Jay Shetty
Jay Shetty is a British entrepreneur, author, life-coach, meditation proponent, and the host of the On Purpose podcast.
Shetty was studying at Cass Business School when he heard a monk speak about selflessness and living a minimalist lifestyle. He then began exploring meditation and mindfulness by spending his summers with the Hare Krishna monks in their monasteries. After he graduated from Cass Business School in 2010, Shetty spent three years as a Hindu monk in India and the UK.
Shetty was able to combine his business acumen and his passion for mindfulness to create a successful YouTube channel, after a short spell working at the Huffington Post. Shetty launched the On Purpose podcast in 2019 and became the Chief Purpose Officer of Calm, a meditation app, in 2022. Shetty has also published two best-selling books: Think Like a Monk, in 2020, and 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go, in 2023.
Shetty grew up eating meat but became vegetarian at the age of fifteen. He told The Ranveer Show:
“On the way back from school I would walk past a butcher’s every day and so I would see the animals hanging in the window. And when I saw that, that was the first time I registered ‘oh, that chicken that’s hanging there, that’s the chicken I’m eating in my chicken sandwich from McDonalds.’ […] It was such a direct link for me, so I was like, OK, well I don’t want to do that any more.”
Then, in 2016, when Shetty married his wife, Radhi, a long-time vegan, Shetty became vegan himself.
“So, starting physically, I actually found giving up dairy products stopped me from getting ill as often […] Since I’ve gone vegan, I’ve not experienced much ill health so that’s been great. On a mental level, I definitely feel lighter. You know, I feel lighter and clearer. I feel like I have more clarity and more stillness, and less aggression in my life.
And spiritually it’s given me a love for really appreciating animals. It’s so beautiful to see–equally–these incredible creatures and creations, and to appreciate them, to appreciate the life in them. That lion or that chicken or that cow, has life. It feels pain, it feels love, it feels motherly love. If you’ve never seen a cow caring for its calf or if you’ve never seen a kangaroo caring for its baby kangaroo, it’s a beautiful joy to watch that and when you deeply look at that you really start appreciating that there is that beautiful living force that we have inside ourselves inside of them as well.”
