SADHGURU

Saving the world

The remarkable achieve-ments of a remarkableman: Sadhguru JaggiVasudevWords: Martin Gill

India is a great nation, steeped in a rich cultural heritage that has providedfour of the world's major religions (Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and Buddhism),17 major languages, and ancient spiritual practices including yoga and medita-tion. After China, it is the most populated country in the world, with thefourth-largest economy in purchasing power and the second-fastest growingeconomy, which is expected to continue through the rapid growth of informa-tion technologies. Despite this economic stability the country is facing a severecrisis. Statistics report that that almost 400 million of its 1 billion populationlive in poverty, 75% of which occupy the rural areas, and at least 40% of Indianpeople are illiterate*.

However, there is one man who is at the forefront in the efforts to changethis. He is a modern-day guru who dresses in jeans and rides motorbikes, andattracts crowds in excess of 100,000 people who flock from across the globe tohear his lectures on Inner Engineering or attend his Isha Yoga programmes.Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev effortlessly touches the lives of the people he meets;whether addressing the United Nations Millennium Peace Summit, charringbusiness events such as the World Economic Forum and the Indian EconomicSummit, working with the business community for which he delivers InnerWellbeing programmes to powerful organisations such as Time-Warner andMicrosoft, or working with society's most hardened criminals as part of hisPrison Outreach programme that runs in America and India.

* www.indiaonestop.com/povertyindia

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Sadhguru grew up as an intelligent child whoexperienced meditative states at a young age. Hebecame utterly disinterested with school life andclassed teachers as "talking about something thatdidn't mean anything in their life. It was just a jobthey were doing," Refusing to enroll in Universityand follow in his father's footsteps of becoming adoctor, Sadhguru decided to educate himself andspent a whole year in the library of the local univer-sity for this purpose.

Eventually, when he did decide to enroll in col-lege and obtain a degree, he chose English litera-ture. Whilst he missed most of the lectures andspent times in the college gardens, he formed theBanyan Tree Club with his friends, where theywould share their passion for motorcycles and planhow to make the world a better place. He thenspent time travelling India on his motorbike andexploring nature, before passing his final collegeyear exams without attending any of the classes.Instead of furthering his studies, Sadhguru thoughtabout making some money which would enablehim to travel, and so set up a successful poultryfarm, much to the dismay of his family and friends.

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He is a modern-day guru who dresses in jeansand rides motorbikes, and attracts crowdsin excess of 1 00,000 people who flock fromacross the globe to hear his lectures

This lifestyle enabled him to spend time reading and writing poetry,meditating and being by himself which gave him time to explore whathad begun happening to him a few years later. It was not long after thisthat his spiritual transformation began, which occurred on the 23rd ofSeptember 1981.

According to his book, Mystic Musings, Sadhguru entered a medita-tive state and felt himself become part of the environment and the envi-ronment become part of him. This experience was attributed as beingthat of samadhi, which literally means the "merging of the subject andthe object." These "states" became more frequent and lasted as long as13 days. People who witnessed Sadhguru in these "states" held him inreverence, trying to touch his feet and adorn him with garlands. During

this period, Sadhguru's body began to physically alter, and "changed sodrastically that people around me could clearly see that something washappening to me." Sadhguru was overwhelmed with "lifetimes of mem-

ory" and the sceptic within him led him to meet the people and explorethe places that he had previously lived. The experiences began to recurmore frequently and became a permanent reality. He clearly saw that itwas possible for every other human being to also experience these states,and began searching for methods to make this happen. This led to theformulation of the Isha Yoga and Inner Engineering programmes. For awhile, he spent half his time divided between farming and travelling tovarious cities and towns offering these programmes to people. Oncethere was a sufficient number of people who wanted to experience yogafull-time, and plunge deeper and deeper in search of the ultimate, hecreated Isha Foundation as an appropriate social mechanism to fulfillthe needs and aspirations of the people.

From this point, Sadhguru's mission was to develop Dhyanalinga. InSanskrit, Dhyana means meditation and Linga the form. When a per-son enters a deep state of meditativeness within, the spiritual energy

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SADHGURU

Participants from all over the worldgather at Isha Yoga Centre to attend theWholeness Programme with Sadhguru

takes the shape of a Linga. Linga means perfect ellipsoid which is scien-tifically the only shape that can serve as a perennial storehouse of ener-gy. The construction of the Dhyanalinga Multi-Religious shrine wascompleted in 1999, the first of its kind in over 2000 years. It was conse-crated by Sadhguru through a 3 year intense period of prana prathista,where the energies of all the 7 chakras were raised to the peak andlocked to prevent dissipation over time. It is expected that the energiesof the Dhyanalinga will last for at least 5,000 years. In the tradition it isalways said that for one to experience meditation or dhyana, one has tobe initiated by a Guru. Seekers do much penance or sadhana just toreceive this grace. But, the uniqueness of the Dhyanalinga is that eventhose who are unaware of meditation can experience deep states ofmeditativeness and feel the divine energy that radiates from the shrine.

