Well, I am almost surrounded by things halfway done for my trip to India (I leave on Monday), but I’m nevertheless taking a break for reflection, because sometimes it’s important to do that and especially now, because my life itself is also halfway done! It feels like a hugely significant time – both for me in my own life and for the period that is just beginning for humanity. 

Sadhguru says that if you live for eighty-four years and three months, you would have completed seven solar cycles and one-thousand-and-eight lunar cycles. If you do this, then you can break a certain bond with the earth. Very easily, with very little assistance, you can go beyond the cycles of birth and death.

So, in yogic terms, I became officially middle-aged with my birthday yesterday! It’s funny because one of the quotes I remember most from the teacher training was Sadhguru saying “Where is the other half?! You are not half a life. You are a complete piece of life.” So, I am aware that I have everything within me that’s needed to attain to the ultimate, and I simply have to find access to them, and learn how to use them properly. The practices Sadhguru teaches are definitely taking me in that direction.

At the same time, my life could be roughly half-lived, though, of course, you never know when you are going to die! But the idea that I could be halfway there makes me stop and think about what I have done, where I am going, and what work still needs to be done.

So, for the AdiYogi consecration Sadhguru’s going to do this Mahashivarathri to take place when I am 42 seems like an enormous blessing for me. What a gift, what an opportunity! He also says that the next 12 years are going to be full of bounty. I can only imagine the impact of the AdiYogi’s presence, once its energy is unleashed!

I have a small consecrated AdiYogi in my home, and it’s a very powerful presence, although it’s only one foot high. I can only imagine the reverberations from a face 112 feet tall! Sadhguru says:

I’ve been observing Mahashivarathri for a few years now. Last year     I was able to enjoy Mahashivarathri in the ashram for the first time. Coming shortly after Samyama, the 8 day silence programme, the exuberance of the music and dancing was especially intense and wild! I was very lucky last year to participate in Pancha Bhuta Aradhana (a process to purify the 5 elements, and conducted on that day by Sadhguru) in the Dhyanalinga Temple for Mahashivarathri, and received a thread on that day, which is consecrated to remove doubt and fear. If these two limiting forces can be dispelled from the mind, one can live life to one's full potential.

Although the energy of the thread only lasts for a few months, it’s always hard to bring myself to remove it. Not only me. In fact, at the Republic Day celebration in Geneva last Thursday evening, one lady I’d brought one back for showed me that she was still wearing hers, too. 

Well, yesterday I decided that as one part had already split, it was time to remove the whole thread. In place of that thin yellow thread, my left arm now has a one-inch-wide black cloth, tied at the upper arm. I will continue wearing this for 21 days, and then remove it and tie it near the Dhyanalinga as the culmination of Mahashivarathri Sadhana. The process of tying the cloth in front of Dhyanalinga offers the possibility to dissolve karmic impressions, even after one has left the space.

The cloth is just part of the Sadhana, which I started today, and which has already been very powerful. I love how, in the instructions, there’s one part that says “Do it like you are pushing a mountain” and the next step you do “like you are pushing a mountain”. That might give you some feel for the practice! Of course, when they say “mountain”, I imagine Kailash, that mountain I was honoured to be with in 2014, and which I long to be with again. Thinking of Mount Kailash while doing a practice brings a blast of intensity by itself!

The tying and untying of a piece of cotton can do things which are way beyond my understanding, but which I’ve witnessed and been amazed at. One of them is a Dhyanalinga Vastram. The Dhyanalinga is the focus of the Isha ashram. A powerful and unique energy-form, it represents the distilled essence of yogic sciences. All the aspects of life are enshrined in the form of seven chakras energized to the very peak and locked. 

Every day, a new white cloth is tied around the Dhyanalinga, and it’s possible to buy one of these. I brought one home in 2011, on my second visit to the ashram. Since then, I’ve added to the “family” of consecrated objects, which have really boosted the energy in my home. They have been a huge support for my personal sadhana, and visitors have also been able to benefit from them. 

I have one friend who, when he visited, sat with his hands on the cloth for some time, and that alone seemed to transport him to the realms of the Dhyanalinga. Knowing that I was going to be away for a whole 2 months, I decided to lend the Vastram to him, so he could make use of it. 

The other day, I met him at work to pass it to him. We sat talking for some time about this and that. Then I took the box out, placed it on the table between us, and it was quite extraordinary. When I opened the box, the room itself started literally throbbing with energy! So much so that we had to break the conversation and ask each other if we could both feel it with the same intensity. 

He wondered if he was imagining it. I knew it was real, but for such a long time, I’d felt that alongside other vibrations from different objects, and it was also a surprise for me to feel it in isolation again, and to feel its strength. This was a piece of cotton that was in contact with the Dhyanalinga for only 24 hours, 6 whole years ago, and it still throbs with life! Imagine! 

I am utterly amazed at what Sadhguru can do. I think back to my first encounter with Isha, in 2010. Sitting with the Dhyanalinga for half an hour back then was enough for me to want to learn whatever Sadhguru was willing to teach. Here I am, now a Hatha Yoga teacher, able to share some of the technologies for wellbeing with others, but still in such awe of the mastery he has, and in complete gratitude that he is so willing to share it with us all.