What happens when you meet your Guru?

The harsh sun was shining like a hot fiery ball, all I could see was miles and miles of sand around me, sand hills surrounded me and all I could do was make a continuous effort to climb over one sand dune after another. There was this huge sand dune in front of me, the sand so fine, you will not be able to hold on to even a particle as it will just slip away from your hand. I decide to make one last effort to climb this sand dune, hoping against hope to have a glimpse of an oasis. So I make this one final effort and trudge over this sand dune and reach the top of the sand dune, what I see makes me come crashing to my knees, it is unbelievable, as I see a never seen before oasis nestled there and see green and blue again, my parched throat tries to yell in happiness but there is no sound, all I can feel is tears of joy flowing from my eyes to see the Oasis which is like a heaven to me.

Imagine the above scenario and all you do is pray for that beacon you want to see on the other side, a sailor wants to see the shore; a person lost in the woods wants to see the edge of the forest. Now remember you are in this vast world, dangers of desire lurking all around you, these will control your mind and then for eons you will be just trying to survive.

Then you meet your Guru, that light, that symbol of love and peace, the beacon of faith, and there is this same reaction, all it causes is tears of joy, some call it relief, some call it gratitude, whatever you name it, the tears don’t stop and then there is bliss!

I had this experience on October 21st 2015 when I was at the abode of Om Swami, at his ashram in Himachal Pradesh. Nestled there in the lap of the mountains is this Oasis of divinity. Over these three days each moment spent in the presence of Om Swamiji was a divine experience in its own unique way, the loving glance of Swamiji will fill your heart with peace and divinity. His smile will make you the happiest person in the world and when he speaks one is in rapt attention to catch the subtle messages of spirituality and divinity. You don’t want to ask him a mundane question which we still do at times, but that is a waste of a precious moment and all I want to hear is the guidance and path to spiritual destination.

He was benevolent in blessing us right through these three days multiple times and most importantly giving us the all important guidance of life.

One should also ask as to what happens when a Guru touches your forehead, one is lost for words. It took me some time to come back into my senses as all I could do was just close my eyes and feel the inner bliss. Swamiji’s words continue to reverberate and thanks to YouTube, one is never away from his messages.

As I wait for the next opportunity to be with Swamiji, I continue to dwell in his words which at every moment give me the inner strength to climb life’s sand dunes to reach another Oasis.

Harish Abichandani


This post was originally published on Swamiji’s fan club website which no longer exists, to know more about that, refer to my intro part of the archives series here.

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