By Gurudevi Nirmalananda
The movie script says that you walk into the room where the Guru is sitting. The Guru stops mid-sentence and looks directly at you and says, “I’ve been waiting for you.” You sit at the master’s feet. He leans over, whispers one word in your right ear and instantly you are absorbed deep within. After a long time, you open your eyes. The Guru is there, waiting and watching. He sees your exalted state and nods. You bow.
No, it didn’t happen that way for me either. I didn’t know I was looking for a Guru. Well, my heart knew but my mind didn’t have the word to conjure up, no way to name what I was looking for. I was in the bittersweet pain of the yearning, but I didn’t know what to call it (other than pain).
In 1975 an image haunted me, coming up again and again from different sources. I’d find it in a book, then someone would bring it to me. It was a card from the Tarot deck – the Hermit.
The Hermit doesn’t hide from people… He beckons you to turn your view inward and allow yourself the time and space to think, feel, and meditate on what it is that you truly want in and from your life. By doing this you will be able to unlock your true desires and find complete happiness. The Hermit looks to be standing on his own surrounded by nothing and holding only a lamp… His lantern is not to guide his own way, for he’s already where he wants to be. It is there to guide you to him or to his location.
The next year, I found Baba. All by coincidence, of course. It was later that I found out what coincidence really is — God being anonymous. Yes, it was all Divine Intervention. And I truly needed the help.
Once you meet the Guru, everything changes. This is particularly true when you encounter a Shaktipat Guru, for the Shaktipat Guru’s job is to give you an inner opening to your own Self. That experience changes you…
This is an excerpt from Gurudevi’s new Telecourse, debuting today — Enlightenment: Stages & Steps.
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