Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru. 

I was speaking the other day about the ‘Śiṣya-Guru’ interaction. The subject comes to my mind again.

For a seeker of truth, contact with the Guru, the very sight of his going to Him or meeting Him for the first time, it means a very, very, very significant day. There will be nothing like that. There would have been nothing like that in his life and there will be nothing like that in his life later.

For a devotee of Lord Mahavishnu, suppose Mahavishnu were to come down from Vaikunṭha and the devotee happens to meet Him, what would be the nature of that meeting? Something still greater because Mahavishnu will go back and will again be in Vaikunṭha but Guru is not going to go back from the Earth. He will still continue to be on the Earth. So, it is even greater than and superior to a meeting with Lord Mahavishnu for a Vaishnava devotee. Once this takes place, I don’t think the śiṣya has to have any special prayer before him. Before that, the śiṣya should not and need not worry about anything in his life. We require only two items - yoga and kṣema. The word ‘kṣema’ indicates looking after whatever you have, ensuring the safety and upkeep of whatever prosperity, health or otherwise you have and then having additionally whatever is desirable and necessary to fulfill your life. The yoga-kṣema together will automatically be looked after by this contact.

What is it that we have with us? We have only our mind which can think of, pray and seek. We have the intelligence in us which makes us understand everything about everything. All that we do in the form of exercise, austerity, prayer, everything is done primarily and ultimately by the mind and the intelligence. So you don’t have to pray, you don’t have to seek also. If you have struck a relationship with the Sad-guru, he will be the first and last person to think of your welfare. If it is the marriage of the daughter, that, if it is your own marriage, that, if it is finding a job, that. I think it is a very natural and irresistible thought and concern in the mind of the Guru. So when such a Guru is there, normally in the usual course of interactions, he will come to know what is your plight, what is your fate, what exactly you need etc. So you don’t have to think about it. It is just like getting God by your side to know about your welfare and ensure its upkeep and additions.

Then, what is it that you will seek from him, if at all? To me, it appears that you will seek only knowledge. Knowledge can be about the world, the objects. It can also be about the subject. Normally it is the subject knowledge that one seeks but object knowledge is also necessary. What is meant by object knowledge? ‘With the knowledge I get about God or the self, how am I to live in this world? How can I translate it? It seems to be dimmed by my life in this world, interactions with the world. So, without allowing it to be dimmed or without making it dimmable, how can I still act in this world?’ This is a great problem or a quest. This is the quest that you will find answered by understanding the Guru, seeing him, interacting with him, making enquiries if you have, placing the doubts if you have, seeking clarity, seeking knowledge. This knowledge is the only thing you need.

See, there are so many people who come here. When I discuss matters with them, a good disciple or a seeker will automatically tell me what is the first crucial meeting I have with him. He will say, “I am X. I am Y. I don’t know Swamiji whether I can tell you all the problems that I have. Can I disclose to you everything that I am?” They may ask like this or wonder like this. Then I will give them an answer and they will say. Actually, the intimacy between me and the other grows only depending upon this openness which they feel in my presence.

Suppose the Guru gets irritated with him, you should accept it. He has become irritated. You can ask him “Why are you irritated?” He will tell you why. But there is no ill will at all. ‘S’ was a boy or is a boy who was coming to us for many years. Every time, he will ask me about meditation and this boy lost weight, 15 kg or so he lost and only by meditating. He will be in his house, he will close the door, so the father and the mother know. He came to me as a student. I did not know anything much about him. He happened to hear me in Thrissur when he was an engineering student. Perhaps, the whole thing disappeared and he later on came to me, I don’t remember very well.

Then, after sometime when I enquired, he said he had not cleared sixteen engineering papers. It was almost shocking. A student not having cleared sixteen papers! The moment I came to know, I said, “You should never talk to me anything spiritual at all! Go home. How do you propose to clear them?”

“I can clear them. I will study and I will appear one after the other.”

You know, this boy started studying, appearing one after the other. I don’t know how long he took. He cleared all the engineering papers. I think his father must be a very good task master die-hard. They would have been shocked. What is this place where he is going to, where the Swamiji has made him ultimately pass? All people developed dislike and contempt towards him. When he passed, the whole picture changed.

Then he wanted to go to Kuwait but he has something in his heart, he cannot go. So anywhere he wants to go abroad, on medical examination he would be rejected. Actually it is not a trouble but when they examine, this trouble will be seen and they cannot allow it. But who will tell them that? According to medical standards and specifications, he cannot be permitted. So that is blocked. You know, that he should find an employment, I said that “If you propose to be a seeker and identify yourself with the Ashram, this is what I would like most and best.” But he is not prepared to do it. So he used to sometimes discuss, “Swamiji, one minute, one minute, don’t keep the telephone down, please, please, please.” and discuss about meditation, the highest spiritual state. I said, “I will not answer any of these questions.”

Ultimately, I felt so disturbed by his remaining not employed and not taking up anything better. We talked to someone and finally forced him to go to Bangalore and take up some IT training. Luckily, his father has money, there is no problem. Otherwise we were prepared to bear the expenditure. Now he is in Bangalore.

“Swamiji, will I be able to do it? I am a mechanical boy, I have studied mechanical engineering. I want this. I want that”. But somehow, I want him to go in for IT. I don’t know why. So we arranged for a job. And then, when Bala discussed it with his officers they said “Let him not come for this. This is not a good line. He will not be able to prosper.” So whatever I was trying to say according to his liking, nothing works. The only way will be to go for IT.

He will say, “Do I have the intelligence? Can I do it? Can I do it? Can I do it?” I got him interviewed by P and the others who said he can. So we put him in Bangalore. He will even now come here once in two months, once in three months, run away from there and come here. You cannot find a kind of a disciple attachment like what our ‘S’ has. Even now, I have permitted him to meditate, maximum for half an hour. Even that I don’t like.

“You don’t speak about meditation. You don’t speak about God. Speak about the world. Never talk to me about God or seek anything. Speak about world, get employed and become useful.” I am mentioning it to you that here is a boy whose primary relationship with me and the Ashram is spiritual. Anytime we want, we will simply say, he will come away. He is very good at looking after patients in the hospital.

When Swamiji was admitted, somebody rang up from here, he came running like Hanuman. See, such a good boy. But the poor boy doesn’t have a full spiritual seeking so that I expect him even now to come and join us as a Brahmacharin. But he will not, he cannot and he will not. So naturally, the alternate will be he has to flourish as a secular person.

I am mentioning this to you saying that any good relationship with the Guru will be intimate and that intimacy, everything will stand covered. One to be married, I want him to marry. One who is a businessman, I want him to be prosperous there. Now, very few people will come and discuss matters so openly with me. They are afraid, “If everything is said and Swamiji understands, will I not be discounted? Or if I am very prosperous and I tell Swamiji, will Swamiji ask for my prosperity?” See, this kind of an apprehension is there.

So, the contact with the Guru is something very, very, very wholesome. I don`t think that there can be a greater relationship. As children grow in their age, they get distanced from the parents. When they get married and they start living together for long, so many curtains are getting formed between the husband and the wife. Very rarely it is otherwise. So, where is that openness which will insulate you, which will safeguard you, which will fill you up? It is very, very rare. So the relationship with the Guru is something very, very special, wholesome. It does not give any room for anything. The Guru may say “Your contact with me is no good. Better you go, find out somebody else.” If necessary, that also he will say.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.