Om! Life is the Supreme Guru - CH. 32 - book 'I am that'

Life is the Supreme Guru

extract  from the CH. 32 - book 'I am that'  Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

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Q: The scale of the impending catastrophe is unbelievabiy big. We live in the midst of an explosion.
M: Each man suffers alone and dies alone. Numbers are irrelevant. There is as much death when a million die as when one perishes.
 
Q: Nature kills by the millions, but this does not frighten me. There may be tragedy or mystery in it, but no cruelty. What horrifies me is man made suffering, destruction and desolation. Nature is magnificent in its doings and undoings. But there is meanness and madness in the acts of man.
M: Right. So, it is not suffering and death that are your problem but the meanness and madness at their root. Is not meanness also a form of madness? And is not madness the misuse of the mind? Humanity's problem lies in this misuse of the mind only. All the treasures of nature and spirit are open to man who will use his mind rightly.
 
Q: What is the right use of mind?
M: Fear and greed cause the misuse of the mind. The right use of mlnd is in the service of love, of life, of truth, of beauty.
 
Q: Easier said than done. Love of truth, of man goodwill -- what luxury! We need plenty of it to set the world right, but who will provide?
M: You can spend an eternity looking elsewhere for truth and love, intelligence and goodwill, imploring God and man -- all in vain. You must begin in yourself, with yourself -- this is the inexorable law. You cannot change the image without changing the face. First realize that your world is only a reflection of yourself and stop finding fault with the reflection. Attend to yourself, set yourself right -- mentally and emotionally. The physical will follow automatically. You talk so much of reforms: economic, social, political. Leave alone the reforms and mind the reformer. What kind of world can a man create who is stupid, greedy, heartless?
 
Q: If we have to wait for a change of heart, we shall have to wait indefinitely. Yours is a counsel of perfection, which is also a counsel of despair. When all are perfect, the world will be perfect. What useless truisml
M: I did not say it. I only said: You cannot change the world before changing yourself. I did not say -- before changing everybody. It is neither necessary, nor possible to change others. But if you can change yourself you will find that no other change is needed. To change the picture you merely change the film, you do not attack the cinema screen!
 
Q: How can you be so sure of yourself? How do you know that what you say is true?
M: It is not of myself that I am sure, I am sure of you. All you need is to stop searching outside what can be found only within. Set your vision right before you operate. You are suffering from acute misapprehension. Clarify your mind, purify your heart, sanctify your life -- this is the quickest way to a change of your world.
 
Q: So many saints and mystics lived and died. They did not change my world.
M: How could they? Your world is not theirs, nor is their yours.
 
Q: Surely there is a factual world common to all.
M: The world of things, of energy and matter? Even if there were such a common world of things and forces, it is not the world in which we live. Ours is a world of feelings and ideas, of attractions and repulsions, of scales of values, of motives and incentives, a mental world altogether. Biologically we need very little, our problems are of a different order. Problems created by desires and fears and wrong ideas can be solved only on the level of the mind. You must conquer your own mind and for this you must go beyond it.
 
Q: What does it mean to go beyond the mind.
M: You have gone beyond the body, haven't you? You do not closely follow your digestion, circulation or elimination. These have become automatic. In the same way the mind should work automatically, without calling for attention. This will not happen uless the mind works faultlessly. We are, most of our time mind and body conscious, because they constantly call for help. Pain and suffering are only the body and the mind screaming for attention. To go beyond the body you must be healthy: To go beyond the mind, you must have your mind in perfect order. You cannot leave a mess behind and go beyond. The mess wi bog you up. 'Pick up your rubbish' seems to be the universal law. And a just law too.
 
Q: Am I permitted to ask you how did you go beyond the mind?
M: By the grace of my Guru.
 
Q: What shape his grace took?
M: He told me what is true.
 
Q: What did he tell you?
M: He told me I am the Supreme Reality.
 
Q: What did you do about it?
M: I trusted him and remembered it.
 
Q: Is that all?
M: Yes, I remembered him; I remembered what he said.
 
Q: You mean to say that this was enough?
M: What more needs be done? It was quite a lot to remember the Guru and his words. My advice to you is even less difficult than this -- just remember yourself. 'I am', is enough to 'heal your mind and take you beyond. Just have some trust. I don't mislead you. Why should l? Do I want anything from you. I wish you well -- such is my nature. Why should I mislead you? Common sense too will tell you that to fulfil a desire you must keep your mind on it. If you want to know your true nature, you must have yourself in mind all the time, until the secret of your being stands revealed.
 
