Guru Purnima 2012

Dear Ones,

On this worshipful day of Guru Purnima, we join all devotees who follow the Indian tradition of offering reverent devotion to one’s guru. Focusing on our own beloved Gurudeva Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda, we honour him for the ceaseless flow of grace he offers to every disciple from his boundless love and wisdom trove. “When one can express the almighty power of intoxicating divine love, it awakens the living heart of God’s love in the lives of others,” he said. Within his words and blessings is a tangible vibratory power to uplift us into the very presence of God. “Liberated masters are unrestrained in the omnipresence of the Infinite,” he told us,“bestowing their blessings even after physical death.”

Guruji taught us that in a true guru, the devoted disciple beholds the love of God Himself manifesting in human form. Take into your heart these words he wrote:

In the pure love of friends one glimpses God the Invisible made partially visible, but in the guru He becomes manifest in actuality. Through the guru, God the Silent talks openly. What greater satisfaction could one have, than when the heart is aflame with yearning for the unknown God and He actually comes as guru?…God commingles His desire for the devotee’s liberation with the desire of the guru to help the disciple forsake the ways of darkness and follow the illumined path to God. He who follows a God-sent guru walks in the everlasting light of God. The Silence becomes expressive through the voice of guru; the Intangible becomes tangible in the God-realization of guru….

Those who are receptive feel transported into a higher consciousness of God-perception pouring into their hearts and minds as the master speaks. This attunement imbues the devotee’s consciousness, in the highest way, whenever he summons the guru’s grace in the inner temple of deep, worshipful meditation.

I offer loving prayers that on this occasion you realize anew the transforming presence of Guru that will pervade your daily life if you faithfully listen to, and heed, the “voice” of his wisdom teachings; and devotedly practise the guru-given yoga techniques of divine communion. May your heart be ever fully open and receptive to the abundance of his blessings. Jai Guru!