The light illuminated my life when I met Satyananda Yoga in the image of my guru Swami Niranjan, twenty years ago. In my heart the image of my guru intertwines with the light images of Swami Sivananda and Swami Satyananda. When I say 'my guru' these three divine faces appear simultaneously as one indivisible whole.
I would like to share one personal story of the power of mantras and the spiritual practices, which our teachers have given as tools for overcoming the serious difficultiesin life. My father was a talented opera singer and as most of the artistic people his soul breaks apart from deep inner experiences and strong emotions. Often the artist's inner world is so abundant and tense, that the heaviness of the outer world overtakes them as a dead-weight burden. In this situation 'help' comes as an old unwanted and unhealthy release the alcoholic drink.
Most of my memories are connected with a father who is touring or is drunk at home, with whom normal communication is impossible. The drunkenness brought with itself all its negative sides scandals, tension, lack of adequate communication, fear of everything, even of common life situations. At a certain moment the consequences became very serious, he lost his job, his friends, his financialstatus, interest towards life.
My mother began to practise yoga sometime after me. Once on Navaratri, she decided to make a sankalpa with a prayer to the Divine Mother and Guru for help in our difficult family situation. She decided to become a vegetarian and to stop her favourite foods meat, fish, eggs. For three to four years, every Navaratri she made that sankalpa. Regularly she practised Mahamrityunjaya mantra, Gayatri mantra, 32 Names of Durga.
Gradually, the miracle happened. My father didn't return on stage and to the job which he loved, but little by little he stopped drinking alcohol, he filledhis time with gardening and carpentry, for which he is skilful, almost all the furniture at home is made by him. The communication with him became normal and pleasant. His habitual sense of humour came back. My greatest joy is that I have the chance to see his true self, deep and tender, to speak with him, to tell him that I love him, to see how he teaches my daughter to play the piano, to see how he hugs my mother with love and how he narrates to my husband stories about the work of the great artists.
The beauty of this life is in its simplicity, but how difficult it is to be achieved!
Thank you Swamiji, for the great effort which you make in order to uplift the level of our consciousness, to give us strength and faith in ourselves, to develop our human nature! Thank you for the tools and the knowledge you give us!