Book 1: Emotion: The Juice of Life One can make any emotion into a creative force in one s life. Sadhguru It s not just poetic license that allows us to refer to emotions as juicy . In a literal sense also, emotions are a chemical cocktail that course through our bodies. But while we have no problems with pleasant emotions, unpleasant emotions are the source of much angst in our lives. In Emotion: The Juice of Life, Sadhguru looks at the gamut of human emotions and how to turn them into stepping stones rather than stumbling blocks. Sadhguru is a yogi and profound mystic of our times. An absolute clarity of perception places him in a unique space in not only matters spiritual but in business, environmental and international affairs and opens a new door on all that he touches. Book 2: Relationships: Bond or Bondage If you enhance yourself into a very beautiful state, everyone will want to hold a relationship with you. Sadhguru Human beings constantly make and break relationships. Unfortunately, relationships can make and break human beings too. Why are relationships such a circus for most of us? What is this primal urge within us that demands a bond physical, mental, or emotional with another? And how do we keep this bond from turning into bondage? These are the fundamental questions that Relationships: Bond or Bondage looks at as Sadhguru shares with us the keys to forming lasting and joyful relationships, whether they are with husband or wife, family and friends, at work, or with the very existence itself.
Disclaimer – Thanks to the publisher for a copy of the book(s) in return for a honest review.
Relationships and Emotion written by Sadhguru, are two books in one volume. It is a good combination because you can’t have relationships without emotion and vice versa. These books are for people who want to live their life free from the tyranny of emotions which make and break our relationships.
I didn’t know much about Sadhguru or his philosophy before these books came my way. These books questioned and shattered some illusions I had all my life. I wasn’t willing to part with them because there is comfort in the familiar but they don’t work for me so it’s time to let them go.
Relationships – Bond or Bondage
We are all a little less rational (or not at all) when it comes to our emotions and how we conduct our relationships. Life amounts to nothing without the connections we have forged and yet we struggle with them. In the introduction he talks about how easily bond can become bondage. So with that thought I delved into the book and got some surprising insights. The book is mostly in question and answer format which makes it relatable to the masses since most of us are looking for answers to the same questions.
In the first chapter, Within Four Walls, Sadhguru talks about love, the nature of romantic relationships, marriage, reproduction and parenting. He also talks about the nature of bondage in each scenario and the level of detachment needed to live in this world with joy.
The reason why you go into love is because it is supposed to bring you blissfulness. Love is not the goal; blissfulness is the goal.
Sadhguru denounces the idea of perfection in any sphere of life related to the material world.
You life will become wasteful and fanciful if you seek such things.
The second chapter named Friend or Foe is a misnomer because he talks not only about what friendship means and who is a true friend, but also about who’s a leader and what is leadership. Through a story he aptly shows that friendship cannot be sustained if it’s superficial and built only on commonality. Haven’t we all experienced it – losing ‘friends’ as soon as we changed schools, colleges, workplaces, cities and realized that there’s connecting us together?
In Cosmic Connect, the cyclical nature of life is discussed when a question is asked why the same emotion, situation, pattern keeps on repeating in our lives. He explains the cyclical nature of life and how we go about it depends on what we want from life.
In the last chapter Beyond Life and Death he asks us why we crave relationships. I appreciate Sadhguru saying that some people won’t be able to function to their optimum if they are not bound by a relationship. He also states that different people have different needs and marriage or an intimate relationship might not work for everyone.
I understood the nature of time and space because of the way we relate to our bodies, and how it relates to life and death but didn’t understand the difference between intelligence and intellect the way Sadhguru explained it.
He talks about energy based bonds which transcend life, like the one between master and disciple.
Emotion – The Juice of Life
In the first chapter, Of Madness and Beauty, Sadhguru tells us to treat our emotions as a gateway to beauty but when given a free rein the same emotions give rise to madness. People say something is a problem when they have trouble dealing with it; like when emotions run amok in wild abandon like an untamed beast and we don’t know what to do.
In the second chapter, Paying Attention to the Root, I was fascinated by the question about artists delving into misery to stir deep emotions and if there’s joy in misery. He answers the question simply. Unfortunately for most human beings, the deepest experience in their life is pain. There is no depth to their joy, love or peace. It is all on the surface and so fragile. Their pain, however is enduring and deep.
A question is asked about depression being prevalent all around and it being a natural emotion. Sadhguru denies it and explains as children we were all joyful but we have become world weary adults. He explains why depression happens. Whenever people are unable to handle life outside, they try to curtail their life and withdraw. Depression means somewhere a hopelessness has set in.
