Baba’s words, “The Intensive is the map of your own life. The Intensive is the map of your entire being,” perfectly reflect my life’s terrain and trajectory. During meditation in my first Shaktipat Intensive, I experienced my mind as hard and solid as a rock. But then I felt the
shakti press into my third eye, as if it were a finger, and the “hard, solid rock” softened into clay.
This is exactly “the map of my entire being.” There’s a part in me that is as stubborn as a rock. But since my first Shaktipat Intensive and through the many that followed, and through the practices of Siddha Yoga over the years, my stubbornness has softened. I have become more attentive to life’s lessons and let go of the need to always be right. It’s easier now for me to flow with life’s twists and turns and to participate in molding them into experiences of joy and love.
California, United States
As I received Baba’s teaching, I perceived a very powerful force extending from the base of my spine to the crown of my head. Still aware of this energy, I went for a walk and then continued my housework. I sensed that what I had thought of as my life was just the outer scenery and that my real life, the life that belongs to me, is the divine energy within that has been awakened and unfolded through Shri Guru’s grace.
Sydney, Australia
When I heard Baba speaking about the Shaktipat Intensive, I remembered an experience I had this morning. During my hatha yoga practice, I experienced my body and my being as an energetic field of light. I sensed that, though this field exists in everyone, it is
shaktipat that lights it up, that gives the field vibrancy. I spent the morning contemplating this new perspective.
New York, United States
Baba’s words, “The Intensive is the map of your own life. The Intensive is the map of your entire being,” touch my heart.
As a mountain hiker I know the importance of a map; it is indispensable in following the right path. At the Intensive, I encountered the high “mountain guide”—the Guru—who gave me the map of my inner journey and led me to the blissful experience of the Self.
This map indicates to me each step I am to take and which tool I am to use in my
sadhana ascent.
Rodez, France
Reflecting upon Baba's words, I realized that each Shaktipat Intensive I've participated in has served as a bridge between "me"—the embodied being taking the Intensive on a given day in a given year—and the Self, the timeless, placeless One that I am and have always been.
As I've continued to do
sadhana and participate in Shaktipat Intensives, my capacity to receive the
shakti of the Intensives and perceive myself as one with this divine energy has deepened. I've come to understand more fully that the Guru's
shakti is not separate from my life. They are indivisible, infinite, and forever unfolding.
New York, USA
A few hours after listening to Baba’s teaching, I had a shift in my awareness. It was as though I saw myself in my own heart. I saw myself as a warm, loving, wonderful person, as divine. I experienced that I am God!
Then I began to meditate. I became aware of my mental habits. They seemed very sophisticated and powerful. And I was aware of the Self in the center of my heart!
I sensed my inner being saying, “You found me. I am in your heart."
I never met Baba in person, but I have experienced what a Master he was and still is!
Paris, France
This audio recording is a treasure for my ears, especially because I did not meet Baba in person.
Baba’s teaching connects me to what I have already understood from the Siddha Yoga teachings and, at the same time, gives me a whole new expanded perspective. I understand that everything is One!
Madrid, Spain
After listening to Baba’s teaching, I am especially excited and joyful to be participating in this Shaktipat Intensive.
Before an Intensive I always prepare by asking myself, "What is my intention for participating in this Intensive?" One day as I was taking a leisurely walk, the answer came from within: "I want to offer my gratitude to Gurumayi, Baba, and Bhagavan Nityananda!”
California, USA
I spent the best time of my life in Santa Monica with Baba.
I found myself in bliss and absorbed in Baba’s teachings. The Shaktipat Intensives and evening
satsangs were ecstatic for me. The Intensives taught me to turn inward to experience joy. The inner stillness I discovered helped me let go of negativity, to feel free.
I feel so fortunate to have had Baba and, now, Gurumayi in my life. I am truly grateful to know that they both continue to guide me within to experience peace of mind and true happiness.
New York, USA
As I closed my eyes to meditate, the sound of Baba's rich and melodious voice continued to resonate inside me, releasing a river of joy and filling me with gratitude for the gift of the Guru's grace.
