GURU

• The Importance of the Guru
• The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel
• The Divine Takes Up the Work
• The Compassion of the Guru
• The Divine is Real, the World is Unreal
• The Immortal Great Ones
• Swami and the Guru

The Importance of the Guru

No man has really eyes, unless he has the Guru, or the spiritual teacher. Guru is the spiritual teacher. He is more than the mother and father. He is compassionate, he is the very manifestation of God. He is the embodiment of Wisdom and Knowledge. He destroys our Karma, and he beats our path to the highest spiritual experiences. Therefore in the ancient civilization, which was predominantly spiritual, Guru is estimated even higher than ‘God’, for without the Grace and help and Light from the Guru, experience of God is difficult and one may lose one’s way in blind paths.

Therefore the daily prayer of thousands of the Indians says,

Gurur-Brahmaa, Gurur-Vishnuh, Gurur-Devo-Maheshvarah,
Guruh saakshaat Parabrahma, Tasmai Shri Gurave namah.

That means: Guru is the Supreme Reality. Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu – the Guru is the supreme Creator and Sustainer, and the supreme Lord of the Universe. He is the supreme Reality Itself, God Himself. My adorations again and again to this supreme, all-blessed and all-blessing Guru.

Guru is the direct manifestation of the Divine. God dwells in him, he dwells in God.
Father and mother give only the physical body and physical help. The real father and mother is the Guru. He liberates the soul from endless bondage to birth and death, and disease and suffering and sorrow. No fortune in life is greater than the discovery of the Guru.

He points out dozens of ways of God-experience, from his personal experience.
 

The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel

The inner nature has to be purified, really purified, purified in this sense that the whole inner nature is totally transformed. Just see the heavy stone of ice. We can hit someone with that stone of ice and find the person bleeding. But this heavy stone of ice can also be joy-giving, most welcome – as vapour, almost invisible, something through which we can penetrate, something which cannot harm us anymore, but something which we can draw into ourselves through our nostrils and make it a part of our body. Ice is one condition, the transformation is that which completely renders it something other.

That is transformation, that is purity, when our whole nature is transformed, transfigured. Not merely transformed but transfigured. See the figure of ice, and see the figure of the vapour - how different. The whole nature has to be transformed and transfigured. All the human qualities are like the ice, which must be completely transformed, transfigured. Not only the heart has to expand to a degree where it can claim kinship with all creation, but it has also to exceed this condition, it has to be more pure, in order that it may exceed and transcend even this condition.

The self-identification with the whole creation is wonderful, but is itself again a kind of higher limitation, which impedes us from profiting the world most. Even this condition is rejected as not most desirable. So the pure heart transcends even the cosmic limits, even such cosmic limits. Even that cosmic love is a limitation, which impedes better action, for the welfare of all creation. One has to transcend even that limit.

Most people are no bigger than their bodies, at best they are as big as their family. Sometimes they theoretically identify themselves with the whole country. That is all, but it is not much. They do not as yet know the great value and the joys of further expansion. An impurity causes in them inner restraint, or fear, of such an expansion. And purity drives them towards such an expansion.
 

The Divine Takes Up the Work

So, when these higher forms of purity settle in the heart, one begins to perceive the presence of the Divine everywhere, understand life truly, and therefore be its master. One cannot master life unless one has fully analysed and understood life. If there is purity and inner contact with the Divine, the results of analysis of life rise up into our conscious mind, without ourselves analysing it. The purity does everything for us, and in this purity dwells the Divine and the Divinity itself becomes the leader of our evolution, no matter whether one understands that leader to be one’s Mantra, one’s Master, or not. The Divine Itself becomes the Giver of spiritual progress.

