CONTENTS

Lead Article

A Sense of Wonder
Sadhguru on a Fresh Approach to Life

Musings

Sadhguru on How to Create a Supportive Situation for Growth

How to Make This Your Last Lifetime?

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Information Overrides All Else

Sadhguru on the Thread That Runs from One Lifetime to the Next

Leela Series

The path of the playful part XLVI: Bhima and the Aghori 11 Youth and Education in India
Sadhguru in Conversation with Actor Siddharth

In Conversation with the Mystic

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News & Happenings

Sadhguru at the Aditya Birla Financial Services Group First 21-Day Isha Hata Yoga Program Concluded

Fourteen Years of Dhyanalinga Isha Kriya Meditation Camp for Sanitation Workers

Sadhguru Spot

The Human Calamity in Uttarakhand 18

Upcoming Programs and Events

Isha Yoga Program Highlights Kofta Curry

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Isha Recipes For Healthy Living Zen Speaks: A Water Buffalo through a Window
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SADHGURU

Sadhguru on a Fresh Approach to Life

The following is an excerpt from a talk by Sadhguru during a 3 Sathsang for meditators at the iii, McMinnville, Tennessee, on 25 April 2013.
You should see how men in rural India squat. One thing is, if you are sitting out in nature, there are ants, bugs, ticks, snakes, and other crawling creatures. Any bite will get more serious when it goes beyond the limbs. Another thing is, he just sits and wonders about everything. I would like you to try this. Just sit outside at sunset and wonder. Forget about all these things they told you, that the Earth rotates and that is why the Sun disappears below the horizon, what the distance between the Earth and the Sun is and all that. They say it is 93 million miles to the Sun. This is just a number. Had they said it is just a few thousand miles to the Sun, still you could not have gone there; still you would have believed it. Whether it is a few million miles or a few thousand miles does not make any experiential life impact on you. If you just sit there, wondering about everything, it becomes so apparent that something beyond you is functioning. Right now, with all these lights on, music playing
FOREST FLOWER August 2013

A Sense of Wonder

in your ears and the phone screen in front of you all the time, you think you are the universe. You are moving away from reality and exploration everything is set. If you simply sat there, who could not wonder what this is all about? Where does it come from? How does it happen? Even a half-brain would wonder about it. When people wonder and wonder, when they strive to know, a few of them break through. Everyone looks, but these two eyes show you only that which is physical, and not even that just the way it is. These two eyes are largely functioning based on the memory that you have gathered. If you wipe out your memory, your ability to see will be considerably reduced. Lets say you go out on the street, a thousand people are standing there and among them, there is someone you know well; you will see that one persons face more clearly than the rest of the faces. That is because there is memory. To at least 3040%, your vision depends on your memory. In that sense, it is a cultivated vision. Thought and emotion are constantly playing through it. People say, and it is true, your eyes are a window to your thoughts and emotions. If you want to size up people, you have to look into their eyes. If you hate them, you have to look into their eyes. If you fall in love, you must look into their eyes. Especially if you think you are falling in love with them, you definitely want to know what is happening with the other person. You want to see their thoughts and emotions, so you look into their eyes because to some extent, these are the windows to their thoughts and emotions. An eye that is not glazed by a sheath of memory, a thoughtless eye simply able to look at things without memory is what is being referred to as the Third Eye. People who look with these two eyes alone become fearful of existence, because whichever way they look, they cannot figure out a thing. I want you to try this look as hard as you want with these two eyes you cannot figure out a thing. What you read in the science textbook is not the point. You still do not know whether it is true or not. How do you know if the whole science is not
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a conspiracy to bullshit you? I am not saying it is so suppose it is so. Modern science exists only for the last few hundred years, but religion as you know it is at least 2000 years old. With the advent of science, what people believed for over 1500 years suddenly sounded ridiculous. What is the guarantee for you that what you celebrate right now as science will not look ridiculous in a few hundred years? Science has produced technology; we can do so many things. People who used to believe what you think is ridiculous right now also did a lot of things. The Third Eye is significant because it is a thoughtless eye, not glazed by the past. Only an eye that is not glazed by the past can perceive the present and conjure up the future without delusions. You can never grapple with the realities of existence with these two eyes. It is because of this that when people looked and looked, and they saw these two eyes are insufficient, they strived inward to evolve another dimension of seeing. Wherever that dimension evolved, tools were created that led people to knowing. Wherever that dimension did not evolve, wherever only muscle evolved, force was the way. There, they insisted that you must believe what they say; to wonder was a crime. If you wonder, you will question. If you question, someone must have an answer. If someone asks a question and the other one doesnt have an answer, the questioner though the question is coming from ignorance seems to be more intelligent than the one who cannot answer it. A question is not knowledge a question is an admittance of ignorance. But one who does not admit I do not know is unwilling to admit that he is ignorant, which establishes him in his ignorance. One who questions is ignorant but he has the possibility of moving out of it. One who refuses to acknowledge his ignorance is investing in his ignorance, and he will get a lot of dividend. Shankaran Pillai and his wife moved to the United States and set up their home. His wife is excited about being in America. She wants to throw away
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everything old and buy everything new. She is trying to be American. How can you be a citizen of the United States if you dont shop at least twice a week? Even the government encourages everyone to shop, because otherwise the economy will go down. So she takes to this policy and wants to spend. Coming from a traditional Indian background, Shankaran Pillai wants to save. In India, we always look at our savings; here you look at your credit rating. So Shankaran Pillai says, No, this is not the way to go. This is it; you cannot spend anymore. You have shopped enough. She flared up and said, You dont even have the courage of the bureaucrats and the politicians. Once you are infected by memory, you are a slave of karma. This is what karma means that the past is glazing your eyes. You cannot see the present the way it is. It doesnt matter how smart you think you are, once your eyes are glazed with memory, once they are influenced by the past, when you conjure up the future, you invariably become delusional. This delusion leads to what the sages called samsara. Samsara means your life has become cyclical. When you are going in circles, you are not going anywhere. Something goes on, but nothing purposeful. The Third Eye, which is not a window to your thoughts and emotions but a window to the source
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of creation, is most important; otherwise, life is cyclical. There is nothing wrong with that; it is just a trap. Whats wrong with a trap? Actually, traps are much safer. If you trap a coon or a coot, he is much safer than if he crosses the highway. The highway is not the only thing that could kill him; there are so many predators. If he steps out into the jungle, he may not last the night. If you trap him and keep him here, he is definitely safer. But give him all the food that he wants, still the first opportunity he gets, he wants to chew through your cage and get away, no matter if he puts himself to risk. The coots and the coons have this much intelligence whats the problem with you? Only human beings with so-called evolved intelligence prefer the trap. This evolved intelligence is like a womb that just aborts. There is no purpose to it. Human intelligence has been aborted by many things. One is rigid dogmas; another one is in reaction to these dogmas distrust about everything. If you want to touch dimensions that are not yet in your experience, just sit and wonder.

