archetype
concept
person
1.04 - The Need of Guru
1.4.03 - The Guru
2.11 - The Guru
3.4.2 - Guru Yoga
guru
Guru Bhakti Yoga
Guru Granth Sahib
Guru Granth Sahib first part
Guru Nanak
Guru Rinpoche
Guru Yoga
Guru Yoga (book)
The Heart of the Path Seeing the Guru as Buddha
guru ::: n. --> A spiritual teacher, guide, or confessor amoung the Hindoos.
guru. ::: a true spiritual guide and teacher, who is one with Reality, the real Self &
guru bandhu :::or guru bhai. ::: co-disciple; having same Guru
guru kripa. ::: the Grace of the Guru; that Self-awareness that is one's own true nature
guru purnima. ::: annual festival traditionally celebrated by hindus and buddhists &
guru stuti. ::: praise of the Guru; verses in praise of the Guru
guru ::: teacher, spiritual teacher, guide.
gurugiri [Hind.] ::: [guru-hood].
guruvada ::: [the doctrine that stresses the indispensability of the guru to the spiritual seeker].
GURU. ::: One who has realised the Truth and himself possesses and is able to communicate the light, the experience, a guide who is strong enough to take by the hand and carry over difficult passages as well as to instruct and point out the way.
Guru is the channel or the representative or the manifestation of the Divine, according to (be measure of his personality or his attainment ; but whatever he is, it is to the Divine that one opens in opening to him ; and if something is determined by the power of the channel, more is determined by the inherent and intrinsic attitude of the lecciving consciousness, an element that comes out in the surface mind as simple trust or direct uncondi- tional self-giving, and once that is there, the essential things can be gained even from one who seems to others than the disciple an inferior spiritual source, and the rest will grow up in the sadhaka of itself by the Grace of the Divine, even if the human being in the Guru cannot it.
Guru U cho«cn. nothinj* mut| he con^caWd fro-n hi-n The
guru — spiritual guide; “the secret and universal Teacher who is seated in the hearts of all”.
guru-sakhā — the ı̄śvara as teacher and friend, combining his guruguru-sakha śiśya and sakhya relations with the jı̄va.
guru-śiśya (guru-shishya) — the teacher-disciple relation (bhāva), in guru-sisya which the ı̄śvara is perceived as “the teacher and guide” who “leads us to knowledge; at every step of the developing inner light and vision, we feel his touch like that of the artist moulding our clay of mind, his voice revealing the truth and its word”, until there is “a transformation of our mentality into his and more and more he becomes the thinker and seer in us”H
Guru::: The relation of Guru and disciple is only one of many relations which one can have with the Divine, and in this Yoga which aims at a supramental realisation, it is not usual to give it this name; rather, the Divine is regarded as the Source, the living Sun of Light and Knowledge and Consciousness and spiritual realisation and all that one receives is felt as coming from there and the whole being remoulded by the Divine Hand. This is a greater and more intimate relation than that of the human Guru and disciple, which is more of a limited mental ideal. Nevertheless, if the mind still needs the more familiar mental conception, it can be kept so long as it is needed; only do not let the soul be bound by it and do not let it limit the inflow of other relations with the Divine and larger forms of experience.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 35, Page: 395
Guru: (Skr.) Teacher.
guru
An expert, especially in "{Unix} guru". Implies not
only {wizard} skill but also a history of being a knowledge
resource for others. Less often, used (with a qualifier) for
other experts on other systems, as in "VMS guru".
See {source of all good bits}.
[{Jargon File}]
(1996-06-01)
guru meditation
The {Amiga} equivalent of {Unix}'s {panic}
(sometimes just called a "guru" or "guru event"). When the system
crashes, a cryptic message of the form "GURU MEDITATION
guru ::: n. --> A spiritual teacher, guide, or confessor amoung the Hindoos.
Guru: The Sanskrit term for spiritual leader or teacher.
Guru(Sanskrit) ::: Sometimes gurudeva, "master divine." The word used in the old Sanskrit scriptures forteacher, preceptor. According to the beautiful teachings of the ancient wisdom, the guru acts as themidwife bringing to birth, helping to bring into the active life of the chela, the spiritual and intellectualparts of the disciple -- the soul of the man. Thus the relationship between teacher and disciple is anextremely sacred one, because it is a tie which binds closely heart to heart, mind to mind. The idea is,again, that the latent spiritual potencies in the mind and heart of the learner shall receive such assistancein their development as the teacher can karmically give; but it does not mean that the teacher shall do thework that the disciple himself or herself must do. The learner or disciple must tread his own path, and theteacher cannot tread it for him. The teacher points the way, guides and aids, and the disciple follows thepath.
Guru-parampara(Sanskrit) ::: This is a compound formed of guru, meaning "teacher," and a subordinate compoundparam-para, the latter compound meaning "a row or uninterrupted series or succession." Henceguru-parampara signifies an uninterrupted series or succession of teachers. Every Mystery school oresoteric college of ancient times had its regular and uninterrupted series or succession of teachersucceeding teacher, each one passing on to his successor the mystical authority and headship he himselfhad received from his predecessor.Like everything else of an esoteric character in the ancient world, the guru-parampara or succession ofteachers faithfully copied what actually exists or takes place in nature herself, where a hierarchy with itssummit or head is immediately linked on to a superior hierarchy as well as to an inferior one; and it is inthis manner that the mystical circulations of the kosmos, and the transmission of life or vital currentsthroughout the fabric or web of being is assured.From this ancient fact and teaching of the Mystery schools came the greatly distorted ApostolicSuccession of the Christian Church, a pale and feeble reflection in merely ecclesiastical government of afundamental spiritual and mystical reality. The great Brotherhood of the sages and seers of the world,which in fact is the association of the Masters of Wisdom and Compassion headed by the Maha-chohan,is the purest and most absolute form or example of the guru-parampara existing on our earth today. (Seealso Hermetic Chain)
Guru (Sanskrit) Guru Teacher, preceptor; applied not only to a chela’s spiritual teacher, but to spiritual and metaphysical teachers of many kinds. The spiritual fire within each person, the higher self or atma-buddhi, is also called a guru, a divine instructor; and this higher self within each individual is, when all is said, the supreme guru for that person. The Master outside of the disciple’s own spiritual guide is a very necessary element in genuine occult instruction; but the outer guru, the Master who teaches and leads the disciple, has always in view the evocation and development of the guru within the disciple — the bringing to birth of the chela’s own inner divine and intellectual energies and powers.
Guru-deva (Sanskrit) Guru-deva [from guru teacher + deva divine being] Deva-teacher; a title of respect and reverence used by chelas for their instructors.
Guruparampara (Sanskrit) Guruparamparā [from guru teacher + paramparā a row or uninterrupted series or succession] An uninterrupted series or succession of teachers. Every Mystery school or esoteric college of ancient times had its regular and uninterrupted series of teacher succeeding teacher, each one passing on to his successor the mystical authority and headship he himself had received from his predecessor. There are two kinds of guruparampara: first, those who rise one above the other in spiritual dignity and in progressively greater esoteric degree; and, second, those who succeed each other in time and in one line in the outer world. Yet these two kinds are but the same rule of series manifesting in two slightly differing manners. This process copies the hierarchical structure of nature itself.
Guruparampara applies in ordinary human life, for “a long chain of influence extends from the highest spiritual guide who may belong to any man, down through vast numbers of spiritual chiefs, ending at last even in the mere teacher of our youth. Or, to restate it in modern reversion of thought, a chain extends up from our teacher or preceptors to the highest spiritual chief in whose ray or descending line one may happen to be. And it makes no difference whatever, in this occult relation, that neither pupil nor final guide may be aware, or admit, that this is the case” (Letters That Have Helped Me).
guru ::: (job) An expert, especially in Unix guru. Implies not only wizard skill but also a history of being a knowledge resource for others. Less often, used (with a qualifier) for other experts on other systems, as in VMS guru.See source of all good bits.[Jargon File] (1996-06-01)
guru meditation ::: (operating system, exception) The Amiga equivalent of Unix's panic (sometimes just called a guru or guru event). When the system crashes, a indicating what the problem was. An Amiga guru can figure things out from the numbers.In the earliest days of the Amiga, there was a device called a Joyboard which was basically a plastic board built onto a joystick-like device; it was sold concentrate on a solution while sitting cross-legged, balanced on a Joyboard, resembling a meditating guru. Sadly, the joke was removed in AmigaOS 2.04.The Jargon File claimed that a guru event had to be followed by a Vulcan nerve pinch but, according to a correspondent, a mouse click was enough to start a reboot.(2002-06-25)
Guru ::: A teacher in a spiritual tradition.
guru. ::: a true spiritual guide and teacher, who is one with Reality, the real Self &
guru bandhu :::or guru bhai. ::: co-disciple; having same Guru
guru kripa. ::: the Grace of the Guru; that Self-awareness that is one's own true nature
guru purnima. ::: annual festival traditionally celebrated by hindus and buddhists &
guru stuti. ::: praise of the Guru; verses in praise of the Guru
guru ::: teacher, spiritual teacher, guide.
gurugiri [Hind.] ::: [guru-hood].
guruvada ::: [the doctrine that stresses the indispensability of the guru to the spiritual seeker].
GURU. ::: One who has realised the Truth and himself possesses and is able to communicate the light, the experience, a guide who is strong enough to take by the hand and carry over difficult passages as well as to instruct and point out the way.
Guru is the channel or the representative or the manifestation of the Divine, according to (be measure of his personality or his attainment ; but whatever he is, it is to the Divine that one opens in opening to him ; and if something is determined by the power of the channel, more is determined by the inherent and intrinsic attitude of the lecciving consciousness, an element that comes out in the surface mind as simple trust or direct uncondi- tional self-giving, and once that is there, the essential things can be gained even from one who seems to others than the disciple an inferior spiritual source, and the rest will grow up in the sadhaka of itself by the Grace of the Divine, even if the human being in the Guru cannot it.
