Raju Hiremath

      On the holiest night of the year – Shivaratri, while the whole world echoes with chants “Har Har Mahadev” & "Om Namah Shivaya", the Lord Shiva himself sits still - deep in meditation. Beneath his magnificent form, there is subtle vibration of a secret name even the Lord of Dance chants to find his own peace. The beautiful mystery is – the silent chant Mahadev is whispering. A little background… Once in Kailasa, Mata Sati noticed Lord Shiva meditating on his stone seat as usual. Daily he would spend long hours meditating. After his meditation there would be a smile on his face, this was his routine she had noticed. On this day Mata felt more curious, she approached her Nath & spoke in her sweet and gentle voice “Prabhu, whom do you meditate on? You are Parameshwara. Who is that, on whom even Sakshat Parameshwara longs to go in meditative trance?" Sundareshwara calmly opened his eyes, with a smile on his face says one word, “Rama”. He pauses for...

Nowadays we see many people calling themselves a Spiritual Guru or Master. Wearing traditional attire, these so-called Gurus are all over the country, taking name of Lord Ram, Shiva or Krishna.  I’ve seen people suddenly rebrand themselves as spiritual gurus. By growing long beards, learning few kirtans and adopting fancy names - they arrange seed funding via politicians/officials to launder black money followed by smart niche marketing. Main goal here is to amass wealth for self. The perpetrator & those who encourage such Gurus even after knowing his ploy forget that they've done it wrong in God’s name - a bad karma. As a consequence, they'll have to take countless births just to return all the money back to unsuspecting people from whom they had taken it. Maybe that's why there is an old saying called "Chor Guru, Chandala Shishya"! Who is a Guru?    Guru is the one who takes you from darkness to the light. He will not take you to your destiny; he will show y...