Om Sree Gurubhyo Namaha
Lakshmi Narayan
Mumbai
(February’20)
।।ऊँ।।
सदाशिव समारंभां शङ्कराचार्य मध्यमां ।
अस्मदाचार्य पर्यन्तां वन्दे गुरुपरम्परां ।।
“Beginning with Sadashiva, through Adi Shankaracharya in between and upto my own preceptor
I bow with reverence to the entire tradition of preceptors”
The great Sadgurus take care of their disciples and help them cross this ocean of turmoil – samsara sagar with their guidance. Everything is possible by guru kataaksha. I have been fortunate enough to be associated with a lot of great saints, Maa being one of them. The last six months have been a lot of learning for me.
It started with me attending Sree Ishwara Maha Abhishekam celebrations of Sree Ishwara along with the retreat on Sree Dakshinamoorthy stotram. The Dakshinamoorthy Stotram of Sree Adi Shankaracharya contains some of the most profound teachings of Advaita Vedaant. By reading which, one can destroy the Mula avidya, the ultimate cause of all suffering. In the verses, Sree Adi Shankaracharya deftly employs poetic imagery and vivid metaphors to extend the power of Sanskrit language beyond what is possible by mere prose. To hear Maa Purnanandaji explain the text to us in her own unique beautiful way, was a real blessing. When Maa deals with the scriptural texts, she has this magical way of making any complex verse sound simple and meaningful. She translates every word, explains it in the given context of the verse, and finally relates the teaching appropriately to our typical experience. This helps the teachings to penetrate in the seekers’ mind.
“Meditation is essential for the seeker”. The stotram gives a glimpse into what we need to truly search during our life span and advices us on how to go about it. “The Guru can give guidance, but it is upto the individual to assimilate and live it. We are not able to give time to our true Self due to lack of knowledge. We need to do abhyaas (reading the scriptures) with utmost faith in the text and the words of our Guru. “The meanings will reveal itself when we have faith in the words of our Guru”, proclaims the stotram.
Just as we were pondering over the profound teachings of Sree Adi shankara , the news of Maa visiting Mumbai came as a pleasant surprise. It was definitely the blessings of the Sadgurus that we got the great opportunity to host Maa at our humble residence. This gave us an opportunity to serve and interact with Maa in close quarters. She is truly mercy personified, caring about the well-being of everyone around her. She is always ready to clarify our doubts on our path of sadhana and ever ready to lend a helping hand to uplift ourselves. As we sat speaking to her, we realised the enormity of knowledge she has in every field. Be it spirituality or current affairs, be it craft or cooking, or name anything . She is interested in every single thing. But all these are veiled behind her simple exterior. When asked, she eagerly shared the entire experience of how she was pulled unto her Sadguru, Swami Chinmayananda. It was our sowbhagya that we could perform the Sree Guru Paad puja at her lotus feet.
The Subramanya Samaj complex at Thiruchembur witnessed the spellbound pravachan of Maa on the Sree Shiv Panchaakshara stotra. Many were blessed to hear and understand the text directly from Maa. Blessed indeed were they, who could attend the discourse. Maa, out of her compassion, travels around the world to try hard and uplift humanity and rescue us from the vicious cycle of birth and death.
It rests upon us, as disciples, to reciprocate all that love that is showered on us from our Sadguru, by uplifting ourselves for the better. What better way to do this than to imbibe and live what we learn from these texts.
Our sincere pranaams at the holy feet of Maa, thanks is a very small word for all that you have done for us. We pray for you to shower your grace continuously on all of us so that we may rise and grow to merge with our true Self.
Hari Aum