Osho on Badri Kedarnath

Osho :

Osho : In India, for centuries people have traveled on foot to Badri Kedarnath. The Himalaya is so virgin, so pure, so unpolluted by man and his stupidities. And there was a suggestion that because so many people go – and it is dangerous, the footpath is narrow and many have died and never returned – it would be better to make a road.

Now the road has been made. People don’t go on foot, they travel by bus. At each stop, there is a restaurant, tea shops, vendors of all kinds of things. They have destroyed the beauty. Now Badri Kedarnath is no more the same sacred place it used to be. Because it is not the place that is sacred. It is the heart full of love – so full of love that it is even ready to die – that makes the place a sacred place.

Now going in a bus, with all the facilities available by the side of the road… one beautiful phenomenon has been corrupted. And the people who have corrupted it think they are serving God because now more people can go there. Now Badri Kedarnath is always crowded. These are not the right people. Their only qualification is that they can afford a ticket for the bus. But the people who used to go on foot were given a farewell by the whole town, because there was not much possibility of their returning. The path was dangerous, the height was dangerous, but they had heard some call, and they were ready to sacrifice their lives for it. They were brave people.

Then, in the silence and eternal peace of the Himalayan peaks, Badri Kedarnath was a totally different phenomenon. It was a temple. Now it is not even a home. It is just a house surrounded by all kinds of business people, shops. Whatever you want you can get. It has become a bazaar. Now only idiots go there, or tourists, which means the same. It used to be a spiritual pilgrimage because of its risk, because you had to put yourself aside – all your fears of death, you had to drop.

Kashi - The Eternal City | DVD

Shivanga Sadhana - The six Shivangas, who walked 430 kms TO GRACE (VELLIANGIRI MOUNTAINS). Can it be a trendsetter?

The Shivanga Sadhana for men, is a powerful process that enhances one’s receptivity to the energies of Dhyanalinga, and allows them to explore higher levels of experience in body, mind, and energy. The sadhana takes place during Uttarayana, a time of great spiritual significance, when the sun’s run shifts to the Northern Hemisphere – a time recognized as highly conducive to receive Grace.

This year’s sadhana for men began on Thaipoosam on 27^th January, and will culminate on Mahashivarathri, on 10^th March. Over 6000 Shivangas from all over the world will be completing their sadhana at the Isha Yoga Center on Mahashivarathri, with a pilgrimage to the Velliangiri Mountain’s sacred Seventh Hill, a space of tremendous power and energy where Adiyogi himself spent time.

Walking to Grace

Nagercoil Shivangas

Six Shivangas from Nagercoil have decide to walk to the Isha Yoga Center as a part of their sadhana. Their 430 kilometer journey began on the 27^th of February, when they set off at four in the morning after Guru Pooja. With two more days of travel remaining, the six of them shared their experience of the past 10 days, with the blog team.

“There are really no words to describe the experience. The closest I can say is that it is like a Samyama Sadhana. Shiva is with us. It has really demolished the ego and changed the way we experience life. At every place we stop, volunteers have been taking care of everything for us. They anticipate our needs without us even having to ask for anything. They are there with food, medicines and anything else that we might need.

We walk in silence, just chanting to ourselves. Sadhguru has been with us every step of the way. It’s amazing how some things have turned out. We had planned to walk 40 kilometers every day. On the first day, we managed 55 kilometers without even being aware of it. But this took a toll on the second day. When we woke up, our legs were blistered and we managed only 14 kilometers. We had to stop because one among our group was in a really bad state. He had to lie down and take rest and wasn’t in a position to continue. He asked us to carry on, and said that he would somehow make it, but we decided that we would get to the ashram together and refused to leave him behind. Just then we received a phone call from the ashram, and we were told that Sadhguru had enquired how we were doing. That was all it took! Our friend who had been out for the count, shot up and walked on like a new man! It was all we could do to keep up with him!

It has been an amazing experience for us. We still have some distance to go, but we feel that this has been a great blessing that comes only once in many lifetimes.”

Source Link :  http://blog.ishafoundation.org/inside-isha/isha-yoga-center/shivanga-sadhana-walking-to-grace/

Jyotirlingas - Tools for Ultimate Wellbeing

Indian culture has been among the few cultures on this planet – if you look at it in terms of its geographical size, probably the only one of such size – where for thousands of years, the whole population was focused only on the ultimate wellbeing of the human being. The immediate, material wellbeing was just handled as a small part of one’s life. The moment you were born in India, your life was not about your business, your wife, your husband or your family; your life was only about mukti. Every aspect of life was about your liberation. The whole society was structured like this.


