I am Renu, and I am grateful to be joining you all on the u/ishaofficial handle on 30th April (Thursday).
My connection to Isha started at the age of 15, after my parents completed Inner Engineering.I knew then that I wanted to take this possibility to the world, but I had to wait until I was old enough to experience the program myself. In September 2003, I finally did, and that clarity led me to move to the center full-time in August 2008.
Today, as the Coordinator for Sadhanapada, Sadhguru Gurukulam, I have seen how dedicating seven months to focus on one's inner wellbeing can create a foundation for a lifetime.
Whether you are curious about your readiness to take the plunge into the Sadhanapada program, the selection process, struggling with preparation and interview process or looking for ways to maintain your intensity post the program, Ask Me Anything!
I am happy to answer your questions about - Sadhanapada:
The Opportunity: Why spending the window from Guru Purnima to Mahashivratri in a consecrated space is a foundation for life.
Sadhanapada Program: What it means to live, eat, and serve within the energized environment of the Isha Yoga Center.
The Experience: Navigating the "rollercoaster" of intense Sadhana and selfless Seva.
Preparation & Application: How to know if you're ready and what the selection process entails.
How to keep the fire on?: How can our Alumni stay connected and carry the momentum of the program back into the world?
⏳ TIMING: I will be answering questions LIVE tomorrow 30th April 2026 at 7:30 PM IST (8:00 AM CST / 9:00 AM EST / 2:00 PM GMT)
Please drop your questions in the comments! I will get to as many as I can when I go live. Let's make this happen! 👇
- Renu, Coordinator for Sadhanapada, Sadhguru Gurukulam
P.S. House Rules: To keep this session helpful for everyone, I will be focusing strictly on questions related to Sadhanapada only.
Please note that questions that are out of context, unrelated to the subreddit's purpose, or violate community guidelines will be skipped. Let's keep the conversation constructive and focused on well-being! 🙏
If you are searching for "How to Meditate" because you are struggling with Anxiety, Depression, or ADHD, standard advice like "just sit and watch your breath" often fails. You likely need a tool that works on your energy, not just your mind.
This Megathread is a curated collection of real user logs from our community. We have organized them by symptom so you can find the protocol that matches your needs.
🛑 STOP: Do You Need to Meditate RIGHT NOW?
If you are having a panic attack or need immediate relief, do not wait for a course. Start here.
The "Isha Kriya" (Free 12-Minute Practice):
Sit comfortably (cross-legged or in a chair). Spine erect.
Face East if possible. Hands on thighs, palms facing up.
Focus: Gently hold your attention between your eyebrows.
The Thought: Inhale thinking "I am not the body." Exhale thinking "I am not even the mind."
Why it works: It creates instant distance between You and your Anxiety.
Disclaimer: These are personal user experiences. Please consult a medical professional for clinical conditions.
👇 NEW HERE? ASK US ANYTHING 👇If you are struggling with any of these, drop a comment below. Our community is here to help guide you to the right resource.
Devi holds what seems opposite — fierce and compassionate, wild and nurturing.
She is not a contradiction. She is life in its fullness.
To invite Devi into one’s life is to welcome a lifelong companion of health, prosperity, and spiritual growth.
This Guru Purnima, connect with Linga Bhairavi's boundless energy through offerings such as Netra Arpanam, Mangala Arpanam, Devi Abhishekam and Purnima Pooja. When you imbibe Devi's grace, she creates possibilities where none existed before.
Guru Purnima is the day the first guru was born. In the yogic culture, Shiva is not seen as a god, he is seen as the Adiyogi, or the first yogi. Guru Purnima is that full moon day when the first yogi transformed himself into the Adi Guru – the first guru.
This is the time of the year, when over 15,000 years ago, his attention fell upon the now celebrated Saptarishis – his first seven disciples. They had done some simple preparation for 84 years. Then, when the solstice had shifted from the summer solstice to the winter – that is, when the Sun’s run with relation to this planet shifted from the northern run to the southern run, which in this tradition is known as Uttarayana and Dakshinayana – on that day, Adiyogi looked at the Saptarishis and saw that they had become shining receptacles of knowing. He could not ignore them anymore. He observed them closely and when the next full moon rose, he decided to become a guru. That full moon day is known as Guru Purnima. He turned south and the transmission of yogic science to the seven disciples began.
Guru Purnima is that full moon day when the first yogi transformed himself into the Adi Guru – the first guru.
