Swami Samvidaananda

Miraculously, I have found my way to a Shaktipat Guru. My Guru is Swami Nirmalananda Saraswati. We call her Gurudevi.  And today I write in celebration of her birthday.

A Shaktipat Guru is extremely rare.  She is someone who can awaken you to your Self.  I love this quote from Gurudevi that describes such a being:

One who knows the Self can simply up-vibe you to the inner knowingness of your Self. This is the Grace of the Guru, a person who has done their work and devotes their life to serving others.

“Up-vibe you to the inner knowingness of your Self” is a definition of Shaktipat. It’s the most informal, groovy way of describing it. “Up-vibe” sounds so effortless. And from all appearances, it is.  Gurudevi says it’s the easiest thing she does.  She lifts you up to a higher vibration.  

It’s the vibration of your Self, your inherent Divinity.  Your Self is Consciousness-Itself, pure Beingness, blissfully being everything that exists. Guru’s Grace up-vibes you so that you know the inherent wholeness, fullness and bliss of your own being. 

The effortlessness of Gurudevi’s capacity to give you Shaktipat belies what it took her to attain her state. The Guru is “a person who has done their work.” Gurudevi has done her work. Once she found her Guru, Baba Muktananda, she tirelessly dedicated herself to her own upliftment.  She made the most of what he gave her. She says it was out of desperation.

While I can certainly relate, I’ve always seen her as a beacon of light. She has always been at the forefront.  She is always blazing ahead of me on the path, showing all of us what’s possible. 

She shared that after she received Shaktipat, she found a spot to meditate in a corner of her family room, behind a big arm chair. She meditated there for three hours every morning.  She plunged into samadhi, a deep meditative immersion.

At the end of the three hours, she would open her eyes to find her three children curled up with her, a little head on each knee, and one in her lap. It touches my heart whenever she shares this story.

A key part of the story is, she jumped in to meditating three hours a day.  Right off the bat!  She has done her work.

And, a Guru is a person who “devotes their life to serving others.” Gurudevi could have taken what her Baba gave her and poured it into her job and her family.  She would have had a beautiful life, a happy life. A life that’s full of Grace. 

But she didn’t stop there.  She devotes her life to giving to others what she had been given.  Long before she became a swami, she radiated Grace and could easily up-vibe you.  But she waited until she was authorized to give intentional Shaktipat.

This was out of respect for Baba, and in deference to the teachings, which say you must be authorized.  And because she is authorized, she carries the Grace from every Guru in this lineage of Shaktipat Gurus. That is what makes the Shaktipat initiation she gives so powerful for you.

It’s an inner empowerment, the power of Consciousness. Once you receive it, every time you meditate, you invoke this power to arise within you. Guru’s Grace reveals your Self to you more and more— until one day you will live in the knowingness of your Divinity.

And you will recognize that same Divinity in everyone and everything.  That’s what Baba gave to Gurudevi. And out of gratitude to Baba, and her endless, compassionate generosity, that’s what Gurudevi gives to you.

Gurudevi does not celebrate her birth. She celebrates the day she received Shaktipat from Baba Muktananda. It was the day he gave her own Self to her. In the same way, Baba always celebrated the day he received Shaktipat from his Guru, Bhagavan Nityananda.

But I celebrate Gurudevi’s birth, because she is a glorious gift to the world. Without her, I would not be on this path of deepening into the depths of my Divinity.  Because of her, you can receive the awakening to your Divinity.