Sadhguru (Isha)

Sadhguru is, by follower count and online reach, one of the most widely followed yogis alive: a bestselling author, a TED-stage regular, and the force behind a hilltop yoga center in South India, a 112-foot statue of Shiva-as-first-yogi, and global environmental campaigns. The Isha Foundation he built in 1992 teaches a system whose gateway is Inner Engineering, culminating in a 21-minute daily kriya called Shambhavi Mahamudra.¹²

Chamundi Hill

He was born Jagadish "Jaggi" Vasudev on 3 September 1957 in Mysore, and studied English literature at the University of Mysore.¹ By his account, a transformative experience on Mysore's Chamundi Hill in September 1982, at twenty-five, turned his life toward yoga; he taught his first class the next year, and in 1992 founded the Isha Foundation near Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.¹ The Isha Yoga Center grew at the foothills of the Velliangiri mountains, home to a residential community and, from 1999, the Dhyanalinga, a meditation shrine.³

Isha's public landmarks came fast: the 112-foot Adiyogi bust, unveiled by India's prime minister in 2017 and certified by Guinness World Records as the world's largest bust sculpture; large-scale tree-planting campaigns (Project GreenHands, Rally for Rivers, Cauvery Calling); and, from 2022, the global Save Soil movement, which Sadhguru launched with a 30,000-kilometer motorcycle journey across Europe and the Middle East.³⁴ He received India's Padma Vibhushan in 2017 and has written several New York Times bestsellers, among them Inner Engineering and Karma.¹⁵

What Isha teaches

The path is program-based rather than studio-based. Inner Engineering runs as self-paced online sessions plus a live completion session that transmits Shambhavi Mahamudra, a roughly 21-minute daily kriya of breath, mudra and meditation.² Free tools such as the Isha Kriya meditation open the door; advanced residential programs like Bhava Spandana, Shoonya and Samyama go deeper at the centers.² Classical Isha Hatha Yoga modules (Surya Kriya, Angamardana, Yogasanas, Bhuta Shuddhi) are taught by Isha-trained teachers worldwide, with certification through Isha's own trainings rather than an external alliance.⁶ The vocabulary is distinctive to the tradition: "consecrated spaces," the Adiyogi as "the first yogi," sadhana.

A note on Isha in the news

Isha is a large and sometimes contested organization; among matters with formal legal outcomes, a 2024 habeas corpus petition alleging that two adult women were being held at the Isha Yoga Center was closed by the Supreme Court of India in October 2024, the court finding that both were adults residing voluntarily.⁷ It is noted here for completeness, with the outcome, rather than dwelt on.

The lineage today

The Isha Foundation operates from its Coimbatore center, with a US hub, the Isha Institute of Inner-sciences, in McMinnville, Tennessee, and centers worldwide; it claims a very large volunteer base and continues Inner Engineering, hatha yoga teacher training, and the Save Soil and Cauvery Calling campaigns into 2026.⁸ A listing that names Sadhguru (Isha) as its lineage is most likely offering Isha Hatha Yoga or Inner Engineering, a specific, branded system of kriyas and consecrated practice, distinct from the flowing or alignment-based schools elsewhere in this guide.

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