“Health is a natural state; it is not something that we have to create. If we do not create ill health, if we do not mess with the body and the mind, health will be a natural process within us.” – Sadhguru
Isha Foundation is a not-for-profit, public service organization founded by Sadhguru – a realized master and yogi, which addresses all aspects of human well-being. Isha Foundation is essentially a volunteer-based organization and has over two million dedicated volunteers. Isha activities are designed to create an inclusive culture that is the basis for global harmony and progress. This approach has gained worldwide recognition and reflects in Isha Foundation's special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations.
“Health is Wealth,” they say, but we don’t actually realize that until we lose it. Isha Foundation has several major initiatives to revitalize people’s health, in urban as well as rural areas.
A paradigm shift in healthcare
Isha Arogya is an endeavour committed towards providing every human being with the means and methods to live a vibrantly healthy life. With centres in Chennai and Salem – and centres coming up in other major cities in South India – Isha Arogya’s comprehensive approach to health represents a paradigm shift in healthcare. Isha Arogya does not just combat disease, but creates a sense of wholeness in the individual. It enables people to cultivate their body, mind and energies in such a way that health is a natural way of being.
Another unique facet of Isha Arogya’s approach is that it is not limited to any one system of medicine. Isha Arogya is fundamentally oriented towards bringing together the best and most relevant approaches to human well-being – irrespective of the system – and providing the most effective healthcare to the individual.
India’s indigenous systems of medicine – Siddha and Ayurveda have been appreciated the world over for their understanding and insight into the human system. While Allopathy is recognized for its ability to quickly cure infectious diseases, the traditional systems of medicine are noted for their ability to strengthen the human body’s innate ability to resist disease. Combining the strengths of these methods of healthcare therefore results in an effective and comprehensive approach to an individual’s health – an approach that is no longer about just combating disease, but about creating a sense of wholeness in the individual. Isha Arogya is actively involved in making a combination of these healthcare systems available to the public.
In addition to its holistic therapies for specific ailments, Isha Arogya also offers massage therapies, nutritional supplements, yoga programs and rejuvenating therapies that bring an individual’s system into balance and harmony.
The soon to be completed Isha Arogya Hospital, situated near the Isha Yoga Centre, Coimbatore, will cater to the healthcare needs. As a full-fledged 24-hour multi-specialty hospital, the services and facilities of the Isha Arogya Hospital include trauma and accident care, ICU and operation theatre, labour ward, inpatient facility, labs, ECG, ECHO, USG and CT scans, a pharmacy, OP facility and an in-house canteen.
Isha Rejuvenation
Isha Rejuvenation situated at the Isha Yoga Centre at the foothills of the lush Velliangiri Mountains, is an opportunity to experience the joy of a healthy body and inner peace. Under the guidance of Sadhguru, Isha Rejuvenation offers many dynamic rejuvenation programmes aimed at restoring vital life energies necessary for healthy living.
Scientifically structured, the programmes uniquely combine allopathic, alternative & complementary therapies with the sublime wisdom of ancient Indian sciences and spirituality. A synthesis of yogic methods and practices, diet, massage, mud baths, herbal tonics and medicines, as well as specialized alternative medicines are incorporated into each program.
Rural healthcare initiatives
Action for Rural Rejuvenation (ARR) is a multi-dimensional programme with a holistic approach towards improving the overall health and quality of life of the rural poor. Part of Isha Outreach, the social development branch of the Isha Foundation, ARR along with Isha Outreach’s other initiatives, Project GreenHands (PGH) and Isha Vidhya, provides an interconnected and comprehensive approach to transform the lives of the rural poor.
ARR is not just about giving the rural people economic or administrative help, but rather it seeks to transform their life. ARR works towards raising the spirit of the rural populace, thereby inspiring and empowering them to take their well-being into their own hands. Since its launch in 2003, ARR has reached more than 4600 villages, serving a population of over 4.2 million people.
