FF October 2011

CONTENTSMain Article

A Guru’s Predicament4

Musings

8

3

Sadhguru on His Full Potential

Moving into another Dimension

Diwali

Diwali Crackers

Shopping Frenzy8

9

Festival of Lights

A Childhood Story

Why Shop for Diwali?

10What is Dharma?

Leela SeriesThe path of the playful – Part XXV:

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12

14

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17

15

News & Happenings

My Conversations with the Mystic

Sadhguru’s Vision for the Nation

Ganas – Demented or Celestial?

Give Isha

Sadhguru speaks out against Corruption

Sadhguru Spot

All-Inclusive Blueness

Independence Day Message 2011

Shekhar Kapur in Conversation with Sadhguru

Isha’s New Fundraising Portal

Isha for a Corruption-Free India

The Smooth Ride to Kailash

An Isha Meditator Shares about His Daughter’s Death

Sadhguru on the Fiction of Death

This Month: Kaju Barfi (Cashew Fudge)

Krishna Janmashtami at the Isha Yoga Center

Sharing Experiences

Isha Recipes For Healthy Living

A Graceful Transition18

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October 2011FOREST FLOWER

SADHGURU

Q: Sadhguru, you once said that you are functioning at about 3% of your full potential. Can you tell us how we can create a situation where you could unleash your full potential? And what would that 100% mean?

Sadhguru: What would the full potential be? Different people have expressed this in different ways. Krishna said, “I am the radiant sun among the luminaries. I am the moon among the stars. I am the lion among the beasts. I am the king of birds among the birds. I am the Ganga among the rivers. I am the Himalaya among the mountains.” In this language he went on, very eloquently. Jesus said, “I am the son of God; the only son.” That is another kind of language; the same thing expressed in a different way. Gautama said, “If you walk my path,

you will never have to turn around,” – a subtler way of saying it. In India, it is very common to chant, “Aham Brahmasmi” – that means, “I am the Ultimate Truth.” Mansur al-Hallaj, who is the originator of the Sufi system, went to India, came back and said, “Anal haq.” That means, “I am the truth,” and he got into a lot of trouble.

I am not given to that kind of language; I am just putting it very simply. Whatever mechanics of this existence, whatever dimensions of this existence, if you just provide me the needed atmosphere, I can take you to any one of them and I can fix any one of them. I am not a god, I am not a Guru – I am a mechanic. This is the 21st century where God is a bad word, and Son of God is even worse. [Laughs] Two thousand years ago, God was a sacred word;

4 October 2011FOREST FLOWER

A Guru’s PredicamentSadhguru on His Full Potential

so if somebody said, “I am the Son of God,” it was all right. So if you prepare the necessary situation, I can take you to the mechanics of this existence, whatever dimension it is; whatever needs to be done, I can fix it. That is the 100% potential; that does not sound as grand and poetic as, “I am the lion among the beasts. I am the Himalayas among the mountains. I am the Ganga among the rivers.” My interest in the existence is that it works. It looks so chaotic, so unwieldy, nobody knows the beginning and the end, but it still works.

So if you are interested in that which works, you are naturally a mechanic. I can make it work on any level of existence. It is just a question of creating a conducive atmosphere, and that is challenging. If we create the atmosphere, I can make it work on any level of existence. This is all I have aspired for – and this is all there is. So what do you have to do? One thing is the foundation – the foundation of any building should be in the ground, but the Isha Foundation is sitting on my head all the time. I want to put it to the ground. [Laughs] So if you are willing to be that ground and to take the load of the foundation, if it is off my head, a lot more things could be done. That is not all, but it is an important factor right now – I am trying to unload; step-by-step, I am getting it off my head, but still it is happening too slowly because life does not stop for one moment. [Laughs]

This is a race to the grave. You may think that the physical body is going to many places. “I went to Himalayas, I went to Florida, I vacationed in this place, I did this, I did that.” But still, your body is going straight to the grave – nowhere else. The rest is your imagination. Your physical body is going straight to the grave – no deviation. That is something that I am constantly aware of. In a very codified way, not the knowledge, but the keys to everything that is worth knowing are all in one place. If tomorrow somebody with the necessary awareness comes, it will not be lost. That was the intention of the Dhyanalinga – not just what I know, also what my Guru knew and what the whole tradition knew, everything is there, not in the form of knowledge, but in the form of keys. If someone is aware enough, they can pick it up and open whatever they want in the existence.

It is a dvara, a doorway to the creation. You can use it to open just about anything. But right now, the 21st century is a talking century. If you don’t talk, nobody gets the point.

People don’t understand that if I don’t talk and just sit, something more profound is happening. If I don’t talk, they will gape, get up, and leave. People are even talking to themselves while driving a car or walking on the street, because there are hands-free sets. Just twenty years ago, if you had done this on the street, people definitely would have thought you have escaped from some kind of institution – but now it has become common. You don’t get along with anybody in this century but you talk to everybody. You go on the internet and talk to all kinds of people that you have not seen. People have love affairs with those that they have not seen because it is so easy to love people that you have not seen; it is just like loving God. [Laughter] The trouble is always with people that you have seen and have known for long periods of time, or that you have to live or work with. On some faceless Facebook, you are all lovey-dovey with the whole world. That is very easy, you know.

So because this is a talking century – I hope it won’t be a talking millennium – we have to talk, but at the same time create an atmosphere where the needed talk happens as quickly as possible so that we don’t have to go on talking endlessly. If the talk has to be quick, it has to be brutal. If the talk has to be brutal and still people should not run away, you have to create the necessary atmosphere where people are so overwhelmed by your love, devotion and intensity that when they come here, I can go straight at them – no diplomacy – so that the talking period can be shortened; otherwise, you will end up talking for the rest of your life and still people won’t get it. If you speak gently, the conversation will go on forever. One brutal word, it stops. To say a brutal word and not make them run away, to make them realize this brutality has a profoundness behind it, you need to create a certain atmosphere, otherwise the diplomacy that you should do, I will have to do, and my time is ticking away.