From a Horror to a Flower is an odd name for a chapter, I thought. I don’t agree with some of his explanations but the one about attachment spoke to me. Sadhguru says if you get easily attached that means it is your true nature. What do we achieve by denying who we really are and running in the opposite direction, I wonder.
In the final chapter, Breaking the Barriers, he talks about peace, love and devotion, expressing happiness, and bliss being our natural state. He beautifully explains love and devotion and how the latter cannot really exist without the former. He also talks about the difference between compassion and kindness which I didn’t quite understand.
Our life is spent in the pursuit of happiness but we make our happiness conditional which is a problem. Peace doesn’t depend on external factors because they are anyway beyond our control but we can control our internal state. He asks us not to be enslaved to the former and get dejected. He says time and again that we can be joyful by ourselves.
There were some scientific facts which as a student of science I could not wrap my head around and I found the use of the words ‘hell’ and ‘hobo’ in the books jarring. I think the books would reach a wider audience if they had different covers. Most people assume any kind of spiritual guru with religious overtones and stay away from them because of preconceived notions even when they are in dire need of it.
Sadhguru makes the philosophy of life accessible to the common (wo)man and I am grateful for the different perspectives it offered. The light conversational tone of the books gets the message across to the readers even though the topics discussed are weighty. I have marked many lines in the books to take a look at them in the future. Things which are profound take time to be assimilated into our beings, and only then comes the application part, which as we all know is easier said than done.
After reading "Death" you might feel some of the content of that book overlapping with this one. However, it does throw some light on how relationships work and explains the emotions and relationships that we build are very much in our control and we should not hand over the control to the emotions or the relationships. We shall always be the master of our emotions to have fruitful relationships.
Talking about modern spiritual gurus, Sadhguru a.k.a Jaggi Vasudev has always fascinated me. The way he shares his wisdom and shows us our true colours, no other person is capable of doing it. I make it sure that I regularly follow his videos and read his posts regularly on Internet. I also manage to read a book of his slowly page by page on daily basis and complete one every 2-3 months. This time, I have managed to complete his latest book published by Jaico Publication named “Emotion and Relationships”. This is basically two books merged into one biding where the first part talks about Emotion being the juice of life and the second book talks about Relationships and discusses if it is a bond or bondage.
Once again, Sadhguru speaks of things that we think about only from above without diving deep and knowing about the concepts. He has cleared many concepts in this book with his easy language which is easy to grasp and understand. The book is written in the form of Questions-and-Answers where his followers/disciples are asking him questions and he is giving answers to them through his spiritual perspective which is very interesting for the readers to know as his answers are not just straight statements but comes with wonderful and interesting explanations.
The best part about the Sadhguru’s approach in giving answers is that he also adds humour in between which keeps your focus concentrated on each and every sentence of the book rather than getting distracted because of monotonous voice. I have personally liked the book on Relationships as it really discusses the basic problem we, Indians, are having in our day-to-day life and give nice solutions which if followed will really give us new dimension of thinking about our relations. In the book of Emotion, the “Isha Kriya” is discussed in the end which is quite powerful yoga tool to be followed. Overall, this book is a nice light read by Sadhguru and I give it 4* out of 5.
It was a simple and straight-forward discourse on many topics which plague our day-to-day lives. Full of practical quotes, such as "If you sit here as just a piece of life, you will be in perfect harmony with every other life." "The moment you say something is wrong, you cannot avoid it. The moment you try to avoid it, that will fill your mind." The explanations are very practical and can be easily implemented in our lives. Though it is a book on emotions and relationships, it is very lucid and easy to read. Recommended for everyone to read!
Loved this one. I completely adore how simple and practical approaches he suggest in the book. I read one chapter per day to grasp the whole meaning of the book rather than just merely reading.
Relationships and Emotions are two book in one volume. This book is a collection of questions asked by people while he was delivering his talks. The language is easy and crispy to understand. People with spiritual perspective will love this book.
1. *Relationships*: bond and bondage
The book is devided in to four chapters in which sadguru talks about Marriage, love, parenting, friendship. In third chapter 'Cosmic connect' he explains about cyclical nature of life. In last chapter 'beyond life and death' he explains why a relationship is formed at the level of life energies. In every aspects he explained to get inner happiness in life.
*Emotions* The juice of life
This book also devided in to four chapters in which Sadguru explains about love, fear, guilt, hatred greed possessiveness etc. Our emotions can take us to the very new heights. Turning emotions into stepping stones is the subject of this book. *you must go beyond the limitation which is holding you right now* In between Sadguru made conversation humorous by adding small stories and jokes.