August 2013

How to Make This Your Last Lifetime?

Sadhguru on Creating a Supportive Situation for Growth
The following is an excerpt from a Q&A session with Sadhguru during a 3 Sathsang for meditators at the iii, McMinnville, Tennessee, on 27 April 2013.
Meditator: Sadhguru, you said that if we have a certain seeking within us, we do not necessarily have to come to the ashram. How far does your connection with seekers like us go? And how to make sure that this is our last birth? Sadhguru: So the question is, Will you guarantee my liberation? This brings me to a very nasty joke. A man got a 1 notice from the IRS that he has to come to the office for some enquiry. IRS agents are trained to turn your brain inside out; it is like an inquisition. He was very nervous. He went to his accountant and asked, What do you think, how should I go? The accountant advised him, Go to the Salvation Army counter, buy a really old suit that is frayed at the collar and crumpled, to make you look poor. Also get a pair of old shoes with different colored laces. Dont take your Mercedes; take a taxi; then walk up. When they see you so poor, they will for sure know that you are not a rich guy dodging taxes, and let you go. He got the frayed suit. He got old shoes and changed the laces. He prepared everything. Still he was nervous. So he went to his lawyer and said, My accountant gave me this advice. Do you think this is the appropriate way for me to go? The lawyer said, If you listen to that guy, you are finished. Get yourself the most expensive suit, and see that the brand, Armani or something, is visible. Rent a Ferrari; park it in style, and go there. Only money begets money, and if you show that you are really well to do, the wealthiest are the ones who are freed from taxes. This is the way of the world. Just do that.
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Now he got confused. From a frayed coat and worn out shoes to an Armani suit and a Ferrari. Not knowing what to do, he went to his rabbi and said, I went to my accountant; this is what he told me. I went to my lawyer; this is what he told me. I just dont know how to go now. The rabbi said, Listen to me. There was a nice Catholic girl. Her name was Mary. Mary was getting married and her mother advised her that for the wedding night, she must buy a nighty that is all buttoned up, full sleeved, puffs on the shoulder, well below the ankle; because she must present herself as a good wife to her new husband. But her school time friend came and gave her a red-colored negligee. That means it is negligible; the kind of thing where the neckline is below the navel. Mary got confused and came to me. The man said, Why are you telling me about this Catholic girl? I have to go to the IRS; I am not getting married. Just listen. So I told Mary, It doesnt matter what the hell you wear; on day one, anyway you are going to get the works. So if you go to the IRS, anyway you will get the works, no matter what you wear; whether you drive a Ferrari or you go there walking. Liberation does not require physical proximity; it can be done in so many ways. Physical proximity is for constant guidance to go deeper. This does not mean I am sitting with the ashram residents every day and guiding them to do this or that. Why people live in a certain energy space is, what they cannot get with their minds, they want their epithelial cells to get. Right now, if I ask you what the temperature is, you will open your phone and check. But your epithelial cells know what the temperature is and they are doing what is necessary for that; even just the surface cells may be a little more intelligent than you. The cells that are deeper down know too many things.
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Internal Revenue Service: U.S. government agency responsible for tax collection and tax law enforcement

