What is Guruvak?
A Guru means the one who dispels darkness and takes you toward light. Vak means words or instructions. So Guruvak means taking the words of the Guru or the divine command by the Guru.
In the Vedic tradition, according to Adi Shankaracharya, the great teacher and the philosopher, there are three rare and the most precious things in life. They are:
- A Human Birth (Manushyatva): Your own birth as a human is very rare. A human birth is the first step towards the enlightenment (Moksha).
- A burning desire to be liberated (Mumukshyatva): When you understand life is more than what you experience through the five senses, you become a seeker. You start seeking the truth which is beyond the five senses. To be liberated means no more suffering, no more confinement in any body. “This desire to understand the Self is so fierce, that it burns all the other worldly desires”, say the scriptures. This burning desire leads to experiencing our true nature through the spiritual practices like Yoga, meditation, completion etc. Blessed are the souls who are able to live with spiritual practices!
- The Company (or the protecting care) of an enlightened being (MahapurushaSamshraya): Even rarer is to find an enlightened master walking on the earth in human form. Our own maturity and the right time will lead us to these realised souls. From time to time, ‘The enlightened beings’ incarnate among us out of their compassion. They spread the message of Love and Oneness (Advaitha), which is our true nature through their own lives. Sometimes due to our own ignorance and ego, we fail to recognize them or even condemn them. The unfortunate thing is many such realised souls were given the recognition of a ‘true master’, only after they left their physical death. Hence, to have the direct guidance of a great enlightened Guru is the greatest blessing any seeker can ask for, while still living in the human body.
I am one such fortunate soul who is already blessed with the three precious things in this birth – a human birth, a burning desire for seeking and the direct guidance of an enlightened master. As if that is not enough, there is one more exceptionally precious blessing – that is my Guru is a living incarnation of Sadashiva (pure Super consciousness), his name is Paramahamsa Nithyananda (fondly known as Swamiji)!
As a sincere seeker and an integrated disciple, I don’t take my master’s words for granted. I can honestly vouch for the past 11 years as his disciple, whether it was making a declaration of a new vrata (spiritual vow) or taking up of a tapas (spiritual penance), it was only by following the Guruvak that I had been able to align myself to the tattva (life principle) of authenticity (Shraddha) successfully. See, the human mind is too weak, it gives in to sense pleasures very easily. But a Guru knows our mind more than we know ourselves because he is one who has gone beyond the mind. I realised that whenever the Guru Bhakti (devotion) has flowered in a Being, the love for the master will awaken the integrity toward the Guru and surrender one’s mind to him. The restless mind simply stops questioning and falls in tune.
One incident happened in my life during Nov 2011, before I started my healing business called ‘Your Presence Heals’, I offered Pratyaksha Pada Puja (a ritual offering my gratitude) to Swamiji and I requested him to bless me for a successful business venture and also to ensure my ego should never come between us, the Guru and disciple. His boon still holds even till today!
Same thing when I first attempted the Yogic penance called Nirahara Samyama, a process to break my food patterns and go beyond the need for solid food in 2012, I was successful in the whole process at the very first attempt. I was able to live as a Nirahari for 2 years, taking only liquid diet and prana (life energy). Since then, my spiritual experiences have been extraordinary and the body feel extremely healthy, energetic and light. My whole quality of life has improved tremendously with a yogic body – not only my productivity hits the roof with just 4-5 hours of sleep per day, constantly I feel so alive, creative and energetic. After Shivoham spiritual retreat in December 2014, he told me I could eat regularly. Frankly, I would never be able to discover the higher possibilities of a yogic body if I had not listened to Guruvak.
This time after the recent 25-day spiritual retreat – ‘MahaSadashivoham’ which ended on 9th January 2018, I was guided to take up another 21-day tapas as Nirahari, taking only liquid diet and prana from ether as the pure fuel for this body. In fact, last year I tried twice on my own to get back on liquid diet, I was not even able to sustain the first 9 days without eating solid food. This time, I already crossed 2 weeks of liquid diet without any struggle. That’s the powerful of Guruvak. When a Guru ordains, he also sustains.
Another incident which occurred in Sept 2016, I hesitated to attend a 3-month training called Nithyananda Yogam conducted Swamiji due to the long duration being away from family. The moment I cognized that this rare invitation came from Swamiji as Guruvak, I just dropped everything in the matrix world and be there. After having spent 3 months there, it was the best decision I had made because I really enjoyed the time we spent living in his breathing space and learning a lot about causing others’ reality, as well as having a taste of the life of an adheenamvasi (resident of a monastery) living together with the large family of my Guru.
Every time I follow the Guruvak, I experience tremendous expansion with integrity, authenticity and fulfilment in my Being. If you ever have a living enlightened Guru to guide you in the form of Guruvak, feel blessed because it will only lead you to authenticity, fulfilment and liberation in your life. Namaste 😀