Qualifications of the preceptor
This spiritual treasure can
be obtained from another too. However, the giver has to possess supreme
attainment, and the recipient has to possess the special merit that deserves
the achievement. The seed may have life in it, but the soil must be ploughed and
made fit to activate it. When both conditions are satisfied, the harvest of
spiritual success is assured.
One who instructs in the
field of religion has to be of enthralling excellence; the listener, also, has
to be of sharp and clear understanding. When both are surprisingly supreme and
extraordinarily enthusiastic, the result will be spiritual awakening of the
highest level. Otherwise, rarely can such results follow.
The real gurus steal your
hearts, not your wealth. The pupil has to concentrate on service to the guru
and ruminate over their teachings. The pupil must be eager to translate the
teaching into daily activity and actual practices. The pupil must fill the
heart with devotion and dedicate all their skill for the actualization of the
guru’s counsel. Such a person deserves the name pupil (sishya).
When the thirst for
liberation and the revelation of one’s reality is acute, a strange and
mysterious force in nature will begin operating. When the soil is ready, the
seed appears from somewhere! The spiritual guru will be alerted, and the thirst
will get quenched. The receiving individual has developed the power to attract
the giver of illumination. That power is strong and full. Therefore, naturally
the splendor that can confer illumination will get ready to bless.
Avatar: Guru of gurus
Readers! Though gurus of
the common type have increased in number, a guru is available for one who is
far more supreme and compassionate than any or all gurus. He is none other than
the Avatar of the Lord. He can, by the mere expression of His will, confer the
highest consummation of spiritual life. He can gift it and get one to accept
it. Even the meanest of the mean can acquire the highest wisdom, in a trice. He
is the guru of all gurus. He is the fullest embodiment of God as a human. A
person can cognize God only in human form.
This Indian (Bharathiya) Spiritual Stream has been
declaring, over and over again, that adoring God in human form is the highest
duty. Unless God incarnates as a person, people can never hope to see God or
listen to His voice.
Of course, one may picture
God in various other forms, but one can never approximate the genuine form of
God. However much one may try, one cannot picture God in any form except the
human.
People can pour out
wonderful discourses and talks on God and the nature and composition of all
that exists in the universe. They may satisfy themselves, asserting that all
accounts of God descending in human form are meaningless myths. That is what
the poor ordinary eye can discern. This strange inference is not based on
wisdom (jnana). As a matter of fact,
wisdom is absent in these assertions and declarations. What we can notice in
them is only the froth floating on ego waves.
Who am I?
Who am I (Koham)? Why do I feel that I am the
doer? What is the nature of consciousness that I am the enjoyer? Why be born
and die at last? How did I deserve this life? Can I be liberated from this
series of entrances and exits (samsara)?
The attempt to discover answers to these questions is what the sages (rishis) of old designated as
“austerities (tapas)”.
When the intellect of the
individual ripens into this steady inquiry, the individual enters the path of
spiritual exercise (tapas). This is
the first step. As soon as people have ascended this step, the scriptures — the
collective wisdom of seekers enshrined in sacred texts — welcome them. The
traditional revealed scripture (sruthi,
i.e. the Vedas) directs them to “listen, ruminate, and practise” the axiomatic
counsel of the sages. The sages assure them that they will attain the goal of
release and will free themselves from the delusive fascination for the visible
world, portrayed for them by their own minds. A proper guru is in
God-consciousness Only the Divine can be the guide, companion, and counselor on
this lone journey of a person. Those styled gurus cannot help or rescue.
The Vedas (Sruthis) advise people to approach gurus who are versed in the Vedas (are srotriyas) and in God consciousness (Brahma-nishtas). They warn people against resorting to others.
What does srotriya mean? It means a person who is
unquestioningly loyal to the Vedas and who adheres to the rules prescribed and
the limits imposed therein, without the slightest deviation.
Brahmanishta means a
person who is established in Brahma-consciousness. The person has no doubts to
pester them, no diversion to distract, for the person has won steady faith in Atma.
Continued....
Love.