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August 2013

People who live in such energy spaces are trying to mature into a situation where they dont have to be anxious about what will happen, because that is not the way to approach it. Even if the end is assured, dont you want the journey to be beautiful and miraculous? If you want the journey to be magical, you have to be in a certain space that allows magic in terms of social structures, energy structures, and people around. Unfortunately, most places were not created for something beyond the logical to happen. If you do something which is not logical, you will have flashing lights and sirens in front of your house this is generally the situation in todays world. But if you go to places like Nepal, Bali, or Kashi, the whole space is geared for the magical. If you walk in Bhaktapur, every two steps, there is a temple; every two steps, there is a deity reminding you of something of the beyond. Today, people are walking around there like tourists, but there was a time where for every step, there was a mantra; there was a certain kind of worship; there was a certain attitude. In India, inside a temple complex, apart from the main temple, there will be ten other temples. When people go to the main deity lets say it is Shiva they will be one way. Outside, there is Ganapati; they will be in a different way. Their mantra is different; their attitude is different; their emotions are different. When they move on, there is Devi, and for her again, everything is different. It is incredible to see how these simple people come and change from place to place, from god to god. How they approach them is so inbuilt into their systems that it simply happens. This malleability is needed within a human being. This is the reason why all these things were created so that you become a completely different person from place to place. When you are able to consciously become a different person within a few minutes, when everything is changing within you for a particular purpose, when you can alter from this to that, from that to this, you become emotionally very stable. When your emotions are stable, you are always looking for the magical, the unfamiliar. Magical means unfamiliar. But now you are only looking for the logical, because the
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society is structured based on the familiar. If there is anything unfamiliar, they want to shoot it. In that context, living in a space that supports you is good. But you do not necessarily have to go to a certain place; you can create such a space in your home. You can be a little unreasonable. You can create a situation in your home that is not based on the familiar, where people need not be the way you expect them to be. They can be whichever way, but you go about your way. If anyone in my home either my parents or later on my wife and my daughter had expected the familiar, they would have gone bonkers. I could be completely different from moment to moment, from day to day. It is very difficult to live with a person who is wonderful at one moment; next moment, you dont even know who the hell he is. But if they had tried to restrict the unfamiliar, I wouldnt have been there as simple as that. It is simply not possible for me to be just one way. It is not that intentionally, you are being unreasonable. It is like the weather. It depends on what I am doing within myself on that day. It is not that I ever announce, Today, I am in silence. Today, I am doing mantra. Today, I am preparing for something. Today, I am working something up within me. There are days when I am extremely talkative; we talk, we discuss, we do things, we play, we dance, we sing. Next day, you may expect the same thing, but that is not going to happen. Not that I am trying to freak you out. If I am doing something else within myself, I may not utter a word for the next three days. I may not look at you. I may not be interested in you. I may not even recognize your existence. Hats off to my wife who managed all this. Without that support, either I would have walked out, or I should have given up what I was doing, which was simply not possible. So create a home where the familiar is not the basis of your family. Create a home where people can be the way they want to be and it is not considered wrong. Just try and see. Its a challenge.

August 2013

Information Overrides All Else

The following is an excerpt from a Q&A session with Sadhguru during a 3 Sathsang for meditators at the iii, McMinnville, Tennessee, on 27 April 2013.
Meditator: Ive been hearing people say things like, I want this to be my last lifetime. Can you explain the concept of lifetimes? Sadhguru: This is an Indian problem. They have all been around for 100,000 years. [Laughter] They talk about having lived for many lifetimes without having any experience of it. We are seeing if we can get them into the experience, because at least psychologically, they are a little prepared. Where do you come from? Meditator: New York. Sadhguru: Do you want one more life in New York City? If you live this life fully, would you like to see whats beyond it, or would you like to walk the New York streets once again? If you have lived a complete life, you have seen everything; there is nothing more to see. You can go on getting involved
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Sadhguru on the Thread That Runs from One Lifetime to the Next
in small intricacies, but you know its generally the same thing. You would like to see whats next. To put it simply: you know you are alive right now and you are going to die one day. Essentially, the body is something that you gathered. Though you have eaten food from American soil, you still look African. If I eat American food for 50 years, I will still look Indian. Why? Meditator: Genetics? Sadhguru: Thats just a word. I want you to look at it in a more fundamental way. If I build a building from local material, it will look in a certain way. But if I build different human bodies with the same local material, they will still look Indian or African or whatever else. By eating American soil, slowly, we should become like Native Americans, but we dont. If you live here for hundreds of years and dont mix, people who come out of you will still look the same. Look at it mechanically. Why is it that if you put the same material into different human bodies, each one of them will continue to look in a particular way?
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It is a certain type of memory structure. Food and all other inputs may come from New York City, but your skin, your nose, your eyes, and your body are still African. There is a certain element of information in you before you are born. That information determines how you look, how you think, how you walk, how you move everything. Do you think there is only information that is connected with the body, no other information? If you go into a maternity hospital and look at the just born, each one of them behaves differently. The information is not just about the body; there is other information that goes beyond that. Dont believe all this talk about lifetimes, but this much is very clear: you gathered your body from American soil, but the information is from somewhere else. You build this kind of body because the information is overriding the material that you gather. This body is an accumulation of the food that you have eaten. If the food is grown in Tennessee and eaten by you, you are in some way consuming the Tennessee soil. This area used to be Cherokee land. The Cherokees lived here for thousands of years; they ate from this land and looked a particular way. People who lived in Africa for many thousands of years looked a certain way. Before people could travel, intermingle, and mix, people looked distinctly different in different parts of the world. It is an anthropological fact that the weather, the land, the atmosphere everything shaped people in a particular way. Now, even if I shift from India to Tennessee and eat as much Tennessee food as I want, I will still not resemble a Native American person. The information that I carry within me is overriding the material. This information that overrides everything else here right now is not the memory that I have gathered in this lifetime, but the information that comes from before my birth. This is what we are referring to as karma. There is a huge volume of information. The information that you carry right now is not concerned with the physical body alone. There are other dimensions of information. With the physical,
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it is very obvious we can see what kind of skin you have, what kind of nose you have and things like that. The other information is not so obvious, but it is definitely there. Even in a just born child, you can see from one child to another, they carry different information that makes them behave differently. Mothers who have more than one child clearly know their children dont behave the same way, though the genetics are the same. From the day they were born, even children of the same parents display completely different characteristics. Obviously, they are carrying information that is beyond what you transmitted in the form of body. Genetic information is being passed on in the form of body, but the other information is way bigger than that. To realize that takes a little more attention. To understand the nature of it, how it is stacked up, what we can do with it, is a different aspect altogether. Spiritual process is interested in this information because if it has such an overriding power, you better look at it. It has the power to override whatever atmosphere you live in. It may be overriding all your intentions. You are sitting here and trying to meditate, but it may be doing its own thing. It is. If you do not look at how to in some way loosen this information, if you do not look at how to keep this information aside, if you do not look at how to transcend this information, transformation is just empty talk. It is not going to happen because this information will override everything. Unless you distance yourself from that information, do what you want, it keeps on making you do the same things over and over again. In the yogic system, everything that we do is towards cultivating a body, cultivating a mind, cultivating an emotional system that will slowly distance itself from this information.

