Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati

If we can simply bring this teaching, or a similar one from our own tradition, into our lives, then every minute will make a difference! Most of us draw artificial lines between our “spiritual lives” and our “other” lives, and these lines cause suffering. We either feel that we don’t have enough time for our spiritual practice and therefore blame our situation or our family members for the absence of spirituality in our lives; or, we do our 20 or 30 minutes of spiritual practice and then go out and act as though what we chanted or prayed has no bearing on how we live the rest of our day. In both ways, there is a disconnection, when the whole goal is connection!

How many of us have cursed other drivers, passengers in our car, family members, employers, or the clerk in the grocery store for making us late to our yoga class, meditation class, or kirtan group? Isn’t that same Divine upon whom we meditate present in the people who made us late? Isn’t that same Divine whose glories we sing in kirtan present in every driver, every clerk, and every employee? All of our religions, in their own languages and their own ways, tell us that God is infinite and omnipresent. There is no religion I know of that says, “Oh, God only lives here in this box.” So if God is infinite and omnipresent, then wherever we are, whatever we’re doing, with whomever we are interacting, that is an opportunity to practice yoga and meditation. It’s an opportunity to connect with the divine. Then our lives become spiritual practice AND service: I am growing internally in my experiential awareness of Oneness, Union, and Divinity. Because I am seeing the world as an embodiment of the Divine, naturally I am less likely to abuse, fight, exploit, and injure, and more likely to help, embrace, to give.

OMTIMES: How does someone know if they have met their spiritual teacher or Guru? There is often much controversy here in the U.S. on this topic. Do you have any advice? Why do we need a “Guru”?