As we repeat the Mantras, as we express devotion to the Divine, what’s happening? We have not only the results of such disciplines, but we are making the Divine Itself take more and more interest in us and guide us by the hand on the path of rapid evolution.
All those who are sitting here and meditating and repeating the Mantras, have not only the benefits of such activities, but are befriending the Divine. Someone who is listening to everything and seeing everything takes up the responsibility of our progress. Someone who is all-knowing and all-seeing, and who is listening to us, and who is Himself the object of our adoration and meditation, the end of our Mantra-repetitions, takes deep interest in us, responds to us. This result is the greatest result, among all other results.
Generally people are not conscious of this. With every repetition of the Mantras the Divinity comes closer to oneself, and orders one’s life, helps in every direction. It is all-merciful, therefore the Divinity has appeared to many and said, “Adore Me, I will protect you! Come to Me, I will grant you everything! Take refuge in Me, I give you the Peace that passeth understanding, I give you the Kingdom of every kind of riches.”
 

The Compassion of the Guru

This is not the voice of the ego. This is the voice of All-mercifulness. The Guru and the God are all-merciful. In fact they are one and the same, in Essence, in Heart, in Spirit, in Being, in Love, and in Wisdom. So the Guru also says the same. This is the voice of compassion, it is as if a lump of gold obtained the power of speech and told the poor man of a big family suffering very much, “Come to me, use me, I will liberate you from all your sorrows and sufferings”, and the poor man uses it, sells it, gets plenty of money. He is not only relieved of his poverty and misery, but also becomes a rich man with greater facilities for serving others and working out his own inner evolution. Such is the nature of the Divine.

The Guru does not need anyone to adore him, the sun and the moon are his adorers, all the stars are his adorers. For, he is the heart of the sun and the moon and the stars. He is the heart of all beings. What is more, he is adored by beings in worlds of which our world knows nothing. What is more, the wisdom in the Guru tells him, all this adoration of these invisible inhabitants of the invisible worlds who live for thousands and thousands of years, whose life-duration extends thousands and thousands of years, all their adoration does not even touch him, does not make any change in him. It is all something extraneous, valueless.

But, though it is absolutely meaningless for him and at best an unnecessary distraction on his infinite Perfection, his boundless divine Perfection, yet the Guru says, “Adore Me, come to Me, take refuge in Me. I will liberate you from all trials.” So says the Divine. The Divine and the Guru are one and the same. They are the two faces of the same coin. There is the Truth, which is the Divine; there is the One who is established in the Truth, the Guru.

To mankind the Guru is greater than ‘God’. For, the one who is established in Truth, is able to convey the message of the Truth; and it is the message of the Truth that the mankind needs, for it has no capacity to hold on to the Truth as such – unless the Truth assumes the tongue, power of speech, and invites mankind.

There is the gold and there is the voice in the gold. The poor man does not know where the gold is. But the voice of the gold calls him, tells him what to do, in order all his sorrows may be at an end. So, the Guru is the Voice in the Truth, it is the Heart of the Truth come into action to help mankind in darkness, the darkness of spiritual knowledge. Mankind may be living in the daylight, or the cultural light, or the light of the paradise created by sciences, technology, industry, yet it lives in colossal darkness, subject to illusion and delusions, trials and worries, disease and death, error and unhappiness. To dispel this ignorance, there is the all-compassionate Voice of the Divine. He who does not need any worship, receives worship, as an excuse to liberate mankind. He who does not need a body, subsists in the body in order to assist mankind to find true sources of freedom, happiness and peace and Light.

Herein lies one of the secrets of the divine kingdom of God in relation to mankind. When one’s heart is purified, all these truths arise from one’s own heart; and these truths if compared with the truths presented by those who have gone before us, they are exactly the same – so completely the same that you may think that this person has stolen the thought from somebody else. You can accuse any great Saint of modern times of having stolen his thoughts from Lord Krishna, who was born several thousands of years before Him. They are identical thoughts, independently received, independent of each other. They rise from the pure heart, the same language, in all ages, in all cultures, in all religions. Even if that Saint had read the teaching of Krishna, you can be sure the wisdom that the Saint gave is yet independent of such a reading, for that wisdom is something that has spontaneously emerged from the inner heart. It is an organic part of one’s own inner being. It cannot be bought. It cannot be stolen.

