PDF Summary:Inner Engineering, by Sadhguru

Did you know that practicing yoga can help you transform yourself, both inside and out? In Inner Engineering, renowned yogi Sadhguru shares his journey of self-discovery and provides readers with an introduction to the science of yoga and its transformative powers. Yoga, he explains, is not an exercise, nor a belief system—it’s a technology for managing your body, mind, and energy in a way that creates optimal conditions for your life. If you manage your physical and mental processes consciously, Sadhguru says your whole life experience will be of your own making.

In this guide, we’ll explain what inner engineering is by examining some of the mental and spiritual problems that plague humanity and the solutions and practices Sadhguru offers as a remedy. Throughout the guide, we’ll compare Sadhguru’s approach to other spiritual self-help authors and contextualize it within the larger tradition of yoga in the Hindu belief system.

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3. Yoga is not a religion or a belief system. Sadhguru emphasizes that this book does not offer any doctrine or belief system to follow. It simply allows you to understand the mechanism by which you can transform your life. Yoga is about a radical self-transformation, involving a fundamental shift in the way you perceive life. And he stresses that none of it needs to be taken on faith. It’s all testable and experiential.

Even “spirituality” doesn’t refer to anything supernatural, according to Sadhguru. He says religion as a whole is totally unnecessary. “Divine love” and “god” are not something in a faraway supernatural realm—they’re part of us, accessible inside of all of us. Likewise, “eternal life” or “heaven” are not something relegated to an afterlife—we have access to eternity just by getting in touch with that infinite dimension of life. We need to realize that the “divine” is very real, but it’s all natural and part of us as humans.

4. Yoga is not exclusive or unattainable. Spiritually, Sadhguru says everyone is equal, and therefore equally capable of transforming through yogic practices. You don’t need to retreat to a cave. You only need to spend a few minutes a day enhancing your awareness of your internal state.

Is Practicing Yoga Cultural Appropriation?

Some have argued that the adoption of yoga en masse by Westerners constitutes cultural appropriation. This argument is based on the claim that removing yoga from its cultural and spiritual context for the benefit of a dominant culture is inherently disrespectful. Part of the problem may lie in these misunderstandings explained by Sadhguru.

As Sadhguru says, yogic tradition is clear that yoga is not exclusive to any group of people, but is available to everyone regardless of background or demographic. And since he also explains that yoga doesn’t rely on a specific spiritual or religious belief system, then this means that non-Indian or non-Hindu people practicing yoga can’t be inherently problematic. That would also directly contradict the core yogic teaching of the oneness of everything.

So, charges of cultural appropriation rely more on the oversimplified understanding of it by Western practitioners. Approaching yoga as a means for getting fit, as an end goal in itself, or even as a trendy subject for social media photos disregards the complexity and richness of a deeply meaningful philosophy and practice with roots in ancient history. When those who are guilty of such oversimplification are also financially profiting from it, the problem is amplified into one of more clear-cut appropriation.

What Yoga Is

Now that we understand what yoga is not, what is it? Sadhuguru says that, put simply, yoga is a tool for developing self-mastery, allowing you to consciously create your experience of life. Through it, you can experience union with the energy of the universe and eliminate your fear of suffering and concern about self-preservation—in other words, you can enjoy living and stop worrying about dying. When these fears are gone, you can experience life fully and be fine in any situation.

This self-mastery must happen on multiple levels. Sadhguru explains that according to yogic philosophy, we’re composed of five layers, or “bodies”:

1. The physical body (often called the “food body” in yogic terminology)
2. The mental body (your thoughts and emotions)
3. The energy body (how your energy flows through you)
4. The etheric body (extraordinary knowledge accessed through transcendental states)
5. The bliss body (a state of enlightenment)

Sadhguru says you only need to work with the first three layers. The final two are not accessible until you’ve worked with the first three, and once you’ve done that work, they’ll naturally follow. So all the instructions in this book are for obtaining mastery over your body, mind, and energy.

Yoga as a whole is the combination of methods for improving the condition of your body, mind, and energy. We will take an in-depth look at each.

The Many Variations of Yoga

There are several types and sub-types of yoga, developed by many different teachers over the years. While the classifications and descriptions of yoga styles vary widely from one source to another, they can generally be differentiated based on what aspect, or “body,” they address. A few of the more common forms include:

• Hatha: Hatha yoga is a broad category, including many sub-types, that deals with the physical body. This is the most common form of yoga practiced in the West and includes such styles as Vinyasa, Iyengar, Ashtanga, and Bikram (or “hot” yoga).

