These notes and impressions of Sadhguru’s visit to Tampa were written another Isha volunteer, Willow Wright. These are her experiences and recollections of ‘An Evening with the Mystic’
Aside notes
I remember the email that first went around. “How would you like to have Sadhguru come to Tampa?” Would you be willing to give 100% to make this happen in a big way?
We all thought that if we each got 10 people to come, we could have a thousand people arrive to hear Sadhguru speak. My first thought was that it was definitely possible, but there was this little voice that said…..oh what a nice dream!
I find it very interesting that over 1,100 people who never did an Isha program before arrived at the Grand Hyatt on Sunday, August 3rd to hear Sadhguru.
Impressions
Most of the volunteers arrived at the Grand Hyatt at noon, and as the afternoon progressed, the hall began to take shape. With exquisite care, flower arrangements were created and distributed. The very handrails to the dais were wrapped in broad green leaves and delicate white orchids.
As I stood at the back of the meeting room and looked out over the sea of empty chairs, the quiet hum of voices seemed to soften the emptiness of the great hall. The backdrop was placed behind the spot that Sadhguru would sit; brown with a dark blue center. The floor and many other surfaces were covered in white. Edges were folded precisely and lovingly. Sadhguru’s chair arrived from one direction. Cushions arrived from another. Lights and microphones were tested, cameras placed. The room was cleaned up and all signs of preparation disappeared into a small room behind the hall.
I went out to the registration table which had a direct line-of-sight view to the front doors of the hotel. As I walked down the long, open, meandering hallway, passing inside open-air restaurant seating, and exquisite flower arrangements and artwork, I was pleased with the lushness of the venue. It made a statement about the importance of the event and of the speaker. This was not just any speaker. This was the founder of Isha Yoga. This was a visit by an enlightened being, who deemed Tampa, Florida worthy to be visited.
This moment would never come again, and the air was charged with the knowledge of that truth. We had all worked and worked to make this happen, and now that the day was here, and the moment was moving swiftly towards us, it felt to me as if we collectively took a long smooth breath and let it out slowly, as the first visitors began to arrive.
We were ready. There were guest cards, pens, tables, benches and volunteers to help people, answer questions and assist in moving them along towards the great hall. At first there was a small ripple of individuals who came in with eager expressions, looking around at the lush accommodations…..the early risers….
Then a larger wave of visitors, most of whom had never heard of Sadhguru before, began flowing in and around the sign-in tables. They were an interesting collection of people, from all walks of life. Tall, short, dressed up and dressed down, talkative and quiet. They were old and young. Some came with family and friends. Some came alone. I saw someone that I had not invited, but that I knew well. I called her name. She looked up and said, Willow….I should have known I’d find you here. Her face lit up with a great smile, and she brought her registration form to my table to complete. I saw several other friends that I had invited and was warmed by their presence.
Sadhguru Arrives
As the wave picked up speed and became a wall of people moving around the Guest sign-in area, inevitably and inexorably towards the great hall, volunteers began placing sign-in forms around the extra tables and handing out clip-boards to keep the process moving. The faces were eager and hopeful, arrogant and innocent, wide-eyed and narrow lidded. The scene became a swirling mass of flowing silks and denim jeans. I was deep in concentration, having been given the job of counting the guest sign-in forms that we’d collected so far, and I just happened to look up….and there he was……striding past the sign-in area……a gasp escaped my lips…..I don’t understand it, but every time I see him, it takes my breath away. A wash of red silk and oatmeal linen, his hands pressed together sending warm loving prayers to everyone he passed…..a loving sparkle in his eyes…..whoooooosh, and he was gone. He walks so fast and with great purpose, a spring in his step that belies his age. His wonderful beard and mustache are salt and pepper, but he walks with the step of a 20-year-old.
I breathlessly sat down and resumed my task, wondering how he could have that kind of affect on me…after all, I was from New York, and nothing fazed New Yorkers. But he did every time I saw him; there is something extraordinary and vital about Sadhguru, something so in touch with this world, yet so totally in touch with other dimensions. How is it possible for someone to have such irresistible logic, yet have such a command of the non-logical?
