In this intermittent series, Isha brahmacharis and sanyasis share their individual backgrounds, observations, and experiences of what it means to them to walk this sacred “Path of the Divine.”
A Few Minutes Too Late
In January 1996, when I was 18 and in my second year of college, one of my friends told me that she would be attending a Yoga class. Before college, I was into athletics and handicrafts, but in college, there was not much chance for me to play sports nor do craftwork. My only craftwork now was the dissection of frogs, cockroaches, or garden lizards. So I was bored.
I decided to join my friend for the morning Yoga class in the Tatabad center. On the third day of the class, we came a few minutes late, and the volunteers wouldn’t allow us inside and told us to come for the 10:00 a.m. class. We did not know where to go. We simply sat and waited outside the hall.
The next day, we were determined – we spent the night at my house, woke up at 3:00 a.m., cooked something and got ready. We walked in the pitch dark, with no streetlights for 2–3 km to the next stop to catch the bus. After getting off the bus, we walked to the Tatabad center and managed to reach just before they opened the doors for the class. After this incident, I felt some change in me – it really made some things sink into me: about being on time, and being intense and committed to make something happen.
The Dams Break
The initiation day happened to be my birthday. My friend said maybe something different would happen to me on this day. And sure enough, I met Sadhguru, who was wearing whites and a turban. During one of the processes, I couldn’t control myself as something tore within me. I was deeply touched. I am not someone who usually cries, but for the first time, the sky opened and I cried without knowing why. Since that day, things gradually changed within me. I started to walk more gently, noticing everything, not stamping on the small creatures but giving importance to them also.
The Festival of Volunteering
I began volunteering regularly – on weekday evenings, I would be at the Tatabad center for guided meditations, and on weekends at the ashram. I used to bunk my classes to volunteer – I would first take the bus in the direction of my college (so my father wouldn’t find out). Then I would get off in between and take another bus in the opposite direction, to the ashram. Once, when I had skipped my internal exam, someone in the ashram found out, and a brahmachari scolded me. After that, I stopped telling people things!
Intensity of Being with Sadhguru
Later that year, I did my Bhava Spandana Program (BSP) in the ashram. The experience was very intense. In most of the processes, it was like something threw me near the Guru Pooja dais. Unknowingly, I would find myself there, lying down and crying.
My Samyama happened in a temporary thatch-roof hut close to where Dhyanalinga is now. Dhyanalinga was not yet consecrated then. In those days, Samyamas were very intense. It may be because before the consecration, Sadhguru threw his energy so freely. He made everyone be at high energy and reach at their peak.
During the program, I couldn’t sit still. Whenever a process started, I would jump here and there. Sadhguru once came and tapped on my spine. After that, I would become still in the meditation. In one of the processes, with eyes closed I felt like I was being dragged to the dais. I started slithering like a snake and even climbed onto Sadhguru’s dais. No one could stop me, I was later told. I held Sadhguru’s feet and cried. He let me sit there for some time. Then he placed his palm on my head. Next thing, I was lying down on the ground. I couldn’t move my body or open my eyes or do anything.
Teachers Training
After Samyama, I wanted to join the 2-month teacher training that Sadhguru announced in 1997. Sadhguru took my interview for the training. He asked me, “What are you going to do?” I told him, “I want to come full-time.” He asked me, “What do you mean by ‘full-time’?” I told him I want to take up brahmacharya. I was 19 at that time. He started laughing, with a playful expression in his eyes. “Okay, you come to the training,” he said.
The training was very strict in those days, but at the same time, we had lots of fun. Initially, I could not understand the logical aspects of the class. In those days, it was not easy for a woman to stand in front of everyone and deliver such a logical approach to the spiritual process – which is what the class was. But at that time, on most days, Sadhguru was with us in the training, and would especially support the ladies at every stage. If we were stuck somewhere, he would help us take the next step.
After the training, I started conducting satsangs and teaching children’s programs, as well as the 13-day classes. In 2001, I was initiated into brahmacharya.
Impact of Yoga on Villagers
When Sadhguru announced the Action for Rural Rejuvenation (ARR) project, I became a part of that. After observing a few Yoga classes for rural people, I started conducting 6-day classes in the villages. Many of the villagers did not know anything about Isha, but they allowed us to stay in their homes during the six days.
I was surprised by the strength and flexibility of the villagers. It was due to their level of physical activity. They could easily bend and touch their foreheads to their knees in Surya Namaskar. Even the ladies were strong and bold. During the dog and bone game[1], ladies would just hike up their saris, even jump the line and quickly catch up to the men.