Guru U cho«cn. nothinj* mut| he con^caWd fro-n hi-n The
guru. (T. bla ma; C. shi; J. shi; K. sa 師). In Sanskrit, lit. “heavy,” hence “venerable” and thus “religious guide or teacher.” In mainstream Buddhism, the UPĀDHYĀYA (novice monk’s preceptor) takes the role of the guru; the preceptor and disciple are said to be like father and son; the preceptor teaches the disciple and gives him his robes and alms bowl. In MAHĀYĀNA SŪTRA literature, the increased importance of the guru is evident in the story of SADĀPRARUDITA and his teacher DHARMODGATA, from whom he seeks to learn the PRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀ, and in the GAṆḌAVYŪHA section of the AVATAṂSAKASŪTRA, which recounts SUDHANA’s spiritual journey in search of enlightenment through a series of fifty-three spiritual mentors (KALYĀṆAMITRA, a word often synonymous with guru). In tantric Buddhism, the guru is of greatest importance: the first of the SAMAYAs (tantric vows) is not to despise one’s guru, who is considered to be the equal of all the TATHĀGATAs. The GURUPAÑCĀŚIKĀ (“Fifty Verses on the Guru”) explains the proper conduct students should observe in the presence of a tantric guru. In Tibetan Buddhism, the ritual worship of a guru is crucially important, supported by the doctrine that it is only through one’s guru that one hears the Buddha’s teaching; for only when the buddhas take the form of a personal guru can they convey the salvific doctrine to students. The ritual worship of the guru (see GAṆACAKRA) in the form of the entire Buddhist pantheon (TSHOGS ZHING) is common to all Tibetan sects.
gurudharma. (P. gurudhamma/garudhamma; T. lci ba’i chos; C. jingfa; J. kyōhō; K. kyŏngbŏp 敬法). In Sanskrit, “weighty” or “deferential” “rules,” a list of eight special precepts the Buddha issued as a condition of admitting women to the Buddhist order, which explicitly subordinates the BHIKṢUNĪ to the BHIKṢU SAṂGHA. According to traditional accounts, the Buddha was initially reluctant to admit women into the order, for fear that their presence would exacerbate the decline of the dharma (see SADDHARMAVIPRALOPA; MOFA). It was only after the earnest pleas of his aunt and stepmother, MAHĀPRAJĀPATĪ GAUTAMĪ, and the continued requests of his attendant, ĀNANDA, that the Buddha is said to have relented and ordained his aunt as the first BHIKṢUNĪ. (Ānanda’s support for the ordination of women would be one of the charges brought against him at at the first Buddhist council (see COUNCIL, FIRST), following the Buddha’s PARINIRVĀṆA.) As a condition of ordination, however, the Buddha required that women would have to accept the following list of eight “deferential rules” (the lists vary slightly by VINAYA tradition): (1) Although seniority within the order of monks was based on the length of time since ordination (see JIELA), a nun who had been ordained for even a hundred years must rise and pay respects to a monk ordained for a day; (2) a nun must not spend the annual rains retreat (VARṢĀ) in a place where there are no monks; (3) nuns must ask the order of monks for instruction in the dharma and for the appropriate time to hold the fortnightly confession assembly (UPOṢADHA) (an alternative rendering of this rule says, “Every half month the nuns must request a monk to give them the exhortation to keep the eight rules, and they should ask him when the confession rite should be performed”); (4) after the rains retreat, a nun should perform the rite of confessing any infractions (PRAVĀRAṆĀ) that they have seen, heard, or suspected to both the order of monks and the order of nuns; (5) a nun who has committed an important infraction, or who fails to comply with any of the gurudharmas, must submit to the MĀNATVA discipline of probationary penance from both orders before she is reinstated before a quorum of twenty monks and twenty nuns; (6) women are required to receive ordination in both orders, in contrast to men, who need only be ordained in the bhikṣusaṃgha (other lists add that a woman must train for a period of two years as a probationary postulant, or ŚIKṢAMĀṆĀ, before seeking her dual ordination); (7) a nun should never abuse or revile a monk in any way; and (8) although a monk may point out a nun’s transgressions, it is forbidden for a nun ever to admonish a monk. Some modern Buddhist reform movements have advocated the repeal of the eight deferential precepts for exemplifying an outmoded and sexist model of monasticism.
Gurupañcāśikā. (T. Bla ma lnga bcu pa). In Sanskrit, “Fifty Verses on the GURU,” a short work attributed to one AŚVAGHOṢA (a tenth-century figure not to be confused with the earlier poet) that details the proper conduct students observe in the presence of a tantric guru. Respect for one’s tantric guru was the first point in the code of tantric morality (T. rig ’dzin gyi sdom pa) (see SDOM GSUM). The Gurupañcāśikā sets forth the proper physical behavior and deferential language that should be employed in the presence of one’s guru in order to avoid incurring serious infractions.
Guru Rin po che. A devotional title for PADMASAMBHAVA. The name, mixing Sanskrit and Tibetan, literally means “precious teacher” and is the appellation of Padmasambhava most commonly used by Tibetans.
KEYS (10k)
23 Sri Aurobindo
9 Sri Ramana Maharshi
6 Guru Rinpoche
4 The Mother
4 Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
3 Sri Guru Granth Sahib
3 Jetsun Milarepa
2 Sri Ramakrishna
2 Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
2 Aleister Crowley
1 Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
1 Swami Vivekananda
1 Sri Chidananda
1 M Alan Kazlev
1 Judith Simmer-Brown
1 Guru Nanak
1 Guru Gobind Singh
1 Guru Angad
1 Dzogchen Rinpoche III
1 Advayataraka Upanishad
1
NEW FULL DB (2.4M)
169 Sadhguru
58 Guru Nanak
29 Sadguru
25 Sri Ramana Maharshi
18 Guru Gobind Singh
14 Prabal Gurung
9 Mehmet Murat ildan
8 Anonymous
6 Ram Dass
6 Rajmohan Gandhi
5 Swami Vivekananda
5 Sri Ramakrishna
5 Guru Arjan
4 Paramahansa Yogananda
4 Octavian Paler
3 Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
3 Narendra Modi
3 Krishna Das
3 Jaggi Vasudev
3 Emil M Cioran
3 Austin Kleon
2 Stephen King
2 Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
2 Santosh Kalwar
2 Rajneesh
2 Neem Karoli Baba
2 Mata Amritanandamayi
2 Honor de Balzac
2 Guru Angad
2 Fernando Pessoa
2 Edward Abbey
2 Charles Bukowski
1:Without the Name, there is no peace. ~ Guru Gobind Singh, #KEYS
2:There is no Guru, no disciple. Realize who you are. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
3:There is no difference between God, Guru and Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talks 198, #KEYS
4:Who is whose Guru? God alone is the guide and Guru of the universe. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
5:So long as duality persists in you the Guru is necessary. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talks 282, #KEYS
6:What is the use of a realization that fails to reduce your disturbing emotions? ~ Guru Rinpoche, #KEYS
7:Guru's Grace is like a hand extended to help you out of water. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talks 398, #KEYS
8:With each and every breath, I dwell upon You; I shall never forget You. ~ Sri Guru Granth Sahib, #KEYS
9:You never receive blessings just from asking. Blessings come when you have got devotion. ~ Guru Rinpoche, #KEYS
10:You never receive blessings just from asking. Blessings come when you have got devotion. ~ Guru Rinpoche, #KEYS
11:For anyone, man or woman, who has faith in me, I have never departed. I sleep on their threshold. ~ Guru Rinpoche, #KEYS
12:If one learns all by oneself, the chances are that one will learn all wrong. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II 2.11 - The Guru, #KEYS
13:Surrender to the Feet of the Guru is the real mantra, in which there will be no fear of Maya's delusion. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
14:They, who have no eyes in their face, are not called blind. They alone are blind, O Nanak, who stray away from their Lord. ~ Guru Angad, #KEYS
15:The guru is always ready to give what can be given, if the disciple can receive. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II 2.11 - The Guru, #KEYS
16:Those who accomplish me, accomplish all the buddhas; Those who see me, see all the buddhas. - Guru Rinpoche, Guru Yoga? ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, #KEYS
17:If you have faith and confidence, it is not the human form of the guru that you worship, but the Supreme Lord who manifests through him. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
18:Guru is not the physical form. So the contact will remain even after the physical form of the Guru vanishes. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Day by Day 9-3-46, #KEYS
19:Make your entire life an expression of your faith and love for your teacher. This is real dwelling with the Guru. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That Ch 32, #KEYS
20:India is the guru of the nations, the physician of the human soul in its profounder maladies. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram - II Swaraj and the Coming Anarchy, #KEYS
21:The syllable gu means darkness, the syllable ru, he who dispels them, Because of the power to dispel darkness, the guru is thus named. ~ Advayataraka Upanishad, Verse 16 , #KEYS
22:In spiritual matters mental logic easily blunders; intuition, faith, a plastic spiritual reason are here the only guides. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II 2.11 - The Guru, #KEYS
23:I am never far from those with faith, or even from those without it, though they do not see me. My children will always, always, be protected by my compassion. ~ Guru Rinpoche, #KEYS
24:Have faith in Guru, in his teachings, and in the surety that you can get free. Think day and night that this universe is zero, only God is. Have intense desire to get free. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
25:The word is the Guru, The Guru is the Word, For all nectar is enshrined in the world Blessed is the word which reveal the Lord's name But more is the one who knows by the Guru's grace. ~ Guru Nanak, #KEYS
26:Fortunate is the man who does not lose himself in the labyrinths of philosophy, but goes straight to the Source from which they all rise. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Guru Ramana: Memories and Notes Sulman Samuel Cohen, #KEYS
27:Is it not true that even most of the seekers after God cannot call it down? And yet they can receive it if someone, a guru or avatar, has once called it down within him. Is it so? Yes. ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II , #KEYS
28:There are three main parts to the actual practice of Guru Yoga: first there is the visualization, next the fervent prayer to the guru, and lastly the receiving of the four empowerments. ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Guru Yoga , #KEYS
29:Another etymological theory considers the term guru to be based on the syllables gu (गु) and ru(रु), which it claims stands for darkness and light that dispels it, respectively.[Note 2] The guru is seen as the one who dispels the darkness of ignorance. ~ , #KEYS
30:In all this it will have been seen that the most powerful weapon in the hand of the student is the Vow of Holy Obedience; and many will wish that they had the opportunity of putting themselves under a holy guru. ~ Aleister Crowley, Liber ABA Magick, #KEYS
31:We shall merge into the One from whom we came. The True One is pervading each and every heart. He Himself unites us in Union with Himself; the True Mansion of His Presence is close at hand. With each and every breath, I dwell upon You; I shall never forget You. ~ Sri Guru Granth Sahib, #KEYS
32:The Guru must deal with each disciple according to his separate nature and accordingly guide his sadhana; even if it is the same line of sadhana for all, yet at every point for each it differs. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Himself and the Ashram General Rules and Individual Natures, #KEYS
33:Within the sky-like empty mind, habitual tendencies and disturbing emotions are just like clouds and mist. When they appear, they appear within the expanse of empty mind. When they remain, they remain within the expanse of empty mind. And when they dissolve, they dissolve in that same expanse of empty mind. ~ Guru Rinpoche, #KEYS
34:One must learn to hear and follow the voice of the inmost soul, the direction of the Guru, the command of the Master, the working of the Divine Mother. Whoever clings to the desires and weaknesses of the flesh, the cravings and passions of the vital in it ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga The Ascent of the Sacrifice - II, #KEYS
35:So many Siddhas and Buddhas, so many Yogic masters. So many goddesses of various kinds. So many demi-gods and demons, so many silent sages. So many oceans of jewels. So many ways of life, so many languages. So many dynasties of rulers. So many intuitive people, so many selfless servants. O Nanak, His limit has no limit! ~ Sri Guru Granth Sahib, #KEYS
36:If concentration is made with the brain, sensations of heat and even headache ensue.Concentration has to be made in the heart, which is cool and refreshing.Relax and your meditation will be easy.Keep your mind steady by gently warding off all intruding thoughts, but without strain - soon you will succeed. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Guru Ramana II. XI , #KEYS
37:The guru is the equal of all the buddhas. To make any connection with him, whether through seeing him, hearing his voice, remembering him or being touched by his hand, will lead us toward liberation. To have full confidence in him is the sure way to progress toward enlightenment. The warmth of his wisdom and compassion will melt the ore of our being and release the gold of the buddha-nature within. ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, #KEYS
38:All worldly pursuits have but one unavoidable and inevitable end, which is sorrow; acquisitions end in dispersion; buildings in destruction; meetings in separation; births in death. Knowing this, one should, from the very first, renounce acquisitions and storing-up, and building, and meeting; and, faithful to the commands of an eminent Guru, set about realizing the Truth. That alone is the best of religious observances. ~ Jetsun Milarepa, #KEYS
