The Guru-Disciple Relationship is Eternal
Divine Life
Society Publication: The Spiritual
Teacher by Swami
Krishnananda
From the teachings of saint Dattatreya
to King Yadu we are to understand that the variegated manifestations of God in
this world are to become our Gurus, and we have to take lessons from every
event that takes place in this world. Every event that occurs is an eye-opener
to us, if only we are endowed with that receptive capacity, and the day of Guru
worship is meant specifically to provide us an occasion to rise to this level
of understanding and regard ourselves as sparks or flames of spiritual
aspiration and not merely mortal bodies.
We are on a flaming march to
perfection. Our duty here is to work for our final salvation of the soul and
not to regard this earth as a goal in itself. We have been told time and again,
from time immemorial, that this earth is like a Choultry, an inn, a Kshetra in
which we have to rest for a while on our march onwards to reach our
destination, and that this is not to be regarded as an end in itself at any
time. But nevertheless, due to Anadi Avidya, we forget this
great glorious ideal before us and are apt to mistake the Choultry for a
permanent residence for ourselves, but when we wake up the next day we will
find that we have to walk a long distance yet, and this Choultry is no more
ours, and we have to go onwards. And this onward movement from one place to another
is the transmigratory life of the Jiva.
What we call the series of
births and deaths or transmigratory life is the process of the march of the
soul from one halting station to another halting station in this continuous,
incessant march to perfection. The Guru appears to us at every level. Let us
not think therefore that today in this human birth we have a Guru and when we
die the Guru is lost to us, or when the Guru disappears from his mortal coil he
is lost to us. The Guru is an eternal principle as God. Guru is God and God is
Guru, and therefore there cannot be destruction of Guru; as also no destruction
of aspiration. The Sadhaka is not also a destructible principle. The Guru is
not also a destructible principle. Both are immortal principles, and their
relation is an eternal one. The student, the Sadhaka or the disciple is a seat
of spiritual aspiration. It is a spark of spiritual fire which can never be
extinguished. It has nothing to do with the body of the student, nor has the
true Guru anything to do with the body in which he has been invoked or he has
condescended to manifest himself for the good of the disciple.
Sri Krishna says in the
Bhagavadgita: "Several births have I taken and several births have you
also taken; but you do not know this truth, whereas I know it." That is
the difference between us. Since the beginning of creation onwards this
recurring manifestation of Nara and Narayana, of man and God, has been taking
place for the ultimate good of the Jivas. But Narayana knows everything, while
Nara does not know it. That is the difference between man and God. But in
essence they are like the wave and the ocean. They are not intrinsically
different. Essentially they are the one and the same. This is the relation
between the Guru and the disciple. It is not the relation between one body and
another. It is a relation between a spark of fire and a conflagration of fire.
It is the spark that is aspiring to unite itself with the conflagration, and
this conflagration is again a manifestation of that universal fire of the
wisdom of God into which we have to dedicate ourselves – which is called Jnana
Yajna. The whole process of spiritual Sadhana is Jnana Yajna, the sacrifice of
the soul in the knowledge of God. In this respect we can say that the Guru is
the intermediate principle between Ishvara and Jiva. And inasmuch as He
represents to us the knowledge of God, for all practical purposes, from our
standpoint at least, he is God.
Excerpts from:
The Guru-Disciple Relationship
is Eternal – The Spiritual
Teacher by Swami
Krishnananda
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