App Store

Google Play

{{seriesTitle}} - La serie de libros

Copy of Device Banner Block 894x1036 3

Descubre un mundo infinito de historias

Escucha y lee

Amol Raikar

Vinitha R

“Ultimately, life is neither suffering nor bliss, it is what you make out of it.”

Sadhguru sets us free with this empowering thought. He says all human experiences are generated from within and if we learn to live consciously we can define and mould our lives towards happiness. And he has been teaching exactly that, conscious living to the world with Yoga, as contemporary science. Therefore his teachings of human wellbeing comes with a dash of modern scientific explanation in a very insightful yet witty language. And probably that’s what makes him the most popular spiritual leader of our times. He is that visionary Yogi who is widely found addressing various social issues like human rights, social and environmental issues at many prestigious Global forums.

Anish Nair

Storytel Original IN

Lives & Teachings of Indian Thinkers

SADHGURU

“The new man will be a mystic, a poet, a scientist, all together. He will not look at life through old rotten divisions. He will be a mystic because he will feel the presence of God. He will be a poet because he will celebrate the presence of God. And he will be a scientist because he will search into this presence through scientific methodology. When a man is all these three together, the man is whole."

Osho or Bhagwan has been described by the Sunday Times in London as one of the “1000 Makers of the 20th Century”. American author Tom Robbins says he is “the most dangerous man since Jesus Christ”, while the Sunday Mid-Day has selected Osho as one of ten people along with Gandhi, Nehru and Buddha who have changed the destiny of India. How can one human be dangerous and at the same time change-making? And if he is, then what could possibly be the impact of his presence?

OSHO

“Life on this planet, every single living being is leading towards happiness. Happiness for themselves, for their loved ones and for everything around them. But the most interesting thing about happiness is when a member of your family is unhappy. If a family member is unhappy the neighbourhood is unhappy. If the neighbourhood is unhappy, the city, the state, the country is unhappy and the chain goes on. So, how is it possible for an individual to be happy?” 

The person saying these simple yet profound observations cut a fragile figure in a crowd filled with a hundred thousand devotees jammed in a stadium. The soothing voice of Sri Sri Ravishankar on International Happiness Day is a balm to the listeners. His face is glowing as he says this and his voice seems to carry the spores of happiness in them. As he disperses these words, the crowd glows. Everyone seems as lit as the diminutive man with long hair and a long beard who speaks with dancing eyes and a smiling mouth.

Meet Sri Sri Ravishankar.

SRI SRI RAVISHANKAR

“...you realise that all along there was something tremendous within you, and you did not know it.”

Perhaps one of the ways to describe Paramahansa Yogananda is that he was an Indian monk who gifted Kriya Yoga to the world. There are other great things about him: that he was among the first monks to settle in the US, that he was among the first yogis who were sent by his guru Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, to spread the teaching of yoga to the west, that he strove hard to balance between Western material growth and Indian spirituality and that the yoga culture of Los Angeles, led him to be considered by yoga experts as the "Father of Yoga in the West. Yogananda's journey, the fact that he was the yogi who introduced millions to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga through his organization Self-Realization Fellowship and Yogoda Satsanga Society of India, and the fact that unlike most other monks, has not been riddled with controversies, is a journey full of mysticism.

PARAMHANSA YOGANANDA

“Truth is a pathless land. Truth, being limitless cannot be organised, nor should any organisation be formed to lead people along any particular path. If you first understand that, then you will see how impossible it is to organise a belief. I have now decided to disband - The Order of the Star, as I happen to be its head. You can form other organisations and expect someone else. With that, I am not concerned, nor with creating new cages, new decorations for those cages. My only concern is to set man absolutely, unconditionally free.”

Jiddu Krishnamurti mistrusted all religions and denounced the Eastern convention of deifying living spiritual masters. Refusing the role of the chosen one, he claimed that truth could not be approached by way of a teacher and that enlightenment rendered all belief systems equally and inherently useless. Helping others find their way in a pathless land became Krishnamurti’s avowed mission.

JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI

“The kingdom of heaven is like electricity. You don’t see it. It is within you.”