39:The ground is composed of gold, the trees are wish-fulfilling trees, and the rain is the rainfall of nectar. All beings are dakas and dakinis; the calls of the birds are the sounds of Dharma; the sounds of nature, wind, water, and fire reverberate as the Vajra Guru mantra; and all thoughts are expressions of wisdom and bliss. So here the perception of purity is much vaster and more omnipresent than in the sutras. ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Guru Yoga , #KEYS
40:And it shall also be a sign of the teacher of the integral Yoga that he does not arrogate to himself Guruhood in a humanly vain and self-exalting spirit. His work, if he has one, is a trust from above, he himself a channel, a vessel or a representative. He is a man helping his brothers, a child leading children, a Light kindling other lights, an awakened Soul awakening souls, at highest a Power or Presence of the Divine calling to him other powers of the Divine. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga 1.01 - The Four Aids, #KEYS
41:Someone told me that Ramana Maharshi lives on the overmental plane or that his realisation is on the same level as Shankara's. How is it then that he is not aware of the arrival of the Divine, while others, for instance X's Guru, had this awareness?I can't say on what plane the Maharshi is, but his method is that of Adwaita Knowledge and Moksha - so there is no necessity for him to recognise the arrival of the Divine. X's Guru was a bhakta of the Divine Mother and believed in the dynamic side of existence, so it was quite natural for him to have the revelation of the coming of the Mother. 23 January 1936 ~ Sri Aurobindo, #KEYS
42:[the third aid, the inner guide, guru ::: It is he who destroys our darkness by the resplendent light of his knowledge; that light becomes within us the increasing glory of his own self-revelation. He discloses progressively in us his own nature of freedom, bliss, love, power, immortal being. He sets above us his divine example as our ideal and transforms the lower existence into a reflection of that which it contemplates. By the inpouring of his own influence and presence into us he enables the individual being to attain to identity with the universal and transcendent. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga 1.01 - The Four Aids, #KEYS
43:The guru demands one thing only: clarity and intensity of purpose, a sense of responsibility for oneself. The very reality of the world must be questioned. Who is the guru, after all? He who knows the state in which there is neither the world nor the thought of it, he is the Supreme Teacher. To find him means to reach the state in which imagination is no longer taken for reality. Please understand that the guru stands for reality, for truth, for what is. He is a realist in the highest sense of the term. He cannot and shall not come to terms with the mind and it's delusions. He comes to take you to the real; don't expect him to do anything else. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
44:But while it is difficult for man to believe in something unseen within himself, it is easy for him to believe in something which he can image as extraneous to himself. The spiritual progress of most human beings demands an extraneous support, an object of faith outside us. It needs an external image of God; or it needs a human representative, - Incarnation, Prophet or Guru; or it demands both and receives them. For according to the need of the human soul the Divine manifests himself as deity, as human divine or in simple humanity - using that thick disguise, which so successfully conceals the Godhead, for a means of transmission of his guidance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga , #KEYS
45:[the four aids ::: YOGA-SIDDHI, the perfection that comes from the practice of Yoga, can be best attained by the combined working of four great instruments. There is, first, the knowledge of the truths, principles, powers and processes that govern the realisation - sastra. Next comes a patient and persistent action on the lines laid down by this knowledge, the force of our personal effort - utsaha. There intervenes, third, uplifting our knowledge and effort into the domain of spiritual experience, the direct suggestion, example and influence of the Teacher - guru. Last comes the instrumentality of Time - kala; for in all things there is a cycle of their action and a period of the divine movement. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga The Yoga of Divine Works, #KEYS
46:Ordinarily, the Word from without, representative of the Divine, is needed as an aid in the work of self-unfolding; andit may be either a word from the past or the more powerful word of the living Guru. In some cases this representative wordis only taken as a sort of excuse for the inner power to awakenand manifest; it is, as it were, a concession of the omnipotent andomniscient Divine to the generality of a law that governs Nature The usual agency of this revealing is the Word, the thing heard (sruta ´ ). The Word may come to us from within; it may come to us from without. But in either case, it is only an agency for setting the hidden knowledge to work. The word within maybe the utterance of the inmost soul in us which is always opento the Divine; or it may be the word of the secret and universal Teacher who is seated in the hearts of all. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga 1.01 - The Four Aids, #KEYS
47:A disciple asked his teacher, 'Sir, please tell me how I can see God.' Come with me,' said the guru, 'and I shall show you.' He took the disciple to a lake, and both of them got into the water. Suddenly the teacher pressed the disciple's head under the water. After a few moments he released him and the disciple raised his head and stood up. The guru asked him, 'How did you feel?' The disciple said, 'Oh! I thought I should die; I was panting for breath.' The teacher said, 'When you feel like that for God, then you will know you haven't long to wait for His vision.'Let me tell you something. What will you gain by floating on the surface? Dive a little under the water. The gems lie deep under the water; so what is the good of throwing your arms and legs about on the surface? A real gem is heavy. It doesn't float; it sinks to the bottom. To get the real gem you must dive deep. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
48:Turn your thoughts now, and lift up your thoughts to a devout and joyous contemplation on sage Vyasa and Vasishtha, on Narda and Valmiki. Contemplate on the glorious Lord Buddha, Jesus the Christ, prophet Mohammed, the noble Zoroaster (Zarathushtra), Lord Mahavira, the holy Guru Nanak. Think of the great saints and sages of all ages, like Yajnavalkya, Dattatreya, Sulabha and Gargi, Anasooya and Sabari, Lord Gauranga, Mirabai, Saint Theresa and Francis of Assisi. Remember St. Augustine, Jallaludin Rumi, Kabir, Tukaram, Ramdas, Ramakrishna Paramhamsa, Vivekananda and Rama Tirtha. Adore in thy heart the sacred memory of Mahatma Gandhi, sage Ramana Maharishi, Aurobindo Ghosh, Gurudev Sivananda and Swami Ramdas. They verily are the inspirers of humanity towards a life of purity, goodness and godliness. Their lives, their lofty examples, their great teachings constitute the real wealth and greatest treasure of mankind today. ~ Sri Chidananda, Advices On Spiritual Living , #KEYS
49:Influence is more important than example. Influence is not the outward authority of the Teacher over his disciple, but the power of his contact, of his presence, of the nearness of his soul to the soul of another, infusing into it, even though in silence, that which he himself is and possesses. This is the supreme sign of the Master. For the greatest Master is much less a Teacher than a Presence pouring the divine consciousness and its constituting light and power and purity and bliss into all who are receptive around him. And it shall also be a sign of the teacher of the integral Yoga that he does not arrogate to himself Guruhood in a humanly vain and self-exalting spirit. His work, if he has one, is a trust from above, he himself a channel, a vessel or a representative. He is a man helping his brothers, a child leading children, a Light kindling other lights, an awakened Soul awakening souls, at highest a Power or Presence of the Divine calling to him other ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga , #KEYS
50:The Teacher of the integral Yoga will follow as far as he may the method of the Teacher within us. He will lead the disciple through the nature of the disciple. Teaching, example, influence, - these are the three instruments of the Guru. But the wise Teacher will not seek to impose himself or his opinions on the passive acceptance of the receptive mind; he will throw in only what is productive and sure as a seed which will grow under the divine fostering within. He will seek to awaken much more than to instruct; he will aim at the growth of the faculties and the experiences by a natural process and free expansion. He will give a method as an aid, as a utilisable device, not as an imperative formula or a fixed routine. And he will be on his guard against any turning of the means into a limitation, against the mechanising of process. His whole business is to awaken the divine light and set working the divine force of which he himself is only a means and an aid, a body or a channel. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga , #KEYS
51:I accept, will not give up, and will practice each of the Three Jewels, And will not let go of my guru or my yidam deity. As the samaya of the Buddha, first among the Three Jewels, I will apply myself to the true, essential reality. As the samaya of sacred Dharma, second among the Three Jewels, I will distill the very essence of all the vehicles' teachings. As the samaya of the Sangha, the third and final Jewel, I will look upon reality; I will behold pure awareness. And as the samaya of the guru and the yidam deity, I will take my very own mind, my pure mind, as a witness. Generally speaking, the Three Jewels should be regarded as the ultimate place to take refuge. As was taught in the section on taking refuge, your mind should be focused one-pointedly, with all your hopes and trust placed in their care. The gurus are a lamp that dispels the darkness of ignorance. As the guides who lead you along the path to liberation, they are your sole source of refuge and protection, from now until you attain enlightenment. For these reasons, you should act with unwavering faith, pure view and devotion, and engage in the approach and accomplishment of the divine yidam deity. ~ Dzogchen Rinpoche III, Great Perfection Outer and Inner Preliminaries , #KEYS
52:The sadhaka of the integral Yoga will make use of all these aids according to his nature; but it is necessary that he should shun their limitations and cast from himself that exclusive tendency of egoistic mind which cries, "My God, my Incarnation, my Prophet, my Guru," and opposes it to all other realisation in a sectarian or a fanatical spirit. All sectarianism, all fanaticism must be shunned; for it is inconsistent with the integrity of the divine realisation. On the contrary, the sadhaka of the integral Yoga will not be satisfied until he has included all other names and forms of Deity in his own conception, seen his own Ishta Devata in all others, unified all Avatars in the unity of Him who descends in the Avatar, welded the truth in all teachings into the harmony of the Eternal Wisdom. Nor should he forget the aim of these external aids which is to awaken his soul to the Divine within him. Nothing has been finally accomplished if that has not been accomplished. It is not sufficient to worship Krishna, Christ or Buddha without, if there is not the revealing and the formation of the Buddha, the Christ or Krishna in ourselves. And all other aids equally have no other purpose; each is a bridge between man's unconverted state and the revelation of the Divine within him. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga , #KEYS
53:Inspiration is always a very uncertain thing; it comes when it chooses, stops suddenly before it has finished its work, refuses to descend when it is called. This is a well-known affliction, perhaps of all artists, but certainly of poets. There are some who can command it at will; those who, I think, are more full of an abundant poetic energy than careful for perfection; others who oblige it to come whenever they put pen to paper but with these the inspiration is either not of a high order or quite unequal in its levels. Again there are some who try to give it a habit of coming by always writing at the same time; Virgil with his nine lines first written, then perfected every morning, Milton with his fifty epic lines a day, are said to have succeeded in regularising their inspiration. It is, I suppose, the same principle which makes Gurus in India prescribe for their disciples a meditation at the same fixed hour every day. It succeeds partially of course, for some entirely, but not for everybody. For myself, when the inspiration did not come with a rush or in a stream,-for then there is no difficulty,-I had only one way, to allow a certain kind of incubation in which a large form of the thing to be done threw itself on the mind and then wait for the white heat in which the entire transcription could rapidly take place. But I think each poet has his own way of working and finds his own issue out of inspiration's incertitudes. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry Inspiration and Effort - I, #KEYS
54:The Song Of View, Practice, And Action :::Oh, my Guru! The Exemplar of the View, Practice, and Action, Pray vouchsafe me your grace, and enable me To be absorbed in the realm of Self-nature! For the View, Practice, Action, and Accomplishment There are three Key-points you should know: All the manifestation, the Universe itself, is contained in the mind; The nature of Mind is the realm of illumination Which can neither be conceived nor touched. These are the Key-points of the View. Errant thoughts are liberated in the Dharmakaya; The awareness, the illumination, is always blissful; Meditate in a manner of non-doing and non-effort. These are the Key-points of Practice. In the action of naturalness The Ten Virtues spontaneously grow; All the Ten Vices are thus purified. By corrections or remedies The Illuminating Void is ne'er disturbed. These are the Key-points of Action. There is no Nivana to attain beyond; There is no Samsara here to renounce; Truly to know the Self-mind It is to be the Buddha Himself. These are the Key-points of Accomplishment. Reduce inwardly the Three Key-points to One. This One is the Void Nature of Being, Which only a wondrous Guru Can clearly illustrate. Much activity is of no avail; If one sees the Simultaneously Born Wisdom, He reaches the goal. For all practioners of Dharma The preaching is a precious gem; It is my direct experience from yogic meditation. Think carefully and bear it in your minds, Oh, my children and disciples. ~ Jetsun Milarepa, #KEYS