5October 2011FOREST FLOWER

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If people are created who are of a certain capability, people who are stable beyond mental moods and emotions, they will be the foundation – that means it is off my head. Then a lot more can be done. If we could find 100% expression with even a handful of people, that would already be fantastic. We are not expecting to find 100% expression with the whole word; that is never going to happen. I am not so dreamy. But definitely, it is possible to create a handful of people with whom it could be 100%. If that cannot be done, we may be a success in the world, people may be clapping their hands, but if we cannot find full expression even with a handful of people, if we have to be careful with them, watching out for their egos, then as a spiritual movement, it is a disaster.

We need people who have the necessary integrity, balance, stability, and heart in them, that even if you let them out into the most corrupt situation, they will function successfully there and come out untouched. Like Gautama allowed a young monk to stay at a prostitute’s house [knowing he can trust his integrity]; I want people like that, that I could send you into a place like that and still I don’t have to worry about what you will be doing. We need people of integrity. Integrity has become a dicey thing in today’s world because people have very infantile ideas of freedom.

It would be impractical to think that you are going to make every fool on the planet into an enlightened being. The world is always a play between the positives and the negatives. Some generations enjoy the positives more than the negatives; some generations suffer the negatives more than they enjoy the positives. If there is something that we as a generation can do and be proud of, we have to see that for the next generation, the positives of life hugely outweigh the negatives. This does not mean there will be not a single problem in the world, that everything will be perfect; that would not be a dream, that would be hallucination.

When you dream something, it is also a possibility. When we talk about creating something, and you cannot see the logical staircase to reach there, or you see the staircase disappearing into the clouds,

you think it is an impossible thing, but it is not. It just needs a little more fire. Suppose you were born in a social or family situation where education was not possible for you, and somebody told you, “Why don’t you become a doctor or an engineer,” you would have said, “Not for me, not possible, I will go to work.” But if somebody gave you a scholarship, if somebody supported you, you could have gotten there.

So that which is not in your realm of experience and thought seems to be impossible to you. But should not whoever has the largest experience, whoever has explored the world to the maximum extent, guide where the world should go? That is how it should be, but that does not happen right now. The whole world may not go spiritual but if you at least create a possibility that is available and accessible to the whole world, then the pluses would increase to a point where people can gloss over the minuses. When life is so good, even if one little bad thing happens, you can ignore it and go on. Otherwise, every little minus pricks you so badly because there are no pluses in your life.

Particularly in today’s world, because of technology, our ability to reach people is phenomenal; never before was this possible. What we can do in terms of reach, a Krishna could not do, a Buddha could not do, a Jesus could not do. Today, we have the advantage of technology – we have audio, video, television, and the internet – we can slip into everybody’s house. Though there are many other disadvantages in today’s world, this is a phenomenal advantage. If we make use of this – if we can change the culture of this planet from materialistic to spiritual even by one percent in our lifetime, it is a phenomenal achievement because if a ship keeps changing direction by one percent, after some time, it will have made a complete U-turn. Yes, you cannot turn everyone around right now, and there is no need to. If you can just change the direction by one degree, in a certain period of time, the world will have made a U-turn. This can be done if the necessary people are there.

We still have some life in us – there is time left. You decide how far you want to take it, what you want


to do. Let me see that fire spilling from your eyes – not a fire of anger, greed, or passion, but the cool fire which burns quietly and does all the work that needs to be done without burning itself up. Cool fire fuels everything but it does not burn anything up – and we have everything in our hands to do that. Today, we have a social situation in the world where as long as we don’t break the law, we can do whatever we want. This was never so before.

It does not take millions of people to do this. Fifty really committed, stable people who don’t have basic questions on an everyday basis, are all it takes. You must settle your basic questions and from then on your questions should dig deeper. People come up with the same nonsense every day. If you are asking the same stupid question for ten years, then this speaks of your intelligence, – or rather the lack of it. “Is he going to exploit us? Is he going to use us?” If I wanted to exploit you, I could have made it in such a way that when you walked into that free introductory and I would have told you, “Drop everything that you have here and walk away,” you would have done it. At least trust my efficiency. If you take that idea from your mind, you are on stable ground. If you cannot settle these basic questions, you must leave or just be on the fringe; just come and go, fine.

So, if you settle these basic things within yourself once and for all, this will bring stability, a new ground for you to stand upon within yourself. Then the next steps will naturally come. Every rung will be a challenge, so you have to stabilize the ground on which the ladder is standing. I am not asking you to run up the ladder without checking every rung. But if you keep disturbing the ground on which the ladder stands, then however good the quality of the ladder is, it is useless. You take your time on every rung; that is perfectly okay. If you are maddened by this, you run up the ladder without bothering whether it is going to withstand your weight or not – that is also okay. If that is not possible for you, check every rung and go. But this one basic thing, the ground, you must settle. If you don’t settle that, it will be just waste of time.

Time is not a commodity that comes and goes – it just goes. Time is life. We cannot afford to squander it. I would even say, there is no such thing as time, there is just life. If we create such people with the necessary integrity, stability, and balance, we can start exploring.

– Excerpted from a talk by Sadhguru

Bring the Devi’s Grace into Your Home!

“One who earns the Grace of Bhairavi neither has to live in concern or fear of life or death, of poverty, or of failure. All that a human being

considers as wellbeing will be his if only he earns the Grace of Bhairavi.”

Receive your consecrated Linga Bhairavi Yantra or Linga Bhairavi Avighna Yantra in a special ceremony with Sadhguru

On 23 November 2011

At Isha Yoga Center, Velliangiri Foothills, Coimbatore

Contact: Phone: 094432 51234, 094438 35000 Email: [email protected]


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Diwali is the Festival of Lights. In India, every city, town, and village will be lit up with thousands and thousands of lamps everywhere, because this day symbolizes that the dark forces are put to death, so there is light. This is generally the predicament of human life, it is like dark clouds which brood about the gloomy atmosphere, not realizing that it is them who are blocking the sun. You do not have to bring light from anywhere else. If you dispel the dark clouds that you have allowed to gather within yourself, there will be light.