The basic thrust of the Dhyanalinga is to foster spiritual growth andevolution of a person. However, the shrine emanates 7 different: quali-ties of life on the 7 days of the week, by which one may derive variousbenefits including synchronicity with nature, concentration, and thequickening in the dissolution of karmic bondage.

Sadhguru formed a yoga programme called Isha Yoga which gavebirth to the Isha Yoga Centre and Ashram near Coimbatore, TamilNadu, in South India in 1992. From this base, he further establishedthe Isha Foundation, a non-religious, non-political, non-profit makingorganisation that set up a number of social and environmental projectsplanned to address India's problems. Its aim was to help the mostunderprivileged people in the rural communities with the basic humanrequirements of food, shelter and medical help and education. Besides

Even those who are unaware of meditation canexperience deep states of meditativeness and feelthe divine energy that radiates from the shrine.As Sadhguru states, "Anyone who comes within the sphere ofDhyanalinga cannot escape the sowing of the spiritual seed of libera-tion." According to Sadhguru the Dhyanalinga sows the spiritual seedinto the individual's etheric body which lasts forever, compared to otherpractices which work on the physical, mental or energy bodies that onlyproduce a Temporary transformation that can be lost anytime in life.

Isha Foundation's Project GreenHands is a grassroots environmental initiative that aims at restoring lostecological resources through large-scale tree planting and nature awareness campaigns

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providing these necessities, the core of each project was based onSadhguru's notion of Inner Wellbeing as a holistic approach of unitingthe mind, body, spirit and emotion to create inner harmony amongstindividuals and communities as the key to coping with difficult situa-tions they will inevitably face in life. One such project is the Action forRural Rejuvenation (ARR) which was set up in 2003 to provide imme-

diate medical care and support for rural com-munities. The methods of Inner Wellbeingfocused on reinstating herb gardens for homeremedies which will eventually reduce ruraldependence on allopathic medicines, yoga pro-grammes to improve inner wellbeing, and theintroduction of games and tournaments todevelop a sense of community. The ARR hasalso been specifically designed to educate thevillagers to become more self-sufficient and totake responsibility for their own lives and thatof the community, which serves as a model ofempowerment through participation.

Another noble crusade, The Isha Vidhyaproject, focused on combating India's bleakeducational future. At present, there is a short-age of skilled men between the ages of 18 and50, and this alarming "trend" shows no hopeof change, as backed up by the damning ASERreport in 2005, which concluded, amongstother findings that 40% of children agedbetween 6 and 11 are deprived of primary

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One of the boats made by the In-Home BoatManufacturing Unit to help tsunami

survivors to restore their livelihood

education. The first Isha Vidhya School was set up in June 2006, inSandegounden Palayam, Coimbatore. This groundbreaking institutioncaters for over 260 children, all of whose scholarships are paid for bythe Isha Foundation. The school intends to empower the next genera-tion of rural Indian children through education, preparing them to beable to compete on a global platform by producing English speaking,computer literate students. Although Sadhguru understands the impor-tance of westernised learning, the schools will maintain its Indian her-itage through traditional dress and having the students sitting on matswhilst in class. This model of "educational empowerment" serves as ablueprint for many more schools that will surely follow: in fact the IshaVidhya have confidently set a target of opening 206 schools (one foreach of the talks Tamil Nadu) within 5 years. Once running theseschools will be offering much needed education and hope for over

Pupils with oneof the many tools

used in IshaVidhya, a proj-ect to empower

underprivilegedrural children

with world-classeducation

250,000 Indian children at once. It also aims to eventually provide onecomputer between every 5 students, and to build up a library of learn-ing materials of print, audio and visual content, as well as eventuallydeveloping their own teacher training centre and learning materials.

Besides these and countless other social projects, the Isha Foundationis also committed to tackling environmental concerns, the most auda-cious being Project Green Hands. Project Green Hands began in 2005 asa costal protection project to ensure in the future that rural villageswould have the same protection as that afforded to villages saved fromthe tsunami devastation because of their green-belt cover. The projectalerted the Isha Foundation to the desertification across Tamil Nadu, andin October 2006 the project was launched to reinstate 10% of greencover. The project aims to plant over 114 million trees over the next 10years, and if planting this number of trees sounds like a tall order, it isworth mentioning that 852,587 trees were planted in one day; a feat thatis expected to enter the Guinness Book Of World Records. Such is theinspiration of Sadhguru, that through the Isha Foundation over 200thousand volunteers helped with the planting of the trees which werecarefully selected to provide timber, shade, fruit and medicines for thecommunities. With such a massive operation, the Isha Foundationrecognised the importance of involving the volunteers on all levels,including setting up children's eco-clubs and encouraging those whoplanted the saplings to care for them for the next few years, reinforcingan attitude of "caring participation" in their own environment and thewider world. If this project becomes a success there are plans to intro-duce the scheme in other under-developed parts of the world.

