UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF GURU IS DISICIPLE

Lord Ganesha with his guru.

The word devotee is derived from the word Devotion and unless you are a devotee, life should not open for you, because if it opens for you, you will only cause damage to yourself and everyone else. Knowledge in India was never ever handed over to a person who lacked devotion.

I took so long to post this on disciple after my post on Guru- which is divinity personified and devotee is devotion personified. Interestingly they compliment each other.

 The concept of devotee or disciple is too Indian, but my post on GURU is incomplete unless I post next on Devotee or disciple. I will try to put my views in more contemporary manner. A devotee has a deep devotion towards his Guru ( spiritual master). He perceives Him as a friend, as a master and as a beloved. He is totally dedicated to Him, and does not hide anything from Him. There is no trace of duality between him and his GURU, as their consciousness is unified.

    A disciple never questions his Guru, and does not mistrust or doubt him even in adverse conditions.    

     One has to acquire certain qualities to become deserving and dedicated devotee. The  spiritual knowledge cannot be imparted to an unworthy person. A devotee should be an ascetic, altruistic, magnanimous, hardworking, and truthful, furthermore follows celibacy. As there is saying that, “Only the gold utensil can hold tigress milk.

Guru imparting spiritual knowledge through integration of mind.

    There is lots of self –preparation and self -discipline required in becoming a worthy devotee.  Our spiritual text (Advaita Vedanta) gave the fourfold discipline to train a devotee and to help them to attain self relization. It consists of four stages:

No.1 cultivating oneself of the following qualities:

* the capacity to differentiate between real and unreal.

 * dispassion, detachment, indifference to pleasure and pain under all circumstances.

The required six virtues are:

1. Tranquility or control of mind and calmness under any situation.

2. Control of the senses.

3. Renunciation of worldly activities.

4. Adaptability and endurance of changing and opposite circumstances.

A complete faith in the guru, the Atman and the religious scriptures.

 The concentration of the mind and an intense longing for liberation is must for disciple.
Listening and of reflection on the teachings and the stage of meditation on the truth is mandatory.

How hard may it sound but he had to cleanse himself of all the ills e.g. envy, greed, ego and vengeance. He should forever stay away from negativity and worldly desire. He has to overcome his ego – the biggest hurdle in spirituality. The Buddhist and the Jain monks beg for their food, as begging is supposed to out do one’s pride and greed. Whether it is a good or a bad ritual, this could be the subject for discussion and I would be staying away from unnecessary discussions and preaching so only stating the facts.

Guru intiating disciple.

   Guru comes as a representative of the Divine for the benefit of world. He looks out for true shishyas (disciples), test them and then endows them with the spiritual knowledge and supernatural powers for the welfare of society. Guru encourages his disciples to become seeker or bhakt and leads them from religion to spirituality. This journey from a student to seeker is the most significant as they grow spiritually and seeks the knowledge of the Brahman.
 Now let us understand the different types of devotees: Broadly speaking there are four types of devotees or bhakt. First, these people worship GOD in hard times only and then forget about HIM once their grief is over and sadly most of us fall in this category. The second types are those, who have some materialistic desires to fulfill, and does bhakti till their specific desires are unfulfilled. Third types are those, who are averse to the materialistic world, so they take refuge in HIM, and lastly the forth ones are those, who really love GOD, their only desire is to be one with HIM, even too much hardships does not dissuade them, and the spiritual longing for GOD becomes their sole purpose of life, for them GURU is the only salvation.

     The path to spiritualism is full of hurdles and contradictions, and which appears quite opposite to the worldly traditions and sometimes even questions the age -old religious norms.

A guru imparting spiritual knowledge.

A seeker without a Guru would be lost in the oasis of confrontations.  A devotee is actually connected first with Guru then with God, as Guru shows him that God is not some abstract idea or some mighty force residing in heaven, but a friend, a beloved and most importantly a savior.

 A Guru reveals the spiritual knowledge to devotee through the integration of mind and in turn a disciple surrenders totally to Guru and then becomes one with him.  A Guru leads him onto the path of ultimate reality with the help of the Spiritual knowledge.
 It is not an overnight process but a mental state acquired with lots of hardships, and for the outside world he may appear same but there is total revolution inside him. And the most important and difficult task is to retain spirituality, as they say it is like the threshold to a door, which opens on both the sides, and coming out is very quick, and Guru acts as a sentinel or a doorman.

Only Guru can impart the spiritual knowledge- must for self-realization, as being the self -realized person himself.



pics from web.

LOOKING BEYOND MUNDANE

PART -2

 UNDERSTANDING DIVINITY ON EARTH:

Initiating from guru.

