Joy 24 x 7

by Jeetendra Jain, Sadhguru

Joy 24x7 is a very simple but unusual exploration of Joy.

There is no religion in this book. There are no rituals prescribed here. There is no deep meditation being described here and neither is there any mention to any spiritual practice.

This is not a guidebook. This is not a “self-help” book. It is not going to give you “an instant formula for joy”. But it will surely make you explore your Joy for yourself in a very direct way. The simple, short snippets of daily lives connected with what Sadhguru has to say about Joy, will take you on a wonderful roller coaster ride on Joy with the Master himself.

With Sadhguru’s incredible clarity of expression, his brilliant wit and sense of observation, his ability to bring the most profound aspect in a very simple and direct way, this book is for any human being who seeks to be Joyful.

No matter who you are, what you are trying to do, Sadhguru’s words will touch a wonderful wave of Joy inside you and you will soon be restless to seek Joy 24x7.

Genres: Spirituality, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Self Help

145 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2008

Reviews

[Chantal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing read, it misses a lot. The substories of dev/Lila and Arya don't match the chapters. Next to that, the book isn't concrete, it misses how to do things or exercises to get somewhere. I guess you should just know things... weird when you buy a book like this you are mostly searching so you don't know that. It seems that the writer just took some YouTube videos or interviews of sadghuru and wrote that down making a book for profit.

[Samyuktha Ell · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, Sadhguru offers some meaningful advice on how to experience life completely by becoming joy. Truly enjoyed reading this. The book has changed my thinking in a number of positive ways.

[Bhakta Kishor · Rating 2 out of 5]

When you are fundamentally joyous, when you do not have to do anything to be happy, then every dimension of your life – the way you perceive and express yourself and the world – will change. You will no longer have vested interests because whether you do something or you do not do something, whether you get something or do not get something, whether something happens or does not happen, you will be joyous by your nature. When you are joyous by your nature, your actions will rise to a completely different level.

✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱

[Rajat Bansal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely reading this compilation of Sadhguru's words. For a bunch of awesome quotes, check out my detailed book review ...

[Tianjiao Dai · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be not disappointed by this book you need to have the right expectation. Like it said on the cover of the book, “this is not a self-help book”, and I think this is what this means: In this book Sadhguru will talk about all the wrong ways that don’t work, and will point you to the “right direction”, but you probably have no experience in this right direction and probably couldn’t even perceive a road in this direction, so in the end you would feel that it didn’t teach anything useful or practical. I think that’s how it is intended to work, because the path to joy and beyond that Sadhguru offers cannot be “learned” by reading a book. It is not difficult to see why this is the case even from a scientific perspective - after all your joy have a strong chemical base in your body, so in addition to book reading you at least need things like physical exercises and healthy diet, and there are things beyond that which cannot be simply “explained” intellectually in a book. According to Sadhguru, yoga shouldn’t be learned through books because it is not just physical exercise, there are subtler aspects to it.

Nevertheless I still consider this book as “worth reading” because even though changing your mindset only doesn’t seem like moving much closer to your goal, it is always an important first step. Sadhguru’s words always work as a good reminder for me no matter how many times I’ve seen it elsewhere. The parts by the other author of this book are less interesting to me but I suppose they are there to serve certain purpose - like telling a story might make the message in this book more vivid and easy to remember, though sometimes it puzzles me what’s the connection between the story and the message.

I did find the author’s personal experience of joy/blissfulness during his Samyama preparation period informative and motivating (it is mentioned in the last chapter of the book), since I’m practicing those meditation/yoga/Kriya practices taught by Sadhguru myself and have yet to see the benefits. I haven’t personally experienced something like blissfulness for a whole day, but I did have experienced a few minutes or hours of happiness/joy without any change in external situation during a period of time when there’s structured support in the ashram to do daily practice of all the yoga/kriya/mediation that Sadhguru taught.

Finally, some takeaways I got from this book that adds to my understanding of Sadhguru’s “philosophy”:

1. Joy is not the ultimate goal, it is the basic foundation - like health - without which you can’t pursue anything beyond effectively.