Q: Why should self remembrance bring one to self realization?
M: Because they are but two aspects of the same state. Self remembrance is in the mind, self realization is beyond the mind. The image in the mirror is of the face beyond the mirror.
 
Q: Fair enough. But what is the purpose?
M: To help others, one must be beyond the need of help.
 
Q: All I want is to be happy.
M: Be happy to make happy.
 
Q: Let others take care of themselves.
M: Sir, you are not separate. The happiness you cannot share is spurious. Only the shareable is truly desirable.
 
Q: Right. But do I need a Guru? What you tell me is simple and convincing. I shall remember it. This does not make you my Guru.
M: it is not the worship of a person that is crucial, but the steadiness and depth of your devotion to the task. Life itself is the Supreme Guru; be attentive to its lessons and obedient to its commands. When you personalize their source, you have an outer Guru; when you take them from life directly, the Guru is within. Remember, wonder, ponder, live with it, love it, grow into it, grow with it, make it your own -- the word of your Guru, outer of inner. Put in all and you will get all. I was doing it All my time I was giving to my Guru and to what he told me.
 
Q: I am a writer by profession. Can you give me some advice, for me specifically?
M: Writing is both a talent and a skill. Grow in talent and develop in skill. Desire what is worth desiring and desire it well. Just like you pick your way in a crowd, passing between people, so you find your way between events, without missing your general direction. It is easy, if you are earnest.
 
Q: So many times you mention the need of being earnest. But we are not men of single will. We are congeries of desires and needs, instincts and promptings. They crawl over eaeh other, sometimes one, sometimes another dominating, but never for long.
M: There are no needs, desires only.
 
Q: To eat, to drink, to shelter one's body; to live?
M: The desire to live is the one fundamental desire. All else depends on it.
 
Q: We live, because we must.
M: We live, because we crave sensory existence.
 
Q: A thing so universal cannot be wrong.
M: Not wrong, of course. In its own place and time nothing is wrong. But when you are concerned with truth, with reality, you must question every thing, your very life. By asserting the necessity of sensory and intellectual experience you narrow down your enquiry to search for comfort.
 
Q: I seek happiness, not comfort.
M: Beyond comfort of mind and body what happiness you know?
 
Q: Is there any other?
M: Find out for yourself. Question every urge, hold no desire legitimate. Empty of possession, physical and mental, free of all self concern, be open for discovery.
 
Q: It is a part of Indian spiritual tradition that mere living in the proximity of a saint or sage is conducive to liberation and no other means are needed. Why don't you organize an Ashram so that people could live near you?
M: The moment I create an institution I become its prisoner. As a matter of fact I am available to all. Common roof and food will not make people more welcome. 'Living near' does not mean breathing the same air. It means trusting and obeying, not letting the good intentions of the teacher go to waste. Have your Guru always in your heart and remember his instructions -- this is real abidance with the true. Physical proximity is least important. Make your entire life an expression of you. Faith and love for your teacher -- this is real dwelling with the Guru.

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Advice To Aspirants ~ Swami Sivananda

Advice To Aspirants 

by Swami Sivananda

1. Vanity, arrogance, self-assertive nature and Rajasic violence are great obstacles in the spiritual path. They take various forms. It is very difficult for the aspirant to detect them. The Guru only can detect them and show efficient methods to eradicate them. The aspirant vainly imagines that he is advanced in the spiritual path. He resents when these defects are pointed out by others. He never admits his defects. Such an aspirant cannot make any spiritual progress.

2. The aspirant claims that he is a superior Sadhaka with psychic powers and great knowledge of Yoga. He thinks that he is free from defects and that he is a perfect Yogi. He poses as a Yogi with realisation. He says that he can influence others and has a large number of disciples, devotees, and admirers. Such an aspirant cannot make an iota of spiritual progress. He is more egoistic and proud than ordinary householders.

3. Lower nature persists and resists. It refuses to get itself sublimated and transformed. 

4. If the aspirant is not willing to regenerate his lower nature, he will not be benefited even if he remains for several years with his Guru.

5. Disobedience and indiscipline are great obstacles in spiritual path. Self-assertion stands in the way of obedience. The ego can be annihilated only by obedience, humility and service. The aspirant has his own ideas, whims, fancies and impulses. He is unwilling to accept any order or discipline, presented by his Guru. He has his own ways. He promises to be obedient and observe discipline, but the actions done or the course followed is the very opposite of his profession or promise.

