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Life was so sound, healthy, and evident that by its own power, as in a plant of nature, it grew and multiplied.
Gurudev comes from a lineage of Masters whose greatest gift to mankind was the sharing of this thought through their exemplary lives and numerous talks. Gurudev has given close to ten thousand talks in his forty years of teaching, perhaps two or three thousand in the last ten years alone. Why does he use so many breaths, so much energy? To lift a sinking spirit, to gladden a sorrowful heart, to shine a ray of awareness into a clouded mind. It's the very fabric of his enlightened consciousness. “Savvijiva karu shassana rassi," is the air that such a compassionate soul breathes, “Let me inspire every living being to come to his own nature and to the teaching of reverence for life.” It is a dream but not an impossible one. If everyone were to revere and embrace their own lives, they would stop abusing both themselves and others. They would focus on life rather than death, on unity instead of alienation, on peace instead of pain, on fullness instead of lack.
This inspiration is at the heart of Gurudev's life in America. Someone asks him, “What do you think of America?” He observes, "America is a young land with a youthful energy. It is not so burdened with concepts, conditions, and a long history. This energy has made many advances in science and technology which I admire. But it can burn itself out if it does not get a clear direction, a real teaching, in the light of Reverence for Life.” Gurudev is here to point this energy into the right direction, to help prevent a Third World War. Continually, he asks people to ask themselves, “What is the purpose of man's achievement if it ends only in war and violence? If we go with the empty hands, what is the meaning of our living? What does man bear at the end of the journey? Man bears his Enlightenment. He is friend to all and enemy to none. He goes with a light heart. He had touched his life and is ready to go at any time. He knows, 'I am life. Wherever I go, I go with life.' That is the fragrance he carries with him everywhere."
From the beginning of his stay in America to the present, Gurudev has come to be known to a wide variety of people associated with institutions of higher learning, global-minded organizations, and many fields of interest. Many of them in
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