My Experience with Inner Engineering - A Course For Creating the Life & World You Want

Written by Evita Ochel

Published on Apr. 28, 2011  •  Updated on Feb. 24, 2016 

There are many things that I highly value in my life. One of the biggest is a never-ending state of expansion of my being on every level of the mind, body, and spirit. This is why I excite at new opportunities of expansion. For me, stagnation in any of these areas is to limit the infinite potential of the human being. I greatly enjoy engaging myself in various written and video content that exercises the mind to expand in awareness, clarity, and sharpness.

When I am in the divine flow of life and alignment, it is then that I always receive the most perfect opportunities for me and my being. As is the case, the right material seems to come at just the right times. Such was the case with being introduced to the book Midnights with the Mystic. This book led me to discover the wonderful work of the yogi Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev and the Isha Foundation. It led me to interview Cheryl Simone, the co-author of that book, and to Sadhguru’s Mystic Wisdom DVD. This is how I came upon Sadhguru’s course Inner Engineering.

In the spring of 2011, just a few days ago, I completed this course and would like to share its gift with you via this review. In summary, the course is perhaps the most valuable course one can ever take. It is a course which I consider to be a pre-requisite for any of us to navigate through life with ease and understanding, and be effective life creators. Life doesn’t come with a manual, but this course provides something that comes very close.

Course Structure

The Inner Engineering course is a 7-day online course run by an enlightened yogi from India named Sadhguru. While it has been available to take in person, at live locations for some time, it is fairly new in the online format.

The course is composed of 7 video lectures, which are each about 1 and a half hours. After each video lecture, there are about 4 reflection homework/assignment questions. The questions must be done before access to the next lesson is provided. However, the questions are not graded or anything like that, and simply serve as a nice summation to allow us to absorb the material we have experienced better.

The 7 video lectures are meant to be done in 7 days. Access is given to finish the course in 30 days, but as Sadhguru explains, for the most benefit from the course, it should be done in 7 consecutive days. There are no rules as to when the course should be done during the day. It can be first thing in the day, last thing in the day, or at some point throughout. What I feel would help, is to do it around the same time each day if possible, having about 24 hours to put the previous material into practice.

The videos are of high HD quality and the overall layout of the course application is very user friendly, simple and aesthetically appealing.

As a bonus to the course, each student gets enough credits to access over 4 hours of extra video material featuring Sadhguru speak on various topics.

Other than your computer and a good internet connection, no other materials are needed. Headphones are recommended, especially if you will be doing the course in an environment with other noises. It is most important to simply allocate 1.5-2 hours to yourself for 7 days without any interruption. (This means turning off your phones, making sure children are in someone else’s care, not eating, drinking, etc.)

The cost of the course is $150US. There is an option currently to register for the course and a 2 day in-person follow-up, a Shambhavi Mahamudra, for $299US.

Course Content

So what is Inner Engineering? First off, let us start with what it is not. It is not any kind of belief system, ritual, philosophy, religion or course on morality, ethics or anything like that.

What it is, is a method for life, a technology, a science—an inner science, based on ancient yogic sciences—for personal empowerment, inner peace and joy. It is a method for understanding how to be a conscious creator, and hence create the life you desire on every level. There are no theories or teachings to learn, believe or memorize. There is only the aspect of experiencing the method for oneself and feeling the benefits in one’s life.

It is a course for inner transformation, consciousness expansion and liberation. It helps us live with purpose and meaning, and be masters of our own destiny. It is a course which identifies the root causes of human suffering and by expanding our awareness, helps us move out of those states to live in our natural state of being—peace-filled bliss. 

The course also provides a platform for:

Improving our physical health

Reaching our highest potential

Eliminating stress from our lives

Maintaining high energy

Eliminating fear, worry and anxiety

Improving personal relationships

Increasing productivity 

The 7 class topics are: 

The Mechanics of Life

The Only Bondage

To Live and Live Fully

You Are Not What You Think

Mind – The Miracle

Sounds of Creation

Creating Your Own Life

Each lesson includes a short opening mantra-like meditation and a closing guided meditation.

