Yoga seems to be the common factor binding the visitors to the Isha Yoga Centre on Shivratri. Twenty-seven year Daniel Murdoch who has come all the way from Perth says it has motivated him to take charge of my body. He has also started teaching yoga to his colleagues. He says he was introduced to Isha and its teachings thanks to the YouTube.
For 17-year-old Surabhi Sagar, a ballet student and class 11 student from Delhi, it has been a late start to yoga. “My parents are die-hard yoga practitioners. But it has only been in the last few months that I have been visiting the Centre. Now I not only practise yoga for the body but also for the mind.”
“Shambho!” sing a family of worshippers from Washington DC who croon along with Kailash Kher as he sings a song penned by Prasoon Joshi. “Five of us have managed to come to attend this event here; the rest of our Isha family is back in DC, watching as it is live-streamed,” says Divya K. They are all dressed in white chikan-kari kurtas and are letting their hair flow against the wind, as they unwind and recharge at the Centre. The event is a melting pot for people from different parts of the world. Some of them are volunteering, some are helping backstage and some are there to simply meditate on the 112-feet high statue of Adiyogi as it towers over the venue lit by white and yellow flood-lights.
There is constant music as each dance and song performance is punctuated by the Sounds of Isha, the Centre’s own band of musicians. The performance by Rajasthan Roots with Kutle Khan and his troop has the gathering clapping, dancing and raising their hands in prayer.
“I have been visiting the Isha Yoga Centre for three years now but this is the first time I am staying back for the Mahashivratri night celebrations,” 37 year old Rohit Agarwal, an insurance broker from Mumbai. “Apart from work I invest my time in music and seeing Kutle Khan perform here is something I had been looking forward to.” The artist who is famous for his performances on MTV Coke Studio keeps the audience rapt and charges the atmosphere with his performance. There are dance performances by Nritarutya, and Anamika Singh’s ADAA , all in praise of Lord Shiva. Meditation sessions conducted by the spiritual hed of Isha Yoga Centre, Jaggi Vasudev, and sermons on how yoga is a panacea for the ills of the frenetic pace of modern lifestyle, fill the long Shivratri night, giving people enough time to dwell on the path of peace.
