Isha Yoga Center

Time: Jan 3rd - 5th, 2020 (realized that I had missed to post this before, hence the delay!)

Place: Isha Yoga Center, Coimbatore

Company: Wife, daughter, cousins and cousin's daughters

Highlights: One of our cousins (who stays in Aus) had not yet seen IYC and we thought we all will go to show to her. So started planning sometime in Oct/Nov time frame and booked the train tickets & cottages way in advance. Time flew, and it was the day of travel!

Day 0: Lokmanya Tilak express train from Mumbai was late by couple of hours. But it made up the lost time, since we reached on time the next day. It was fun playing with cousin's daughter (toddler) in the railway station especially when she just wanted to board any train on the platform! Took a hard time convincing that we had to wait for our train.

Day 1: Took a cab from railway station to IYC. Got ourselves checked in. Cottages were clean, simple, just bare necessities and wonderful. Relaxed and refreshed & did the Shambhavi practice. Then went for the morning meal (about 10ish). Filling and fresh. Then had a darshan of the Linga Bhairavi and Dhyanalinga. Last time when I was here for Maha shivratri, I couldn't enter the Dhyanalinga but this time I could. Nada Aradhana was going at noon time. Headed back to room to catch up on some lost sleep. Visited the Dhyana Linga again, this time just for plain meditation. Got back to the dining place for dinner. Then relaxed and roamed around the campus's lush green vast spaces under brightly shining stars to discuss about spirituality and Sadhguru. By about midnight, went back to our rooms to retire for the night.

Day 2: At about 5 am itself, we could hear people practising many kriyas. We got up by 6ish and by 7, we left the room to visit the Adi Yogi statue which was just outside. There were couple of peacocks on our terrace which is apparently common here. Me and my male cousin then went to Surya kund to take dip in the holy-mercury-energized water, and then headed to Linga Bhairavi. Devi Stuti was going on and it was exhilirating. Then headed to Dhyana Linga once again, and sat amidst many meditators. It was quite an experience. I felt like I was outside the Milky way galaxy and was able to feel the millions of stars & planets spinning around with Dhyanalinga being in the center. It was weird. Anyways, all done, we went for the brunch at 9:30 am.

Soon it was time to pack and checkout. We had to rush a little since we had to catch the train at 1 pm. After last-minute rushes, we finally left at noon. Took a cab and reached station at few minutes before 1. The journey back was in a sitting train, which was great because we could talk all the way back. We even played word games, memory games, just like how we used to do few decades ago during our childhood train trips. And now we could do it all over again with our kids! Truly a memorable experience. Rest of the journey back home was eventless. 

I always wanted to visit Dhyana Linga and this trip finally made that wish come true. And I am sure this is not the last trip to Dhyana Linga either...