Showing gratitude to our Guru.

A few weeks ago, when recalling a particular incident from the past, it made me contemplate on my life. No, this post isn’t about my life, don’t run away. I started contemplating on our duty towards God, our Guru and life. But today, my emphasis is on our duty towards the most loving living being in our lives. Because chances are that if you are reading this post, you most probably are under the blissful grace, love and umbrella of our loving Om Swami.

Life is truly a blessing which most of us take for granted and to be alive, leading a life with the guidance of a true guru is a rare blessing. It is very nice to know that we have a guru who loves us unconditionally and to even say that we are grateful in beautiful ways. But we must let our gratitude flow….not remain stagnant in just words. It is absolutely pointless to only say words if we don’t act upon them. As Swami constantly says, He only cares about our wellbeing, our happiness and our growth. Are words of gratitude enough or do we have a duty towards the Divine? Is it in our hands to make our life beautiful?

It is surely our duty to work relentlessly towards our own spiritual transformation and grow in life. It takes constant effort. And to say that we follow a certain guru but not living by His principles is somewhat disheartening, for our own growth and for His own efforts. Each and every one of our actions must portray our gratitude and love by showing that we understand what His guidance.

I then realised that as a form of gratitude towards our Om Swami, the desire to transform and lead better lives are paramount. We must love Him and ourselves enough to change. When we love someone, we somehow automatically start caring about the things that matter to them. Additionally, we also thrive to behave like them. Especially in the case of our guru, we ideally find ourselves mindfully performing actions after asking ourselves the following: “What would my guru do if He was in such a situation?”
When we deeply love somebody, we simply want them to be happy (along with us, of course;)). As He has stated several times, what makes Swami happy is our transformation into more loving, kinder and happier humans. Seeing us wilfully working on ourselves and being better today than we were prior to His presence in our lives.

Although the contemplation is far from over, I discovered a few “principles” (for lack of a better word) which I use to propel my behaviour in most circumstances. Of course, being a little minion, I do my best.

I believe that to truly live by Swami’s teachings is the greatest gift to Him and the Divine. And usually, for now, here are a few points which help me:

1. Being genuine and speaking truth to the best of my ability.

God is truth and dwells where truth is. As we all know, our Guru is truth, lives truth, breathes truth and loves truth. And as disciples or simply little humans who love him, it is truly a gift to at least try to be sincere and truthful. It’s very easy to let lies and flowery words slip out during conversations, but I guess this is where mindfulness becomes our best tool. From my own experience, it is rather hard to always speak the truth, but sincerity pays.
How to speak the truth most of the time when living in the world and socialising? For another time…

2. Spreading love and leaving people with a sense of belonging wherever I go.

This one is particularly important to me. It is incredibly easy to hurt others and we often fail to realise this. When we are well surrounded by people we love and having a great time, we become less aware of our surroundings. We often neglect people without realising, especially in big gatherings, such as parties, weddings, school etc. As a matter of principle it is my duty to make others feel loved and give them this sense of belonging. Let’s say you are celebrating a birthday party at a restaurant, and as the cake arrives, people dining at other tables join you to sing the jolly “Happy birthday” song. I’d say take a step towards kindness. If it’s your birthday, go on and share a piece of the cake with everyone. Even if you have to cut the cake into the tiniest of pieces, the gesture is what counts.

It will make you even happier to see others happy. The sense of belonging you brought in that moment, could truly change someone’s life. It’s not about the cake. But about the gesture, the love and the acknowledgement of other beautiful humans. At least that’s what I would do, always ensuring that I never act in such a way that people will feel hurt or left out.

3. Being mindful before acting (most of the time).

Although not always easy, this one is quite self-explanatory. If I remember, I often ask myself, what would Swami do in my situation? And act accordingly.

4. Treating everyone equally irrespective of gender, race, position and status in society.

Our egos are tricky little (Big) things! It’s ingrained in our societal conditioning and upbringing to treat others based on certain criteria which we deem respectful or appealing. It could be that we tend to treat more attractive people in a kinder way or give more attention to certain types of people. And although not uncommon, we subconsciously tend to be much nicer and submissive to people whom we perceive as being of a higher status than us, in any way, be it status, fame, wealth or appearance. We may deny having such behaviours but if we are mindful enough to contemplate on our behaviour, we will notice these subtle patterns. I certainly did notice a few patterns myself, in the past.

Our ever-loving Swami treats everyone equally irrespective of gender, race, position, societal status, appearance, spiritual growth, material success and any other possible ‘mindy’ differences we may come up with.
I came to the realisation that it is non-negotiable to be mindful and treat everyone equally irrespective of any differences. No, I am not saying you should go befriend a Lion and get eaten. But if you are at it anyway, at least don’t feed the tiger and ignore the lion. (If you see what I mean:))

*One Two… One Two…*

After reading all these “have to’s” and “should’s”… are you still with me? Can you hear me?

*One Two… One Two…*:)

No, no this isn’t a principle. We don’t have to check our audio connection as elegantly and beautifully as Swami does by saying One two… One two… 🙂 At least it is beyond my ability!

More principles for another time…

The point is that no matter how many superlatives we add to our gratitude statements…they remain hollow without action. The least we can do is to live by His teachings which He imparts with us by working so hard day and night. And don’t forget to take it easy and add some humour to your day, because Swami is the ever-smiling being who loves a good joke!

Note: Deep gratitude to Anew, without whose idea and input this post wouldn’t have been possible!:)