Propped by press and politicians: How Jaggi Vasudev became Sadhguru

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• In 1997, a spiritual leader started a column in Ananda Vikatan, a weekly Tamil magazine published out of Chennai. Vikatan was a big name in the world of Tamil news and reporting – and still is, in terms of its reach and circulation – so the decision to hand over precious column space to a so-called “guru” raised a few eyebrows.

• The column, titled “Manase Relax Please”, or relax your mind, was authored first in 1997 and then again in 2003 by Swami Sukhabodhananda, and did so well that Vikatan commissioned the column again in 2004, this time helmed by a little-known “guru”.

• Sukhabodhananda’s column might have generated interest in the idea of spiritual writing for Vikatan’s readers, but the traction Vasudev’s writings got was all his own doing.

• Karunanidhi lived according to the Dravidian principles of atheism and rationality, critical of seers and saints, but Vasudev seemed to be the exception to this rule.

• Journalist V Anbalagan told this reporter that Vasudev had “no political access” until he met Karunanidhi in 2006. “Vasudev used to come to Chennai to meet Karunanidhi,” he said. “Once he got access to the DMK’s close circles, his reach became widespread.

• From print media and politicians, television was a natural step in Sadhguru’s road to success.

• His guests were all celebrities in their chosen fields, across music, literature, cinema and politics, including actors Vivek, R Parthiban and Crazy Mohan; Carnatic vocalist Sudha Raghunathan; and even Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi leader Thol Thirumavalavan.

• Over the years, Bollywood stars like Ranveer Singh and Kangana Ranaut, and cricketer Virendra Sehwag also sat down to converse with the mystic. The programme is a ticketed event, and Vasudev soon launched companion programmes too, such as Youth and Truth where he would interact with college students at renowned universities, from India’s IIMs to the London School of Economics.

• But not all these programmes go smoothly; in 2018, during an episode of Youth and Truth in Hyderabad’s Nalsar University, students began asking him questions which clearly took Vasudev by surprise. One student asked whether permission had been taken for the Isha Foundation to build through protected elephant corridors in Tamil Nadu, and asked him why he said women could not enter certain temples.

• “All the volunteers work free of cost,” said a former Isha volunteer who left the foundation due to family commitments, though she often visits. “Many of them are experts in their fields and provide their free services for the promotion of Sadhguru.”

• But there’s one name you might not hear alongside Isha Yoga, and that is Rishi Prabhakar, who taught Vasudev a form of yoga called Siddha Samadhi Yoga in 1984. If sources are to be believed, Vasudev later co-opted Siddha Samadhi Yoga and repackaged it as Isha Yoga.

• Prabhakhar was a spiritual guru and yoga teacher who devised Siddha Samadhi Yoga in 1974 in Bengaluru. He had studied under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Switzerland before returning to India. Vasudev studied under Prabhakar in Gommatagiri near Mysore in 1984.