On a recent morning, during my yoga practice, a thought flashed in my mind to reflect and write on the string of Gurus in a long, beautiful lineage that have shaped my life by nudging it periodically in a new direction - a direction that I would come to joyfully abide by. As they never seem to let go of me even if I had behaved undeservingly at times, I am filled with gratitude for having come under their influence at various points in my life right from the young age of 21. This is an ode to all my Gurus on account of this year's Guru Purnima (July 29, 2026).
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| Velliangiri mountain range |
Childhood Influences
I was 10 or so and in 5th grade, which is the earliest that I can recall. Amma would mandate that all of us enter the puja room after our morning bath, chant a few favourite stotrams. We would get to choose what we chanted or read. It was only after that we would dress up and get ready for breakfast and school. My favourite idol was a small brass figurine of an azhwar and I would choose to chant a universal prayer in Telugu. I used to know that by heart. All I can remember now is that it was vast, inclusive and comprehensive in its import and a picture of wide-open arms pops up in my mind when I think of the prayer now.
On most birthdays, we would go to a temple followed by a restaurant and then a cinema sometimes. I also distinctly remember that my father and mother had long and involved engagement with their daily prayers. It is something that we imbibed by observation.
Amma and nanna had their routines based on the days of the week. On festival days, Amma would wake us up early, make sure we had our oil baths, new clothes and ensure that we helped in the puja decorations at home. It was all quite a participative exercise with she as the leader, and we would not get our breakfast till we cleaned up and were ready for the day. After all these years, those were the experiences that I would lean on to replicate festivals in our own home now.
However, that was all the extent of religious and spiritual presence in my life till I met Om Aunty in 1983 when I learned of an entire new world of spirituality.
Formative years
I finished my Engineering at 21 in 1983 and landed a token public sector job in HAL, Hyderabad. It is an understatement to say that I was not inspired by it. I was staying with my newly married brother and sister-in-law during 1983-87. I continued with my routine and basic puja activities, but I was also spending more and more time with music and my music teacher who taught me a lot more than just music. My music actually began without any interest from my side as I was 'volunteered' by my sister-in-law. I wrote more about aunty's central role in my engagement with music till date in my blogs on my Journey in music and a life of miracles.
Om aunty's three children lived abroad or headed there very soon, and aunty and uncle were a retired couple except for a few years when aunty served as the principal of the ISKCON school in Secunderabad. As my interaction with Om aunty increased, I was learning to chant, discovering spiritual masters that were in her life etc. She used to recount stories of her meetings and conversations with them so vividly that I felt as if they were my own experiences. Om aunty used to live right opposite our house in a large bungalow. I would return so late on many evenings after finishing my dinner with aunty and uncle on many a night. With aunty, music was just the kindling. It soon led to very engaged discussions on language, etiquette, deportment, art of conversation, stotras and chants, devotional bhajans, meditation etc.
Over the next few months, I started to get disillusioned by everything I did and saw everyone in my family do in the name of puja. All these so-called worshipful activities seemed hollow and devoid of integrity. I felt there was no correspondence between the pujas people did and their physical and mental patterns. I actually did not see a point in all this. I was losing my faith in what I routinely did and was so put off by it all at one point that I stopped entering the puja room and doing my daily prayers.
My parents and family started to worry about my outright shunning of the puja room and apparently escalated the 'issue' to Om Aunty. That led to a heart-to-heart conversation with her regarding my reservations and that's when she offered to initiate me into japa and meditation assuming the role of an Upaguru. It gave me an anchor that I found meaning and purpose in and I re-entered the puja room by including new practices.
The 'Darshan' of Swami Sivananda
Swami Sivananda was aunty's Guru and there were many of his pictures and books around her house and puja room. He was a medical doctor before he became a monk and had left his mortal body in 1963 which is a year after my birth. So, I never really met him. But, through aunty's various stories of her interactions with the Swami, he continues to be so real to me and hence, it feels like I have had his darshan a long time ago.
Aunty used to recount many of her elevating experiences and conversations with Sri Swami Sivananda and Sri Swami Chidananda and others of The Divine Life Society (DLS) on many quiet evenings. They used to be long and spontaneous sessions which used to stretch into late nights at times. I was young, receptive and used to soak all these in. I was never before exposed to these dimensions of life. At certain moments, I used to be so lifted up by these waves of devotion and be washed over by indescribable and dizzying heights of joy. I continue to feel very close affinity to Sri Swami Sivananda though I never saw him physically.
As a 'happy ending' for the time being, I resumed my daily puja practices by including japa and meditation with lot more awareness. This went on for about 3 years. We also would listen to many vintage concerts that uncle saved on spools of tape, discussed many books and sang many ashram bhajans. I also started collecting various books by Sri Swami Sivananda. Those were the years of intense practices and literally, a preparation for life ahead.
Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
It was also during this Gurukula vasam style of living in proximity to aunty that I was introduced to Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa through her gift of his gospel (book).
