Monday, March 02, 2020

Isha Yoga Center Diary

Isha Yoga Center has many moods. You’ll hear people describe in many ways. Many will rave about how blissful it is to be here, others find it stunningly beautiful. It is paradoxically the most exciting and yet the most calming of places.

When there is an event or a program, it is bustling – with long queues at the temples, the restaurants and everywhere else. But if you outlast the crowd, like I manage to do sometimes, it is thinly populated with only the residents and a few visiting guests.

But these periods of quiet are nowadays becoming rarer. I went into the Dhyanalinga yesterday hoping for some post-Mahashivratri calm but it was a Sunday and there was such a throng that people were allowed to walk through, only sitting down for a while if they wished. I should explain that there are usually slots at this wonderful Yogic Temple. People can walk in or out only at 15-minute intervals, which are indicated by a bell. You are required to be silent and quiet in all movements, and there is always a hush in the air – only part of which is due to the regulations in place. The real hush emanates from the subtle energy body in the centre – a magnificent linga with all seven chakras at their peak.

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People have a lot of questions when they come to the yoga center. They are struck, of course, by the architecture, the unique aesthetic of the place. Then they stare a bit at meditators who have spread out their yoga mats here and there – some slumped over their shoonya meditations, some engaged in pranayama, some finishing off their hatha yoga practices... and they want to know more about the Devi, the Dhyanalinga, the Naga at the Suryakund, the Teerthakunds themselves...

However, there is one other element that very few can pass by without exclaiming or pointing out to their companions. There is a citrus tree within the Dhyanalinga compound that fruits somewhat bountifully – this is the pomelo, a variety of Citrus maxima or Citrus grandis; it is called Bablimaas in Tamil. So profuse and so startlingly large are these greeny-yellow fruit that the security guard who is stationed there is asked a few hundred times a day, “Idu yennadu!?
They say that yoga helps you become calm, and just being in this energy space is transformative. If it has worked for any of us, there can be no better evidence than our team of security personnel. Diligent, unflagging but with an unvarying sweetness of temperament. “Adu bablimaas anga”, “Bablimaas akka”, “Bablimaas anu solluvanga”: they explain over and over.

Photography is not allowed in that area, so I can’t show you that particular tree and have to settle for a picture found online.




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It is getting hot here. As my grandfather used to say, the chill seems to cry “Shiva, Shiva!” and leave after the Shivratri. The water tank and pipes in the stay area are exposed to the afternoon sun, and hot water is being dispensed already from the cold water taps. In the open area nearby, a large ostentation of peahens is pecking about, squawking occasionally. Summer is coming.

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