• Bhakti: Bhakti yoga is defined by Sadhguru as the yogic path of devotion. The goal of this form of yoga is union with the divine, which is reached through the emotional part of your mental body. It involves channeling all of one’s emotions into a deep love for “god” or whatever deity or spiritual reality one is devoted to.

• Jnana: Also spelled “gnana,” this type of yoga is the path of knowledge or wisdom, and therefore deals with the thought portion of your mental body. The goal of this style of yoga is deep intellectual inquiry and analysis into life until one can realize ultimate truths through the mental process.

• Kriya: Kriya yoga deals with transforming the energy body. It involves breathwork to transform the flow of energy through your body, with the goal of reaching a higher state of consciousness. Kriya yoga practices would look more like what we tend to think of as “meditation,” and if they’re seriously undertaken they can result in mystical or transcendental experiences.

• Kundalini: Kundalini yoga is sometimes classified as a type of hatha yoga because it involves physical body postures. But as it also deals with raising one’s energy with the goal of attaining a higher consciousness, it can be seen as a combination of some of the other types.

The Body

Your body runs automatically and is in a constant process of creation. We don’t need to tell our lungs to breathe, our hearts to beat, or our hair to grow. But Sadhguru says that rather than experiencing our bodies’ processes unconsciously, we should consciously observe them so we can feel the miracle of creation working within us.

Sadhguru says that intelligence is not just in our minds—it’s also stored in our bodies. He distinguishes between “knowledge” as accumulated information, and “knowing,” which he describes as the dynamic intelligence of life. Everything living is imbued with knowing. Every cell in your body is intelligent—they operate without you ever having to think a thought. Think about how birds instinctively know how to migrate thousands of miles at the right time of year, or how spiders know how to craft exquisitely detailed webs. How do they know how to do those things? This knowing, Sadhguru says, is not stored in their minds; it’s stored in their bodies. And he says that our bodies also have this kind of knowing stored within them—the information about our purpose and how to fulfill it.

Our bodies know on a deeper level how to achieve a higher state of consciousness through connecting to the intelligence of the universe. But we tend to not recognize it, to not be in touch with it, because of the problems discussed in Part 1 of this guide. This is why it’s crucial that we learn to listen to and honor our bodies, Sadhguru says. Practicing yoga is a process of recreating your body so it can serve its highest purpose, connecting you with the higher intelligence of the universe. Yoga enhances and expands your perception of life beyond the five outward senses. This vastly enriches your experience of life.

(Shortform note: Although those in the modern Western world typically understand brains as being the sole source of intelligence and emotions, many human cultures have believed the heart to be the seat of intelligence and wisdom. Studies show that neither of these notions is totally correct or incorrect. It has been demonstrated that there is a complex bidirectional relationship between the heart and the brain, and the heart actually sends more information to the brain than vice versa. These studies have also concluded that emotional experiences can be stored in the heart, including the ability to sense and respond to environmental changes.)

Because the body is the vehicle for your material existence, Sadhguru explains, keeping it in its optimal state is necessary for your mind and energy to function at their optimal states. Therefore, yoga includes consciousness around diet. Food is important in yogic practice because:

1. Your body is made of it. We literally are what we eat, in the sense that every component of your body is created from the materials it gets from the food you eat.
2. How you consume and digest food affects the functioning of your body and mind and ultimately your whole experience of life.

There are no moral judgments around food in yogic philosophy, according to Sadhguru. Yoga simply requires eating what’s most conducive to the functioning of our bodies, which he says is a plant-based diet of unprocessed foods. For example, he emphasizes that although meat consumption is discouraged for a yoga practitioner, this is not based in morality. It’s because animal products and processed “junk” foods don’t provide the optimal energy, nutrition, and digestive conditions for your body. As your body consciousness increases with yoga practice, he says you’ll instinctively know what to eat.

(Shortform note: Although Sadhguru personally doesn’t make any moral judgments around diet, some do exist within the yogic Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Ahimsa is a key principle in yoga that emphasizes non-harm or non-violence toward all living beings. Many yoga practitioners interpret this principle as requiring a vegetarian or vegan diet, as consuming meat involves harm or violence toward animals. For this reason, some yoga practitioners choose to follow a vegetarian or vegan diet as part of their spiritual practice.)