So Diwali is not just about lighting lamps outside. There has to be inner light, which means clarity. Without clarity, every other quality that you possess will only become a detriment, not a gift. Confidence without clarity is a disaster. Too much action in the world is performed without clarity. Without the necessary clarity, every quality that could be a positive thing in your life becomes a negative factor.

On a certain day, a rookie police man was for the first time driving through town with an experienced

mate, when they got a message on the radio. It said that there was a group of people loitering on a certain street and they should go and disperse them. They drove into the street and on one of the corners, a group of people were standing. As the car came close by, this new policeman with great enthusiasm pulled his window down and said, “Hey, all of you, get off that corner.” They all looked at each other in confusion. Then he yelled louder, “Didn’t you hear me? I told you to get off that damn corner!” They all dispersed. Then, pleased with the effect that he had had on people when performing his first official task, he looked at his experienced partner and asked, “Did I do well?” His partner said, “Not bad at all, considering that it was a bus stop.” [Laughter] Without striving to bring in the necessary clarity, whatever you try to do, in spirituality or otherwise, everything will be a disaster.

Light brings clarity to your vision, not just in a physical sense. How clearly you see life, is how sensibly you live. With how much clarity you can perceive everything around you decides how sensibly you conduct your life.


Q: Sadhguru, can you share with us something you did on Diwali as a child?

Sadhguru: Diwali was always interesting. When I was just six years of age, I stood on a step and lit one of these firecrackers which were called ‘aeroplane.’ The cracker just went through the loose shirt I was wearing and burnt me a little bit. Since it went through very fast, it did not burn me too much, but you know, my father is a doctor, so they got anxious and wanted to take me to a hospital to apply

ointment and all that. I did not want to go. I got burnt and it hurt, but that was not the point. It had been such an exciting evening. But they tried to drag me there and I was crying. They obviously thought I was crying because I was in pain. But actually, I was crying because I wanted to continue bursting crackers.

When I was young, I was extremely excited about crackers. I used to enjoy it so much – that whole month [around Diwali], I would be bursting crackers, and not just on that one day. I would even light very big crackers and keep them in my hand. If you hold the cracker at the very tip, however big it is, it usually does not hurt your hand because at the bottom, there is a little bit of mud that will not explode. It does not explode all over unless it backfires, which it does sometimes. So I just went about lighting even big crackers in my hand. People would say, “Your fingers will go off!” My fingers

Diwali –

A Childhood Story

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Festival of Lights

Diwali Crackers


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Q: What is the spiritual significance of shopping during Diwali?

Sadhguru: There is no spiritual significance to it, but there is a social significance. Only today, you can go and buy clothes anytime you want. This was not so in earlier times; even when we grew up as children this was not so. If we had to get new clothes, it had to be on Diwali, Ugadi, or some other festival day. Today, anytime you can walk into a shop and buy what you want. Such a thing did not exist when shopping was not an occupation in the world. [Laughter]

In those times, shopping was something that people only did when they had to get something, so unless

you fixed a day where your whole family should get new clothes, they would have continued to live in old rags. So about three, four festivals in the year were fixed where everybody in the house had to get new clothes. It did not matter how poor you were, you somehow had to get new clothes for your family. Diwali was one of these days.

Apart from the shopping, Diwali is also a day where you must exchange gifts with your friends and family. Otherwise, people would not know when to do what. So it was fixed – Diwali time means you must send gifts to everybody, you must have new clothes, and it must be a celebration. It does not matter what nonsense you are going through, you put all this aside, just get up, light lamps, celebrate, and the whole town does the same thing. This is more a social phenomenon, there is nothing spiritual about it.


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Why Shop for Diwali?

Shopping Frenzy

are all still there; they just got a little shorter, I think. [Laughs] But later, when I was about 15 or so, that was the time of Jayaprakash Narayan’s movement ‘Total Revolution,’ he issued a call on a Diwali, saying something like “Instead of bursting crackers, contribute for children’s welfare. So many children don’t have…” This advertisement in the newspaper somehow hit me so hard, I just gave up

bursting crackers. My crackers just went out, and I became like a cracker. [Laughs]



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Krishna’s spent a lifetime wanting to establish dharma. Many things went his way and to some extent, he did create what he wanted. Many things did not go the way he wanted, and people started interpreting and misinterpreting dharma according to their own ideas.

So it happened that he met a group of people, and each one came up to him and said what they saw as dharma. A rich man came, a skinflint who had done everything possible to acquire and amass money, and said, “I buy dharma from the learned Brahmins and god. I feed my family and worship at the temple. This is my dharma.” Krishna said, “Your dharma is the child of greed. I know you not.” And he let him pass. A man marked with emblems of sanctity came and said, “I am a pious person. I shrink from the ways of sin. Never did I kill or steal or commit any other sinful act. I have lived the righteous way. I am God-fearing.” Krishna said, “Your dharma is the child of fear. I know you not.” And he let him pass. A warrior approached Krishna and said, “I know my dharma. I have destroyed all my enemies and anybody who opposed me. I perform sacrifices to appease the gods, give charity to the poor and proclaim my victory to the world. I feed the Brahmins and my praises are sung by them.” Krishna said, “Your dharma is the child of vanity. I know you not.” And let him pass. A meek looking person came up to Krishna and said, “I am meek and resigned. I am humility personified. Unresisting I suffer cheerfully. I bear hunger, thirst, cold, and even misfortune.” Krishna said, “Your dharma is the child of a slave mind. You do not know the divine within you. I know you not.” And let him pass. A sly looking man came and he said to Krishna, “I stand away from risky actions, the dens of lions and I walk the path of safety, escape the wrath of God and by this, I know peace will come to me.” Krishna said, “Your dharma is the child of cowardice. I know you not.” And he

