Pradakshina: Circumambulations Around the Satguru’s Path

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The Guru-disciple relationship is the bedrock of spirituality. For the disciple there is no one higher than the Guru. His attunement with his spiritual mentor is a pressing need; a seamless communion with the Guru the ladder on which he climbs up the path to deeper self-investigation. This connection has to be tenacious as well as flexible, ardent as well as judicious, vibrant but relaxed, pure yet easy. The Guru and disciple are after all one and the same: The entirety of spirituality lies in this realization.

Though the teachings of Guruji, the Satguru of the author, this book shows how a disciple may commence laying the foundation of this supreme tie and go about the spiritual journey. The teachings, given out through the shabads, are universal yet unique. They are this-worldly yet capable of ushering the sincere practitioner to the arms of the beloved infinite. They establish the grounds of humanity and of its dharma. They show that the Satguru is alone real, the pole star of the disciple, the husbandiman and protector of his soul, the truth that the earnest disciple and a misguided humanity seek in varied ways.

This book is a pilgrimage into the sacred territory of the Satguru's Word, a fulfilment in part of Guruji's instruction to his disciple. Guruji's words here are a great benediction, mapping our way to a common realm of love and light. They are the Word made vatic and sacrosanct, empowered by the truth-charge of his great being.

I do not recollect when precisely I met Guruji. Suffice it to say that I was a young man who had recently got his first job.

We clicked inexpressibly. I'd go to him as often as possible to find a security that was then alien to me. I was able to forget the demands of the day and the emotional toil they took of me. I also received, without expectation of any return, the best food in the world, darshan, peace, the teachings of the shabads and the Guru's grace.

Ever since, Guruji's grace has latched on to me, a person whose mental landscape blurs and changes with time and fancy. Incredible stories can be told of his superhuman powers and my life bears witness to a few of them. Yet that is not what is at the core of our relationship, and what I write here is an attempt to disentangle the substantial from the superficial, to arrive at what our relationship means, what the disciple's journey means, and how it goes forward.

Guruji is fully love, love incarnate yet quiet, still and inexpressible. This kind of love inheres inside the heart and is activated by the Guru. It is mysterious and unknowable not only because it is different from the everyday ken of experience but also because it is so innate to us that it is difficult for us to see and acknowledge it - like the fish not being cognisant of water. The reservoir of affection that flows from God to Guru to us allows us to deliver its sweet waters through many tributaries to others. Yet in our affections we forget the granter of this repository of love - God alone.

We do not love our Guru with our ever-vacillating mind, but with our heart. Even the greatest gyani will find his mind a shallow vehicle to be the receptacle of a Guru's tireless love. What Guruji does is to bring out the love that is deep inside our heart. He coaxes this love out, purifies it, moves it, nourishes it, performs miracles and wonders, but finally he brings it out. The Guru is thus an operational agent of love, even as he is love himself. The love between Guruji and his disciples is very human- at least for me. It is love anchored in reality, expressed in Truth, yet affectionately natural.