The Mind

Sadhguru explains that in yogic philosophy, there are four aspects of the mind: intellect, memory, identity, and awareness. A major problem we face is the imbalance of these four aspects of the mind because we tend to filter everything through our intellect, memory, and identities while neglecting our awareness. The four aspects of the mind work as follows:

1. Intellect: This is the thinking mind that’s concerned with survival and tends to divide and categorize things in order to understand the world. The intellect judges everything based on sensory input and what it has stored.
2. Memory: This is the part of the mind that stores the judgments you’ve accumulated over time. It can keep us trapped in the past as well as distort new information based on the impressions that are stored there.
3. Identity: This part of our mind includes the impressions of ourselves that we accumulate over time. Identity distinguishes us from others, and therefore divides and limits us.
4. Awareness: This is the pure consciousness aspect of your mind that is engaged when we practice mindfulness.

Sadhguru explains that awareness (called chitta in yogic terminology) is a way of knowing that is not influenced by our memories and identities. It allows us to discriminate what’s actually true from what our mind is saying based on its distorted perceptions and social conditioning. Our task in yoga is to develop our awareness, in order to move beyond our boundaries and enhance our experience of life.

Sadhguru also argues that awareness exists on a continuum. When we’re asleep we’re in our most limited state of awareness. When we’re awake, we’re in a mid-range state of awareness. When we’re enlightened, we’re in a state of full awareness. So, he says, our everyday consciousness is a reduced state of awareness—and we’re not even cognizant of it. Just like when we’re sleeping, we’re not cognizant of the fact that we’re asleep; we only realize it by comparison when we wake up. The same happens with enlightenment.

Purusha and Prakriti

The Bhagavad Gita, one of the most important texts in Hindu literature, reveals spiritual truths through the story of the Hindu god Krishna. In this text, Krishna emphasizes the importance of recognizing what’s real and what’s not. And he says that anything that’s temporary is not real, including those aspects of yourself that are formed by your experiences in the material world.

In this philosophy, pure awareness or the true self is called purusha—the unchanging, eternal essence of an individual that’s distinct from the changing, impermanent aspects of the mind and body. Purusha is often contrasted with prakriti, which refers to the material world of nature and the physical body. The intellect, memory, and identity layers of the mind are therefore prakriti, because they’re all shaped and maintained by our experiences with the outside world, as filtered through our five senses.

The goal of spiritual practice is to recognize the true nature of the self as purusha, which is the only aspect of yourself that is, essentially, the real you. Everything else that you think of as you is just a collection of impressions you’ve gathered from your external environment over the course of your life.

Sadhguru says in yogic terminology, a well-developed human mind is called a kalpavriksha, which translates to “wishing tree.” This means that when our minds are in their optimal state—an enlightened state—whatever we wish for becomes reality because we create our own reality. You don’t need to have faith to manifest this, he says. You just need to have commitment to the process, which involves the following steps:

1. Figure out what you really want, with as much clarity as possible.
2. Commit to creating it.
3. Establish a steady stream of thought in that direction.

The trick, Sadhguru says, is getting that first step right. We may think that’s the easiest step, but it’s actually the most difficult. That’s because, he says, when your mind is in its limited state, you don’t have clarity about what you want. You desire things that don’t really end up making you happy and fulfilled. Many people think they know what they want, but this is muddied by social expectations, judgments about what we’re supposed to want and do, and limiting ideas about what’s possible.

For example, we may spend our lives pursuing wealth, because that’s what we’re conditioned to believe is equated with success. Or we may not pursue our dreams because we believe they’re unrealistic. Sadhguru says the work of inner engineering needs to be undertaken to get your mind to the point where it has a clear vision, unsullied by our conditioned beliefs.

Who Do You Want to Be?

In Think Like a Monk, Jay Shetty argues that we’ve been socially conditioned to pursue what we think others expect from us, and we believe those are the things we want. We may not even realize they are someone else’s goals, and that’s why they may not actually make us any happier. For example, if your parents always encouraged you to play sports, their positive reinforcement around sports in your childhood may make you think that pursuing athletic goals will lead to happiness, although it might not actually be what you want deep down.

Like Sadhguru, Shetty points out that it can be difficult to determine what you want apart from your social conditioning. He argues that clearly defining your core values may be more conducive to happiness than defining any specific goals. Instead of figuring out what you want, he advises you to figure out who you want to be and let that guide you.

