Sadhguru, the Indian guru-star, teaches spirituality to Rkomi, Ghali, Amoroso and Irama

Before his entrance, a promotional video starts: there is him speaking at the United Nations, at the World Bank, at the World Economic Forum, from Google and Microsoft, clips of speeches, people who know him and praise him, him who travels the world always riding his motorcycle. At the end of the video Sadhguru he enters followed by a swarm of cameras and photographers, he has a turban on his head, a long traditional blue Indian dress, a long and messy white beard. He sits cross-legged on the bench in front of the spectators. He clasps his hands, then stretches his arms, joins his thumbs and index fingers, closes his eyes and recites a short mantra. Now we can begin. Sadhguruthe «ignorant guru» (this is the translation of his stage name), the star of Indian meditation in the West, is at Moysa in Milan, the largest musical hub in Italy, founded by Shablo and Fabrizio Ferraguzzo, manager of big names like Blanco and Sfera Ebbasta (the first) and Måneskin (the second). The guru has fan-followers all over the world (unspecified number), Hollywood stars like him a lot (Will Smith and Matthew McCounaghey, for example), his Isha Foundation invoices millions (in 2021 close to 30 million dollars) and is managed by 5,600 full-time people, almost all volunteers, and over 16 million part-time volunteers.

The one at Moysa is a limited meeting with artists from the Italian musical scene, officially the theme is “creativity and meditation”, in reality it goes freewheeling. Sitting in the audience there are Rkomi, Ghali, Irama, Alessandra Amoroso, Joan Thiele, Roshelle, Venus, Mace. Excused absences (work reasons) Elisa and Levante. The day before Sadhguru did sold out in a sports hall in Milan, the Allianz Cloud Arena in Milan, where he spoke alone for hours in front of 4 thousand people who paid from a few dozen up to 900 euros. Today the guru is more democratic, he says: ask what you like. What is the meaning of life?, they ask from the front rows. Sadhguru doesn’t agree and turns the question around: «What’s the point, or rather who’s the point of asking what the meaning of life is? What is the meaning of the sun rising, a flower blooming, the smile on a child’s face? It is only the human mind that must find meaning to escape madness.” Okay, if you can’t find meaning, how do you at least get to happiness?, asks another. «We all have the same needs, such as eating and sleeping, but our desires are different. How to find happiness? Why do you have to find happiness? When you were a child you were happy, then what happened? The problem is the brain capacity that the majority of human beings cannot manage.”

Sadhguru explains his proposal briefly: 32 hours of «focused time» in one of its centers around the world to initiate “mental engineering” that initiates the process of change. «Awareness is like a currency. Currency gives you access. We will do a simple design. These structures that you have built we have to take away a little », she says. There are seven phases but, as Ghali later points out when we meet him at the bar, «they are not very clear, he didn’t explain them». The guru, however, is very clear when he talks about religion: «Why this need to believe? Because you can’t be honest enough to say: what I don’t know, I don’t know. Certain fairy tales are told as great truths and these truths have killed too many people.” Here too Ghali is not convinced: «If green has so many shades, as he says, how can you say that God does not exist? Even religions have many nuances.” Rkomi, on the other hand, is admired: «I was struck by the ruthlessness with which he deals with the topic of religion. Important people are often afraid of being so outspoken. He, on the other hand, had no problems.” «It’s a way of dealing with the things you face they unlock something inside, it’s a mental stretching”, recognizes Ghali.

Sadhguru scolds the artists a bit. Roshelle, for example, who asks why it’s difficult to create intimacy with people. “You misunderstood the word intimacy: it means something internal, if it is created only physically it is not intimacy.” Ghali, who speaks in the plural and asks why we feel grateful and distant from the ego “only sometimes”, “but how do we do it always?”. Sadhguru: «But are you speaking for yourself or for others? What is true for you is true only for you.” But then he replies: «There is a difference between your psychological process and your existential process, but now they are confused. However, there is a way to create distance.” The artists? «I don’t want to offend anyone, but there is nothing you can do that is absolutely original: we are only imitating creation. As an artist, you can’t make anything new happen, you can make clever manipulations and show them to people. An artist sees a little more than others.”

At the end of the meeting, Sadhguru thanks with folded hands and invites everyone again to participate in one of his 32-hour retreats. Who will go there? «Maybe I do» (Ghali), «I should understand what it implies» (Rkomi), «Definitely yes» (Shablo). Certainly, it’s not every day you see so many big names in Italian music gathered in one room. «It’s true, it’s a blessing», says Ghali.