During the twelve years of my stay with Swami Sivananda, many times people from different parts of the country came to me and asked me, “What does this swami teach you?” Everybody knew that I was a scholar in Sanskrit and had a brilliant personality. They would ask me a question, “What does your guru teach you?” I said, “Nothing.” “He does not teach you hatha yoga?” I said, “No. I type his letters.” “Does he practise shaktipat on you?” I said, “I don’t know what this shaktipat business is.” Then someone asked me, “Has he given you some siddhi?” I said, “No.”
Once a very powerful leader of Indian politics met me. He told me, "Look here, boy! You are wasting your time here. You are such a brilliant man. You are such a fine orator. Oh, you could influence the whole country. Come with me and I'll tell you what to do.” I kept quiet and I thought in my mind, ‘This is the test which my guru has thrown open to me’. That was the greatest temptation because he wanted to make me the president of a political party, a leader of thousands of powerful people, but I did not accept that offer. I was sure that what Swamiji had told me would come true. He had said, “Work hard and purify yourself. The light is with you.”
Frankly speaking, what I speak to you, all the books I have written, the hatha yoga I talk about, I don’t know where it has come from. I have not read books, but things become very clear to me and definitely I am now an authority on hatha yoga, tantra and kundalini. You see, knowledge does not come from outside. It is an unfoldment of what is already inside oneself. That which is in me, is in you. The only thing was that I knew one watchword in life - 'Service to guru'. Without any motive, without expecting any result. For me it was a passion, it was my hysteria, it was my joy and it was my pleasure.