Though a reading of the same wisdom elsewhere may stimulate the birth of this wisdom, yet the wisdom one presents is independent. A wisdom which is not independent and self-born in us, will not be very useful to us, and will not carry power and authority with it, when it is given to others.

So, aim at purity and you become established in the Truth. You will be able to live like the Guru, who while living on earth does not live on earth; who while inviting people to adore him, and receive his services, is yet not in this world, has no need for adoration, makes adoration an excuse for transmitting something imperishable.

When a child cries to its mother, it is also a kind of adoration of the mother, and that crying is the cause for the mother’s patient persevering actions in relation to the child’s welfare and happiness and growth. Even so, the adoration of the Guru or the Divine, is only an instrument, a cause, for setting the compassionate heart of the Guru or the Divine to function in relation to us, patiently, perseverantly, till we grow up.

So, when the heart increases in its purity, it becomes more and more responsive and sensitive to the divine Realities and Truths. It begins to see that among the many grand results of spiritual practices, there is the most central and wonderful result and that is: the Divine responds to us, and begins to function in our favour, mitigate our future troubles, cancel many of the dangers coming, make the path lighter, stand by us in time of stress and strain, be with us at all times.

So, remember, as you repeat the Mantras and direct your heart’s attention on the Divine, the Divine is also directing its attention on you. It is making your praise of the Divine, your adoration of the Divine, your repetition of the Mantra, an excuse for being with you with all Its infinite Treasures. And the Divine Itself assumes a large portion of the burden of our spiritual discipline and progress.

The greatness of a life is to be measured by the richness of its inner, spiritual, illuminating knowledge. That life is the blessed life, which has the spiritual Guide. A life however wonderful it may be, without the spiritual Guide, is like a boat without a rudder. We need to steer our life towards perfection. That is the ultimate destiny. It is only those who have had sufficient experience in the creation, those who have been great, life after life, in the past lives, – thought much, felt much, experienced much, did many good things, – who have the good fortune of spiritual aspirations in this life. And more fortunate are those who have real spiritual Guides, a spiritual Guide who is inwardly blameless, inwardly a fire of divine Knowledge in which dwells the Presence of the Truth. Such Guides are on the other shore of life. They know how to enjoy life, they have the means to enjoy life, they have the Third Eye, that sees into the heart of things. The normal man experiences only the superficies of life.

If you put a big, huge, most precious diamond before a cow, it thinks it is a block of salt and goes on licking it, that is all it knows about the diamond! As it licks, it has a little pleasure, and it thinks, this is the joy of life. It thinks that it has discovered the meaning of life. Mankind is like that. Be it that mankind represented by a philosopher or a scientist, or a king, or a rich man, or a young man, no matter what his station in life, position in life is, no matter how fortunate he is, he is merely licking the diamond of the world, thinking it to be a salt block.

But those who are inwardly pure and illuminated by the divine Grace, at once acquire a new vision. They become discriminative: what am I licking, and why? Why have I been licking so long? My tongue is aching, what have I been doing? What is the meaning of it all? He begins to inquire. He asks a few others, “What is this?” All say it is a block of salt, few are able to answer his questions.

When a spiritual Guide is found, he reveals what that salt block is. He shows it to be the Diamond, to possess it is to be the master of all worlds. It is not like an ordinary diamond. You ask this Diamond, “Give me the kingdom of heaven” – it gives the kingdom of heaven. If you ask this Diamond, “Please bring me a plateful of food!”, it brings at once. Ask the Diamond, “Please answer this difficult question”, it answers. If you ask the Diamond to build a wonderful paradise around, to create a wonderful paradise around, it at once does it. It is a marvellous diamond. It is not merely like the worldly diamonds, valuable in terms of money, it is not only priceless beyond all money and most valuable in terms of money but it is also all wish-fulfilling. It recreates everything. It fulfills all your desires, it is a wish-fulfilling Diamond.

It is this wish-fulfilling Diamond that the spiritual Guide gives. He has himself discovered it, with the special Grace of the Divine; and also through heroic efforts, which were complemented by the touches of the divine Grace.

