Something extraordinary happened when Lord Rama appeared on earth. God chose to come as a son, as a brother and as a disciple. As a king, he walked barefoot through forests and bowed before sage. Rama placed his Guru's words above his own comfort. He was the Supreme Lord and he never reminded any one of it. I think about this a lot when I think about Guruji.

Guruji has touched so many lives over the years. Though he's spent decades on the center stage and somehow he's still manages to keep the spotlight pointed everywhere but at himself. He turns our eyes back to God, again and again as if it's the easiest thing in the world. When his devotees grow, he celebrates like it happened to him. When someone has a breakthrough, he's the first to rejoice. As he says, everything belongs to the Divine.

I've watched him do this so many times now that it stopped surprising me and started teaching me something. He'll sit in a room full of people who came just to be near him, who'd wait hours to spend time with him and somehow by the end of it he's made it about their lives, their struggles, their growth. Not his.

Like Rama praising Hanuman instead of himself after the war was won, Guruji always redirects toward God, toward our own potential, toward the people who helped us along the way that we forget to thank.

The tree heaviest with fruit bends the lowest. The deepest rivers move without a sound. And the souls who've climbed highest are often the ones who'll kneel down first. I think Guruji has spent his whole life proving that.

Today my gratitude isn't just for what Guruji has taught us in words. It's for everything he's shown us without saying a thing. Decades of it. His life keeps reminding us that spiritual maturity isn't about how many people follow you. It's about how fully you can hand every success back to God, open palms, nothing held back.
Happy Birthday Guruji.

May we learn from you that the highest greatness is humility, the highest wisdom is gratitude and the highest love is making God the center of everything we are.

- Amrita dasi