An important component of ARR’s activities is rural healthcare. At ARR, health is viewed holistically, involving a multitude of unparalleled components to create healthier environments and wholesome ways of living, targeting the mind, body and spirit concurrently. Healthcare has long been an area of concern in India, especially in rural areas, where 65 per cent of India’s population lives. ARR was launched at a time when government healthcare facilities were sparse and inadequate. Many villages were too far from even primary healthcare clinics and where clinics were present, they were often understaffed. Medicines and pharmaceuticals were hard to come by for villagers, who would often suffer from easily treatable diseases such as conjunctivitis. To rectify this situation, ARR’s initial programs were geared towards providing free medicines and high-quality primary healthcare in rural areas.
Mobile Health Clinics
ARR’s Mobile Health Clinics (MHC) are specially designed and equipped to access populations deprived of adequate roads and basic health care facilities. They offer free primary and minor emergency care on a bi-monthly basis. Each MHC team which includes a doctor, paramedical assistant, pharmacist and driver, provides free examinations and treatment, and refers patients to partnering local hospitals for advanced care. The MHC covers approximately 48 to 60 villages in a month. Since 2003, over three million beneficiaries have received MHC care in over 8,400 villages.
Community-based health clinics
Four Isha Rural Health Clinics (IRHCs) have been established to respond to the community’s need for affordable, high-quality, round-the-clock and easily accessible health care. Equipped with a lab, a pharmacy and facilities for minor surgery, each IRHC serves some 30 surrounding villages and treats an average of 100 patients daily. Half of the allopathic medicines are procured in bulk directly from the producer and sold at 50 per cent market price. Patients pay nominal fees for the services. The clinics are run by full-time volunteer doctors.
Services include primary, antenatal, paediatric, geriatric and emergency care. For advanced care, visiting specialists facilitate referrals within a network of 16 tertiary care hospitals. There are four IRHCs currently operation which have treated over 200,000 patients.
Raising health awareness
In recent years, government health facilities in Tamil Nadu have improved, with better availability of primary healthcare centres and medicines. However, rural populations still lack basic knowledge on health, hygiene and disease prevention. People are often reluctant or disinclined to seek treatment due to unawareness. Therefore, ARR has in recent years, focused more on preventive and promotional activities, to spread awareness on staying healthy and seeking treatment when needed.
ARR conducts health awareness events and medical camps across Tamil Nadu. The “Wave of Health” or "Arokiya Alai" programme works to spread awareness on nutrition, disease prevention, and hygiene and sanitation to rural people through talks and media presentations. The Arokiya Alai project provides free-of-cost, simple, healthy, dietary solutions (using locally available food) to help eradicate malnutrition in villagers. By providing knowledge on diseases and their symptoms, Arokiya Alai hopes that villagers will be able to detect diseases early through the taught symptoms and thus take the necessary action. Specialists in the fields of gynaecology, dentistry, paediatrics, ear, nose and throat (ENT), diabetes, dermatology, orthopaedics and ophthalmology support ARR medical teams in administering speciality medical camps.
Special campaigns which include displays by hoarding, posters, banners and processions involving school and college students, Isha volunteers and general public, are conducted to mark important days such as World AIDS Day, World Diabetes Day and World Health Day.
Another problem that rural populations face is the cost of medication. The cost is not just in terms of monetary value, but also in terms of time lost in seeking treatment. For a person who is often living a hand-to-mouth existence, the loss of a day’s worth of work and earnings just to seek treatment, could be a potentially life-threatening situation.
ARR therefore encourages the use of indigenous herbs for treating ailments at an early stage, before complications set in. These herbs are grown in backyards and cost nothing to maintain, but they are highly effective in combating ailments. Such natural and herbal treatments have a long and illustrious history in the country. In the past, local populations have always been aware of such treatments. However, over the last few decades, this vital knowledge has been lost. ARR is actively involved in reviving indigenous health systems.
Holistic health for tribal population
Ayush-Isha Organic Health Systems is a pilot project supported by the Department of AYUSH, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Ayush-Isha seeks to improve the health of the rural populace of the Kolli Hills Block in the district of Namakkal through a holistic approach involving a unique combination of Ayurveda, Siddha, Naturopathy, essential Allopathic treatments, yogic practices and physical fitness programs which are being made available to the people. Based on the results of the project, this mode of healthcare will be expanded and offered across Tamil Nadu.
