If you can bring love into your breath, into your step, into every act that you do, not towards anybody, or anything, if you can just bring the longing to merge with everything around you, the creation will lead you on to the Creator.
---Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev.
'Bin guru jnan kahan se pavun ' (From where can I possess the divine knowledge without a proper Guru)? The underlying pathos in these few utterances (part of the devotional song, 'Man tarpat Hari darshan ko aaj,' from the Hindi film 'Baiju Bawra' (1952) evoked tears rolling down on my cheeks even when I was a little boy. For I had every thing under the sun, the loving parents, pleasant schools with large playgrounds, committed masters, and memorable friends' circle in my colony. Hence I had sympathy for the one who couldn't afford a Guru for his education. Now as I ponder over I still wonder, 'is the present situation any way better?' The commercial gurus abound aplenty of course, but not the real Guru mentioned in the song - the one who can show the path of Enlightenment.
'Gu' means darkness, ignorance and 'Ru' stands for 'one who drives away'. Hence he being a dispeller of ignorance, is somewhat on a higher pedestal compared to the present day teachers who bog down us with memorising bookish knowledge. In most of the cases, it's a chance happening that the real gurus stumble upon the real seekers. 'A genuine seeker , a person who develops an urge within will always find his guru. He will find it in a man, in a woman, or he may find it in a rock. He will definitely find it somewhere, there is no doubt about it.'---Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev. Ramakrishna Paramhamsa and Swamy Vivekananda; Yukteswar Yogi and Paramahamsa Yogananda; Swamy Haridas and Tansen; Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya and Amir Khusro - to name a few glorious Guru-Disciple relationships treading on divine path in various fields including music and letters.
Being fully aware about the True and Ultimate knowledge of the Nirakara Brahman (Formless Super Consciousness), still the Gurus preferred a prop in Sakara Brahman (Almighty in Form) by encouraging the seekers to resort to worship and other rituals. Meera Bai realized Lord Krishna; Namdev realized Lord Vitthoba and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa realized Goddess Kali. Thus we find that both Form and Formless are to be respected equally as a true believer in Non-Duality of the Almighty. How a Sadguru can help in realization of the Paramatman within, is illustrated in the following small story....
'A guru ( since browsed years back, I don't exactly remember if it was Sri Sankaracharya) sent his ten disciples to the neighbouring village on some mission to accomplish. On the way they had to cross a knee-deep river. After reaching other bank of the river, one of the disciples wanted to check if all the ten crossed the river safely. Hence he came aside of the group and counted the numbers up to nine and started to worry that the tenth one was missing. Another disciple came out from the group and counted in the same manner. He too found only nine members in the group in front of him. This confusion prevailed for a while and then they started crying loudly that one of their members missed by drowning in the river. A passer-by hearing their lamentation came near and enquired about the matter. He asked the one standing apart to join the group and counted ten. Then turning towards the one who just joined said, " Dear Gentleman! As you too stand along with others, the number comes to Ten. 'Dasamo asti - tat tvam asi !' (The Tenth man is also There - That is Yourself !) ". The passer-by is none other than the Sadguru revealing the Self, 'Tat Tvam Asi' !
All said and done, I have a strong notion that, instead of being carried away by laurels like mini mini divine revelations now and then, which might be augury of advent of a Sadguru, we shall continue to pursue our inner consciousness relentlessly till that great moment of Liberation in our life time itself. But as Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev advised, 'Do your sadhana (spiritual practice) joyfully not with the hope of making it or fear of not making it. Just do it joyfully !'
Om Shanti!
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