August 2013

Youth and Education in India

Sadhguru in Conversation with Actor Siddharth
In another edition of the In Conversation with the Mystic series, Sadhguru met with young actor Siddharth on 10 January 2013 in Hyderabad under the theme Youth and Truth. Here is the fifth part of their conversation.
Siddharth: You said something like, If you are out of rage, you are one of us. At the same time you said, if the police fail to protect people, people need to get a gun to protect themselves. If someone is out of rage, how can he own a weapon that can potentially harm people? Sadhguru: One basic test that is supposed to be required to get a weapon license in India is, you must be psychologically balanced. When you are in rage, are you in psychological balance? No. When you get angry, you say, I am mad. Thats the correct expression you are mad. If you are mad, you shouldnt have a gun. Only if you are calm and alert, and you will use it with absolute discretion, only when its absolutely necessary, then its all right for you to carry a gun. I am not saying you must carry a gun; there should be people to protect the society. If there are no people to protect the society, people will have to protect themselves, one way or the other; whether you like it, whether you pass a law or not. The most important thing is to create sufficient mechanisms in the society so that people are protected. If once in a way, somewhere something happens, you cannot blame the law. Things can happen; you cannot police every human being in the country. But if it happens too often, we have to look at what we have done wrong. You do not have the right to livelihood; you do not have the right to education they exist only on paper; you do not have a right to food or comfort or whatever at least the right to life is a must for a human being, isnt it?
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Siddharth: To take the discussion to a different subject, Ive heard wonderful things about Isha Home School and I am looking forward to coming and seeing the school. Education is a very important concern for a lot of my friends and me, and weve constantly been debating where the next revelation in education is going to happen in this country Sadhguru: The Home School is at the foothills of a mountain. Siddharth: I hope to have a revelation when I visit. But where do you see the next sea change or the next quantum leap or the next revelation that is required to take education in India, especially primary education, to a level that is more respectable and representative for the kind of country that we are? Sadhguru: If we want to educate 1.2 billion people, our idea of education has to change. Over 50% of the population are below 30 years of age. Youth means humanity in the making. A country full of youth means a nation in the making. If you do not skill India, you will kill India. Skilling India needs to happen urgently; not over the next hundred years, but in the next five to ten years. Now, we pass laws without knowing the reality of the nation. Just one example there are many, many others too. We have a Right to Education Bill, which says child labor is banned; everyone goes to school from first to eighth standard. The reality is different. When they come to ninth standard, at least 60% of them cannot even write a full sentence in the local language like Tamil or
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Telugu; Im not even talking about English. They cannot add up five plus four. At about 14 or 15 years of age, the only thing they got to do is wear pants unlike their fathers. They never went to the farm, nor did they learn carpentry or blacksmithing or whatever else their fathers profession is. At age 15, they have no education; they have no physical body to go back to the farm. We are producing millions of youth like this across the country, who have no skill, but they have the attitude of the educated. They are looking for a white-collar job, but they dont have the skills. Even out of those who passed twelfth standard, even after graduation, many are completely unemployable because we are trying to educate a mass of 1.2 billion people with the measly infrastructure that we have. Why can we not look at this? When a five-year-old boy went to the farm with his father, it was not child labor alone; it was education. This is the way skills were transferred. Or if the father was a carpenter, the boy hung around his fathers carpentry shop and learned carpentry. By the time he was 15, he had a skill. What has happened now is, you destroyed the traditional system and you didnt establish a modern system to compensate for that. We are producing millions of youth without any skill. The way many of them even pass exams is, the teacher is reading the answers and the students are writing them down. That way, it doesnt take much to get 35 or 40. A very meager kind of education. Siddharth: How to change this systemic problem of unnecessary higher education and lack of primary education? Sadhguru: One billion people is a big number for any nation. You are not going to change the quality, the skill level, the sophistication, and other things overnight. We must have the patience to do that. These laws are passed according to Western values No child labor. When a father took his son to the farm, he didnt treat him as a laborer. He wanted him to learn everything, to become a master of what he is doing, so that the son will do better than him.
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This was the aspiration; this was education. In the education process, the boy also worked, which is not a wrong thing. Now we think all the farmers have to go to Agricultural University. Are there enough universities for all of them? Can they leave farming for three years and become great farmers after they get their degree? We have no practical sense about what is needed. What we need is skills, not only education. In any society, only 1520% of the people are actually suitable for academic pursuit. Others need skills to earn a living. The nation will throb with economic prosperity only when there are skills. Today in India, you can find a nuclear scientist, but you cannot find a carpenter, because the traditional skill transfer has been destroyed. The idea of doing things in a more organized way is perfectly fine. But just making an idea into a law without knowing how to execute it is not going to work. Im not saying its a wrong idea its a good idea gone bad. For a good idea to work, you must give it legs so that it can walk. Now it is up there; everyone is aspiring for it; no one can touch it. With the present infrastructure of education, even in another 25 to 30 years, we are still not going to educate the whole mass. Its very important that some barefoot teachers are left loose who will go to the villages. Half a day, you teach the child about farming; another half a day, he works with his father. That way, you will produce good farmers. Bring in some scientific knowledge about farming; improve the implements that are available all this can be brought forth. But instead, you just send him to school; till ninth standard, every day, hes a truant, escaping not school but home, farm, and work; just going and sitting in the school, not learning anything. All he gets to do is he wears pants; he feels superior to his father. He has the attitude of the educated without any education. This needs to change. What are you going to do with a billion people with degrees? You need people who know how to work the land; you need people who know how to work with things and material.

