Several days ago, my phone was hacked. I spent hours beginning the process of rectifying the problem. Finally, exhausted, I went to bed. I awoke and my mind was agitated, yet I felt a calm beneath the agitation.
I remembered the words in Gurumayi’s fifth teaching in the “Toward Love…” series: “underlying everything in this universe is a force that is thrumming with confident energy. Find that slender, silken rill and keep flowing in the vibration of its pure essence.”
This teaching is so practical and has touched me deeply. It keeps coming to mind when I take care of affairs in my daily life. I am so blessed to be walking the Siddha Path!
California, United States
Contemplating this teaching from Gurumayi reminded me of recent experiences that I’ve had in meditation. Often when I sit down to meditate, my mind becomes filled with all sorts of thoughts and expectations of what I want my meditation to be like, usually based on past experiences. However the more I cling to these expectations, the more superficial my meditation is. It’s only when I finally stop focusing on having a specific experience, and indeed let go of needing to have any experience at all, that I am able to go deeper. Only then can I have the opportunity to go beyond the level of my thoughts and experience the expansive energy of the Heart. I am learning that I have to surrender my individual will to God’s will for true meditation to happen. I don’t know how to describe the way that this surrender works, except that, for me, it is most definitely a form of love.
Pennsylvania, United States
This teaching from Gurumayi has already been very powerful for me whenever I encounter a “snag” in my daily life. Focusing on the beautiful imagery in Gurumayi’s instruction to “find that slender, silken rill” has helped me to get unstuck from the snag and to ‘keep flowing,’ to keep moving on “toward love.”
Massachusetts, United States
Today I needed this teaching more than ever. I had an emotional weekend—filled with joy, sorrow, anger, disappointment—seemingly every emotion. I shed many tears for every possible reason. Last night, as I slumbered with my feelings and allowed them to swirl inside me, I thought to myself, “I must connect more closely with Gurumayi right now.”
This afternoon I worked with focus but also experienced a continuation of the range of emotions. So I paused and went to the Siddha Yoga path website, where I read the fifth teaching of “Toward Love….” And there it was: we can choose to “find that slender, silken rill and keep flowing in the vibration of its pure essence." I had to look up the word rill. It is the tiniest trickle of water and yet you can ride it and continue on your path.
I needed to receive this teaching. It helped me to smile, to relax, to trust, to breathe. And it helped me reconnect to Gurumayi’s Message for 2024.
New York, United States
Today’s teaching from Gurumayi carried me on “that slender, silken rill” of love back to my first experience of
shaktipat and divine love that I received in Gurudev Siddha Peeth. This experience is always with me, like a great, golden ocean of love supporting me through all of my experiences, circumstances, and very human emotions. When I forget, it waits for me to dive back into its golden depths. I dive in again and again, praying to one day to remain in its golden embrace.
Nora, Sweden
I pause for a moment and reconnect with myself within. I listen to this teaching once again and find a throbbing sensation of enthusiasm coming forth in my heart. Yes! What a recognition, which is exactly the truth—this force filled “with confident energy” which moves untamed and completely free of my personal convictions and opinions.
I know it so well that I can say it is what would make life worth living—and yet I cannot say that I am always able to follow its currents. How often am I fooled; how often do I turn toward forgetfulness. But now—with Gurumayi’s guidance—“Toward love!” “Toward love!” “Toward love!”
Milan, Italy
Gurumayi’s guidance in this fifth teaching of “Toward Love…” reminds me of how my meditation unfolds. No matter what I expect, I follow the breath and the space between the breath. My expectations dissolve and are replaced by a “thrumming” or opening of my heart. A vibration—a “rill”—gently dissolves the distractions of the mind and any tension in the body. As soon as this beautiful vibration of the shakti occurs, I am content and confident that this will lead me to absorption in the Self.
California, United States
Over the past seven months I’ve worked to heal a rift within my closest family. Throughout this time, it has helped me to keep in mind that the bond of love always exists, even if outward circumstances appear otherwise.
Gurumayi’s teachings in “Toward Love...” inspire and support me in my endeavors. They give me the conviction and the courage to stay connected to this “indestructible” love no matter what, and to not allow difficult feelings such as anger or sorrow to take over.
I am experiencing such grace as I study and apply Gurumayi’s teachings in this way.
Havant, United Kingdom
This evening my wife and I chanted the beginning of the Arati that is available on the Siddha Yoga path website. Afterwards I basked in the sweet, humming vibration. When I journaled about it, this came up: “O dear one, this constant sweet vibration is love. You are so blessed.“
A few hours later, when I heard Gurumayi’s teaching, “Find the slender, silken rill and keep flowing in the vibration of its pure essence,” I recognized that she was affirming my very experience. I am so blessed indeed—and so thankful to Gurumayi for her unending guidance toward love.
Washington, United States
This teaching from Gurumayi brought me back to Gurudev Siddha Peeth, where one day I was offering seva. The simple task I had to do was to break some bricks into pieces with an iron bar. As I was progressing in my labors, I became more and more aware of the energy that was transmitted from my arms to the bar, and then from the bar to the brick. I realized that I was only putting energy into the bar and that the energized bar broke the brick by itself. I entered a funny play which culminated by my seeing the bricks as exploding by themselves.
Contemplating this wonderful phenomenon, I understood that I had become the witness of the inner energy that inhabited me and that I was letting flow freely toward the outside. To become aware of the flow of the loving Kundalini Shakti through my body gave me immense joy and a sense of freedom.
Rodez, France
As I try to discriminate what word, path, or activity will be beneficial, I listen to my heart, which Gurumayi’s guidance has taught me to trust. When I look at a choice before me, the choice that grants me greater access to my heart may not be the one my mind initially chose, but it is inevitably the one that is better for me and others—as the choice best aligned with Self and Guru.
Whenever I make the heart’s choice, I enter the “thrumming” of the heart. I feel “that slender, silken rill,” which Gurumayi speaks of, as the ever-present wisdom and quiet voice of intuition that are present whenever I listen for them. I pray that I may increasingly listen to, and have the strength to follow, the direction of the heart.
California. United States
This fifth teaching on “Toward Love…” fills my heart with hope for a longtime wish I’ve been praying about. Yes, I’ve “hit a little snag,” but I have promised myself to continue moving with the flow of love—no matter what happens.
St. Laurent, Canada
Gurumayi often chooses such interesting words that I need to look in the dictionary to understand their meaning. When I do this, a very solid recognition takes place that opens a deeper understanding, often beyond words. It’s as if a transmission from the Guru to my heart takes place and a realization appears.
When Gurumayi advised us in the fifth teaching of “Toward love…,” “Find that slender, silken rill and keep flowing in the vibration of its pure essence,” I had to look up the meaning of rill, which was expressed as “a shallow channel cut in the surface of soil or rocks by running water.” Synchronistically, while strolling along the seashore with my husband just yesterday, we came upon an unexpected tiny spring that appeared directly out of the sand and purposefully proceeded forward on its way to the ocean. It fascinated me and now I see that I felt its perseverant response to the ocean’s call home as it popped forth and then flowed happily along in the sunshine.
Washington, United States