Part Two
‘The seed received from the Sadguru, if nourished by the water of sadhana, will one day blossom into self-realisation.’
The guru's main work is to offer a path (marg) to God - a Sadhana. This will inevitably be based on those seed principles and disciplines which have guided his own path to God realization. The guru-disciple relationship in some form is crucial to the spiritual path. It generally begins with some form of subtle transmission in which the power of the teacher and his lineage is experienced in the disciple's inner being. This transmission of spiritual consciousness is like planting a seed.
Initiation
Look at a coconut. A young coconut has fluid and thin flesh. Put it in the ground and no tree will emerge as it is immature. But plant a mature coconut whose flesh has hardened and it will produce a tree. Similarly, we have to become mature in order to produce spiritual fruit. If you take an unripe mango seed and plant it similarly nothing will happen, no matter how much you water it. However, a, seed, if tended, will grow into a vast tree which itself contains seeda Each of these has the potential to itself become a mango tree. Likewise, the seed in the form of mantra received from the sadguru if nourished by the water of spiritual sadhana, will one day blossom into self-realization and the disciple, in his turn, will be able to pass on the same ripe seed to others. This is the meaning of 'jyota se jyota - one lighted candle can light many others.' However, whereas the guru's light has this power and does not get depleted, the disciple has to beware the wind of egotism which may extinguish his lighted wick. For this reason the guru puts a protective glass around the disciple.
Babaji takes a box of matches and removes a match.
Within this match is potential fire but only when it contacts a matchbox does ignition take place. Likewise, within the disciple is hidden the sleeping kundalini shakti. However, contact with the Sadguru is necessary to awaken it. Here is another example. If there is well water below the ground, to start the water flowing up a pipe, we have to take water from above and pour it down the pipe until it meets the well water below. Only then will the well water start flowing, needing no further outside assistance. In the same way, once the kundalini shakti is awakened through contact with the Sadguru, spiritual unfoldment will occur spontaneously and automatically within the disciple. Once the disciple's identification with the body is burned up by the awakened shakti, he is free or liberated.
Hidden within milk is ghee but to extract it we have to churn the cream until we get butter. From butter we can then separate the ghee. Similarly, hidden in the mind is the pure atma and to separate the two we churn the mind by repeating the guru mantra until the "ghee” of the atma gets separated from the mind. This stage is called atma jnan and when the disciple reaches it in his sadhana, his atma jyoti finally gains the same power as his guru, of being able to light other candles without itself becoming depleted. Therefore earn a little knowledge because it will attract more knowledge to itself. Similarly, earn love and it will attract more love to itself. Knowledge flows to knowledge and love flows to love.
Need for the Guru
Namdev and Vitoba Khechar
Namdev was a great devotee of Lord Vithal (Krishna) and indeed used to talk with him as one friend to another. Naturally, he was extremely proud of the fact and, unknown to him, the devil of pride worked into his heart until he was far from the true spiritual knowledge of God. So one day God, who knows all things, took a hand in the proceedings.
The devotees of Pandharapur were gathered together as usual for their devotions and afterward the great saint Jnaneshwar Maharaj told Gora the potter to go around the assembled company, which included Namdev, in order to “test the pots.” So Gora duly went from one devotee to another tapping each "pot” (head) and pronouncing whether they were spiritually mature or not! At last he came to Namdev, and tapping his head he pronounced, 'This one is unripe!”
It was agreed by one and all he was in need of a guru. Furious and thoroughly humiliated, Namdev went straight home and complained to Lord Vithal, who was less sympathetic than Namdev should have liked. Gently, Lord Vithal suggested that the scriptures were doubtless correct in stipulating the necessity of a guru for true knowledge of God. The Lord then suggested that Namdev should go to a certain Shiva temple where a great saint was staying and beg for instruction.
Dejected and sullen, Namdev set off and upon entering the Shiva temple was horrified to see an old man apparently asleep with his feet resting on the lingam. Such sacrilege was too much for Namdev. Shaking the old man to wake him up, Namdev seized his legs from off the lingam and placed them down. Wonder of wonders, as soon as the feet touched the ground, another lingam rose up to support them. Again he moved the feet and another lingam rose out of the ground! The old man at last opened his eyes and said, 'Why are you bothering an old man? Tell me, is there anyplace which doesn't belong to God? Is there any form which is not his?'
At these words Namdev's eyes were opened and the pride and limitation of his unique friendship with Lord Vithal evaporated forever. With tears pouring down his cheeks he clutched the old man's feet in thanks of joy. He'd at last found his guru.
In the same way, people meeting Babaji for the first time soon understood that here was a teacher, a guru, whose presence and words had the power to transform a person, and to confer a wide cosmic vista against which his listeners' burdens and anxieties seemed to pale into relative insignificance. Sometimes, if he felt his visitors were open to hearing it, he expounded what he called 'my philosophy' - his viewpoint on the nature of reality, creation, and man's part in it.