WHO IS A TRUE MASTER and WHO IS A TRUE SEEKER---4

July 9, 2009

The Bagawad Geeta highlights the importance of worshipping the Master( Acharyopasanam), ie., worship of a an acharya, a spiritual master who knows things as they are. Ideally, the spiritual Master must have himself been a spirtual seeker in disciplic succession . In other words, the father of the spiritual master should have been his spiritual master, and so on, who form the disciplic succession of Acharyas.

The scriptures direct that the all the acharyas be given the highest respect. "Treat the Master as God" (Acharya Devo Bhava) says the Taittireeya Upanishad. A true seeker is one who lives upto such scriptural injunctions. He does not see the bodily symptoms of the spiritual master. What is more important are the spiritual symptoms. A seeker should follow the instructions of the bonafide spiritual master in full surrender.

The spiritual master is the manifested representation of the Supreme Lord as he receives and passes on the instructions of the Lord, as they are, in disciplic succession. A spiritual master is one who has made athorough analytical study of the Absolute Truth and who has realized the Absolute Truth. He should also be able to clear all doubts about about Absolute Truth. A master who knows the purpose of vedic injunctios, who employs the principles laid down in Vedas and who teaches his disciples in that way is called an Acharya. A true Spiritual Master not only preaches the science of Absolute Truth but also sees every thing in the Absolute Truth and the Absolute Truth in everything.

(to be continued)G.Balasubramanian