I’m visiting Japan right now, and just as I was walking through some of the most beautiful temples in Kyoto, I got a message telling me about Gurumayi’s poem. It is so beautiful, I cried tears of joy and gratitude! Each word, each phrase, gives me a direction on the path of love and respect.
I will continue to light candles in these temples and shrines in Kyoto, repeating the mantra
Om Namah Shivaya as I light each candle.
Charlottenlund, Denmark
Gurumayi's poem “A Shelter of Love, a Canopy of Protection” in honor of Deepavali touched my heart.
I felt as if Gurumayi were speaking directly to me. It inspired me to share more love and laughter with my son. It encouraged me to find my child's eyes again and to "make every day my own Deepavali," as Gurumayi writes.
Doing so, I noticed that I was taking myself less seriously and bringing more lightness to my day-to-day experiences. I even began approaching the ups and downs of life with the certainty that the unconditional support, protection, and love of my Guru are always there for me.
Infinite gratitude to Gurumayi for this magnificent teaching poem!
Paris, France
As I read Gurumayi’s teaching for Deepavali in the form of this poem, I feel I am receiving
prasad directly from God. With each line, I travel further into a vast realm of light. My mind keeps trying to comprehend who the Guru is and to acknowledge the enormity of the gift she has lead me to—happiness in this very life! My mind wants to take stock of and fully acknowledge the Guru’s love, protection, service, and giving, and the beauty and power of her teachings. But my mind simply cannot fathom the extent of Gurumayi’s blessings for the benefit of all. My mind becomes speechless and keeps dissolving into wonder and awe. As I finish reading Gurumayi’s poem a second time, I feel the energies within my body gather into the center, and the most natural gesture I can offer is a
pranam.
Castlemaine, Australia
Gurumayi's poem resonates with me on many levels. It inspires me to address my own happiness with greater care and enthusiasm, and it brings to mind the good fortune I have to contribute to making people’s lives better through music.
As a music teacher, I love that every day provides an opportunity to tell my students—both children and adults—how awesome they are. If a student plays a song more slowly than the tempo suggested, I tell them the more calming style they are creating is beautiful. If a student hits a note different from the one written on the page, I tell them they’ve just started composing a new song. If they don’t believe me, I create a new song around that different note. You should see them smile when they hear what their different note led to; sometimes they like it better than the original!
In these ways, contributing something positive to the students and families whom I teach uplifts everyone, and brings great meaning and purpose to my life.
West Vancouver, Canada
As November opens its doors, bringing in cold, damp air and leaves that turn various shades of yellow, ochre, and red, Deepavali arrives.
Gurumayi’s poem reveals its blessings to me in the midst of a natural environment that invites me to turn inward and envelops me in serenity.
I feel that Gurumayi’s words convey the divine light of Deepavali. This poem, this light, comforts me, encourages me, and illuminates my mind with beautiful understandings.
The words that end Gurumayi’s poem cause me to ask myself:
How can I make my mother proud? How can I make my motherland proud?
This made me remember a day that I visited my mother in the hospital. At one point, as I sat in her room silently reading a Siddha Yoga book, I heard the words, "I see you’re happy." I felt in that moment that my mother was proud of her son. I recognized that my spiritual path nourishes my happiness and that of my loved ones.
Rodez, France
What a lovely poem. For me, this magnificent gift cannot be read only once. It contains so many teachings, evokes such feeling, and gives so much guidance.
My attention was especially drawn to Gurumayi’s words about children. I love children and even though I am not a parent, I always treat children with love. To me, they are our future, and they bring greatness, beauty, and light to the world.
I am grateful to Gurumayi for celebrating Deepavali in this wonderful, full, and divine way.
San Giorgio a Cremano, Italy
This poem brought me an ocean of love as I felt Gurumayi’s care for my well-being and growth. I feel so fortunate to walk the path with Gurumayi’s wings protecting me. Gurumayi’s words inspire me to let go of fear and expand my self-acceptance and expression of joy.
Cuttack, India
I am grateful to Gurumayi for such a beautiful gift on the occasion of Deepavali. I had been experiencing deep worry for the world. Then I listened to this poem, and my heart was filled with peace.
New Jersey, United States
Gurumayi’s words about children reconnected me with the joy I feel in having a daughter to take care of and love.
