World Yoga Convention 2013

Samidha

Hari Om. Sadar pranam to Guruji, Swami Satsangi and friends of yoga. Twelve years ago, when I first came to Munger, I had two issues that needed urgent resolution. One was physical and another spiritual. My body needed repair so I joined the fifteen-day health program at Sivananda Math. I learnt asanas, pranayama, shatkarmas, and practising them regularly my health improved drastically. The problem of sinus just vanished in thin air.

Secondly, I felt a vacuum in my life. I was happily married, had children and finance was good; everything was there, yet I felt a spiritual vacuum. I was feeling empty inside. I felt as if time was running out and I had to do something fast, but I did not know what to do. I changed the nature of my work but the restlessness persisted. Here, yoga nidra proved a big boon and I never felt that vacuum again.

Meeting Swamiji

Of all this, the most amazing and wonderful of my experiences was the darshan of Swami Niranjan, albeit from far. I was so charmed with his magnetism that it induced a deep and everlasting influence and I had no option but to surrender. At his satsang, most of us felt that he was speaking directly to each one of us and answering our queries.

Those days Swamiji used to visit Kolkata to give satsang. It was difficult to speak to him as he was always crowded with devotees around him. I wrote to him, that since yoga has benefited me so much, what should I do in return? Luckily, I was able to meet him the next day. He looked at me with his kind eyes and told me, "Do yoga therapy." I looked at him with blank eyes. Believe me, in those days I did not know the meaning of therapy, let alone yoga therapy, and today what I am doing is healing people with prana vidya. It was a guru's mandate and had to be fulfilled. When he said "Do yoga therapy," they were not just three words, rather the unfolding of a whole process.

During my stay at the ashram, I once attended a havan presided by Swamiji. I had no idea what happens in a havan but in a matter of minutes, I could see my shortcomings and weaknesses in abundance. Weaknesses like fear, hatred, anxiety, passions, everything began to come to the surface one by one. The same thing happened at Mahamrityunjaya Path and at kirtans.

Then one day I asked Swamiji for a spiritual name. He wrote on a piece of paper 'Samidha', meaning one who becomes an offering to God. I am still preserving that precious piece of paper. It was literally a new birth, a new life as I was saved miraculously from two life-threatening accidents immediately afterwards. When I received my new name I could not help feeling that my old self was dying and a new one was being reconstructed.

Guru's omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence

Today, I am here to narrate my experience of yoga. My major experience is the constant presence of Swamiji in my life. Many times my needs were supplied even before I knew them myself. At those times, I felt the towering presence of Swamiji in my life. Swamiji only gives and gives and does not expect anything in return. Swamiji is like an architect. This body and mind instrument of Samidha was just like a piece of rock. Over the years, he has chiseled and hammered this rock, cutting here, chipping there, and given it a new shape. Swamiji, you still have lots of chiseling and hammering to do. Swamiji sees a broader view of which I can only see a part. When I reach my destination, I realize that path was already laid by him. I just walked the path and reached my destination. My vision is limited. It sees very little, it is like a small telescope while Swami Niranjan is like a huge radar from which he keeps his benevolent eyes on each one of us as he guides us. I am sure many of you are feeling the same way as I do. Have we ever thought why we feel so much peace and so much bliss while sitting here? It is because we are sitting in Swamiji's aura, because we are sitting in his light.

Immense gratitude

In the span of twelve years, I have barely exchanged seven to eight sentences with Swamiji, yet I feel he is the only person in the whole world who understands me. Today, I realize that a teacher works so hard for his disciple. Tears well up in my eyes even before I can say "Thank you!" to Swamiji. Every person thinks of Swamiji as their own; there are thousands and millions who have an intimate connection, an intimate relationship with him. I too feel the same, because he has given me knowledge, insight, clarity, ideas, and he has shown me a way of life with so much compassion and grace that I feel it is my duty and obligation to work towards my inner evolution.

Hari Om Tat Sat