let him pass. A very self-assured, arrogant looking man came up to Krishna and said, “To escape the snares of life, to repress the longings of flesh, I scorn human weakness in myself and others. In stern detachment, I avoid contact and I live apart, all by myself. I’m completely self-contained. I don’t need anybody or anything.” Krishna said, “Your dharma is the dharma of arrogance. I know you not.” And let him pass. A business man came and said, “I lend money to God by giving alms to the poor and I even keep a ledger of this so it can never be missed. I will attain through my dharma.” Krishna said, “Your dharma is the child of commerce. I know you not.” And let him pass. A saintly looking man came up to Krishna and said, “Mine is the dharma of wisdom. I live by the words of saints. Not to resist evil, shall suffer in silence, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” Krishna said, “Your dharma is the child of inaction. I know you not.” And let him pass. A man dressed in silks, with well-oiled, slick hair, came up and said, “Dharma is an illusion. I eat, I drink, I fornicate. My body is my only shrine. The pleasures of the flesh are my rituals of worship. There is nothing beyond this.” Krishna said, “You are a child of the demon. You will never be forgiven.” And he turned his back upon him.

Q: When this meek person came to Krishna and explained how he perceived his dharma, that he took anything that came his way in total acceptance, Krishna said that his dharma is that of a coward, and he let him pass. Whereas Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” So what is the difference between the two?

Sadhguru: One thing that you should always consider is that I am going through all these elaborate stories of Krishna’s life so that you perceive him in the right context. It is always very important that one perceives the kind of situation and the kind of social realities they lived in and why they spoke the way they spoke.

There is one aspect of the teaching which is of an eternal nature – whoever speaks it, speaks in the same terms. But there is another aspect of the teaching which is relevant to the people who are sitting there at that moment. That relevance keeps changing from generation to generation. Not only

Leela Series The path of the playful –

Part XXV

What is Dharma? – 1


11

from generation to generation, but even within the generation from society to society, from group of people to group of people, from person to person, it is a different reality. So if we want to understand this aspect, we have to bring some kind of alignment to the social realities that Krishna lived in, the social realities that Jesus lived in, and the social realities that you live in right now. Jesus sort of substantiated this aspect of being meek by saying, “If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” He was talking to his closest disciples before sending them out to spread his message. He said, “When you go out with this new message, if people come and slap you on one cheek, show the other.” But that is not the teaching for all of you. Can you live by those guidelines? Genuinely, how many of you are capable of this in your life? You are not capable of that.

You know, before we consecrated the Dhyanalinga, I used to tell the brahmacharis, “If you go outside and somebody spits in your face, wipe it off with a big smile and go. Don’t do anything else.” But now, I’m telling them, “If somebody talks nonsense, stand your ground and tell them what you have to tell them. Don’t take any nonsense from anybody.” Not because my perception of the world has changed – my role in the world has changed. Is this contradictory? It is not contradictory, you just act as the situations and conditions you are living in right now demand it to make yourself more effective.

Krishna lived in totally different conditions, and he spoke differently to different people. Now if you pick this aspect [about the meek], you think it is very contradictory. Somebody else will naturally pick up something from the bhakti that he is talking about. If you pick out what Krishna spoke about bhakti or devotion, he will sound very similar to Jesus. In other aspects, he is a totally different man altogether.

Another thing we need to understand is, Jesus was hugely restricted by the situation in which he existed. He had no real freedom of speech. Jesus mostly lived like a fugitive. Here and there, he spoke to small groups of people. If he had said one more word, his life would have been finished, and it happened that way. The moment he picked up a

little momentum, you know what they did to him. Krishna was a kingmaker. His friends were kings and emperors. He could call upon large armies to fulfill his purpose. So he was placed in a completely different situation.

When it comes to approaching the eternal, Jesus was just talking about the yoga of devotion, nothing else, because that is his way. He was just talking about one dimension of approaching the Ultimate. He was just saying, “Follow me.” This is devotion. Krishna also said the same things. He said, “I am the way.” I think Jesus said something like, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one goes to the Father except through me.” But he went further somewhere else and said, “I and my Father are one.” In that part of the world, uttering such a thing was total sacrilege. If anybody claims “I and My Father are one,” it means, “I am God.” Such a claim immediately brought death penalty in that part of the world. But here in India, it was not so because any number of yogis have said it, and people treated them and worshipped them as gods because they experienced the Divine in them. When Krishna said, “I am the Ultimate Divine,” people were not surprised or shocked; it was not a sacrilege because that was very much a part of people’s knowing. They were very happy he had come when they were alive.

Any number of yogis have said this. Well known ones and very minor ones. When I say minor, I mean it in terms of social acknowledgement. They were great people within themselves, but socially, in the world, they were very small. Even those people have been worshipped as gods. But for Jesus, it was totally out of place in that culture. Him saying, “Me and My Father are one” brought him death. Any number of times, people tried to kill Krishna, but he was wily. They tried to kill him not for his utterances; they tried to kill him for political and military reasons because he was involved in those affairs. Nobody ever tried to kill him because of the teaching he gave.

To be continued…


Shekhar Kapur: Sadhguru, what I see here [refers to one of the two pillar-bearing ganas outside the Linga Bhairavi Temple] looks very much like the gargoyles in Europe, and you call it a gana. Tell me about it. What is the relevance of this gana?

Sadhguru: So, you traveled plenty in Europe, not much in India. [Both laugh]

Shekhar Kapur: Not much.

Sadhguru: In the yogic lore, the ganas are all Shiva’s friends. They were the ones who were always around him. Though he had disciples, though he had a wife, though he had many other admirers, his private company was always ganas. And ganas are described as distorted, demented beings. Here, it is not shown that way. But actually, it is said that they had limbs without bones coming out of odd parts of their bodies, so they are described as distorted and demented beings.