The "Isha kriya" is discussed in the end of this book which is quite powerfull yoga tool to be followed.
Do you want to be the one who decides what happens to your life? Whether they are intimate relationships, professional, political, global or whatever, don’t you want to be the person who decides what happens in your life? If you do, you should include everything and everyone into your understanding. You should enhance your understanding to such a point that you can look beyond people’s madness also. There are very wonderful people around you, but once in a while they like to go crazy for a few minutes. If you don’t understand that you will lose them. If you do, you know how to handle them. Life is not always a straight line. You have to do many things to keep it going. If you forsake your understanding, your capability will be lost. Whether it is a question of personal relationships or professional management, in both places you need understanding. Otherwise, you will not have fruitful relationships. The way you are right now, the very quality of your life is decided by the type of relationships you hold. It is better that you make the needed effort to understand the people around you.
Reading or hearing Sadhguru always turns on the reflective mode. This book does just the same. In the book Sadguru talks about emotions (from fear to love) and relationships (from those between a guru and a follower to those between corporate mangers and their teams) of various kinds. My favourite sections in the book are those around marriage and parenting.
Though I must say that I often wonder whether reading reflective books like these really have a long term impact on you? For me the impact really lasts only until I have the book in my hands. Infact, this time the impact did not last even that long - right when I was reading about Sadhguru’s perspective on anger, a situation that would test my understanding of the same arose, and I miserably failed the test😓.
However, I believe that these books are slowly working on my subconscious and one day the impact will be tangible. What do you think?
Finished reading “Emotion - The Juice of Life & Relationships - Bond or Bondage” (2 books in 1) by Sadhguru. I must say that his writing style is so distinctive & captivating that your reading starts to feel like an engaging dialogue. Your brain begins to hallucinate as if Sadhguru was sitting there right next to you and talking to you. Such effortless writing comes only to a Chosen few.
Emotion - The Juice of Life ******************************* It’s not just poetic license that allows us to refer to emotions as “juicy”. In a literal sense also, emotions are a chemical cocktail that course through our bodies, triggering responses and reactions. Our emotions are capable of leaving us stranded in the depths of human experience. But they could also take us to the very new heights. Turning emotions into stepping stones rather than stumbling blocks is the subject of this book.
Perhaps the essence of this book is captured best in Sadhguru’s words, “Within you, you have experienced peace and turmoil, joy and misery, ecstasy and agony. So you are capable of all these things. But right now you are conducting this whole experience and chemistry unconsciously. You can also conduct it consciously. That is the whole effort of all spiritual processes”.
Relationships - Bond or Bondage ************************************** Human beings constantly make and break relationships. Unfortunately, relations can make and break human beings too. No one cherishes slavery, but many of us have enslaved ourselves to our relationships. As the relationship goes through its highs and lows, we get caught in the wake, and bounce back ‘n’ forth between happiness and dejection. And sadly, the lows seems to come too often and the highs seem to pass too soon.
Relationships! We can’t live with them, we can’t live without them. Why are relationships such a circus for most of us? What is the primal urge within us that demands a bond - physical, mental, or emotional - with another? And how do we keep this bond from turning into bondage? The answer lies in the basis upon which we build our relationships. Do we form and maintain relationships to fulfill our needs, or do we do it to express our joy? Are we extracting something or are we sharing something? These are the fundamental questions that this book looks at.
As the book unfolds, Sadhguru answers questions on why we come together in the first place, and examines the various levels on which human beings create relationships - the physical body, the mind, the emotional space, and the life energies. He goes on to explain as to why a relationship formed at the level of life energies, is the only one that can transcend life & death.
A final word of caution for all those who aspire to read and/or listen to Sadhguru. Be prepared to have your belief system not only challenged, maybe turned upside down. Like him or not, this Sage of a Man knows nothing about sugarcoating truth. He has the courage to not only say, but also accept: what is, as is.
The peace of mind is the "A" of life, it is not the "Z" of life. You can't have this peace if you don't establish it first inside yourself, your emotions!
Profoundly, Sadhguru the author of this beautiful book, explains how to turn human emotions into a creative and enriching force, a bond, instead of a bondage, in order to conduct our emotions consciously and not unconsciously. I enjoyed enormously reading this book, this beside the previous one "Relationships". For me this is a precious gift, I will hold on to it joyfully. This is a book to go back to at any time when you feel having lost the way to your inner-self, it does throw some light on your way.
