Inner Engineering : A Yogi’s Guide to Joy - By Sadhguru

Jan 22

Sadhguru is a famous yogi master with millions of followers including many celebrities. Tom Brady, Will Smith, among others, have either been featured on Sadhguru’s social media or have endorsed his work including his books. With his growing popularity, I decided to read one of his books, Inner Engineering, a Yogis Guide to Joy, which is a New York Times Best Seller. I wanted to see what the buzz was and what he is saying which is so impactful to attract so many followers. After reading the book, I learned why?

And here it goes - Inner Engineering review

His main premise is simple, to be in the moment. Struggle and pain are our own working, our own creation, our own thinking. It is difficult to be in the present as our mind does wander. We must learn to redirect ourselves to focus inside, to ourselves, not to the outside, external events that happen to us. He encourages us to let your own inner experience that is truly yours to guide you.

Even our thinking is a perception of what we think or saw happen to us, but is it the truth of what happened? We can only know if we go inside, to learn our gut, to listen to ourselves. We tend think if we attain this goal or change this circumstance, we will be happy but this is not the case. The chasing doesn’t bring you the joy. Once you get one thing, you want another. The more you take, less you have. Fixating on these things does not bring us joy. It is within we find joy.

We are responsible for our freedom and joy. In responsibility, we are free. Responsibility does not mean sacrifice yourself for something rather you can choose how we react how we respond. There are unconscious ways you respond from learning from others, family and friends, but once we get beyond that, we can get freedom.

Too much thinking can make us unhappy. We get lost in our thoughts. As Sadhguru suggests, yoga helps us to find our inner experience and reconnect with ourselves. Yoga is helpful to our journey. I do find this part to make sense as every time I have practiced yoga, I feel more in tune with myself.

I found his humor relatable and nonsensical. The stories he told helped reinforce his lessons. We think that we have to explain things by ideology, politics and religion but really, only you know what is right for you! Your inner experience is where you will find yourself again. It was an entertaining read and reminder to look inside ourselves!