Energy and Transcendence

Science tells us that all things are made of energy. This means at the most fundamental level, you are just energy in one particular manifestation. So, according to Sadhguru, because you’re just energy manifesting in different forms, and energy is all there is, that means you are all that is. When religions say God is everywhere, or in everything, they’re really saying this using religious language. Sadhguru says what we really long for is to be able to feel this—to have the sensual experience of being that universal energy. He describes it as a blissful, expansive, liberating experience. This is also known as a transcendental experience or a mystical state.

Psychedelics Can Initiate Mystical Experiences

Although Sadhguru doesn’t promote the use of any substances in yogic practice, many people report having similar mystical and transcendent experiences under the influence of psychedelics, such as psilocybin and DMT.

One of the more common experiences reported in recent research by participants who have had psychedelic experiences is that of a perceived encounter with “God” or an “ultimate reality.” A Johns Hopkins study reported that more than two-thirds of self-identified atheists shed that identification after a single psychedelic experience. Another study concluded that “psilocybin can occasion complete mystical experiences in the majority of people studied,” with mystical experience defined as “a sense of unity, or the experience of becoming one with all that exists.”

Kriya yoga is the method for achieving energetic transcendence. It’s specifically energy-focused, rather than body or mind focused. Sadhguru says you should get your body and mind prepared first, and only move forward with kriya practices if you want to experience mystical states of consciousness. He warns that it’s not easy—it takes devotion and practice. Yogis have developed these methods over thousands of years, so when you practice kriya yoga you must adhere to the regimen with discipline.

Sadhguru does, however, point out that a strict path of kriya yoga is only for those who are committed to experiencing real mystical experiences. If you’re not, you can still employ basic kriya techniques to enhance your life experience—you can increase joy and creativity and attract positivity to your life through raising your energy.

When you work to transform yourself in body and mind, Sadhguru says you must keep up those practices or the effects will wear off. Think, for example, of how you get out of shape if you don’t keep exercising. But he says any work you do toward transforming your energy is permanent. You will change yourself on a fundamental level.

(Shortform note: Kriya yoga overlaps with kundalini yoga, in that they both involve transforming one’s energy. Kundalini yoga focuses on the awakening of the kundalini energy which is characterized as a sleeping snake coiled at the base of the spine. The practice focuses on raising this energy from the root chakra up through the other chakras—or, energy centers—to the crown of the head, allowing access to a higher state of consciousness.)

Part 3: Practices to Begin Your Inner Engineering

As mentioned earlier, this book focuses more heavily on the philosophical concepts behind Sadhguru’s yogic methods. But he does offer some basic practices you can do to begin to put some of these concepts to work in your life. In this section, we’ll briefly describe a few of those practices. The blog section of Sadhguru’s Isha Institute website has more practices and advice.

Get in Touch With the Five Elements

Sadhguru says that according to yogic practice, everything is composed of five elements: earth, air, water, fire, and ether. His advice: Begin to think of the world around you in terms of these five elements, and acknowledge them with reverence. For example, when you drink water, consciously acknowledge it as a sacred element; when you walk on the ground, look at the dirt and recognize it as the sacred element of earth. If you interact with the world this way, you’ll begin to see the world around you as sacred.

(Shortform note: Ether is also referred to as “space” and is sometimes thought of as “consciousness.” Sometimes called akasha, it is said to be the space between all other elements, and is also believed to be the primary source of all other elements. It is what exists beyond the physical realm, or the essence of emptiness.)

Practice Fasting

Yogic practice often involves periods of fasting. Sadhguru says when you’re attuned enough with your body, you’ll intuitively know when you need to fast. Until then, skip eating for one day every 14 days. If you can’t fast, then eat only fruit on this day.

(Shortform note: There is some scientific evidence to suggest that intermittent fasting can have several health benefits, including weight loss, reduced inflammation and improved heart health, and improved brain function. It may even reduce the risk of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. However, fasting can also have some potential health risks, so it’s important to consult with a healthcare professional before starting any fasting regimen, especially if you have any underlying health conditions.)

Replace Sleep With Rest

If you keep yourself in a relaxed state throughout the day, you’ll need less sleep. Sadhguru says he only sleeps 4 to 5 hours per night. He says he can do this because he stays in a peaceful, restful state throughout the day. Your body needs rest more than it needs actual sleep. Notice how you will naturally sleep less if you practice yoga and meditation during the day.