Till now I have talked about a traveler exploring new places, new countries, different states and narrating personal experiences and then how this traveler becomes a seeker, moving from a physical world to a metaphysical level to get a commune with God. Which is regarded as a very important aspect in life. I have also written about the preparation for this journey, as how we have to work upon ourselves and scrutinized  our relationships with others. I talked about pure love. Interestingly, this is all part of spiritual journey and without crossing these hurdles, we can not  even have a glimpse of God. 
To a certain extent all the religions had laid stress on spiritualism to understand divinity. And If the subject is metaphysical and spiritual, then we would be looking for a teacher, who is well versed in these subjects and can impart this most valuable knowledge to us and show the path to reach our destination. Spiritual teacher is called GURU in Hinduism, and now almost everybody is aware of this term thanks to fast growing social media.The gulf between God and a seeker is bridged by GURU.  

Guru imparting spiritual knowledge.

Only he can show us the path to realize GOD, as being a self-realized person himself. A disciple would never be able to achieve right perspective in his life, A Guru is a mentor, as he slowly and progressively takes out ills such as anger, lust, and jealousy from his disciple. A Guru is considered as a very essential module for spiritual knowledge and salvation. With his help a seeker

    learns the very core of spiritual knowledge in these three important steps: First the student listens attentively, and this step is called sravanam, which literally means listening. The next step is now for the student to reflects upon what he/she has heard, ponder on it, and tries to really comprehend the subtle truth that have been taught to him/her, and this step is called mananam, which means reflecting or contemplating. Now the student has reached the stage to meditate upon the Brahman, and this entire practice leads to the intuitive and the direct experience of truth. This important stage is called nididhyasana, or meditation. A Guru is capable of removing ignorance, which is the root cause of our sufferings. Our negative thoughts like anger, jealousy and lust are all because of ignorance. And if these thoughts go unchecked, they can totally ruin a person mentally and physically.

A Guru can bestow worldly joys as well as bliss on his disciples. Only the wise one, (Guru) who has realized the truth, is accomplished to impart the supreme knowledge. 

  According to vedas (religious texts), “Guru” means who has the power to dispel darkness. 

He who hates none, and is friend and merciful to all and has nothing of his own. He, who always works in yoga and has become controlled, and whose will is firm. His mind and intellect are given up unto God. It is true that faithful devotion to Guru’s feet can remove every obstacle in life and establishes wisdom. He also acts as an integral medium for the experience of Consciousness (chetna).                                                  

   A SPIRITUAL GURU is the spiritual guide with all the saintly qualities far above than the mundane world, which otherwise is filled with hypocrisy, envy, lust, and duality. He enlightens the mind of disciples.  A disciple of Guru is called śhiṣhya. It is believed that only Guru can awaken the dormant spiritual knowledge within shishya.

     A Guru guides his disciples to become (jivanmukta), a liberated soul. The comprehensive knowledge of Brahman includes the knowledge of totality- cosmos, universe, consciousness (chetna), rationality, non-duality and wisdom. 

Qualities of Spiritual Guru:

Prostration unto that Guru. 

A Guru should be stable minded and must have restrained actions of body and should stay away from non-virtuous actions of body keeping his actions proper and moral.

A Guru should keep proper morality of speech, not saying harsh words to others.

A Guru should refrain from pretentiousness, and his mental attitude should be pure, and he should possess intelligence and discretion otherwise he cannot lead his disciples to the path of spirituality.

A Guru should be truthful and unbiased and not partial towards anybody. Most importantly a Guru should be compassionate to all living beings. This is for certain that in his presence the knowledge flourishes, joy wells up, abundance dawns, sorrow and lack diminishes.

He should have profound knowledge of scriptures, only then he can remove doubts of his disciple. He should possess the power to reach inference with the help of mantras, which undoubtedly work when chanted properly and with faith.

Only a true disciple (shishya) is capable of pure devotion

pics from web files.

                          

                       

EXPLORING THE CONCEPT OF PURE LOVE

Pure love is it really possible?

Interestingly I have written this topic under my travel blog. As according to me, we cannot move an inch forward in spirituality unless we trespass this zone- pure love.

Meditating on God

And now before exploring the concept of pure love, let us understand what we meant by the term “pure”. Dictionary meaning of ‘pure’ is –not mixed with any other substance or material. But if we talk in the respect of emotions, then ‘pure’ would certainly imply those emotions, which are above heretical, ordinary and contamination. As the term “pure” suggests, even if small impurities seeps in, it will cease to be pure.

     Now in this context of pure love, let us discuss the major emotional trauma, the most talked about, most hyped and most consuming emotion in our lives. I am going to use the term ‘real love’ instead of pure love, as it is too conceptual emotion to be experienced, whereas the “real love”, is what we are familiar in reality.

     I would stick myself to only interpersonal relationship between the two human beings, which can be labeled as the ‘real love’. It does not come alone, with it comes multitude of emotions, desire, passion, lust, expectations, disappointments, envy and pain. Everyone falls in love and it is a solely desired emotion especially at a certain age. Some by peer pressure, some by their own choice, but we all do it, I mean fall in love, and savor its magic.