The classes left a huge impact on the rural people, and many of them came out of addictions and physical and mental ailments. One example that stands out in my mind is about a farmer who had borrowed money from a lot of people because he had to pay back a loan. Unfortunately, the money he had gathered was not enough. At that time, he was introduced to the Isha Yoga class, BSP, and Samyama, and had many experiences. He became very devoted to Sadhguru.
After the closing session of his Samyama, he prostrated himself fully in front of me with tears, saying that if he had not attended the 6-day class, he would have committed suicide due to his financial troubles. The class gave him the strength to come out of his problems. Today, he is doing well financially.
Once, there was a schoolteacher who was participating in the class. She could only sit in a chair. After the third day, she started sitting on the floor and doing practices. On the last day, she shared that she had not sat on the floor for the past 10 years. The class brought back her flexibility and she could comfortably sit on the floor. We even saw her run during the game session of the next class, which she came to volunteer for. A simple practice, if done with full involvement, can be miraculous. As an Isha Yoga teacher, it was my fortune to see lives getting transformed.
[1] Team game of object retrieval and evasion.
Hardships and Hospitality of Rural India
For the 6-day class, there were 2 to 3 batches every day, and each batch started with games. Many times, I would have to wind up materials after each batch because the hall would be used for other purposes during the day. Otherwise, the batches were in different locations, so the class materials would have to be shifted from place to place. Many times between the batches, I had to travel on a scooter in the hot sun on the roads in bad conditions. Sometimes, I would be very hungry, but the poor villagers could only serve me what was within their means – a diet that did not have enough nutrition or substance. They would offer it with so much love; but without proper nutrition, my body started to weaken.
One day, between shifting materials, conducting classes, and doing enrollment activities for the next class, I was not able to finish my practices. In the night, once I reached back to my stay, I told the village akka who was hosting me that I would finish my practices and then eat. So, she kept some food aside for me with a sombu [2] full of water. After finishing my practices, around 11:30 p.m., I ate and drank the water. Then I realized that something was not okay with the water. I looked into the sombu and found that it was full of tadpoles! The next day, I had a terrible cold and fever, but seeing the impact that the class was having on the rural people, I decided to ignore my health difficulties.
Although being in the villages was physically hard on my system, it was my sadhana that kept me on all the time. Whatever happened, I would not miss my practices. Before Isha, I was not used to engaging in much physical activity. After doing this level of activity in ARR, I realized that I am capable of doing so much. It helped me to push myself.
[2] Tamil word for a traditional metal vessel or container for drinking water.
Games of Gramotsavam
One by one, we started introducing things into the villages – herbal gardens, mobile hospitals, and games such as throwball for ladies and volleyball for gents. These small beginnings eventually led to the statewide Gramotsavam sports tournament in Tamil Nadu today.
We didn’t have separate time to teach the games. Therefore, after the evening session of the Yoga class, I would ask the villagers to have food and come back to learn and practice games. Bringing village ladies to the playground was difficult because customarily, after dark, many villages would not let ladies leave the house. But I managed to convince them to come to the grounds. Even old people would wrap themselves in a bed sheet, chew betel nuts and leaves as they sat around the grounds, watching the games.
Initially, the ladies were hesitant to play in front of everyone, but I encouraged them and taught them the rules. During the training, we set it up as gents vs. ladies. Then when we started playing games with score points, it was impossible to pull them away from the grounds! They were so enthusiastic and competitive that the games would often go on till 12:00 a.m. in the night.
The first Gramotsavam happened in 2004, with Sadhguru coming for the semifinals and finals in Gobichettipalayam. Gobichettipalayam had been divided into three zones for conducting the ARR activities. My zone had 40 teams from different villages. The inter-village matches used to go on from 5:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. for one week leading up to the final rounds. Gramotsavam came in at the right time to uplift the villagers when they were struggling with a drought situation. Even today, it warms my heart when I think of the exuberant cheers of those thousands of villagers sitting in the galleries during the semi and final matches of the first Gramotsavam. It was truly wonderful to see the change the games brought to them. They forgot their caste, creed, and economic status, and threw themselves into it 100%.
After the finals, there was a satsang with Sadhguru in the evening. When he came onto the dais, tears rolled down from my eyes. We had worked so much towards that moment. Initially, Sadhguru had told us, “You just prepare the land. I will come and put the seeds.” Now he had come to do just that.
