To Gurudev, with Love from USA and Canada

“Can you hear me?”

“Please turn on your video ji.”

“Let us wait 15 more minutes.”

“I am from Seattle”, “I am from California”, “I am from Toronto”, “I am from New Jersey”, “Phoenix”, “North Carolina”, “Ohio”,”Florida”….As I hear these voices on the Zoom call, a mix of 20+ people, gathered to celebrate our beloved Gurudev’s Birthday, I am awed and humbled. Across a few timezones, we have gathered to celebrate the Divine Being who has had a profound impact on each one of us. We each have our stories and our love stories. We each have our before and after “we met Swamiji”. And over the next 2 hours, we will share these through songs, stories, poems. We will confess our longings and reminisce about the moments we fell in love. And all of the 20+ of us will listen to it and nod in affirmation, for we  understand what it means. For we are all in love with our Gurudev, our Swamiji. I attempt to write adjectives to describe our Gurudev, but how does a bird understand the expanse of sky or a fish, comprehend the depth and width of the ocean. Suffice to say, “Our Gurudev”, and hope you will understand too. 

The following describes what happened as the hands of the clocks ran to gather the 120 mins. 

To our Dear Gurudev-

A whimsical lot, that is us

Sitting in remote corners of the world

Beholden to You

Belonging to You

Singing your glories and

Profuse confessions of our love

In voices, sweet and hoarse

Oh we would be all fools, gladly

For your beautiful smile

The twinkle of your eyes

Our Beloved, Our Divine Being

Koti Koti Pranams Gurudev

We offer our hearts, our foolishness, our vulnerabilities

Our faith- as flowers at your lotus feet

Happy Birthday our Love of love and Self of self

Aapko Humari Umar Lag Jai

We sang, we laughed, we teared up and we connected. We celebrated Your birth, Gurudev, and prayed to ShriHari for your good health and long life. As You teach us, we prayed for the wellbeing of all sentient beings. Miles away and continents apart, we felt close to You, to our Ashram. It was Your Birthday we were celebrating, but it was we, who received the gift of Your love. Thank You and Charan sparash.