Personal Experience and Commentary

I began the course on a Monday evening. There was no specific reasoning for it working out that way, it just did. From there on I did the course for the 7 days straight, as the last part of each day.

I think I smiled through the entire first session. Why is that? You know how you can feel your entire being—mind, body and soul—align when something resonates with you? Well, that was exactly my feeling.

First off, Sadhguru’s presence is so welcoming, so warm, so wise, so humorous and so real. His wisdom speaks directly to my soul, and acts as one of the biggest sign-posts of reminding me of what the human potential is capable of. I resonated so strongly with all that he said, and inside of me all feelings kept saying “Of course! Thank you for reminding me.”

As much as I enjoyed the first session, my enjoyment of and delight for this course only grew with each session. The wisdom, the methods – so simple to apply, so clear to understand – and yet so many of us struggle and suffer so unnecessarily in our lives for no better reason than a lack of awareness. There is another way, an easier way. So many of us, even in the spiritual and personal development arenas seem to still think that some suffering, anger or disappointment is normal or unavoidable. Well, it does not have to be this way at all. We can live in such a different state, experiencing the divine fullness of our being to enjoy this amazing journey of life in the physical form. 

There is no doubt in my mind that we can live with constant inner peace, in a state of bliss. Now please do not misunderstand bliss here. I do not mean some euphoric state of always being joyful or happy, but bliss in a sense that no matter what happens, you know you are more than okay.

The first five classes wove together thematically and built upon each other a clear understanding and experience of how we approach life. Topics were so valuable, practical and so relevant relating to why we suffer, how we can move beyond this, the significance of the present moment, awareness, and so much more. 

What I loved most about these classes are that they stimulated my inner being, like it hasn’t been stimulated in some time. When I first experienced my spiritual awakening and embarked on the deep journey of personal growth and transformation, all the wisdom I came across seemed new and exciting. This allowed me to get to an amazing place, but I knew the journey did not stop there. So for a while now, any material I came across seemed wonderful, but it did not stimulate my expansion deeply enough. I wanted to move on to the next step. I wanted to push my conscious awareness and my expansion further, and this course provided for just that. 

I appreciated so much what Sadhguru shared and how he shared it. His humor made for such a great experience—laugh-out-loud at times. His logic, so clear and to the point allows the student, to most importantly reach their own conclusions. The stories and examples he shared drove home the points flawlessly.

Two aspects that I especially found of great value for myself was Sadhguru’s explanation of “Karma” and “Yoga”. It was so enlightening as here in the West I realized we have such a skewed definition of both. They are both so powerful, and the average person in the West has no idea of their proper definition or full potential in their life.

Then came class 6. The themes took a new turn and more enlightening material came, which I was able to integrate more fully in an expanded meaning and purpose. The class “Sounds of Creation” was beautiful and again, as the previous ones, so valuable for my life.

When the last class came, I knew better not to attach myself to the ending, but nonetheless I knew that the next evening I would miss Sadhguru’s presence and wisdom as part of my day. It had become such a delicious way to end each day. For that 1 and a half hours I was immersed fully and completely, not in some mind-numbing TV program, but something that awakened, revitalized and stimulated the whole of my being. When the concluding part came, I could not help but end off with tears in my eyes. The feelings were of pure bliss and joy knowing that I got such a valuable gift, which would only improve my life even more.

While doing this course, it was helpful ands valuable that I had previous experience with the Vipassana Meditation course. In no way do you need this background for the Inner Engineering course, but for myself it simply compounded the wisdom learned in Vipassana and made it that much more a real part of my life. And just like with Vipassana, I know the benefits of this course will continue multiplying, as I continue to apply the Inner Engineering science throughout my life.

In terms of the extra video material provided as part of the course, it too is highly valuable and enjoyable. The fun part is that there are lots of topics to choose from to answer various questions we each might have about different aspects of life, from what may seem like small and insignificant stuff, to the big questions.