Veda Vyasa, Valmiki, Patanjali, and Ramana had one thing in common. Other than the fact that they were learned men from India, the other thing that bound them all was the word ‘Maharishi’. Maharishi, a title bestowed upon by some of the greatest sages from ancient India, was also given to one more learned but more contemporary of Indian sages. It was a tiny little man who took the west by storm and impressed them enough to have influenced and inspired many, one group being none other than the great English band of the 60s—The Beatles. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, not only gained fame as a guru of many celebrities and well-known personalities, he single-handedly made such a deep impact with the west that if yoga and meditation have been trending there for some time, one can easily say that it all started with this one man.

MAHARISHI MAHESH YOGI

“More important than what is behind you and what is ahead of you is what is In you. Seek it. Centered in it, act and live.”

Swami Chinmayananda reintroduced the world to Adi Shankaracharya’s work, an Indian philosopher born in 700 AD who strengthened the roots of Advaita Vedanta in Hinduism. In his 42 years of work in this space, Swami Chinmayananda left a permanent mark in the hearts of people and his service inspired millions of people all over the world.

SWAMI CHINMAYANANDA

Prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru once wrote, “It is extraordinary that a person who spent 14 years of his life cut off from India became a brilliant champion of Indian nationalism based on the philosophic and spiritual background of Indian thought.” And this is exactly what it is. It was Aurobindo who influenced Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose to take the initiative of dedicating himself to the Indian National Movement full-time. Bose writes "The illustrious example of Aurobindo looms large before my vision. I feel that I am ready to make the sacrifice which that example demands of me."
Aurobindo not only influenced people in India but across the whole wide world which included Margaret Woodrow Wilson, the daughter of the then US president Woodrow Wilson. Margaret came to the Pondicherry ashram in 1940 and stayed there until her death. While in the ashram she was given the name Nishta meaning dedication. Aurobindo’s life had two aspects: political activism and spiritual activism. A person who doesn’t understand either one of the aspects fails to understand Aurobindo as a whole. Even today Aurobindo is considered a powerful freedom fighter who played a vital role in the Indian Independence movement, a brick among the many who laid a firm foundation in building and uplifting India.

SRI AUROBINDO

That morning, like every other day, he woke up, had his breakfast, got dressed up for work and left. But that evening, instead of returning home, he boarded a train to take him away from all his daily certainties—the people he loved and from the wealth he owned. 
 
Leaving behind a million-dollar business, his favourite Porsche, this chess champion, and sought-after motivational speaker, with no warning and no intimation to his family, simply walked away from it all at the age of 21. Did he know that he was probably walking through the door of no-return, leaving behind a loving and supportive family? Perhaps. It’s not that he didn’t care about their feelings. Rather it was because he no longer could turn a deaf ear to his inner calling. 

“The millions of dollars in my bank account, my cars, my properties are all material wealth and at the end of the day, lifeless. I wasn’t born with these possessions and won’t take it away with me when I die. So, is it worth the struggle? What is life all about then?” 

With one stroke he cast away the labels—son, brother, CEO, MBA-holder—that he felt defined him. He called this new life nakedness, not in physical terms but in being nothing, having nothing, not even an identity or a name, a life of a monk, Om Swami.

OM SWAMI

“Bend it like Baba Ramdev”, “The Breathing Baba”, “The Man who Revolves his Stomach,” “The Indian Yogi who Winks, “The Funny Indian Yogi” … are just a bunch of the many names he has been tagged with. We have had yoga masters and yoga maestros for centuries. Baba Ramdev will forever be known as the man who showed solutions, do-able solutions, to chronic ailments of people in the bedrooms of their own homes. 

“Till the last breath, a man must never give up. With willpower and pureness, he should keep on going towards his goal and one day he will find his own destiny.” These are the words of a man who made yoga what it is today—a household application that is not only accessible but has become a lifestyle. 

Baba Ramdev perceived yoga as a routine regime, as an alternative to medicine, and a pseudoscientific technique to cure any illness in the lives of ordinary people. How could everyone not be accessing it, then?

Lives & Teachings of Indian Thinkers - La serie de libros

Lives & Teachings of Indian Thinkers - La serie de libros

Lives & Teachings of Indian Thinkers libros en orden

Escucha y lee