We perform Guru Aradhana every day at dawn and dusk. Guru chants are chanted as part of the Aradhana. We have felt immense peace and grace over the last several years. From Makar Sankaranti in January to Christmas in December, throughout the year, several events are conducted and every event has always started with Guru Aradhana and Guru Paduka Pooja.
On 11th April 2021, when Chennai had not gone into the lock-down mode, I went with the Guru Paduka to Srimati Padmasini Ramanan’s home. Their family members participated in the Guru Paduka Aradhana and Guru Aradhana, to the chant of mantras and kirtan. The Paduka Aradhana was joined by the other course participants from their home on our online WebEx website.
It has been planned that the Guru Paduka will stay in each student’s home for a period of one week. During the week students are given the opportunity to offer aradhana to our Guru Parampara in whatever capacity they can involve themselves.
Thirty members are attending this pratyahara shibiram course. If things go without any hiccups, Guru Paduka Anugraha Yatra will go on for at least thirty weeks. We are in our tenth week since we started the auspicious yatra.
We had suggested to the students to use this opportunity to express their gratitude to the ashram and Swamiji and seek his blessings directly. We wish to create an opportunity to establish a connection for each one of them with our parampara.
This has been the most profound experience in their lives. We request the ashram to bear with the string of communications that our students are sending, carrying their experiences filled with gratitude, and pray to Swamiji to kindly send to them his blessings. Seeing each one of them bloom in their relationship with Guru has given us the sense of satisfaction that we have served them well.
Due to the immense guru kripa and the magnanimity of our Acharya, Sannyasi Shivarishiji, my mother and I had the blessing of hosting the paduka of Sri Swamiji at our residence for ten days. I had been a student of Satyananda Yoga Centre for four years but I could really appreciate the importance and meaning of yoga sadhana only during this lock-down in 2020. The real significance of guru parampara’s teachings came into the picture when we realized our ability to be calm and composed even in these times when the whole world seemed insecure and restless. That is when we could experience that it was not a set of yoga classes that we finished attending, but a journey of self-transformation that was taking place within ourselves.
The paduka being the symbol of the guru came as a sign to us that we never walk on this path alone. There is always a hand to hold on to. Hence performing the aradhana was not a ritual to us, it became a happily disciplined activity that was done not for achieving any future results but only for the immense satisfaction of doing it. Getting up early, preparing the garlands, eating only after the pooja, all this was not done because there was a rule imposed but only because there was joy in the activity itself without any worry about the result. The Guru Paduka Anugraha Aradhana gave a childlike feeling of doing what we loved and loving what we did.
Though the paduka has been passed onto the next sadhaka, the feeling and realization remains with us. Hence we hope to strive towards bringing the same attitude to every pooja, every activity, every work that we do, to be better individuals and perhaps become an asset to this society.
With greatest gratitude for the opportunity,
Priyatma and Divyatma, Chennai
By the grace of guru, we had the opportunity of performing Guru Paduka Aradhana at our residence for one week. Our Acharya, Sannyasi Shivarishiji, wanted each one of our course batch to soak in Guru’s grace by having the Paduka of Sri Swamiji at their residence for one week and perform aradhana.
On the first day, our Acharya helped us perform the aradhana by chanting Guru Namavali and other guru stotras and kirtan. Through the week, we performed the aradhana in the morning and in the evening. By the grace of Guru, we performed Rama Navami pooja along with Paduka Aradhana. As an offering to Guru we chanted Sundarkand on Rama Navami.
As we performed the aradhana, a feeling of peace and tranquillity started sinking in. Whatever little theoretical knowledge we had about Guru tattwa turned into a practical experience. The feeling of ‘wanting to soak in Guru’s grace’ was immense. Through the week, we were having clarity of thought and action and were in a state of bliss. Although the Paduka has moved to the house of another sadhaka, we still feel the connection with Guru, which will remain forever.
Surprisingly, there were no negative vrittis during the whole period and the longing to achieve the true purpose of human life began to grow. As Sannyasi Shivarishiji told us, we realized – the very fact that Guru’s Padukas have reached our house means that Guru’s blessings are with us. It is for us to develop the connection with Him and follow His guidance.
Venkatraman and Chitra, Chennai