At the Isha Yoga Center, Coimbatore

Magic of shivratri or Mahashivratri at the Isha Yoga Center, Coimbatore… celebration of live, music, dance, food and more!

An ISHA MEDITATOR tells us what it means for her to spend some precious time at Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudeva’s Isha Yoga Center…it is a place for transformation of the mind and body, heart and soul!

NOT looking up to someone, or looking down on someone, but learning to turn inward and look within… to tap and open up the possibilities of knowing the universe! That is what happens at the Isha Yoga Center in Coimbatore, where Sadhguru of the Isha Foundation, offers tools to learn and unlearn human mechanism, how to master one’s own emotions, handle the physical body as well.
I have tasted a drop of spirituality and grace at Isha. All seekers of the spiritual in life await the celebration of Mahashivaratri. It is the darkest night of the year when the upsurge of utmost energy happens in the most natural way. For the grace to fall upon human beings, one must keep one’s spine erect through the night – that is the whole point of this nightlong celebration that begins at 6 pm and continues till 6 am.
Attending the celebration of Mahashivaratri at the Isha Yoga Centre in Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) is an experience in itself. It is a blessing in so many ways and in more ways than one can even imagine. It opens up spiritual possibilities for everyone for the all power-packed night of staying awake includes midnight meditation, Brahma Muhurta chanting, satsang, musical performances and colorful cultural programs to keep the audience awake.
CALLING it a night of awakening, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, the founder of Isha Yoga Centre, had initiated a special ticketed program. Grace of Yoga this year invited participants from across the world to attend in person or online to experience Mahashivratri in the comfort of their homes. Also, three million consecrated rudraksh beads were for distribution to everyone as free gifts and also posted to everyone who registered online for the rudrakh-diksha.
The bhuta shuddhi process and panch bhuta aradhana were also a part of the celebration. This is the cleansing of the five elements – water, earth, fire, wind and space, within us. “How these five elements behave within you will determine just about everything. First thing we need to do is to start cleansing the five elements. If you have mastery over the elements, you not only have the mastery over the body, over the mind, over the very creation. Life will happen in magical ways,” ensures Sadhguru.
Mahashivartri, one of the largest and most significant among the sacred festivals of India. It is a celebration of the grace of the personality of Lord Shiva, also the Adi Guru or the First Guru from whom the yogic tradition originates. As Sadhguru explains, the planetary positions on this night, the darkest night of the year, are such that there is a powerful natural upsurge of energy in the human system. It is enormously beneficial for one’s physical and spiritual wellbeing to stay awake and aware in a vertical posture throughout the night.
The Isha Yogic Centre is located at the foothills of Velliangiri mountains, better known as the “Kailash of the South.” It is surrounded by mist-filled forests and the Isha ashram reverberates with mystical energy throughout the year. However, Mahashivaratri is the epitome of all celebrations held here, with its one-of-a-kind consecrated dhyanalinga and linga Bhairavi temples and powerful water bodies Suryakund and Chandrakund. In a year’s time from now the Kalabhairava temple will also be consecrated with a promise to complete the full circle of life in the single space.
With around 4,600 full-time in-house volunteers taking care of the day-to-day activities of the ashram and of those who dwell in it, Isha offers spiritual dimensions in a most peaceful and joyous ambience. “We have been celebrating Mahashivaratri for the past 27 years,” disclosed Sadhguru, announcing a special mission. A mission to free the government-run temples of Tamil Nadu temples and offer them to devotees to maintain and run so that the ancient temples may come alive anew with energies and synergies to transform devotees.
“It is time that uninvolved government employees should not be managing the temples. Devotees, for whom the heart beats for their deities, should manage the temples. Tremendous amount of work was done a few hundred years ago and here, we have brought it to a state of just preserving it, not keeping it alive,” says Sadhguru, who has initiated a movement to free the temples in Tamil Nadu beginning this Mahashivaratri.
He had earlier successfully given a call to rejuvenate the dying rivers of India – the Cauvery Calling movement ignited the spirit of millions across the world, who vowed to plant at least one tree to make the banks of this water lifeline of Southern India come alive green and lively once again.
HOWEVER, now Sadhguru is focusing on the dilapidated state of thousands of temples in Tamil Nadu. He points out that 11,999 temples are dying without a single puja taking place; 34,000 temples are struggling with less than Rs10,000 a year and 37,000 temples have just one person for puja rituals, maintenance, security, etc. “In a nation where spirituality was considered to be a way of life, this is pathetic!” So laments Sadhguru. Considering that the temples were built as living places for recharging the human body and mind. They were meant to be energy rejuvenation centres where everybody unfailingly visited in the morning after stepping out of their homes and before starting the day’s activity.
The night-long Mahashivratri celebration culminated this year with the powerful chanting of “Shambho, Shiv Shambho.” Sadhguru blessed everyone saying, “This year may all of us have the courage, commitment, and the consciousness to make better human beings of ourselves, and, in turn, a better world.”