   LOVE usually refers to inter-personal relationship, an experience felt by a person for another person. It often involves caring for or identifying with a person or a thing. Some called it an abstract and complex emotion; some describe love as of an absolute value. The person can said to be in love if he values an object, a principle, or a goal greatly and is deeply committed to it, and everything other than that, seems trivial to him. It is a more potent sentiment than a simple attraction. Love is the most fundamental drive of every living being. We cannot be happy without satisfying this desire to love, and we will not be able to perfectly fulfill this desire without permitting its expansion to the most inclusive extent.

Wise quote

   In the first stage a child loves his parents, then his brothers and sisters, and as he grows up he begins to love his family, society, community, country, nation, or even the whole human society. But the loving tendency remains unfulfilled until we know who the supreme beloved is.

   Now the question is "what is real Love"? And why this emotion consumes us from time to time. It has got the capacity to take us up to new horizon, and also opens up a new plethora of emotions. One seems to forget everything when in love, and we mistook it to ‘Real love’, as it seems so real at that moment, that everything else seems imitation.

    All forms of ‘Real love’ are viewed as varying combinations of  certain emotions attraction, passion, caring, desire, laced with sexual longings. This is all said over and over again, but my questions are -

If it’s so strong, and most valued sentiment in our life, than why we let it go?

Why it disappears, and leaves behind annoyance, frustration and pain?

Where it goes and why it does not stay if it is real?

    I think as the name suggests, ‘real' is that, which should always be there and not subject to change in context of time and place, like "truth" it should be consistent and unconditional, but on the contrary it turns out to be otherwise.

    We have seen even the place plays an important role, as the saying goes “out of sight, is out of mind”, is generally true. The time and space are very crucial in love affairs, as rhetorically speaking human mind is capable of only brief recollections.

     Unconditional love is so different from the kind of love most of us have experienced in all our lives that it deserves both a name ‘Real Love’ and definition of its own:

  Real Love is caring about the happiness of another person without any thought of what we might get in return for ourselves.  It’s also the Real Love when other people care about our happiness unconditionally or not because, when other people love us for doing what they want. We can be certain that we’re receiving ‘Real Love’ only when we make foolish mistakes, and fail to do what other person want but still they don’t feel disappointed or irritated. That is ‘Real Love’ -true unconditional love, and this true love alone has the power to heal all wounds, bind people together, and create relationships quite beyond our present capacity to imagine.

 Is the lack of this unconditional love causes anger and confusion in our relationships?

  Maybe this is true, as lack of this unconditional love is causing frustration, that’s why we are witnessing rising divorce cases in today’s world.  unless we get back same amount of love in return, this love is out of question. And it would also be very wrong to mistook real love with attraction and passion, as both are physical desires borne out of sex. It is like you wish to possess, what fancies you, but it fails to hold you long and loses its charm afterwards. This love can happen many times in life. So cannot be mistaken with true love, which as name suggest should never fades.

    Ego plays an important role in this 'imitation' love, one just cannot take rejections from another partner, and so this love affair leads to heartbreaks and sometimes overblown miseries.

      Real love should not be mistaken with 'commitment' also, which can be better than imitation love but it is doubtful if it could survive the hardships of life, as it survives only on give and take basis. Suppose one partner fails in his commitment, can another one accept it lovingly? I doubt it very much.       

Brain power 

     Most people spend their entire lives trying to fill their emptiness with this 'Imitation Love’, but all they achieve is an ever-deepening frustration, punctuated by brief moments of superficial satisfaction. This lack of ‘Real Love’ gives way to the frustration we experience as we desperately and hopelessly try to create happiness from a wobbly foundation of Imitation Love.

    The beauty of ‘Real Love’ is that it is fulfilling and eliminates our anger, confusion,  pain and has the capacity to take us to the pinnacle of contentment. But one never gets this real unconditional love in life as expectations seeps in relationships, and which eventually gave birth to anger, confusion and frustration.

It is like a beggar asking alms from another beggar, both are empty handed and has nothing to give.

    This so-called ‘true love’ evaporates with time, once the gratification of senses is achieved. Generally the entire residue left is grudges, complaints and intense pain.

   From all this aforesaid discussion, we have reached a point that ‘real love’ is an amalgam of all pure emotions, something very pure, very sublime, and which no human being has got the capacity to give.

Then who can give such 'sublime' love?

Only God can give us this form of unconditional love or sublime love.

Praying to God is the ultimate form of Love

GOD is pure love.         

How can we receive this pure love?

Where we can find God or who can show us the path to reach HIM.

   To get the answers of questions would automatically lead us to a person, who knows the path and is well versed in this subject- GOD.

  And mind you, who knows all this better than the spiritual teacher or Satguru.

Guru is the mediator between “GOD and a seeker” only he can help us in our search of ‘pure love’- GOD.

Pics from web files.