The extra material video lecture I enjoyed the most, was a bonus 1 hour lecture Sadhguru gives about food and eating. In it he covers what we eat, should eat and why for attaining better results on the mind, body and soul level. He explained so well how the food we choose to eat and how much of it, affects the functioning of our physical body, as well as mind. You simply can’t clog your body with junk, and expect your mind to be sharp enough to make the most out of life. I was nodding and smiling as here was no nutritionist or doctor trying to justify or defend a modern food system that is not working, but an enlightened being who got to the heart of the matter in a no-nonsense kind of way. The most important thing he did was simply to bring awareness and let us decide for ourselves in a most honest way, as to what kind of results we want for our path of expansion.

There is just one thing that can be improved upon where this course is concerned, that I can think of and that is a certain part of the technology aspect. As the course is set up to mimic a real-life course scenario, there is no way to rewind or forward, or control the video timeline. There is only an option to pause it.

This works to a small disadvantage because if your Internet signal drops, the video screen may freeze. If you go back to the home course page and start the video, it seems to start from the beginning, rather than from where it left off from. While this was not a big deal, I mean how great to hear Sadhguru again and let the wisdom really sink in, it did make for a really disjointed experience a few times. So adding a video timeline control would in my opinion enhance the usability experience.

Finally, after the 5th class (too bad it took so long), I figured out a way to get it to play from where it dropped off at, instead of starting over. So if this should happen to you, when it freezes and doesn’t start back within a few seconds/minutes, close the browser’s tab and log back in all over again, then choose the class video again. In this way it seemed to start from the spot it got cut off from. The key is not to play with the pause-play button. 

One last thing I want to mention is the cost. There are so many spiritual programs out there that I have no doubt can be very beneficial each in their own way for our personal evolution, but which limit so many from taking advantage of them due to their cost. This is another reason why I advocate for this course so much, because it is so affordable for almost everyone. An investment of $150 to transform your life over a long term is beyond worth it. If for any reason you think you would like to take it, but the money may be holding you back, I invite you to consider how much you spend in your life on a regular basis on items which do not add any meaningful value to your life, like junk food, alcohol, more clothes, more unnecessary stuff for your house, lotteries or whatever the items or events may be. The other thing to note is that this is not a business trying to make money, but a not-for-profit, volunteer based organization, which aims to help others worldwide.

Next Steps

After having completed the course, students now have a few options. The next step is to do a Shambhavi Mahamudra with Sadhguru. This is an in-person/on-location 2 day program where Sadhguru expands upon the ideas of the the Inner Engineering method and teaches participants an ancient method of meditation used to access deeper, inner realms. These are run at various locations throughout the US several times per year.

Other options include attending one of the numerous Isha Yoga programs in North America or in India with Sadhguru.

Finally, one can also at any time, with or without this course enjoy hearing Sadhguru speak. Sadhguru travels worldwide and offers his wisdom to crowds in various countries. I am looking forward to take part in an event Sadhguru will be doing in Toronto, ON on May 28, 2011.

Conclusion

Out of all the books, retreats, videos, courses or other expanding material I have come across, this is probably the one that I recommend the most thus far. The reason for this is that aside from the immense practical value that one attains from it, it is so easy and accessible to do for everyone.

There is nowhere to go, no need to schedule a vacation, or invest a large chunk of one’s time or money. There is simply a need to say “yes” and make a small 7 day commitment to transforming your life. This course can be done comfortably in the place of your choosing, and make you feel like you have a live Guru in front of you.

Will you get out of it what I did? No. Each of our journeys is deeply unique and personal, but if all that I wrote above speaks to you or excites you, then I can almost guarantee that you will find Inner Engineering highly transformational for your life. I hope you enjoy the program as much as I did, should you choose to take it.

If life were to come with a manual, this in my opinion would be it! If we all applied the Inner Engineering technology, our world would instantly transform to exist from a foundation of peace, joy, and compassion for all beings. 

*NOTE: The Inner Engineering course is not an affiliate program, nor do I benefit in any way whether you register for the course. Our world, collective consciousness, and your life, however, will benefit.