SatGuru's teachings

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For those who are able to understand the subtle, silent teachings are enough.

For those who have not yet developed the capability to understand subtle

teachings, SatGuru uses alternate methods to change a devotee's mind and

attitude in order to guide that devotee beyond his/her limitations. Like a

mother, sometimes Swamiji scolds his devotees, when he does so, devotees feel

rejected or pained; what they do not realize is that Swamiji feels much more

pain in having to give the teaching, but sometimes it is the only way to awaken

those devotees to look within and think deeply about their own actions and their

attitudes. A mother takes no pleasure in scolding her toddler, but if she didn't

do it, the toddler may never learn -- when the toddler grows up and his/her mind

matures enough to understand the intent and meaning of the mother's words, then

the mother no longer has to scold them, she can simply explain in words and the

child understands the positives/negatives of an action...

with even more time and maturity, the child's mind is so developed that words

are not even necessary, and when faced with a genuine situation, the child only

need remember the image of the mother, and the solution to the problem comes

immediately.... in other words... the silent teaching of the child's Guru guides

the child in the proper course of action. Though we may be extremely learned in

worldly affairs, we are still children in the spiritual field... therefore, only

the SatGuru is fit to judge our development and to give us the proper advice

(salaha). He is our mother, father, closest relation, and the God we have been

seeking in the core of our being. We should not waste this priceless opportunity

to be near to the very source of our life by being small minded.

 

Another reason Swamiji sometimes resorts to scoldings is to change the devotee

to come into his/her full potential. If we recall in the book of Swamiji's life

history, as he was attending school he had taken a maths test, in which he had

scored 99 marks. Other students had scored much less than he did; yet, his maths

teacher called only him and scolded only him for getting only 99 marks, and not

100. Later Swamiji went to the schoolmasters house and was received warmly and

treated very affectionately. When he asked the schoolmaster why he had scolded

him in school, and is now showing so much affection -- the schoolmaster

responded that he saw the potential for Swamiji to score 100 marks, whereas no

matter how hard the other students who scored 60 or 70 marks tried, they could

not be improved. So in order to push Swamiji to score higher marks, the

schoolmaster had to take this approach.

 

The Guru teaches in many ways, but we should realize that any teaching, is for

our own development and our own good. Afterall, Swamiji has no inherent

responsibility towards us, yet he takes the trouble to teach us in so many ways.

Why? Because his is true love. We should pray to be given the proper mental

understanding and grace that we may understand the inner process and to

understand Guru better. Instead, we take the wrong approach and question the

Guru and feel insulted. If we were already perfect, then we would not require a

Guru at all, so the logic that "I am such a good devotee, why has he scolded me

so" is not correct -- we are ignoring our flaws, and choosing to see ourselves

as being "right" and pointing out the flaws in others actions. By doing this, we

are showing our true selves.... that we are not really as good devotees as we

had formerly thought... we are only good when it is convenient and when we

received attention or praise... sometimes praise is the right

approach, and sometimes an alternate approach is needed when our minds become

inflexible or stubborn... we should realize that we are in need of much internal

self improvement and we should strive to improve ourselves, and not find flaws

and faults in others actions. If we have time to find faults in others, and yet

we complain of not having enough time to meditate or spending that same 5

minutes in thinking about our Guru... where is the logic in this? true sadhana

is continuous and uninterrupted... without this, we are only fooling ourselves

into believing we have 'achieved something' or 'have made progress'... in

spirituality, we must be absolutely straightforward with our own minds... or we

will not see the subtleties of the tricks that our minds play...

 

rather than trying to be perfect (which does not exist), it is better to

surrender our actions however incomplete or imperfect to the feet of Guru... and

let the very thought of surrender to Guru purify and perfect our actions... too

many people make the mistake of saying "I want to live according to the dharma

and scriptures" but they do not realize how subtle and dynamic the nature of

dharma is. It requires an extremely adept intellect to understand these

subtleties, an intellect equivalent to Sri Maha Vishnu himself. This is why we

pray to Lord Vishnu, the lord of dharma.

 

An example of improper dharma...

 

Let us take the hypothetical case of a student who is very dilligent in doing

his homeworks and trying to score high marks in the class. In this class, the

other students are jealous of his knowledge and abilities, so instead of

striving to do better themselves, they choose to bully this student and cheat by

taking his homeworks or exam papers. This student, through misguided

understanding of dharma, decides that he should just give in and let the others

copy his homeworks... he fears that they will retaliate or harm him in some way.

The dharmic thing to do in this case would have been to boldly confront the

other bully students and to fight (even physically if necessary) to establish

that homeworks should not be copied but should be done individually and not by

copying. It is said that dharma protects those who protect dharma, yet in this

instance, the student didnt really protect dharma, he protected himself out of

fear of retaliation... so instead of relying on God, he decided to

make the conscious decision to accept the bullying and to let it continue...

this same student then blames God and says "God did not come to my rescue when I

needed him"... yet, because of his flawed understanding of the subtleties of

dharma, he did not realize that his mind had made him act adharmically. If we

look at the bhagavad gita, Krishna advises arjuna to fight, and surrender the

actions to Krishna. He did not advise arjuna to run or to let his relatives win

out of sentimental pity or his self-righteous belief that he was doing a great

thing by being subserviant and meek towards his grandsires and relatives...

there is a great difference between meekness and true piety, and this student

confused the two and acted against the dictates of dharma without his knowledge.

dharma is a difficult concept to understand, but those who have a child like

faith in God, will never do anything adharmic even if it seem so to the unwise.

Faith in God doesn't mean you give up at the moment of

the fight, it means that you fight on. God doesn't accept mere words, he

accepts only our actions.

 

We may do thousands of pujas, and we may do everything according to the

shastras, we may be praised by everyone who attends, with perfect attention to

detail, and we may invite thousands of guests, and have the grandest event of

all, we may give away thousands of plates of food as anna-dhanam... but if our

mind is not resting on the holy feet of SatGuru, what is the use? what is the

use? what is the use?

 

Let us take each lesson as a step upwards, and move forwards always without

doubt. Never fear, the SatGuru loves you more than you know, and one day you

will realize his love and then the words will not come to express your

gratitude... never fear.

 

***Guruve Buddhi Saakshine***

 

---

"Gurorangripadme ManaScaane Lagnam, tata: kim tata: kim tata: kim..."

 

 

 

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