The Mark of The Avatar

Experiences with Gurudev
Once I asked Premavatar Swami Vishwananda, when I first knew him: "From where do the poems come that I write, Swami?" I thought he would tell me the name of one of my etheric guides, from whom I knew some of the poems did come. He replied, "They just come to you." I did not understand why he would not explain more clearly, until much later. It was his duty as the Satguru to help me from within to know from where the poems come. Most of them simply are inspired from the "I," who I am and who we all are - "Just Love." Some call this, The Higher Self, the I.

I wrote Swami this following poem, which prompted my question from where the poems come. I have shared it before, but I always like to share it because he said: "I like your poem (which I had written for his birthday). Write your poems about the Guru and we will make a book." You notice he did not say any particular Guru, just the Guru, in general. Swami is the most humble person in a body that I have ever met. But then, I haven't met anyone who remotely resembles who he is. He is an enigma, mystery, a Master, an Avatar. In the hundreds of poems I have written since that day he spoke to me about the following poem in 2007 on his birthday, he has not said one word about any of them that I can recall. He rarely praises on the outside, at least this is my experience, but he pushes from without and pulls from within to lead you to the center of the Self, The "I" that we really are at the center, the heart of the "I." This is the "mark of an Avatar."
 -Swamini Vishwalakshmianandama

The Guru’s Manifested Holy Ash

An urn carries sacred ash of the Guru
Spun by his human hand,
Brought forth from the depths of his soul,
The essence of his Self,
No beginning–No Birthday–No end.

His devotees gather to partake
Of the Ash—the bounty of his wisdom.
The Guru’s Ash conveys the meaning
Of life, the everlasting Truth,
Which is this. . . . . . .
Love is All There Is—the Divine.

Fish do not know the wisdom
Of the Guru’s Ash—
That they are One with the All.
In total unawareness,
They don’t know that they are fish
Swimming through God.

Humans strive lifetime after lifetime,
Even a million or more,
To reach the truth that lies within
The wisdom of the Ash.
All material things, be it Guru’s body
Or the Ash of wisdom he conveys,
Eventually return to the eternal —
“Dust thou art, and to dust
Thou shalt return."

But the Truth of the Guru’s Ash
Stands as a sentinel of the Divine —
Like an urn full of water poured from the
Guru’s hand into the tranquil, celestial
Himalayan Lake Manasarovar,
Sending ripples of Love
To the shores of the Divine.

Swamini Vishwalakshmianandama 

Note: In the Hindu Tradition, Lake Manasarovar
represents the human mind.