By Swami Nirmalananda

Moonlight is so calming, so soothing, such a sweet and nurturing kind of light.  Yet the moon is not a source of light, but shines with reflected light, just like your mind.  When your mind is at its best, it shines with the light of your own Self, radiating from inside, outward into the world.  But your mind ebbs and flows, like the stages of the moon, too often shaded with your desires and fears, clouding your mind, blocking the light.

Swami Muktananda was born on the full moon.  He left us on the full moon.  He dedicated His life to finding the inner light of the Self and to sharing it.  I was lucky enough to receive His Grace, not only showing me the light shining through Him, but the source of the light within me.

That was His message, to look within.  I took Him at His word.  Well, I cannot brag about this.  You see, when I sat with Him, I went unconscious.  When He gave His discourse, I went unconscious.  When He led a chant, I went unconscious.  When He walked by me, I went directly to the meditation hall so I could go unconscious.  But it wasn’t unconsciousness, like sleep.  It was samadhi, a profound and deep immersion into Consciousness-Itself, so deep that I could not track where I was in there.

Every time I dove deep, which was His Grace propelling me inward, I surfaced to a new me.  Every inner immersion burned away the ways that I was getting in my own way.  I surfaced with the heat still burning, the fire of yoga, the heat of Kundalini purifying my body and being.  Baba gave me this.  I am forever grateful.

He had prepared us for His departure from this earthly plane.  Again and again, He explained that the Grace is not a human force but a Divine force.  He told us that the Guru is merely an agent of Grace.  I heard it, but I didn’t really care, because I knew that when I was with him physically, Grace took care of me.  So, for me, it was about Him.  And it was glorious!

Yet everything He said was true.  Today is the anniversary of His full moon departure, Muktananda’s Mahasamadhi Anniversary.  We’ve just completed a Shaktipat Retreat in His honor, which was thick with His Presence and Grace, still so rich and deep.  It’s like sitting in the meditation hall with Him.

Because He never really left.  He told us that His departure would merely be the end of His physical form, but His presence would always be here.  He surrounds and pervades me; He surrounds and pervades all, because He was and is Shiva.  As am I and as are you.

Jaya Muktananda!

Sadgurunath Maharaj Ki Jay!