(Shortform note: While yoga and meditation can promote relaxation and improve overall well-being, there is limited scientific evidence to suggest that these practices can significantly reduce the amount of sleep an individual needs. However, some studies have found that regular yoga practice may improve sleep quality and duration.)

Get Your Mind Out of the Gutter

According to Sadhguru, one of the major ways we limit ourselves is by identifying with our physical bodies. Focusing on sex traps us in our physical bodies and doesn’t allow for spiritual growth. Sex is a natural biological drive, Sadhguru says. We should neither deny it nor focus on it. Every other animal just acts on this imperative when they need to, and otherwise it has nothing to do with their lives. They don’t sit around dwelling on it, nor do they deny it when it’s necessary.

(Shortform note: This issue may be amplified in modern cultures, where people are exposed to sexual imagery on a regular basis via social media and have easy access to pornography.

Regular exposure to pornography can lead to several harmful effects: sex addiction, desensitization to real-life sexual experiences, unrealistic expectations, and the objectification of women. A 2014 scientific study found decreases in activity in several areas of the brains of regular porn viewers, and suggested that porn can negatively alter brain structure and function.)

Feed the Ants

Sadhguru tells the story of his mother, who practiced devotion to her family and to the world by always eating the food she had prepared last. Not only did she serve her family before herself, but she would also take a small amount of food outside to give to the ants before she sat down to eat. This was not to devalue herself, but to honor others. It was to remind herself that everything living has value and that the ants deserved to live just as much as she did. In order to raise your awareness of your connection to everything, and to acknowledge and honor the sacredness of all life, take a bit of food outside and feed the ants before you eat.

(Shortform note: In Stillness Is the Key, Ryan Holiday says that when you recognize the interconnectedness of all of humanity and all of life, it encourages humility and empathy. He says the key to cultivating this kind of humility is connecting with something greater than yourself. You can think of this as God, a universal energy, or any kind of higher power. Since many people struggle to make that kind of bigger-picture connection, starting out by taking Sadhguru’s advice to feed the ants may inspire it. Connecting with the most seemingly insignificant living things may inspire a feeling of connection to the most significant, and vice versa, in a reciprocal relationship.)

Consecrate Your Home Space

Temples are consecrated spaces that are meant to inspire us to connect with something higher. Consecration is done with ritual practices and sounds that raise the energetic vibration of a place. Spaces in nature will also naturally have higher energy, and some specific spots are very intensely energetic. People visit temples and nature for the purpose of recharging their energy. But Sadhguru says you can consecrate a space in your home as well. He recommends invoking the elements by doing the following:

1. Use some sort of grain, such as rice flour, and draw a six-pointed star on a table. This is what’s known as the “star of David” in the Jewish tradition. The star will represent the air element.
2. Place a shallow bowl of water in the center. This brings in the water element.
3. Place in the bowl of water a small oil lamp or candle, and a flower. These represent fire and earth.
4. Do this each evening, allowing the lamp/candle to burn for a while. You will start to notice an energetic shift in your room.

(Shortform note: While the Hindu tradition recognizes five elements, many other cultural and spiritual traditions acknowledge the first four—earth, air, water, and fire—and consider them sacred. For example, in the neo-pagan religion of Wicca, the four elements are seen as the building blocks of the physical world, and they are invoked in rituals to honor and call upon the powers of nature. Many Wiccan and other pagan ceremonies involve gathering objects to represent the elements, create a sacred atmosphere, and consecrate a space—very similar to Sadhguru’s instructions here.)

Practice Devotion

Sadhguru says that being a yogi means practicing devotion to all of life. In order to practice devotion, he says you should begin bowing down to whatever is around you throughout the day. Once an hour, put your hands together in a prayer position, and bow to whatever is in front of you. He says it doesn’t matter what it is, just bow down. Increase the frequency of this, and eventually you can transition to just doing it in your mind, and begin doing it all day long. He says a true devotee dissolves himself into everything around him, and this is the way to begin to dissolve yourself.

(Shortform note: The sense of dissolving into everything around you may sound unappealing or even frightening to many. This is because we’re conditioned to be fiercely attached to our individual identities and our egos, and this process involves the death of the ego. On the way to this ego death you may experience a state of confused questioning of everything you know, sometimes called a “dark night of the soul,” before you come out the other side. However, it's important to note that the resulting egoless state of being is often described as one of intense joy and freedom. While the process of getting there may be challenging, the rewards of this state of being can be profound.)