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THE GURU IS
THE POWER OF THE SELF WITHIN
The Guru is the
sat-bodham [being-consciousness] that shines abiding
as all in all.
As the inner and the outer, as 'I' and 'this', as this world
and the next, pervading all as the boundless radiance of
consciousness, the Guru is the unmoving support, the
jewel-like lamp that shines effortlessly in the Hearts of
true devotees.
Following the destruction of the "I am the body" idea,
whatever body it may be, the radiance of being endures free
of limitation, without any bondage, shining as the pure
expanse. Dwelling in the hearts of all individuated jivas as
attribute-free jnana, as wholly the Self, and as
non-distinct from them, this radiance of being abides as the
all-encompassing supreme power
[akila-para-sakti].
Regard only him who possesses the rare attribute of
radiating that supreme power [akila-para-sakti] as
the Sadguru who has the enormous power to merge, through his
causeless sweet grace, any jiva that comes to him with
genuine love into the non-dual paramatma-swarupa, whose
nature is attribute-free consciousness.
It is the very nature of the Atma-swarupa consciousness to
shine as 'I-I'. This form of natural awareness that remains
forever as the soul of the soul in the Heart is the inner
meaning of the statement that God, the Self which itself
becomes the Guru, unceasingly and directly transmits jnana
upadesa to the true disciples, the mature jivas.
The manner in which the Guru sits majestically in state on
the Heart-throne of his devotees whom he has taken up,
destroying their egos, is lofty like a mountain, splendid
and glorious. Those who have experienced this do not talk
about it. Those who talk about it have not experienced it.
The abundant utterances of devotees [jnanis], which
are sacred like the Vedas, bear witness to this.
THE NECESSITY
OF THE PHYSICAL GURU
An external Guru is
needed because the desire-filled, infatuated mind rushes out
without listening with love to the truth unceasingly
proclaimed in the Heart by the Self,
being-consciousness.
One may have acquired all the virtues and renounced all the
vices; one may have renounced totally all one's
relationships and have no attachment; one may have
completely performed all the many penances enjoined upon the
virtuous by the scriptures; but however great one may be by
virtue of one's intellect and accomplishments, will one
attain the experience, the state of kaivalyam
[oneness] that is wholly bliss, until one obtains,
as a result of meritorious karma, the good fortune of seeing
the jnana-Guru?
For those who are suffering from samsara - to which they are
yoked by the twin karmas [good and bad] that arise
through ignorance, the powerful dense delusion - the
devotion and longing they feel for the grace of the Guru,
who has taken responsibility for them, is alone the medicine
for dispelling their mental anguish.
It is impossible to experience the marvellous dance of true
jnana in the Heart unless the antics of the unbridled
monkey-mind cease through the grace-power of the valiant one
who wields the divinely granted sword of true jnana, he who
has already cut off and brought down [his own] mind
demon.
Those who have realised the truth are alone the possessors
of faultless virtues. Apart from these, everyone else is
only base of nature. Hence, he who longs for the fortune of
liberation must redeem himself only by resorting to those
aforementioned meritorious ones who shine as reality through
the knowledge of reality that is devoid of the
world-delusion.
THE GRACE OF
THE GURU
Peace of mind, shanti,
which is desired by everyone, is not attained by anyone,
anywhere, though any means, except through the grace of the
Guru. Therefore, those who want peace should continuously
enquire and seek alone that grace in the Heart, with their
whole mind.
The blessed grace of God, who has the eightfold form, will
be impossible to secure except through the grace of the
Guru. It will not come through learning or through any other
means, but it will spontaneously arise through devotion.
Those of perfect and mature wisdom will declare: Reality,
the consummation of jnana that shines in the perfectly pure
state of mauna, the hard-to-attain vedantic experience,
will, through the Guru's grace, spontaneously flare up and
shine as 'I-I' within the Heart.