At the Mercy of Mobile Hospitals
The Mobile Health Clinics (MHC) are very important for the villagers. For people who have minor colds and fevers for which they cannot get treatment, or for elderly individuals who cannot travel, mobile hospitals are a great boon. Patients with serious problems that the MHC could not handle were referred to city hospitals, where they would be given a discount on medical charges.
When I was in the Salem area for ARR, in addition to conducting Isha Yoga classes, I also took care of 3 MHCs. But running an MHC is a challenge. You have to be on time as per the scheduled route. At the same time, you have to manage the food and stay in the villages for the 4–5 people who are part of the MHC. Suddenly, when the driver asks for a leave, you need to find a replacement. Even more difficult is finding a replacement for the doctor. When the MHC needed some repair work while in the middle of some remote village, we would have to somehow get a mechanic to come there. Once, someone stole the LCD projector in our mobile hospital. We complained in the police station, and they asked the entire team to come to the police station for inquiry.
When I went, everyone started saluting me with their hands to their eyebrows. I did Namaskaram to them. They pulled out a chair for me to sit. I was shocked and embarrassed. But they had so much respect for brahmacharis. We spoke to the inspector and found out that our driver had stolen the Rs. 50,000 projector and sold it to a man in another village at Rs. 3000! We got the projector back, and for the next Isha Yoga class, most of the police enrolled.
Making of a Guinness World Record
One day, Sadhguru announced that Project GreenHands would get volunteers to plant 8 lakh saplings in a day for a Guinness World Record. Ten thousand saplings were distributed to each center, and I was allocated to take charge of 10 centers. Who was given a sapling and where it was planted had to be documented and sent to the Guinness World Records. So I was traveling up and down between my 10 centers, to coordinate the documentation.
Just two days before the big day, my coordinator asked if I could plant another 50,000 saplings in one of the centers. I paused for a few seconds, and then said, “Okay!” Suddenly, I fired myself up like never before in my life. The saplings would arrive only a day before, and so all the 50,000 saplings had to be distributed at once. I planned how to do it, how to get the volunteers, conduct meetings, and ensure documentation.
The function was a success, and we planted 1.5 lakh saplings. Across Tamil Nadu, thousands of volunteers planted over 8 lakh saplings. It was a Guinness World Record.
Immersed in Sadhguru’s Presence in the Class
Whatever I am doing, during class or in project activities, Sadhguru’s presence and grace have always been with me.
Once I had to travel for 11 hours for an introductory class. I reached very late and had very little time to clean and organize the hall, which was full of dust. Then I just freshened up and started the introduction. I invited the volunteers to come and share their experience at the mic. During their sharing, my eyes began to close. I felt an overwhelming energy fill me – it was Sadhguru’s presence. Suddenly, one participant from the second row jumped up, came forward, and held my feet. I opened my eyes and saw her. She had come up immediately after I closed my eyes. I don’t know how she sensed his presence. I had many experiences similar to this one.
Vijji Ma – An Inspiration
I first saw Vijji Ma on the initiation day of my 13-day class. However, I didn’t get a chance to talk to her. Later, when I came to the ashram, a few brahmacharis and Viji Ma were swimming in the tank. She called me to join. I was wearing a sari and didn’t have a change of clothes. She would not leave me and said, “I’ll give you clothes; you come.” She treated me like a person very close to her.
She had a childlike nature. Sadhguru would often pull her leg when he got the chance. In the games, if she would get out in a running game, she would say, “No, no, I’m not out.” Sadhguru would say, “Yes, Vijji, you are not out. Keep running. Only then you will lose weight.” Like this, both of them would be bantering.
After she finished the Karma Yatra, her face totally changed. She was so intense and focused. She has always been an inspiration for me. If someone like her who is like a normal person, just like any one of us, can reach the highest, it means that everyone can do it. It is possible for me as well. Definitely she must have experienced something very high; otherwise she would not have left Radhe and, especially, Sadhguru.
Trekking in Mangalore Forests
In 2002, the brahmacharis went to Mangalore with Sadhguru and Radhe. We had a spontaneous schedule. One day, Sadhguru told us in the evening that tomorrow, he would be going to a certain waterfall, and that he would recite poems to whoever went with him. Whoever did not want to go to the waterfall with him could climb Kumara Parvat and come back. I thought, “Anyway, I can’t understand Sadhguru’s poems and would end up falling asleep, so I’d better climb.”
