Architecture and Spirituality

Sadhguru explores the nature of geometry and architecture, and explains the unique nature of the buildings at the Isha Yoga Center, especially the Dhyanalinga dome.

Sadhguru: Architecture is just a play of geometry. If you look at all the buildings at the Isha Yoga Center right now, they do not stand because of the strength of the material. They stand only because of perfectness of the geometry. That is the beauty of what we are doing here. If you use concrete, cement or steel, generally you can make the building any way you want because it’s the material that holds it together, not the geometry. At the Yoga Center, all we have used is brick, lime and mud. It is only the geometry that is makes the structures stand, similar to the way the globe is made.

Everything that you see around you, right from a tree to your own body is perfectly geometrical, isn’t it? If you look at it in a relaxed manner, is there any tension in this body? That means it is in perfect geometry. If the geometry is not proper, it would create tension. So if you know how to keep the body, it can exist here for a long time and very well too, because it is properly aligned and in proper geometry. If something was not fixed properly then there would naturally be some tension.

Right now, modern buildings being constructed today are like this; they are held together by tension, because the material is strong and it provides support. This is not the case at the Yoga Center, it’s just the geometry at play. So here the buildings are relaxed. They are meditating, you can say. The building itself is meditating because there is no tension in it. Concrete buildings, some of which even we have built, are held together by the tension of the steel and concrete. The gravitational power of this planet is constantly trying to pull those buildings down, but not those which are in perfect harmony with the forces of the planet. This is not architecture, it’s just spirituality.

If you take a look at the Dhyanalinga at the Isha Yoga Center, the uniqueness of its dome is that there is no cement steel, or concrete in it. It is only made of brick and mud. The simple technology of this is that all the bricks are trying to fall down at the same time, and hence they never can. It’s like five people trying to get into a door at once - nobody will get in unless one has a little courtesy to step back. If none of them do, they will all just keep pushing. As long as they are pushing, they remain in place for as long as the planet is on.

My estimate is such that the Dhyanalinga should last a minimum of 5000 years because there is no tension in the building anywhere. It is standing because of the simple, perfect geometry of construction.