He bows down

Selva shares his Inner Engineering experience:
"I began to talk to my father, with whom I had a fight and vowed never to talk to him unless it was absolutely necessary."


Read the full article here: http://ishabangalore.blogspot.com/2010/12/isha-journey-to-inner-world-begins-here.html

Off from Baking...On to Samyama

Sumitra shares her experience of Isha.

For the full post, http://www.practicebaking.com/2011/02/adieu-but-not-for-long.html

Notre premier poste français

Dev shares a poem on Sadhguru
"Sadhguru, mon dieu,
Votre présence est suiffit,
Je dis mille fois et plus,
Vous êtes seule parmi"
Read the complete poem and more articles here: http://devsurabheeyaduvanshi.wordpress.com/2009/02/14/sadhguru/

Watching the air in the water...

'Soul' shares in delirious banter the impact of Samyama:
"To able to experience this in water, my place of fear, my place of no control, that jus show how much my inner engineering has changed my Being.
So much laughter that tears of gratitude came. Thank you, Father."
Read the full article here: http://sufferingisblessing.blogspot.com/2010/04/samyama-definitely-got-something-5.html

Hooked!

A 'village guy' shares his experience of the Inner Engineering program:
"The first day, after the intro, I got hooked actually liked sitting in the class."
Read the post here: http://varakalpet.com/?p=108

The Other Side

Eleanor shares her experience of Bhava Spandana program:
"By the end, I never wanted to leave. When it was time to go home, I bid farewell to my dear, new friends and started thinking about what was next for me in the world of yoga. All in all, it was an unusual, wonderful and worthwhile experience.."
Read the complete article here: http://itsnotacult.com/bhava-spandana-program/

The incredible fortune

Shibani shares her experience of Isha Yoga:
"No longer am I a part of it... I was for so long, and it seemed endless... So fortunate am I, that life is becoming more and more effortless... So deeply grateful am I, that I am being taught to move beyond it all..."
Read the full article here: http://shibanimanchanda.blogspot.com/2010/04/incredible-transformation.html

On String theory, quantum mechanics and Patanjali

Ravindra watches in bemused amazement as Sadhguru chats with NSF people about fundamental physics..
"Now I am all ears, I had never seen sadhguru speak about fundamental physics like quantum mechanics and theoretical physics so deeply. Now sadhguru goes deep into this and starts explaining how certain aspects of string theory are flawed and the man agrees..!! I am totally at shock...Well my imagination ran wild and I started imagining what would be the effect if Warren buffet or Bill gates became realized people?"
Read the full article here as shared by Ravindra in his facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=lf#!/notes/ravindra-kempaiah/what-am-i-doing-with-my-life/386577009867

Inner Engineering in the 'Real World'

Manoj of The Chennai Business School shares his experience of being introduced to Inner Engineering:
"All his words are of utmost clarity. He was right in saying “be human first”- forgetting humanity, divinity is just farce. No two humans have the same capability, if you function to your full potential you are a fortunate being and would always be blissful, and inner engineering is a starting point to realise your full potential. Mr. Ravi Venkatesh asks in the video, “If you are unable to manage yourself, how could you be a manager managing others?” This made all us future managers to think."
Read the full artcile here: http://chennaibusinessschool.blogspot.com/2010/04/enhancing-our-spiritual-quotient.html

Eleanor on the IE Train....

Eleanor shares her Inner Engineering experience:
"It was all a little strange to me at the time, but after hearing him speak and reading the book, I found him to be funny and endearing, and everything he said made a lot of sense."
Read the complete article here: http://itsnotacult.com/inner-engineering/

What she REALLY wants...

Srividhya muses about what she really cares about and what she really wants to do:
"How I long to be in that pure atmosphere, where everything is done out of love and offering.It is where I truly understood and experienced love, which is so different from the context it is used in the society today."
Read the full article here: http://decembertrance.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/what-i-really-want/

Crescendo in the hills of Tennessee

Desh shares his experience of Bhava Spandana Program:
"The flowering of the beyond, however, creates a perfume that invades every corner of your being and the existence, where nothing seems any different. You start feeling the pain of even a small grain or a leaf. Sunlight becomes part of you. You become the wind that blows."
Read the full article here: http://drishtikone.com/blog/one-spiritual-step-death-self-hills-tennessee

Anachronisms Galore!

Jonathan Daniel Harris of the Huffington Post shares about his interview with Sadhguru:
"Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev is a powerful character -- but wholly unintimidating. He frequently cracks jokes upon meeting a new group of people and his BlackBerry seems quite anachronistic given his appearance."
Read the entire article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/14/national-volunteer-month_n_538108.html
P.S: It is heartening to see Project Green Hands featured in the home page of the Huffington Post!

The leap from Austerity

This is a guest post from Clare Dakin, UK coordinator for Project GreenHands. It's her sharing about the Linga Bhairavi consecration. This was shared in Facebook by Clare.

