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Liberated living through the sadhana of yog; enlivened realisations by the grace of the Guru.

Category Archives: Tantra


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Gurudakshina a ऋण भङ्गुर – breaking of debt.

Having written so much about the Guru-Shishya Parampara, it was but natural that I arrived at this topic by and by. I have touched upon this topic in my book One Master one disciple – peeling of an onion, but new realisations and gnosis dawn upon any serious practitioner as the neuron in the brain light up during meditation as it did for me. This phrase ऋण भङ्गुर came to me while in meditation and was an ah ha moment as new light shone upon an old subject.

This is a short post on a much maligned and over explained tradition of gurudakshina, an offering expected of a shishya when receiving diksha into a particular sadhana from a teacher. The incident that always comes to my mind when a gurudakshina is mentioned is the example of Ekalavya and Dronacharya. The morality of the incident, the motives behind the demand by Dronacharya, can and have been endlessly debated and is not the purview of this post. I mention this here to lay out the ancient act of repaying the Guru for teachings imparted. An act that continues to exist till today, interpreted in various ways to suit various needs.

As always the topic in my posts are drawn from my own inner churning and meant to provoke thought, they are not meant for debate or arguments. On the spiritual path one has one’s own realisations and they hold true for one and that’s how it should be. Each person responsible or their own actions arising from their realisation.


Gurudakshina in the 21st Century

In today’s context, teachers and gurus, mostly of yoga and spiritual techniques have bent over backwards to explain this tradition of gurudakshina. Many do this to gloss over the excessive and exorbitant fee charged by them. The idea seems to be the higher your fee the more your stature as a guru, for you see you can never repay the guru for the teachings imparted so it doesn’t matter how much you pay, it’s never enough.

Added to the fee may be the material desires of the teacher, to own an expensive car, a house, land, travel and so on passed on to the student in the fee. So the fee charged is not just for the teaching but includes baser needs of the teacher that have to be satisfied. Yog that was meant as a sacred learning to be imparted in an atmosphere of sanctity, sans greed, has today become means of livelihood for many and with that has come the dichotomy of fitting this sacred practice into a mercenary mould.

The plethora of spiritual teachers today have given rise to a plethora of explanations about this topic, some genuine, some mere excuses, many a repetitive litany.

A paradox like no other

After having said all this about the current pattern of charging of fee by teachers of new age spirituality, I will be amiss if I don’t mention a contrary point.

It stands to reason that if the end goal of self-realisation is achieved by the disciple by diligently adhering to the principles laid out by their guru; they can never repay the guru for this service. My own sentiments for my Guru is surely impacted by this understanding. No matter the human qualities of the guru, your progress on the path will determine your obligation to the Guru. This assessment by nature is very personal and self imposed, it cannot be determined by another. Yes, it’s a paradox and involves what is called the vivek buddhi inherent in every learner, it may be dormant but will emerge with sadhana, sometimes of many lives.

Personal Turmoil

As a teacher for over 26 years, first within an organisation and now on an individual capacity I had struggled much with the morality of the asking in this offering. A fixed fee that kept rising steeply over the years, often beyond the reach of ordinary folks. The question that greatly bothered me was, is the practice only for the affluent? What about the sincere seekers with paltry means? I had in my own level always accommodated everyone who was sincerely seeking to learn. From the beginning I had always felt the dakshina was more in the purview of the taught rather than the teacher. It’s the student who decides what the lessons are worth to them, rather than the teacher putting a value on their wisdom, for true wisdom flows for all without bias.

But so greatly ingrained is the topic that it took a while to break free of it and the penultimate realisation came with the two words ऋण भङ्गुर II

ऋण भङ्गुर – a liberation

They were two simple words but they illumined my being with, for me, the understanding of this ancient practice. The realisation that the dakshina liberates both the guru and the shishya from obligation to one another in the grosser level. Once this gross cord is cut all that remains is the cord of love that binds the Guru and the shishya in an eternal dance towards the ultimate liberation, when the guru liberates the shishya even from this fixed orbit to chart their own course free of the gurus influence.

Now when I share the practice with new seekers I allow them to decide the dakshina they want to give. With no attachment to the amount given, I am twice liberated.


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of Alignment and Misalignment on Lunar Eclipse


Last night was full moon and lunar eclipse, it was also Kartik Purnima, Dev Deepavali and Gurpurab. Yes, a pretty auspicious time for many. Yogis to purohits to devotees all use this period to meditate, worship, shower adulations or pray, each according to their own understanding and devotion, as do the lovers of astronomy. I was fortunate to be in Tubac, Arizona for yesterdays event experience, with clear cloudless skies, no light pollution and an unhindered open horizon. As the shadow of the earth progressed over the bright full moon and cloaked the earth with darkness, the stars shined ever so much more brilliantly until the moon now totally eclipsed, turned crimson. Much to be grateful about.

First the alignment

As a yog practitioner, I have for many decades now viewed an eclipse as an alignment of the earth, the moon and the sun according a unique opportunity to align those centres in our own body that correspond to them. The Vedic pind-brahmand philosophy lays much emphasis on the microcosm carrying in entirety the blueprint of the macrocosm and while some revere the external others turn their awareness inwards at such moments using the event to take a leap to understand the universe within.

