Guruji is God in human form on this earth. He is a divine soul. He can take away your negative feelings and fill your heart with pure love for humanity. He can take you to higher levels of consciousness.
But this was not what I felt when I first had Guruji's
darshan on 13 April 2006.
I was initially skeptical because today frauds take place in the name of religion. It is difficult to trust and surrender yourself to somebody who looks no different from you and is very human.
I am a firm believer of Maa Durga and whatever little prayer I offer to God is in the form of chanting
shlokas or
mantras of Mother Durga. When I started visiting Empire Estate, I used to hear the
sangat referring to Guruji as God, an incarnation of Lord Shiva. But I never shared their feeling. I believed only that Guruji was providing all of us with a very good platform where we could meditate and get enriched through the positive energy of Guruji's
sat karma (good deeds leading to a stream of active merit).
I kept coming to Empire Estate regularly with no change in my feelings. Although many positive changes occurred within me, I never associated those changes with Guruji. My egocentric mind led me to believe that my meditations were responsible for those changes.
After about two and a half months of coming to Empire Estate, I had a dream one night:
I saw a change in the sitting arrangement at Empire Estate. The hall was divided into three parts, as is the main hall at the Vaishno Devi shrine. The
sangat sat around the right and left walls and went to Guruji at the centre of the hall for getting His blessings. When I reached that point, Guruji gave me
prasad of
halwa and two
puris. I felt overwhelmed and looked up to offer my thanks to Guruji and am stunned - Mother Durga is sitting on Guruji's
asana, and she transforms immediately into Guruji.
It was then that I realized that Maa Durga is Guruji and Guruji is Maa Durga.
A devotee
April 2008