Superphysics
The Need of a Guru
5 minutes • 921 words
Table of contents
The members of the Brahmo Samaj are opposed to the traditional guru system of orthodox Hinduism. And so, the Brahmo devotee asked the Master about it.
Is spiritual knowledge impossible without a guru?
Satchidananda alone is the Guru. If a man in the form of a guru awakens spiritual consciousness in you, then know for certain that it is God the Absolute who has assumed that human form for your sake. The guru is like a companion who leads you by the hand.
After the realization of God, one loses the distinction between the guru and the disciple. ‘That creates a very difficult situation; there the guru and the disciple do not see each other.’
This is why Janaka said to Sukadeva, ‘Give me first my teacher’s fee if you want me to initiate you into the Knowledge of Brahman.’
For the distinction between the teacher and the disciple ceases to exist after the disciple attains to Brahman. The relationship between them remains as long as the disciple does not see God."
It was dusk. Some of the Brahmo devotees said to the Master, “Perhaps it is time for your evening devotions.”
No. One should pass through these disciplines in the beginning. Later one doesn’t need the rituals of formal worship or to follow the injunctions.
After dusk, the preacher of the Brahmo Samaj conducted the service from the pulpit. The service was interspersed with recitations from the Upanishads and the singing of Brahmo songs.
After the service the Master and the preacher conversed.
Personal God and formless Deity
It seems to me that both the formless Deity and God with form are real.
Sir, I compare the formless God to the electric current, which is not seen with the eyes but can be felt."
Yes, both are true. God with form is as real as God without form.
Describing God as being formless only is like a man’s playing only a monotone on his flute, even if it has 7 holes.
But on the same instrument another man plays different melodies.
Likewise, in how many ways the believers in a Personal God enjoy Him! They enjoy Him through many different attitudes:
- the serene attitude,
- the attitude of a servant, a friend, a mother, a husband, or a lover.
The important thing is to get into the Lake of the Nectar of Immortality. Suppose one person gets into It by propitiating the Deity with hymns and worship, and you are pushed into It. The result will be the same. Both of you will certainly become immortal.
I give the Brahmos the illustration of water and ice. Satchidananda is like an endless expanse of water. The water of the great ocean in cold regions freezes into blocks of ice.
Similarly, through the cooling influence of divine love, Satchidananda assumes forms for the sake of the bhaktas. The rishis had the vision of the supersensuous Spirit-form and talked with It.
But devotees acquire a ’love body’, and with its help they see the Spirit-form of the Absolute.
The Vedas also say that Brahman is beyond mind and words. The heat of the sun of Knowledge melts the ice-like form of the Personal God.
On attaining the Knowledge of Brahman and communing with It in nirvikalpa samādhi, one realizes Brahman, the Infinite, without form or shape and beyond mind and words.
God’s true nature cannot be described “The nature of Brahman cannot be described. About It one remains silent. Who can explain the Infinite in words? However high a bird may soar, there are regions higher still.
Yes, sir, it is so stated in the Vedanta philosophy.
Once a salt doll went to the ocean to measure its depth. But it could not come back to give a report.
According to one school of thought, sages like Sukadeva saw and touched the Ocean of Brahman, but did not plunge into It.
Once I said to Vidyasagar, ‘Everything else but Brahman has been polluted, as it were, like food touched by the tongue.’
In other words, no one has been able to describe what Brahman is. A thing once uttered by the tongue becomes polluted. Vidyasagar, great pundit though he was, was highly pleased with my remarks.
It is said that there are places near Kedār that are covered with eternal snow; he who climbs too high cannot come back. Those who have tried to find out what there is in the higher regions, or what one feels there, have not come back to tell us about it.
After having the vision of God man is overpowered with bliss. He becomes silent. Who will speak? Who will explain?
The king lives beyond seven gates. At each gate sits a man endowed with great power and glory. At each gate the visitor asks, ‘Is this the king?’
The gate-keeper answers, ‘No. Not this, not this.’ The visitor passes through the seventh gate and. becomes overpowered with joy. He is speechless. This time he doesn’t have to ask, ‘Is this the king?’ The mere sight of him removes all doubts.
Yes, sir, it is so described in Vedanta.
When the Godhead is thought of as creating, preserving, and destroying, It is known as the Personal God, Saguna Brahman, or the Primal Energy, Ādyāśakti.
Again, when It is thought of as beyond the three gunas, then It is called the Attributeless Reality, Nirguna Brahman, beyond speech and thought; this is the Supreme Brahman, Parabrahman.
