My Guruji Sri Sri Anandanandanatha!!!

With deep emotional feelings, I, (Santosh Kumar Raja) disciple of Shri Ravi Guruji, Deeksha nama – Sri Anandanandanatha, am writing this article to give a glimpse of our beloved Guruji and his perspective on Sri Vidya and Spirituality.

In this Kaliyuga, it is a norm and common knowledge that everything is commercialized, packaged and marketed as a brand, including spirituality. There was a lone rebel in the form of Guruji himself, who was none other than the personification of the Divine Mother Lalitambika, to take the bull by the horns! It was the time when Srividya was exclusively reserved for the elite few, born in certain privileged families, lineages, caste etc., They were successful to the extent that, most of us who were born into Sanatana Dharma and are practicing Hindus, were not aware of Sri Vidya and its importance, until Guruji ushered it into the world in his characteristic style and openness.Guruji made strides to reveal the divine secrets for the benefit of all.

Even today, some scholars are of the opinion that it is a taboo to consider the non-privileged as eligible, to learn and practice this sacred vidya. As per them, it is prohibited to speak or reveal the mantras to the uninitiated and even to discuss their nuances in public. The compassion of Guruji was such, that he had decided to give this information to the world at large, with no remuneration in return – no guru Dakshina in particular, so that every person irrespective of caste, creed, status, religion or sex, can drink the nectar of Srividya! He truly had become the most compassionate Kamakshi Herself, in his generosity and compassion.

Even though Guruji was trolled, abused and attacked for making the mantras public, as it had upset the well-entrenched Gurus who were deeply concerned and worried that their hegemony would be destroyed, their commercial models impacted, he remained undeterred and his total commitment in revealing the secrets to all sincere seekers of the world, kept him going! Guruma was a pillar of support and a proof reader of all his articles and remained as Guruji’s Shakti, to get the blog going!

Shri Ravi Guruji was a senior bank officer who took early retirement in his 40s at the peak of his career, on meeting his Guruji (My Parama Guruji Satyajitanandanatha). He had decided to immerse himself in spirituality and thereby dedicated himself completely. His courage to take this huge gamble considering his humble financial status, is not only praise worthy but also difficult to comrephend as rarely does one take such huge risks when they’re not financially secure, have family and responsibilities. Guruma once again stood as a pillar of support and did not stop him from pursuing his spiritual calling.

Guruji served his guru (our Paramaguru Shri Satyajitanandanatha) from early morning till late night before Paramaguruji fell asleep, every day for several years. This went on till the passing of Paramaguruji. Guruji discussed various spiritual subjects with his Guru and learnt the secrets of the Upanishads, Vedas, mantras, meditation and various rituals by his grace. He continued his learning after the passing of his Guruji, by interacting with other Gurus and learned scholars of various philosophical streams. He was relentless in his pursuit of gathering knowledge from various sources including books, journals, manuscripts etc. Finally, overflowing with all the knowledge and overwhelmed with compassion towards sharing the vast knowledge of what he had gathered over a decade, Guruji decided to write and make it available for all interested seekers. He had decided that those who did not have access to a perfect guru like his Guruji, should not be denied all this knowledge! It was his noble intention that others should not go through the same pains that he underwent and this knowledge should be available for the general public with a spiritual bent. He was very particular that sincere seekers should not be befooled and trapped by charlatans, priests and half knowledge scholars in parting with their wealth, health and peace of mind. Instead, let the interested find the true meaning of mantras, Vedas, Upanishads and all other holy scriptures to ascend spiritually and also find solutions through mantra japa and sadhana for both mundane and spiritual quests.

Imagine, 20+ years ago when internet and technology was still not rampant as it is today and with low bandwidth and access, as well as availability in terms of devices to the common man, Guruji had decided to create a blog despite all these limitations. Though Guruji did not have any knowledge of how to create a blog or was even tech savvy, still at the age of 50+ from 2003 onwards, he made strides to learn online on how to create a blog and began posting articles. They were an instant hit and thousands of disciples across the globe began to read and get connected to the Divine Mother. The hidden wisdom was suddenly brought back into the open world for everyone to read and get benefitted. His quest to be a pied piper leading sadhakas and all spiritual enthusiasts from making blunders, began taking a shape in the form of his curiously named blog – Manblunder! A time had come when he ran out of space on his blog and had to continue into another blog called Manblunderplus, which also filled up pretty fast. The entire cost of maintaining the blogs, content, domains, discussion forum etc., were being borne by Guruji himself, without any contributions from anyone until a point came when he became overburdened and he reluctantly sought help from those who wanted to contribute for the upkeep of the blogs. It was simply a plea and not a demand from anyone. All of the content of the blogs, as well as initiations were free and remain the same to this day! It was at this time that Mr. Suresh, a close disciple of Guruji and a dear friend of mine, came up with the idea of migrating the content to a website and modernizing the same for easier management. Both Suresh and I became the admins for the content management under the ownership of Guruji.

As per Guruji’s own admission, he admitted that he used to spend 18 to 20 hours a day answering queries, initiating sadhakas and also posting content. During this time Guruma’s health also declined and she underwent treatment for cancer and the toll on guruji increased manifold. His activities and dedication to the blogs and later to the website was such, that he would skip functions, visits to places and all social gatherings, in his noble quest of helping out the numerous sadhakas who would send their queries to him and spend hours on skype, discussing their problems or seeking his blessings. Guruji admitted that he would pray before sleep, not for himself or his family members, but for the sadhakas who needed the grace of the Divine Mother to get through their difficult times.

A decade and a half later, Guruji made a decision to graduate a few of his advanced shishyas as Gurus and began to direct new sadhakas to the newly minted gurus. He stopped writing since late 2018 and his last series was the ‘Spiritual Journey’, which elucidates the spiritual secrets in a simple manner and provides a path through the adoption of Advaita Vedanta leading the spiritual aspirants to self-realization. The website Manblunder.com itself, became a partner in one’s spiritual journey!

There are a number of publications of Shri Ravi guruji under his given name V. RAVI, on Amazon. The contents of these books are also spread out on the Manblunder website, under various categories and articles.

Me along with Guruji

Guruji lived by these exemplary principles and adhered to them, rain or shine! -

  1. No commercialization: there are no products, services sold on this website for money.
  2. Mantras should never be sold for money.
  3. Everyone is eligible for Sri Vidya sadhana. The only requirement is devotion and faith.
  4. No hierarchy, casteism or elite status requirements. Anyone could reach out to Guruji through emails and he would respond promptly. There was no filtering of any kind, even in approving the comments posted on the website, unless they were obscene. He allowed criticism of all types unless they were profane.
  5. Self-Realization is possible in this life time itself and everyone must strive to achieve it!
  6. Guru and Disciple relation is always one to one. He abhorred mass contact and initiations and termed them as gimmicks and ineffective.
  7. A disciple should be free to clarify any doubts that they may have with their Guruji. The bond is strictly spiritual.
  8. A true Guru is a giver, NOT a taker. The Guru must NOT withhold knowledge from his shishyas and should be a true partner in their spiritual upliftment.
  9. One can solve all their problems through regular sadhana.

 

……………………..to be continued