The Adiyogi Alayam Consecration

For the last four months, there has been no day and night in the ashram. It has just been one long workday. What happened at the Adiyogi Alayam construction site during these four months has been tremendous; the residents and volunteers worked tirelessly to make this event possible, and the Consecration went off in tremendous fashion. These types of events and processes are usually conducted in an intimate setting, but we had 11,049 meditators here, and their level of cooperation, exuberance and intensity is something you cannot find anywhere. The hall was just overflowing with people; we have already outgrown the space even before it has been fully completed.

The reason why we created an Adiyogi Alayam is to bring back classical yoga in its purest form. Not studio yoga, not book yoga, not the kinds of things that are being done in the world today, but proper classical yoga, which is a phenomenally powerful science. The only thing is, if you were given a choice between studying fundamental physics, computer science, software development, commerce or just simply having a degree, which would you choose? Many people would choose the second, third, fourth or fifth one – but not the first one.

When it comes to the world, there is only one science, which is physics. Everything else is just an offshoot. But how many people in the world do you think are studying physics today? Fundamental physics is studied by an extremely miniscule number of people. Right now, people’s understanding of science is the iPhone. People think that is a great scientific achievement, but it is just a fancy gadget. I am not trying to put down the iPhone, it is useful, but it is just a little gadget. That is not science. Creating that is also not science, just a little bit of technology. Fundamental physics is the science.

Today, the reason why you have all these electronics and gadgets is because for the first fifty years of scientific development, scientists invested in fundamental physics. You are reaping the benefit of that now. You will see that after thirty years, if there are not many people in fundamental physics, nothing new will come out of science because the basic scientific knowledge will be missing.

Similarly in yoga, there is a classical science which is the science. But today, there is no investment in the concrete science of yoga, people are just trying to reap the benefits. It is like, if you grow a cow, you can milk it. After some time, people will only be interested in the udder, not the cow. So they won’t have a cow, they will just have a plastic udder and they will go on milking it. After some time, no milk will come. Slowly, our attention has become like this - we have forgotten what gives the milk.

One fundamental reason to create the Adiyogi Alayam was to re-establish classical yoga; we want to build people who are willing to invest their lives in the profoundness of yoga, not getting fancy benefits out of it, not hanging onto a chair or a tree and thinking they are doing yoga. Bringing back that dimension will not happen by instruction only; a phenomenal energy is needed. Otherwise, yoga cannot be taught. If you teach yoga without creating a vessel of energy, that is not yoga. That is just a farce. That farce is going all over the world right now.

So we have built the Adiyogi Alayam with that intention, we want a powerful space. We want this to be such a vibrant space that if you simply sit here, really tuned in to what is happening in the hall, you must be able to know all the yoga sutras. You never have to open a book, you never have to listen to anybody, you just have to energy tune yourself and it will be there. Tomorrow, when we are not here, there still has to be a space which will teach yoga. Maybe there will be no guru here, but even if teachers stand here, suddenly things should come out of them that they do not know. They should begin to say things, they should begin to feel things, they should begin to experience things that they themselves do not know. Only then can we transmit this. That is why so much effort is going into this, and many more things have to be done.

During the process, there were two levels of consecration. One was to consecrate the linga, which is the most important part, and the other was to create a seat - a hot seat - because for the kinds of things that we are planning to do in this hall, we need a substantial support. If we have to describe the seat in terms of the human system, the nearest quality that I can ascribe to it is the Muladhara* - it creates a stable base to sit on, always. This is needed. One thing that was said in the yoga sutras about Hata Yoga is, ‘sukham sthiram asanam.’ An asana which is comfortable and stable, that is the asana. So stability, balance is the most important aspect whatever we wish to do. How far one goes, how high one climbs, is not a question of strength alone, not a question of intelligence alone, not a question of knowledge alone, not a question of external conduciveness - stability, balance is the most important quality. If this one thing is not there, even with all the other things, you still may not make it because you do not have the necessary balance.

I had been thinking for some time that we have to do something in the Adiyogi’s name because He was the first to put this idea into human civilization - that a human being can evolve into something more than what he is right now. This predates all religion. Every creature has come with a framework. An ant can do certain things, but within that framework. A tiger can do certain things, but only within that framework. He put forth this idea that a human being does not have to limit himself to his dimension, he can transcend; there is another way to be - a completely different way to be. He not only gave the idea, He also gave a method to get there. There has never been a more revolutionary idea on this planet.

* The first chakra. It is the very foundation of all the 114 chakras which form the energy system.