First of a two part account of a road ride through the hills of far south Karnataka down onto the plains of Tamil Nadu. We were heading for the city of Coimbatore and from there taking an excursion 30 km or so west of it to the ashram of an Indian spiritual teacher by the name of Sadhguru. Known as Isha Yoga Centre, it is a place some considerable size and a magnet for many thousands of visitors throughout the course of the year.

By 7.50 I was out of the guest house in the Dhondenling Tibetan Settlement of Kollegal, which is located in the far south of the state of Karnataka, and making my way to my brother in law Sonam Tashi’s quarters halfway up a nearby hill, at the gates of which his driver Ranga was cleaning the windscreen of the car which was going to take the three of us down to Coimbatore. There was a slight delay before we got under way due to the fact Sonam Tashi couldn’t find the keys to his motor, despite the fact all the doors were open because of Ranga’s cleaning and shining. Somehow in the process of the work the keys had got mislaid, but how and when that had happened was all a bit of a mystery. Eventually they turned up, but only after a whole load of searching, having escaped to a corner on the floor by the front passenger seat, but once retrieved we were soon on the road and out of the settlement, heading south to the border.

Continue reading “Sadhguru: Trip to Isha Yoga Centre” →