When the Shrink needs a Shrink
Someone sent me this video by Dr. Todd and asked for an opinion. I did not know who this doctor was and what he was going to talk about before watching it. But as I watched the video, I could not help wonder how twisted can people be, including the so-called learned ones.
The doctor starts the video saying “I am only speculating” but goes on in a mocking tone for most of the time. Also, for someone claiming to do analysis, he does not even talk about any of the positives while delving only into the criticism imposed on Sadhguru. That should outright tell what the man’s agenda is.
By the way, Dr. Todd is known to post negative Indian Gurus including Osho about a year back (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibovb2aibKA). So, let that context remain when we look at this video attacking Sadhguru in the guise of ‘analysis’. Some of the basic facts that Dr. Todd has on Sadhguru are incorrect. But those are minor ones. Let’s look at the major ones here.
Goofup #1: “Sadhguru prefers to be called Sadhguru which means true guru.”
Nope. Sadhguru has always insisted that Sadhguru is just a title that people called him and that it means one who is not based on scriptures or even as an illiterate guru. Todd does not have his definitions right in the first place.
Goofup #2: “Sadhguru demanded the interviewer to call him as Sadhguru instead of Jaggi.”
Yes, he did — and it was because the interviewer was a motivated individual who preferred to derate Hindu gurus while eulogizing someone else as Honourable Pope or Honourable Bishop. Sadhguru even cites that example in the very same sentence while demanding the interviewer to give the same respect that he gives to a religious person belonging to Church to everyone else. Of course, Todd does not seem to have done his research well enough and has just randomly picked a statement.
Goofup #3: “His wife’s father thought Jaggi was involved was in her death”
Correction. He was instigated into believing so. Why else would a girl’s father, if he really had any suspicion of foul play in his daughter’s death, wait for 7 months before filing a case against his groom? It just does not make sense but Dr. Todd obviously does not see such obvious things.
Goofup #4: “Jaggi says his wife had violent mood swings”
This is completely distorting what Sadhguru said about his wife that she knew extreme love, exuberance, and compassion, not mood swings!
Goofup #5: “Only jewelry was keeping her spirit in the body and she died within 5 minutes of removing the jewelry”
Now, this is just BS. What Sadhguru had said was that in certain meditative states, people are known to leave their body, and some metal in contact with the body can keep them rooted.
Vijji removed all her jewelry as she did not want any metal to be in contact with her body when she chose to leave the body. I know it is difficult for most Western doctors, especially those who claim to “profoundly treat people” by simply talking to them, to understand the concept of samadhi, let alone something as profound as Mahasamadhi.
I have another detailed post on this incident with Sadhguru’s wife, for those who are interested to know more about it.
Goofup #6: “How to become silent and am assuming he has not taken his own advice on that one”
Yes, all the western idiots who think they are the only intellectuals would like to blabber nonstop but an Indian Guru should not. And this same Indian Guru has a silence program which every year 1000s of people attend and have a profound experience of.
Goofup #7: Makes a mockery of a Sadhguru’s video titled “The second brain” on Youtube
The doctor does not realize that the Western doctors themselves call the gut the second brain. Perhaps the “Doctor” should read this book on the gut to get himself familiarized with what is being called the second brain.
https://www.amazon.in/Second-Brain-Groundbreaking-Understanding-Disorders/dp/0060930721
Goofup #8: “One of the most financially successful spiritual gurus in the history”
Though this is a wildly exaggerated claim, that is where one of the Doctor’s main bones of contention seems to be. They would rather Indian gurus live like beggars so their business remains unaffected. But people like Sadhguru and when people become meditative, the business for the likes of Dr. Todd falls rapidly. I am sure he is pissed off with that.
Goofup #9: “Programs have goals including mental health, happiness & productivity”
Wrong. The Inner Engineering website also clearly says that these are some of the benefits people have claimed as an outcome of attending the program. They are not goals. Of course, when you are blinded by hatred and just want to talk bad about something, you wouldn’t note the difference. The doctor goes on to claim a few more ‘goals’ that are not even cited by the Isha website.
