‘I say that love is the only way to transform an individual. You can strike fear in somebody’s heart and extract a certain behavior from them but that is likely to be temporary. In the end, you have to flush their heart and mind and consciousness with so much love that they would want to change for you and would want to adopt the new way voluntarily.’

Similarly, on the path of awakening, devotion is the only way because it’s devotion alone that’s going to soften you. With purely bookish knowledge, the hardened tendencies, ego, and so forth don’t really leave you. They may go away for a little while only to come back with greater vengeance and force. Devotion is the only thing that’s going to smoothen out the rough edges, it is the only thing that’s going to melt you, that’s really going to make you feel that it doesn’t matter… nothing matters… nothing matters eventually.

Quoting from his upcoming book on the Sri Suktam Sadhana, Swamiji highlighted the power of devotion. As Swamiji read through the ninth chapter of his upcoming book, he shared His thoughts on this 9th verse of Sri Suktam –

 

गन्धद्वारां दुराधर्षां नित्यपुष्टां करीषिणीम् ।
ईश्वरीं सर्वभूतानां तामिहोपह्वये श्रियम्  ॥ 9 II

gandhadvārāṃ durādharṣāṃ nityapuṣṭāṃ karīṣiṇīm I

īśvarīṃ sarvabhūtānāṃ tāmihopahvaye śriyam II 9 II

Mother Divine’s grace travels by way of fragrance, sugandha, and destroys enemies and afflictions, not necessarily only physical, which are ephemeral, transient, and impermanent just like fragrance.

Urging each and every one to light the incense of devotion, He said, “If you light the incense, the fragrance [of devotion] will emit. If we really have to sum it up, that is really my life’s mission: to fill your life with fragrance. It gives me joy.”

 

With these words, Swamiji enfolded His spiritual children in the sweet fragrance of his blessings: May the fragrance of devotion enable you to travel across various spheres, and plains of consciousness and you experience untold beauty, untold glory in each moment of  your life. That to me is something worth living for, worth working on!

Tears flowed freely as Swamiji said, “My love for you has only grown. I didn’t think that it was possible. I thought that my love for you was already at an optimum point but as time passes, you know, most waking moments I feel… I sense the deep bond that you share with me and I thought the least I could do to reciprocate, is to give you all I have, in a manner that my physical presence or availability does not become an impediment to your spiritual growth.”

Talking about the steps he had taken in the past couple of years and his decisions regarding the changes in the process of initiation, Swamiji reassured everyone that the idea behind the simplification of the initiation process was for us to become more independent and progress on our paths, at our own pace. These decisions helped to filter out those who weren’t aligned with His thought process. He said, “If someone is not aligned, it’s hard for me to work on that individual or to really make a difference to their consciousness.”

Radiating loving compassion, He alleviated everyone’s anxiety and said, ‘I am with you, of course, on this journey, totally, nothing has changed on that front.”

Each and every word spoken by Swamiji on this sacred and auspicious occasion was filled with divine love and empathy. His karuna rippled out of the screen and drenched each one’s consciousness with transcendence. He said that the deep connection he shared with everyone was something that inspired Him personally and gave Him a lot of joy.

The rich tapestry of Swamiji’s discourse that lasted a little more than 30 minutes was tightly interwoven with the silken threads of His deep love and affection for all of us and studded with priceless and precious diamonds such as these …

‘Some of you do sense what you mean to me but probably most of you don’t. Even though you know, you can’t fathom the depths of it. How much it matters to me how you are doing and if you are okay. I am not a therapist and may be unable to take long calls or sessions, but I am a servant of the Divine Mother and my job is to serve and it’s something I don’t lose sight of.’

‘If I can have you fall in love with God, then my job is done. Because then it means that I have been able to introduce the one constant in your life. Everything else in the world is transactional. People come and go, divine energy is the only constant.’

‘A remarkable accomplishment, the only one worth writing on my resume, if there was one, [is that] I could help my loved ones connect to their source. Everything else becomes immaterial and secondary.’

And,

‘Please know, that wherever you are physically, emotionally, or spiritually you can count on me in ways more than one. And, as I always say, at least there is one person in the world who only ever wishes you well. Your well-being, your happiness, your meaningful time on this earth is worth everything, it’s worth infinity.’

He ended the session with a very powerful benediction: ‘May the grace of Mother Goddess continue to work through you and may you continue to do beautiful things with your blessed lives and make yourself and this world a better place.’

His parting words: There is nothing that I can think of that I wouldn’t do for you. That’s my source of energy. If whatever I do is not helping somebody, if it’s not making your life better in some way then what purpose do I have? – filled to overflowing each person’s heart and soul.

Along with a promise to meet everyone once again in August, Swamiji bid a smiling goodbye to everyone. Swamiji missed us, He said somewhat shyly and that put a wide grin on everyone’s face, for sure!