The word Guruji consists of three syllables. Gu means ignorance, Ru means removal, Ji means a mark of respect. So the word Guruji means a respected one who removes your ignorance. Guruji means a teacher, a friend whom you can trust fully and who will always help you when you are in need.
You alone are instrumental in removing your ignorance. So Guruji is in you, as the light of consciousness. He (or she) is in fact, your own effort at removing your ignorance.
Why should you try to eliminate your ignorance? Because ignorance creates tensions, wastes energy. Elimination of ignorance opens you up to higher and better ways of being yourself, to live in joy and to spread that joy around you.
So, Guruji is first and foremost, yourself. Secondly, your mother and father, who together in their happiness gave you the great gift of life, are your Gurujis. Anyone who contributes to any kind of improvement in you is your Guruji, your beloved - like your mother like your father, like your brother, sister; or friend. Kindness and compassion and genuine concern for your welfare are the characteristics of your Guruji.
Here we are going to talk about a particular individual who is a Guruji, one among many, a humble soul, who likes to see joy welling up in every heart, a compassionate being, whom you can speak to, and whom you can relate to in any way you wish.
In Vizag in a Brahmin family, there was one.Narasimha Rao and Lakṣmī Narasamma. To them, Śrī Prahlada Sastry was born as the eldest son. Between the ages of 5 and 11 this boy had many spiritual experiences and asked many questions about spiritual topics that he could not find the answers to. As he became older he concentrated more on his study of science. He did research in Andhra University in Nuclear Physics, getting his M.Sc. and then went to Bombay for a job. There he worked as a scientist in the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. He took his Doctorate in Solid State Physics from Bombay University. He worked in Bombay for 23 years, doing all kinds of research in physics and its applications. During the final years at TIFR, Dr. Sastry had to be involved in certain aspects of scientific utilization which were more useful for destruction than for construction. For Dr. Sastry. who was interested in knowing about the Self, it was completely a negative kind of a feeling he had toward this research.
In 1977 Dr. Sastry had a divine inspiration in Hyderabad from Balaji, Balatripurasundari, at the Balaji Temple. Then and there he decided that whatever life was left in him he should utilize for the welfare of everyone, and definitely not for destruction. This initiation was later formalized when Dr. Sastry met Swami Svaprakashananda Avaduta and took Śrī Vidyā Pūrṇa Dīkṣā from him in Anakapalli. From that time onwards, Amṛtānanda was his Dīkṣā name, the name given him during initiation. Later on Goddess Saraswatī, who was his spiritual Guru, gave him the name Amṛtānanda Saraswatī as his Dīkṣā Nama.
Śrī Amṛtānanda continued for some time at TIFR, but his conscience made him continually question whether his work in the defence research ought to be continued. He began to tum from a search for truth in the external direction to a search for truth in an inward direction.
At that time he was offered an opportunity to teach Physics for 2 years in Zambia, Africa, at the University of Lusaka. So he bid goodbye to 25 years of scientific life and took advantage of the offer and moved to Lusaka. It was at this time that Śrī Amṛtānanda met one Mr. Wijayaharan, who became his "spiritual son" and disciple in Śrī Vidyā Upāsana. Haran later left Zambia and moved to the U.S. and established the Śrī Rājarājeśvarī Pīṭham in Rochester, New York, where he has been teaching the Śrī Vidyā Kau1a Dattātreya Saṃpradāya learned from Guruji and informing many devotees about Guruji and Devipuram.
Śrī Amṛtānanda returned to India in 1981. He resigned his job at TIFR, Bombay because he was not allowed to come back to his Pure Physics, but was forced to work in defence in the same destructive field. So in 1981 he moved back to Visakhapatnam to serve Devi and to do his best to establish the consciousness of Devi in everyone and to work for the upliftment of all people.
In 1983 Śrī Amṛtānanda did a major Yajña. with 108 Ritviks for 16 days in Visakhapatnam. It was a Devi Yagam. During this Yaga the Putrevu brothers donated 3 acres of garden for building a temple for Devi. Next to these 3 acres, Śrī Amṛtānanda purchased 10 acres of land with his own money and registered it in the name of Devi. He used to come there every week looking for any strong indication that this was indeed the place intended for Devi worship.
The place was full of cashew nut plantations. There was no water anywhere. Close to the place given as a donation, there was a small hill. On the slope of the hill Śrī Amṛtānanda discovered a place which was very similar to the Kāmākhyā Pīṭham in Assam. There was a huge boulder of 18 feet and on either side were two elevations resembling the thighs of a woman. There was also a triangular depression which reminded him of a Yoni, a woman’s genitals. This formation is held sacred by Śaktas as a symbol of the abundant procreative power of the Divine Mother.
He used to sit and meditate on this rock formation often. During one meditation he had a vision. He was lying flat in the triangular depression of the Yoni looking up. Flames were issuing from his body. He saw four Ritviks offering oblations into the flames, chanting mantras from Sama Veda. At the Pūrṇāhuti he felt a heavy object the size of a fist being placed in his heart. He woke up from the trance and dug up the place to discover a Śrī Cakra Meru made of Pañcaloha (5 precious metals), bearing burn marks due to the heat of the fire. On enquiry, it turned out that a major Yaga did occur 250 years ago at the same place.
During another occasion Śrī Amṛtānanda saw the Devi as a devastatingly beautiful girl 16 years old. He received Her blessings to build a Kāmākhyā Pīṭham on this hill site, and the Meru Nilayam on the donated site nearby. She instructed him to reserve the Kāmākhyā Pīṭham for Śakti Pūjās according to the sattvic Kaula tradition. Accordingly, he built the Kāmākhyā Digambara Avadhuta Pīṭham on the site. At the top of the hill he built a Śiva temple as protector of the place and to also afford some measure of visibility from the road. These two temples were consecrated in 1984.
In 1985 he started building the Śrī Meru, Nilayam on the land that was donated. The Śrī Meru Nilayam is the only temple of its kind in India or elsewhere that is built as an exact geometrical representation of the Śrī Cakra Meru in a three-dimensional form. It measures 108 ft. by 108 ft. on ground and it rises majestically to a height of 54 ft. in three stories.
The uniqueness of the Meru Nilayam is that devotees can walk around and into it and witness all the forms of the Devi mentioned in the Śrī Devi Khadgamala Stotram. In addition, the devotees themselves may do Pūjā to these Devis and Yoginis, irrespective of caste, color, creed, religion or sex.
These forms have never been carved before and are exquisite representations of the Sṛṣṭi, Sthiti and Laya manifestations of the Śrī Cakra. They portray the many aspects and properties of Mother as She manifests in the universe, all in natural form, ready to free devotees from the bonds of lower passions, grant them all desires, and carry them to Her transcendent states of Samadhi.
The Śrī Meru Nilayam is dedicated to the propagation of fine arts, Śakti worship and Yoga. It will contribute in a very significant way to enriching the surrounding areas, and to peace and harmony in the world. In due course of time, it will form an important link in a chain of such temples of fine arts all over the world dedicated to Mother worship.
-GURUJI AMRITANANDA