On Monday, my weekly holiday, I used to often visit Domalaguda Ramakrishna Ashram and wander its halls and libraries. Generally, I used to find myself gravitating toward the main mandir by evening and attend the arati and bhajan.
I visited the ashram and spent time there on many days like this, attended Sri Swami Ranganathananda's somewhat esoteric talks, acquired many books of Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Vivekananda. In fact, my music book "Spiritual Heritage of Thyagaraja" was bought here and only recently, I got to understand how one Mr. Raghavan of Chennai was instrumental in getting this published through Sri Ramakrishna Math press. It is like a final puzzle piece landing into place after years and years of a small but recognizable gap in understanding of the context behind this book.
Sri Swami Muktananda
My music classes in aunty's home used to be in an upstairs room, the balcony of which looked out into a large, shaded fruit garden. Aunty used to say that Sri Swami Muktananda of Ganeshpuri, Maharashtra had walked around in that garden on one of his visits to their home. She used to attribute the fertility of the garden to his grace as there was otherwise very little upkeep for that area.
I have seen the pictures of all these Mahatmas in aunty's pooja room in which I have lighted a lamp on many days. The room used to always have a pleasant aroma and throb with palpable energy.
Initiation by Sri Swami Chidananda
Due to a divine turn of events, a local devotee in Sainikpuri where we lived then hosted Sri Swami Chidanandaji Maharaj - the successor and devoted disciple of Sri Swami Sivananda. Om Aunty contacted Swamiji on our behalf and secured his acceptance for initiating me and a few others. It was sometime in Feb 1986. On a very early, distinctly cool morning, I quietly waited for my turn at the home Swamiji was sojourning in. I spent a few electrifying moments with Swamiji while receiving my Ishta daiva mantram with a few simple suggestions from Swamiji on keeping it up from then on.
A few years ago, I was completely ignorant of Swamiji, Divine Life Society, spiritual practices like Japa and meditation and even music, but here I was being initiated by none other than Swami Chidanandaji right in the location where I was living then. It was just divine grace in action.
Maiden visit to Rishikesh
I had an opportunity to visit Rishikesh and The Divine Life Society for the first time a few months later. It was 1987 and I had by then heard about and experienced DLS and Swami Sivananda vicariously for close to 4 years. It was a few short months before I was to head to the USA to find myself.
The journey to Rishikesh at the foothills of Himalayas was quite a long journey with many legs. I went by a long train ride to Delhi and stayed with my sister for a day or two and then took an overnight bus to Haridwar. I found myself disembarking groggily from the bus in the wee hours of the next morning. I learnt that buses to Rishikesh wouldn't run till later in the morning. Later, I ended up falling prey to the loudest solicitations in the bus stand and rented a shady room to rest and refresh before the last leg of my journey to Rishikesh.
When I finally arrived in Rishikesh after an hour of bus ride, I directly went to DLS and met Sri Swami Asangananda, a Telugu swami who I had met through aunty and uncle in Secunderabad. He was my host there and put me up in a small room of the ashram. I spent many hours at the various shrines within the ashram including Sivananda mandir, the darshan of the various swamis, the old DLS by the river and the ashram satsang in the evening. The biksha (meals) was very sparse just like what Swami Sivananda had subsisted on in his early days.
I also walked around Rishikesh to Lakshman Jhoola, Ram Jhoola, took a dip in the Ganga and visited various places in Rishikesh that Swami Sivananda used to reminisce about in his many books. I had read many of his books in the years prior to my visit. I posted myself a post card from the Post Office to create a philatelic memory. It was an eventful visit that would set the foundation for everything that was follow.
I met Swami Asanganandaji again in 1989 after my marriage. My wife and I went to Rishikesh while her family was left wondering as to what I was up to!
The Big H i a t u s
My practices took a back seat when I moved to the USA. It could have been due to lack of privacy, lack of priority or even lack of will. I used to share an apartment with three others, and my hours were long and unpredictable with classes, work, cooking and studies. I was not able to carve out time and space for my Japa and meditation. There were also many influences and culture shocks that a young man is exposed to in a world that is so different from homeland.
Later, when I moved into my own apartment after marriage 2 years later, it was a bit better. We had a small altar, and we would light a small lamp and make sure it is extinguished before we left the house. It was certainly necessary due to fire hazards but strange! It felt quite foreign to practice our ancient mystical disciplines in a place that pulsated to a very different beat.
But I always longed for an appropriate personal space to read, reflect, chant, worship and meditate. There was a time I remember in Portland that I would wake up earlier than normal to make some time available to read Bhagavadgita Home study by Swami Dayananda or listen to his audio lectures in the still hours of morning. My family back home was well into his fold and were going through several courses offered at the Dayananda Ashrams in Coimbatore and Rishikesh. Certain statements by Pujya Swamiji Dayanada Saraswati used to strike me deeply and were great pieces of advice to live untouched by external triggers.
As a happy concidence, I discovered my college classmate Logasubramanian who took sanyas from Swami Dayanandaji and taught wonderfully at Rishikesh until his untimely demise. I, along with my family had met him once during our visit to Rishikesh in 2006. A very bright and gentle soul.
