The Isha Yoga Centre near Coimbatore, India, has silently ushered in a spiritual revolution by helping people realize their potential for enlightenment. Its founder, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, has also raised the biggest lingam (symbolic image of Lord Shiva) in the world following a vision

Only sprituality can keep the world sane

Life Positive: Why has there been a spurt in spiritual seeking all over the world in recent years?

Jaggi: As societies reach a certain level of affluence, people begin to realize that economic well being that was so important when they did not have it, is a myth. That is when they start looking for inner well being. It is not new. Many ancient sages were kings once. A king has everything that one could need externally but still there is no fulfillment, which is all that everyone is seeking through various means like money, property, power, pleasure, God, heaven, or whatever. With this realization that the external cannot fulfill, people turn inward naturally and spiritual seeking starts.


Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev Why do all spiritual answers seem to lie in the Indo-Chinese belt even though civilizations, new and old, have existed all over the world?

Jaggi: People with spiritual experience and longing have been there in all parts of the world. But it is only in India that the spiritual process was looked at in great depth and understanding. A scientific method of inner development evolved and the whole culture was spiritually oriented. Most spiritual processes in China went there with Indian Buddhist monks.

India has been and will remain the spiritual capital of the world. This is the only culture where a well-established guru-shishya parampara (ancient Indian master-disciple tradition) exists. This is the basis of experiential transmission, the backbone of the spiritual process as opposed to intellectual transmission that only leads to philosophy rather than self-transforming experiences.

Why do spiritual programs seem to be in a race to get more and more devotees? How different is it from religious evangelism?

Jaggi: Religious evangelism is about making people believe your fancy story, but the spiritual process is to help people go beyond belief systems and explore their innermost core. This can be done only by dedicated beings.

Some enterprising people are always seeking to make a business out of everything; otherwise I don't see any race. We, at Isha Yoga Centre, are eager to offer what has been wonderful in our lives. A lot of care is taken to see that those who transmit it don't commercialize it.

Despite an increasing number of people on one spiritual path or the other, we still see ourselves on the brink of a war today. Why?

Jaggi: Forces of love-compassion and anger-hate are always functioning in the world. It is a seesaw game. The question is: which end of the seesaw do you want loaded? If we are really on the brink of a terrible situation, it is all the more important that the spiritual process is applied more vigorously as ultimately that is the only thing that will maintain sanity in the world.