I had heard how energetic Kumara Parvat is in one of the teacher’s classes, and I was very inspired to go there. Later, Sadhguru asked me if I’m going to Kumara Parvat. I said, “Yes.” He asked me, “Is it okay if a tiger comes? Is it okay if an elephant comes?” I said, “Okay.” Then he said, “Okay, you go. The mountain is very steep, like 7th Hill.”
A few Swamis, one other Maa, and I decided to go. We started at 4:00 in the morning. The forest was so still we couldn’t breathe. Even the leaves didn’t stir. It was a difficult climb up. At one point, many Swamis climbed fast, and only three Swamis were a few steps in front of me and the other Maa. I heard a sound like a tiger growling. It was coming closer and closer. My torch light was almost out of battery. I was too scared to shout for the Swamis because the animal’s sound was so close. So I waved my torch light frantically. They noticed it and came back to where I was. We went together, and thankfully, the sound didn’t come again.
At another point, the dense forest gave way to an open field. There we saw fresh elephant dung with steam coming up. We didn’t know where the elephant was, or which side it went. We carefully walked on and reached the top. This place was so beautiful, full of greenery, wild flowers, and dancing clouds. It was so energetic that even with my eyes open I was in a meditative state.
As we were going back down, somehow I was the first to reach the foothill. While I waited for others, I made a bouquet for Sadhguru out of orchids that were growing in the wild and coconut leaves. Then as we entered the choultry we were staying at, Sadhguru also reached. I presented him with the bouquet. He hugged me and said, “Keep it in the water; I’ll keep it in my car tomorrow.”
Later, as we trekked through the forest, we walked on the railway track outside. There was a river flowing far below us. If you panicked, it was difficult to walk. One Swami misstepped and slipped through the wooden planks. It was only his backpack that saved him as it was too wide to slip through the planks. He hung there with the river rushing below. We pulled him up. After that, we were extra cautious.
We also walked a few kilometers in a pitch-black tunnel, without any light. It was so dark that you couldn’t even see your hand. We didn’t know what kind of creatures were inside, and the ground was uneven. Someone switched on their torchlight. Immediately, Sadhguru sharply said, “Switch it off.” When I came out of the tunnel, I felt totally different. Everything was so fresh within myself.
We wanted to get back to the stay area, and Sadhguru asked the guide for a shortcut. He said that there is a forest river, but it is too deep and strong. The guide tried to discourage Sadhguru citing how many people had died trying to cross it, but Sadhguru said, “We’ll go that way.”
Once we reached there, one of the Swamis who was a good swimmer swam across with a rope, tied it to a rock on the far bank of the river, and sat there. Then, holding onto the rope, one by one, we started to cross the river. Sadhguru crossed first. In the middle, his walking stick slipped from his hand and was swept away in the current. He tried to reach for it, but he also started to get carried away by the river. A few Swamis jumped into the river to go after him, but Sadhguru regained his balance and returned to the rope. He said, “Don’t worry; I will not die.” Then we all made it across and reached the other side. The guide was amazed.
Through all these incidents, Sadhguru kept us on the edge, like in a thriller. I was pushed physically and mentally, out of fear. It broke some limitations in me. I was always doing things that are safe, within a protective atmosphere, but then I realized that I was capable of doing things beyond what I thought.
A Hand in Handicrafts
Whenever I get time, I always do some kind of handicraft activities. My mother is very good at handicrafts, and she taught me many things. What I learned from her has helped me to do aesthetics for ashram programs, make malas for Sadhguru, or do temple decorations.
Now we have started a separate unit in Isha Life for handicrafts, including embroidery work, terracotta jewelry, thread bangles, and wooden block printing. It is going well. We have employed many local village ladies. Since I came to the ashram right out of college without any exposure to the outside world, whatever activities I was put into in Isha, I had to learn as I went. Now, with the handicrafts, for the first time in over 25 years, I am making use of something I know. It is fulfilling to see that this unit contributes to the foundation as well as to the welfare of rural people.
Freedom Born from Sadhana
A few years ago, when I was sitting in a Samyama program, there was a point where I couldn’t feel my body, and I didn’t know where I was sitting. I had no sense of time or space. I didn’t need to use the restroom or eat. I just sat like that for a few hours. After that, I had the same experience a few times here and there. My practices totally changed after that. Such experiences as well as my sadhana are all helping me to grow. Whenever I am stuck with something, I just remind myself of the Isha Yoga class aspects and am able to come out of that. I am feeling some freedom within me.
One thing I am very clear about is whatever has happened in my life and in my activity has happened only with Sadhguru’s grace. Without his grace, nothing happens.
—Maa Nagapushpika
