By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

I remember when Walt Disney invented the moving sidewalk, which he called the “PeopleMover.” He installed it at Disneyland, near my childhood home.

I loved that each stride carried me farther than walking alone. Getting Shaktipat is like this, boosting the results you get from your spiritual practices.

In Sanskrit, your practices are called “sadhana,” the means you use to attain your spiritual goal. One who does sadhana is called a “sadhaka.”  The root word is “sat,” meaning Truth, indicating that the practices are taking you to the Truth of your own Beingness.

Research has proven that any approach to spiritual development grants you many benefits. Spiritual practitioners have a better quality of life. They experience less depression and live longer. They have better health outcomes.  This means both that they are healthier and, when they do need medical care, they get better results.

Yet spirituality is not merely about improved quality of life. It’s about “spirit.” While different systems define spirit differently, yoga has a clear definition:  your own spirit is your inherent Divinity. Finding your own essence is finding the One Divine Reality within, oh Shiva. Shaktipat makes it findable.

Personally I experienced the difference that Shaktipat makes. My first attempt at meditation was following the instructions in a yoga book. I sat with my spine upright and closed my eyes. I didn’t last even a minute. My racing mind repeated my to-do list many times, each time more urgently, until I bolted and began sprinting through my day.

Still, I really wanted to meditate. I didn’t understand what made it so important to me, but it was a recurrent inner impulse. I found a local group who offered a free meditation program every week. My first experience there gave me a profound and deep meditative immersion. Yes, it was one of my Baba’s meditation centers. His Grace propelled me deep within — deep and easy.

This is why the sages of India say you must have a Shaktipat Guru. While anyone can sit for meditation and repeat mantras, they reap many worldly benefits. But it is only with Divine Grace that your efforts bring true spiritual advancement.

Udyamo bhairava. — Shiva Sutras 1.5

The inner arising of transcendental Consciousness shatters your not-knowingness to set you free.

The inner arising is the meditative energy that climbs your spine, Kundalini. In this sutra, this energy is called Bhairava, naming Shiva in the act of destruction. Here, he is destroying your not-knowingness, the energetic binding that makes you feel small, inadequate, lost, alone and afraid. I had found that inner binding the first time I tried to meditate…