So, they naturally wanted to use every possible device they could create, every possible situation in life, to enhance this process. If you got married according to the traditional rites, the priest at the ceremony was telling you just this: this union of you and your spouse is not important. It was not about you getting married. Both of you meet and make use of this for your ultimate union. You got married because you have some compulsions within you, you are not free of them yet, but you use them as a tool for your ultimate wellbeing so that you reach towards the Ultimate. Everything was just about that.

In this context, many kinds of powerful devices were created in this culture. Jyotirlingas were created as very powerful tools in this direction. Some of them are still very much alive and intense; they could definitely be useful. If one has become meditative by his own nature, then outside help may not be relevant. But for someone who is not meditative, it is very relevant. It is a powerful experience to be in the presence of such forms.

Jyotirlingas have tremendous power because they were consecrated and made in a certain way. There are only twelve Jyotirlingas in the world. They are located at certain geographically and astronomically significant points. These points are subject to certain forces in the existence. A long time ago, people with a certain level of perception very carefully calibrated these spaces and fixed those points according to the celestial movement. These spaces are created in a certain way, not just using human capabilities, but the forces of nature. That is the reason why the Jyotirlingas are located at those particular points.


These temples were consecrated according to the science of energizing forms. This is the science of using life energies to enhance human life in a phenomenal way. If you transform mud into food, we call this agriculture; if you make food into flesh and bone, we call this digestion; if you make flesh into mud, we call this cremation. If you can make this flesh or even a stone or an empty space into a divine possibility, that is called consecration; it is a fantastic science. Unfortunately, we have lost that sense of what consecration really is; all kinds of ridiculous things are happening around it, and people have turned it into a business.

Mahakaleshwar Temple, Ujjain.

 

 

I don’t usually visit temples but I happened to go to the Jyotirlinga in Ujjain. This temple has been vandalized in many ways. Invaders demolished the temple and it was rebuilt two or three times, but still, if you go sit there, this little form, just this little piece of stone, which has been sitting there for thousands of years, will just blow the hell out of you. It is reverberating like it was made yesterday.

Jyotirlingas are very powerful tools if one knows how to make use of them. If you know how, you can completely reorganize the constitution of your system in the presence of a linga like that; you can rewire your system completely. For every kind of linga that was created, there was a specific sadhana attached to it. The sadhana aspect is all gone nowadays. The temples have become like a monument for someone who died long ago. Some of the Jyotirlingas are no longer alive, but many of them are still very powerful tools.

Source Link :  http://blog.ishafoundation.org/yoga-meditation/science-of-temples/jyotirlingas-tools-for-ultimate-wellbeing/

Twilight Moments - Thanjavur Brihadeeshwara Temple

7 Wonders of India: Snake Temple

Copy and Paste the link to watch The Photo Album of Visitors Stay in Ashram

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Pashupatinath Temple - A Vibrant Energy alive since it was established in Pre-Vedic periods

http://sadhguru.podomatic.com/entry/2011-05-26T04_24_32-07_00

Jo Wood's pilgrimage in Tibet with Sadhguru and The Isha Foundation

Sadhguru tells the story of Velliangiri – The Kailash of the South

“Why would a mountain become sacred? I am calling this Mountain (referring to the Velliangiri Mountains) sacred not because it’s hard to climb. For many, these Mountains became sacred because a long time ago, there was a young maiden in the southernmost tip of India, who aspired to hold Shiva’s hand as his wife. She started working towards making herself suitable to draw him, and she remained absolutely focused upon him. She set up a deadline, ‘If I am not married to him by sunrise on this day, I am going to leave my body.’ Shiva came to know of this and started hurrying down to South India. But all the other gods conspired. They thought, if he gets married here, he may not return. He may start living in South India. When Shiva was just a few kilometers from the place where the maiden was, the gods created a false sunrise by setting up a huge mound of camphor. When the light came up, Shiva who was so close, just 22 kilometers away, thought it was over and turned back. So the maiden left her body standing. Even today she stands as Kanyakumari. There is a shrine at the very tip of the Indian landmass which is the maiden’s shrine.
So Shiva turned back, despondent and frustrated with himself for not having made it in time. He started walking back and he needed a place to sit and work out his despondency. So he climbed up this Mountain and at the peak, he sat. It is a very strange kind of place because he was not sitting here in blissfulness, he was not sitting in meditation, he sat here in a certain kind of despondence and anger about himself. He stayed there for a considerable amount of time, and wherever Shiva stepped and spent a little bit of time, people called that place Kailash. So they called this the ‘Kailash of the South.’ It is a fortune that we are sitting here at the foothills of this Mountain.

