The Guru Reveals Himself

Gurudev is allowing Swami Vishwalakshmianandama to offer Him the Ariti Light 
September 2012. And then some weeks later, he took me to a whole new level about 
the fear of offering Ariti.
This was to my chagrin, but to Swami 
and His devotees, it was hilarious.

But that is another story and simply the Guru doing his job!
At least I am happy to provide amusement for the Guru,
and especially at my ego’s expense – it’s an opportunity to learn something!

"Let the light flow through you, become the Self and realize it, and know that you are the Self, and that the Self is acting for you. And when the Self is acting for you, for sure everything will be perfect. There is no doubt of this with the power of trust you have in the mind. When you have this power of trust, this willpower, then you can create in the mind what you really want!"

-Swami Vishwananda

The Guru Reveals Himself
A true story by Swamini Vishwalakshminanda

The Navatri Celebration of the Hindu Tradition is in full-swing at Swami Vishwananda’s ashram, Shree Peetha Nilaya. The Divine Mother’s presence is more wonderfully surrounding us and entering the heart each night, tonight being the fifth night. Gurudev tells us the energy at pilgrimage places around the world build up to a high frequency from what we are commemorating there, itself, plus the loving, venerating energy the pilgrims leave there through the centuries.

Last Navatri at SPN, I was here also. During those weeks I was here Swami manifested a ring for me. Through the years, I would see a certain style of ring on a woman’s hand and think: “Well, one like that might be nice.” Then, as you know what the ego-mind is like, I would see the same ring on perhaps several different women who come from many countries to Swami. And at seeing many of the same rings, at some point, the desire-thought of ‘maybe that one would be nice’ would leave me. But I didn’t notice that at the time

.

In 2011 I designed a ring in my mind and thought that if Gurudev ever manifested another ring for me, I would like it to be a certain style and color. And, miraculously, one day during the weeks I was at SPN, which included Navatri, He said, “Give me your hand.” And then He manifested the very style and color of the ring I had imagined and placed it into my hand. Since it was precisely like the one I had designed in my mind, from sometime around Navatri, 2011 until a short time before Navatri 2012, I treasured, not the ring, itself, as much as I treasured the fact that “this ring is between Swami and me, and no one else has one like it because I designed this one and He took the design right out of my mind!” You see, I did not think this was from the ego, because truly, why should it bother me if Swami were to manifest a ring for every woman on Earth and it was different from all others and it was just between Gurudev and each woman individually. But then the ego is very clever and perhaps like me, you have noticed that the ego gets more and more subtle when you are sincerely on the spiritual path to freedom, the Divine.

The Guru’s job is taking the devotee, the disciple back to the Divine Unconditional Love in the heart, that place where God resides. Remember Christ said: “The Kingdom of God is Within!” The Guru takes His followers from darkness (ignorance) to Light (The Divine). Gurudev tells us that there is not a moment when He is not aware of His mission.

For a year Swami let me have this time of treasuring not the ring itself, but rather, that it was different from all the rest since He took the design right out of my mind and it was just between the two of us. But in the pleasure of my fulfilled desire, my ego slyly made me forget that Gurudev has the power to have placed that desire for that certain ring in my mind to see what I could learn from it. And even further than that, He may already have manifested rings like it around the world. In other words, His joke, or His lesson, He would reveal to be on my ego-mind.

So now it is Navatri 2012 and some weeks before this I came to SPN. At the first Darshan after I arrived, I was walking back to my seat and feeling very happy because I was seeing Gurudev in the physical for the first time in over a year. I think he might have smiled at me, like He does with everyone, but it makes you so happy, or perhaps he had said some little thing to me. At any rate, I was very happy and wanted to go sit quietly and enjoy this love connection with Him. Suddenly, a woman on an aisle seat reached out and grabbed my hand as I walked by, held up her own hand and said, “Swamiinieeeeeeeeeeee!, look, we have the same ring!

My ego-self was in shock, I went back to my seat and not to sit quietly now but to sit with my ego-mind in total confusion. After a few days passed, I realized that Swami gave me an even greater gift than the ring style that he took from my own mind. Gurudev revealed Himself as the perfect Satguru by taking away my ignorance (darkness) from the hidden desire for this ring that I designed myself, or so my ego thought.  Thereby, He took me to the Light (the Divine) through my detachment to the point that I can tell this story and laugh at myself along with the listener.

Remember in Autobiography of a Yogi when Mahavatar Babaji fulfilled Lahiri Mahasays’s long-forgotten desire to live in a golden palace? Since this was Lahiri's last desire, Babaji set Lahiri free at that time. Like that, when I saw the duplicate of “my ring my ego designed for me only,” Gurudev fulfilled his mission, at least for this ring manifestation, by taking me from my ignorance/darkness of my ego desire for a “different ring than all the rest” to realizing that He gave the greatest gift He can give through the illusion that the material ring really is in itself – He gave the Guru Mission of taking his devotees, his disciples from ignorance (darkness) to the Light (the Divine): Our beloved Swami Vishwananda took me from the desire for a different ring to detaching from both the ring itself and the hidden desire of having a ring that was “different” than all the rest.

Now I wear the ring, like at least one other person also wears, because He gave it and it serves as an energetic connection between Swami and my real Self which leaves the ego out of the equation. And I have to say: 'I dearly love Gurudev's impeccable and remarkably perfect Divine Timing'.

Swamini Vishwalakshmianandma