I went to see Sadhguru recently, his first public Darshan since the COVID-19 lockdown. It had been 18 months since I’d last seen him in person, at the 8-day Samyama program in India in 2019. It was a long drive, 12-13 hours from home. I slept in the car for a few hours, then up at 4AM to wait in a nicely distanced line outside the ashram’s gate in the beautiful Appalachian mountains in Tennessee. There wasn’t a huge crowd, just a few hundred people, and I ended up sitting in the front row less than 100 feet from Sadhguru.
I found Sadhguru just after having the initial meditation experience that brought me out of form-based self-centered consciousness. So at the time it was still so surprising to me that somebody like Sadhguru could exist. A year later and I’d taken all Sadhguru’s meditation classes, but it was still staggering to be in his presence. Since then I’ve had plenty of time to adjust to this new reality. It’s now a normal unsurprising part of my reality that there can be people like this. People who have transcended the normal human limitations of fear, worry, anxiety, self-centeredness. People whose perceptions have expanded beyond the biological senses. People whose abilities defy rational explanations. Sadhguru is one of these people, and since meeting him I’ve encountered a few others.
So I sat down on this recent morning looking forward to an interesting talk and inspiration, but also with a familiar feeling and not expecting surprises. We were chanting the “Yoga Yoga Yogeshwaraya” mantra as Sadhguru entered and sat down. We continued chanting the mantra for a few minutes. It was nice to see him, nice to be at the ashram where I had such dramatic spiritual growth, nice to be in a group of like-minded people. But it also seemed ordinary and normal.
We finished chanting the mantra. There was a song performed live by the Sounds of Isha band in India. Then a moment of silence. Sadhguru rubbed his hands together, lifted his head, and started singing another Sanskrit mantra. At the very first note I felt this electric shock through every cell in my body. Waves of bliss, joy, ecstacy flooded over me. Tears flowed out. It was every bit as intense as the first time I was in his presence. After the chant I was calm again and listened as his talk lasted about an hour.
There were messages on specific topics I’d recently discussed with a few people, messages I knew I had to bring back to them. Topics like the balance of masculine and feminine energies, karma and how it can trap us in our ancestor’s patterns, the need for slowing down and paying attention. In one sense just basic life advice, but there was also synchronicity in how the topics lined up with issues that were recently brought up in my own life and relationships.
At the end of the talk he rose from his normal seated position (in a chair, left leg bent in almost sitting on the left heel, right leg down). He walked down to the audience accompanied by some light background music. He spread his arms in a slow gentle dance. As he spread his arms that electric shock ran through every part of me, again the tears of bliss flowed.
The 13 hour drive back home passed quickly and effortlessly. No coffee, no fatigue, no need to rest, even though I’d only had 2 hours of sleep after driving the same 13 hours the day before. My system was just full of energy, it lasted for several days.
How does he have this impact on me? I feel absolutely no need to try and analyze and explain it. It just is that way. This is just the way that life happens, or rather one way in which it can happen.
I hope it happens to you.