“It’s not just mountains. This is a temple for us.”

This Mountain is known as the Seven Hills because if you climb, there are seven undulations which make you feel like you are going up seven hills. The last peak is totally wind-blown – nothing grows there except grass. There are just three very huge boulders which have formed a shelter between themselves which is like a little temple with a small lingam. It is an incredibly powerful place.
So many beings, the kind of men that Gods would be envious of because they lived with such grace and dignity, have walked this Mountain. These great beings let the whole Mountain imbibe what they knew, and it can never be lost. This is also a Mountain where my Guru walked and the place he chose to shed his body. So for me and everybody here, it’s not just mountains, this is a temple for us. There is a tremendous amount of information here and for me, everything about how to consecrate the Dhyanalinga, was from here.”

Shivapadam – Take a residence at the Velliangiri Foothills, at Shiva’s feet

Isha Foundation is offering individual residential accommodation for Isha meditators who wish to reside at the foothills of these sacred Mountains and imbibe the tremendous possibilities that they represent. This residential facility will provide a comfortable and personal space for seekers while creating a rare opportunity to focus on sadhana in a space graced by the Presence of the Dhyanalinga and an Enlightened Master.

Being at the foothills of Velliangiri is not very different from being at the feet of Shiva. The cascade of energy that this mountain bears is a privilege beyond compare.

- Sadhguru

Thenkailaya Yatra

To provide people with the opportunity to experience the life-transforming power and energy of these Mountains, the Thenkailaya Bhakthi Peravai – a non-profitable charitable trust created by devotees of the Velliangiri Mountains, organises the day-long Thenkailaya Yatra to the Seventh Hill. The yatra through the dense forests of these hills, makes one available to the mystical essence that pervades every rock and crevice of these sacred hills.

Dhyan Yatra - A Meditative Pilgrimage. Sadhguru

Isha Dhyan Yatra - Himalayan Trek

When I bow down to Kailash, I bow down to it the same way I would bow down to my Guru - Sadhguru

The very idea behind a pilgrimage is fundamentally to subdue the sense of who you are. It is to become nothing in the process of just walking and climbing and subjecting yourself to various arduous processes of nature. Today things have been made much comfortable. We are flying up and then driving down and just walking a little bit.

Physically we are much weaker human beings than what they used to be a thousand years ago because somewhere we do not know how to make use of the comforts and conveniences for our wellbeing. We have used it to make ourselves weaker, more difficult with ourselves and with our surroundings in which we exist. So all the more, the fundamental idea of pilgrimage becomes much more relevant to modern societies than it was to the ancient ones. In terms of the destination, Kailash and Manasarovar is probably the greatest that one can make.

I am not in an inner state where I need to do any pilgrimage, but still this pilgrimage to Manasarovar and Kailash has been absolutely astounding for me in terms of experience. I never expected it to be this way. I have seen enough. A few lifetimes of memories still being with me, I am not the kind who is easily surprised or excited by anything; but these last 15 days, have been, not really a surprise, but quite mind boggling in my experience.

For thousands of years realized beings always traveled to Kailash and deposited their knowledge in a certain way, in a certain energy form. Hindus say Shiva lives there, and South Indian mysticism always says their greatest yogi, one of the seven direct disciples of Shiva who are known as the Sapta Rishis, Agasthiya Muni, who is the basis of South Indian mysticism, lives there in the southern face of Kailash. What it means is not that they are actually living there, but they deposited all their work there because they could not transmit it into the people. So it is a treasure house of knowledge.

Whatever temples and places and whatever else may be there in the world – and I have been to many truly sacred and powerful places, I have seen many powerful beings – when I bow down to them I am genuine, but I bow down to them a little less than I would bow down to my Guru, always. But when I bow down to Kailash, I bow down to it the same way I would bow down to my Guru. Never before I have done that to anything or anybody in my whole life, I always kept a little bit extra; but with this, once when I bowed down, I really bowed down as I do to Him.

