Showing posts with label guru. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guru. Show all posts

4 July 2013

Devotion to the Guru


In the previous post I talked about a personal experience with Swami Satchidananda, a great saint with strong ties to Arunachala. In the below narrative Swami writes very beautifully about the power of devotion to the Guru. 


My Masters and Yogiji 

“Coming to Anandashram in January 1949 was like returning home, my real home. From the next day of my arrival at the Ashram, I kept myself busy serving the Masters Swami Ramdas (Beloved Papa) and Mother Krishnabai (Pujya Mataji) in every possible way. In a very short time I became one with the Ashram. They taught me that Sadhana was not merely sitting still in meditation with closed eyes, but also living a normal life with constant God-remembrance and doing all acts dedicating them to Him, thus making every movement of the Sadhaka an act or worship. Gradually I understood that, they being everything and beyond, serving them meant serving everybody else also. I found in Beloved Papa and Mataji my divine parents and in all the Ashramites and visitors my brothers and sisters. I found real peace and joy in life, the like of which I had never enjoyed till then. 

I came to them absolutely raw and shapeless like a lump of clay. I surrendered to them. They graciously took me in hand, pressed, crushed and moulded me to give shape to make me their instrument to serve all. Beloved Papa also gave me a lot of opportunities to move with his spiritual children who came to him as serious seekers and later became Mahatmas like Yogi Ramsuratkumarji Maharaj. How from an apparently possessive and obstinate nature, the Yogiji who took initiation from Beloved Papa, rose to the height of the Divine child of Arunachala is something for all the ardent Sadhakas to emulate. Not caring for even the basic requirements of the body, he threw himself totally at the feet of his Master whom he always addresses as 'my father'. lt is rare to see such intense vairagya. 

For nearly four decades, while he continued to deny himself of any of the normal needs, he became a source of solace and protection for innumerable devotees, more so in Tamil Nadu. His surrender to his Guru was total. He always used to say, "My father alone exists. Nothing else, Nobody else'. Even after dropping his body, the Yogiji continues to inspire many in the path of devotion. I still remember the touching reference he made at the time of our meeting at the guest-house of Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai after a long gap of four decades. Answering somebody whether he was waiting for a few hours, he said not hours but for forty years. 

To meet saints is a blessing. To be with them is a greater blessing. To be given a chance to serve them is a great privilege.” 

[Swami Satchidananda]


7 January 2010

Predictions for 2010



"2010 will be successful for those who believe in God and the Divine. It will help all people and even create interest in spiritualism for those who do not have a current interest. For spiritual people it will surely be an excellent year.

With the benefic influence of Jupiter, no major setbacks will happen in 2010. There will be some problems, of course, but overall, the energies of 2010 bring bright promise for the future. All beings (animal, trees, humans) existing in this world will gain more virtues and will elevate to a higher stage in life in connection to knowledge, expenditures of money and energy and overall capabilities. All this will help us make wiser choices which are more productive. "

[With thanks to http://www.astroved.com]




2010 Predictions from ... Beyond


18 July 2009

Interview with Swami Suddhananda

Swami Suddhananda was born at Satapura, a little rustic village near Cuttack in Orissa, India. He studied Vedic scriptures under Swami Chinmayananda and Swami Dayananda at Sandeepani Sadhanalaya, Mumbai.

He says: "I was thirsty and went for a drop of water and found that I am the water.' He travels widely in the world teaching Vedanta. He has an ashram off the Girivalam Road after Adiannamalai Village at the west side of Arunachala. He often spends time at his Arunachala Ashram giving Retreats and Seminars.






For more information about his life and his Samvit Sagar Trust go to this link here. You may view his official website with full particulars of Retreats and Programmes at this link here.

In the following interview Swami Suddhananda was asked: “It appears essential to meet a guru and stay with that guru. Who is the guru? What is the guru's role? How to recognise a true guru?”

His reply starts: “This is a very beautiful thing. The first thing is Guru is not a title, Guru is not a role . . . please . . . there is no such person . . .”

Click on this link to watch and listen to the rest of his response to the question: ‘Who is the Guru?’

12 July 2009

Interview with Radha Ma

Radha Ma originates from Bangalore and successfully worked for many years in Hyderabad as a chartered accountant. It was here she met her husband-to-be, who now lives with her at Tiruvannamalai as her devotee. Radha Ma refuses to see herself as a guru or master but many come to her anyway. She now lives off the Girivalam Roadway at Arunachala.






In the following interview Radha Ma was asked: “It appears essential to meet a guru and stay with that guru. Who is the guru? What is the guru's role? How to recognise a true guru?”

Her reply starts: “I never had a Guru, so I don’t know how to answer for this. And I am not a Guru too . . . and I’m not a Guru . . . so you want to know how to recognise a Guru?”

Click on this link to watch and listen to the rest of her response to the question: ‘Who is the Guru?’


