Christ First Forum

I was doing a crossword puzzle when it asked about a 5 letter word for Hindu leader... It prompted this post..No the only leader is Jesus.

Often people ask questions like, "What is a swami?" or "Why did you become a swami?" In areas such as Rishikesh or Haridwar, India, along the Ganges, it is not a question that needs to arise. Many swamis are there, and all you have to do is say, "Behold, those are swamis!" However, in geographical areas where there are few swamis wandering around, these are more curious questions.

The word swami means master; it means striving for the mastery over one's smaller self and habit patterns, so that the eternal Self within may come shining through. The act of becoming a swami is not so much an acting of becoming, of adding on, of allegiance, as it is an act of setting aside, of renunciation. A swami is a monk, one who has set aside all of the limited, worldly pursuits, so as to devote full time effort to the direct experience of the highest spiritual realization, and to the service of others along those lines. Renunciation is not anti-world, in any sense of the world being a bad place. Rather, it is a matter of priorities about how one will spend his or her time, the twenty-four hours in a day, and the seven days in a week. Traditionally renunciation is the fourth of four stages of life, although one who feels the call might renounce and become a swami at any stage of life.

http://swamij.com/what-is-a-swami.htm