55:[God is] The Hindu discipline of spirituality provides for this need of the soul by the conceptions of the Ishta Devata, the Avatar and the Guru. By the Ishta Devata, the chosen deity, is meant, - not some inferior Power, but a name and form of the transcendent and universal Godhead. Almost all religions either have as their base or make use of some such name and form of the Divine. Its necessity for the human soul is evident. God is the All and more than the All. But that which is more than the All, how shall man conceive? And even the All is at first too hard for him; for he himself in his active consciousness is a limited and selective formation and can open himself only to that which is in harmony with his limited nature. There are things in the All which are too hard for his comprehension or seem too terrible to his sensitive emotions and cowering sensations. Or, simply, he cannot conceive as the Divine, cannot approach or cannot recognise something that is too much out of the circle of his ignorant or partial conceptions. It is necessary for him to conceive God in his own image or in some form that is beyond himself but consonant with his highest tendencies and seizable by his feelings or his intelligence. Otherwise it would be difficult for him to come into contact and communion with the Divine. Even then his nature calls for a human intermediary so that he may feel the Divine in something entirely close to his own humanity and sensible in a human influence and example. This call is satisfied by the Divine manifest in a human appearance, the Incarnation, the Avatar - Krishna, Christ, Buddha. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga 1.01 - The Four Aids, #KEYS
56:Contact and Union with the Divine;Seeing is of many kinds. There is a superficial seeing which only erects or receives momentarily or for some time an image of the Being seen; that brings no change, unless the inner bhakti makes it a means for change. There is also the reception of the living image of the Divine in one of his forms into oneself, - say, in the heart, - that can have an immediate effect or initiate a period of spiritual growth. There is also the seeing outside oneself in a more or less objective and subtle physical or physical way. As for milana, the abiding union is within and that can be there at all times; the outer milana or contact is not usually abiding. There are some who often or almost invariably have the contact whenever they worship, the Deity may become living to them in the picture or other image they worship, may move and act through it; others may feel him always present, outwardly, subtle-physically, abiding with them where they live or in the very room, but sometimes this is only for a period. Or they may feel the Presence with them, see it frequently in a body (but not materially except sometimes), feel its touch or embrace, converse with it constantly - that is also a kind of milana. The greatest milana is one in which one is constantly aware of the Deity abiding in oneself, in everything in the world, holding all the world in him, identical with existence and yet supremely beyond the world - but in the world too one sees, hears, feels nothing but him, so that the very senses bear witness to him alone - and this does not exclude such specific personal manifestations as those vouchsafed to Krishnaprem and his guru. The more ways there are of the union, the better. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - II , #KEYS
57:This inner Guide is often veiled at first by the very intensity of our personal effort and by the ego's preoccupation with itself and its aims. As we gain in clarity and the turmoil of egoistic effort gives place to a calmer self-knowledge, we recognise the source of the growing light within us. We recognise it retrospectively as we realise how all our obscure and conflicting movements have been determined towards an end that we only now begin to perceive, how even before our entrance into the path of the Yoga the evolution of our life has been designedly led towards its turning point. For now we begin to understand the sense of our struggles and efforts, successes and failures. At last we are able to seize the meaning of our ordeals and sufferings and can appreciate the help that was given us by all that hurt and resisted and the utility of our very falls and stumblings. We recognise this divine leading afterwards, not retrospectively but immediately, in the moulding of our thoughts by a transcendent Seer, of our will and actions by an all-embracing Power, of our emotional life by an all-attracting and all-assimilating Bliss and Love. We recognise it too in a more personal relation that from the first touched us or at the last seizes us; we feel the eternal presence of a supreme Master, Friend, Lover, Teacher. We recognise it in the essence of our being as that develops into likeness and oneness with a greater and wider existence; for we perceive that this miraculous development is not the result of our own efforts; an eternal Perfection is moulding us into its own image. One who is the Lord or Ishwara of the Yogic philosophies, the Guide in the conscious being ( caitya guru or antaryamin ), the Absolute of the thinker, the Unknowable of the Agnostic, the universal Force of the materialist, the supreme Soul and the supreme Shakti, the One who is differently named and imaged by the religions, is the Master of our Yoga. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga 1.01 - The Four Aids, #KEYS
58:WHEN THE GREAT YOGIN Padmasambhava, called by Tibetans Guru Rinpoche, "the precious teacher," embarks on his spiritual journey, he travels from place to place requesting teachings from yogins and yoginls. Guided by visions and dreams, his journey takes him to desolate forests populated with ferocious wild animals, to poison lakes with fortified islands, and to cremation grounds. Wherever he goes he performs miracles, receives empowerments, and ripens his own abilities to benefit others. When he hears of the supreme queen of all dakinls, the greatly accomplished yogini called Secret Wisdom, he travels to the Sandal Grove cremation ground to the gates of her abode, the Palace of Skulls. He attempts to send a request to the queen with her maidservant Kumari. But the girl ignores him and continues to carry huge brass jugs of water suspended from a heavy yoke across her shoulders. When he presses his request, Kumari continues her labors, remaining silent. The great yogin becomes impatient and, through his yogic powers, magically nails the heavy jugs to the floor. No matter how hard Kumari struggles, she cannot lift them. Removing the yoke and ropes from her shoulders, she steps before Padmasambhava, exclaiming, "You have developed great yogic powers. What of my powers, great one?" And so saying, she draws a sparkling crystal knife from the girdle at her waist and slices open her heart center, revealing the vivid and vast interior space of her body. Inside she displays to Guru Rinpoche the mandala of deities from the inner tantras: forty-two peaceful deities manifested in her upper torso and head and fifty-eight wrathful deities resting in her lower torso. Abashed that he did not realize with whom he was dealing, Guru Rinpoche bows before her and humbly renews his request for teachings. In response, she offers him her respect as well, adding, "I am only a maidservant," and ushers him in to meet the queen Secret Wisdom. ~ Judith Simmer-Brown, Dakini's Warm Breath: The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism Introduction: Encountering the Dakini, #KEYS
59:But usually the representative influence occupies a much larger place in the life of the sadhaka. If the Yoga is guided by a received written Shastra, - some Word from the past which embodies the experience of former Yogins, - it may be practised either by personal effort alone or with the aid of a Guru. The spiritual knowledge is then gained through meditation on the truths that are taught and it is made living and conscious by their realisation in the personal experience; the Yoga proceeds by the results of prescribed methods taught in a Scripture or a tradition and reinforced and illumined by the instructions of the Master. This is a narrower practice, but safe and effective within its limits, because it follows a well-beaten track to a long familiar goal.For the sadhaka of the integral Yoga it is necessary to remember that no written Shastra, however great its authority or however large its spirit, can be more than a partial expression of the eternal Knowledge. He will use, but never bind himself even by the greatest Scripture. Where the Scripture is profound, wide, catholic, it may exercise upon him an influence for the highest good and of incalculable importance. It may be associated in his experience with his awakening to crowning verities and his realisation of the highest experiences. His Yoga may be governed for a long time by one Scripture or by several successively, - if it is in the line of the great Hindu tradition, by the Gita, for example, the Upanishads, the Veda. Or it may be a good part of his development to include in its material a richly varied experience of the truths of many Scriptures and make the future opulent with all that is best in the past. But in the end he must take his station, or better still, if he can, always and from the beginning he must live in his own soul beyond the limitations of the word that he uses. The Gita itself thus declares that the Yogin in his progress must pass beyond the written Truth, - sabdabrahmativartate - beyond all that he has heard and all that he has yet to hear, - srotavyasya srutasya ca. For he is not the sadhaka of a book or of many books; he is a sadhaka of the Infinite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga 1.01 - The Four Aids, #KEYS
60:The Song Of Food And Dwelling :::I bow down at the feet of the wish-fulfilling Guru. Pray vouchsafe me your grace in bestowing beneficial food, Pray make me realize my own body as the house of Buddha, Pray grant me this knowledge. I built the house through fear, The house of Sunyata, the void nature of being; Now I have no fear of its collapsing. I, the Yogi with the wish-fulfilling gem, Feel happiness and joy where'er I stay. Because of the fear of cold, I sought for clothes; The clothing I found is the Ah Shea Vital Heat. Now I have no fear of coldness. Because of the fear of poverty, I sought for riches; The riches I found are the inexhaustible Seven Holy Jewels. Now I have no fear of poverty. Because of the fear of hunger, I sought for food; The food I found is the Samadhi of Suchness. Now I have no fear of hunger. Because of the fear of thirst, I sought for drink; The heavenly drink I found is the wine of mindfulness. Now I have no fear of thirst. Because of the fear of loneliness, I searched for a friend; The friend I found is the bliss of perpetual Sunyata. Now I have no fear of loneliness. Because of the fear of going astray, I sought for the right path to follow. The wide path I found is the Path of Two-in-One. Now I do not fear to lose my way. I am a yogi with all desirable possessions, A man always happy where'er he stays. Here at Yolmo Tagpu Senge Tson, The tigress howling with a pathetic, trembling cry, Reminds me that her helpless cubs are innocently playing. I cannot help but feel a great compassion for them, I cannot help but practice more diligently, I cannot help but augment thus my Bodhi-Mind. The touching cry of the monkey, So impressive and so moving, Cannot help but raise in me deep pity. The little monkey's chattering is amusing and pathetic; As I hear it, I cannot but think of it with compassion. The voice of the cuckoo is so moving, And so tuneful is the lark's sweet singing, That when I hear them I cannot help but listen When I listen to them, I cannot help but shed tears. The varied cries and cawings of the crow, Are a good and helpful friend unto the yogi. Even without a single friend, To remain here is a pleasure. With joy flowing from my heart, I sing this happy song; May the dark shadow of all men's sorrows Be dispelled by my joyful singing. ~ Jetsun Milarepa, #KEYS
61:The Teacher of the integral Yoga will follow as far as he may the method of the Teacher within us. He will lead the disciple through the nature of the disciple. Teaching, example, influence, - these are the three instruments of the Guru. But the wise Teacher will not seek to impose himself or his opinions on the passive acceptance of the receptive mind; he will throw in only what is productive and sure as a seed which will grow under the divine fostering within. He will seek to awaken much more than to instruct; he will aim at the growth of the faculties and the experiences by a natural process and free expansion. He will give a method as an aid, as a utilisable device, not as an imperative formula or a fixed routine. And he will be on his guard against any turning of the means into a limitation, against the mechanising of process. His whole business is to awaken the divine light and set working the divine force of which he himself is only a means and an aid, a body or a channel.The example is more powerful than the instruction; but it is not the example of the outward acts nor that of the personal character which is of most importance. These have their place and their utility; but what will most stimulate aspiration in others is the central fact of the divine realisation within him governing his whole life and inner state and all his activities. This is the universal and essential element; the rest belongs to individual person and circumstance. It is this dynamic realisation that the sadhaka must feel and reproduce in himself according to his own nature; he need not strive after an imitation from outside which may well be sterilising rather than productive of right and natural fruits.Influence is more important than example. Influence is not the outward authority of the Teacher over his disciple, but the power of his contact, of his presence, of the nearness of his soul to the soul of another, infusing into it, even though in silence, that which he himself is and possesses. This is the supreme sign of the Master. For the greatest Master is much less a Teacher than a Presence pouring the divine consciousness and its constituting light and power and purity and bliss into all who are receptive around him.And it shall also be a sign of the teacher of the integral Yoga that he does not arrogate to himself Guruhood in a humanly vain and self-exalting spirit. His work, if he has one, is a trust from above, he himself a channel, a vessel or a representative. He is a man helping his brothers, a child leading children, a Light kindling other lights, an awakened Soul awakening souls, at highest a Power or Presence of the Divine calling to him other powers of the Divine. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga , #KEYS