It is clear to see that the Isha Foundation is addressing the most fun-damentally long-term problems that India faces. But despite this com-mitted effort the Isha Foundation is ready to help with more immediateemergencies, as demonstrated with their heavy involvement with thetsunami relief work, where its volunteers provided food, shelter and

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SADHGURU

medical assistance on the very first day of the tragedy. Not only wasSadhguru responsible for leading the teams of volunteers and coordinat-ing the relief work, he took a hands-on approach and designed newhousing for the survivors which were specifically created to withstandthe threat of any potentially destructive waves. Sadhguru also intro-duced strategies of organising village volleyball tournaments and yogaprogrammes to balance the "inside" and to combat the mental traumasthat the survivors faced.

As with all of the Isha Foundation's projects, money is raised throughIsha fundraising events, corporate sponsors and individual donationsand therefore places no financial burdens on the Indian government.The Isha Foundation has forged strong links with national and interna-tional organisations such as the Times Foundation of New Delhi andthe Covantas Energy Corporation of America, enabling projects such asthe ARR to secure subsidised health care, and provide mobile healthclinics and teams of medical staff. Through these business links theARR plans to implement a second phase of building "rural developmentcentres" of libraries, pharmacists, gymnasiums and health clinics. It isamazing to recognise that one man is responsible for organising numer-ous social projects with such vision and commitment. Sadhguru is trulya great humanitarian, a modern-day saint.

As well as helping large communities at once, Sadhguru has developedseveral Isha Yoga programmes that are designed to empower individuals.The programmes are based on the ancient discipline of Shakti ChalanaKriya yoga which are "powerful and purifying breathing techniquesutilised to encourage the flow of vital energy into the central channel, orsushumna." They implement deeply self-transformative kriyas like theShambhavi Maha Mudra and Shoonya Meditation "an effortless process ofconscious non-doing" which releases the "physical, mental and emotionalblocks' which "activates spontaneous expression of one's vital energy".Carried out over a 13 day programme, Isha Yoga for adults "allows truth tobe experienced, not just learned' and serves as "the corner stone for IshaFoundation's Silent Revolution of Self-Realisation." Isha Yoga forms the

core of the two other programmes; the Inner Engineering programme andthe Wholeness programme. Inner Engineering is an Intensive 3-day pro-gramme offered by Isha Centres around the world. By contrast, theWholeness programme is an 8-day residential programme led by Sadhguruat the Isha Yoga Centre, which incorporates some simple preparatoryHathi yoga practices and offers participants a deeper exploration, wherethe Kriyas can be described as more foundational. Both programmes offersimple practices that individuals can easily fit into their day, and aredesigned to improve health, increase energy and promote clarity of mind.These benefits are also provided by the Isha Yoga programme for Childrenthat are run as an "exploration of fun, love and joy".

Several months after discovering the work of the Isha Foundation, I

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received an invitation to attend one of his Inner Engineering - Peak of

Wellbeing lectures and I naturally jumped at the chance to find out

more about Sadhguru and the ethos behind the programmes. The lecture

took place in Euston in London, and the smart-looking hall was quickly

filled with hundreds of people of all ages, races and religions. As 1 sat

there waiting for Sadhguru to enter, I must admit that on such a beauti-

ful, sunny day, the thought of sitting inside for 2 hours filled me with

dread, and I thought back to the times of many boring university lec-

tures where 1 had to constantly battle to keep my attention focused for

to be joyful, and he reinforced

the notion that being happy

and joyful is not the highest

goal in life, it is the "most fun-

damental goal." Sadhguru

serves as guide to encourage us

to use the natural tools that we

all possess to restore a sense of

joy in each of us, a joy that we

all naturally had as young chil-

dren, yet has diminished in the

majority of us as we grew older.

The ability to experience and

maintain a joyful state rests in

our own hands. Happiness is

just the ability to create our

own "inner situations the way we want it." Yet the majority of us allow our

happiness to be controlled by other people, and external situations and fac-

tors that are out of our hands. As Sadhguru stared, "We can never control

these outside forces, but we can control the inner force of our own mind,

body, spirit and emotions. When the outside is not going the way that we

want it, is not important to make the inside go the way we want it?" What

Sadhguru eloquently referred to as "controlling the interiority" or "inner sci-

ence", and only when we have mastered this inner science to maintain a

Only when we have mastered this inner scienceto maintain a joyful state, can we truly be of anygood to other people and the planet.longer than 10 minutes. How wrong I was. As soon as this larger-than-

life, yet unimposing, man appeared, my concentration was fixed, and

even though I was sitting about 30 feet away from the stage, I could feel

a strong energy about him. The lecture flew by as I absorbed every can-

did word, and at the end I wanted to immediately sit through it again.

