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Click here to read the prayers offered by these Siddha Yoga Swamis.

Introduction by Swami Vasudevananda

Early one morning during the summer of 2020, Swami Indirananda, Swami Umeshananda, and I gathered in front of the magnificent murti of Lord Shiva Nataraj at the entrance to Anugraha in Shree Muktananda Ashram. We were there to make offerings to honor Lord Shiva.

On the Siddha Yoga path, we honor Lord Shiva as our own Self; as the essence of all the mantras imparted by the Siddha Yoga Gurus; and as the Adi Guru, the primordial Master, the bestower of divine grace. In his image as Nataraj, Shiva is the Lord of Dance. Through his cosmic dance, he creates, sustains, and dissolves the universe and dispels our limited understanding to reveal the truth of divine union.

To Lord Shiva, Adi Guru, we three Siddha Yoga Swamis came to pay our homage and make offerings at the sacred fire on behalf of all living beings and creation.

When we make offerings to Shri Guru—the embodiment of supreme love, compassion, and generosity—we offer the best of ourselves and the purest of sacred substances.

Swami Umeshananda began with an offering of ghee, clarified butter, by pouring it into the sacred fire. Next, I offered sugar and black sesame seeds to the fire, and then Swami Indirananda offered a coconut. With each offering, the flames danced upward, sparks shimmering in the morning air. In this way, it seemed that Lord Shiva was joyfully accepting our offerings.

We then stepped forward to offer prayers from the ancient scriptures of India. Just as we had offered the purest of sacrificial materials, so we offered words that sanctify and uplift the world.

The first was from the Universal Prayer, which beseeches the happiness and well-being of all.

In the second prayer, which was from the Shrimad Bhagavatam Purana, a sacred text of teachings, stories, and hymns, we offered pranam, our reverential salutation, to everything in the universe.

And in the third prayer, which was from the Rig Veda, the most ancient of India’s scriptures, we asked the Lord to grant that our thoughts, words, and actions reflect the highest Truth.