The day I recieved my spiritual name

On the day of getting our names, Guru had told us that we would be getting them, so to come prepared and to be in our best consciousness.

We were all wearing white. One by one, Guru called us up. He would stand there and place his hands on our head. When I came up, he put one hand on my third eye and the other hand on the top of my head. As I was standing there, Guru kept one hand on my third eye and then he put the other hand directly on my spiritual heart.

The force was so powerful, I actually felt a physical electricity going into my third eye and in my heart centre. It was electric. It was so strong. I could physically feel this buzzing energy and my mind was completely blank. There were no thoughts, nothing. He was in complete control of me, of whoever I was. He completely took me out into this absolute, beautiful, wonderful, luminous, blissful state. That’s all I can say.

Then he started chanting my name. My name is Banshidhar. He chanted Ban…shi… dhar, Ban…shi… dhar.  He kept chanting this many, many times. I felt like he was pulling something from way, way, way deep inside of me. I never had that experience ever. He pulled something from way inside and it was coming out.

Then he started to say what it means. He went on and said many things but the most important is that Banshidhar means Lord Krishna, who plays the divine cosmic melody on the flute and awakens the universal consciousness.

Guru wrote some songs with banshari bajao which means the flute player. The banshi or banshari is the flute and banshidhar is the flute player.

That changed everything. It changes everything when your Master does this with you and you become his disciple. Guru says that once he accepts you as his disciple and you accept him as your master, it's forever. It is FOR..EV…ER.  Every day of this life and for every other life that we have, Guru is always with us.  From that moment, Guru has been with me every single step of the way. Whether I was running or stumbling, sleeping or going backwards, sidewards, forwards or upwards, Guru has always been there, present no matter what state of consciousness I've been in.

As seekers, we are going to go through all kinds of states of consciousness, all kinds of experiences—ups and downs and ins and outs. But Guru is always, always here with us, always. It never changes. He is always there, always here.  

While He plays on His Flute,
My Lord Krishna brings down
His own Divinity’s Summit-Peace
And Summit-Bliss.

Sri Chinmoy 1

• 1. Enthusiasm, part 6, 2004