(Jan 20,2014) Spiritual Message for the Day – The Guru Seeks the Disciple by Swami Krishnananda

The Guru Seeks the Disciple

Divine Life Society Publication: The Spiritual Teacher by Swami Krishnananda

The Upanishad says that the Guru should be a Srotriya and a Brahma-Nishtha, one who is well-versed in the scriptures and established in Brahma Jnana. Can we find such a Guru in this world? Is it easy to find one? Many have a problem of this kind – the difficulty of finding a Guru. There is a very ancient saying that the Guru seeks the disciple, the disciple does not seek the Guru. The Guru is constantly searching for a suitable disciple and it is the burden of the Guru to seek the disciple, not so much of the disciple to seek the Guru, because of the simple truth that the disciple has no knowledge. He does not know where the Guru is, and how to find him. Suppose you find a Shakespeare sitting here. You cannot know that he is Shakespeare unless you yourself are equal to him in genius. If sage Suka is sitting here, you cannot know that Suka is sitting here.

The Guru seeks the disciple, and sometimes he works wonders for our good if only we are honest, though we are ignorant and not endowed with much of knowledge. And in the Bhakti Yoga Sastras it is also said that if honestly and sincerely a Sadhaka takes one step towards God, God comes running towards him taking a hundred steps. The Lord thinks, "Oh, he is coming to Me. I shall go and save him." Such is the compassion of God. As rivers rush into the ocean, these aspiring centers called the Sadhakas try to rush into the ocean of God, and the Guru is something like a delta at which they merge and get expanded, as it were, just before entering the ocean. This is the principle of Guru, the Guru Tattva. It is the Eternal Being, the Sanatana Tattva that is before us as the Guru and therefore when we actually crave to have guidance from above, it shall come to us. Moses got inspiration from the bush, and light came before him. Christ got inspiration. Buddha received inspiration. All the Acharyas had inspiration in this manner, because they were open to the influx of that oceanic flood of the knowledge of God. There is only one duty on the part of the disciple, and that is to open himself fully. That is all. Don't close your heart; open it.

Our Sadhana consists in self-surrender to God. All Yogas have one technique – self-surrender, whether it is Jnana Yoga or Karma Yoga or Bhakti Yoga or any other Yoga. How are we to interpret the unanimity of the Yogas in having self-surrender as the main principle? Yoga is union with God. And whose union with God? It is not the union of the body with God, it is not the union of the mind with God, nor of the senses, not even the personality. It is the union of the inner essential spiritual substance with the eternal substance. This Yoga is attained by the purification of the body, senses and the mind by Tapas. Just as gold ore is purified by heating and melting in the crucible, the senses, the mind etc., are purified in the fire of Tapas. You heat up the whole system by the fire of renunciation, by the fire of self-control, by the fire of mental concentration, by the fire of Sadhana, an all-round Sadhana, Sadhana which is to take into account all the aspects and sides of the human personality. That is Tapas.

Excerpts from:

The Guru Seeks The Disciple – The Spiritual Teacher by Swami Krishnananda

If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit:
http://www.dlshq.org/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?

If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at:

generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org