Every one of us has experienced all kinds of emotions, while we seem to forget that being joyful is our nature; it is the "A", it is the very beginning, as a child you are happy because of your inner-stimulus. ----- Emotions : The Juice of Life By Sadhguru 105 pages ---- Quotes: " When you fail to survive here, you are thinking about making it in heaven. If you could not make it here, what is the guarantee that you will make it there? Those who do not make it here will not make it there either." p5 ----- " Unfortunately, for most human beings on the planet, the deepest experience in their life is pain. There is no depth to their joy, love, or peace. It is all on the surface, and so fragile. Their pain, however, is enduring and deep." p 8 ----- " When anger gets organised, it becomes hatred." P 36 ---- " Fear is a natural emotion in a human being, but guilt is socially cultivated." P 39 ---- " You are simply joyful, because that's your nature. When you were a child, you were like this to some extent. You were simply happy. Even if there was a death in the family, you were simply happy. Only after you became a certain amount of mind, then you started suffering everything. For most people, nothing has gone wrong with their lives, but they fear it may go wrong. If you are using an external stimulus, it is a problem. You should find an inner stimulus. " p 55 ____ " The moment you carry the past and the future, you become a donkey." 64 ---- " What you call as ' my body' is an accumulation of food. Similarly, what you call as ' my mind' is an accumulation of impressions. Whatever you accumulate can be yours, but it can never be you. The very fact you accumulated it means that you gathered it from somewhere else. Today you could gather a 70 kg body, but you can decide to make it 60 kg body. You don't go looking for those 10 kg, because they were an accumulation. Once you drop it, it is gone. Similarly, with your mind, it is an accumulation of impressions. " p 99-100 ----
Disclaimer : People who are seeking dating advice , the book is not meant for them.
Relationships and emotion written by Sadhguru , are two books combined as one.
Rating - 4/5
Relationships - Bond or Bondage
A very different approach. People who view life from spiritual perspective will love it. The aspects were really deep , it's not a relationship advice book. It's a book about realising your inner self , transcending body consciousness and understanding energy behind relationship. The book was in question answer format which really answered lot of my questions but after completion of the book I had more questions than I had answers. Author says the only relationship which is constant for lifetimes is with the Guru. He also adds that if you are sitting and listening to him that means you are his people and if you are listening to tons of people along with him , maybe you have got the true essence of how guru should be , you have smelt it from distance. But if something deeper than mind and body happens to you , there is no sitting here again except for your guru. Your guru is that flame with whom you have to burn as well. Here Guru is the one who shows you correct path towards enlightenment.
Emotions - Juice of life
Sadhguru says " the so called spiritual people tell you is that you must give up the common ego and pick up a spiritual ego - which is very dangerous " . He claims that spirituality and practicality should go hand in hand. Accepting emotions and Transcending these emotions to attain inner bliss is the aim. He speaks about different pathsa like gnana yoga , bhakti yoga , karma yoga and kriya yoga to attain so. Also , the questions discussed in the book were really helpful for daily living and working on our emotional blockages.
Both the books had really deep insights which will require lot of introspection within self. All in one this was a great book but few topics like the idea of Runanubandha , the karma theories and the ideology of Guru could have been explained more to get more insight. This will ignite fire within you to know more! Sadhguru really helps people to connect with their inner self with his teachings. Although we know it's not easy to apply all the teachings but also it's possible otherwise it won't have become a teaching. It's always accomplishable. Would like to reread. Happy reading !
Quite often the spirituality books tell us to attain the ultimate detachment from everything and it is a point where we learn that stop loving and obsessing over something and stop emoting is the key to attain ultimate nirvana. We have instilled the thought that the lack of relationships or detachment from the same makes you go through the bliss of moksha. Sadhguru, for once have demolished the notions which have been read and repeated in each and every books. After reading a numerous books, I was of the notion that spirituality is something that should be attained only after being settled in life financially, emotionally and materialistically. Sadhguru's book or in fact two books in one is an eyeopener for me. He has seamlessly connected our worldly affairs with spirituality. The key point that I can take home and live with forever is that one should get attached to the maximum possible extent till there is no possibility of distinguishing between the two entities. Yes eternal attachment is the ultimate bliss. The second book, Relationships- Bond or bondage made me wonder how a sadhu knows so much about relationships, let it be between friends, mother and kids or even lovers, Sadhguru has a clear thought and better knowledge on relationships. The USP of the books is practicability. Predominantly the spirituality related books remain as impractical as possible and after finishing the books we would decide to practice the points once we are post retirement age. But Sadhguru's talks, as the book is designed, gels the perceptions and ideas into the daily life that we would start practicing it, for such is the influence of the book on our intellect. Towards the end of the book Emotions- The juice of life, readers are introduced into the Isha Kriya Meditation technique, which, if practiced twice a day for 48 days or once a day for 90 days, will change your life forever and ever. I have started practicing the same. Overall I recommend the book to the readers who want to deal with their life in a positive way using practical techniques. This review is in return of a free book from the publisher
Emotions can be a very powerful force of movement if one knows how to gather them, and at the same time, be fluid with them when necessary. If one is incapable of gathering his emotions when needed, then emotions are just pure madness. Once you are overtaken by your emotion, you do not see anything the way it is - everything gets distorted.