Though I don't harbour any strong desire to read, recite and distill the scriptures and esoteric spiritual questions posed and answered in the Upanishads, those few study sessions did provide me with a live link to invaluable experiences I received during the formative years of 1983-87 in India.
So many great souls - Endaro MahAnubhAvulu
The reading bug bit me in college right around the time I discovered the power of language around 1981. During 1983-87, when I had the time and freedom to roam around and do whatever I wanted as a young man with a small disposable income, I used to frequent Higginbothams stall at Secunderabad railway station to buy a few books of fiction by authors I wanted to sample. During one such visit, I picked up "Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahamsa Yogananda. It is quite possible that aunty had recommended it.
As years went by with a token job and intense music learning and practice, so many great souls revealed themselves to me. Aunty used to talk about an avadhuta whose picture adorned her puja room. He just looks up into the sky in that picture. Apparently, he did not speak or engage with the world. As I mentioned earlier, she introduced me to Ramakrishna Paramhamsa through gifts of his gospel and my visits to his Domalaguda ashram. During my stay with my brother and sister-in-law, I came to know about Bhagawan Ramana Maharshi as my sister-in-law brought his b&w picture to our home. His serene visage that I see on my mind's eye brings me deep peace even now.
During the last 15 years, I was mesmerized by the free-spirited singing of Kabir music by Shabnam Virmani, Vipul Rikhi, Prahlad Tippania and others. That led me to a trove of vibrant music by Kumar Gandharva. I also watched the documentaries on him made by Shabnam Virmani. Recently, when a friend organized a satsang with a person from Kabir Math in Varanasi, I had the privilege of presenting a couple of beautiful kabir compositions at the satsang.
Much recently, I came to know about Sri M through my wife. I read a number of his books on his life with his guru and his Himalayan treks, upanishads and meditation. I take inspiration from his insight that music is meditation. It so happened that I went to his ashram in Madanapalle on one of the Gurupurnima days with a couple of friends. During the writing of this blog, I had an opportunity of meeting him as my wife got an opportunity to serve him ahead of a book launch event.
Encounter with Sadhguru
There are many great Gurus in the world. But there is one for each and every one of us who maximizes resonance and receptivity in us based on our own limitations and personal quirks. In that context, how I came to know of Isha and Sadhguru is nothing short of miraculous.
During my work life, I always harboured the regret of not having a few quiet moments in the puja room after lighting a lamp before rushing to catch the shuttle. Since I retired early in 2012, I almost immediately (to the day) enrolled in a yoga workshop by a Slovenian instructor. It was convenient as it was happening at our own home. A few days of practice itself yielded physical benefits but, I had a gap in my heart still. I continued to pray daily to be shown a simple, unswerving path of daily practices that I can follow till the end of my life. It is mysterious to me how I envisaged such a thing in that language. My pleas went unheeded for almost two years.
On one evening, my wife came home after work. She started to recount excitedly about her conversation with a vendor who worked on our house and boutique. He just went through the Isha yoga program and earnestly impressed on her that we both must go through this while we don't need to do it together.
I had never heard of Isha or Sadhguru nor did I immediately google him. I just looked for the next available program. There was one in a month, but in Tamil at the ashram. I was experiencing such an urgency that I felt I couldn't wait for the next English program. So, I enrolled in the Tamil program in the form of a retreat in Isha Yoga Centre, Coimbatore. After registration, I did not even look up what was there at the centre or what to expect. I probably had some faith that I had found what I was looking for.
Actually, later I recalled having seen Sadhguru at a TV debate, albeit fleetingly. His form and attire seemed unique as I would not expect such a person to be at a routine TV debate to discuss mundane matters so coherently.
I had a great time at the retreat and so many of my notions got tested and some were shattered. I earnestly practiced from the day after initiation itself. Gradually, it has developed into a morning regimen (daily upacharya) come rain or shine, travelling or not, weekday or weekend. It has been close to 12 years now. People around me have gotten used to my yoga practice so much that they keep asking if I have done my yoga or why it was longer or shorter etc. They all know that it is non-negotiable.
Later on, I learned a few Hatha yoga practices, attended a few Mahashivaratri events, volunteered locally and at the ashram, went on treks with fellow meditators, undertook Kailash and Southern Sojourn pilgrimages and also set up a Sannidhi at home as a living presence of my guiding light.
Guru Parampara - Ancient and Eternal
I breathe freely and joyously today and feel that I have finally come home. All that I was blessed with by many Gurus I came in touch with over the years sits comfortably along with what I have found at Isha. It feels like that I am just picking up from wherever I had left off earlier - much earlier. For that, I am grateful to the Guru parampara that guided my journey all along.
This lineage of Gurus that came into my life at various times and stages of my life helped me to know that I found something precious and have finally arrived at home when I received the initiation through Inner Engineering. We can call it serendipity, but I call it destiny.
सदा शिव समारमभां शङ्कराचार्य मध्यमाम्॥
asmadācārya paryantāṃ vande guru paramparām..
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