62:Talk 26...D.: Taking the first part first, how is the mind to be eliminated or relative consciousness transcended?M.: The mind is by nature restless. Begin liberating it from its restlessness; give it peace; make it free from distractions; train it to look inward; make this a habit. This is done by ignoring the external world and removing the obstacles to peace of mind.D.: How is restlessness removed from the mind?M.: External contacts - contacts with objects other than itself - make the mind restless. Loss of interest in non-Self, (vairagya) is the first step. Then the habits of introspection and concentration follow. They are characterised by control of external senses, internal faculties, etc. (sama, dama, etc.) ending in samadhi (undistracted mind).Talk 27.D.: How are they practised?M.: An examination of the ephemeral nature of external phenomena leads to vairagya. Hence enquiry (vichara) is the first and foremost step to be taken. When vichara continues automatically, it results in a contempt for wealth, fame, ease, pleasure, etc. The 'I' thought becomes clearer for inspection. The source of 'I' is the Heart - the final goal. If, however, the aspirant is not temperamentally suited to Vichara Marga (to the introspective analytical method), he must develop bhakti (devotion) to an ideal - may be God, Guru, humanity in general, ethical laws, or even the idea of beauty. When one of these takes possession of the individual, other attachments grow weaker, i.e., dispassion (vairagya) develops. Attachment for the ideal simultaneously grows and finally holds the field. Thus ekagrata (concentration) grows simultaneously and imperceptibly - with or without visions and direct aids.In the absence of enquiry and devotion, the natural sedative pranayama (breath regulation) may be tried. This is known as Yoga Marga. If life is imperilled the whole interest centres round the one point, the saving of life. If the breath is held the mind cannot afford to (and does not) jump at its pets - external objects. Thus there is rest for the mind so long as the breath is held. All attention being turned on breath or its regulation, other interests are lost. Again, passions are attended with irregular breathing, whereas calm and happiness are attended with slow and regular breathing. Paroxysm of joy is in fact as painful as one of pain, and both are accompanied by ruffled breaths. Real peace is happiness. Pleasures do not form happiness. The mind improves by practice and becomes finer just as the razor's edge is sharpened by stropping. The mind is then better able to tackle internal or external problems. If an aspirant be unsuited temperamentally for the first two methods and circumstantially (on account of age) for the third method, he must try the Karma Marga (doing good deeds, for example, social service). His nobler instincts become more evident and he derives impersonal pleasure. His smaller self is less assertive and has a chance of expanding its good side. The man becomes duly equipped for one of the three aforesaid paths. His intuition may also develop directly by this single method. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi Sri Ramanasramam, #KEYS
63:At it's narrowest (although this is a common and perhaps the official position; need to find ref in What is Enlightenment) "integral", "turquois" (Spiral Dynamics), and "second tier" (ditto) are all synonms, and in turn are equivalent to Wilber IV / AQAL/Wilber V "Post-metaphysical" AQAL. This is the position that "Integral = Ken Wilber". It constitutes a new philosophical school or meme-set, in the tradition of charismatic spiritual teachers of all ages, in which an articulate, brilliant, and popular figure would arise, and gather a following around him- or her-self. After the teacher passes on, their teaching remains through books and organisations dedicated to perpetuating that teaching; although without the brilliant light of the Founder, things generally become pretty stultifying, and there is often little or no original development. Even so, the books themselves continue to inspire, and many people benefit greatly from these tecahings, and can contact the original Light of the founders to be inspired by them on the subtle planes. Some late 19th, 20th, and early 21st century examples of such teachers, known and less well-known, are Blavatsky, Theon, Steiner, Aurobindo, Gurdjieff, Crowley, Alice Bailey, Carl Jung, Ann Ree Colton, and now Ken Wilber. Also, many popular gurus belong in this category. It could plausibly be suggested that the founders of the great world religions started out no different, but their teaching really caught on n a big way....At its broadest then, the Integral Community includes not only Wilber but those he cites as his influences and hold universal and evolutionary views or teachings, as well as those who, while influenced by him also differ somewhat, and even those like Arthur M Young that Wilber has apparently never heard of. Nevertheless, all share a common, evolutionary, "theory of everything" position, and, whilst they may differ on many details and even on many major points, taken together they could be considered a wave front for a new paradigm, a memetic revolution. I use the term Daimon of the Integral Movement to refer to the spiritual being or personality of light that is behind and working through this broader movement.Now, this doesn't mean that this daimon is necessarily a negative entity. I see a lot of promise, a lot of potential, in the Integral Approach. From what I feel at the moment, the Integral Deva is a force and power of good.But, as with any new spiritual or evolutionary development, there is duality, in that there are forces that hinder and oppose and distort, as well as forces that help and aid in the evolution and ultimate divinisation of the Earth and the cosmos. Thus even where a guru does give in the dark side (as very often happens with many gurus today) there still remains an element of Mixed Light that remains (one finds this ambiguity with Sai Baba, with Da Free John, and with Rajneesh); and we find this same ambiguity with the Integral Community regarding what seems to me a certain offputting devotional attitude towards Wilber himself. The light will find its way, regardless. However, an Intregral Movement that is caught up in worship of and obedience to an authority figure, will not be able to achieve what a movement unfettered by such shackles could. ~ M Alan Kazlev, Kheper Ken Wilber, #KEYS
64:In the process of this change there must be by the very necessity of the effort two stages of its working. First, there will be the personal endeavour of the human being, as soon as he becomes aware by his soul, mind, heart of this divine possibility and turns towards it as the true object of life, to prepare himself for it and to get rid of all in him that belongs to a lower working, of all that stands in the way of his opening to the spiritual truth and its power, so as to possess by this liberation his spiritual being and turn all his natural movements into free means of its self-expression. It is by this turn that the self-conscious Yoga aware of its aim begins: there is a new awakening and an upward change of the life motive. So long as there is only an intellectual, ethical and other self-training for the now normal purposes of life which does not travel beyond the ordinary circle of working of mind, life and body, we are still only in the obscure and yet unillumined preparatory Yoga of Nature; we are still in pursuit of only an ordinary human perfection. A spiritual desire of the Divine and of the divine perfection, of a unity with him in all our being and a spiritual perfection in all our nature, is the effective sign of this change, the precursory power of a great integral conversion of our being and living. By personal effort a precursory change, a preliminary conversion can be effected; it amounts to a greater or less spiritualising of our mental motives, our character and temperament, and a mastery, stilling or changed action of the vital and physical life. This converted subjectivity can be made the base of some communion or unity of the soul in mind with the Divine and some partial reflection of the divine nature in the mentality of the human being. That is as far as man can go by his unaided or indirectly aided effort, because that is an effort of mind and mind cannot climb beyond itself permanently: at most it arises to a spiritualised and idealised mentality. If it shoots up beyond that border, it loses hold of itself, loses hold of life, and arrives either at a trance of absorption or a passivity. A greater perfection can only be arrived at by a higher power entering in and taking up the whole action of the being. The second stage of this Yoga will therefore be a persistent giving up of all the action of the nature into the hands of this greater Power, a substitution of its influence, possession and working for the personal effort, until the Divine to whom we aspire becomes the direct master of the Yoga and effects the entire spiritual and ideal conversion of the being. Two rules there are that will diminish the difficulty and obviate the danger. One must reject all that comes from the ego, from vital desire, from the mere mind and its presumptuous reasoning incompetence, all that ministers to these agents of the Ignorance. One must learn to hear and follow the voice of the inmost soul, the direction of the Guru, the command of the Master, the working of the Divine Mother. Whoever clings to the desires and weaknesses of the flesh, the cravings and passions of the vital in its turbulent ignorance, the dictates of his personal mind unsilenced and unillumined by a greater knowledge, cannot find the true inner law and is heaping obstacles in the way of the divine fulfilment. Whoever is able to detect and renounce those obscuring agencies and to discern and follow the true Guide within and without will discover the spiritual law and reach the goal of the Yoga. A radical and total change of consciousness is not only the whole meaning but, in an increasing force and by progressive stages, the whole method of the integral Yoga. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga The Yoga of Self-Perfection, #KEYS
65:The true Mantra must come from within OR it must be given by a GuruNobody can give you the true mantra. It's not something that is given; it's something that wells up from within. It must spring from within all of a sudden, spontaneously, like a profound, intense need of your being - then it has power, because it's not something that comes from outside, it's your very own cry.I saw, in my case, that my mantra has the power of immortality; whatever happens, if it is uttered, it's the Supreme that has the upper hand, it's no longer the lower law. And the words are irrelevant, they may not have any meaning - to someone else, my mantra is meaningless, but to me it's full, packed with meaning. And effective, because it's my cry, the intense aspiration of my whole being.A mantra given by a guru is only the power to realize the experience of the discoverer of the mantra. The power is automatically there, because the sound contains the experience. I saw that once in Paris, at a time when I knew nothing of India, absolutely nothing, only the usual nonsense. I didn't even know what a mantra was. I had gone to a lecture given by some fellow who was supposed to have practiced "yoga" for a year in the Himalayas and recounted his experience (none too interesting, either). All at once, in the course of his lecture, he uttered the sound OM. And I saw the entire room suddenly fill with light, a golden, vibrating light.... I was probably the only one to notice it. I said to myself, "Well!" Then I didn't give it any more thought, I forgot about the story. But as it happened, the experience recurred in two or three different countries, with different people, and every time there was the sound OM, I would suddenly see the place fill with that same light. So I understood. That sound contains the vibration of thousands and thousands of years of spiritual aspiration - there is in it the entire aspiration of men towards the Supreme. And the power is automatically there, because the experience is there.It's the same with my mantra. When I wanted to translate the end of my mantra, "Glory to You, O Lord," into Sanskrit, I asked for Nolini's help. He brought his Sanskrit translation, and when he read it to me, I immediately saw that the power was there - not because Nolini put his power into it (!), God knows he had no intention of "giving" me a mantra! But the power was there because my experience was there. We made a few adjustments and modifications, and that's the japa I do now - I do it all the time, while sleeping, while walking, while eating, while working, all the time.[[Mother later clarified: "'Glory to You, O Lord' isn't MY mantra, it's something I ADDED to it - my mantra is something else altogether, that's not it. When I say that my mantra has the power of immortality, I mean the other, the one I don't speak of! I have never given the words.... You see, at the end of my walk, a kind of enthusiasm rises, and with that enthusiasm, the 'Glory to You' came to me, but it's part of the prayer I had written in Prayers and Meditations: 'Glory to You, O Lord, all-triumphant Supreme' etc. (it's a long prayer). It came back suddenly, and as it came back spontaneously, I kept it. Moreover, when Sri Aurobindo read this prayer in Prayers and Meditations, he told me it was very strong. So I added this phrase as a kind of tail to my japa. But 'Glory to You, O Lord' isn't my spontaneous mantra - it came spontaneously, but it was something written very long ago. The two things are different."And that's how a mantra has life: when it wells up all the time, spontaneously, like the cry of your being - there is no need of effort or concentration: it's your natural cry. Then it has full power, it is alive. It must well up from within.... No guru can give you that. ~ The Mother, Agenda May 11 1963, #KEYS