A Profound Talk
Wisps of music drifted down the hall to the Guest sign-in table, and I knew the event had begun, but people were still arriving. When the flow subsided to a trickle, well after 7:30, I was relieved from my post and hurried down the hall. I slipped into a side door and stood at the back of the huge room. Every seat was filled, many people remained standing, some were seated on the floor in the aisles, and Sadhguru, draped in crimson silk over oatmeal linen, sat on the dais speaking comfortably to the audience, as if he were visiting in someone’s living room.
From my position, I was extremely aware of the silence of the hall and the noisy milling and laughter of the children in the foyer outside the meeting room. I became more aware of the cadence of Sadhguru’s voice rather than the actual words he spoke.
He would speak, with varied tones and exquisite rhythm, and the audience would laugh or sigh or answer yes or no to his questions. The word that comes to mind is mesmerized. We were mesmerized, yet fully alert. Sadhguru is a mystic, yet fully grounded in today’s reality. He speaks easily to the western mind. He illustrates spiritual principles with every-day language and humor.
He told a long story about an old bird living in a farm-yard that bemoaned his age. The bull in the yard advised the bird to eat his dung once a day for a week and promised that he would gain back his youth and vigor. The bird dutifully followed the bull’s instructions and he regained all that was promised, but not long after he had reached the top of the tree that was his goal, the farmer shot him down. The moral of the story, said Sadhguru, is that “Even bull-shit can get you to the top, but it can’t keep you there for very long.”
I am astounded that this is the story I remembered from this amazing night, but for some perverse reason the powers that have made my mind, have left me with this. Sadhguru, is a modern-day mystic with street smarts. In a video that I watched last year, I discovered that he knew that heavy metal music MUST be played at full-volume…..I was astounded!
He was illustrating how our reality actually happens within us. That all that we know happens in our perception….so our happiness is not really contingent on the external world or its happenings; it’s what happens within us that is important. That our goal should be to become joyous beings by our very nature in order to fulfill that longing within us for happiness.
Towards the end of his talk, he took questions from the audience. He thoughtfully and thoroughly answered each one, and then we broke for the book signing. The doors opened at the back of the hall and the foyer swelled with guests whose exhilarated comments filled the air.
Book Signing
I stood by one of the exit doors, and as he passed, he looked over and reached out and touched my hand, which unbeknownst to me was reaching out to touch him. In a brief moment, I felt that he knew me, although we’d never spent more than a moment or two face-to-face in the past. I felt that somehow Sadhguru has that kind of connection with every single person he comes near to.
In the foyer, people poured over the many books and CDs that Sadhguru had made available, and the line to reach Sadhguru extended back into the hall. I waited breathlessly to have him sign my book, knowing that I would treasure this forever. As I paused in front of Sadhguru, and thanked him for coming, I thought how amazing it was that he could stand here after having just spoken for more than two hours, looking as fresh and interested as the moment he walked in. I wondered if it were like a meditation for him.
A Sathsang Follows
After the crowd thinned the volunteers were directed back to the great hall, now empty, where a space had been cleared close to the dais. Sadhguru’s chair was now at floor-level. We sat quietly on the arranged carpets awaiting his return, and spent the next hour in an intimate Sathsang with him. We chanted briefly, and then listened while he spoke about his hopes for Isha.
He spoke intensely about what he does NOT want for Isha….that he did not want Isha to become another cult or religion, but that our purpose should be to have an impact on those we introduced to it. He mentioned riding the wave of bliss, like one that had been created in India, in a small village where most of the population eventually participated in the Inner Engineering, and therefore the Shambhavi.
The thought I took away with me was that we should leave the world in a little better condition than we found it. Such a simple request, such a huge undertaking, but as Sadhguru said, as he looked at each of us, 50 years ago this….and I think he was referring to the whole introduction of Isha Yoga to the US….in addition to that night’s event’s success….would not have been possible.
If 200 volunteers can bring together over 1300 people, we really ARE living in extraordinary times. We are approaching critical mass, the “tipping point” that will allow Isha to continue growing and impacting individuals by its own momentum. We are in a time of great possibility, and I am thrilled to be here, with Isha, at this time.
Love, Willow
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev
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