A Message from the Ram Gian Singh
Founder and CEO of GottaGettaGuru.com™
Greetings lovers of light and truth!
Here’s a metaphorical tale about why you got to get a guru: I was the boy with fifty packets of seeds, fruits and vegetables of all varieties, each packet inscribed with sacred directions, all of which I had read. Yet, I sat around wondering why I had not received the blessing of sustenance from my very own garden.
Why?
I had to take action, to embark on and commit to a spiritual practice!
I had to actually get up and follow those directions, tear open the seed packets, till the soil, plant the seeds, shelter and protect them from the harsh extremes of the weather and the plague of pests, water them, feed them and encourage them to grow. Only then would I reap the benefits!
You see, knowing about a Guru or Saint (or God personified actually or anthropomorphically) is definitely a good thing. However, it is like having packets of seeds and learning all about what to do with them, but still not doing it, not actually planting!
Having a Guru means you are ready for action, for WORK! It means committing to a very specific path, a path a Spiritual Master has blazed for you, a well-guided “way” that will lead you to bliss while helping you have a salutary effect on the world you are passing through on the way there!
A Guru chooses you.
Don’t worry if you don’t know which Guru to choose. “When the devotee is ready, the Guru appears.” So says Amma, my Guru. It is automatic!
But, having a Guru is only possible where there is a devotee (a devoted student), ready to do what he or she is told (ready to follow those proverbial directions!), not out of blind obedience, but because of clarity, because of a finally unobstructed vision.
That is “your part” – it is all you have to do. The Guru will do the rest! You will “feel” called to follow your Guru and once you do, you will be set for life.
Is your EGO ready for that?
Mine wasn’t, not for a very long time!
I had to be shaken, first and foremost from my ego, but also from love of books and knowledge, from living the life of a spiritual fad dieter, reading about this Guru and that Guru, this religion and that, this philosophy and that. It was the way my ego avoided coming to grips with the fact that I needed to act, to live the life, not just know the life, of true Love. Until I met Amma, I was just a good recording device. Oh, I could repeat back what I had read, but I had never even tried to live it!
“God’s Love in a woman’s body,” Amma, my Guru, coaxed me from my intellectualism, my sleep, and into the fields of action. Without her, I would probably still be sitting around, reading the directions, studying the lives and ways of the great Gurus, instead of trying to personify her ways in my own special way, to the live life of action she calls me to live.
Why Amma?
She spoke to my soul. I just “knew.”
Have I stopped being a Christian?
No. I’ve started being one!
Without prejudice to any other experience, I simply had too many doubts about the various Christian religions, whether Catholic or Protestant. For me, their “exclusivity” got in the way of The Way. And, on my own, mine wasn’t even a faith, for I had so dissected and parsed the scriptures, creeds and rituals, I no longer had any real faith at all. All I had was a vague feeling that Christ was who He said he was, but I then used a whole host of intellectual excuses to keep from acting as he’d taught me to act.
Finally, in crisis and by virtue of that crisis, humble, a Yogi and Satguru named Paramahansa Yogananda came my way through my wife and our friends. Yogananda helped me see that I was so intent on intellectually knowing the Truth, I had blinded my heart and paralyzed my Soul! Soon, Yogananda led me to Amma and she helped me to realize I had been railing against the darkness instead of lighting my own candle and doing my little part to spread the light where I stand.
Imagine if we can ALL do that!
GottaGettaGuru.com™ is an effort to pay forward the many blessings I have received and continue to receive from having begun to actively practice what I learned at the feet of a Master. I owe my calling to my wife, Vandana, my friends Dy Tyson and Dave Drews, the the Self-realization fellowship, and to the Gurus, especially the one who choose me: Amma.
I also owe my progress to Snatam Kaur and her angelic voice, the words she sings and spirit she brings from the Sikh tradition; Yogi Bhajan and Guru Ram Das; and to the teachers at Yoga Village, in Clearwater, Florida especially Sunder Kaur and my friend Niran Kar.
This site and everything that goes with it comes from my desire to be a conduit for all the precious lessons from all the great Gurus, especially the One.
I have known by study, but realize only by personal experience, by doing yoga, literally yoking myself to God with the aide and guidance of my Guru.
Chief among my lessons for you is: You Gotta Get A Guru!
The Plush Gurus offered for sale on this site are no more or less than a way to remember God, in whatever aspect you choose. May their presence in your life help you recall the One within.
Here is my prayer:
Lord, let it be that this site will help us all realize that You love everyone, no exceptions; that an all-powerful, all knowing, all loving God cannot and would never be confined to one set of man-made rules, one political system, one race, culture or creed, nor to one time or place in earthly history, which is why You have come so many times in so many ways, given us many so many Lights, so many Gurus, and yet You, oh Lord, remain One!
May those who visit this site find one Guru to actually follow! Any One, for You are in all and all are in You, thus they are all Yours and all lead to You!
May GottaGettaGuru.com™ serve as a pathway to Your Beloved Beacons of Light and Love for we travelers who are making our way to You and to Self-realization.
You, God, are as varied as Creation.
You, God, are in Creation and Creation is in You and of You, too – ALL of it and ALL of us!
May this site promote peace and loving-kindness.
Om Namah Shivaya, Amen, Sat Nam, and Namaste!