Sadhguru is a remarkable speaker, who illuminated his philosophies with

moral fables, jokes and hilarious tales that would make the most sea-

soned comedian go green with envy. He covered subjects ranging from

religion to snakes, and everything in-between, and fielded questions

from the audience with ease on subjects including meditation, duality

and cults, offering guiding answers but at the same time encouraging the

search for their own truths. His visionary approach of changing the lives

of individuals and the world for the good of mankind was narrated with

a mystical wisdom that was accessible and easy to comprehend.

He talked of a "natural human longing for expansion, not wanting to set-

tle for what we've got." This longing, is the life that is within us that desires

"Now I don't experience this place as a prison, but as a place for

reflecting on my life. " Coimbatore - Central Inmate who wasenrolled on the 'Inner Freedom for the Imprisoned' Programme

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SADHGURU

Isha holds the 'Rural Olympics' which brings together peoplefrom all caste, creed, religion or economic status to promotesocial bonding and reduce addictions

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joyful state, can we truly be of any good to other people and the planet.The lecture was one of the most thought-provoking experiences I'veever had, every word filled with great resonance that will stay with meforever.

Afterwards, I chatted to numerous individuals who'd taken the nextstep and enrolled on the Isha Foundation's programmes, and the pro-found effects it had on their lives. Laurence Bloom talked about theknowledge he'd received over the last 35 years from "many spiritualteachers" but nothing compared to the lessons received under his guid-ance. "Sadhguru is in another league in his ability to transmit the expe-rience of oneness that is usually so elusive. Having waited for such ateacher for a very long time, I can only say that attending the three-dayprogramme was one of the best decisions of my life."

Arun Patel talked about the transformations he'd experienced. "TheInner Engineering programme opened up channels of energy that I did-n't think I had in me. I found it easier to respond calmly to situationsthat would have normally challenged me in a significant way." I alsospoke with Roma Iskander, who enrolled on the Inner Engineeringcourse after attending a lecture where she "heard and felt Sadhguru". "Itwas more than I could ever have anticipated," she said. "It's had a hugeimpact on my life. I do feel more alive, have more energy, and a senseof freedom. I've become more passionate about climate change." Shethen referred to her quest to acquire more knowledge about the envi-ronment, and how she has now become "uninterested in makingmoney". Since then, Roma has now become an Isha Foundation volun-teer and is currently involved with looking at alternative therapies with-in the NHS and is hopeful of developing an Isha Yoga programme for aLondon borough. The Isha Foundation website is littered with count-less other statements like these, bearing testament to the power of theirprogrammes and the experience of meeting Sadhguru, as illustrated bythe Chairman of Microsoft India, Ravi Venkatesan who described it as"the defining moment in my life".

I was also fortunate enough to be granted a short, private audiencewith Sadhguru, and I could sense an intoxicating and captivating auraabout him. Within ten minutes of being in his company I now under-stood why the Isha Foundation has over a quarter of a million volun-teers across the world. There was a great wisdom, compassion and joythat emanated from his eyes, and the experience left me truly humbledwith the acknowledgment of being in the presence of a truly great man;one who possesses an unselfish dedication to not only tackling some ofIndia's most challenging social, economic and environmental problems,but also aiming to help us all achieve inner peace and prosperity. It isevident in whatever Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev is doing; he is doing out oflove and a desire to share what he has experienced with every other per-son in the world. It is his wish to bring true wellbeing to every humanbeing and this drives every activity undertaken by the Isha Foundation.

Sadhguru will be returning to London in 2007 to offer his "InnerEngineering" programme, running from Friday the 2nd to Sundaythe 4th February at the Piaisterers Hall in London. He will also begiving two public lectures: "Inner Engineering — the Peak ofWellbeing" on Monday the 29th of January at 7.30 pm, andMastering Relationships" on Wednesday the 31st January at 7pm.Both events will be held at the Conway Hall, near Holborn, CentralLondon. For more information about these events go to www.ishayo-ga.org, email uk@ishafoundation.org or telephone 07941 646877

www.ishafoundation.orgwww.ruralrejuvenation.orgwww.dhyanalinga.orgMystics Musings: Sadhguru - A Profound Mystic Of Our limes.Published by Wisdom Tree.For more information or to order a copy visitwww.wisdomtreeindia.com.

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