I am writing from the Ashram in India, in an attempt to describe what I have just lived through…which is the birth of a Fire Goddess; a miracle of such significance, that part of me is still unable to comprehend or get my head around it.
The incarnation of the Divine Feminine into her own temple, here next to Shiva in the form of the Dhyanalinga in his own temple, gives us a place of embodied union between masculine and feminine that is sacred in a way that I know I simply will not be able to find words for.
There really is no way for those of us who do not have access to other dimensions as the norm, to understand what is possible at the fundamental level of creation, by a Yogi who experiences everything as a part of himself, who solidifies mercury with his bare hands and sits there moulding it as if it was clay before locking energies into it at a level of power that will throw you on the ground or blast you heart open into utter spiritual devotion for the mystery of life. This man literally crafted a feminine force out of creation itself, "a woman with the man taken out", a being who would balance the silence and awareness stimulating power of the masculine Dhyanalinga with all the fire, chaos, beauty, compassion and wild raving ecstasy of the unbridled feminine. 'His' is the awareness, 'Hers' is the humanity. I don't think I would ever have believed such a thing was even possible had I not participated and literally felt her birthed into creation.
Sadhguru said that we would all be playing the role of midwife if we sat with enough intensity and devotion. 5000 of us (350 Europeans the rest Indian) chanting and meditating, calling her, accessing wild energies to add our combined force to the matter in Sadhguru's hands, all relayed to us from inside the Temple by multiple big screens. Hours of hard graft…just like being a midwife, over 3 days, late into every night with maximum 3 hours sleep and then back into the devotional process. I wish I could take what I have seen and what is in my heart and somehow place it in yours so that you could feel what I am feeling.
She, like Shiva in Dhyanalinga has her energies held in a mercury core that is behind her statue, although Sadhguru has energized the rock in such a way that its energy will never dissipate, unless, amazingly, she is not treated properly, or if a man tries to take over the temple, and then she will leave in a rage that he says you do not want to be anywhere close to! This is a women's temple, to be tended only by women, but open to everyone. The only one of its kind, ever.
You have never seen a female deity so worshiped, so bowed down to, so blessed…Sadhguru wept as he brought her into reality and then sang chants to her in a voice so filled with love and devotion it was like hearing an archetypal love song from behind the veil of time, the same song that lives hidden in the very core of our own hearts…and then it was as if the night sky just fell into our laps and became profoundly alive. Immensity just landed, throbbing, and there she was. I am in tears again just writing this. How privileged am I, are we for being part of something of this nature, to have moved it through our bodies, lived through that intensity. There she is, in her own temple, tended by beautiful women, her priestesses, who have rituals for every stage of life; colourful, vivid and very real and beautiful rituals full of dance and fire and song, so so different from the austerity of Dhyanalinga.
For myself, as someone who has done a fairly convincing job of embodying the archetype of the wounded feminine, it was a new world to be faced with levels of devotion towards the feminine that placed her back into her rightful position, especially here where women are so subjugated…but for the whole world to have such a mighty charged feminine energy being worshiped and honoured with levels of reverence, carved out the grief in so many of us all and replaced it with permission to value within ourselves, what has felt so battered and unsafe for so long; the Goddess within…true feminine power, unashamed, uncensored. My body didn't know what to do other than sob for hours, as if emptying out the old story and pain to make way for a new infusion of beautiful feminine energy.
I woke yesterday with a heart so carved out and expanded, it felt as if it filled my entire upper body. Everything I looked at broke me open. I have learnt to bow down to the mystery of life through my time with Sadhguru, but now that mystery just got filled with glorious music, flowers, fire and dance, wrapped herself around my being and called herself Mother.

He knows how to fly!

Alison shares her experience of how she met Sadhguru:
"Despite my aversion to even the word ‘guru’, I listened to the cd. To my surprise, Sadhguru sounded rational, grounded, and practical. Much of what he said resonated deeply and reminded me of things I had read from other great masters."
Read the complete article here: http://alivingmystic.blogspot.com/2008/06/he-knows-how-to-fly-it-is-very.html

Three mad days!

Megha writes about her BSP experience:

"I don't know what other people experienced and I'm sure all of us experience different things or even the same thing differently but all of us came out on that Monday with a fresh set of eyes and a sense of how one can live joyfully, without effort if we just remember the experiences we had and how much they meant to us."

Full post here.

Isha saved my life

One of the more dramatic cases of benefits from the Isha Yoga practices:

“I collapsed twice while at work,” says Caraccia. “I used the yoga and meditation techniques I learned from Sadhguru to calm my breathing and take my mind off the pain. Both times I was able to get back up and make it to my car, and eventually to the hospital.”

Full post here: http://www.prnewschannel.com/absolutenm/templates/?z=0&a=2349

Natasha on Isha Yoga

Nashville based attorney, Natasha talks about her Isha Yoga practices. Read the very last question in the interview.

"Of all the things I’ve ever done, practicing Isha Yoga, which I started in August 2007, has had the greatest impact on me. I literally see my life as pre-Isha Yoga and post-Isha Yoga."

