The Isha Experience

This was my second visit to the Isha Foundation at Coimbatore. The first time, just over an year ago, I wrote about it as 'A Visit to the Isha Yoga Center', and this time round I find I've titled it 'The Isha Experience'. 

Not by chance. That's what the difference has been.

Even as I sit to write, I'm a little overwhelmed by the breadth and depth of the experience, and find myself wondering how I'm going to capture it all here.

Let's go chronological.

Even as I planned my trip to Coimbatore, I'd set aside a full day for Isha. I had decided to give in to the feel of the place......just go with the flow. No agenda at all.

The Isha center is over an hours drive from Coimbatore. A lovely drive through the tamilnadu countryside, with looming clouds, a light drizzle, and it gets really picturesque as you approach the Velliangiri hills amongst which the center is pretty much, nestled.  

This is where you turn off the main road. 

The main entrance, which wasn't there last time I visited, and it seemed to be already telling me that this was possibly going to be a different experience. ( realization in retrospect)

My first sighting of the Shiva. 

I'd somehow expected it to be inside the center. And then you suddenly see it even as you approach the place, in the middle of nowhere, looming large against the Velliangiri mountains........ a moment which just took the breath away.

 Then you get off the car and walk......and you can feel a kind of expectation building inside of you.

At this point it appears to look even larger than the mountains.

I'd seen pictures, but nothing prepared me for the beauty, the austerity, the power, the peace of this beholding. It is art that can be gaped at with admiration and awe.

Am I going overboard even with the pictures? Guess yes, but it is that beautiful, almost surreal in all that it communicates. (enlarge the picture, it's well worth it)

The Shiva is way outside the center, in fact it's a good ten minute walk to the center. 

That's the entrance to the center, which also wasn't there last time I went. The king cobra is pretty much ubiquitous here, it's just everywhere, sculptures I mean.  I love snakes, so it just created the perfect right feel for me.  

I've actually had a pretty close relationship with snakes....through my time in college I used to draw a snake on my wrist for years at a stretch, wore a pendant of a snake for many years after, have held them when I could......anyways, that's random trivia, that this brought back :)

That's a line of shops of little knick knacks or small eateries, all neatly laid out, with the other side being an arecanut field as pretty backdrop.

That's where you leave your shoes........ and phone, so my pictures ended here.  

Will do another post for the 'inside' experience (pun intended)