The world itself is such a Diamond, but the experience that the people have concerning the world is like the cows licking the diamond thinking it to be a salt block.

Those cowherds, those who keep the cows, know that the cows generally need some salt, not merely grass and such other things. Salt is a very essential need of the constitution of these animals. So, generally there are big blocks of salt, special salt, which they break and large pieces of salt they put before the cow in order it may lick.
The senses of man are so limited and so imperfect. All that it opens for experience in relation to this Diamond, results in only having the experience of something which is imagined to be a salt-block.

Truth is everywhere, above the world, within the world, around the world, within you, above you, around you. It is the Diamond, it is not only priceless, so priceless that with it you can buy the whole cosmos, but also it is wish-fulfilling. “Ten million years ago what was I? Please show it to me!” The diamond reproduces the pictures of ten million years ago. Ask the diamond, what will be the fate of the world ten thousand years later, – it shows exact photographs of the world ten thousand years later.

It is an all wish-fulfilling Diamond, “Please give me a young body, for seven million years, I should never age – all these seven million years I must be 16 years, young!” It makes that real. It is all wish-fulfilling. “I have heard there is a God called Creator, and who is in charge of the whole creation, who is called the Father of the world, I would like to see him!” This Diamond shows him. It is all wish-fulfilling.

It is all-wish-fulfilling, it has all knowledge, all beauty, all power, all treasures, all perfection. Even if we have a large kingdom, if we renounce that kingdom for the sake of possessing this diamond, we have renounced nothing. It is something nothing. By renouncing a whole vast kingdom, Buddha had lost nothing, he had gained all the Earth as his kingdom and also the Heaven. Millions and millions of people follow him to this day, remember him, while hundreds of great emperors have disappeared from history, without leaving a name, without leaving any transforming impact.

So, try to possess this priceless Diamond, which is called the Divine Reality, which is the real Face of the world.
 

The Divine is Real, the World is Unreal

Those who have deeply experienced this divine Reality, have found the other experience of limitations disappear. Absorbed in the experience of the transcendental perfections of the diamond, they have found the world non-existent, not present even for name. Therefore they have declared it to be unreal from this standpoint.

Now, in order to help you understand this, let us take an analogy. When you are dreaming, lost in the dream, you think that you are an old man, you are experiencing yourself to be an old man, and the king of the land. You have your ministers around you, you have your problems, your sons die, you have difficulties, there are trials and problems and ordeals in the land. Earthquakes, catastrophes assault your kingdom. You have lived over sixty-five years. Now you are experiencing all this. While you are experiencing it, do you think you know anything about the world, the world in which you are sleeping, the world in which you daily live in your waking state? What happened to this other world? It has completely disappeared from your experience. You are experiencing only the dream-world.

If some great man of great psychical powers were to penetrate into your dream and tell you, “Look here, you are not this old man, your kingdom is not destroyed, you are the same wonderful man here, you belong to the other world, of human beings. You are a young, robust person. You are very healthy and very successful in life. You were never married and you don’t have two sons, these sons are not your sons who have perished, nothing that you see here and experience here is real, it is completely unreal. Please wake up.”

The old man in the dream becomes angry and slaps him! “You idealist, you philosophic fool, you want to cheat me. Don’t you know my two sons have perished? Don’t you know my kingdom is assaulted by catastrophes? See here, reports and telegrams flowing into my palace – how dare you say all this is unreal? Away from my presence!” So the old man drives away the good advisor.

Unless some divine Grace shakes him up from within and makes him awake partially, he will not be able to recognise his experience as unreal.

Exactly as the dream-world is constructed, this world of our waking-experience is also constructed with the same material. This is a truth discovered by the greatest men. When we slip into the dimension of dream-experience, this world is altogether dead to us, – no matter that it is existing for others, but to you who are all-important it is non-existent. You are in another dimension of experience.

The moment you wake up you are altogether in another dimension of experience. And the dream-experience becomes unreal.

