On Wednesday, July 19th 2023, on my third day in the Isha Yoga Center of Sadhguru, something special has happened. In this place in the southwest of India, near the city of Coimbature in the middle of the tropical rainforest, Sadhguru has created a place to which thousands of Indians and just as many foreigners flock every day. Most people know Sadhguru from social media; his face and his inspirational quotes are omnipresent and he is currently probably the most popular Indian spiritual teacher who enjoys worldwide recognition. With the founding of the Isha Foundation, a spiritual non-profit organization as well as with the launch of the seminar "The Inner Engineering" he has reached an audience of millions, within and outside of India. You could say that Sadhguru is the popstar amongst the living Indian gurus and his ashram looks a little bit like a spiritual Disneyland. Opinions on Sadhguru differ, especially from the Indians you can hear critical voices. 

The Dhyanalingha Temple is a special place

In the middle of the Ashram campus there is the Dhyanalingha Temple, where meditations can get a trance-like depth within seconds, according to the loudspeaker announcement. When you enter the temple complex, you can feel how gravity pulls you down towards the ground with all its might, and the heaviness of the air causes you to automatically turn into silence. Thoughts that were buzzing in the mind like annoying flies quickly sink to the ground like heavy boulders in the water and reveal the view on the clear deep ground. The head becomes free and a great force connects you to the earth on which you sit, covered by a cathedral made of thousands and thousands of reddish bricks. The stone dome forms an architectural masterpiece that has been built for the next 5000 years. In the middle of the cathedral stands the Dhyanalingha, a pitch-black round column with a rounded tip. It is at least 2 meters high. Sadhguru says about the Dhyanalingha:

“Dhyanalinga is a living being because it has come with all the seven chakras. It is just that there is no physical body. Dhyanalinga is like the energy body of the highest kind of being possible, like a yogi sitting there. Or to put it in traditional terms, we created Shiva himself. The idea is that people have a live guru forever.”

In the course of my one-week stay in the ashram, I noticed that visiting the Dhyanalingha temple can actually be a little addictive. Being in the cathedral is a particularly attractive feeling. This is not only the case for me, but also for other guests with whom I talk to during my stay there.

Find the link to Isha Yoga Foundation here

Preventing the expulsion from the ashram

When I enter the cathedral on the third day in the ashram to settle down in a cozy side niche to meditate, my head is crammed with swirling thoughts. I am very much annoyed, angry and extremely tense. The last few hours were extremely nerve-wracking, as I had just prevented my expulsion from the ashram with all my might.

The crucial question was whether I could extend my accomodation or not and this supposedly simple question was managed by the ashram office in a highly arbitrary and unlogicical process. On the last day of my booking, I was informed that my request for extension was denied and that I had to sppontaneously vacate my room. The ashram is located in the middle of the jungle, 30km away from the nearest city.

Since I knew that there were a lot of empty beds in the cottages, and that there was no follow-up booking for my own room, the decision came unexpected and I lodged objection; the result was that I had to negotiate my request with the Senior Cottage Manager and the conversation was absurd and annoying until the very last second of consent was that I could stay. I argued in the conversation that the second bed in the cottage of my neighbour Meda is empty and therefore I don't see the need to leave due to the lack of sleeping places... the end of the story was that I was allowed to stay, but only under the condition that I withdraw my application for booking extension and instead move into the cottage with Meda. I did't get an explanation to the question why I can't stay in my own room right away, that's another unwritten law. In any case, the whole incident was extremely absurd and had absolutely nothing to do with logic and I can't stand something like that!

Totally pissed off, I enter the temple...

In this emotional state I enter the Dhyanalinga temple and look for a place where I can have my peace. My thoughts are shooting through my head like shrapnels. I am sitting down in a side niche which is bigger than expected and has a beautiful white marble floor. Surrounded by the intense energy of the room, the swirl of thoughts in my head quickly settles to the ground and a pleasant heaviness finds its way into my head. 

Suddenly a question shoots into my head:

"What is really relevant?"

I am amazed by this sudden question and find it smart and interesting. I come to the conclusion that it is a relevant question to ask yourself what is relevant and decide to dedicate my meditation on it.

