The word "guru" is often misunderstood.

A guru is someone who helps remove the darkness of ignorance by pointing you back to the light that already lives within you. They don't ask you to follow them instead of God. They help you recognize the Divine within yourself, within others, and within all of life.

Every teacher I've loved has done exactly that. I'd love to introduce you to the gurus who have most deeply shaped my life.

Neem Karoli Baba

Neem Karoli Baba, also known as Maharaj-ji, was a Hindu guru devoted to Hanuman who spent his final years at Kainchi Dham, a small ashram he built in the Indian Himalayas in 1964. He never wrote a book or built an organization around himself. He simply loved people, fed people, and pointed them back toward God. It was through him that so many Western seekers first found their way to Eastern spirituality — Ram Dass among them, whose time with Maharaj-ji became the foundation of the book Be Here Now and, later, of the Love Serve Remember Foundation that carries his teachings forward today.

His great teaching was simple:

"Love everyone. Serve everyone. Remember God."

Those words have become the foundation of my life, my teaching, and the way I try to walk through the world.

Amma

Amma — Mata Amritanandamayi — was born in 1953 into a poor fishing family in Kerala, India. She's known around the world as "the hugging saint," because since 1987 she has traveled the world offering darshan, her spiritual blessing, through a simple embrace — she has now embraced more than 40 million people. What began as comfort for the troubled souls in her village grew into a global humanitarian network now running over 160 projects across 48 countries, including hospitals, disaster relief, and tens of thousands of homes built for the homeless.

Amma has shown me what unconditional love looks like in action. Through her example, I've learned that devotion isn't separate from serving the world. Every embrace, every humanitarian project, and every act of compassion reminds me that love is something we live.

Jesus

I was raised by deeply mystical Catholics, so in many ways Jesus was my very first guru. Long before I understood the word "guru," he planted the first seeds of devotion in my heart.

And then there is one more teacher...

The one I never expected.

My son, Cheyne.

His life — and his passing — have taught me more about love, surrender, compassion, and the mystery of the human heart than I ever imagined possible. Some of our greatest teachers don't come to us in the ways we expect.

I'm filled with extraordinary gratitude for the way these teachers have pointed me toward love, faith, and the remembrance that there is only one God, and that Great Spirit is a part of each one of us.

May we all honor the teachers who illuminate our path… and may we each become that light for others.