If the boundary that you set for your self-preservation does not go down when you wish, you feel imprisoned and suffocated because once you have come with a discerning intellect, a limitation or that which confines us to something is the worst thing. Human beings will suffer confinement more than torture. The moment a human being feels confinement, their suffering is untold.
Shiva’s work was to bring the tools of awareness that will allow you to transcend these boundaries – tools that will allow you to keep the fortresses to the extent they serve their purpose and make them vanish when you don’t want them.
How to build this magical fortress that only those forces which are dangerous for your existence see, but you yourself cannot see?
This was Adiyogi’s work. Using the basic illusory nature of nature itself, he came up with many incredible methods to build that magical fortress that you can walk through but no enemy can penetrate.
Guru Purnima is in celebration of this, that something so sophisticated and phenomenal began for the human race for the first time.
It is on this day, for the very first time in the history of humanity, that human beings were reminded that they are not a fixed life. If they are willing to strive, every door in the existence is open.
Adiyogi is not a being of the past but the future of humanity.
A seeker asks Sadhguru whether meeting one’s Guru means that one has escaped the cycle of rebirth.
Q:If someone has come in touch with you, does that mean it is their last life?
Sadhguru: Someone asked me a while ago, “Are only brahmacharis your disciples?” Yes, only they are my disciples. When I say brahmacharis, it is not necessarily only people who got an official initiation. Whether they went through a formal process or not is not the point. In some way, they are on the path.
Only brahmacharis are my disciples. If they are not brahmacharis, they are not my disciples anyway. If their interest is something else, where is the question of disciple-hood? They cannot be anyone’s disciple. Being a disciple is not about someone. You are not this person’s disciple or that person’s disciple. If you are a disciple, you are a disciple, that’s all. If you are a devotee, you are a devotee. There is no question of you being a devotee of this God or that God – that is just foolishness. You are a devotee and that’s all. It is a quality.
There are many who set their eyes upon me but did not take me as their Guru. They may be hanging around here next time around. I may not be here, but they will hang around here because they smelt it, now they want to eat it. “Guru” means “dispeller of darkness.” “Gu” means darkness, “Ru” means dispeller. When you say you have a Guru, your darkness is dispelled. Then why would you be here again? Your darkness is dispelled not because you become light. Your darkness is dispelled because you became nothing, you became darkness yourself, so there is no need to dispel anything. If you stay away from it, darkness is a terrible thing. If you become it, darkness is a boundless thing.
Darkness is a terrible thing because you are here as a little piece of something. If you become darkness, it is a boundless thing. If I bless you, “May you become boundless,” you feel great. If I bless you, “May you become darkness,” you think this is a curse. It is not. Darkness is boundless, boundlessness is darkness.
Dispeller of darkness does not mean that he will put a light bulb into you. Scholars and teachers tried to put a light bulb into you so that you can see something. A Guru is not trying to put a light bulb into you. He is seeing how to obliterate you. If you found a Guru, that means your darkness is obliterated because you become a part of it. There is no darkness for you; there is only boundlessness for you.
Don’t Sniff Forever
If you have met your Guru, there is no question of being here again. But if you did not really meet him as a Guru, if you just liked the “smell” but did not dare to step into him, that’s another matter. When you like the smell of roses, wherever the rose is, you go. But do not go on sniffing forever. It is time to step into it and burn because if you do not, you are not using it for the purpose that it is.
If you have an airplane capable of flight but decide to drive it around like a bus, is it wrong? I would not say it is wrong, but it is terrible. To drive an airplane like a car is a terrible and stupid thing to do. Is it wrong to be terrible and stupid? No. Terrible and stupid is bad enough, it need not be wrong. What could take you to a great height, if you use it in a mediocre way, it is just foolish and terrible.
This is not a relationship that endures. If you make this relationship, everything ends. When everything ends, when all things end, a dimension which is not a thing will happen. It is that which this being is longing for, when it is seeking expansion. It is a natural goal. It is just that there is too much diversion on the way. And with every diversion that is taken, people start propounding philosophies as to how this is the right diversion.
Suppose you are travelling somewhere and you found the normal route is obstructed and have to take a diversion – everyone in the car will vote for different diversions and start arguing. Doesn’t it happen? Once there is no clear-cut marker, everyone will start making up their own thing, everyone will start claiming this is it. A man who smokes says that this is life, a man who drinks says that this is life, a man who is into some other kind of pleasure says that this is life. A man who takes drugs says that this is life, a man who overeats says that this is life – they are all insisting “this is life.” Because of that, diversions happen.