6. He finds faults in his Guru and even superimposes defects in him. This is height of his folly. How can he improve in the spiritual path?

7. He who is not straightforward cannot profit by the Guru’s help.

8. An aspirant who conceals facts, who utters falsehood, who is hypocritical cannot hope for the descent of divine light. He does things to keep up his position, to get his own way or indulges in his own habit. He clouds his own understanding and conscience.

9. It is impossible to correct an aspirant who has the dangerous habit of constant Self-justification. He is ready to bring any kind of clumsy argument to justify himself, to keep up his position and prestige.

10. If an aspirant continues out of Self-esteem and Self-will or Tamasic inertia to shut his eyes or harden his heart against the Divine Light, so long as he does that, no one can help him.

11. The entire being must agree for the divine change. There must be integral surrender. Then alone the light will descend. Then alone the Guru can help the aspirant.

12. An aspirant who is obstinate, Self-assertive or aggressive and Self-willed has his own ways of thinking and acting. He will not pay any heed to the advice of his Guru. He gets stuck up in the Self-created mind. He cannot rise up in the ladder of Yoga.

13. If an aspirant who is arrogant, vain, untruthful and violent says, that he is meditating for two hours nicely, he is a hypocrite, he is a deluded soul. No meditation is possible in one who has such evil traits. Do not believe this deluded man.

14. Obey your teacher. Follow his instructions implicitly. Be truthful. Be calm. Be serene. Be humble. Be devoted. Be disciplined. You will attain Self-realisation now and here. May Lord bless you all, O sincere seekers after Truth.

15. Svetasvatara Upanishad says: “He who has supreme devotion to God, and has intense devotion to the Guru as he has to God, unto him are the truths of the Upanishads revealed.”

The Advaitic Guru VS the neo-advaita gurus by David Frawley

The Advaitic Guru  VS the neo-advaita gurus

by David Frawley

Of course, the greatest possible distortions are relative to the Advaitic Guru. Since Advaita relies less on outer marks than other traditions, almost anyone can claim to be an Advaitic Guru, particularly once we have removed Advaita from any tradition of Vedanta or Yoga. In much of neo-Advaita, there is a rush to become gurus and give satsangs, even without much real study or practice.

While certainly even a beginning student can teach the basics of Advaita for the benefit of others, to quickly set oneself up as a Self-realized guru raises a lot of questions. One can have an experience of the Self, while the full realization may yet be far away. Full Self-realization is neither easy nor common, under any circumstances.

Advaita does emphasize the advantage of instruction from a living Self-realized guru. Many people therefore think that they must have a living Self-realized guru or they can’t practice Self-inquiry. This is not the case either. 

If one has access to genuine teachings, like those of Ramana, and follows them with humility and self-discipline, one can progress far on the path, which will lead them to further teachers and teachings as needed. 

On the other hand, in the rush to get a living Self-realized guru, students may get misled by those who claim Self-realization but may not really have it. Such false gurus cannot lead students very far and may take them in a wrong direction altogether.

A related misconception is that Advaitic realization can only be gained as a direct transmission from a living teacher, as if Self-realization depended upon a physical proximity to one who has it.

Practice may get reduced to hanging out around the so-called guru and waiting for his glance! The presence of a real sadhak does indeed aid one’s practice, but physical proximity to gurus is no substitute for one’s own inner practice. And physical proximity to those who don’t have true realization may not bring much of benefit at all.

If Self-realization were as easy as coming into physical proximity with the teacher, most of the thousands who visited Ramana would have already become Self-realized.

If the teaching had to come from a living guru only, then no teachings would be preserved after the guru died as these would no longer be relevant. So the realization behind the guru and the depth of his teaching is more important than whether he is in a physical body or not. A great guru leaves teachings for many generations and his influence is not limited by the lifetime of his physical body. A lesser guru, on the other hand, does not have much real transformative influence even if we spend a lifetime around him.

In addition, true Advaitic gurus are not always easy to find, nor do they always make themselves prominent in the external world. Like Ramana, many great gurus are quiet, silent and withdrawn. We can best find them by karmic affinity from our own practice, not by external searching or running after personalities.

Extract from : Misconceptions about Advaita by David Frawley