I wonder which thoughts, which circumstances in life are actually relevant. Is it relevant that I continue to be upset, is it relevant that I am emotionally attached to topics that I can't change, is it relevant to linger on the surface of the mind and feel every current of the waves and let yourself be carried away and get lost in it? These questions are valuable... what is really, really relevant? Is it my professional achievements? Is it relevant to gain deeper insights into what prevents me from developing my full potential ... or on the contrary contributes to develop it ... or is it the realization that everything I need is already within me ... what exactly should I prioritize in life and which of it is really relevant? And is it really necessary that something has to be relevant at all and if so, why is it relevant and what does relevance actually mean as a word? (Note: Relevance (lat: re-levare) means to raise [the balance beam or one thing] up again and is a term for significance and thus secondarily also a situation-related importance that someone attaches to something in a certain context).

Well, here I sit and reflect on this question in silence and ask for an answer posing this question over and over again to myself...

"What is really relevant?"

... ten times... twenty times... a hundred times I ask myself this question internally "What is actually relevant?" At some point, after the third or fourth ring of the bell (after 15 minutes the bell always rings so that people in the cathedral can rise and leave if they are ready, so that the next people can come in) suddenly this thought shoots through my head: Even with the best intentions, the universe cannot possibly give me an answer with all the inner chatter! I wouldn't hear an answer anyways! I don't even understand myself when I constantly talk inside like a waterfall! If I want an answer, I have to shut up and listen. Also internally. This thought makes sense to me and I abruptly interrupt myself in the middle of the sentence. That was a very good idea, as you now will see.

I just get to ask myself: "What is..?" as I interrupt myself inwardly. Now I have half of the question in my head and immediately feel a CLICK in my stomach that I just have discovered something really great! The question "What is?" is a much more essential question, it is like the concentrate of the original question. The essence of the original question "What is relevant?" is the question: "What is?" I hope you can still follow me. The relevant question is not what is relevant or what is important or what is good or what is bad or whatever adjective we want to use, the essence of it is simply the core question: "What is?" in the sense of "What is (right now)?" The adjectives are interchangeable, but the verb is the core. I have always liked the verb "to be" because it describes the most basic state of existence of everything. Being is the most basic form of existence of all life. It's not about doing something or performing (!) or being in a specific way, it rather about just to be. After all, we are humans beings and not human doings. 

The core question is "What is?"

I recognize that the more central question is what is (now), and I ask myself: "Good question, what exactly is right now?" What is there, what can I perceive with my human senses in this very moment? I find the condensing of the question into the essence exciting and put into practice right away what I just realized. So what is right now? What can I perceive right now? I check in with my body as I typically can feel it very well... I can feel my back and the unpleasant pulling in the left lumbar region due to sitting upright, I can feel a pulling in the right chest and I can hear the man next to me coughing and making a sound that echoes throughout the whole cathedral. All this "is" right now and I can grasp all of this with my senses. So, here I sit with my sharpened consciousness in the side niche of the cathedral and create a report of what is right now as if I would be a reporter making a scientific inventory of the current situation with all my senses.

And then, all of a sudden, just before the bell rings another time, something incredible happens and I dive deeper another level of consciousness.

The question "What is relevant?" becomes the answer "What is."

My question "What is?" transforms into a new structure in my mind and I am given the answer to my question. The question mark at the end of my question suddenly lights up brightly and enlarges in front of my inner eye and then transforms into a full stop. My question, which ended with a question mark, transforms into a statement and now suddenly ends with a period. I recognize: The answer to the question "What is?" is "What is." The question becomes the certainty that the relevant things in life are always what is (right now). I'm excited because the answer to my question was in the question itself since the beginning and I just didn't recognize it until now. I feel like I've just discovered a pirate treasure in a secret cave after correctly interpreting the treasure map. So the question becomes the answer and I am pleased in light of this ingenious realization.

I have understood that the most relevant person is always the one facing you at the moment, the most relevant sensation is always the one you are currently feeling, the most relevant moment is always the one you are experiencing right now and the most relevant task is always the one that is in front of you in this second. In the presence with everything that is lies the key to happiness. The more present we are, the more conscious we are, and the more conscious we are, the happier we are. 

Relevant is what is.

I am very satisfied with this realization and enjoy it's simple intelligence and the perfect way the answer was embedded into the question from the beginning. Genius thoughts are often simple thoughts I find it quite genious to find the answer in the question itself. I thank the Dhyanalinga and leave my meditation niche in anticipation of all the new experiences that I will now have with this new knowledge.

Lots of Love,

Your Salome