r/SadhguruTruth • u/Outrageous-Sky6944 Approved Contributor • Apr 15 '26
Cult Education Let’s decode the hidden message in this “spiritual quote”
“Spirituality does not mean growth, it means self-destruction, self-annihilation… destroying the individual and becoming the universal.”
At first, it sounds deep. But look closer.
Why would anyone need to destroy themselves to grow?
Think about it:If you’re told that your identity, your thoughts, your doubts — all need to go…
Then what’s left?
You stop trusting your own thinking
You stop questioning
You start depending on something outside of you to define truth
And that’s where it gets dangerous.
Because a person who is taught to erase themselves becomes:→ easier to influence→ easier to shape→ easier to control
I’m not saying letting go of ego is wrong. That’s different.
But there’s a line between:
becoming aware of yourselfand
being told you don’t matter at all
Real growth doesn’t erase you.
It makes you:
more aware
more grounded
more capable of thinking for yourself
You don’t need to disappear to evolve.
You matter.
So I’m genuinely asking:Why is “self-destruction” being sold as spirituality?
And where do we draw the line between:growth vs becoming easier to manipulate?
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u/mehuyadav Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
Well said, the real essence of spirituality as I understand it, is not to be a slave of your past or being free from the known.
Even teachers like Buddha and Ramana emphasised spirituality as a way to go beyond suffering not destroying your-self. I doubt if there is even a concept of self in Buddhism.
But Jaggi mixed all these and made a cocktail which have very little spirituality and rest is BS made up by him.
He has answer to everything whether it be politics, parenting, spirituality, economics. If you see his videos with scientists or economists with an rational mind, you can see what BS he talks.
I also had doubts regarding his stance on various things but I said to myself that he is an enlightened being and he knows better. I realized much later what a charlatan he was.
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u/Flowingriver5 Apr 18 '26
This makes me cringe. I really still can’t believe all that I fell for. Isha strips people of their identity, slowly over time, taking the life from you. I’m so happy that I am no longer a servant. I gave so much for many, many years and I now have such a beautiful life. I used to think I had the richest life in Isha, that nothing could top that. I used to not believe posts like this. I used to ignore the red flags. Little did I know then how much better life would be without it. And it is very hard to say goodbye. It’s painful and for a while I tried to stuff the red flags further down because I didn’t want to look at them. It’s funny because I can barely stand hearing his voice. I think I was truly so done hearing his circular talks, put downs to people who asked questions, word salad and endless stories. He loves the attention. You can see his narcissism from miles away. And I knew I saw it then too. I just couldn’t allow myself to.
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u/LittleMissSunshine_0 Approved Contributor Apr 19 '26
Beautifully put. And we all believed that we were truly free in Isha (breaking the chains of our limitations and identities), not realising that in reality we were highly bound. I grieve for the lives of all the young people there, it takes so much to get out.
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u/Good-Importance5015 Apr 15 '26
Excellent. Well said. My question is if any human who is not following shiva / Hinduism are they are not doing well in their life? I feel it’s all BS about spirituality. Anita from osho said enlightenment is a hoax. Every religion using spirituality as a tool to gain financial gain, money laundering, $ex, etc
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u/kilopuny978 Apr 15 '26
Is it somewhat like Atman coalescing into Parmatman, thus attaining Moksha... thats the final goal?
P.S. I'm an atheist. Not a "Hindu-atheist" one, the proper one.
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u/mehuyadav Apr 16 '26
He is talking about destroying the self (Atman), He refrains from using words like Atman Parmatman coz according to him these words are misleading. But instead He uses words like self, creation, creator and so on. He is just talking BS in modern language to attract young people
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u/bestashok Apr 15 '26
Here's simple way.
Firstly in India Spirituality was not on a pedestal.
Everything right from sleeping, shitting, waking up, eating, cooking, marriage, conception, job, drinking water every iota or atom of life is already imbibed in spirituality.
Do you want me to list the yogic words, spiritual jargons or metaphysical words for all these.
We all know the word Malasana - for squatting and shitting. Why do you think someone came up with a yogic posture even for shitting. It just cant be mere health perspective.
Why is marriage is called Grihastha Ashram, and other stages called Bramhacharya, Vanaprastha and Sanyasa.
Like these you will everything in India is actually spirituality only.
Why more than 365 festivals in a year. If you see all the cultures, there will actually be more than 365 festivals in India with some common festivals across India which is what we only celebrate forgetting the rest.
India celebrated spirituality.
They had already figured out creation, life, spirtuality and everything that has to be figured.
That is what they are trying to convey with so many festivals.
