Jai Guru. Jai Guru. Jai Guru. Jai.
Divine Gurudev,
we vow reverence and divine gratitude to you
Jai Guru.
To joy, to be here this morning
at the International Headquarters of Self-Realization Fellowship
along with the monks and nuns
of Gurudev Parmahansa Yogananda's SRF ashrams
to inaugurate the celebration
of this centennial year of the founding of Self-Realization Fellowship.
And we have chosen, as you all know, this day
January 5th, the birthday of our beloved Gurudev,
because it is such a sacred and auspicious day for all of us.
Sri, Sri Paramahansa Yogananda, ki
Jai.
As you all know
it is customary on the anniversary of our Guru's birthday in India to have a
devotional procession.
So all of us together and all who are participating by video
come with us on this pilgrimage.
Join us as we walk these divinely charged holy grounds.
And so in that spirit of pilgrimage
join in in that spirit and along with that join in with the chanting.
As our kirtan group will be leading us in these beautiful chants,
Jai Guru, Victory to Guru - feel. Feel as we chant. Feel that infusion of blessing.
Feel that outpouring of divine grace as we chant Jai Guru, Victory to Guru.
Guru is dispeller of darkness.
So feel that as we chant that that great life, that great blessing,
that great power with which he incarnated for the sake of all of us,
is dispelling all obstacles, all darkness of ignorance, of delusion.
Our Guru said that he meditated
everywhere on these grounds. He spent many many
occasions in divine ecstasy, in divine joy, in divine communion
all over this sacred ashram, these sacred grounds.
So as we walk in his footsteps
let us feel that joy, let us feel that divine presence, let us feel that divine communion.
Remember as our Guru said in that spirit of pilgrimage,
said, "There is great value in visiting places where saints have lived.
Such places, such as here,
at our beautiful International Headquarters Mount Washington,
such places are forever permeated
with the vibrations left there by the divine souls who walked those grounds.
Their vibrations will remain until this earth is dissolved.
Where souls have communed with God,
there you will find greater communion and response from God.
Often such pilgrimages
completely change one's life for the better."
Remember as Guruji said,
"A place of divine communion, that is what Mount Washington is going to be.
Day and night we shall drink His name.
In this way, we shall seek Him, feel Him, and speak of Him that those who come here
may go away singing, feeling, and talking of God."
In that joyous consciousness feel and be immersed
and exult and rejoice in the divine gift of our Guru's life
and the divine gift of Kriya Yoga that he has brought to all of us and to the world
through his divine dispensation of Self-Realization Fellowship.
Jai Guru. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.
Dear ones of God and Guru, feeling the great upliftment
of blessings, of divine love, divine joy
that our Guru Paramahansa Yogananda
incarnated to bring to us and to bring to all the world that our hearts open,
that our minds fully receive, and that our souls bask in that divine light,
that divine consciousness, that eternal living presence
which is our Guru, Paramahansa Yogananda.
May his love and blessings ever be with us,
ever guide and strengthen Self-Realization Fellowship,
all of its members and devotees and followers and friends around the world
and bless with that same love, with that same divine upliftment,
our entire human family
as a divine radiance encircling the globe.
Let that blessing, let that grace of God and the Great Ones flow over all humanity
on this sacred day,
throughout the sacred year, and for all the years to come.
Jai Guru. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.