2. “If you don’t know joy within yourself, you cannot be free from the fruit of action because that would be the source of your joy.” So how can you not suffer from failure? Developing dispassion and renunciation is not the way to go - that’s working against life. You still desire success, but if you are already joyful, you won’t be affected by failure. (How can you become joyful directly without success? That’s not something this book will teach. If you don’t learn Isha yoga practices, then think of things like physical exercises, healthier diet, more social interactions, etc. - and the key is to do them consistently. Either through yoga practices or through methods known by modern scientific research, working diligently is inevitable to attain any results. You cannot work out joy only by thinking harder, that’s for sure.)

3. “Just unbridled intellectual activity is considered as intelligence but it is not. True intelligence is when you’re absolutely thoughtless and fully alert. Intelligence then functions in a completely different way.” A reminder to think less and conclude less. Not to downplay the importance of thinking, but energy-wise things should happen in a more balanced way, and thinking happens not just through your brain - your body also participates in important ways.

4. “First you must have an existence and then being joyful arises. Right now you are just a reflection of the society in which you live, there’s no such thing as you in this. Only an individual can know joy.” This is connected to the “I’m not my body, I’m not even my mind” thing which is still not quite in my experience yet.

5. “The reason why Joy is not a constant factor in your life is because you’re trying to handle it from the wrong end.” “If you want joy to be your quality and your way of being, you have to understand how it grows from roots, not from the other end - like buy it from the market. “ Joy is like the mango fruit, you need to work to grow it, and when you grow it, you need to work on roots and other parts of the tree which you don’t care directly about. I guess that’s like spending time doing physical exercises or doing volunteering work day after day - you may not even understand the connection to joy at first, but if you keep working one day it will happen.

6. “All the time, your one and only problem and the very basis of your misery is life is not happening the way you think it should happen.” “If everything happens the way you think it should, do you know what a mess you would make out of this world? Fortunately it is not happening your way.”

7. “If you are anyway joyful, exploitation has no impact on you.” The ultimate level of joy is such that even if your body is taken away, joy cannot be taken away - death doesn’t matter. Of course it’s not in my experience yet…

[Nozer Shroff]

Good one. Read it to know the reasons for misery and why we should be pursuing Joy. Read it slowly with introspection and understanding. If you understand the reasons that create misery and eliminate them to the extent possible from your life, then the ultimate result will that you will be automatically becoming joyful.

[Jen Baxter · Rating 5 out of 5]

sadhguru always makes sense and is a great story teller with whatever he is talking about. He inspires you to look inside and try to change the context of how you think about your life instead of constantly trying to change the content in your life.

[Amitha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I personally think .this book is the first step for inner growth

[Sid · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like Sadhguru's teachings but this book was a disappointment. This book is more like a transcript of Sadhguru's youtube video or a speech. The story of Dev, Lila, and Arya doesn't even make sense. Compared to the writing style of 'Inner Engineering' by Sadhguru, this book is trash. I forced myself to read 20-30 pages but I couldn't read it anymore. I hope someone else rewrites it to make it better.

[Erin Zinkhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a simple but powerful book. It has short vignettes followed by 1-2 pages of commentary. I found that just reading 1-3 stories at a time is helpful for putting me into a joyful mood for hours and sometimes days later.

[Akhilesh M · Rating 1 out of 5]

Its too stupid to read.

The orange was sour; is it me or the orange? It is the fuckin orange you moron. Get another.

And the family depicted in the book might just be the most stupid pseudo philosophical dimwits to have ever been imagined.

I am angry I even tried to read this.

[Barsha Rai · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a lovely book which doesn't take much of your time to finish. To find a joy, we tend to go to the extent of our life because we forget that it is not something we achieve from outside, rather it is something we already have within ourselves.

[Avinash · Rating 4 out of 5]

Life is meant for chanting God ans serving your nation only nothing else. your story and lectures are inspiration to us.

[Rajjo Anand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simply joy 24 / 7

Good read. Good insight on how to be joyful or rather how to not be miserable. Think but don't complicate.

[Tanvi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simply blissful.

[Ajay Sarawagi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read

[Diksha Taank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definately Joy 24x7 😍

[Jilles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book about the natural joy of life without leaning on any religion.

[Geethananthini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book itself a joy. A must read for those who wants to know the real meaning of joy. You can be joyful with any moment in your life if you know how to be through this book.

[sheetal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Feeling blessed

Each word makes you feel transformed. Your internal part stimulates positivity and feels more rejuvenated to live for your life.

[Daisy ! · Rating 5 out of 5]

the most exceptional book I have ever read
!

[Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dude this book has CODES. Such tiny little chapters but packed with deep wisdom that there were moments I felt I was in the edge of fully comprehending the depth of what was trying to be transmitted and that alone left me deeply moved. Imagine if/when I really “get it.” Loved this book.

[SweatyNerdie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple guide to finding joy in everyday life. However, I wish the book had exercises or pratical tips that readers could apply in their lives.

[Rajkumar Chauhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice

[Bhakta Kishor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything that a human being does is only in pursuit of his joy. So whether you are racing with the rats or with the dinosaurs – if that is your choice, why don't you do it joyfully? If you are going to be in this race for a major part of your life, what you are saying is that you cannot be joyful for a major part of your life. You believe that when the race stops or when you fall out of it or when you are incapable of racing, you will be joyful. This is an argument for living miserably.

Joy is not about what you do and what you do not do. Joy is about how you are within yourself. If only your mind and your emotion happened the way you wanted it, if your mind was taking instructions from you, you would definitely keep it joyful. The question is not about joy or misery, the question is just whether your mind is out of control or in control. If it is in control, you would definitely create a joyful situation within yourself. Only because it is out of control – it is happening in random reaction to external situations – it is not joyful.

You can manage external situations only to a certain extent. Whether you are in the race or not in the race, outside situations happen your way only to some extent, and never 100% your way. If your inner situation is happening in compulsive reaction to the external situation, you being joyful is always going to be accidental.

What you call as the outside is a million different ingredients over which you have no control. But inside there is only one – you. If you happen the way you want yourself to be, your choice would definitely be joy. The problem is just that your interiority -- your body, your mind, your energies, your emotions ~~ nothing is happening the way you want it. Everything is happening accidentally, in compulsive reaction to the situations in which you exist.

As there is a science and technology to create external situations the way we want it, there is a whole science and technology to create inner situations the way we want it. If we employ this technology, an inner technology, the yogic technology to create your inner situations the way you want it, being joyful or not being joyful is never in question because if you had a choice your intelligence would definitely choose to be joyful, not miserable. So, in the race or out of the race is not the question. The question is, whether your body, mind, emotion, and energies are taking instructions from you or are they happening in a compulsive reaction to external situations?

♋ ♋ ♋ ♋ ♋ ♋ ♋ ♋ ♋ ♋ ♋ ♋ ♋ ♋ ♋ ♋ ♋ ♋ ♋ ♋ ♋ ♋ ♋ ♋ ♋ ♋ ♋ ♋

[Sharanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple, easy to understand words of wisdom to guide us….

If people and situations around us are unpleasant, that’s bad enough. You don’t have to turn yourself, your own body, mind, and energies into unpleasantness.
No human being can live up to your expectations. Nobody. Not one human being on this planet will behave exactly the way you expect him to behave.

Just because a large number of people do something, it does not mean that is the right thing to do.

The source of your misery is not your past actions. The source of your misery is the way you’re processing the material of the past.

So the quality of your life will change not by changing the content of your life, it will change only by changing the context of your life.

[Nidhi Sehgal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been following sadghuru and his spritual practices from the past few months.His journey from an entrepreneur to a philanthropist and spiritual guru is inspirational.I feel grateful that I got inclined towards these practices and the teaching.This is the second book of sadghuru that I read ,First one was Inner Engineering.This book was like a box of sweet for me,He explained life's complicated things in a story telling form by using three beautiful characters ,Dev,Lila and Arya.This book is easy to read ,I finished it quite quickly ,I wish if I would have read it with a slower pace,I would have gained more.I recommend this book to all those who are longing to get a glimpse of spirituality 😊

[Ardent Richa · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is an energy to this book that palpitates...A very insightful and wonderful book that covers what is beyond the mind, the heart & of course the body.
There is no religion,rituals or any magic described in this book. It took almost a month to read this simple book to feel the journey of extreme inner energy to think inwards .It's about self assessment, analysis and improvement. The only truth is to find inner joy and peace.
Joy - search and you shall find !!
Happy reading :)

[Ossoleil · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm flabbergasted
I enjoy reading ancient and modern philosophy books, and actually happened to stumble on this one by accident, what a fine coincidence it was.
It is not overintelectualized yet it is far from self-help book category. Sprinkled with little life stories at the beginning of each chapter lessens the distance between the reality and written word. Recommend

[anil c mistry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book

It's was nice should read it .... how our life is really but I would love if it tell about how to balance d modern life with being joyous