Sadhguru

Jagadish "Jaggi" Vasudev (born 3 September 1957), widely known as Sadhguru, is an Indian guru and founder of the Isha Foundation, based in Coimbatore, India. The foundation, established in 1992, operates an ashram and yoga centre that carries out educational and spiritual activities. Sadhguru has been teaching yoga since 1982. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy and Karma: A Yogi's Guide to Crafting Your Destiny, and a frequent speaker at international forums.

Sadhguru also advocates for protecting the environment against climate change, leading initiatives like Project GreenHands (PGH), Rally for Rivers, Cauvery Calling, and the Journey to Save Soil. In 2017, he received the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award, for his contributions to spirituality and humanitarian services.

Sadhguru has been criticised for promoting a number of pseudoscientific claims.

Education After completing his formal education, Vasudev was uninterested in post-secondary schooling. One year later, however, he enrolled at the University of Mysore, where he studied English literature. While studying literature, Vasudev received second rank.

Work After graduating from the University of Mysore, Vasudev went on to build his first business, a poultry farm, in Mysore. Vasudev explained that his motivation to start a poultry farm was driven by the serenity it yielded in the hours he was not working. One of his favourite places to drive was the Chamundi Hills in Mysore, though he sometimes drove much further, including to Nepal. He practices the Sun Salutation for 40 minutes a day. In 1990, Vijaykumari and Jaggi had their only child, Radhe. A complaint from Vijaykumari's father alleged that Vasudev killed her, but was later dismissed by police. She married Indian classical vocalist Sandeep Narayan in 2014.

Isha Foundation

In 1992, Sadhguru established the Isha Foundation as a platform for his spiritual, environmental, and educational activities. In 1993, he began searching for a location to establish an ashram to cater to the growing interest in his yoga classes. The organisation offers yoga programmes, known as Isha Yoga. The foundation aims to improve the quality of education in rural India through an initiative called Isha Vidhya.

In September 2024, the Madras High Court heard a habeas corpus petition from a father who alleged that his two adult daughters were being held at the Isha Yoga Centre in Coimbatore. Both women told the court that they were living there by choice, but the bench sought details of criminal cases against the institution and ordered a police inquiry; the Isha Foundation challenged that order, and the Supreme Court of India stayed it and transferred the petition to itself. On 18 October 2024, a bench headed by Chief Justice D. Y. Chandrachud closed the proceedings after the two women, then aged 42 and 39, again said that they were living at the centre without coercion, holding that the purpose of the petition had been fulfilled and that the High Court should not have gone beyond it. The court clarified that the closure did not affect any other regulatory compliance by the foundation.

Environmental activism Through the Isha Foundation, Sadhguru has launched several projects and campaigns focused on environmental conservation and protection, including Project GreenHands (PGH), Rally for Rivers, Cauvery Calling, and Save Soil. Sadhguru established PGH to address water and soil issues in Tamil Nadu through reforestation efforts. Launched in July 2019, the "Cauvery Calling" campaign focused on planting trees along the Cauvery river's 0.65-mile wide area to replenish water levels in the river and the groundwater table. In 2017, Sadhguru launched "Rally for Rivers", a campaign intended to build widespread support for river revitalisation efforts across India, similar to the "Cauvery Calling" campaign. In 2022, Sadhguru completed a 100-day motorcycle journey from London to India to bring attention to his "Journey to Save Soil" campaign, which focuses on raising awareness about soil degradation issues and the benefits of using organic matter in farming.

In May 2022, he addressed the leaders of 195 countries at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification to speak about "Journey to Save Soil". Both Trevor Noah, host of The Daily Show, and podcast host Joe Rogan, have invited Sadhguru to discuss this movement. On World Environment Day 2022, Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, attended an event with Sadhguru to discuss efforts to improve soil health.

The UN FAO has stated that "90% of the Earth's precious topsoil is likely to be at risk by 2050". However, views have been divided on whether the "Save Soil" campaign is addressing this issue. Maria Helena Semedo, deputy director-general of FAO, opined that "Organic [farming] may not be the only solution but it's the single best [option] I can think of." Meanwhile, one environmental watchdog has characterised Sadhguru's approach as "greenwashing". Death, and Karma: A Yogi's Guide to Crafting Your Destiny.

Sadhguru is a frequent public speaker who has been invited to address many prestigious forums and conferences across the globe, such as the United Nations' Millennium World Peace Summit, the British House of Lords, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the International Institute for Management Development. He has also spoken at the annual World Economic Forum in 2007, 2017 and 2020.

Honors Pranab Mukherjee presenting the Padma Vibhushan to Vasudev at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on 13 April 2017.

In 2017, Sadhguru was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian award from the Government of India, in recognition of his contribution to the field of spirituality and humanitarian services. The same year, Sadhguru consecrated the Adiyogi Shiva statue, built by the Isha Foundation, in Coimbatore, standing at 34 metres (112 feet) tall. This was declared as the world's largest bust by Guinness World Records.

He stood 92nd in The Indian Express list of 100 most powerful Indians in 2012 and 40th in India Todays list of fifty most powerful Indians in 2019.

Political views When Ayushmann Khurrana asked him how to choose the "correct political stance", Sadhguru responded by saying that he does not subscribe to a political party, and others should not either. He stated that, "party membership should be cancelled because this is becoming a tribe." In 2019 he referred to a Muslim student in London as a "Taliban," for which he apologised after heavy criticism. After recognising the failure in the "government's communication" of the 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act in India, Sadhguru spoke in support of the act.

Scientific reception Sadhguru has made a number of claims that are inconsistent with scientific consensus. Although India approved the ratification of the international Minamata Convention on Mercury to ban its usage, Sadhguru advocates for the use of mercury in the context of traditional Indian medicine such as Siddha medicine. He has also repeatedly stated he can solidify mercury at room temperature; a claim refuted by Australian scientist Sumaiya Shaikh.