Before I go further there’s something I need to make clear.  I always write propelled by my own experience and realisations strongly believing that no sadhak should take as absolute others realisations. The layers of the mystical are profound and the joy of self discovery can never be understated. Texts and philosophical literature are someone else’s Truth and have only an intellectual value for me and easy to disregard if they don’t pass my self scrutiny. We each one of us have to find our own truth without a need for validation, I sincerely believe. To move on on this path of self discovery with confidence towards what makes us truly happy all we need is a will to do so and the tools to take us forward appear magically. Of course all results are greatly influenced by the fruits of our past karma and present personal efforts.

Here I will note down some musings on these physical eclipse occurrence and how I understand it to affect our body, emotions and mind. These applied realisations have greatly enabled me to bring balance in my life. I have also included a link to a meditation I recorded after this event at the end of this section.

As mentioned earlier during an eclipse, whether full or partial, there is a corresponding full or partial alignment of the sun, the earth and the moon and this reflects in our body in different ways, I have found. Our left and the right naadis in yogic terms the Ida and Pingala correspond to the Chandra (moon) and Surya (sun), connecting to the two polarities in our brain- the right and left hemispheres. The earth corresponds to our mool prakriti, the innate nature of our body, While consciously aligning these spheres during the eclipse we enable ourselves to flow with the circadian rhythm of the universe reducing conflict in our emotional and mental body- the manomaya kosha. Living without conflict with nature ones nature becomes that of stillness and the physical body receives the benefit of health of such peaceful living without stress.

Another realisation I experienced is that of the moon, the sun and the earth aligned along the spine. The moon in the Agnya Chakra indicating the mind, the Sun in the Anhad Chakra as distributor of Pran and the earth on the muladhar representing everything physical, earth, water, fire air and the space occupied when alive, in death all these return to the source.

Finally, as the moon corresponds to the mind, and it is well known how the lunar cycle effects our mind, when the shadow of the earth passes over the moon enveloping it fully and then the moon reemerges as the shadow passes, it as if a veil is removed, a veil of ignorance and the mind full of awe rebirths into a clarity facing the brilliant sun. This outer light is reflected in the inner transformation of the yogi practitioner.

click this 👉🏽 Practicing Alignment on Eclipse Days


Misalignment Galore

-my God/Guru is greater than yours

Of course after this wonderful alignment with nature and the sun and the moon and the earth, I had to open my phone! Being a festive day, I had received many forwards, wishes for Kartik Purnima, for Dev Deepavali, and Gurpurab, usually I delete them all without seeing but I had to open this one didn’t I 🤷🏻‍♀️, a forward for Gurpurab. Gurpurab is the birth centenary of Guru Nanak Devji, the first Sikh Guru. It was originally from a UK based Sikh organisation, forwarded many times WhatsApp informed me and now forwarded to me by a well meaning friend and it caught my attention. It had a picture of Nanak’s father holding baby Nanak in his arms, and in front of them stood bowing in supplication, many divine beings, of whom I recognised Brahma because of the multiple heads, Vishnu because of the blue body, and Shiva because of the snake around the neck and many other Devi’s and Devata’s, all from the Hindu diaspora. It wasn’t a very well executed picture but it started a flow of thought as to why to make our own Guru or God greater we have to show others down as inferior to them?

Sometimes these representations are malicious, but often it is just the devotion of the devotee to showcase their own as somehow better, greater and grander. Everyone has done this in history and still continue to do so, Vaishnavites show Vishnu as superior to Shiva, followers of Gorakhnath show Krishna washing Gorakhs feet, the worshippers of Shakti show her as more than Shiva, saying Shiva is Shav without Shakti, amongst disciples there is always a rush to prove their own gurus as the true one. This is just within the boundary of one religion, my father once told me how when they were kids in the late 1930’s, Christian missionaries would come to their small village in Kerala and demonstrate how an idol of Krishna sinks when thrown into the well but the idol of Jesus Christ floats. The idol of Krishna was made of metal and Jesus of wood! All the children watching could see that and found it quite foolish. Wonder how many tenets of the religion is broken whith these actions? I am mostly amused by this show, but it is a point to be noted and care taken not to fall into this trap ourselves in the rush to preach and share.

I feel this maybe one of the reason that I found myself pulled towards yog sadhana, where all these concepts can be on a different level of understanding. The body becomes the temple, and all the deities are accommodated within, Shiva and Shakti, Brahma and Vishnu, Ganesh and Hanuman; The Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati, all equally important or not, their roles dictated by the state the practicing yogi is in. A journey of Self-discovery untainted by the external show. All the forms reveal an inner symphony without any discordant note, to the one who is sensitive.

Removing the veil

Finally, for the yogi, these deities if present, losing their physical attributes amalgamate into Still Love, as they did for me. A core centre of stillness that only translates as Love, shorn of all rites and rituals internal or external. The inner and the outer Guru can stand alone, without support of validation, comparison and or competition.