Full post here: http://www.nashvillepost.com/news/2010/2/22/the_opportunities_for_gsh_will_be_greater_the_more_diverse_nashville_becomes

Rajadurai attends the silence program

Rajadurai shares a piercing poem about his experience:

Daring to sneak into your world
I stepped inside that hollow space


As a worm I crawled behind you
You took me by hand when I feared


As a child, I refused to swallow
As a Mom, you fed me with care


O' I was truly on your Lap!


Chanting in that cruel darkness,
I breathed your breath poisoned


Venomous ecstasy shaking my core,
The Serpent teased me no limit


Swaying between Bliss and Stillness,
I wept and dissolved incessantly


O' you were taking me for a ride!


You exploded me with your sounds,
And I danced to your tunes


Undecipherable, the moments were!
Unquenchable, my thirst was!


Tasting a droplet of You
Left me madness personified


Longing to take a plunge in you,
And pitiably aware of my stock,


I screamed in pain. O' you heard.
You peeled it off and freed me out.


Pot cracked; honey dripped
Wall collapsed; flood roared
O'I breathed freedom


Breathing this unknown clarity
Leaves me in tears untold


Drenched in your merciless Grace,
I see God beyond the Façade


What do I have worthy of?
To thank you with!
What am I worthy of?
To be at your feet!


When all that is, and that isn't, is you!
I know of nowhere to miss you, Sadhguru!


May I only breathe the venom,
And crawl within you, gently,
With your Grace!


AUM, Namah Shivaya!

Prabhu treks up the Velliyangiri 7th hill

Prabhu narrates his experience of trekking up the Velliyangiri 7th hill!

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I don't know how it happened and I'm going to put in words. It was his sheer grace and bliss, that made me have the glimpse of shiva.

I wished I could participate in yatra (organised by Then Kailaiya Bakthi Peravai) on 27th and 28th feb, during lingha bhairavi consecration and left the thought behind. The wish became an opportunity last friday (26th) through a telephone call from balaji asking if I could join yatra. Wow!!! It was definitely to music to ears.

I had promised my wife that we would go to shopping centre and get her something on our 3rd anniversary (though she was not willing to get it). My mom was fuming and fretting, seeing me packing the bag and looking at me as an irresponsible creature. When it's shiva's call, how can I ignore?

I began the journey not knowing if I would be allowed for yatra since I didn't register for it :)

To my surprise, swami allowed me in.

We started the yatra with an intro by swami and video by Sadhguru. Swami started his talk with a verse on shiva and inspiring stories about the sacred place and how reverential we should be in this yatra. Jaggi insisted not to miss this opportunity being born in tamil nadu and dhyanalinga is the essence of what is available in south kailash.

We flagged off the yatra @ half past two in the afternoon at poondi shivan temple, velliangiri foothills. Swami oriented us again that this shouldn't be perceived as trekking but yatra.

Though I was struggling initially and wondering if I could make it up, swami's talks at certain points, explaining the significance of those places and helping us re-gaining the focus, simply kept me going.

At one moment, energies completely drained, I decided to keep away my body and mind for some time and just be with the yatra, I felt I was being pulled up. Nothing could hold me anymore.

After 3rd hill, heads started to disappear one by one. Fear of getting lost, fear of getting attacked by animals, fear of walking alone in the forest, fear of getting slipped in the valleys, I stopped creating them one by one. Journey was effortless afterwards.

I was crawling like an ant in the vast mountain, realising how small I'm, foolishly pretending to be big. Everything looked amusing that night, the rocks, the path, the moon, the trees, the grass, the breeze, the petty shop-in-the forth hill-with single chimney light, the people out there making their living in mountain. What a lovely world it is?!

Reached 6th hill and took 3 dips in frozen aandi sunai* (vellaikkara durais, translation please). Needless to say that I enjoyed the delicious dinner prepared by the volunteers.

We were ready to retire for the day in the beautiful tent, they had set up. The thin shawl that I had was helpless in the awful weather, piercing tiny holes in my body. Fortunately one anna had a thick blanket and was generous enough to allow me and another meditator (devotee) by his two sides. All of us stayed very close in bed to get warmth.

I woke up the next day with unknown experience and little excitement. We went through some process before climbing up. Just paused a moment to look at all devotees, from all walks of life, from 1st standard student to 50 year old woman (women below 12 years and above 40 years of age, are allowed), a hefty man, looking hard, whispering to swami with respect, definitely all 70 people had different flavours but only one goal: 7th hill.

Like turning pages of an interesting novel, we were heading towards the mystical kingdom. We reached place and sat under the rock, where shiva had been for a while. The place was reasonating with high decibal chanting, heart breaking devotion and unconditional love. When swami came and spoke about the place, tears started rolling down in his cheeks. One being, who didn't want to miss anyone of us, like a mother taking care of her children, cultivating devotion in ourselves, telling what we need to know and how should we be. A real possibility of how one can be as parent to all beings in the world, accepting things and people as they are and doing what is needed for the situatuon. Even my dumb mind had experienced something indescribable, happening there because of him.

Swami and volunteers are still ringing in my head than the Lord Shiva. What a tremendous world this would be, if all the people dare to hold others' well being more than their lives.

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* - Literally translates to "barren creek" - obviously has a spiritual connotation to it.