Visit IshaKailash.com

Have you ever met any Himalayan Masters - Sadhguru

Isha Foundation - Mt. Kailash Manasarovar Yatra 2007 - A Mystical Jouney

Velliangiri Mountains the Kailash of the South. Sadhguru

Chidambaram Temple Seva - Isha Foundation

Everything that is happening at Isha Ashram

Sadhguru inaugarates Isha Kreeda with the throw of the frisbee

We have always had cultural and sporting events at the ashram, but now it is being stepped up in an even bigger way. One committee we have set up is Isha Kalachara for culture and festivals, and the other is Isha Kreeda for sports. In front of the Linga Bhairavi Temple every night, you will see either a dance class taking place, or a chanting class or drumming. And we have always had evening games at the ashram, but now we will also be offering Kalari, intense Hatha Yoga, monthly treks, and within the month, we will open a swimming pool. The danger that people on the spiritual path have is that they tend to become dead serious, and once they become like that, there will be no spiritual process for them. They will only be doing spiritual exercise. So it is very important that you loosen your body and mind.  The psychological and physiological structures have to be loosened, and this can be done by just playing a game, singing a song or dancing.

Residents play games at Isha Yoga Centre daily

Regardless of whether you are here at the Isha Yoga Center or somewhere else, at least two days in a week you must either be on the playground or be singing and dancing. It is good for you physically, mentally and spiritually. If you say you are not good at playing, then dance. If you cannot dance, do Kalari. If you cannot do Kalari, swim. If you cannot swim, you may walk upon water or sing. And if you say you cannot even sing, it does not matter. You don’t have to have a great voice, you don’t even have to have any music sense. You just have to open your mouth and make a sound, that is how Sounds of Isha started. You see how far they have come.

The new swimming pool is under construction

It is in the name of spiritual process that you don’t become lifeless. This is an opportunity; please make use of it. All residents at the ashram must be able to make a few more sounds than the Kaka Pranayam.
Tomorrow is election day, could be momentous for the state of Tamil Nadu, and I am off for an Inner Engineering program in Mysore, my hometown, for the first time. That could be something.

Love and Grace,
Sadhguru.

The Dhyanalinga Yogic Temple - The Past, Present and Future

The South Kailash Bhakthi Movement - To Velliangiri Mountains

The Velliangiri Mountains, a part of the Nilgiri’s Biosphere, are situated at the western border of Coimbatore district, Known as the “Kailash of the South”, these mountains are held and revered on par with the spiritually most powerful place on the planet – Mount Kailash, the legendary abode of Shiva. On the top of the Velliangiri Mountains, Shiva is worshipped as Swayambu, one who is self-created, and in this form, he graces the devotees. In the past, many siddhas, seers and sages have practiced severe austerities and attained self-realization on these Mountains.

To be able to receive the grace and blessings of Shiva as the Lord of Velliangiri, it is very important to maintain certain austerities with devotion and commitment for a duration of 42 days, considered as mandala, and then take up the pilgrimage to the top of the Velliangiri Mountains.

Going on this sacred trek in the time between 14th January and 15th june is particularly conductive. In preparation, it will be beneficial to perform a 42 day mandala of austerities such as eating once a day, taking bath in the morning and evening, applying vibhuti (sacred ash), wearing saffron robes and panchamukhi rudraksh, chanting the shiva mantra for 20 minutes twice a day and worshipping Shiva.

The additional practice of seeing, worshipping and bowing down to all life forms - trees, plants, birds, animals and human beings as Shiva will become a very powerful process by itself. The same austerities can be taken up by women. They can conclude their 42 day penance by cooking and serving annadhanam for other devotees.

By going through these austerities and having darshan of Lord Shiva of the Velliangiri Mountains, one can attain prosperity and spiritual growth.

The South Kailash Bhakthi Movement invites one and all to support this venture by helping to create basic amenities for the devotees and offer the possibility for everyone to benefit from this powerful space and live a life of ultimate wellbeing.

Cell : 94431 45660 email : thenkailayam@gmail.com
Sarva Shivamayam



The South Kailash Bhakthi Movement

Chavady, Thaneerpanthal Bus Stop, Semmudu P.O., Coimbatore – 641114.