Inside Sadhguru’s Isha Centre in Coimbatore

The foundation’s head, Sadhguru, once hosted Brut India at the centre, walking them through the grounds, sharing thoughts on life, youth, and consciousness.

“We are here at the Isha Yoga Centre,” says Sadhguru, “and it’s been nearly 28–29 years of work… all done by highly dedicated volunteers.”

There’s little “routine” in Sadhguru’s daily life. “There’s nothing usual about my life,” he smiles, “because almost every day I’m in a different place.” On the day of the interview, he had woken at 3:45 AM after just under three hours of deep sleep. “I don’t sleep less, I sleep deep. When I sleep, I sleep like the dead. So I wake up soon.”

Despite a packed schedule, his discipline shines through. He eats just one South Indian meal a day, served specially in the centre and made in a traditional, health-conscious way. “I’m a very good cook myself,” he adds, “but I don’t get to cook much these days.”

Despite his serene demeanour, Sadhguru’s younger days were fiery. In college, he played field hockey and was a member of every school sports team. As a schoolboy, he even fought behind the school, literally, to earn pocket money through fistfights. “I earned a lot,” he admits with a grin. “I wasn’t the strongest built, but I was twice as fast as most.”

He’s also a bike enthusiast, though he keeps the speeds secret. “You’ll fall off your chair if I tell you,” he jokes. And he’s also a licensed pilot.

When asked about the current generation’s struggles — short attention spans, digital addiction, rising mental health issues — Sadhguru strikes a thoughtful chord: “You’ve learned how to handle gadgets, but you forgot how to handle the most sophisticated gadget, the human mechanism.”

This idea, that inner engineering is the missing piece in modern life, is central to Isha’s mission. The smartphone, he says, is not the problem. The problem is the user’s disorganised inner state.

He drives home a core message that emotional turmoil often comes from allowing others to determine our inner state. “Somebody else is here only to share the joy that you are. But if you’re trying to extract happiness from somebody… your heart breaks.”

The interview also highlighted the Adiyogi statue, a large steel structure at the Isha Yoga Center. Sadhguru explained that the statue was designed to reflect three qualities in its facial expression: exuberance, stillness, and intoxication. According to him, this combination has a noticeable impact on visitors, many of whom stop and silently look at the face.

He contrasted this with another replica of Adiyogi in Madhya Pradesh, which he claimed did not capture the intended effect due to a misunderstanding of visual perception and human optics.