It’s as if after I read the poem, Deepavali—the festival of light itself— lit up our hearts and our smiles. It feels like a fruition of love and sharing. A "revolution" has been ignited by this wonderful poem, and it feels so good!
São Paulo, Brazil
I was inspired by Gurumayi’s words about children.
As a mother of a teenage daughter—who is more advanced than I am when it comes to the new technologies—I sometimes find it hard to relate to her world. Gurumayi’s poem gives me strength and direction in how to be with my daughter.
I feel Gurumayi’s love, protection, and blessings in every word of the poem.
Midstream, South Africa
I am grateful for Gurumayi’s powerful poem and was inspired by her guiding words about children.
Those words gave me a deeper understanding of children and heightened my respect and love for them. I realized that even when children are being rowdy, I can still see them as pure transmitters of divine love and bliss! I can still experience their shouts and antics as untainted expressions of the supreme Self.
Ville St. Laurent, Canada
The approach of the darker days of winter has often made me sad. But reading Gurumayi's poem uplifted me and reminded me that the light is within me in the form of the Guru. And this light is always there!
I’m now looking forward to this season of quieter, darker days with a sense of delight, discovery, and warmth—it’s a time to go deeper into the light within me.
My lamp has been lit!
Tennessee, United States
I visited the Siddha Yoga website several times a day this week, since I was looking forward to discovering what
prasad Shri Gurumayi would bestow on us for Deepavali. When I read the poem’s title, I was stunned with profound appreciation. I listened intently to each line of the poem in the Hindi recording, until I reached a place of deep stillness inside myself. With each additional syllable I heard in the poem, I felt a sense of unity.
Shri Gurumayi has re-energized my approach to
sadhana by highlighting the importance of greeting each heart I meet with the understanding that we are all part of the one God and his divine love. The poem also has reminded me of the value of of staying present and anchored in my
sadhana, which is the foundation of true happiness and detachment.
The Houghton, South Africa
Early this morning with eyes closed, I once again listened to the recording of this poem in Hindi, and I felt Gurumayi was speaking directly to me. Each word entered my heart with so much love, and there were special moments when I surrendered completely, knowing very well that
this is where I have to make changes in my life.
As the poem progressed, any lingering heaviness I’d been feeling was being erased and in its place, a feeling of lightheartness, combined with purification, was arising. I wanted to hug the world with love and nothing but love.
Nairobi, Kenya
As I was reading Gurumayi ji's poem, I felt love was being pumped into my heart and spreading throughout my being. I feel so motivated and grateful. The experience feels very cleansing and I sense the power of Gurumayi ji's intent.
One of the reasons I love this path is that it includes everyone and everything. As I continued to read more and more, I was visualizing friends and family, friends who have pets, and also people whom I see when I go for my walks—so that I could wish them nothing but the best.
New Jersey, United States
I have been savoring Gurumayi's poem again and again. Whenever Gurumayi is sending blessings, I start praying and sending these blessings out also. These blessings are mountains of goodwill and grace.
I am looking forward to every moment of Deepavali, and the benediction, gratitude, protection, love, and wisdom this holiday embodies and expresses. Gurumayi assures us that all efforts in sadhana are worth it, so I intend to make efforts.
I see Gurumayi's poem as a way of worshiping the highest.
New York, United States
What mahaprasad! As I read Gurumayi's poem, I could feel my whole being getting lighter and lighter. Within me, a bright light infused me with love. A bubble of joy got larger and larger until I felt it lifted me up so far, I was just floating in Guru's grace.
The amazing teachings in this poem enrich me and pull me further and further along my path of sadhana. I wish with all my heart to remain in this place forever and share all the blessings that Gurumayi has showered upon my life with everyone: the children, the animals, the trees and the oceans, and even the tiniest specks of sand.
Florida, United States
Each word, line, and verse of Gurumayi's poem delivers me to the undeniable presence of light, love, and happiness within, animating the buoyant intent and goodwill of the Devi, the gods, and the Guru. Each line is a world; each line is a journey—escorting me through the depths of my own soul at this place in time, revealing the light within and surrounding me.
My heart is pulsating with gratitude, love, and inspiration. How immeasurably fortunate we are to receive this poem! I count my lucky stars and will continue to study Gurumayi’s Deepavali gift in the days and nights ahead.