After meditation, I contemplated Baba's words: "the Intensive is the map of your own life" and "the Intensive is the map of your entire being." I remembered how, before participating in my first Intensive, I would wonder about the mystery of life, longing to know who I really am, and my purpose on earth. It was in the heightened atmosphere of the Intensive, through the Guru's grace, that I was awakened to the experience that the essence of my own being is sublime love and joy, and that this love and joy permeate everything and everyone.
With each subsequent Intensive in which I have participated, this experience has been magnified, becoming more and more tangible.
Sydney, Australia
This teaching from Baba has led me to contemplate my experience of
shaktipat once again.
I felt an instantaneous wave of gratitude, humility, and love. And I felt a deep feeling of relief, of finally being home. This experience was the culmination of a longing that seemed ancient and also absolutely current—just as Baba describes the Intensive as "neither old nor new." Through
shaktipat I discovered the ever-present Self and I gained the capacity to experience it, recognize it, be it.
Thank you, Gurumayi, for this experience. Thank you, Baba, for your teaching about the Intensive.
Washington, USA
When I finished listening to Baba's words, I was left with so much peace, spreading out from my room to embrace the world.
Thank you, Baba, for sharing your great spirit and your truth with me.
Texas, USA
Hearing the audio of Baba’s teaching strengthens my longing to participate in the Shaktipat Intensive and my longing to know my own Self.
I am eagerly awaiting the Shaktipat Intensive. All my best wishes to all the participants.
Dombivli, India
I am grateful for this audio of Baba speaking. Tears gently flowed as Baba's voice washed over me. For a time, I experienced what I feel Baba illuminates: complete joy.
California, USA
Baba is inspiring me to contemplate what a Shaktipat Intensive is in an entirely new, expanded way. I’m seeing how the Intensive really is a “map” of my own life. I see this in the way I go through so many different states and ranges of feeling during an Intensive, some blissful and others challenging.
The inner landscape is so varied and so vast. How wonderful to encounter—and learn to witness—all this in the Intensive.
Kentucky, USA
Listening to Baba's words brought back the feeling that I get in the Intensive—of being surrounded in a cocoon of love and light, of having a solid direction to what is true and important in life. How special for me that the date of his talk was my first child's birthdate!
Florida, USA
Throughout the decades of my Siddha Yoga
sadhana, I have experienced again and again the truth of Baba's teaching that "the Intensive is the map of your own life."
Before my first Intensive with Baba, I was feeling that I had no meaningful direction in my life. But once the grace of the Guru brought me to that first Intensive, the "map" of my life began to take on a marvelous new shape and vibrancy. And it has led me ever forward into a life whose value, both to myself and others, has vastly exceeded anything I would ever have previously thought possible.
I am eternally grateful that this "map" guided me into the presence of the Sadguru, and that the boundless grace bestowed during each Shaktipat Intensive continues to be available to me and to thousands of other Siddha Yogis and new seekers.
Oregon, USA
I am very moved to see Baba and hear his beautiful voice. When Baba tells us that the Intensive “belongs to you" and "It belongs to your own Self and it
is your own Self,” his words give me a new way of understanding the Intensive—and yet express what my heart has known all along.
The first time I heard about the Shaktipat Intensive and was invited to participate, I had a deep sense that this was what I had been longing for my whole life. Baba’s words here help me to understand intellectually why I have been drawn to participate in Shaktipat Intensives again and again.
Thank you, Baba, for this priceless gift of the Shaktipat Intensive.
California, USA
What priceless gifts we have been given through this audio clip and these photos! Seeing Baba and the image of the peacock feathers transported me back to my first Intensive with Baba in 1981, an experience that transformed my life forever.
I have participated in many Intensives since that first one with Baba. Yet the lucid teachings that Baba gives here have deepened my understanding and renewed my appreciation for the extraordinary phenomenon that is the Siddha Yoga Shaktipat Intensive. And I love being reminded that the Intensive is as universal as the Self, because it
is the Self!
Illinois, USA