August 2013

Leela Series
The path of the playful Part XLVI

Bhima and the Aghori

The following is an excerpt from Leela, the path of the playful, a unique exploration with Sadhguru into the mystical realm of Krishna, which took place at the Isha Yoga Center in September 2005. What happened so far: Duryodhana was upset about losing at Draupadis Swayamvara and pondered on what to do next. When his wife Banumathi suggested asking Krishna, he flew into a rage and banned her from contacting or meeting Krishna ever again. Deeply distressed about this because she wanted to get Krishnas blessings for her soon-to-be-born child, she asked her sister Jalandhara for help. Jalandhara arranged a secret meeting with Bhima to get access to Krishna.
Jalandhara told Bhima that Banumathi wanted to meet Krishna, but Duryodhana had barred her from doing so. She was also quick to express that she [Jalandhara] appreciates the attention that Bhima had been paying her. He softened up. She continued to say, If you are there on my Swayamvara, I will only garland you and no one else but you. He melted completely and said, I will do anything for you. I will meet Krishna and arrange this for you. Jalandhara and her maid came out. If people came to know that she, a princess, had come to the gymnasium to meet a man in secrecy, her position would be ruined. Therefore, Bhima let them go first and walked at a distance behind them, along with a friend. Then he noticed that a man was standing behind a tree, and after Jalandhara and her maid had walked by, giving a little time, this man followed them. Bhima immediately thought the princess was in danger. Heroic as he was, he went and caught hold of the man and asked him who he was. The man did not say anything until Bhima thrashed him. After some thrashing and a few knocked-out teeth, he finally admitted that he was a spy sent by Shakuni. Since Shakuni was a master of deception, Bhima was concerned about what his spy knew. He asked, Do you know whom you were following? The man
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said, I dont know who she is, but from the way she is dressed and her bearing, and the fact that there is a maid with her, she must be someone from the palace. Thats why I was following her. Bhima continued thrashing him. What else do you know? Fearing for his life, the man said, Shakuni and Dhushasana are planning to kill Bhishma, you, and Krishna. By next Amavasya, all three of you will be dead. Bhima thrashed him a little more. Details. The man said, Across the river, there is a sage whose name is Maha Aghori. Aghora is an extreme, occult system of yoga. Shakuni and Dhushasana are sitting with Maha Aghori right now and are performing black magic to kill the three of you. Bhima took the spy along with him. They took a boat and crossed the river. They went to where Maha Aghori was and hid behind a tree. Shakuni and Dhushasana were sitting with Maha Aghori at a fire outside a little thatched-roof hut. Maha Aghori was about 7580 years of age and totally naked, as most aghoris. While he was mumbling and chanting something, Dhushasana and Shakuni sat there captivated, with eyes wide open. Bhima listened from behind the tree. Then the aghori asked, So who are the people whom you want to eliminate? Dhushasana said, First, we want Bhishma to go. He
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has always been standing in our way. Krishna also has to go, and then Bhima. He is their main strength. If we destroy him, we will break the Pandavas. Maha Aghori did a process to call in the Mother Goddess. Suddenly, a terrifying voice started to speak and referred to Maha Aghori as my child. Maha Aghori said, These people want Bhishma, the son of Ganga, to be dead by next Amavasya. The voice said, Bhishma was given the boon to choose the time of his death, so I cannot do anything about him. What else? He said, Krishna Vasudeva must go. The Mother Goddess laughed and said, Hes divine. We cannot touch him. Then they said, Bhima, the son of Pandu, should go. The Mother replied, Do the necessary offering. We will see. Maha Aghori was about to conduct the next part of the ritual to have Bhima dead within one months time. This definitely would have happened if things had been done right. But just at that moment, Bhima pushed the thatched roof into the fire. The whole hut caught fire, Maha Aghoris long beard and hair too, and then his whole body. He simply sat there without uttering a sound. When his body was totally on fire, he just said, Mother, I am coming. No screams, no pain, nothing. Aghoris go through a whole lot of discipline. Maha Aghori, whom the Mother Goddess treated as her own child, went

