How I was given the spiritual name Gyaneshwarpuri.
My Master Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda gives a spiritual name to his disciples. Taking a spiritual name is a symbol of vairagya – renunciation, adherence to the spiritual path. It is similar to when a monk who enters a monastery renounces secular bonds and chooses a new spiritual name to carry. A similar thing happens in yoga. I was invited by Swamiji to live in the Jadan Ashram in India for 5 years. That brought out the vairagya in me. Taking the yoga name was my effort to get closer to the native Indians. So as a sign of renunciation, I had my birth name Marek Šenkyřík changed to Marek Gyaneshwarpuri, which means HE WHO HAS UNDERSTOOD. I received this name from my Master in 1996 under very mystical circumstances. It was at one big joyous satsang. Swamiji was just talking about the Bhagavad Gita, and he said that the best commentary on this holy book was written by the saint Gyaneshwari. At that time, I had a hidden desire to be given a spiritual name, but I couldn’t say it out loud. Suddenly, the Master asked those of us present: “Which of you would like to be called Gyaneshwarpuri?” He added that it was “a very powerful name and that if he were not already called Maheshwarananda, he would want to be called Gyaneshwarananda.” Swamiji thought so highly of this yogic name. I could feel my whole body becoming electrified, as if every atom of it was speaking that name. So I claimed this name and became Gyaneshwarpuri… I am completely satisfied with this name. The inner longing of my soul was thus satisfied. It means that I have a spiritual name to realize. Gyana (jnana) is a yogic path, one of the four paths of traditional yoga. These paths are: karma yoga, bhakti yoga, raja yoga and finally gyana yoga. By gyana yoga, I imagine a hermit’s path, above duality, in voluntary helplessness, in concentration on the Divine Principle. Gyana is difficult to understand. It is a solitary, monastic path. The conjunction of the names Marek and Gyaneshwarpuri further symbolizes that I thought I was a Christian before I realized that I was actually a yogi and a Hindu.
© Swami Gyaneshwarpuri
E-mail: yoga@gyaneshwarpuri.cz
Web: www.hermityoga.cz
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SWAMI GYANESHWARPURI POUSTEVNÍK
