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I support Isha & Here is why!

I have a pre and post Isha phases in my life. Isha happened in 2001. I am not very proud of my pre Isha phase in many ways .it was a phase of victim hood . I held everyone else other than myself responsible for all that went wrong in my life.
Walked out of office one day in 2001 to see a poster about a talk in Anna university by someone called Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev. I was not in search of a guru. I had never gone to any talks by any Swamis or Gurus , if I may say so ,I had what I considered a healthy dose of scepticism .
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These questions ended in reading, most of it was initially Jiddu Krishnamurthi. Reading JK does not really make one prone to gurus! However was going through a very difficult phase, felt I was drowning, being sucked into a downward whirlpool . Walked in Anna University hoping to find answers.
Yes when life knocked me down I have sought answers to questions.... what is life ..origin of life ..how has it all come about ..is there a beginning.. Nature of religion ...God a product of human mind ...our need for security ...?

All the reading helped only intellectually but the introductory talk got me hooked .. perhaps there may be something to help translate things into reality ...in any case a drowning man clutches at a straw. Isha happened.
There has been no looking back even before the first course by Sadhguru was over, I decided that I have no one to fault but myself . Took some difficult decisions to take my life into my hands ...the reality that my life is my responsibility sunk in so deep ,it made all the difference.
Soon after the first course which was then called Sahaja Sthithi Yoga ,followed other courses Bhavaspandana, hatta yoga, Inner Engineering , Samayam . All this involved many visits to the Isha Foundation and many days stay at the Ashram.
Have interacted with many Maas , Swamis and Bramacharis. Except for very polite enquiries of whether I was following the yoga practices I learnt, never once has there been any pressure on me to volunteer or contribute.
Yes the volunteers for Isha may at times get a little over zealous but then we as individuals practising Isha yoga practices are" works in progress " and no where near realised beings . Any institution as it grows will have some minor administrative issues ,there will be a pecking order that some are not happy with ,which only shows there is a lot of headroom for growth in most of us.
Recent news about allegations by parents of 2 Maas at Isha is being blown out of proportion.
I can empathise with parents wanting their son and daughter to go down the trodden path of what they consider normal... education, job , marriage etc. However the final choice is the individuals and we need to respect that.

As submitted by Usha Soman, 18 August 2016

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