into a fury of energy, an energy that was crackling with tremendous sound and vibrance. Terrified, Dhushasana and Shakuni ran to the river, jumped into the water, and swam across. Bhima withdrew. His job was done. He broke the spys neck because otherwise, he would have talked. People who are on the Atharva marg [the path of the occult] see, hear, smell, and taste things that you have never imagined. In terms of life, so much is happening. These mountains here [Velliangiri] have seen many siddhas, yogis, and seers. The energies they left can never be killed; they are always on. If you create the right situation, they will become full force. Otherwise, they are simply there. It was Krishna Dvaipayana in collaboration with Maha Atharvan who made the Atharva Veda a part of the Vedas, saying that it is fit to be included. Though people tend to misuse it, there is nothing wrong with the science itself. Its the way you use it. You dont have to ban the science because a few people misused it. With that understanding, Krishna Dvaipayana or Vyasa [as he is also known], along with Parashara, made sure that the Atharva Veda was given the same status as the other three Vedas, which were already established as sacred books.

To be continued

Sadhguru at the Aditya Birla Financial Services Group

The Aditya Birla Financial Service Group (ABFSG) (which includes nine businesses and 16,000+ employees) celebrated its 5th Annual Day on 15 June. ABFSG had decided that its employees would benefit from a strong dose of spirituality to help them put life in the right perspective and invited Sadhguru to take a session at the event. Three CEOs and the Investment Director of ABFSG extended Sadhguru a warm welcome at the airport. Sadhgurus session was attended by around 600 people, mainly from the middle and senior management, and some other senior members of the business conglomerate.
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Pranav Sharma and Amit Vikram Sharma of the Aditya Birla Group recount their experience of the event:

Sadhguru kept the large audience on the edge of their seats with his riveting yet simple-to-understand talk. He busted the myth about work-life balance by explaining how everything we do is in fact just life, and we should learn to live it with full involvement and intensity. What stood out loud and clear as a central theme was to look inward. When he wound down, people were left yearning for more. We feel blessed with his presence and grace.

August 2013

First

21 -Day

Isha Hata Yoga Program Concluded

ten years, disappeared as if by magic, telling me that there was much more to yield from this program. The gentleness of the teachers instructions helped to open a great sense of willingness within me and changed my mindset from Ill do it only if I think I can to Lets try everything. I was able to break my limitations so easily that a feeling of joy has blossomed from within. Through these 21 days, I became so receptive that this program is without any doubt the deepest experience I have had since I have been with Isha. I am well aware of having received a wonderful gift and I am committed to explore it in depth.

The first 21-day Isha Hata Yoga program, conducted within the powerful space of the Adiyogi Alayam at the Isha Yoga Center, concluded on 1 June 2013. The 315 participants were initiated into several practices including Bhuta Shuddhi, Surya Kriya, Angamardana, Asanas, and Upayoga. Many of the participants shared that they were deeply touched by the way the practices were taught and that they never knew that Hata Yoga is such a profound and intense process. Marie, one of the participants, describes how these 21 days brought about a dramatic improvement in her health and a shift in her experience of yoga:

The symptoms of lupus, an auto-immune disease that results in severe joint inflammations and extreme tiredness, which have tormented me for

For more information about Isha Hata Yoga, visit www.ishahatayoga.com

Fourteen Years of Dhyanalinga

The 14th anniversary of the Dhyanalinga consecration was celebrated on 23 June at the Isha Yoga Center, with thousands of people visiting Dhyanalinga. The multi-religious character of the celebrations not only found expression through the offering of chants from various faiths at Dhyanalinga; this year, for the first time, there was also a public conference with leading representatives of different religious and spiritual traditions themed Interfaith Deliberations on the Universality of Religions. Events of the day were webstreamed live.

