I’m Be Scofield, founder of The Guru Magazine and the journalist behind the hit HBO series on the Love Has Won cult. I’ve spent a decade reporting on spiritual power, abuse, and the machinery that protects it. My investigations have been cited by The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, People, VICE, Netflix, Dr. Phil, Dateline, and more. I’m the author of the new book The Savior Complex: How Jesus Became the World’s Ultimate Influencer.
In 1984, Sadhguru traveled just outside of Mysore and enrolled in a yoga teacher training with a guru named Rishi Prabhakar. He spent the next five years traveling around India teaching Prabhakar’s SSY yoga system under his mentor. He even opened centers for him.
Newslaundry's reporting confirms Sadhguru’s connection. We also have photos of Sadhguru with Prabhakar in trainings. One student who was in the trainings told them Sadhguru had “no previous association” with yoga, despite his claims to have learned at a young age from Malladihalli Swami. Another said, “Jaggi and I learned Siddha Samadhi Yoga (SSY) from Rishi Prabhakar together...in 1984.” Regarding their relationship, another student told the news site that Sadhguru was “close” to Prabhakar.
Sadhguru has never mentioned his mentor’s name. It’s completely absent from the record: it doesn’t appear in his biography, teaching, blogs, or public talks.
There is a good reason.
Sadhguru took Prabhakar’s entire yoga system without crediting him and built an empire worth over a hundred million dollars.
Taking Over the Empire
In 1989, five years after first training together, Rishi Prabhakar sent Sadhguru to open a yoga studio in Coimbitore.
Sadhguru had other plans. "He suddenly broke off with him and started teaching yoga in Coimbatore," a student who had also trained with Prabhakar and Sadhguru told Newslaundry. He hijacked the franchise, taking Prabhakar’s well-established Siddha Samadhi Yoga (SSY) and turning it into Sahaja Stithi Yoga (SSY).
Within a short time, Sadhguru had rebranded Prabhakar’s courses and trainings as his own. But he kept the names the same or similar.
“Whatever Sadhguru teaches has been taken from Rishi Prabhakar’s courses,” a man who did the training with them told Newslaundry. “The same program content of Rishi Prabhakar is today printed in Jaggi’s so-called bestselling book, Inner Engineering for Wellbeing, with some changes,” says a former Isha Yoga monk.
SEE ALSO: What Happened to Sadhguru’s Wife?
The Course Details
When you compare the structure and layout of Prabhakar and Sadhguru’s trainings, they are nearly identical. Each has a 4-day meditation course. Prabhakar’s was called Bhava Samadhi Training (BST), while Sadhguru’s is called Bhava Spandana (BSP). Both are large group awareness trainings (LGATs) based on EST designed to evoke intense emotional releases.
Those who have attended Sadhguru’s BSP call it a “controlled breakdown wrapped in spiritual packaging.” Others say it is “emotional theater” that puts people in a high-demand environment to foster dependency on Sadhguru and upsell them on more programs. Many say the volunteers running the events staged “screaming, crying, and dramatic catharsis” to elicit strong reactions from participants.
Prabhakar’s Advanced Meditation Course (AMC) is also nearly identical to Sadhguru’s Samyama course. Both programs, known as “silence” programs, span approximately the same number of days. And Sadhguru’s core teachings from Inner Engineering stem from Prabhakar’s “14 Sessions of Sidha Samadhi Yoga,” such as rules, responsibility, and happiness.
Sadhguru’s Shakti Chalana Kriya was taken from Prabhakar’s Pranayama. Sadhguru also called it Pranayama for the first 15 years he used it. His shoonya meditation was also borrowed from Prabhakar, who took it from Transcendental Meditation.
Imitation is Flattery
Sadhguru also took his brand and style from Prabhakar, following in his footsteps and also opening his own charitable organizations, schools, and ashrams. Sadhguru named his school for kids “Samskriti,” which just so happens to be the same name as Rishi Prabhakar’s school. Prabhakar started the “Clean India Campaign,” whereas Sadhguru started the “Save Soil Campaign,” both of which were large-scale environmental causes.
Sadhguru lifted the yoga system, style, brand and template from his secret mentor, Rishi Prabhakar. He then used this foundational platform to establish himself as a global celebrity yoga guru.
Rishi Prabhakar is the guru behind Sadhguru’s empire. He came first and paved the way, but you would never know it.
READ THE SERIES:
Part I: Inside Sadhguru’s Cult Empire
Part II: Unmasking Sadhguru’s Legacy of Abuse
See also:
What Happened to Sadhguru's Wife?
I’m Be Scofield, founder of The Guru Magazine and the journalist behind the hit HBO series on the Love Has Won cult. I’ve spent a decade reporting on spiritual power, abuse, and the machinery that protects it. My investigations have been cited by The New York Times
A lot of "gurus" took other people's material and rebranded it as their own. I warn others to be wary of the "popular gurus" as they have enough truth to wrap it around the lies. If someone is popular, it usually means they have been allowed to be by the dark ones trying to run the show. Thank you for your time, effort, and for speaking out about these issues. More people need to stop being silent on the matter. We need to stop propping up these people just because they said a quote or two that resonated with us. It's not "love and light" to continue to allow these people to get away with what they've done. We don't need to give them understanding and compassion when they haven't shown any to those they've abused or used.
Why is it that no one expects doctors, lawyers, or engineers to spend their careers talking about the professors who taught them at university? They take what they have learned, build their own practices, companies, and reputations, and contribute to the world in their own way.
That’s why this article about Sadhguru strikes me as rather absurd. Whatever one may think of him, he has positively impacted millions of people through his programs, teachings, and various initiatives. In that context, the exact route of his education seems largely irrelevant.
If anything, Sadhguru’s teacher should feel proud to see a student who has taken what he learned and dedicated so much energy, passion, and effort to helping others. Unfortunately, some people seem more interested in searching for faults in others than in acknowledging the good they have done. It is often easier to criticize, judge, and find shortcomings in someone else's life than to examine our own.