A recent article about life coach, spiritual guru and podcaster Jay Shetty has rudely awakened the world about his vastly shared story of being a monk for a couple of years before becoming a public figure. According to John McDermott’s article in The Guardian, there are many discrepancies in Shetty’s backstory of how he began his spiritual journey.
Shetty began his journey at Cass Business School in London, in most of his interviews, and personal accounts he has talked about going to a lecture by a monk at his university; Which changed his outlook on life as he knew it. Jay Shetty described himself before the lecture as someone who constantly read up on celebrity autobiographies and rags-to-riches stories, but after it, he realised that he wanted to let go of his material wealth for a while to become a monk.
According to Shetty, he moved to Mumbai, India and lived the life of a monk for three whole years. But there are a few details that the influencer seems to have left out. The Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day author was reportedly already in association with an ISKON temple community in England long before he became inspired by Gauranga Das’ lecture at his university.
Apparently, the author and podcaster has also been recorded sharing different ages of when he heard the guest lecture by Das at his college in London. Apart from this, it seems that the influencer’s coaching school has questionable quality. Reports reveal that Ofqual (The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation) said it does not approve The Jay Shetty Certification School’s accreditations. Not only this, but enrolling in the school costs a great deal and yet, as per an investigative report by The Guardian details such as the kind of other universities it’s associated to (on its website) have turned out to be false.
Apart from this, Shetty’s journey to fame and wealth is quite interesting. From spending three years being a monk to being guided by his mentors that he should use his oratory skills to share wisdom with the rest of the world; somewhere in between, Jay Shetty became a star.
From that point onwards, the podcaster moved to LA in 2018 and swiftly became friends with Russell Brand and Will Smith. Which led to Shetty starting multiple businesses and having various passive income sources; From his coaching school to becoming a chief purpose officer at Calm (a meditation app), he really, really rose.
What made his rise to fame even more monumental was how many Hollywood celebrities he started coming in contact with because of the interviews he conducted on his podcast. Back when all of this took place, no one considered just how suspicious it was that he had gained so much popularity in such little time.
But come 2019 people began calling Shetty out for copying and frivolously taking other people’s content and reposting it. Which ultimately began the entire debate of his legitimacy and how sincere he really was about his spiritual knowledge and his intentions to share it with others.
Hence came his downfall, 2019 was the year people started questioning him and now McDermott’s article in The Guardian has really pointed out some major flaws that have made a few things about his backstory clearer.
We’re not quite sure this ‘downfall’ will really be a fall of any sort. All we can hope for is that we find the truth.