Shekhar Kapur: Great for yoga. [Laughs]

Sadhguru: They were just different from who we are. So, why could they be so different? This may be an aspect of life that is a little hard to digest now. See, Shiva himself has always been described as a yakshaswaroopa. Yaksha means a celestial being. A celestial being means someone who came from elsewhere. So, if you look at the anthropological history, somewhere around 70,000 years ago, human beings as a species suddenly took an upward turn. As far as I know, scientists are not very clear what happened, but in a short span of 10,000–15,000 years, something happened to the human species. Before, they had just been surviving on the planet like any other creature, maybe slightly better. Suddenly, they took an upward turn. 10,000–15,000 years is not a big amount of time for a species to evolve. The yogic way of looking at it is, Shiva arrived at that time. Somewhere, approximately 60,000–65,000 years ago, Shiva arrived at Manasarovar, which is a

lake in Tibet. It is one of the remnants of the Tethys Sea, which is considered as a crucible of human civilizations. Today, it is at almost 15,000 feet above mean sea level, but it is actually an ocean which has moved up and become a lake now. So, the ganas, Shiva’s friends, were not like human beings, and it is clearly said that they never spoke any of the human languages, they spoke in utter cacophony. When Shiva and his friends communicated, they spoke a language that nobody understood, so human beings described it as total, chaotic cacophony. But the ganas were the ones that he was really close with. And you know the story of Ganapati losing his head. When Shiva came and this boy [Ganapati] tried to stop him, Shiva took off his head. When the mother [Parvati] became distraught and asked Shiva to replace the head, he took off the head of some other creature and put it on the child; this other creature is described as an elephant. But what you need to understand is, nobody calls him Gajapati [Sanskrit for ‘Lord of Elephants’]. We always call him Ganapati [‘Lord of Ganas’]. So, Shiva took off the head of one of his friends and put it on the boy.

The ganas had limbs without bones, so this boy became Ganapati. Because in this culture, a limb without bones meant an elephant trunk, artists made it into an elephant – but actually, he is not Gajapati, he is Ganapati. He got the head of one of the ganas, and Shiva made him leader of the ganas.

Sadhguru: So, this guy is one of them. We didn’t distort him so much. We made him a little human-like, so that people can relate to him. [Laughs] Isn’t he cute?

Shekhar Kapur: Yeah.

Ganas – Demented or Celestial? Shekhar Kapur in Conversation with Sadhguru

1 Especially in European architecture, a carved stone or metal sculpture, often of a fantastic or grotesque face or animal head with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building

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“It is 64 years since we got independence for this nation, but still many things which are of fundamental importance are yet to happen in this country. Independence Day is not about hoisting a flag, eating some sweets and shouting slogans. The commitment and the dedication with which the freedom struggle happened, the sacrifices that were made, the lives that were laid down, all this is a loving gift from the previous generation. As a generation of people, the onus is on us to create the life that we want for ourselves, the nation that we want for ourselves, and the future that we want for our future generations. It is very important the fundamental requirements of nourishment, health, education, and ecology are attended to. This nation has produced politicians and administrators, but not enough great leaders. It is time that people who have

the necessary integrity, intelligence, and intention, above all the youth of this nation, take this into their hands. Still over 50% of our population is languishing in almost subhuman conditions.

This Independence Day, I want every Indian to take this commitment that we as a generation of people will create the nation that we want to live in, that we as a generation of people will create a situation that we would be proud to pass on to our future generations. Let this Independence Day be a moment of commitment and a moment of dedication towards what all of us care for.”

Sadhguru met social activist Anna Hazare on 22nd August 2011 at the Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi. With this meeting, Sadhguru reinforced his ongoing support for Anna Hazare and the ideal of a corruption-free India. At the same time, in the heart of Coimbatore city, Isha Foundation organized a demonstration of solidarity for the anti-corruption movement. The event included patriotic songs, a display of the traditional martial arts form kalari payattu, as well as Sadhguru’s message on fighting corruption in India:

“Corruption has become a national malice. Anna’s movement fortunately has brought focus and also stoked hope in the hearts of the Indian people. It is time that the government of India acts upon those who are corrupt rather than busying itself to act upon movements against corruption. These movements may not have

a perfect solution for a corruption-free India, but they are vital for firing the imagination of the people rather than making corruption an accepted norm of our polity and society.

Let us not jeopardize Anna’s life with needless debate. When half the country’s population is still hungry, stashing away huge sums of money elsewhere is not something that can be overlooked. This is not the time for discussing nuances of parliamentary democracy. Harshest possible law against corruption is the need of the hour.”

Sadhguru’s Vision for the Nation

Sadhguru Speaks out against Corruption

Independence Day Message 2011

Isha for a Corruption-Free India


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We are pleased to announce that the Give Isha website is now live! Give Isha is a flagship fund-raising project of Isha Foundation.

How Give Isha Works:

To contribute to Isha’s activities, you can choose to be a fundraiser and/or a donor for one or more Isha projects of your choice.

A. As a fundraiser, you can sign up and create your own fundraising page on Give Isha (it just takes two minutes to set up).

On your personal Give Isha page, you can post videos, photos, and your own sharing about Isha and its projects.

You can then share this page with your family, friends, and colleagues, inform them about your fundraising intentions, and encourage them to donate or become fundraisers themselves. You could raise funds on your birthday or wedding anniversary, or even when you run a marathon!

B. As a donor, you can check out how your favorite projects and fundraisers are doing and donate to them. You can keep track of your total donations, and get regular updates on the progress of all Isha projects.

The Current Focus:

The main fundraising campaign of Give Isha over the next three months is to raise funds for the completion of Aadhi Yogi Aalayam. This 82,000 sq. ft. column-less hall will open the possibility of inner transformation to one and all.

