On December 24, 2011 Sadhguru consecrated the Adiyogi Alayam, a sacred space for self-transformation. The event took place at the Isha Yoga Center in Tamil Nadu, India and was attended by over 10,000 people. During the consecration process, Sadhguru prepared a concoction of king cobra venom and milk as an offering to the linga, but not before ingesting some himself. One participant asks why.

The video includes a montage of the offering from the consecration, as well as Sadhguru's answer, which addresses the scientific and mystical elements of consecration. The transcript is below.

Questioner: You drank cobra’s venom with milk, why?

Sadhguru: It’s venom, it’s not poison, you need to understand that. Venom affects you only when it gets into your blood stream, not necessarily in your stomach. But invariably, there will be some opening somewhere, some small cuts, some small ulcer, something -- it will enter. It has because my eyelids are a little droopy, otherwise I’m okay. So whatever I offer to him, how do I offer to him without me taking it on? And venom worked out very well for me a long time ago. Well, it took my life away but it gave me something more precious than life. So venom did not work against me, venom worked for me and it has continued to work for me.

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So, there are various aspects to it. My only concern is, if I speak about this people will understand it in bits and pieces and will take those bits and pieces and they may get bitten…So, venom in small doses is very intoxicating. Too much of anything kills you. Even oxygen kills you, do you know this? Pongal can kill you. Too much pongal can kill you, believe me. Yes, it does. Probably, pongal kills more people than cobra’s venom. Yes, it does.

Solidified mercury takes in only three substances. Actually we could experiment but I don’t want to do such things. With another piece of mercury we could try this. You can see this actually -- it will take in gold, it will take in silver and it will take only cobra’s venom. You give it some other venom, he won't take it. He’s very choosy about it. He wants only that. These are the only three substances that he will eat, nothing else he will touch. So that’s not without reason, there’s good reason for that. If we have to put it into terms that you understand as such…Sun comes up in the morning, is it scientific enough for you? Or it’s not very scientific? I’m asking you. Is it scientific enough for you? Hmm? Sun comes up in the morning, is it scientific enough for you?

Questioner: Yes.

Sadhguru: What's scientific about it? A cock crows so the sun comes up, what is scientific about it? Nobody can ever explain ‘why’ of everything, according to modern science. So your idea of science has to change if you have to dwell into... if you want to enter into certain other dimensions of understanding and experience, your idea of science has to evolve to a different level of thought and a different level of perception, more than thought.

Snake is a very unique creature, particularly a cobra. The reason why the symbolism of the snake -- the raised hood upon Shiva’s head worn as an ornament is, Shiva is generally described as Trinetra; that means one whose third eye has opened, which essentially means that he has reached the peak of perception. Everything that can be perceived is perceived by him. He’s using snake as a symbolism to, in a way, the statement is that he is as perceptive as a snake.

What is so perceptive about a snake? A snake in, let's say Velliangiri mountains, knows more about the spiritual sciences than any of you for sure. Any spiritual book that you can read on the planet, he knows more about it, not intellectually, energy wise. He just knows. Because everything that’s happened in this region, phenomenal things have happened in this region. If you want to know the science of let's say creating Dhyanalinga, they know. Energy wise, not intellectually. If you can feel energy wise and then, being human, you can translate it into intellect. All our experiences we are able to intellectualize, isn’t it? If you experience something, you are able to intellectualize and then articulate to whatever extent possible. That is essentially a human quality. But he simply knows it, energy wise by experience.

Physically, let's say there is going to be - not yet - there is going to be, let's say in the next week, an earthquake in another part of the world, let's say in California or Japan or somewhere. The snake in Velliangiri mountains already knows about it, that there is going to be. And he simply knows. If you have the necessary thing to just observe him, he will literally tell you almost anything that’s happening upon this planet by a simple change in his behavior and how he handles himself. A snake is a very perceptive animal. You cannot call it an animal because it’s above Shiva, not at his feet, he places it above himself. Saying he’s as good as me, right here, as good as me. Not here.

I have to say this to you. There’s a certain aspect which I did not mention. There have been yogis who used the venom in different ways. Those who do not know how to handle a snake, those who do not know how to handle a serpent or a cobra, they wentfor the scorpion venom. And they take scorpion stings. And one thing it does is, it puts one part of you to a kind of a slumber and it puts another part of you to a tingling aliveness. So, I’m at a certain advantage. I can simply sit like this till tomorrow morning. Because one part of me is like in a slumber another part of me is in a certain level of brightness.

Editor's Note: The Adiyogi Alayam, an 82,000 sq. ft. meditation hall, will be a foundation for establishing the yogic science in its purest form, as it was transmitted by the Adiyogi (the First Yogi) over 15,000 years ago. Watch and relive the creation of this powerful space – an invaluable offering to humanity, for generations to come.

Pongal is a popular rice dish based in South India