Green Yoga
There was a time when spirituality and nature were interconnected, not just on paper, but in practice (see Nature). I went about searching for such an environmental/spiritual organization… and found just what I was looking for – ProjectGreenHands. It turned out to be the efforts of an organization that I was made familiar with couple of months back. Isha Foundation, founded by “Sadhguru” Jagi Vasudev.
It’s exactly what I was looking for – a kind of organization that could inspire the youth on environmental concerns (i.e, not just “educating” them – we have enough of such “rote” education). Such that they go out of the way to help in afforestation, use renewable energy, refuse plastic bags, etc.
Jagi Vasudev – My Impressions
The “Sadhguru” Jagi Vasudev is more of a new age thinker than an enlightened sage (that his title makes him out to be).
Though his personality failed to impress me, what did impress me is the efficiency with which he ran his organization, and his approach of integrating nature with yoga which was quite refreshing compared with series unsuccessful or half-baked attempts by other recent “gurus”.
But then why care about his personality? I suppose the problem lies with us, where we project people into gurus and then try to find personality flaws (let alone character flaws). I think character/personality are as irrelevant as the personal attributes of say Andrew Grove (he chairman and founder of Intel) and the success Intel. As long as one looks at Jagi Vasudev (and other “gurus”) as any other person like you and I (or as a business venture), then one can appreciate that he has been very successful and far reaching his environmental efforts.
I’ve also read some of his writings (like his book “Flowers on the Path”, articles, and talks) and felt some of it was simply just not mature (compared with material from spiritual masters like Ramana Maharshi, Swami Vivekananda, Osho, Bhagavad Gita…). His analogies are quite off tangent, if not a bit outmoded, weird, and often times downright corny. He is very unassuming — but sometimes I feel he overdoes it (if you overdo your unassumingness, is it still being unassuming??).
But no matter, I like what he and his organization is doing (which by the way seems to be very well run, efficient, organized). He has a way of attracting passionate, sincere, dedicated people to do charitable work – like protecting the environment.
Why even the criticism? well simply put, anyone with a title of “sadhguru” is asking for it (that title is traditionally reserved for the über-guru; it’s enough that there are so many gurus; but now sadhgurus also?). I believe the ability of Hindu culture to consistently produce razor sharp spiritual giants (monks, gurus, sages,…) lies in the fact that there is no dearth of intense scrutiny. Quality control. Like Mata Amritanandamayi says, nations will crumble if people don’t criticize their leaders (her response when she was asked about criticism).