A very easy breezy read and a very deep insight about emotions by Sadhguru. It is a must read for everyone. Learning to use all your emotions creatively is very important.
The tragedy with a lot of people today specially in affluent societies today is that they have everything and yet they have nothing. A lot of people today are biggest victim of hopelessness and depression. Sadhguru narrates that one must first fix the inside, and then work on the outside. Then the world will be a better and beautiful place to live.
There is one bit in this book that caught my interest completely. Nowadays, it is common for people to say that if we don't go to God's temple, church, mosque or whatever, and give him his weekly "pay-off", he will get angry. He will make your children unhealthy and turn your business upside down. He adds that we humans have presented the Divine in such a juvenile way and I couldn't agree more.
People are not god-loving anymore, they are god-fearing. They fear everything, so naturally they fear God also.
I've seen this Indian spiritual Gandalf blow up on youtube over the last year so and never paid it any heed, until I realised there are some tricky questions for which i dont have the answers to myself currently and perhaps need some external help with. Not a book review, just some quotes that stuck with me -
1. You need a relationship only because somewhere , there is some incompleteness in you. 2. When you are giving and taking on a daily basis, always one person will feel - I am giving more the other person is giving less. 3. Love is just a currency for blissfullness 4. In a friendship, be ready to lose them it is ok. At least if you care you must do what is good for the other, no for yourself. 5. After all, what is a friend? Someone who is as confused as you are. Whatever you do should touch each other's lifes, thats all that really matters. 6. Relationships are an oppertunity to achieve a union which will pave the way for a greater possibility.
Such a simple and crisp book for everyone to read. What a brilliant insight this man has on every topic related to relationships and human emotions. Such an eye opening book. We the humans of this era are constantly cobwebbed in our self made filth, chaos and madness. Sadhguru appeals us to generate an awareness which is beyond this corporeal form and prompts us to seek our true identity. The identity which is our true self and the source of all our energy. We struggle so much with our own emotions in our daily life and majority of us suffer while handling our relationships. I would say that its a must read for all. A clear, crisp, concise and precise guide to human emotions and relations!!!
I received this book as a gift. I started it three times, and only on the fourth attempt did I finally finish it. There are some things I really appreciated, and others I guess I’m still not quite ready for.
Favourite lines:
* Whatever your problem is, go all the way into it. * The pain of attachment is only because you are getting attached to your idea of what the other person is, not really to another being * Once the past has no influence over you, then life becomes a huge potential * Those people who logically examine their relationships can never stay in any relationship. If you logically look, "Is it really worthwhile?" then nothing will stand the test of your logic. * Nobody in the world is the best person. Even if you get married to God, you will still complain
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
One of the finest book I ever read on relations & emotions. It makes one ponder and then persuades you to think even deeper. It is sure to give you a help or two when dealing with emotions in you life. Borrowed this from a friend & I am grateful to her. Now I am curious to read other books from Sadguru. The way he writes is commendable & the jokes in between add to the appeal. Definitely recommended.
Got really hooked to this book. There were some aspects that I was unclear about and the book explained them which completely blew my mind. At the same time, some parts were far beyond the realm of human understanding. I had to read them twice or thrice. Probably will read them again in few months.
I just loved the way sadguru describes every small things which really matter in our life. It goes like. Love is nothing but a sweetness of emotion within yourself which is ready to fall for someone if you don't know how to handle it🙏
I high recommend this book. Some of the advise from SadhGuru is eye opener. I have used some of the technique in my day to day life and it works. I will Definitely read this book again. Thank you SadhGuru for this wonderful book.
I read along with his voice in my head. Interesting style with a Q&A-like format. Weirdly enough, I found the relationship side more enjoyable, which confounded my predictions. Most essentially it’s easy to understand.
As other readers had already mentioned in their reviews, the book is in the question and answer format with a detailed explanation to each question provided by Sadhguru. Overall it was a good read on the spiritual path.
Sadhguru himself is icon of wisdom. Such a peaceful human being he is. Truly epic book. Trying to open the layer of spirituality through emotion and relationship. Straight forward yet lovely and peaceful understanding.