In Sadhguru’s words,

“Aadhi Yogi Aalayam is the first of its kind in an effort to create infrastructure for raising human consciousness… For sure, Aadhi Yogi Aalayam will become a powerhouse of transmission and

transformation.”

So in whose hands is it to raise the necessary funds? You, me, our family, friends, and colleagues, or anyone else who cares can join in on this effort if he wants! That is the beauty of Give Isha. Give Isha makes it possible for you to participate directly in this historic happening and make a difference in millions of lives, for generations to come.

Touch another life – enrich your own.

Register at giveisha.org today!

Give Isha -Isha’s New Fundraising Portal


All-Inclusive Blueness

Krishna Janmashtami at the Isha Yoga Center

Janmashtami, the traditional I n d i a n festival which commemorates the birth of Krishna, was c e l e b r a t e d at the Isha Yoga Center on 21st August 2011 in a most exuberant way. Krishna is not only supposed to have been dark- or blue-skinned, but his very energy was blue, which means he was all-inclusive. As a reminder of that ‘blueness,’ all over the ashram premises, one could encounter residents dressed in blue on this day.

In the afternoon, residents and volunteers alike threw themselves into lively games, such as a variation of the traditional Dahi Handi, where blindfolded youngsters under the enthusiastic cheers of the crowd tried to break clay pots that hung high above them. An ashram resident shares: “The games were just so highly spirited that no one felt like holding back anything. Everyone in the ground was just overflowing with ebullience.”

For dinner, the festival organizers had many more surprises in store: Following cute little footprints and rows of shimmering lights, we reached the forecourt of the Biksha Hall which was decked out with amazingly artful rangolis.1 But the real treat was yet to come! A resident of Isha Yoga Center describes

the special dinner experience: “The Biksha Hall was totally decked in blue; there was the tipsy euphony of the cowherd’s flute, the taste of Mysore pak, the crispy sedai, the round, big, crispy murrukku, and the nectarous payasam… The dinner was just an exuberant party in a blue gleam!”

Later, Sounds of Isha treated the audience to some beautiful Krishna bhajans (devotional songs). A video of the legendary Leela program that Sadhguru had conducted in 2005 allowed everybody to immerse themselves even deeper into the world of Krishna. The playful mood translated into a ras under the star-studded night sky, frolicsome as if the Gopala himself was amongst them. A resident shares: “Listening to Sadhguru speak about Krishna in the Leela video made me fall in love with this character – how wonderful it is to be so joyful, playful, and to touch people’s lives! At night, when all of us became part of the Rasa Leela, with the music and dance, the whole place was vibrating. Unlike my usual self, I just lost myself in the dance. In those moments, I felt that I belonged to the crowd, to the music. I loved the evening, its beauty and joy. Truly irresistible!” Another participant adds, “During the Ras Leela, I just danced and danced and danced like there was no one other than Krishna. Leela filled the air, soaking us in and out, and leaving us intoxicated and inebriated. After some time, it was as if I was no longer moving my hands and legs, but just about everything in me was dancing… Leela just happened.”

1 Traditional decorative folk art; often symmetric drawings made of powdered rice and other substances to add color


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With all the advantages that the 21st century’s technical advancements entail, a question to consider is, what proportion of the population actually gets to benefit from it. In many rural areas in Tamil Nadu, people are deprived of even the most basic facilities such as clean drinking water, medical care and information about health and hygiene.

Isha Outreach has been actively involved in improving the quality of life of the rural poor on many levels. In the domain of healthcare, Isha Outreach’s Action for Rural Rejuvenation (ARR) project has been impacting the lives of millions of people across Tamil Nadu. Through its various initiatives such as Isha Rural Health Clinics (IRHCs), Community Care Centers for people with HIV/AIDS and Mobile Health Clinics (MHCs), ARR has reached over 7 million people in more than 4600 villages till date.

Sadhguru recently introduced the simple but powerful yogic practice Isha Kriya, a tool for self-transformation that is offered free to ensure that every individual receives at least ‘one drop of spirituality’ in their life. Since then, Isha Outreach has begun spreading this potent practice in rural areas during their MHC rounds, to not only improve people’s physical and mental health but also instill that ‘one drop of spirituality.’ A rural woman speaks of the changes in her life:“I am a weaver, and I work nearly eight to nine hours every day. I was suffering from severe hand pain, so I came to the mobile hospital and received free medicine. I wanted to learn yoga since childhood, but we women were not allowed to go out of the house. Even after marriage, I have kids to take care of, so I rarely get any free time. This longing in my heart has now turned into a reality that came to my doorstep, free of cost.” Following the success of the Isha Kriya classes during the MHC rounds, Isha volunteers decided to offer Isha Kriya to larger numbers of people through medical camps and Arokiya Alai (Wave of Health) Awareness Campaigns.

Arokiya Alai is a medical camp organized by Isha Outreach to spread awareness on nutrition, disease prevention and symptoms, hygiene, and sanitation to the rural populace. The Arokiya Alai initiative also provides cost-free, simple, and healthy dietary solutions to help eradicate malnutrition in the villages.

Some of the awareness campaigns in schools also included Isha Kriya programs for the students. One such program was conducted in Sivanthi Adhithanar High School, Manali, Chennai, where nearly 400 students benefitted from this offering.

One student shares: “I feel fresh after attending the yoga class. I am sure Isha Kriya will make me fit and help me study better. I will practice this daily.”

Many Isha volunteers have taken it up to turn Sadhguru’s wish and vision of offering at least one drop of spirituality to every human being into a reality.

One of the Isha Kriya teachers shares his overwhelming experience: “I wanted to be an Isha Yoga teacher, but I did not have the opportunity earlier. Recently, I had the chance to teach Isha Kriya during the Nasiyanur camp. I could feel the joy in the participants, their faces turning so peaceful and happy. It was a truly fulfilling experience to share Isha Kriya with all these people.”