Goofup #10: “Jaggi talks in circles and is vague”
Sadhguru has always said that in open Satsangs where hundreds of people are there and someone asks a question, he will answer the questioner. That does not mean giving a clear-cut step-by-step process, which if done would most likely lead everyone to follow the same irrespective of their own situation or need. Did anyone claim that in a one-to-one discussion with Sadhguru, they were denied a solution because he was talking in circles? No!
As a doctor who also claims to address mental health, I dearly hope Dr. Todd does not give a standard prescription of process or drugs to all his patients. If that is true for the doctor, why should it not be true for a guru?
Goofup #11: “Sadhguru derides people who do not know the answer to their own question”
No, he does not. He asks them to look deeper into themselves. Is that not what shrinks who counsel patients do also, to have the patients probe themselves deeper and get to the root cause themselves? Why is the doctor pissed that a guru is using the same method for his disciples?
Goofup #12: When the doctor says “This is a classic trick of spiritual gurus”, he shows his complete ignorance of the Indian philosophy and perhaps hates it so much that he never really took the effort to even understand what Karma is about.
Sadhguru has time and again said that one has to go through an inner engineering process, AND not necessarily with Isha Foundation itself. Einstein had famously said that we cannot solve problems by looking at it from the same plane as it exists. Sadhguru is doing just that — by him providing a different frame of reference through Inner Engineering, many a person has come to see what they have been doing right or wrong so far and how they can move further in life. I am sure even Dr. Todd can go through Inner Engineering and come out as a much less toxic and more lively person than he is now.
Goofup #13: “He oversimplifies scientific aspects for people”
Sadhguru never claimed that he is a scientist or researcher. He does simplify scientific concepts so people can understand the basic aspects of something he is talking about. But am not sure why the ‘good’ doctor missed out saying that Sadhguru also urges people to look it up for themselves so they can understand more nor has he ever stopped people from doing so by claiming he is the authority on science.
Goofup #14: “Jaggi believes a person is partially alive for 11 to 14 days after death”
This one was hilarious. What Sadhguru has said is that yoga looks at what happens after a person is declared clinically dead and that the Pancha-pranas leave the body over a period of 11 to 14 days, not that the person is partially alive. Even if the doctor thinks Sadhguru said so as a matter of belief, such things are present in all cultures including Christianity which believes Jesus rose from the dead after 3 days! But I do not see the doc criticizing any such aspects. Why does he choose to attack only Indian spiritual gurus is something to think about?
Goofup #15: “Prana is a life force that comes from the sun, wind and the ground”
LMAO. If this is the doctor’s way of looking at Prana, he needs therapy himself :)
Goofup #16: “Jaggi thinks food cooked during lunar eclipse depletes pranic energies”
The doc should really know his science before talking about such things because scientists and researchers also think so and a lot of research is going on in the field.
Even if Stanford or MIT publishes a paper about it, I think the doc would not retract his statements because he is not driven by science anyway.
Goofup #17: “Jaggi believes in water memory”
In the Indian culture, this ‘belief’ has been continuing for generations. It is not just Sadhguru who thinks it is so but several people, including eminent scientists, think so and some have demonstrated it too. The 2014 Documentary by Nobel Prize laureate Luc Montagnier is one of the more prominent videos out there on Youtube for anyone to see. There is another video on water memory theory by Dr. Masaru Emoto. It is just that this may be a field that is still unexplored largely. The only thing unscientific here is denying the possibility outright without sufficiently exploring the domain.
Goofup #18: “He said people can cause depression to themselves and that depression does not exist”
First of all, he did not say that depression did not exist and when he says people can cause depression to themselves, it does not mean Sadhguru has a poor understanding of mental health topics as the doctor claims.
Let’s look at what Sadhguru’s insights into depression really are and answer these questions.