66:PRATYAHARAPRATYAHARA is the first process in the mental part of our task. The previous practices, Asana, Pranayama, Yama, and Niyama, are all acts of the body, while mantra is connected with speech: Pratyahara is purely mental. And what is Pratyahara? This word is used by different authors in different senses. The same word is employed to designate both the practice and the result. It means for our present purpose a process rather strategical than practical; it is introspection, a sort of general examination of the contents of the mind which we wish to control: Asana having been mastered, all immediate exciting causes have been removed, and we are free to think what we are thinking about. A very similar experience to that of Asana is in store for us. At first we shall very likely flatter ourselves that our minds are pretty calm; this is a defect of observation. Just as the European standing for the first time on the edge of the desert will see nothing there, while his Arab can tell him the family history of each of the fifty persons in view, because he has learnt how to look, so with practice the thoughts will become more numerous and more insistent. As soon as the body was accurately observed it was found to be terribly restless and painful; now that we observe the mind it is seen to be more restless and painful still. (See diagram opposite.) A similar curve might be plotted for the real and apparent painfulness of Asana. Conscious of this fact, we begin to try to control it: "Not quite so many thoughts, please!" "Don't think quite so fast, please!" "No more of that kind of thought, please!" It is only then that we discover that what we thought was a school of playful porpoises is really the convolutions of the sea-serpent. The attempt to repress has the effect of exciting. When the unsuspecting pupil first approaches his holy but wily Guru, and demands magical powers, that Wise One replies that he will confer them, points out with much caution and secrecy some particular spot on the pupil's body which has never previously attracted his attention, and says: "In order to obtain this magical power which you seek, all that is necessary is to wash seven times in the Ganges during seven days, being particularly careful to avoid thinking of that one spot." Of course the unhappy youth spends a disgusted week in thinking of little else. It is positively amazing with what persistence a thought, even a whole train of thoughts, returns again and again to the charge. It becomes a positive nightmare. It is intensely annoying, too, to find that one does not become conscious that one has got on to the forbidden subject until one has gone right through with it. However, one continues day after day investigating thoughts and trying to check them; and sooner or later one proceeds to the next stage, Dharana, the attempt to restrain the mind to a single object. Before we go on to this, however, we must consider what is meant by success in Pratyahara. This is a very extensive subject, and different authors take widely divergent views. One writer means an analysis so acute that every thought is resolved into a number of elements (see "The Psychology of Hashish," Section V, in Equinox II). Others take the view that success in the practice is something like the experience which Sir Humphrey Davy had as a result of taking nitrous oxide, in which he exclaimed: "The universe is composed exclusively of ideas." Others say that it gives Hamlet's feeling: "There's nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so," interpreted as literally as was done by Mrs. Eddy. However, the main point is to acquire some sort of inhibitory power over the thoughts. Fortunately there is an unfailing method of acquiring this power. It is given in Liber III. If Sections 1 and 2 are practised (if necessary with the assistance of another person to aid your vigilance) you will soon be able to master the final section. ~ Aleister Crowley, Liber ABA , #KEYS
67:I have never been able to share your constantly recurring doubts about your capacity or the despair that arises in you so violently when there are these attacks, nor is their persistent recurrence a valid ground for believing that they can never be overcome. Such a persistent recurrence has been a feature in the sadhana of many who have finally emerged and reached the goal; even the sadhana of very great Yogis has not been exempt from such violent and constant recurrences; they have sometimes been special objects of such persistent assaults, as I have indeed indicated in Savitri in more places than one - and that was indeed founded on my own experience. In the nature of these recurrences there is usually a constant return of the same adverse experiences, the same adverse resistance, thoughts destructive of all belief and faith and confidence in the future of the sadhana, frustrating doubts of what one has known as the truth, voices of despondency and despair, urgings to abandonment of the Yoga or to suicide or else other disastrous counsels of déchéance. The course taken by the attacks is not indeed the same for all, but still they have strong family resemblance. One can eventually overcome if one begins to realise the nature and source of these assaults and acquires the faculty of observing them, bearing, without being involved or absorbed into their gulf, finally becoming the witness of their phenomena and understanding them and refusing the mind's sanction even when the vital is still tossed in the whirl or the most outward physical mind still reflects the adverse suggestions. In the end these attacks lose their power and fall away from the nature; the recurrence becomes feeble or has no power to last: even, if the detachment is strong enough, they can be cut out very soon or at once. The strongest attitude to take is to regard these things as what they really are, incursions of dark forces from outside taking advantage of certain openings in the physical mind or the vital part, but not a real part of oneself or spontaneous creation in one's own nature. To create a confusion and darkness in the physical mind and throw into it or awake in it mistaken ideas, dark thoughts, false impressions is a favourite method of these assailants, and if they can get the support of this mind from over-confidence in its own correctness or the natural rightness of its impressions and inferences, then they can have a field day until the true mind reasserts itself and blows the clouds away. Another device of theirs is to awake some hurt or rankling sense of grievance in the lower vital parts and keep them hurt or rankling as long as possible. In that case one has to discover these openings in one's nature and learn to close them permanently to such attacks or else to throw out intruders at once or as soon as possible. The recurrence is no proof of a fundamental incapacity; if one takes the right inner attitude, it can and will be overcome. The idea of suicide ought never to be accepted; there is no real ground for it and in any case it cannot be a remedy or a real escape: at most it can only be postponement of difficulties and the necessity for their solution under no better circumstances in another life. One must have faith in the Master of our life and works, even if for a long time he conceals himself, and then in his own right time he will reveal his Presence. I have tried to dispel all the misconceptions, explain things as they are and meet all the points at issue. It is not that you really cannot make progress or have not made any progress; on the contrary, you yourself have admitted that you have made a good advance in many directions and there is no reason why, if you persevere, the rest should not come. You have always believed in the Guruvada: I would ask you then to put your faith in the Guru and the guidance and rely on the Ishwara for the fulfilment, to have faith in my abiding love and affection, in the affection and divine goodwill and loving kindness of the Mother, stand firm against all attacks and go forward perseveringly towards the spiritual goal and the all-fulfilling and all-satisfying touch of the All-Blissful, the Ishwara. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - IV , #KEYS
68:GURU YOGA Guru yoga is an essential practice in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism and Bon. This is true in sutra, tantra, and Dzogchen. It develops the heart connection with the masteR By continually strengthening our devotion, we come to the place of pure devotion in ourselves, which is the unshakeable, powerful base of the practice. The essence of guru yoga is to merge the practitioner's mind with the mind of the master. What is the true master? It is the formless, fundamental nature of mind, the primordial awareness of the base of everything, but because we exist in dualism, it is helpful for us to visualize this in a form. Doing so makes skillful use of the dualisms of the conceptual mind, to further strengthen devotion and help us stay directed toward practice and the generation of positive qualities. In the Bon tradition, we often visualize either Tapihritsa* as the master, or the Buddha ShenlaOdker*, who represents the union of all the masters. If you are already a practitioner, you may have another deity to visualize, like Guru Rinpoche or a yidam or dakini. While it is important to work with a lineage with which you have a connection, you should understand that the master you visualize is the embodiment of all the masters with whom you are connected, all the teachers with whom you have studied, all the deities to whom you have commitments. The master in guru yoga is not just one individual, but the essence of enlightenment, the primordial awareness that is your true nature. The master is also the teacher from whom you receive the teachings. In the Tibetan tradition, we say the master is more important than the Buddha. Why? Because the master is the immediate messenger of the teachings, the one who brings the Buddha's wisdom to the student. Without the master we could not find our way to the Buddha. So we should feel as much devotion to the master as we would to the Buddha if the Buddha suddenly appeared in front of us. Guru yoga is not just about generating some feeling toward a visualized image. It is done to find the fundamental mind in yourself that is the same as the fundamental mind of all your teachers, and of all the Buddhas and realized beings that have ever lived. When you merge with the guru, you merge with your pristine true nature, which is the real guide and masteR But this should not be an abstract practice. When you do guru yoga, try to feel such intense devotion that the hair stands upon your neck, tears start down your face, and your heart opens and fills with great love. Let yourself merge in union with the guru's mind, which is your enlightened Buddha-nature. This is the way to practice guru yoga. The Practice After the nine breaths, still seated in meditation posture, visualize the master above and in front of you. This should not be a flat, two dimensional picture-let a real being exist there, in three dimensions, made of light, pure, and with a strong presence that affects the feeling in your body,your energy, and your mind. Generate strong devotion and reflect on the great gift of the teachings and the tremendous good fortune you enjoy in having made a connection to them. Offer a sincere prayer, asking that your negativities and obscurations be removed, that your positive qualities develop, and that you accomplish dream yoga. Then imagine receiving blessings from the master in the form of three colored lights that stream from his or her three wisdom doors- of body, speech, and mind-into yours. The lights should be transmitted in the following sequence: White light streams from the master's brow chakra into yours, purifying and relaxing your entire body and physical dimension. Then red light streams from the master's throat chakra into yours, purifying and relaxing your energetic dimension. Finally, blue light streams from the master's heart chakra into yours, purifying and relaxing your mind. When the lights enter your body, feel them. Let your body, energy, and mind relax, suffused inwisdom light. Use your imagination to make the blessing real in your full experience, in your body and energy as well as in the images in your mind. After receiving the blessing, imagine the master dissolving into light that enters your heart and resides there as your innermost essence. Imagine that you dissolve into that light, and remain inpure awareness, rigpa. There are more elaborate instructions for guru yoga that can involve prostrations, offerings, gestures, mantras, and more complicated visualizations, but the essence of the practice is mingling your mind with the mind of the master, which is pure, non-dual awareness. Guru yoga can be done any time during the day; the more often the better. Many masters say that of all the practices it is guru yoga that is the most important. It confers the blessings of the lineage and can open and soften the heart and quiet the unruly mind. To completely accomplish guru yoga is to accomplish the path. ~ Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Yogas Of Dream And Sleep , #KEYS
