OF AN ACE LENSMAN AND HIS ‘DIVINE’ SUBJECT
Photographer Raghu Rai’s new coffee table book encapsulates interesting facets of spiritual leader Sadhguru
Known for breathtaking black and white shots clicked over five decades, renowned lensman Raghu Rai couldn’t hold himself back from adding a little colour when it came to clicking the spiritual leader Sadhguru. Rai’s new book Sadhguru, weighing a few kilos and one of the biggest coffee table books in India, captures the yogi as a biker, cook, teacher, sportsman, and a tireless adventurist.
“This whole book of 200 pages, I have shot in total 15 days but the editing took me three months because I shot so much of him (Sadhguru) in such variety of forms and expressions,” says Rai.
The black cover of the book belies its inside — as the first photograph unfolds, colours burst out in the dancing pictures of Sadhguru at his Isha Foundation in Coimbatore. The Padma Shri photographer explains, “I have the first few images in colour because his world is very colourful. But then I thought if the colours didn’t gel together then I can’t change them like a painter. So, I decided to convert everything to black and white, and give it a spiritual feel.”
Rai, who has earlier done books on Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama, says that Sadghuru’s “divinity” touches him the most. “People like Sadhguru can spiritually uplift you. So, who else can be godly? But, if I were his follower then I would be overwhelmed. And I wanted to keep that distance. It’s very important to have that consciousness and clarity when you receive everything as it is touching you.”
The photographer first met the Padma Vibhushanawardee in 2016 in Delhi, when the latter was engineering the campaign Rally For Rivers, to save rivers from pollution and depletion. “I had been photographing sacred rivers of India for many years. When I found about his concern for the rivers, I thought it is a great cause. So, I sent a message through my wife — who is his follower — requesting him to let me come along... When we met, he told me that he had been following my work from his early days,” Rai recollects.
When capturing Sadhguru, Rai realised that “All his dimensions are very powerful. When I had met him in Delhi, I told him, ‘Sadhguru, I must say after hearing you, that you are very refreshing and a highly original thinker’. He said ‘You know why? It’s because I’m not educated.’ This, I thought, was wonderful, because even I am not educated.”
Full of insightful quotes by Sadhguru, Rai’s book shows some surprising facets of the former such as his fondness for riding bikes and cooking. The pictures show Sadhguru swiftly changing from a kurtaclad teacher to a denimsporting trekker. “He cooks very well. Aise dosey maine kabhi nahi khaye... He is also a great golfer and plays table tennis, too. He is very stylish. And whatever he is, he doesn’t mind me exhibiting it because he’s transparent,” says Rai.
When I had met him in Delhi, I told him, ‘Sadhguru, I must say after hearing you, that you are very refreshing and a highly original thinker’. He said ‘You know why? It’s because I’m not educated.
RAGHU RAI PHOTOGRAPHER