Gurudev

Words by themselves are inadequate to express what a master or a Guru brings to one's life. His presence, his love, his grace and his shining light can uplift one from the miseries and the sorrow that life brings us. One knows one has come to master when there is a sense of completeness; the feeling of a child peacefully sleeping on the mother's lap without any worries.

Gurudev chants a Sanskrit shloka every time he starts a discourse. It means that Ishwara that is the Divine, Guru the Master and Aatma the Self are one and the same.

When the sadhak (spiritual seeker) is ready on the path, The Guru himself manifests. Many seekers chant, meditate and do other spiritual practices, but they find a lack. They feel the need for somebody to guide them on the path. Sometimes on the path, one feels lost. There is emotional disturbance, confusion, guilt and there are doubts. You need somebody to say with reassurance: "Yes, this is the path. You just be there. It dosen't matter if you fall this way or that way, I am with you."

It is like mathematics. The technique is taught, but still certain problems may be going wrong, and the teacher comes around and shows you where you are going wrong. And, then you've solved it! To learn an ordinary subject like mathematics, we need a guide. So on the spiritual path, the need for a guide; a teacher is so much greater! Somebody who is like a friend with whom you can share inner most feelings, who is disciplining like a father and caring and loving like a mother. Maybe one in a million many not need a master, a Guru. They may be able to walk the path alone, but the majority needs a Guru.

The Guru comes to the disciple. The disciple never goes to the Guru because he does not know who the true Guru is. One who is ignorant cannot know what knowledge is! It is like the divine has itself manifested in the human form. We are comfortable relation to a physical form. So, when that is the state, the Divine manifests in the physical form that is the Guru. He takes one along the path and then when the disciple is mature enough, the Guru lessens the dependence on the physical form and the craving for the physical form.

Even though the craving is very beautiful, the Guru takes the disciple beyond those limitations and starts showing him increasingly that `I am with you! I am your very Self, your Aatma! Guru is antar tam; the inner essence that dispels all the ignorance and darkness in our lives.

And, the Guru also shows you that `I am in everybody.' The Guru is speaking, acting and manifesting through each and every particle of creation. In fact, Guru means that which is vast, boundless. His body is the entire space. Fortunate are the ones who really come to the master!

`Tumhi sarva prana sa pranadhar saratsara' - `You are everything; you are even the source of my life breath, the very essence of my life.' Being without a Guru is like a ship in the endless ocean that has lost direction. Fortunate are those who graduate from being a disciple to becoming a devotee. The disciple has a goal in life. He wants to get enlightened or get knowledge, but a devotee does not want anything.

The Guru tatva is infinite. Any amount of explanation is not enough.Talking about it is beautiful, but feeling the Presence goes beyond mere words. The language of the enlightened masters is silence. The very Presence speaks. The master discourses in the silence and all the doubts are dispelled.