Adi Yogi at Isha enchanted by song and dance through Mahashivaratri

Coimbatore: Only he can do it. Crowds continued to swell through the night and barely anyone in the massive gathering vacated their precious space on the sprawling maidan facing the 112-ft statue of Adi Yogi, Lord Shiva. The Mahashivaratri celebration at the Isha Yoga Center that began with spirited song and dance around 6 pm Tuesday ended only after the following dawn.

There wasn't one tired yawn spotted anywhere throughout as the young and the old, men and women, the initiated and the not-so-literate, the urban and the rural, the rich and the poor, let go all inhibitions to swing their arms and legs while singing along with the celebrated performers from Bollywood on the bright-large podium.

The super charger for all that stupendous energy, apart from Adi Yogi himself, was no doubt Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev who took the mike every now and then to render his intonations beseeching Shiva to deliver bliss upon all those who had gathered there, and for the many watching the spectacle on their TV screens and Youtube across the globe - it could well be rated among the most expensive and expansive spiritual events in recent times. The 60-year-old mystic guru danced like a teenager in a pub while coaxing the crowd to sing and dance along, lest someone might doze off in the seat.

More than his song and dance, it was the spiritual discourse climaxing Sadhguru's offering to Shiva's devotees that preserved the twinkle in their sleepless eyes even at dawn. “It's not enough if you have the key. If you do not know how to use it, it stays as just a piece of useless metal”, said he, explaining how today's world and its people is full of questions demanding solutions. “I am giving you the key to divine bless, the very same key that's been the cause for me and for Isha”.

“The entire universe today is reverberating with sounds, complex amalgamation of sounds. In this limitless web of sounds, a few key sounds have been identified, known as mantra”, said Sadhguru, before revealing the mantra: 'Shambo' (meaning Shiva) and getting the congregation to repeatedly chant it but through a yogic ritual of closing the right nostril and letting out the breath through the quick-loud ‘Shambo’ chant.

Earlier, the Sadhguru drew loud applause telling his followers that the Union Tourism Ministry has now included Adi Yogi in its ‘Incredible India’ portfolio. The awe-inspiring steel sculpture, a brilliant piece of artistry and architecture, was designed by Jaggi himself in about 30 months while his engineers and architects took another eight months to complete it just in time for last year's Maha Shivaratri, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.