The Dhyanalinga temple gift
Two years ago I attended a public discourse delivered by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev. His clarity of reasoning and the gentleness with which his smiling devotees managed the audience made a strong impression, and I resolved to attend a subsequent workshop organised by him, but fate had decided otherwise and it wasn’t to be.However recently I met some people who had attended a seven-day wholeness programme at Sadhguru’s foundation headquarters in Coimbatore. They were full of praise for the programme, but none of them as much as mentioned the Dhyanalinga temple — an architectural marvel — which has been built with the greatest effort for the advancement of mankind. Even the foundation’s website (ishfoundation.org) doesn’t do this work of art any justice. On enquiry, I found that there is another whole website devoted to it (dhyanalinga.org).
Recently I visited the ashram with my young bio-dynamic and Vedic agriculture mentor, Dr. Sudhir Thimmaiah, who had recommended the temple to me. I am indebted that he took the trouble to tell me about it, and so very glad I went there. It turned out to be heaven on earth.
I must add here that I already have two living gurus in Gurumayi Chidvilasananda and Ramesh S. Balsekar. I am also a student of S.N. Goenka’s Vipassana meditation school and have been influenced greatly by J. Krishnamurti’s teachings (I had the great honour of meeting him when my son was studying in his school). Osho, Meher Baba and Ramanna Maharishi are great seers whose teachings I respect. So although I wasn’t in search of a guru, Sadhguru’s work of art drew me to his abode.
On September 23, 1981 while meditating on a rock in the Chamundi Hills in Mysore, Jaggi Vasudev (then 24 years of age) experienced a powerful spiritual epiphany that changed his life. It released a flood of memories and reminded him of the dhyanalinga, his guru’s dream and the purpose of his life. Thereafter, every single action he performed was directed towards fulfilling his guru’s purpose to help fellow beings experience the bliss that comes from dhyanalinga worship.
To construct a Dhyanalinga temple had been the dream of many enlightened kings, but the complexities involved in its creation are such that the dream never materialised. The closest attempt to consecrate one took place almost a thousand years ago. But against all odds, on November 23, 1999, Sadhguru joined thousands of people with whom he had shared the task of constructing the Dhyanalinga temple and offered it to the world in the new millennium.
In the Sadhguru’s words, "Anyone who comes within the penumbra of the dhyanalin-ga cannot escape the sowing of the spiritual seed of liberation." The Dhyanalinga temple represents the essence of yogic sciences without subscribing to any particular sectarian belief. According to Sadhguru Vasudev, all ancient temples were built not as institutions of prayer but as centres of energy where one could recharge oneself by meditating within their walls.
The Dhyanalinga temple was consecrated by Sadhguru after three years of rigorous prana prathista, during which intense energy is infused and locked into the temple. Since this is not done through yagnas or mantras, there is no need for rituals to retain the energy within. In the Dhyanalinga temple the energies of all the seven chakras have been raised to their zenith, and locked in. During the three year process, people involved in the consecration underwent intense sadhana, overcoming the limitations of body and mind to energise the dhyanalinga. They attained several states of samadhi, which is an out-of-body experience. This sadhana-samadhi took a heavy toll on Sadhguru’s body, raising apprehensions that he would not be able to retain his physical energy. Finally when he finished, it was a much-damaged body he was left with. We should consider ourselves blessed that such a sage is still with us.
The dhyanalinga is the largest mercury-based live linga in the world. In a metaphysical sense, the dhyanalinga is a guru — the fount of wisdom. Scientifically, it is shaped to serve as a perennial storehouse of divine energy. Sadhguru has effectively nurtured a large group of disciplined, dedicated and selfless individuals with a deep sense of offering and gratitude, working for the benefit of society. He hopes to establish one rural school in each of the 207 talukas of Tamil Nadu. At the moment there are six such schools and one residential school on the foundation grounds (ishahomeschool.org). Sadhguru’s tree planting programme has been so successful that it was recorded in the Guinness Book for 852,287 trees planted in 24 hours by 250,000 people. To combat climate change and retain the health of the soil and its people, he is determined to provide forest cover for 33 percent of Tamil Nadu by planting 114 million trees over the next eight years.
Anyone who makes a pilgrimage to Sadhguru’s new-age temple is sure to experience spiritual bliss, and in keeping with the seer’s vision, may well be on the path to self-realisation.
(Kavita Mukhi is a Mumbai-based eco-nutritionist and director of Conscious Food)