My Guru: Introduction

It is with the greatest pleasure that I announce my beloved Guru’s arrival in Johannesburg. I spent time with Him yesterday: and today I feel renewed and deeply nourished! What a joy!!

I asked Him last night what I could do for Him, to support His mission. He replied “Just be happy!!” He paused and then added “That way the whole world benefits!!”

I would like to include a beautiful insight from Sri Paramhansa Yogananda

“The bond with the guru, once established, is not for one lifetime only. It is forever. Even after the disciple has attained spiritual freedom, he acknowledges the Guru as the channel through which his liberation came.

“For the Guru is simply a channel for God’s power and wisdom. God is the true Guru.

“The Guru is like a transformer, which makes a higher voltage of electricity available to ordinary households.

“Sometimes, indeed, the disciple becomes greater than the Guru. Such was the case with Jesus, who was more spiritually advanced than John the Baptist, although John the Baptist was his Guru from former incarnations. This is why John said, in humility, that Jesus ought to be baptizing him. And it is why Jesus replied, “Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:14-15).

It was also why Jesus said, “Among those that are born of woman there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist” (Luke 7:28).  Wasn’t Jesus himself born of woman? He was giving recognition, simply to the fact that his debt as a disciple was eternal.

“Thus, you see, the bond of a guru and disciple is not that of a master and slave. It is an eternal bond of divine love and friendship.

“If, in the beginning, the guru disciplines his disciple, it is that disciple’s best and truest friend; as one who would help him to achieve what he most wants in his soul. Only a false guru would pamper his disciple’s ego with flattery.

“A true guru never disciplines with selfish motivation. Whatever teaching of disciple he gives to the disciple comes NOT from himself, but from God.

Jai Guru Dev



Sri Sri SwamiVishwananda



The lesson of reincarnation: Reflection

“Master,” asked a disciple, “how are souls reborn of earth?”

“After passing some time in the astral world” Yogananda replied “the length of their stay depending on their stored up good karma, the material desires in their subconscious become reawakened. They are then drawn back to earth, or to some planet in the material universe, by the magnetic attraction of desire.

“At the time of physical conception, there is a flash of light in the ether. Soul’s in the other world that await physical rebirth, when the vibrations of that light are compatible to their own, rush toward it. Sometimes more than one soul enters a womb at the same time. Thus, twins are born.”

Disciple: “Are spiritual souls always born into spiritual families?’

The Master: “Like attracts like, that is the general rule. Many factors enter in, however – timing for example, and availability. For saintly souls, opportunities for reincarnation into highly evolved families are not many, for spiritual people often prefer not to marry and have children. There is, moreover the question of individual karma with all its complexities.

“People are a mixture of many qualities. Sometimes it happens that a saint is born to criminal parents, is he shares with them a strong attraction, for instance, to peace.”

“For couples desiring spiritual children,” the Master continued, “it is important that they keep their consciousness uplifted when coming together in physical union. For their vibration at that moment will determine the quality of the flash of light in the astral world.”

Most people believe that the lesson of reincarnation is one that applies to the Eastern Philosophies alone. My blog of last week, based on the teachings of Sri Sri Paramhansa Yogananda, makes reference to several Eastern concepts.

For the sake of completeness, I feel I must include that reincarnation is not only a teaching accepted in the East. The doctrines of pre-existence and reincarnation existed as secret teachings of Jesus until they were declared a heresy by the Roman Church in 553 A.D. It was at this time that the Roman Church aggressively destroyed competing teachings and so-called heresies within the Church. Along with the destruction of unorthodox teachings came the destruction of Jews, Gnostics, and ultimately anyone who stood in the way of the Inquisition and Crusades.