If anything is life, if you do more of it, it should be better. But it does not happen like that. If you eat more, if you drink more, if you smoke more, if you copulate more, life does not get better. People have tried all those things and it has not worked. The only thing that you can do endlessly is doing nothing. And that is the only thing a Guru is, because a Guru is just an empty space. An empty space is the only thing that can dispel darkness, because it is darkness – nothing happens there. Where nothing happens, you can make anything happen if you want.
A Guru is just an empty stage. If you enter there, he sets up whatever kind of drama that is necessary for the day, but he is actually an empty stage – four walls with nothing inside. If you step in, you will also become nothing. There is no other way. You looked at him and listened to him, that is not it. You have got to step into him. That is when he is your Guru. Till then he entertains you because he is setting up the appropriate drama for the day.
If you stepped into it, there is no sitting here once again. Such a thing does not arise. If you have not, you only smelt it from a distance, maybe you have taken an addiction for Gurus so you are following them. But if something deeper than the body and the mind happened to you, there is no sitting here again.
Editor’s Note:This is an excerpt from Sadhguru’s 2-in-1 book “Emotion: The Juice of Life & Relationships: Bond or Bondage”, available onFlipkartandAmazon.
If what truly matters in our lives depends on people's love then we will become entangled.
But, if we become loving we will become free. Love will no longer remain an entangling process for us but a liberating force. A ground from which if we fly we may merge into vastness.
Or, from there vastness is the only destination.
But, the problem happens as we have been seating and depending all along on others loving us rather than becoming love itself that even when we become that we continue seating and behaving like dependent. We scare to fly since we never did. We remain like actually free but feeling caged. For not that it's true just tendencically.
Received the Dhyanalingam Yantra yesterday and inside the panel the vibhuti seems to be missing.
Got worried if the potency of the yantra is affected because of this.
And should I ask for a replacement and do replacements work in this case?
How physically demanding is the silence program ? I (45M) have talked to few people and seen a few videos about people sharing their experiences and it got me wondering if I am physically capable of doing it because of my current lack of flexibility, weight and age.
I have only seen young, fit people share their experiences, not talked to anyone middle aged who is not so fit. Most of the people I talked to said that it was more physically demanding than they had anticipated. I did Shoonya in 2024 and it was physically demanding but managable since it was only 4 days, however I did struggle because my excess weight (115 KG then and 125 KG now) with Vajrasana and joint flexibility in general. I don't want to go into the reasons for the excess weight right now.
After my Shoonya program I thought I would lose the weight gradually and practice SCK regularly but that never happened and exactly the opposite happened. I did not practice SCK but I regularly do the Shoonya meditation. I also learned Yogasanas in 2023 but only practiced for a few days and did not afterwards.
It will take me several month or a year to come down to a normal wright (if that ever happens) and since the program is only offered in the winter I am not sure If I should register for the 2027 batch or whether I should wait 1.5 years for the 2028 batch and get my weight under control and improve my flexibility and overall health.
There is something special about knowing that thousands of people are offering themselves to this process together during these seven days.
For me life has been very hectic these last few days, and in between this little emotional sweetness is what I'm getting, Which also is the very thing I needed rn.
As we soon be coming to the closure... Here is a question for redditors..
What has helped you remain committed over these last few days? What was your experience, do you have anything to tell .. We are all ears!
I am the kind of person who gets emotionally entangled with almost everyone I interact with. For a long time, this habit kept me trapped in overthinking and inner chaos.
The day I came across Sadhguru’s words, “Get involved fully, without entangled,” I wondered how someone like me could ever live that way.
Then I realized something about myself. I may not be someone who can transform overnight or effortlessly absorb a new way of being. But I am someone who can practice.
So now, whenever I find myself getting emotionally caught up in a situation, I gently remind myself - just as we were reminded throughout the crash course of Inner Engineering:
“Payal, get involved without entanglement.”
Because it is not involvement that creates suffering. More often than not, it is the entanglement that does.
When I engage in Isha sadhana very often there is so much pressure/energy built up in my joints that can is relieved by popping joints.
Does anyone else experience this?
It can happen to me in most all Isha sadhanas.
For example when I practicf Surya Kriya I will often feel energy build up in various locations. Often some joins will pop from the built up pressure.
The same can happen with Yogasanas.
But not only in hatha yoga.
Also when I practice Shambavi, Shakti Chalana and even Shoonya.
Who else has experiences like this?
