The Guru's Feet: On Lineage, Humility, and Listening All the Way Through
Sri Shyamji moved among some of the most recognized names in yoga and spiritual teaching of the last century, playing music with Ravi Shankar, teaching alongside Harish Johari. But he was never famous the way they were.
I don't think that was an accident. He told me himself that his own Guru instructed him never to build a big following around himself, that it can spoil the ego. Sri Shyamji was a Nada and Svar Yoga Master, and his focus was on completion, unity with divine truth. He taught us graciously, but his orientation was always upward as the great masters are.
That doesn't mean he was small, or hiding. He traveled the world. He had students on nearly every continent. He could pack a house and play a concert. But he was more of a well-kept secret than a household name, subtle, just like his teachings. You needed ears and eyes to actually recognize him. He was not for the beginner.
What he taught wasn't simple either, even when it looked simple. He spoke to his most adept students the way Kabir wrote poetry- from the highest perspective of the tradition, capable of taking someone all the way. He left breadcrumbs for those with the right ears that can forever guide one's journey inward. He of course also spoke to students who were less developed, giving them what they could hold and helping them expand their capacity, he turned no one away, but it was hard work, his teachings require discipline and purification to be prepared to receive the teachings. He utilized movement and developed a facial massage to assist the Microchakras, but he knew the fastest route was sound and breath.
He only ever offered the advanced teachings after purification, he knew the importance of preparation to receive the knowledge and the mantras. He developed a 3-Body Purification to assist people in readying themselves for their spiritual potential, it was never negotiable on his end, advanced teachings followed purification- it took time, energy, discipline and commitment. Each purification he reviewed Chakra material but we all knew we were not hearing the same teaching over and over, there was a subtlety to what was communicated and what we were ready for. The real gift, the real teachings, were in his sounds, the mantras and the space (akasha) he could create.
There are so many layers of karma, he would describe the ego as thick like a callus, that needs to be shaved down, and a person can only handle so much at once. He was peeling it away, layer by layer, so a person could slowly come up toward the light. You can't see that happening in the moment. Usually you only see it looking back, realizing you could only have gotten where you are because your Guru guided you there. The Guru Tattva or principle says one needs the Guru to light the way. In this tradition, the Guru is how the Divine speaks to you and how you bring yourself to the proper respect for the path. You listen. You follow. This is the path, you don't pick and choose what you want to hear and set the rest aside.
This path is very difficult to convey in the Western world. We tend to resist teachers or only take the parts we want or understand in the moment. We think we can find the way- the ego is strong. And not everyone is your teacher or even a real teacher, but when it is....The Guru Tattva is real, through the development of ourselves as a student, through purification, through devotion (Bhakti) and finally through the Jnana (true knowledge) of the Guru, one becomes fit for the upward stages of this path. True knowledge can be heard and not received, not understood, because the vessel was not prepared. For others, they hear it once and awakening occurs. Developing our capacity to uncover and hold the light, the light that we are, but cannot be seen through the density of ego, is the work he offered.
This is why I'm doing this work the way I am. It's slow most days, and unglamorous, it will likely take my whole life to archive his life's work. Yet, this knowledge, this light, it cannot be lost. It is here for those that can recognize its glow.
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