Consecration Anniversary and Interfaith Deliberations

Interfaith Deliberations
The celebrations included a session of Interfaith Deliberations on the Universality of Religions where eminent speakers from various faiths and traditions addressed the gathering. The dignitaries included the Gyalwang Drukpa Drukpa Order, Ladakh; Fr. Dr. Dominic Emmanuel Director and Spokesperson of Delhi Catholic Arch Diocese, New Delhi; Imam Umer Ahmed Ilyasi President, All India Organization of Imams and Mosques; Illaya Pattam Thava Thiru Maruthachala Adigalar Perur Adheenam, Perur; Thava Thiru Kumaraguru Para Swamigal Sri Kaumara Mutt, Coimbatore; Swami Muktidananda Ramakrishna Mutt, Mysore; Geshe Ngawang Jugney Sera Lachi Buddhist Monastery, Bylakuppe; Swami Sivayogananda Chinmaya Mission, Madurai; Sister Rajeshwari Brahma Kumaris; Harjeet Singh Wahan Gurdwara Singh Sabha, Coimbatore, and representatives from ISKCON. The different speakers outlined the universality of religion and spirituality according to their understanding. About the Isha Yoga Center, Gyalwang Drukpa said, This place has an enormous energy to evoke inner blessing. He went on to define spirituality: To my understanding, spirituality
August 2013

Offering of Chants
The daylong chanting at Dhyanalinga began at 6 a.m. in the morning with Aum Namah Shivaya by Isha Brahmacharis and concluded around 6 p.m. in the presence of Sadhguru with a Mahakali Pooja by Buddhist nuns, Yogeshwaraya chanting by residents, and Guru Pooja. Throughout the day, the Dhyanalinga dome resounded with Gurbani kirtans, Buddhist chants, Muslim and Sufi songs, Christian hymns, and Vedic chants. A grand procession of Linga Bhairavis Utsav Murti and a Maha Arati in front of Dhyanalinga crowned the festivities. Dhyanalinga remained open until 1 a.m. at night for devotees to meditate.
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is nothing but energy. More specially, we can say spirituality is a balance of male and female energy. Imam Umer Ahmed Ilyasis spokesperson quoted the Imam as follows: The Lord is not the Lord of Muslims or Hindus or Christians or Jains or Jews. The Lord is Divinity and Divinity belongs to all. Harjeet Singh Wahan opened with the traditional Sikh greeting, Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh, which he interpreted as We are all children of God, and we must greet God. He recounted how his little grandson asked him, You keep on telling me that there is only one God. Then why are there so many religions? Sadhguru rounded up the event with a pointed talk, saying that all our differences come only from our beliefs and opinions; in actuality, there are no differences. He mentioned that even modern science says that the universe is just one energy manifesting in different ways. When one experientially sees

this, we say he is in yoga, Sadhguru said. He spoke of the importance of moving from dogma and beliefs to experience. The Divine should not be an aspiration; it should be your companion, he said.

Isha Kriya Meditation Camps for Sanitation Workers

Over 600 sanitation department workers participated in a five-day Isha Kriya meditation camp from 25 to 29 June in Erode, organized by Isha Outreach upon request of the Erode Corporation to help workers relax and improve work efficiency. The Mayor of Erode, Mallika Paramsivam, and Corporation Commissioner, M. Vijayalakshmi, inaugurated the event. After the daily meditation sessions, everyone was encouraged to participate in various kinds of games, which allowed for moments of carefreeness, joy, and elation that most of them
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had not experienced since childhood. At the end of the program, participants expressed how in just those few days, Isha Kriya had already made a difference in their lives, and that they wanted to continue the practice. The Isha Outreach team had conducted a similar 10-day program for 3000 sanitation department workers of the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation in May.

August 2013

17

Sadhguru Spot
Musings from the Master

The Human Calamity in Uttarakhand

Excerpted from Sadhguru Spot of 3 July 2013
In Uttarakhand, people are yet to realize the immensity of what has happened. At one time, continuously every year, I was in the Himalayas. It has only been the last four to six years that I have stopped my trips to this region, which is one of the most fantastic parts of India. One thing is, the Himalayas are the youngest mountains on the planet. If you have traveled in the Himalayas, you will see, the mountain is almost like piled-up debris. Once you cut roads into it the rivers themselves are cutting enough naturally, landslips keep happening. I have probably not been there once without being stuck at some point in a landslip and walking miles to get across, in over 27 trips to this region; this is a normal process of traveling in the Himalayas. Because the mountain is so fresh and fragile, like naturally piled-up debris, it will fall off very easily unless it is very carefully handled. The Border Roads Organisation has done a fantastic job in the last few years. All this said, you cannot squarely
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blame this tragedy on any particular organization or government because in one day, they received 340mm of rain. In the local parlance they said, Aasman gir gaya the sky fell on them, literally. Cloudbursts, landslips, these are all natural processes in the mountain. It is a tragedy only because we are in the way; otherwise, it is just a natural process of the mountain growing. What is unstable has to come down and stabilize itself; this is a millions-ofyears process. So it is not a natural calamity, it is a natural process, but it is a human calamity. How to avoid the human calamity is human business. Above all, we need to understand that a successful nation is a successful enterprise too. What is our strength? What is limited in us? Has something not been taken care of? It is time we look at a nation as an enterprise, and we need somebody who is enterprising enough and who will handle it as an enterprise to make it successful. The thing is, we get lost in the history, tradition, and so many things. We have to value those things, but we have to see them
August 2013