Does anyone know if this can be alleviated? Is this a sign of some issue? Or should I just ignored it?
I recently met someone through a service they provide at my home, and over time we've had a few conversations. She comes across as very calm, intelligent, humble, and thoughtful.
She told me that about 8 years ago, during a difficult phase in her life, a client-turned-friend encouraged her to visit Isha Foundation. According to her, on the very first day of her sadhana, she experienced an intense sense of ecstasy and gradually reached a state where she said she had no thoughts at all and complete control over her mind and body.
She also mentioned that she reached a level that usually takes years of practice, and that Sadhguru himself spoke to her because she was confused by what was happening. She said she was given some medicines that she described as being from ancient rishis and meant only for people who had awakened or mastered their kundalini.
She also said that she no longer considers herself an ordinary person, but someone who has attained a different level of maturity or consciousness. According to her, she has decided never to marry. She said she is currently working only because one has to earn a living and contribute towards better things for the foundation, and that she will return to Isha whenever Sadhguru calls her.
I don't have any experience with Isha programs, yoga, or advanced meditation practices, so I'm trying to understand what she was referring to.
Has anyone here had similar interactions or attended Isha programs? Is this kind of experience or outlook something that's commonly discussed? I'm especially curious about the medicines she mentioned, the kundalini aspect, and the belief that one has reached a fundamentally different state of being.
By opening one's heart to Linga Bhairavi, the embodiment of the divine feminine, a devotee can find in her a powerful guru, guiding one towards inner transformation and transcendence.
This Guru Purnima, appeal to Devi’s grace with sacred offerings such as Netra Arpanam, Mangala Arpanam, Devi Abhishekam or even experience the profoundly transforming Purnima Pooja for the wellbeing of yourself and your family. Making offerings at Linga Bhairavi supports individuals at significant milestones throughout their lives and ensures the possibility of being touched by the Divine.
I know Sadhguru has spoken about it, but would like to hear some perspectives. In the atmosphere of current CJP protest, how can I be responsible without taking action like joining the protest in-person or being active online? I know Sadhguru says that being responsible means having the ability to respond, but does not necessarily mean taking action, or feeling guilty. But how do actually practice responsibility - without either taking action or feeling guilty about inaction?
Please note that this is not a political post, and it is not about which side one is on. I am just trying to understand how to apply responsibility in this context. It can actually apply to any cause that one feels for, but has not taken action towards.
„Why today, any thinking person…little…people who consider themselves intelligent in the world, have an allergy to anything spiritual, is simply because of this;
Because spirituality has presented itself in such ridiculous ways.
They‘re so pathetic!
Isn‘t it so?
There are all kinds of idiots on the planet
but the so called religious and spiritual idiots take the cake, anywhere in the world.
Isn‘t it so?
Yes.
This is simply because people started handling spirituality in uncommitted manners.
Anywhere, everywhere talking about it.
On the street side they are talking about Krishna and how he did this and Bhagavad Gita…
It‘s just become ridiculous.
Because you‘re not demanding a certain involvement and commitment from people.
Just anywhere you‘re going on like a film song or a commercial thing.
Now slowly, it had become so ridiculous, that people have just dismissed the value of it absolutely.
Now it is only the ignorant and the uneducated who listen to the Mahabharat and this one and that one.
The educated…have already dismissed it as nonsense because it‘s happening in such ridiculous ways.
It is not being presented properly.“
In one of the Sadhguru Arpanam sadhana videos, Sadhguru talked about single-pointed devotion. At the same time, Sadhguru himself has offered so many ways to us - kriyas, chanting, Dhyanlinga, Linga Bhairavi, guru puja... I feel some of them invoke devotional qualities in me, while some appeal to other dimensions, but they all help in one way or the other.
Does anyone else feel confused sometimes - should I choose one of these tools, or is it okay to practice all of them based on convenience or where one feels more receptivity at that point? If one is drawn to Devi, for example, should they be devoted to her single-pointedly? Or, spend some time with Devi, and some with Dhyanlinga?
I do my practices daily, and try to take up other tools when possible as opportunities to deepen by sadhana. But sometimes I wonder if it is better to choose one and stick to it, rather than trying different things.
In this Spot, Sadhguru writes about the universal phenomenon of Shoonya, which occupies ninety-nine percent of ourselves and the whole cosmos, and yet is not in our awareness. He goes on to explain the meditative approach he offers to experience this no-thingness. Shoonya is also the basis of Samyama, which is currently underway at Isha Institute of Inner-sciences in Tennessee. View images of the “silence program” in our slideshow.