30 April 2009

Pearls of the Guru

"A real guru is like an ice cube. He cools your consciousness and then disappears without a trace." [Chitrabhanu-ji]

"Everyone has his own path, his mission, and even if you take your Master as a model, you must always develop in a way that suits your own nature."
[Aïvanhov]

"My Guru became my all-in-all, my home, mother and father, everything. All my senses left their places, and concentrated themselves in my eyes, and my sight was centred on him. Thus my guru was the sole object of my meditation and I was conscious of none else. While meditating on him my mind and intellect were silent and I had thus, to keep quiet and bow to him in silence."
[Sri Sai Baba of Shirdi]




"Everything in the world was my Guru. Don't you know that Dattatreya, when he was asked by the king which Guru had taught him the secret of bliss, replied that the earth, water, fire, animals, men, etc., all were his Gurus and went on explaining how some of these taught him to cling to what was good and others taught him what things he should avoid as bad."
[Ramana Maharshi]

"This beggar prays to his Father to bless you all who have come here. My Lord Rama blesses you, My Father blesses you. Arunachaleswara blesses you. It doesn't matter to me what name it is. All the blessings of my Father for all of you! Well, that is the end. That is all."
[Yogi Ramsuratkumar]


21 July 2007

Hail to Thee, Part 7


Hail to Thee! O'Arunachala!

Verses 1-9
Verses 10-20
Verses 21-31
Verses 32-50
Verses 51-70
Verses 71-91


Concluding verses to this devotional poem:


92. Good it is to chant the Holy Sound
Better it is to whisper it around
Greater still is the mental chant
Yet supreme is it to Be the Chant

93. Seeking the sound of the chanted mantra
Using Self Inquiry's method as the tantra
Ask whence from the chanter springs forth
Rejecting all mental forms as of little worth

94. Diligently seek thee the source within
And on finding it, do subside therein
Only by such effort shall true Tapas reign
So promises Ramana of Virupaksha fame

95. All scriptures are but maps of the way
into the state of Being lying in thee within
Erudite fools argue and contest the map
While the simple sage drinks Being's sap

96. The scholar lost in libraries under the sun
Spends his days relearning the number one
His years of erudite effort rank not above
A single moment of self-dissolving Love





97. Varna's, ashrama's, castes and creed
Are but divisions of the mental breed
On knowing Brahman a Brahmin is he
Knowing all else a Chandaala he be

98. Yet without a teacher's Grace
Impossible it is to see His Face
Verily the teacher as the Guru
Is the Self known as "Ulluru"

99. But for the ardent seeker struggling with fate
The Guru will arrive and guide him to His State
This is an incontestable Truth, have faith my son
Indeed the Guru and the Self are but one

100. Pushing him from without as the Self pulls him in
Never doubt the Guru is the Self's inseparable twin
Ego's destruction is assured in the Guru's maw
As the fate of the prey caught in the tiger's jaw

101. Blessed is he on whom falls the Guru's Gaze
He has received the key out of Maya's maze
Surrender your all at the Sat Guru's Feet
Hurry my son, reclaim your Heavenly Seat

102. Gentler by far than the mother that bore me
Is my Guru Ramana standing before me
Radiant as a million suns, cooler than the full moon
His Gaze has stolen my heart, my ego's in a swoon

103. Having crazed me with love He sends me to roam
In lands of the lost and blind far from home
Cloaked in a healer's garb, I now stand at the post
While residing beneath, it is He who heals the host

104. Who but Ramana of Patala Linga fame
Residing at Arunachala in Guha's name
Speaks today in me in the English tongue
As this verse bubbling forth to be sung

105. O' Lord perfumed by Vaachakar's lilting prose
Wreathed by the garlands of Muruganar's verse
I offer Thee this crazed rant with heartfelt devotion
O' Wearer of Kannappan's spittle as a body lotion






106. Praise be the Blessed Feet of Guru Ramana
That crowns my head, standing as Vaamana
Praise be the Holy Hill of Arunachala
Hope's Eternal Beacon called Sonachala

107. Praise be Mother Allagama's holy shrine
At the feet of Aruna Hill, forever Thine
Praise the Divine Effulgence of Karthikai's Beacon
The Eternal Light that to all seekers does beckon

108. To Thee I offer humbly my faltering praise
With trembling voice and tears on my face
Fathered by the sun, this moon child stands
As Ravichandran bowing with folded hands


12 April 2007

Grace Working


Once in relating a story about the workings of Grace to a visiting devotee, Ramana Maharshi asked the devotee whether Grace was measured in terms of the success of desires. He said:

'Do you mean to say that if everything goes according to your desires, only then it is possible to say that the grace of a saint has worked?'

Bhagavan then went on to explain the actual workings of Grace:



"The blessings of a saint perform the purficatory work of life. These blessings cannot increase impurity. One whose understanding is limited will ask for blessings so that he can fulfil certain desires, but if the desires are such that their fulfilment will make the seeker more impure rather than purer, the saint’s blessings will not enable him to fulfil the desires. In this way the seeker is saved from further impurities. In that case are not the saint’s blessings a fit of compassion?"