Guru Devo Maheshwara

Everyone needs a teacher in their lives no mater who you are or how important you seem to be. The teachings of Yoga say that our entire lives are our gurus. A guru is anyone or anything that removes your darkness and misknowing. One's birth, present life situation, accidents and illnesses are keys to the doors of happiness if you have the correct perception.

The Guru Mantra pays respect and appreciation to various forms of the enlightenment principle active in our lives:

Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu
Guru Devo Maheshwara
Guru Sakshat
Param Brahma
Tasmai shri Guruvey Namaha

It's translation is: Our moment of birth is our teacher, the duration of our lives and all the experiences we accumulate are our teacher, our misfortunes and calamities are our teachers. The guru is near by and within ourselves. The guru is indescribable and beyond all form. All efforts are offered to the teacher.

Most people don't see things this way and are unavailable to be taught or are in a hurry to impose their knowledge on others.....So it's through calamities, problems and misfortunes that we learn the most because suffering certainly can get our attention pretty fast. That's Guru Devo Maheshvara. Devo Maheshvara is another name for Shiva, the Hindu God of Destruction. This is the transformational aspect of life, including all illnesses, tragedies, accidents, difficulites and ultimately the death of the body. It takes spiritual maturity to embrace difficulties. The greatest spiritual growth can come from appreciating difficult times in your life and face them fully with an open heart.

These things beyond our control require us to surrender our personal willful control and be open and available to what is to come. Devo Maheshwara can be wrathful but it's that wrath, like a parent quickly preventing a child from touching a hot stove, that moves us back on course with swiftness. The key word is Swiftness....not dwelling... that is important. Professional athletes that dwell on what happened in the past lose their jobs pretty fast, it's those that come into each game anew that are the most successful. Think about it. Be Ready, Be Attentive, Be Willing. Don't be stingy......always go for the great moment in sports. It's your life and you've just been kicked off the bench by Shiva. See.. surrender, in the yogic sense, doesn't mean to give up but it means "not my will but thy will be done" and there's no yoga without surrender. Yoga means to become unified with what is. Your team requires you to make this very play, right at this very time. Shiva wants it to be you.....be one with all that is.

For some people, i am their guru. I am physically part of their world and they look to me as an example and also as a touchstone in their times of need. When i teach the physical practices of yoga and meditation, i do my best to be a living example how joy and not force is the most successful way to proceed.....less striving and more fun. The impossible is made possible then. Being one with all there is takes you far away from were you started out.

If it hasn't happened yet, Guru Devo Maheshwara will require you to meet the challenges in your life with an open heart. And everybody loves a player with great heart, they're the ones that make the history books and have movies made out of their lives. Ask Rudy.