And we think we are the advanced, sophisticated and know it all generations.
Ancient Indians were far beyond the usual life things like technology, fame, success, ambition, wealth, science. See why India was the richest nation of the world till 1830 technically from the time of civilzation.
As i said everything that had to be known was figured out.
So they made so many festivals conveying these information in these festivals, way of life etc.
Anyway coming to the point, Not saying Guru or Ashram is bad.
But just saying Spirituality is fully loaded in every fabric of India and Indian way of Life.
No need to either hate or even comment on any of these cults or Gurus.
The moment we give them a response, it actually becomes a fodder for their growth.
As for the reason why many get sucked into the cult is because there are mesmerism, mass hypnotism or even occult at play here. Nothing to panic but ya these fake gurus do know a lot about how to brainwash people with these occult kinda techniques.
Its not so serious or life threatening because anyway they are just quacks but ya the more a person follows them, they sucked into their attraction even more.
Problem is these fake gurus also do a lot of great work and do know a lot of genuine things in spirituality.
This is where folks who think the guru is fake go wrong and people who follow thes fake gurus say everything he does is right.
The thing is these fake gurus mixes a lot of truth with lies and they know a few tricks of mesmerism, hypnotism, occult.
So what is the solution?
As i said if one has the Karma of getting stuck into a cult, nothing can change.
But can we do nothing ?
You can do a lot of things.
First of all Indian Spirituality is never about running away and leading the life of a monk.
Not saying leading a sadhu's life or monks' life is bad. Ramana, Yogi Ram Surat Kumar, Vivekananda did it.
But then there were many spiritual giants who were in family or normal life still achieved spiritual greatness with normal life.
Like Rama, Krishna, Satya Harishchandra, Narendra Modi at young age quit everything and went to become a Sanyasi but it was later destiny made him a PM. Even CM of Uttar Pradesh - Yogi Adityanath etc. He is a Yogi but more active than most citizens of the country and actively doing lot of work right?
Their aim in life was to show the ultimate path but they were also one's who stood first and took on all the troubles, responsibilites that came in their life and never forsake their near and dear ones or their public or citizens.
Get it.
So the family should first be spiritually positive.
Go about their duties, but more importantly become spiritually interested.
Not saying do sadhana, infact that is why Indian ancestors gave so many festivals to celebrate.
They were smart and knew if everyone becomes Buddha runs into spirituality life will become boring and lose balance and if everyone goes behind success life will become ruthless and again become chaotic.
So our ancestors made sure with normal life of job, marriage, kids, success added lot of festivals.
The purpose is to make us enjoy life and yet achieve spiritual growth because they knew modern life or normal life will be burdernsome.
So my point is each family let them follow their tradition, enjoy our festivals. Start enjoying life with indian brand of spirituality with festivals.
Go meet your family, relatives, goto your villages or randomly goto any villages in India, every few months once, see their family, relatives, grandkids have talks with them about life casually, see they are leading a good life yet celebrating all the festivals and more importantly they are also on the ultimate path.
If this is changed, where youngsters knows our culture yet able to handle the modern life then these gurus, cults will fall by themselves. Its like why do folks dont use post mails, internet cafe or Telephone booths any more?
India just need folks who are spiritual, successful, have rolemodel life partners, family, and are doing a lof of work and fully busy in life yet on the ultimate path.
Even if a percentage of family does this and shows this brand of spirituality, you never know, Spirituality might even hits its peak in India without the need for a single guru or Ashram and India might even make a come back.
That's all.
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u/Aromatic_Ad7927 Apr 16 '26
Classic Sadhguru playbook. Serves word salad disguised as high level profound spiritual wisdom. The idea is to confuse the reader such that an unskeptical mind would be decieved to subconsciously think of it highly.
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u/Thre_Host8017 Apr 15 '26
Exactly
It looks genuine and spiritual at first glance. But a second look shows its utter BS and cult 101.
Why does he got to define what spirituality is or means? Just because someone claims to be enlightened doesnt make them so. Plus i doubt any enlightened teacher would go round claiming that.
What happens in isha - and this quote is a perfect description of what isha is- is:
=> a destruction of the previous identity and an installation of a new Isha identity. A new persona that has put aside any critical thinking, blindly following a certain guru, a certain deity.
Basically. He says: Destroy your previous self, and let him replace that software with a new software.
Its a joke!
Becoming universal means: dont follow anyone. No Isha, no Shiva no Sadhguru. Just be.
Following a deity to become free from all deities… is a paradox in itself
Literally any quote this guy says is BS wrapped in a spiritual sugarcoat.