Reciting
Shri Guru Gita is one of my favorite practices. It’s hard for me to put into words the joy this practice gives me.
I recite
Shri Guru Gita to the Self! I focus and connect with each verse, with each word. Sometimes my eyes become moist with gratitude. And always a joyful smile forms on my face!
a Gurukula student in Gurudev Siddha Peeth
I remember Baba ji and the Siddha Yoga practices came into my life when I was in second or third grade. Reciting Shri Guru Gita was my parents’ favorite practice. Each day they would recite it with their tape recorder. All of us siblings could hear it. Although we did not yet participate in it actively by actually reciting it, we participated in it by listening.
If their friends or other family members ever had any difficulty, my parents would say we are offering it with the intention of helping them with it. Once my dad had extreme headaches and could not sleep at night. After giving him his medicine, my mother decided to recite Shri Guru Gita and offer it for him. When she finished, she went to check on him and he was fast asleep.
Verse 133 says “Even one letter of Shri Guru Gita is a supreme mantra.” I thank our Siddha Yoga lineage for this practice.
New Jersey, United States
On the first day of my stay in Shree Muktananda Ashram, I remember entering the Muktananda Mandir hall early in the morning. I was so amazed to recognize the room I had visited in many dreams. I sat down and opened the sacred chanting book.
As soon as the recitation of
Shri Guru Gita began, everything became familiar. In a vision, a young Indian lady in a white sari appeared at my side, and I heard a woman’s voice whispering in my ear. She taught me how to pronounce each syllable. After a few verses, giant tears filled my eyes; the vision vanished as I became an ocean. I felt the Sanskrit words flowing inside my ears and my body, filling me up with their power and with waves of love. My body and all the bodies in the room were radiating this unique color of love.
Later I learned that what happened to me is called
shaktipat initiation and the teacher who had appeared to guide me was Gurumayi.
Shri Guru Gita had given love a visible and tangible form.
Waterville, Canada
I used to recite
Shri Guru Gita only occasionally because my mind was too restless to sit still for it. During the last quarter of 1999, my wife was diagnosed with cancer. I was on the verge of panic when I remembered Gurumayi's teaching to the effect that we do not chant because we do not know what to do; we chant because we
know what to do.
I started reciting
Shri Guru Gita every morning and suddenly knew that everything was going to be all right. I had the strength to be positive and reassuring. Since then, I have not missed a day’s recitation.
Shri Guru Gita is essential to starting my day off right.
Right now it's almost 7:00 a.m. where I am and it is time for me to start reciting
Shri Guru Gita. Since it's a day off from work, I have the time to open the Siddha Yoga path website and treat myself to the joy of reciting along with Gurumayi.
California, United States
For me,
Shri Guru Gita is like a giant mango tree. With each recitation of
Shri Guru Gita, a sweet mango ripens. Some mangoes ripen quickly and fall into my lap early. Some mangoes take years to ripen because they wait until I am ready to receive their nectar.
I believe that this tree bears fruit endlessly and is one of the Guru's greatest gifts, for each sweet mango contains divine knowledge, infinite blessings, and the Guru’s unconditional love.
Unterlangenegg, Switzerland
I don't remember exactly when I first heard
Shri Guru Gita or started reciting it, but it was probably around 1996. But what is still vivid in my memories are the verses 44 and 79, both of which emphasize the importance of taking refuge in Shri Guru.
In the years since then, there were times when I was less assiduous in my practices, but these verses were always an anchor to bring me back with full enthusiasm to my practice of
svadhyaya.
I'm still on the journey to absorb all that
Shri Guru Gita offers.
Shri Guru Gita to me is like a wish-fulfilling tree to which I do not even need to recite my wishes. It knows what I need the most; I never come back empty-handed after each recitation.
Bhopal, India
I don't remember how I ended up at the recitation of Shri Guru Gita thirty-two years ago now, but I went. Perhaps it was spoken about in the Shaktipat Intensive I participated in that weekend. The first time I heard it, I felt it had come straight from the heavens.
I didn't understand anything at all—yet I knew I had to come every morning to the local Siddha Yoga meditation center for Shri Guru Gita. Even if I’d been up all night, I would still drive the half hour for the morning recitation.
Shri Guru Gita, the sound body of the Guru, is my best friend. Even though I understand that Gurumayi is always with me, Shri Guru Gita opens me to partnership with her, and to hearing and recognizing the Guru's guidance from within. It removes blocks within me and helps me become more willing to follow that inner guidance. I know that Gurumayi is always in divine conversation with me. Shri Guru Gita opens my ears to hear that conversation.
New York, United States
Every word that Baba says goes straight to my heart. Shri Guru Gita is “my sole refuge” for me as well. Whatever mood I am in, Shri Guru Gita is there every day for me to receive strength, solace, bliss, knowledge, and satisfaction on all levels. How fortunate we are to have our Baba, who introduced the recitation of Shri Guru Gita to the Ashram Daily Schedule for us to drink the divine sweetness of the Guru's love.
California, United States
My day begins with the glorious recitation of Shri Guru Gita. I feel it nourishing and re-energizing every cell in my body. It centers me and carries me into a wonderful state of heightened awareness and love. My recitation of Shri Guru Gita strengthens the awakened Kundalini as I feel it rising from the base of my spine to the top of my head in the utmost joy and delight! Such a wonderful way to start the day!
St. Laurent, Canada