Unless we first obtain the divine grace of a Guru, a
jivanmukta in whose perspective the triputi-differences have
ended and who shines as the undivided and single essence, it
will be impossible to obtain the life of liberation and live
illustriously under the shade of God's twin feet, [a
life] that is all bliss and the ultimate of all
benefits.
BEING A GOOD
DISCIPLE
If you want to attain
liberation and redeem yourself by cutting asunder with the
sword of jnana the false ignorance that has strongly bound
you in the form of a jiva, let your mind spring up
immediately with surging love and, without wasting a moment
of your life, meditate constantly upon the golden lotus-like
feet of the Lord who, in the form of the Guru, has taken you
into his fold.
By taking the Sadguru as one's sole refuge, one should know,
through his grace, that the cause of the continuous and
distressing confusion that nurtures births is the fragmented
mind which regards itself as different from God,
Atma-swarupa. One should also learn from him the means for
ending it [the fragmented mind] and, adopting that
means, one should steadfastly unite with the Self, the
ego-free swarupa, and abide in mauna. This alone bestows
eminence.
This state of being the best among the noble disciples is
this: a constancy of mind whence gushes forth the feeling of
supreme devotion [parabhakti] that manifests when
the 'I' is lost in the radiance of the state of silence, the
Supreme. Know and keep in your mind that this is itself the
state of being the Guru.
Meditating in the way that one ought to meditate on the
sweet and ineffable grace of the Supreme Guru, and remaining
still without getting caught in illusion, the unreal and
deceptive panorama that appears in front of us - this alone
is bliss.
TRUE GURUS
AND FALSE GURUS
The guru who instructs
the disciple, who has taken complete refuge in him, by
giving one more prescription for action, instead of
directing him towards jnana, and who leads him into
activities, saying "These should be done," is for the
disciple [equivalent to] the coming of cruel Yama
and Brahma [the gods of death and birth]. Only he
who consummates disciples, transforming them into those who
have done all that needs to be done, enabling them to attain
the true benefit of this birth, is the grace-bestowing,
divine Guru.
Know that the Heart-directed conduct in which one
steadfastly holds onto jnana in the way one has been taught,
and abiding there firmly as being-consciousness, without
letting the mind stray towards the ignoble sense objects, is
alone the true teaching [of the Guru].
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THE GURU'S
LOOK
Since his glance
transforms the rusty iron that is the jiva into the gold
that is the taint-free jnana-swarupa, the grace-bestowing
eyes of the Guru-Lord are the potent alchemical substance
that transforms by a mere glance. Therefore, search
thoroughly to eradicate your impurity, and worship him to
attain his glance.
With his twin eyes the Guru will instantaneously kill
without killing the one who came into existence without
actually existing in such a way that "that which is not"
vanishes as "that which is not", leaving that which exists
as the transcendental light shining as "that which is".
The Guru abides as the silent benefactor and reveals the
light that shines, remaining as the one and only enduring
residue. If his eyes and the eyes of the disciple meet in
total harmony, spoken words are redundant.
Beyond the reach of both mind and speech is the glory of
those who have the good fortune, earned through past tapas,
of becoming the target of the grace-bestowing glance of the
Guru, he who has ripened into the para-swarupa through the
excellence of the matchless experience of jnana, the
Self.
Those who, through rare, intense and surging devotion exist
by trusting solely in the Guru's piercing glance of grace
will live in this world like Indra [the king of the
gods]. There will be no suffering for them.
The jnana-Guru actually abides as both the Atma-swarupa and
the Siva-swarupa within the Hearts of devotees, although in
their externalised view he appears and moves around as if he
is different [from them]. True jnana will not dawn
for anyone who has not known experientially, through
investigation in the Heart, the essence of the upadesa "You
are That" which [the Guru] silently and unceasingly
conveys to his devotees through the language of his
gaze.
