some of the books that I wanted to share. However, there are a lot more of Sadhguru’s books.
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