This innovative and community driven approach is not just an advocacy for better health, it is a technology for well-being. It has been actively involved in providing healthcare to the rural populace of Kolli Hills with a special focus on vulnerable sections of society such as new-born children, pregnant mothers and teenage girls. It provides pre-natal and post-natal care to pregnant and lactating mothers through supplementary nutrition and medication to boost immunity, and control anaemia and micro-nutrient deficiencies. The project also provides de-worming medication to children and adolescent girls.
AYUSH-Isha is also actively involved in the creation of herbal gardens which ensure that people have access to indigenous medicinal herbs, and the planting of fruit saplings to help villagers maintain a healthy and nutritious diet. A team of dedicated volunteers chosen from amongst the Kolli Hills community, provide support and maintain the momentum of the project while ensuring its long-term sustainability through community participation. Over 42,000 people in the 276 hamlets of the Kolli Hills Block have been reached through this program.
Rejuvenating individuals and communities
ARR also conducts Isha Yoga classes for the rural populace. Isha Yoga Programmes are designed to create healthy, joyful and confident people amidst the daily struggles and emergencies of rural life. They help to foster trust among communities and bring about a transformation in the community. Another result of the practice of yoga is the improvement of health, particularly with musculoskeletal disorders which are rampant. Yoga is taught in a structured way that rural people can easily learn and integrate into their daily lives.
Two categories of programmes are taught – a free three-day program, and a seven-day programme at nominal cost. These programmes include physical postures or asanas such as Suryanamaskar, pranayam, life awareness discourses and meditation. Participants have reported that regular practice of these simple easy to grasp methods has cured chronic problems like ulcers, asthma, allergies and depression. Many participants have described freedom from alcohol and tobacco addiction as well as overall sense of mental peace and happiness.
Community games
An essential component of ARR has been the introduction of sports and recreational activities in the rural villages of Tamil Nadu. Daily gatherings on the volley ball court are helping to renew a sense of community by involving villagers – old and young, and men and women from all castes and economic levels. Playing together fosters a healthy spirit of competition which translates into higher self-esteem, improved community harmony, better heath and enhanced productivity.
Isha’s projects have generated tremendous public recognition and goodwill from international forums to village-based stakeholder meetings. Isha’s community-based projects are designed for easy replicability, and Isha actively encourages individuals, communities and organisations to implement these models in other parts of the country and the world.
Inner Engineering - peak of well-being
"As we have physical science to create external well-being there is a whole inner dimension of science to create inner well being. I call it Inner Engineering" –SADHGURU
Inner Engineering is offered as an intensive programme for personal growth. The programme and its environment establish the possibility to explore the higher dimensions of life and offers tools to re-engineer one's self through the inner science of yoga. Once given the tools to rejuvenate, people can optimize all aspects of health, inner growth and success. For those seeking professional and personal excellence, this programme offers keys for meaningful and fulfilling relationships at work, home, community, and most importantly, within one's self.
Inner Engineering can be thought of as a synthesis of holistic sciences to help participants establish an inner foundation and vision for all dimensions of life and find the necessary balance between the challenges of a hectic career and the inner longing for peace and well being.
The approach is a modern antidote to stress, and presents simple but powerful processes from yogic science to purify the system and increase health and inner well being. The programme components include guided meditations and transmission of the sacred Shambhavi Maha Mudra. When practiced on a regular basis, these tools have the potential to enhance one's experience of life on many levels.
Health- Optimize health and vitality
- Reduce stress
- Promote mental clarity and emotional balance
- Increase and maintain high energy levels throughout the day
- Reduce sleep & rest quota
- Prevent chronic diseases like Asthma, Allergies, Sinusitis, Hypertension, Diabetes, Obesity, Rheumatism, Arthritis, Epilepsy, Back pain, Skin and eye ailments, Migraine
Performance
- Increase ability to handle stressful situations
- Enhance focus, concentration & memory
- Raise productivity and efficiency
- Improve communication & inter-human relationships
- Maintain optimum levels of performance throughout the day
Experience
- Establish a positive & open approach towards life
- Evaluate personal values and life goals
- Generate inner peace and fulfilment
- Transcend limitations and fears
- Live & experience each moment to the fullest
In fostering understanding of their interiority, participants gain powerful tools to cope with the hectic pace of modern life and move into a new plane for living and working. Inner Engineering empowers participants to begin experiencing their lives to the fullest potential.