Foreword§
EACH YEAR ON CHITRA NAKSHATRA, THE LUNAR DAY OF HIS GREAT DEPARTURE IN 2001, the monks offer at Gurudeva’s feet something to honor his life and mission. This year, for the first time since his Great Departure, the lunar and solar days both fell on November 12. In the past, this Mahasamadhi souvenir has been a calendar, a Spiritual Toolbox, videos on CD (remember those?), a book of his spiritual visions, a photo album and more. This book is the 2020 offering, special in that it brings forward a key teaching that he stressed to his monks and close shishyas but that, until now, has not been widely shared.§
There are three forms of art herein: black-and-white pencil sketches of Gurudeva based on historic photographs, dramatically colorful circular symbols used for the chapter spreads, and colored illustrations on the inside of the cover. The pencil sketches are the amazing work of Natalie Levin, an Arizona artist who knew Gurudeva and is also something of a sage, though she would never think that. Natalie is the sculptor who crafted the four-foot-tall bronze of Sadasiva that sits today in the sacred gardens on Kauai. She did not know, when she drew the first sketch, that this would become such a rich collection. One by one they flew off the page. She tells that some of them drew themselves. A few are from Gurudeva’s early years as a satguru, but most are of him in the 1980s and 1990s. Together they capture his inner moods as well as his physical evolution through the years. We asked Natalie to share what she, the artist, sees in each sketch, and her comments are shared as captions opposite each portrait.§
The vivid symbols used on the chapter spreads and the illustrations on the endsheets are the work of South Indian artist and musician S. Rajam [1919–2010]. The symbols were commissioned to represent concepts found in the Vedas from Raimon Pannikar’s book, The Vedic Experience. The two endsheets are taken from S. Rajam’s illustrations in The Guru Chronicles.§
It is amazing to reflect that Gurudeva’s entire language of Shum is structurally based on the seven dimensions you will study here, so important was this insight into the mind to him. With palms pressed together, we offer this small book at Gurudeva’s feet, as we continue to live in awe and appreciation of his remarkable and impactful presence on the Earth. Aum Namasivaya!§