Like a deer caught in the jaws of a tiger, those who are
trapped by the Sadguru's jnana-bestowing glance of grace
will never be abandoned. Rather, they are destined to lose
their individuality, their restricted nature, and attain
liberation.
WORSHIPPING
THE FEET OF THE GURU
For those who possess
the quality of habitually meditating upon the feet of the
Guru, the blazing flame of flawless true jnana, their
devotion, dispelling their suffering, will elicit the grace
of that Supreme One. Through that grace their minds will
become clear and they will attain true jnana.
For those who have the good fortune of living a life in
which they take the feet of the Guru, the Supreme, as the
sole target of their attention, a longing to merge with
Sivam will flourish. That true devotion will itself become
the fire of jnana that will scorch to destruction the
desires for the false, the non-Self.
As worship of the feet of the Guru simultaneously destroys
the twin vasanas accumulated over endless aeons, and as it
brings forth in the Heart the dawn of jnana that is the
cause for our being unafraid of indescribable ignorance,
that worship, performed with devotion and reverence, alone
is the befitting true mantra for noble disciples in whom
dispassion is strong.
One may, through body speech and mind, perform, without
leaving any out, all the possible varieties of worship to
the jnana Guru, he who is the walking Supreme Siva who has
accepted with delight the disciple. However, [for the
disciple,] losing the idea that he exists as a distinct
entity, separate from that Guru who shines as the soul of
his soul, completely dissolving, like ice in water, his
individuality in his [the Guru's] supreme swarupa,
and becoming one with him as love alone - this is the
perfect and complete worship that he should perform.
The mind that has settled in the radiance of the feet of the
Guru, who is limitless jnana, effulgent like the sun, does
not merge in the triple differences that are an imaginary
appearance in swarupa, consciousness.
GURU PUJA
Bear in mind that the
true puja to the jnana Guru is only the Self-abidance in
which the vasana-free mauna surges once the
disciple-consciousness that proclaimed itself as 'I' is
destroyed by the raging fire of the consciousness of the
jnana Guru, he who is God Himself.
The true puja performed to the Guru by worthy disciples is
the complete destruction of the false
"disciple-consciousness" brought about by firm abidance in
the state of "Guru-consciousness", the experience of
perfection that arises through the Heartward enquiry, "Who
is the 'I' who has been accepted as a disciple?"
Know clearly that the excellent conduct wherein the
jiva-mind does not rise in the all-pervading supreme
firmament, the sun of true jnana that shines as the real
nature of the Guru, constitutes the only puja worthy of
being performed to the Guru-Lord.
When the ice of the ego-consciousness that is limited to the
form of the body melts into the ocean of Guru-consciousness,
the expanse of the Self that exists and shines as the one
savour of love, know that this is Guru-puja.
The polluting ego-view causes the fullness of the Guru,
which knows no lack, to be limited. Only the behaviour in
which this does not appear is the shining puja to the Guru
who stands out like a mountain in a plain.
After surrendering one's body and possessions to the
jnana-Guru, to regard the body as 'I' and the possessions as
'mine' is to commit the sin of stealing back what has been
given away as a gift. You should know that avoiding this
fault is the authentic worship of the Sadguru.
To destroy the form of the mind, enquire into the ego, the
delusion, and enter the Heart. This indeed is the puja to
the lotus feet of the Guru's holy form who abides in the
mauna that is beyond the mind.
Like a cataract upon the eye, the ego-view plays tricks on
us, masquerading as being-consciousness even as it moves
about in the insentient body. To prevent its formation and
growth is puja to the graceful twin lotus feet of the Guru
who exists and shines as the transcendental firmament.
Abandoning the protection of the feet of the Guru-Lord, who
has extinguished the burning fires of the triple miseries
[tapatraya], the ego suffers, seeking water in the
scorching mirage of the perceived sense objects. When this
mischief of the ego is stilled and one becomes established
[at those feet], that indeed is the puja to be
performed to the twin lotus feet of the Pure One.
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