The Sadhguru-led Isha Foundation held its annual 12-hour nightlong cultural extravaganza Maha Shivratri program in Coimbatore on Saturday with President Droupadi Murmu attending and addressing the event as the guest of honour. She also participated in the ‘Pancha Bhutha Kriya’ – a powerful and unique energy form consecrated as a doorway to liberation, and also lit the Mahayoga Yagna at Adiyogi to symbolize the spread of Yoga through the world.
Tamil Nadu governor Ravindra Narayana Ravi and Tamil Nadu IT minister Thiru Mano Thangaraj were also present at the program.
Addressing the event, the President said, “I feel specially blessed today. I feel blessed to be here on the holy occasion of Maha Shivratri in the presence of Adiyogi.” She termed Lord Shiva as a “deity for all” and the night of Maha Shivratri as marking “the end of the darkness of ignorance”.
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“The need for a balanced and compassionate life in harmony with mother nature and all its dear children was never felt so pressing as it does today,” she said.
Referring to Sadhguru as a “renowned Rishi of modern times,” the President said, “countless people, especially the young from India and abroad, have found in him, the inspiration to make spiritual progress.”
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Meanwhile, Sadhguru during his address underlined the importance of bringing physical and mental stability to individual human beings. “In the next 24 months, we are committed to bringing a simple forms of Yoga to at least 2 billion people on the planet. This needs to happen for the well-being of humanity,” he said.
He went on to explain the significance of ‘Aum Namah Shivaya’: “This is a fantastic geometry of sounds. If one learns to use this, it will unhinge you from all those things which keep you hanging in life (and) go on a straight path towards inner development, towards a blissful existence so that the process of life is never burdensome in your experience.”
About the event
The program saw several artists performing including Ram Mirjala, Velmurugan, Kutle Khan, Mangli, Ananya Chakraborty, Meenal Jain, Nihar Shembekar, and Kannada folk singers in a versatile rendering of music composition and genre. Other popular performers included Mame Khan, Niladri Kumar, a troupe of Georgian dancers, and the Theyyam fire dancers from Kerala.
The event also saw meditation sessions guided by Sadhguru, along with a question and answer round. “Tens of thousands availed two of the significant offerings of Isha Mahashivaratri: Maha Annadanam- or the offering of food to everyone who visits the Yoga Center on Mahashivaratri- and the Midnight Meditation with Sadhguru,” a press release read.