Many more Isha Kriya programs are being planned for the upcoming camps. Offering this ‘one drop spirituality’ to people in rural areas will surely elevate their lives.

Arokiya Alai, the ‘Wave of Health’ – Raising Rural Health Consciousness


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Excerpted from Sadhguru Spot, 31 August 2011

The Smooth Ride to Kailash

This has been the smoothest ride to Kailash, thanks to the Chinese road builders. The amazing pace and quality of their road building has to be appreciated. This will definitely make a great change in the economic and social life of Tibet. But the pilgrimage to Kailash is a big loser as it may eventually be turned into a picnic. Deluxe buses traveling to Manasarovar and Kailash were distressing for me personally. The most disturbing factor is that the roads are being laid even along the parikrama, except for a six kilometer distance. That is at an elevation of around 19,000 feet. Though all of this has been done with the intention of providing comfort for the pilgrims, it’s disturbing for me. I am making an effort to talk to the Chinese Embassy through the Indian Government to see if we can at least stop the vehicular movement upon the sacred parikrama.

Beyond all this, being at Kailash is always fantastic at the least. The sheer power of the place and of course the beauty are overwhelming and inspiring. This time around, I am in the process of accessing a certain dimension of Kailash. I am latching onto a particular strand of Kailash towards a specific goal and in the coming year, I am sure that this aspect will manifest and find fruit.

Except for the lack of adventure in the drive, everything else was just fine. Next time, that is in 2012, I am hoping to take another route with a small group. This route traverses across mountains and upon rocky paths and a few rickety bridges at over 5,200 meters elevation, and there is a good chance

of seeing the legendary wild yak that is supposed to be huge and people say ‘horn to horn’ is six-feet wide – I will believe it when I see one. But sounds exciting. The comfort seekers can of course travel the highway.

I had to rush back to Delhi from Kathmandu as Anna’s fast was heading for the seventh day and I could not stay away. Agitations are always very intoxicating. This one was inspiring, interesting and intoxicating. But the big question is: did we need so much drama to pass a simple law to stem corruption that is eating at the vitals of this nation? Why does someone have to agitate? Is it not the duty of the lawmakers to make laws as per the requirement of the national situation and need? Considering the level and volume of corruption in recent times, is there even a debate about the need to curb it?

There is a not so Maha – Bharath behind all this…Love and Grace,

Visit http://blog.ishafoundation.org/sadhguru-spot/ to get weekly updates by the Master himself!

Sadhguru SpotMusings from the master


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I had a daughter named Aarthipriya. She was born with a congenital 1 myopathy 2. She could neither walk nor perform daily chores.

I first met Sadhguru 20 years ago. When I told him about my daughter who was four or five years of age at that time, he said that “because of good karma, she has chosen to be born to you. That life has chosen you to dissolve its karma. Take care of her with love.”

Later, when Sadhguru went to the US, he enquired about a treatment for this disorder. He called me to say that there was no known treatment and advised us to just shower her with love and to take care of her well. There was some sense of calmness within ourselves after he told us that. She was very active, sang Carnatic 3 music and did lots of craft work. Everybody who met her liked her. She never worried about the disorder or showed her incapability. She would never create a situation where we would have to worry about her.

Each time she met Sadhguru, she would sing songs for him. And he blessed her and gave her a flower that she would preserve in her book. When he gave her a fruit, she would ask her mother to give her a little every day and savored it over two to three days. She had so much trust in Sadhguru.

Once, when she was 15, she complained about body aches, and a family friend suggested Reiki 4. She was given Reiki for two days, and the pain reduced a little. When we had an opportunity to meet Sadhguru and I told him about the treatment, he said, “Stop that treatment immediately. All her karma should dissolve in this body; in this lifetime. Let her not take anything with her. If she can bear the pain, stop the treatment.” The next day, I told Aarthi what Sadhguru said and when I asked if she

would bear the pain, she said, “If Sadhguru had said so, then I don’t need this treatment. Please ask them not to come anymore.”

Whenever I went for Sadhguru’s sathsang, I had to tell her in detail what Sadhguru had spoken, and she would listen with so much interest. Once, Sadhguru said something like “Leave your last moment to me. I will take care that your death will happen smoothly.” When I shared this with Aarthi, I could see that this touched her deeply.

In the final year of her life, her health turned critical. For six months, she was bedridden, ate less, and needed an oxygen machine to support her breathing. One day, upon advice of the doctor, an x-ray was taken of her chest. The radiologist said that in his 25 years of experience, he had not seen anything like this – all the organs were merged one on top of the other. The doctor told me in private, “The situation is very critical. Anything can happen – there could be kidney failure, or the blood might clot, or she could go into coma.” I was helpless, and I could not share this with my wife or relatives.

But Aarthi insisted that I should tell her exactly what the doctor had said. When I told her that the doctor said the situation was critical, it seemed like she arrived at a decision. The next day morning, she called me and said, “Please pass on this message about my situation to Sadhguru.” Sadhguru replied saying, “She is in my awareness. Please ask the others to remain calm.” I told her this and that was when she relaxed. She asked Isha Yoga teacher Swaminathan to come and she spoke with him. After the conversation, he said she asked questions like “How to be in the last moment? In what mental state should I be? How to face it?” He added, “She is prepared. Prepare yourself too and everything will be fine.” When we went to see her in her room, she said, “Father, I have decided and there will be no change in this. It should happen soon.”

She kept listening to the ‘Brahmananda Swaroopa’ CD that had been sent to her from the ashram and she was looking at Sadhguru’s picture next to her. At that time, she was still on oxygen support. Four, five days later, she said, “Daddy, I

An Isha meditator shares about his daughter’s death

A Graceful Transition

1 Condition existing at birth and often before birth 2 A muscular disease in which muscle fibers do not function, resulting in muscular weakness3 A classical south Indian form of music 4 A healing practice that uses energies (developed by a Japanese Buddhist practitioner)


19

have decided already. It should happen soon.” We were deeply concerned about what she said. To the doctors who came that day, she said, “Please make arrangements for my eyes to be donated. But please check if my eyes can be donated, to make sure that the disease will not spread to someone.”

