There are people whose presence changes the course of our lives. For me, Swami Dayananda Saraswati was one of those people.
I first heard Swamiji speak at the college I was attending. I was already engaged in spiritual life and looking for a teacher. Although I did not yet fully understand what freedom meant, I knew it was what I was seeking. After the talk, I went up to him and said, “I want to see what you see and know what you know.”
That encounter began a relationship that would change my life. What I received from him went far beyond teaching.
Swamiji saw me.
He saw strength where I saw weakness. He trusted my capacity when I questioned it. And when I was overwhelmed, he met me with a steadiness I had never known.
He was honest with me. Sometimes very direct. But beneath that clarity was a kindness that made it possible for me to hear him.
He was a lighthouse in my life.
He treated me as though I mattered long before I could see my own worth. For years, I relied on the confidence he had in me because I had none in myself.
Gradually, that changed. I began to take in what he had been telling me all along: that I was inherently good, intelligent, strong, capable, and that my life had value.
Swamiji died before he could see everything that came later. There are times I wish he could see the life I have now and the woman I have become.
But perhaps, in some way, he already did.
I dedicated “Song of Gratitude” in I’m Not My Story to him because gratitude is what remains.
