Although I have recited this verse for many decades, when I read it now, it was as if I was seeing it for the very first time. I experienced that I was at the center of the universe, and that everything around me was divine. I was not separate from the room I was in, the people next door, the mountains outside my window. I also did not feel any sense of high or low. I felt blissfully connected to everyone and everything in the universe.
Arizona, United States
This verse clearly indicates to me that I am not different or separate from universal Consciousness. There are not two entities, only one Consciousness—and that is me. I want to become consistently aware of this.
Hyderabad, India
This is one of my favorite verses in
Shri Guru Gita. I feel it is telling me that my true home is the supreme Self, from which my life originates and which is the source of everything within and without. This verse helps me to see that my inner Self is who I truly am.
New York, United States
I had a dream where I was observing everything around me—the sky, mountains, the sea, houses, and people going about their daily chores. Suddenly these images began to move and then became like pieces of a puzzle. The pieces fit together perfectly and formed what I felt was the play of life.
I began to see that behind the pieces was a luminous golden thread. I saw a vibration emanating from it that embraced and filled everything. The vibration filled me to such an extent that my consciousness disappeared; only the vibration remained. From that space emanated only the vibration that enlivens all the pieces of the puzzle of the play of life, and that gives energy to everything—without exception—in perfect harmony. This perfect unity is difficult to describe; it was love and the most sublime peace.
When I woke up, the first thing that came to my mind was, “Thank you, my Guru, for this experience of merging the soul with the luminous and golden source.”
Tarragona, Spain
The imagery in this verse has always inspired me. Visualizing that the space within me and the expanse of space outside me is one has helped me to bring about a shift in my awareness. It supports me in identifying with the inner Self. Holding this image and understanding in my heart gives me an anchor in the midst of daily life.
Reading this verse helped me to refresh this practice.
Pune, India
As I read verse 162 of
Shri Guru Gita, it stood out to me like never before that water is simply water, ghee is nothing but ghee, and space has only space as its inherent nature.
All of a sudden, this made me realize that the individual self is not actually a reduced version of the higher Self but the full Self in all its splendor. This means to me that I have already attained the great Self in all its fullness. I simply need to acknowledge it.
Laval, Canada
This verse speaks to me of easefulness. I have loved reading it over the years. It never fails to remind me that the path need not be a strenuous striving but instead can be experienced as an easing, a kind of allowing myself to relax into my true Self. Gurumayi has always epitomized this verse for me.
Washington, United States
I love this quotation from
Shri Guru Gita. What is also miraculous about this verse—and the entire text of
Shri Guru Gita—is that through the repetition of its syllables, the experience that this verse describes begins to reveal itself in my life.
I have found that the practice of
svadhyaya on the Siddha Yoga path is a powerful way to purify my mind of mental habits and concepts; it thus helps me “befriend my mind” as an instrument of Consciousness and as a powerful pathway to the experience of the Self both within and without.
New York, United States
This verse tells me how close I am to realization of the Self—as close as a breath, a touch, a flutter of eyelid. This gives me hope and sharpens my curiosity.
North Carolina, United States
In this magnificent recitation of Shri Guru Gita with Gurumayi, I had the experience of verse 162 as my inner and outer experience merged through the grace of Shri Guru. As Gurumayi gave us beautiful instructions on lengthening the spine—following the movement of the energy as it spirals upwards—she made a sort of whirring sound to vocally demonstrate the whirling pattern of the shakti she was inviting us to tune into.
As she continued making this pattern with her voice, a strong, gusty wind suddenly arose outside our house, making a similar sound but on a thunderous level as it encircled our house. Bliss exploded within me, listening to the song of the One—coming from Gurumayi and then from Lord Vayu, lord of the wind—and my own inner vibration. As we became quiet and Gurumayi stopped speaking, the wind subsided outside as the inner and outer spaces moved as one.
California, United States
This lovely verse was once made very clear to me in an extraordinary dream. In the dream I was just a tiny pinprick of an air bubble trapped within the bedrock beneath the base of a massive undersea mountain. Intuiting something greater than myself that was my true Self, I longed and longed to be free for what seemed to be an eternity. The vibration of my pining for freedom eventually reached such intensity that it shattered the bedrock around me and split the massive mountain above me in two.
As a bubble, I now floated for what felt like years, until finally I reached the ocean’s surface. With the ocean beneath me and the sky above me, only the thinnest membrane of moisture separated me from my true Self, the sky. When I recognized myself in the sky and the sky in me, the membrane of moisture popped open, and my tiny being became bliss itself, immediately merging into and spreading throughout the entire expanse of sky. How liberating was this exhilarating feeling!
What a blessing it is to delight in our identity with the supreme Being! And Shri Guru Gita grants us this experience of delight.
California, United States
I have reflected on this verse over the years, and have often brought it to mind as I swim—as I slice through the water while also being the water! And it has given me much pleasure. Now I have more to ponder, as I imagine my soul, the Self, a part of me that is so mystical just spreading out there into Consciousness.
Hampton Hill, United Kingdom