One evening, a relative of ours came to visit, and when leaving, he said to Aarthi, “Today is Amavasya [new moon], so I will go to temple.” That whole night, Aarthi breathed without respirator and listened to ‘Brahmananda Swaroopa.’ She said, “I wish to be alone. I don’t want any relatives to come to see me.” In the morning around 10 a.m., I went next to her. It was as if her breath was going faster. In the next half hour, her breath changed. I sensed that this was going to be her last moment. When I touched her hand, she held it. I called my wife too, and we chanted together. In this half hour, without any struggle, she left her body peacefully. Her face was so clear at that moment. Death happened very smooth for her.

We had been afraid that her death would be painful, because that was what the doctors had said. We had been worried about the struggle that she might have to go through towards her end. But as she gave herself to Sadhguru, her death happened so effortlessly. We felt so humbled and grateful within.

The next day, we passed on the message to Sadhguru and his reply was, “She has reached the right place. Everybody can be calm.” I consider myself very fortunate for having known Sadhguru. Many times have I heard Sadhguru saying, “Give yourself to me. I shall take care of your life and death.” But now, I saw this with my own eyes through Aarthi. After this incident, my respect and gratitude for Sadhguru has increased even more.

– Krishnakumar, Isha meditator, Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu, India

[Translated from Tamil]

Q: Sadhguru, a lot of the spiritual traditions talk about the moment of death as the most significant moment of your life. Is that really true?

Sadhguru: All the moments before that moment in your life are most important. If people don’t realize that, they try to catch the final moment of their lives. Unless you have caught a lot of moments in your life as a deep, penetrating experience for yourself, you just cannot catch the final moment of your life. Try this and see: Tonight when you go to bed, just see if you can maintain an awareness of the final moment of transition from wakefulness to sleep. If you can manage that, phenomenal things will happen in your life. Things that you have never imagined possible will become a reality if you can just be aware in that moment when you are transiting from wakefulness to sleep. If you can do that, you will also transit from life to death in full awareness. Yes, the moment of death has many implications, many consequences. But let’s

look at it this way. Did you ever die? No – so you have no experience of death. Did you ever see a dead man? No. You have seen dead bodies, but no dead man. Did you ever see somebody who actually died and came back? No. There may be near-death experience. Near is not good enough. “I nearly ate” – is it good enough? “I nearly lived” – is it good enough? No. So if some people nearly died, it is not good enough, as an experience.

So you haven’t experienced death; you haven’t seen it, nor have you had first-hand information from anybody. So from where did you get this idea that there is something called ‘death?’ Death is a fiction created by ignorant people. Death is the creation of people who live their lives in total unawareness. There is only life, life and life alone, moving from one dimension to another, another dimension to another.

– Excerpted from talks by Sadhguru

Moving into another DimensionSadhguru on the Fiction of Death


20

Program Highlights

These programs are conducted in English, unless indicated otherwise. Current at the time of print, however subject to change. For full program schedules and updates, please visit our website www.ishafoundation.org.

Date Program Place Contact

5 - 11 Oct 2011Inner Engineering

The Peak of WellbeingMargao, Goa,India

98600 38509, 98221 00305 [email protected]


Retreat Residential Program

Isha Yoga Center,Coimbatore, India

0422-2515421 [email protected]

8 Oct 2011 Public Talk by Sadhguru

Melbourne, VIC, Australia

+61-433643215, 432268672 [email protected]

9 Oct 2011 Meditators Sathsang Conducted by Sadhguru

Moorabbin, Australia

+61-433643215, 432268672 [email protected]

15 - 16 Oct 2011Shambhavi Mahamudra Program Conducted by

Sadhguru

Los Angeles, CA, USA

+1-323-929-7098 [email protected]


Retreat Residential Program


0422-2515421 [email protected]

22 - 23 Oct 2011

In the Presence of the Master

Residential Program conducted by Sadhguru

iii, McMinnville, TN, USA


25 Oct 2011 Pancha Bhuta Aradhana

Dhyanalinga Yogic Temple,

Isha Yoga Center, Coimbatore, India

0422-2515426, 94878 95878 [email protected]

5 - 6 Nov 2011Shambhavi Mahamudra Program conducted by

Sadhguru Somerset, NJ, USA


12 - 13 Nov 2011Shambhavi Mahamudra Program conducted by

SadhguruToronto, Canada

+1-866-424-ISHA (4742) [email protected]

11 - 18 Feb 2012Mahabharat

Residential Programconducted by Sadhguru


94449 02058 [email protected]


Isha RecipesFor Healthy Living

Quantity Ingredients

200 g Cashew nuts 200 g Sugar As needed Milk 1 teaspoon Ghee ¼ teaspoon Green cardamom powder

Kaju BaRFI (CasHEw FudgE)

Method of preparation:

Place cashew nuts in the jar of a mixer and make a powder. Transfer into a bowl.

In the same jar, put the sugar and grind till fine.

Put the powdered cashew nuts in a pan and roast on low heat till heated thoroughly.

Sprinkle the powdered sugar on it so that it melts due to the heat.

Transfer into a bowl and slowly add boiled milk, as required, so as to knead the powder into a dough.

Add the ghee and cardamom powder and knead more.

Spread the dough into a greased plate. Level the surface so that it is nice and even.

Once it is cooled, cut into desired shapes and serve.

Eating and gifting sweets is an integral part of Indian life. Traditionally, no meal starts without a piece of sweet served on the plate or banana leaf. On any occasion, event or celebrations like engagements and weddings, birth and birthdays, cultural festivals and religious occasions, the Indian tradition is to exchange platters of sweets and snacks with neighbors, family and friends.

1.

2.

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Tip: Garnish with saffron and/or almonds.


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