69:It does not matter if you do not understand it - Savitri, read it always. You will see that every time you read it, something new will be revealed to you. Each time you will get a new glimpse, each time a new experience; things which were not there, things you did not understand arise and suddenly become clear. Always an unexpected vision comes up through the words and lines. Every time you try to read and understand, you will see that something is added, something which was hidden behind is revealed clearly and vividly. I tell you the very verses you have read once before, will appear to you in a different light each time you re-read them. This is what happens invariably. Always your experience is enriched, it is a revelation at each step. But you must not read it as you read other books or newspapers. You must read with an empty head, a blank and vacant mind, without there being any other thought; you must concentrate much, remain empty, calm and open; then the words, rhythms, vibrations will penetrate directly to this white page, will put their stamp upon the brain, will explain themselves without your making any effort. Savitri alone is sufficient to make you climb to the highest peaks. If truly one knows how to meditate on Savitri, one will receive all the help one needs. For him who wishes to follow this path, it is a concrete help as though the Lord himself were taking you by the hand and leading you to the destined goal. And then, every question, however personal it may be, has its answer here, every difficulty finds its solution herein; indeed there is everything that is necessary for doing the Yoga.*He has crammed the whole universe in a single book.* It is a marvellous work, magnificent and of an incomparable perfection. You know, before writing Savitri Sri Aurobindo said to me, WIKI am impelled to launch on a new adventure; I was hesitant in the beginning, but now I am decided. Still, I do not know how far I shall succeed. I pray for help.* And you know what it was? It was - before beginning, I warn you in advance - it was His way of speaking, so full of divine humility and modesty. He never... *asserted Himself*. And the day He actually began it, He told me: WIKI have launched myself in a rudderless boat upon the vastness of the Infinite.* And once having started, He wrote page after page without intermission, as though it were a thing already complete up there and He had only to transcribe it in ink down here on these pages. In truth, the entire form of Savitri has descended "en masse" from the highest region and Sri Aurobindo with His genius only arranged the lines - in a superb and magnificent style. Sometimes entire lines were revealed and He has left them intact; He worked hard, untiringly, so that the inspiration could come from the highest possible summit. And what a work He has created! Yes, it is a true creation in itself. It is an unequalled work. Everything is there, and it is put in such a simple, such a clear form; verses perfectly harmonious, limpid and eternally true. My child, I have read so many things, but I have never come across anything which could be compared with Savitri. I have studied the best works in Greek, Latin, English and of course French literature, also in German and all the great creations of the West and the East, including the great epics; but I repeat it, I have not found anywhere anything comparable with Savitri. All these literary works seems to me empty, flat, hollow, without any deep reality - apart from a few rare exceptions, and these too represent only a small fraction of what Savitri is. What grandeur, what amplitude, what reality: it is something immortal and eternal He has created. I tell you once again there is nothing like in it the whole world. Even if one puts aside the vision of the reality, that is, the essential substance which is the heart of the inspiration, and considers only the lines in themselves, one will find them unique, of the highest classical kind. What He has created is something man cannot imagine. For, everything is there, everything. It may then be said that Savitri is a revelation, it is a meditation, it is a quest of the Infinite, the Eternal. If it is read with this aspiration for Immortality, the reading itself will serve as a guide to Immortality. To read Savitri is indeed to practice Yoga, spiritual concentration; one can find there all that is needed to realise the Divine. Each step of Yoga is noted here, including the secret of all other Yogas. Surely, if one sincerely follows what is revealed here in each line one will reach finally the transformation of the Supramental Yoga. It is truly the infallible guide who never abandons you; its support is always there for him who wants to follow the path. Each verse of Savitri is like a revealed Mantra which surpasses all that man possessed by way of knowledge, and I repeat this, the words are expressed and arranged in such a way that the sonority of the rhythm leads you to the origin of sound, which is OM. My child, yes, everything is there: mysticism, occultism, philosophy, the history of evolution, the history of man, of the gods, of creation, of Nature. How the universe was created, why, for what purpose, what destiny - all is there. You can find all the answers to all your questions there. Everything is explained, even the future of man and of the evolution, all that nobody yet knows. He has described it all in beautiful and clear words so that spiritual adventurers who wish to solve the mysteries of the world may understand it more easily. But this mystery is well hidden behind the words and lines and one must rise to the required level of true consciousness to discover it. All prophesies, all that is going to come is presented with the precise and wonderful clarity. Sri Aurobindo gives you here the key to find the Truth, to discover the Consciousness, to solve the problem of what the universe is. He has also indicated how to open the door of the Inconscience so that the light may penetrate there and transform it. He has shown the path, the way to liberate oneself from the ignorance and climb up to the superconscience; each stage, each plane of consciousness, how they can be scaled, how one can cross even the barrier of death and attain immortality. You will find the whole journey in detail, and as you go forward you can discover things altogether unknown to man. That is Savitri and much more yet. It is a real experience - reading Savitri. All the secrets that man possessed, He has revealed, - as well as all that awaits him in the future; all this is found in the depth of Savitri. But one must have the knowledge to discover it all, the experience of the planes of consciousness, the experience of the Supermind, even the experience of the conquest of Death. He has noted all the stages, marked each step in order to advance integrally in the integral Yoga. All this is His own experience, and what is most surprising is that it is my own experience also. It is my sadhana which He has worked out. Each object, each event, each realisation, all the descriptions, even the colours are exactly what I saw and the words, phrases are also exactly what I heard. And all this before having read the book. I read Savitri many times afterwards, but earlier, when He was writing He used to read it to me. Every morning I used to hear Him read Savitri. During the night He would write and in the morning read it to me. And I observed something curious, that day after day the experiences He read out to me in the morning were those I had had the previous night, word by word. Yes, all the descriptions, the colours, the pictures I had seen, the words I had heard, all, all, I heard it all, put by Him into poetry, into miraculous poetry. Yes, they were exactly my experiences of the previous night which He read out to me the following morning. And it was not just one day by chance, but for days and days together. And every time I used to compare what He said with my previous experiences and they were always the same. I repeat, it was not that I had told Him my experiences and that He had noted them down afterwards, no, He knew already what I had seen. It is my experiences He has presented at length and they were His experiences also. It is, moreover, the picture of Our joint adventure into the unknown or rather into the Supermind. These are experiences lived by Him, realities, supracosmic truths. He experienced all these as one experiences joy or sorrow, physically. He walked in the darkness of inconscience, even in the neighborhood of death, endured the sufferings of perdition, and emerged from the mud, the world-misery to breathe the sovereign plenitude and enter the supreme Ananda. He crossed all these realms, went through the consequences, suffered and endured physically what one cannot imagine. Nobody till today has suffered like Him. He accepted suffering to transform suffering into the joy of union with the Supreme. It is something unique and incomparable in the history of the world. It is something that has never happened before, He is the first to have traced the path in the Unknown, so that we may be able to walk with certitude towards the Supermind. He has made the work easy for us. Savitri is His whole Yoga of transformation, and this Yoga appears now for the first time in the earth-consciousness. And I think that man is not yet ready to receive it. It is too high and too vast for him. He cannot understand it, grasp it, for it is not by the mind that one can understand Savitri. One needs spiritual experiences in order to understand and assimilate it. The farther one advances on the path of Yoga, the more does one assimilate and the better. No, it is something which will be appreciated only in the future, it is the poetry of tomorrow of which He has spoken in The Future Poetry. It is too subtle, too refined, - it is not in the mind or through the mind, it is in meditation that Savitri is revealed. And men have the audacity to compare it with the work of Virgil or Homer and to find it inferior. They do not understand, they cannot understand. What do they know? Nothing at all. And it is useless to try to make them understand. Men will know what it is, but in a distant future. It is only the new race with a new consciousness which will be able to understand. I assure you there is nothing under the blue sky to compare with Savitri. It is the mystery of mysteries. It is a *super-epic,* it is super-literature, super-poetry, super-vision, it is a super-work even if one considers the number of lines He has written. No, these human words are not adequate to describe Savitri. Yes, one needs superlatives, hyperboles to describe it. It is a hyper-epic. No, words express nothing of what Savitri is, at least I do not find them. It is of immense value - spiritual value and all other values; it is eternal in its subject, and infinite in its appeal, miraculous in its mode and power of execution; it is a unique thing, the more you come into contact with it, the higher will you be uplifted. Ah, truly it is something! It is the most beautiful thing He has left for man, the highest possible. What is it? When will man know it? When is he going to lead a life of truth? When is he going to accept this in his life? This yet remains to be seen. My child, every day you are going to read Savitri; read properly, with the right attitude, concentrating a little before opening the pages and trying to keep the mind as empty as possible, absolutely without a thought. The direct road is through the heart. I tell you, if you try to really concentrate with this aspiration you can light the flame, the psychic flame, the flame of purification in a very short time, perhaps in a few days. What you cannot do normally, you can do with the help of Savitri. Try and you will see how very different it is, how new, if you read with this attitude, with this something at the back of your consciousness; as though it were an offering to Sri Aurobindo. You know it is charged, fully charged with consciousness; as if Savitri were a being, a real guide. I tell you, whoever, wanting to practice Yoga, tries sincerely and feels the necessity for it, will be able to climb with the help of Savitri to the highest rung of the ladder of Yoga, will be able to find the secret that Savitri represents. And this without the help of a Guru. And he will be able to practice it anywhere. For him Savitri alone will be the guide, for all that he needs he will find Savitri. If he remains very quiet when before a difficulty, or when he does not know where to turn to go forward and how to overcome obstacles, for all these hesitations and incertitudes which overwhelm us at every moment, he will have the necessary indications, and the necessary concrete help. If he remains very calm, open, if he aspires sincerely, always he will be as if lead by the hand. If he has faith, the will to give himself and essential sincerity he will reach the final goal. Indeed, Savitri is something concrete, living, it is all replete, packed with consciousness, it is the supreme knowledge above all human philosophies and religions. It is the spiritual path, it is Yoga, Tapasya, Sadhana, in its single body. Savitri has an extraordinary power, it gives out vibrations for him who can receive them, the true vibrations of each stage of consciousness. It is incomparable, it is truth in its plenitude, the Truth Sri Aurobindo brought down on the earth. My child, one must try to find the secret that Savitri represents, the prophetic message Sri Aurobindo reveals there for us. This is the work before you, it is hard but it is worth the trouble. - 5 November 1967 ~ The Mother, Sweet Mother The Mother to Mona Sarkar, #KEYS
*** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:guru in the Ukraine, ~ Jim Butcher, #NFDB
2:I am the rich man's guru. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
3:Guru is the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
4:I never say I am a guru. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
5:In Zen we have no gurus. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
6:spirituality is not a moral code. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
7:Your Mercy is my social status. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
8:As fragrance abides in the flower ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
9:Guru, God and Self are One ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
10:If you resist change, you resist life. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
11:When the lion feeds, many animals eat. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
12:Don’t worry about what the gurus say. ~ Sean Platt, #NFDB
13:He’s our chief science guru.” Dr. ~ Robert J Crane, #NFDB
14:Guru’s grace is always there. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
15:Guru is not the physical form. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
16:The world is a drama, staged in a dream ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
17:Conquer your mind and conquer the world. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
18:One does not become a guru by accident. ~ James Fenton, #NFDB
19:A guru is not a crutch, he is a bridge. ~ Jaggi Vasudev, #NFDB
20:Guru is none other than the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
21:OM AH HUM VAJRA GURU PADMA SIDDHI HUM ~ Sogyal Rinpoche, #NFDB
22:That which knows how to bend will not break. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
23:the ability to respond is the basis of life. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
