Ode to Guru

[Guest guest]

Hi,

 

A blessed Guru Purnima to all of you.

 

I'd like to share with you all a few of my favourite passages from

an invocation written by Paramhansa Yogananda (the author of

Autobiography of a Yogi) to his Guru. The fathomless love and

devotion expressed in these lines continue to overwhelm and inspire

me through repeated readings. The unconditional love and guidance of

the Guru, and the complete surrender of the disciple—one who has

experienced the joy of this relationship is truly a blessed soul.

 

My Guru [Whispers of Eternity -Paramhansa Yogananda]

 

" Thou light of my life—thou camest to spread wisdom's glow over the

path of my soul. Centuries of darkness dissolved before the shafts

of thy luminous help. As a naughty baby, I cried for my Mother

Divine, and She came to me as my Guru … At that meeting, O my Guru,

a spark flew from thee, and the faggots of my God-cravings, gathered

through incarnations, smouldered and blazed into bliss. …

 

My Guru, thou voice of God, I found thee in response to my soul-

cries. Slumbers of sorrow are gone, and I am awake in bliss.

 

If all the gods are displeased, and yet thou art pleased, I am safe

in the fortress of thy pleasure. And if all the gods protect me by

the parapets of their blessings, and yet I receive not thy

benedictions, I am an orphan, left to pine spiritually in the ruins

of thy displeasure. O Guru—thou didst bring me out of the bottomless

pit of darkness into the paradise of peace. …

 

I bow to thee as the spoken voice of silent God. I bow to thee as the

divine door leading to the temple of salvation. I bow to thee … and

I lay the flowers of my devotion at (thy) feet … . "

 

Durga