These are not the only conditions when one world becomes unreal in relation to another. In profound meditations on the Reality, persisting for days and nights, when one’s whole consciousness is absorbed into the wonders of the supreme Divine Diamond, this waking-experience becomes unreal.
 

The Immortal Great Ones

To drive home these truths to the real seeking aspirants, the great Illuminated Ones have created formulas, formulas derived from experience, such as “The Divine is real, the world is unreal.” Such formulas have brought about rapid evolution in the lives of real spiritual aspirants; and the resultant experience of following such formulas, is the experience of the wondrous Diamond, the experience of the Immortality.

Just see how people who cling to life and the world and who mistake the world to be wholly real, perish. The moment they are dead, nobody knows anything about them. And what is happening to them after death, nobody knows. Whereas those who have constantly asserted “The world is unreal, God is real. The world is unreal, God is real...”, have acquired the needed inward detachment from the world, and have experienced that which is really real. In consequence of that they are immortal even in this world, they are the real Masters of this world which they have earlier dismissed as unreal. At any time into the life of humanity they can come. They are the true Masters of this world, they know its true value, and they establish such works which last for thousands of years. They have the capacity to appear to mankind again and again, with every thousand years or whenever someone in humanity needs them.

These Great Ones, who have always asserted the world is unreal, and God is real, – these are those who are always available to the world. They are always ready to serve, ready to appear to any devotional heart, ready to appear before any great seeker.

See, those who dismiss the world as unreal, they are the real Masters of the world and they live for eternity and contact the world every time when necessary.

Those who have clung to the world as the reality, nothing is known of them after death, they move from death to death. Such a mistake we should not do. And while living in the world we must endeavour to discover its real nature which is rooted in the Reality.
Until we develop the third eye, the world is like the salt-block, which we go licking and think it is a pleasurable place, until death removes us. Before death can remove us from this place, we must experience this salt-block to be what it is: the priceless, all wish-fulfilling Diamond.
 

Swami and the Guru

Sometimes some of the cultures, world cultures, have some of the wonderful spiritual formulas. And one of them is, “The Absolute is the real and the world is the unreal.” Another is: “The Guru is real, all else is a dream.”

“Go on repeating, ‘Guru, Guru...’, all else is unreal”, says the formula. I have had the wonderful good fortune, at the early age of thirteen, to have a kind of experience of an immortal Guru, who died at the beginning of this century, 1900 or 1901 or so. He was a mighty Mystic, – omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient. Such a Mystic he was, and looking upon him as my Guru, I too had repeated the Mantra,

Guru, Guru japana, aur sab svapana.

It is a Hindi formula*. It is a formula that is prevalent in the spiritual circles, in the old spiritual circles of northern India. The Guru is adored as the Divine Itself, that is the scriptural injunction. That is also the revelation of the Divine. While man makes difference within Guru and God, God makes no difference between Guru and Himself. God is more easily approached through the Guru. God is more pleased when the Guru is adored, than when He is Himself adored, for God knows Himself to be in the Guru. While God is invisible, the Guru is visible. While God does not express his love and wisdom to us, because we have not yet developed our third eye, and supernormal capacities, to perceive Him directly, Guru makes manifest something of the Love and Wisdom and Presence of God. And thus he develops naturally our innate capacities for Truth-experience.

So, such disciplines are also very valuable. Specially in view of the fact that the human individual, unilluminated by spiritual knowledge, is caught up by a thousand traps in the world – with the result that much that depth-psychologists like Freud have to say concerning human beings, seems to be quite true: the unconscious catches a man and throws him into the primitive emotions, instincts; he seems to be inextricably caught up. From this tragedy, spiritual knowledge, the Master, the Mystical Syllables, the Truth, liberate us.

Nothing is more wonderful than such a schooling, such a transformation, such a natural evolution. And to break all these infatuated knots which attach us to an essenceless world, a senseless world, there is the discipline of inwardly saying: “The Divine is real, the Diamond is real, the ‘salt’ is not real.”

Such disciplines are radical remedies for a radical disease.

– Swami Omkarananda

* = ‘Sing Guru, Guru, all else is a dream!’