New York, United States
After reading Gurumayi's poem “A Shelter of Love, a Canopy of Protection,” I feel that Gurumayi is telling me, “Come! Come out of your illusionary mind! Come to me into freedom! Just come—here is light, here is love, here is divine abundance, here is heaven! Any feelings of not being sheltered or protected are on the plane of the mind. They are
maya, illusion. They’re not true, just like a movie.
“Children are partly in illusion, but partly in heaven. Don't pull them out of heaven or teach them to leave heaven. Follow them instead.”
I know that there is another world, there is heaven and everything I wish for. It’s available. It’s possible. I feel like I’m on a speeding train and don't dare to jump out. I pray to Gurumayi for the courage to jump into freedom, but I know I myself have to choose to jump. My trust, my faith must be that I will land in Gurumayi's loving hands, in her heart, in her light, in her world. May it happen!
Hindelang, Germany
I thank my lucky stars I have a living Guru! I have been very concerned lately about the health and well-being of our children. Last night I was especially troubled. Then I awoke this glorious morning to my beloved Gurumayi's poem, “A Shelter of Love, a Canopy of Protection.”
My heart jumped with joy as I read the teachings about children, which especially soothed my soul. And I received much-needed direct guidance from Gurumayi in the passage beginning with these words: “We must all move to the beat of our destiny.”
Colorado, United States
This is my new daily practice: to read this divine poem first thing as I open my eyes in the morning. And as I just wrote the word divine, I saw how these words are a grand example of the oneness of what we call “mundane” and what we call “divine.”
California, United States
I received the blessings in this poem with utmost gratitude. When I came to the end, and saw two
diya lamps around “
Shubh Deepavali” above Gurumayi’s name, I felt the infinite light of Gurumayi's blessings spreading out from these lamps—throughout the world—and filling everyone’s world with supreme joy. The golden color filling the center of page recalled for me the golden column of light in the
sushumna nadi. This theme of light shows me that the best way for me to celebrate Deepavali is by spreading the inner light arising within me through the study of Gurumayi's words.
In the last two days I had been rereading Gurumayi's poems for Deepavali from 2019 and 2020, and now I have received her blessings for Deepavali 2021. My commitment to valuing God's grace and the Guru's grace in my life is renewed. The teachings in the poem have rejuvenated my spirit and my intention to live life purposefully and joyfully.
Gandhinagar, India
My entire being is bathed in the light of these teachings of my Guru. May I radiate these teachings always in all ways. May I embody these teachings in my own being and may I fully experience each moment as nothing else but Shiva.
Washington, United States
I am deeply moved by Gurumayi's words and blessings in “A Shelter of Love, a Canopy of Protection.” I feel safe and sheltered in her love.
Nottuln, Germany
How does our Guru do it every time—speak to each one of us, open our hearts, moisten our eyes with tears of love, give us specific and relevant guidance with a poem and give the world hope in one page?
I have felt an ocean of gratitude to Gurumayi in this lifetime, and more and more waves keep coming.
Sydney, Australia
As I take in all I’ve just received from my Guru, I’m vibrating with divine shakti. I have just received Gurumayi's love, blessings, confirmation, guidance, protection, and wisdom. My cup is overflowing with all these gifts. I feel filled with enthusiasm to have her words to read again and assimilate fully.
Recently, I have started to give thanks throughout the day for small and bigger happenings. I felt in tune to read Gurumayi’s words, "how frequently do we say, Thank you, Lord, a million times over, for being with me." Before reciting Shri Guru Gita, I say aloud the Siddha Yoga vision statement as my intention for the recitation. Again, I felt aligned with Gurumayi’s words, “Those of faith pray for all suffering to be eliminated.”
I am very grateful to have received this beautiful benediction from Gurumayi this evening. I feel like I have been in satsang with her. I will read this poem many times over this coming week in celebration of Deepavali and this coming month in celebration of Thanksgiving.
Colorado, United States
What a spectacular way to celebrate Deepavali! What an abundance of blessings throughout this poem! And what a special gift to receive it in the Hindi language! Now I pray that I may assimilate the many teachings in this poem so that they might shine forth in my life.
Bhandara, India
This love poem is a thunderbolt all of its own. I wish Shubh Deepavali to our beloved Gurumayi, who—by treating us exactly as she implores us to treat ourselves, our children, our pets, and our brethren—shows us the way, especially now in these times. The artwork's golden embrace of the temple of light inspires its own awe.
Vermont, United States
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