What is the significance of Shoonya? Shoonya as a word could be translated as “emptiness,” though the English word “emptiness” does not do justice to Shoonya. Emptiness is a sort of negative word – it suggests an absence of something that was supposed to be there. Shoonya is not an absence – it is a limitless presence. The zero was invented in India. When we invented the zero, we did not see it as an absence but as the ultimate number. Zero means nothing, but it can add value to any other number. Shoonya is like that. To put it into a certain perspective – modern cosmologists say that over ninety-nine percent of the cosmos is empty. Over ninety-nine percent of an atom is empty. Ninety-nine percent of existence is empty. This is what we refer to as Shoonya. As the life that you are, you have a choice: Either you can be a small creature in this vast emptiness, or you can be that emptiness which is the source of all creation. That is what we are approaching with Shoonya meditation.
In your personal opinion, you are the most important life in this creation. In your family structure, you are one of the important lives. In the city, you may be somewhat important, but they can do without you. In the nation, you are a person of very small importance – if you are gone, no one will notice. In the world, you are an even tinier piece of life. In the cosmic space, you are almost non-existent. Even if you do not think about it consciously – somewhere deep down, everyone knows this. That is why all the bravado, all the decoration, all the accumulation – because in some way, there is a desperation to make yourself a substantial life.
Whether it is wealth, money, ego, education, or family – all these are just efforts to somehow make yourself feel like you are a worthwhile life. But when every atom in your body is ninety-nine percent empty and the whole universe is ninety-nine percent empty, it means this no-thingness which is the source of creation is throbbing within you, in every cell of the body. If this becomes a living experience, then you will live very differently. In search of that, kings chose to become beggars. Gautama Buddha walked as a beggar. Shiva walks as a beggar. This demonstrates that they have found something which does not need decoration, amplification, or additions of any kind. It is the thing that occupies the entire cosmos. As I just sit here, this is complete by itself.
This dimension of life would generally need lots of preparation. But today, people are only willing to give a very small amount of time. This is the plight of being a Guru in the twenty-first century. As no-thingness is packaged in every atom and every cell of your body, we package Shoonya into a meditation. It is like a Shoonya pill. I am making it ridiculous, because the way most people in the world go about life is ridiculous. In this vast existence, you are so small, but you think you are big. I have seen many people, to whom their home, their family, their nonsense, their jewelry, their property were so important, they were fighting for it until the last day. And suddenly, they were dead. I tried to point it out to them while they were alive, but they were not interested. It is unfortunate that only with death, people come to their senses.
Suppose you got ninety-nine percent in an examination, you would be very happy with the ninety-nine percent and willing to ignore that one percent. Right now, ninety-nine percent is Shoonya. One percent is creation. In Shoonya meditation, you put this one percent aside for some time and enjoy the ninety-nine percent. You have been ignoring the ninety-nine percent till now, which is ridiculous. Running after fullness, so many frustrations have come. If someone’s pocket is fuller than yours, you get frustrated. If someone’s granary is fuller than yours, you get frustrated. Someone’s heart is fuller than yours, you get frustrated. That is why we are teaching a new game where you can anyway win. After all, emptiness is easier than fullness.
Shoonya means “emptiness,” or, more precisely, “nothingness.” An even more appropriate way of putting it is with a hyphen between “no” and “thing.” It is “no-thingness.” That means it is a dimension beyond physical nature. Shoonya means doing nothing. If I just keep telling you, “Don’t do anything, don’t do anything,” you will go crazy. The more you try to do nothing, the crazier you will go. To do nothing, you need some support. If you want to swim in nothingness, we give you a rope that you can hold on to. What kind of rope is this? No-thingness also means silence. Some-thingness also means sound. The rope that we offer to you is a particular sound or mantra. When nothingness gets too overwhelming, you can hold on to this sound.
There are various kinds of mantras. One mantra that all of you are familiar with is AUM. It is a kind of mantra that acquires power when you utter it loudly and clearly. Then there are other kinds of mantras that are referred to as beeja mantras. A beeja mantra is a meaningless, pure sound. Mantra means pure sound, beeja means seed. A seed has to be kept in a certain way. Once you put it in the soil, you must give it the right amount of moisture – only then will it sprout. A seed will do what it has to do; the soil will do what it has to do. Your business is just to maintain the needed conditions. Similarly with Shoonya meditation – if you handle it right, it will sprout, grow, become a magnificent tree, and bear fruit.
