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The Master and the Method
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Our scriptures proclaim that Guru is Sakshat Sacchidananda Para Brahman itself. He is the way, the Truth and the Life. No disciple can, therefore, truly venture to write about Him until he has become one with the Master, the Absolute. This attempt on my part is hence the contemplation of his auspicious qualities. I pray that Guru Maharaj may be pleased to bless it by inspiring the thoughts and expression. Like the Vedas, the direct word of God lends itself to different interpretations, our Sadguru being a Great Master presents many facets and thus goads men with different predispositions and belonging to various spiritual levels to duties suited totheir predilections and qualifications and sets them on the Godward path. The scope of this article will however be limited to a few aspects of the guidance given by Him to His monastic disciples and advanced aspirants. Many visitors to the Ashram ask me "How does your Master guide your sadhana? How do you feel the effect of His Grace?" Such questions are difficult to answer as they pertain to one's subjective experience. The relationship between the Guru and His disciple is spiritual and hence psychic. Of all human relationships, it is at once the most powerful and elevating, intimate and personal. Like all grant Masters, our Guru Maharaj teaches mainly through the tremendous power of spiritual silence. In His presence all doubts are dispelled and confusions cleared and therefore few elucidations are actually sought by his close disciples. He writes very little ?a few messages in aphorismic language on rare occasions. His silent transforming influence on the heart is His essential teaching and the seeker is not aware of it in the initial stages. It is only after some years that he finds himself totally transformed like a ball turned inside out. The working of His Grace is seen as one's own experience as growth in inner life and therefore is inexplicable. Often during the Manana or reflection stage of my sadhana, I used to feel the effect of this silent teaching of the Master working within me as Antaryamin by way of flashes of the exact and deep import of important scriptural passages. They invariably occurred in the small hours of the morning just before I woke up. Sometimes my doubts, albeit not even expressed, would get clarified by Gurudev in the course of His casual conversation with other devotees. Hence, the greatest vigilance and earnestness are required on the part of the seeker, as he has to wait on every word of the Master, directly said or indirectly conveyed. Otherwise, one may stay very close to Him for many years but still he will derive only little benefit. Growth in inner life is a gradual process which takes time, unless one has already evolved in his previous births. Once turned to spiritual life, every step, in its own way, contributes to his development either by strengthening a positive latent tendency or weakening a negative one by working it out. Our Gurudev believes in the natural growth of maturity; seldom does He impose His will on the aspirant by strong imperatives of dos and dents except of worse in cases of important crises in his life. Our Guru Maharaj disapproves the tendency on the part of some seekers to change from one Master to another on account of their restlessness and without any valid reason. He says in His own characteristic way "A cow which is under the care of a kind?hearted cow herd who has tied it by a long rope to a peg in the centre of a green pasture, gets its fill by the afternoon itself. On the other hand, another cow which is on its own, trespasses into the fields, gets beaten up and is still half?fed and hungry even at the time of dusk!!" It is a different matter if the Guru Himself sends His disciple to another teacher for further sadhana or for some special reasons; or after the Mahasamadhi of his Guru, the aspirant seeks the guidance of another Master, his intense sadhana needing such personal direction. In face in my case, I was initiated into sannyasa in 1953 by His Holiness Sri Swami Sivananda Saraswathi Maharaj of Rishikesh. But as the Himalayan climate did not suit my health, l sought His permission and joined our Sadguru at Thapovanam in 1957. Both the great Masters assured me that all real Gurus are one, like water being the same everywhere. The point is that unless the whole mind of the aspirant is tuned to his Guru and attains to that perfect state of reliance on the truth of the instructions given by Him, which is called Sraddha or faith, a whole hearted and single?pointed practice will not be possible. It is truly said: "The man is made up of his faith; as a man's faith is, so is he. This Sraddha is the index of the intensity of his aspiration for liberation. It polarises all the mental faculties and powers of the seeker and thus determines the pace of his progress. By making his surrender to his Master unqualified and absolute, the aspirant has now commenced the process of sinking his small self comprising "I" and "My" notions by hanging his ego on the peg called Guru. In other words, the ghost of "Kartritva" (the sense of doership) is now nailed on the evergreen tree of surrender to the Master. Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi says gracefully: "Submit to me and I will strike down the miad. 'Our Master declares: "A true disciple has no sadhana to perform. His only job is to surrender himself completely to his Guru." Bhagavan Sri Ramana says again: "He that has earned the Grace of the Guru shall undoubtedly be saved and never forsaken, just as the prey that has fallen into the tiger's jaws will never be allowed to escape. But the disciple, for his part should unswervingly follow the path shown by the Master."' Thus, it is all Grace. In the words of Swami Ramdas "It is Grace in the beginning, Grece in the middle and Grece in the end".
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