Who is Sadhguru? Will Smith jets to India to meet 'spiritual' leader
Will Smith was spotted in public for the first time since the infamous Oscars slap as he landed in India to meet with a spiritual guru.
Smith, 53, was pictured at a private airport in Mumbai on Saturday, April 23, where he was greeted by scores of fans whom he took photos with. The 'I am Legend' actor is reportedly in the country to meet spiritual leader Sadhguru, who Smith and his family first met in 2020 in Los Angeles. Smith's surprise public appearance came nearly a month after he slapped comedian Chris Rock on the Oscars stage for poking fun at his wife Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head.
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Smith was snapped wearing a white t-shirt, dark grey shorts over compression tights, and a pair of Nike sneakers. The embroiled star looked relaxed after touching down in India as he took photos with his fans and smiled before entering a building and giving someone a hug.
#WillSmith in Mumbai- post the Oscar slapgate. Reason for visit yet unknown - although was seen with a spiritual leader- he has in the past also met Sadhguru and been part of the Ganga Aarti in Benares pic.twitter.com/wCwuyhFiYa
— Griha Atul (@GrihaAtul) April 23, 2022
Who is Sadhguru?
Jagadish "Jaggi" Vasudev, popularly known as Sadhguru, is an Indian yoga guru and spiritual master. Smith has documented one of his meetings with the 65-year-old yogi at his LA residence in 2020. Sadhguru, who owns an Ashram in southern India, started his own non-profit spiritual foundation called 'Isha' and has more than three million followers on Twitter. He is currently meeting with world leaders as part of his campaign "Save Soil" which aims to preserve the integrity of agricultural land across the globe. The yogi also appeared on the popular podcast 'The Joe Rogan Experience' earlier this month.
Smith has previously revealed that he became a huge fan of the guru after reading his book 'Inner Engineering' and wanted to introduce him to his family. "I wanted my family to meet spiritual people, to start interacting with people who are not hooked on the material world," he said during their 2020 meeting in LA. Sadhguru was seen in a clip shared on Smith's social media, pulling up to the actor's LA home on a motorcycle for a chat with him and his daughter Willow. "In any area of life, those who are most successful are always the most miserable people because they get to the top of the world and the top of the world doesn't feel like the top of the world," the yogi tells the group. "What happened yesterday they're suffering today. Are you suffering life or your memory? You're just suffering your memory," he tells Smith, adding, "What may happen tomorrow you already suffer. You're suffering your imagination!" Willow later credited Sadhguru with helping her through an "existential crisis" and said she was filled with "gratitude" for that moment.
Last month, the guru raised eyebrows following an appearance on the British morning show 'This Morning', where he claimed that the Covid-19 pandemic didn't make people unhappy. He explained that "human suffering" took place because people "don't know how to handle themselves" physically and spiritually.
Meanwhile, Smith's wife Jada has continued to host her 'Red Table Talk' show on Facebook Watch. She referenced the notorious slap incident but did not elaborate further, promising the subject will be addressed sometime in the future. The 50-year-old actress issued a statement at the beginning of the first episode of season five of her talk series that was released on Wednesday, April 20. "Considering all that has happened in the last few weeks, the Smith family has been focusing on deep healing," the statement read. "Some of the discoveries around our healing will be shared at the table when the time calls. Until then…the table will continue offering itself to powerful, inspiring, and healing testimonies like that of our incredibly impressive first guest," it added.