as traditional strengths and traditional weaknesses. You will only see this if success is the benchmark. Right now, success is not the benchmark. Somehow keeping it going for five years is the benchmark. So we have to set this success is a benchmark. What is this, Sadhguru? This is a very emotional, ecological disaster and you are answering this way? Yes, I am telling you this because now they will pass some absurd ecological laws. That is not the way to go about it. Emotional reactions to disasters that happen are not the answer. Already people are talking on the news channels, It must be declared an eco-sensitive zone; no pilgrim should be allowed. Why are all these people going there? Cant they go to the local temple? You will come out with absurd laws in reaction, and anyway after a few years, nobody is going to follow those laws. Once all this is forgotten, things will be back to normal. We have to look at ourselves as an enterprise and we want to be a successful enterprise, not a flop. Managing our land, our natural resources, and our human resources is very much a part of the enterprise. It is time we address it like that. We need to understand the Himalayas and what the Himalayas have to offer. It is not the economic prospect of the Himalayas which is important for us. It is the spiritual dimension of it which has always been an inspiration for people. Your economics you could do elsewhere; you do not have to build
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70 dams across the Ganga. Even if a man is dying in this country, he wants two drops of Ganga water, but we have to tell him now the two drops that he is taking in have gone through some 150 turbines before they fall into his mouth. It is a certain human emotion which holds a nation together. Different nations have a different ethos. For India, Ganga, Himalayas, are very important binding factors. If you destroy them, you will have great difficulty holding this diverse population together as a nation after some time. People are already pulling in different directions. Gradually, over a period of time, everybody starts thinking separately, and one day, they will wonder, Why are we together? It is not far away. When I say not far away, in the life of a nation, 50 years is not too much time. Do not look at this as one single tragedy or one incident that once the cameras are off, we will forget about and go about our business. We have to see India as an enterprise and we want a successful enterprise on all levels.

Love & Grace

Visit: Sadhguru.org/spot for weekly updated Musings from the Master

August 2013 19

Program Highlights
Date
14 Aug 2013

Program
Inner Engineering Retreat
Residential Program

Place
Isha Yoga Center, Coimbatore India Andheri (West), Mumbai India Vashi, Mumbai India Jayalakshmipuram, Mysore India New Delhi, Delhi India Isha Yoga Center, Coimbatore India Isha Yoga Center, Coimbatore India Isha Yoga Center, Coimbatore India Isha Yoga Center, Coimbatore India Isha Yoga Center, Coimbatore India Isha Yoga Center, Coimbatore India Meenambakkam, Chennai India

Contact
0422-2515421 maa.karpoori@ishafoundation.org 9930576725 mumbai@ishayoga.org 9920194750 mumbai@ishayoga.org 9743667878 mysore@ishayoga.org 9818036205 delhi@ishayoga.org 0422-2515300 0422-2515421 maa.karpoori@ishafoundation.org 0422-2515421 maa.karpoori@ishafoundation.org 0422-2515421 maa.karpoori@ishafoundation.org

713 Aug 2013 713 Aug 2013 713 Aug 2013

Inner Engineering Inner Engineering Inner Engineering

713 Aug 2013

Inner Engineering

1518 Aug 2013

Guru Pooja Training Inner Engineering Retreat

Residential Program

1518 Aug 2013

2628 Aug 2013

Hata Yoga
Residential Program

2629 Aug 2013

Inner Engineering Retreat

Residential Program

30 Aug 2 Sep 2013

Bhava Spandana
(Gents/English) Residential Program

0422-2515300

In the Lap of the Master 78 Sep 2013

Residential Program Conducted by Sadhguru

0422-2515300

1315 Sep 2013

Sadhguruvudan Isha Yoga (Tamil)

Conducted by Sadhguru

94449 22290, 97899 83260 chennai@ishayoga.org

INSIGHT The DNA of Success 2326 Nov 2013

Residential Program with Sadhguru and Dr. Ram Charan

Isha Yoga Center, Coimbatore India

94430 09000 leadership@ishainsight.org

These programs are conducted in English, unless indicated otherwise. Current at the time of print, however subject to change. For full program schedules and updates, please visit our website: www.ishafoundation.org.
20 FOREST FLOWER August 2013

Isha Recipes
Kofta Curry

For Healthy Living

Ingredients 4 medium 1 tablespoon + to fry 2 teaspoons teaspoon Salt 2 medium cup 23 sprigs

Tomatoes Sesame oil Pav bhaji masala Sugar to taste Potatoes Fresh mint leaves Fresh coriander leaves

Preparation Method
1.

Place the tomatoes in a pan and pour just enough water to cover them. Bring to a boil and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Drain off water; cool the tomatoes, remove the skin, and chop them. Place in the jar of a blender and blend to a smooth paste. Heat 1 tablespoon of sesame oil in a pan. Add the tomato puree and saut till it thickens a little. Add the pav bhaji masala powder, sugar, and salt. Saut until the oil separates from the mixture. Add about 3/4 of a cup of water and bring to a boil. Boil the potatoes separately, cool and peel them. Mash them well. Chop the fresh mint and add. Add the salt. Mix well and divide into small portions. Roll into balls. Heat sufficient oil in a kadai or wok and deep fry the balls until golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon. Put these koftas in the tomato gravy 5 minutes before serving. Chop fresh coriander leaves and sprinkle on the dish. Serve hot.
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