Sadhguru Leads The Isha Foundation

CULTURE

WHAT’S UP WITH THE ISHA FOUNDATION

WORDS

by KRISTOPHER FRASER

PHOTOGRAPHY

COURTESY

of PEOPLE'S REVOLUTION

Isha Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 1992 by Sadhguru Vasudev. Located near Coimbatore, India the foundation has over 9 million volunteers and offers yoga programs under the name of Isha Yoga. Vasudev has been committed to taking the organization to new heights, not only in India but also globally. He approaches human well being as not a belief system or religious system, but by looking at the human body as its own technology for well being.

“The greatest technology is the human system itself,” Vasudev said. “The human mechanism is the most sophisticated gadget on the planet. The problem with most people is technology has given us so much, but no one has read the user manual. Most of the world is suffering mentally because people don’t know how to handle their own mental faculties.”

The solution is a long-term, but complex one: body chemistry. “What we call love is kind of chemistry,” Vasudev said. “Suppose we teach you something, a simple transmission like the chemistry of blissfulness. What we have to remember is outside situations in life will never happen the way we want them too. You can’t run the whole world the way you want it, but you can arrange yourself the way you want to be.”

In addition to their yoga and spiritual work the organization is also committed to numerous global initiatives. Currently, the organization is also the largest ecological movement in Asia. In addition, they are also spearheading education initiatives in remote parts of rural India. They are also expanding medical access to rural parts of India. In total, the organization counts 370 centers around the world.

“The human mechanism is the most sophisticated gadget on the planet. The problem with most people is technology has given us so much, but no one has read the user manual.”

–Sadhguru Vasudev–

In the last twenty years, they have planted thirty million trees in India through Project Green Hand. In 2017, they also launched the Rally For Rivers campaign, where over 162 million got involved in the effort to support clean rivers in India and around the world. In total, Vasudev did 142 events and gave 104 interviews about the project. They also had 4000 imprints in magazines and newspapers across India.

The fruits of his labor were well worth it when the document he wrote about what is to be done to improve the quality of India’s rivers became the standard policy for the government in India. They have signed a memorandum of understanding with six states in India, and in the next eight year Isha Foundation plans on planting around 7 billion trees. The organization also launched A Decade of Action on March 22, which helped lead the European Parliament to banning single use plastic.

As for the organizations education initiatives, they have been largely focused in India. They are focused on rural areas of India where there is no proper education available, and they have created schools and institutions that have given many students the chance to be the first generation in their families to receive comprehensive education. 80 percent of the students they have helped are girls. The organization’s online programs have also opened up the possibility to produce more teachers. This has helped them create 900 teachers worldwide. Their focus in regards to education right now is training teachers to be placed in government schools to enhance the education offered. They have adopted over 4600 schools in South India where their teachers have been placed.

The bread and butter of the organization though is their yoga program. “We have titled the programs as ‘inner engineering’ minus the cultural aspects,” Vasudev said. “Yoga means union, and we’re individual human beings. Your presence and psychology must become one. It’s you versus the universe. Everyone seems to be struggling with their own existence, and you versus the universe is not a good competition to get into.”

Their yoga programs are in over 100 countries in the world, with major centers in both the United States and India. The U.S. is a very important part of Isha Foundation’s growth strategy because, as Vasudev says, “The U.S. has as a leadership position in the world. Even a kindergarten child knows that the human body needs oxygen and not carbon dioxide to live, but if America put carbon dioxide in a bottle and said this is what you need to live, people would drink it. If America starts to meditate, the world will meditate.”

Vasudev added that, “We have touched almost 500 million people in the world. There are millions of people who can close their eyes and cry from ecstasy, but when you’re nasty, you’re bound to share that with other people. If you’re joyful, you’re joyful to other people. It’s inner engineering and the yogi’s guide to joy.”

Isha Foundation is changing the world, one tree, school, river, and yoga session at a time.