Book cover of Adiyogi: The Source of Yoga by Padma Vibhushan award-winner Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev
The only one who could restore balance and harmony to such a fractured planet was Adiyogi, the formidable hermit in the Himalayas. But Adiyogi was a recluse and an ascetic. He could not be induced to fight.
Still, the benevolent kings could see that Adiyogi possessed powers that nobody else did. If there was anyone whose intervention could rescue a world spinning hopelessly towards self-destruction, it was he. But no one had the courage to approach him because he was like a flame of overpowering intensity.
Was there any way to squeeze these mysterious powers out of him?
They decided to consult the more easily approachable divine entity, Vishnu.
Vishnu said, 'I cannot approach Adiyogi either. His yogic powers are so immense that I have no idea what is happening within him. If he parts with his incredible knowing, it will only be of his own volition. No one can steal these powers from him. At present, he is unapproachable. First, we need to win his attention, soften him, find a way to make him heed us.'
The question was how. They thought up innumerable plans and strategies. None of them seemed workable. Adiyogi was far too forbidding a figure to be enticed by minor inducements.
Finally, they decided their only hope was a child born of Adiyogi's seed. His offspring alone could vanquish the forces of corruption and restore sanity to a troubled planet.
But this meant Adiyogi had to consent to become a family man. The ascetic had to turn householder.
They approached him as a collective, full of trepidation. Roused from his meditation, Adiyogi was annoyed. 'Why do you disturb me?' he asked.
They laid out their woes before him. 'You close your eyes in bliss all the time,' they lamented. 'You are oblivious to the strife that surrounds you. You have no clue that people around you are in unspeakable states of misery. Should you not be more sensitive to their plight? Should you not do something?'
'What would you have me do?' asked Adiyogi.
That was the question for which they had been waiting. Now, Sati, the beautiful daughter of Daksha, the patriarch of the Vedic sacrifice, was brought before him. 'She is Goddess Shakti herself,' said the kings. 'She has taken birth only to become your partner. You can remain in your ecstasy, if you choose. But if you take her as a wife, your progeny will be able to tackle the problems of the world.'
Adiyogi relented. He walked out of his ascetic life and married Sati.
Now, Adiyogi was the ultimate embodiment of consciousness - a condition beyond the cyclical nature of human compulsion. He was self-made, which means not a shred of compulsion remained in him on the level of the body, mind or emotion. He lived in a state of complete freedom with the ability to respond to the needs of each moment afresh, moving into a new dimension every second. This was not a genteel or civilized man. This was a being in a state of absolute oneness with life - flawlessly non-repetitive, utterly without pretention, ceaselessly spontaneous and inventive. He was life itself.
And so, he simply did what needed to be done in any given situation. Once he married Sati, he gave himself totally to his marriage. He did not see the erotic and the ascetic impulses as conflicting. For him, asceticism was simply a graduation from the limited nature of eroticism. For the sake of the world, he married Sati. But once he did, he surrendered totally to the union.
Immense passion happened between them. The years rolled by. Their lovemaking was recorded as the most intense in human history.
Excerpted with permission of HarperCollins from Adiyogi: The Source of Yoga by Padma Vibhushan award-winner Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev. You can pre-order your copy here.