Has he denied considering depression as a clinical illness? NO
Has he suggested anything dangerous for people who suffer from depression? NO
Has he suggested that Yoga is the only way to cure depression? NO
Has he claimed that he and/or only his techniques can treat depression? NO
This allegation is based on false information being spread and the doctor apparently did not even do his research properly. Let’s see what Sadhguru has actually said about depression and how it is being misrepresented.
Goofup #19: “I am saying this, not without any concern for your illness, or due to lack of compassion, but because this is the nature of what is happening to you.”
First, he is acknowledging that depression is an illness. He is not dismissing that fact!
“If you are causing depression to yourself, it means you are able to generate a substantial amount of intense emotions and thoughts but in the wrong direction. If you don’t have very strong emotions or very intense thoughts about something, you cannot get depressed.” — Isn’t this what depression is all about, people working against themselves when they are depressed? Unfortunately, everyone else around the person can see it, but not the person who is feeling that depression.
“Most of the depressions are self-created. A few people are pathologically ill, they cannot help it. It just comes from within because of genetics and other factors. But almost everybody else can be driven to madness because the line between sanity and insanity is quite thin.” — Clearly he is acknowledging the 5% of humanity that is suffering depression as a clinical illness because of other factors. He is actually addressing the rest of the 95% of humanity that is causing depression to themselves in his discourse.
Without this contextual information, just taking one sentence and misrepresenting seems to be becoming a fashion these days and the doctor is no exception.
Goofup #20: “Jaggi took a lot of his ideas from Osho”
This has time and again come up. There are many who have clearly refuted the claims that Sadhguru has copied from Osho because although both derive deeply from the native spiritual culture of India, their opinions and suggestions differ on a wide variety of topics.
For example, Osho advocates full freedom of sex and says that for one to really become conscious there should be no repulsions or restrictions related to sexuality. Sadhguru also says that we should not see sex as a taboo and that we need to approach it just as another activity in human life. At the same time, Sadhguru advises not to get into multiple physical relationships as it would generate Runanubandha that would affect one’s spiritual growth.
Osho has been critical of governments and democracy. He sees them as not-so-effective processes and doesn’t encourage people towards them. Sadhguru, on the other hand, actually makes people understand the importance of government and people’s responsibility as citizens to participate in democratic processes.
Osho designed a distinctive type of meditation process which is known as Active Meditations, and is now taught at Osho International Meditation Resort. Sadhguru offers spiritual processes that are rooted in the yogic system. One can get initiated into different yogic processes in different Isha Yoga programs, such as Shambhavi Mahamudra during Inner Engineering program, Shoonya meditation, and Shakti Chalana Kriya during Shoonya Intensive.
It’s important to remember that both of them worked towards the same outcome: to raise the consciousness on the planet. The paths they have taken might have been different based on the people and social situations of their times, but they both have done extraordinary work for human wellbeing.
Goofup #21: “He is not offering any type of solution for people to handle their problems”
Wrong again. There are so many meditative and yogic processes that have been made free by Sadhguru and Isha Foundation for people to learn online, especially during the Pandemic period. Some of Isha’s free offerings that thousands of people have been taking advantage of for a while now:
- Isha Kriya
- Simha Kriya
- Upayoga
- Chitsakthi meditations, etc.
Perhaps the doctor should do some basic analysis and research before he dismisses that Sadhguru has not offered any solution to people, whereas thousands of people have already shared wonderful life-transforming stories through these practices alone. And I have not even touched upon those who have immensely benefited through his Inner Engineering program. One can simply search on FaceBook or Twitter or YouTube for all this information.
Frankly, as I delved more into the video, it really became boring finding faults with what the doctor was saying and I was surprised as to how one could be so wrong about someone, especially calling oneself an analyst & an expert at that.
The timing of this video makes it all the more suspicious as Sadhguru has just launched his 100-day #SaveSoil journey. Unless the doc had a specific agenda of spreading false information or half-truths about Sadhguru and Indian spiritual masters, there would not have been a need for this video in my opinion.
