For a short summary of Sadhguru’s Death Book Review, please scroll to the end “Summary”.

A few years ago, I reviewed Sadhguru’s Adiyogi book. The crux of that review was that often Sadhguru propounds fairly complex thoughts and ideas – whether it is yogic practices or discourses. He adds many layers to matters in a short span of time which may be hard for us to grasp right away. We may need to ponder on what he is saying for a while. And many times, after quite a few years we may get an epiphany of something he had said earlier.

The Death book in that sense felt much simpler… and matter of fact.

It covered a lot of different aspects of the phenomenon we call as DEATH. From the actual physical progression of Death in terms of prana/koshas, associated social rituals, existential reality to euthanasia, ghosts, re-birth, reincarnation, older Indian practices, and many more aspects. Each of these aspects gets a few dedicated pages – it is good coverage without getting too deep into it. We can fairly easily get the idea of what he is saying without going into the nitty-gritty. This is good because the nitty gritties would most likely require a much deeper explanation of many more things and would become tedious for common reading.

I did wish to read more about specific topics, for example, what decides the gender of the newborn life? He has mentioned a couple of lines on it, but my interest was piqued and I would have liked to read more. But had to move to the next chapter then… 🙂

At other times, I felt some topics specifically pertaining to the rise in suicides were not so interesting to me. But I came to appreciate them later on. There is a good amalgamation of existential truths, physical realities of the process of death and the social implications of the same. They are quite different topics – from talking about disembodied beings to prana exiting from the body to a parent grieving for a child. So it does take a little mind shift from us.

Arcane matters – Ghosts / Possession / Black Magic

Depending on whether you have read a lot of other content from Sadhguru  – you may or may not get engrossed with the arcane matters of Ghosts, Yogis using other bodies and so on… these things have been amply spoken about in Mystic Musings and older sathsangs.

One interesting topic I am glad they covered was Reincarnation. I have been very curious about Buddhist practices where monks will plan/ predict their next birth… it was good to read a little about that. Jain death rituals like santharo (sallekhana) was also mentioned but as a thing of the past – but I think it is still prevalent to some degree in the Jain circles.

Sadhguru does offer actual Death Rituals in the Isha Ashram

I think one thing that sets this book apart is that Sadhguru actually does offer death rituals to the public … One can do the kala Bhairava karma / shanti processes at the Isha Devi temple. Moreover, the organization runs many crematoriums called Kayantha Sthanams in Tamil Nadu in partnership with the government.

It is noteworthy that they have moved to the implementation side of these death rituals… they have an active role in making crematoriums truly spiritual and holistic places for the dead AND the living people involved there.

During an actual PANDEMIC!

And yes, reading this book during an actual pandemic and that too during the horrible second wave in India was somewhat poignant. But as it happens, the way the book is written, I found it soothing. It pegs death as a journey and not an end at all. So that helps. And the book helps reduce the psychological fanfare around death – it makes me more accepting of the reality – because nature is very wise in the way it devises things.

Summary

A matter of fact and simple book on the phenomenon of Death. It may sound contrary but I found it very soothing. A couple of people asked me whether I was scared of Ghosts after reading it. I told them this book was about the existential reality of Death and not some cooked up fantasy entertainment. Maybe because with the Pandemic raging outside, I was already unsettled within myself. And so this book came as a panacea away from the psychological perturbations. And as I went through the last couple of chapters where he talks of his rebirths and enlightenment experience, I was filled with the soothing presence of the Guru that I have known through so many years 🙂

I haven’t read too many spiritual books. So don’t know what else is there in the market on “Death” apart from the Aghori trilogy which touches upon Death also (but from a different angle). I think this is a really good book to read. Especially, considering the ashram has associated rituals and offerings which we can then take interest in for a deeper experience.

For Isha Meditators who have read a lot of Sadhguru’s books and heard his talks – this book does offer a more comprehensive look on the phenomenon, than what we may have gathered from his sathsangs and other books. So, I do suggest it to my Isha meditator friends also.