24:Speak only that which will bring you honor. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
25:Tomorrow” is the deepest cunning of your mind. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
26:Without the Name, there is no peace. ~ Guru Gobind Singh, #NFDB
27:With your hands carve out your own destiny. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
28:Your mind need not be controlled but liberated. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
29:does not talk about God. It does not talk about ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
30:Everything in the world was my Guru. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
31:The True One was there from time immemorial. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
32:Emotion is just the juicier part of the thought. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
33:Even the faults of a Guru must be told. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
34:God, Guru and the Self are identical. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
35:He who regards all men as equals is religious. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
36:My guru is in my imagination anywhere. Anywhere. ~ Ram Dass, #NFDB
37: Sab Gurujan Ko Buro Bataabi
~ Bharatendu Harishchandra,#NFDB
38:The intellect cannot laugh, it can only dissect. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
39:When you know how to listen everyone is the guru ~ Ram Dass, #NFDB
40:All that a guru can tell you is: ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #NFDB
41:Don't wait for a Guru. Your life is your Guru. ~ Krishna Das, #NFDB
42:True stories do not always end,’ Sumanguru ~ Hannu Rajaniemi, #NFDB
43:All we can ever experience happens from within us. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
44:My soul is my guru; my experience is my guru. ~ Kumar Pallana, #NFDB
45:The middle path is a way of not getting anywhere... ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
46:Responsibility simply means your ability to respond. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
47:The smartest thing about most people is their phone. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
48:Those who have loved are those that have found God ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
49:those who have loved are those that have found God ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
50:Day and night, meditate forever on the Lord. ~ Guru Gobind Singh, #NFDB
51:Even Gods have sought out gurus for themselves. ~ Santosh Kalwar, #NFDB
52:Reactivity is enslavement. Responsibility is freedom. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
53:A guru is needed not to worship, but to direct you. ~ Alan Finger, #NFDB
54:O Lord, You bless all with Your bountiful blessings. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
55:logical intellect can never function without information ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
56:Buku adalah guru yang paling sabar dan tidak pernah marah ~ Various, #NFDB
57:Learning to listen is the essence of intelligent living. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
58:The purpose of the path of devotion is just dissolution. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
59:All human experience is one hundred percent self-created. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
60:If you try to make the limited unlimited, you will suffer. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
61:Love is not something you do; it is just the way you are. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
62:If you try to make the limited unlimited, you will suffer. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
63:Wherever the Protector of all keeps me, there is heaven. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
64:Always aspire to become the next you, not someone else ~ Prabal Gurung, #NFDB
65:Gurur insanlar arasında yaygın olan bir kusurdur, kanımca, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
66:Gururlanıp böbürlenmek, adi ve bayağı kimselerin vasfıdır. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
67:I want to make clothes that make women feel beautiful. ~ Prabal Gurung, #NFDB
68:Singurătatea nu te învață că ești singur, ci singurul. ~ Emil M Cioran, #NFDB
69:All human experience is one hundred percent self-created. If ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
70:Don't create enmity with anyone as God is within everyone. ~ Guru Arjan, #NFDB
71:False is the body, false are the clothes; false is beauty. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
72:There is a Force within That gives you life Seek that. —Rumi ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
73:Compassion is definitely a more liberating emotion than love. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
74:He who has no faith in himself can never have faith in God. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
75:There is no difference between God, Guru and Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
76:Whatever you accumulate can be yours, but it can never be you. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
77:Choices that you make out of inability are not life solutions. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
78:Every human being lives in a perpetual state of insufficiency. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
79:There is no Guru, no disciple. Realize who you are. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
80:What you accumulate can be yours, but it can never be you. Who ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
81:it is your identity that manages and determines your intellect. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
82:Whatever you accumulate can be yours, but it can never be you. If ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
83:Every opinion you have about anything can be a limiting identity. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
84:Your mind need not be controlled; your mind needs to be liberated. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
85:Bullshit may get you to the top, but it never lets you stay there! ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
86:Every man should be his own guru; every woman her own gurette. ~ Edward Abbey, #NFDB
87:Keep growing. Stay awake. Beware of gurus. Keep a low overhead. ~ Joan Larkin, #NFDB
88:Peace and joy are the basic requirements for a life of well-being. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
89:Your mind need not be controlled; your mind needs to be liberated. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
90:Budalalık, üçkâğıtçılığın kılıfıdır. Utanç, Gururun kılıfıdır. ~ William Blake, #NFDB
91:I am not the born; how can there be either birth or death for me? ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
92:In this world
when you ask of happiness
Pain steps forward ~ Guru Nanak,#NFDB
93:Relationships! We can’t live with them, we can’t live without them. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
94:The man who does only as much as is needed will only get that much. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
95:Truth is the highest virtue, but higher still is truthful living. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
96:In this world
when you ask for happiness
Pain steps forward ~ Guru Nanak,#NFDB
97:Love is your quality. Love is not what you do. Love is what you are. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
98:I don't die... He who is merged with the omnipresent is never gone. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
99:I wanted to do something not just commercial but also covetable. ~ Prabal Gurung, #NFDB
100:Someday without any reason dance in frenzy in total let go. ~ Anandmurti Gurumaa, #NFDB
101:The identity around which the intellect functions is called ahankara. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
102:There are no gurus of love.
There is no mantra to make love. ~ Santosh Kalwar,#NFDB
103:What we need is not good human beings; we need sensible human beings. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
104:A Guru is not someone who holds a torch for you. He is the torch. ~ Jaggi Vasudev, #NFDB
105:Blessed, blessed is that body horse which meditates on the Lord God. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
106:Guru mati, kitab pun hilang. Tersesat entah ke siapa akan bertanya. ~ Ahmad Fuadi, #NFDB
107:I do not know” is the doorway—the only doorway—to seeking and knowing. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
108:Krishna says in the Gita, “The worst crime in the world is indecision. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
109:Things do not descend upon anything that is not ready to receive them. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
110:Why human life needs so much attention is because we are human beings. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
111:The soul bride shall never be a widow, she shall never suffer sorrow. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
112:Death would not be called bad, o people, if one knew how to truly die. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
113:If you handle your entire life with logic alone, you will end up a mess. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
114:The ability to simply look without motive is missing in the world today. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
115:Unless you do the right things, the right things will not happen to you. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
116:Death would not be called bad, O people, if one knew how to truely die. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
117:Emotional attachment to Maya is totally painful, this is a bad bargain. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
118:God and the Guru are not really different; they are identical. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
119:I am a song bird, I am a meek song bird, I offer my prayer to the Lord. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
120:Only for a person who is living with duality there is good and bad karma. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
121:technology will only bring comfort and convenience to us, not well-being. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
122:There are disciples who seek a guru made in their own image. ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, #NFDB
123:Most “gurus” are just spewing bullshit and hoping that you’re a fly. ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
124:Namun guru yang paling baik adalah yang mengajar tanpa bicara apa-apa ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
125:One cannot comprehend Him through reason, even if one reasoned for ages. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
126:The moment you get strongly identified, you lose your perspective on life! ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
127:What people are suffering is their freedom. That's why it is so tragic. If ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
128:Who is whose Guru? God alone is the guide and Guru of the universe. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #NFDB
129:I am neither a child, a young man, nor an ancient; nor am I of any caste. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
130:We are, every one of us, like a wise guru in charge of a mental patient. ~ Jamie Catto, #NFDB
131:You cannot choose a Guru. Deepen your longing and the Guru will choose you, ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
132:But to be loving is simply this: a willingness to respond freely and openly. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
133:I fall at the feet of those who meditate on the Truest of the True. ~ Guru Gobind Singh, #NFDB
134:Nails are the period at the end of the sentence. They complete the look ~ Prabal Gurung, #NFDB
135:neşe, umut, heyecan, mutluluk, rahatlık, huzur, ilham, heves, gurur, sevgi… ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
136:The Lord Himself reveals the Path, He Himself is the Doer of deeds. ~ Guru Gobind Singh, #NFDB
137:So the whole process of spirituality is just about enhancing your perception. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
138:true intelligence is just life and life—and that which is the source of life. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
139:If you are not using your mind for self-torture, why would you think of peace? ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
140:Your ideas of good and bad are just a certain level of prejudice against life. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
141:Zor olanı yap; böylece gerçekten gurur duyabileceğin bir şeyin olur! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
142:Dhyana or meditation, means to be beyond the limitations of your body and mind. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
143:Great gurus are not great writers, but great writers are great gurus! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
144:Guru's grace is always there. It is really inside you in your Heart. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
145:If you think hundred percent logically, there is really no possibility of life. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
146:In life you can either have a guru or misery, you cannot have both. ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, #NFDB
147:The Guru cannot give you anything new, which you don't have already. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
148:Your aliveness is going down because you are committing suicide in installments. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
149:Your ideas of good and bad are just a certain level of prejudice against life". ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
150:If you can joyfully do whatever is needed in a given situation, this is freedom. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
151:I'm not a believer of luck. I think opportunity and hard work becomes luck. ~ Prabal Gurung, #NFDB
152:Realization of Truth is higher than all else. Higher still is truthful living. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
153:Yoga is fundamentally aimed at enhancing your experience beyond the five senses. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
154:Fathers always play mahagurus to their children, and I am no exception. ~ Mithun Chakraborty, #NFDB
155:People have fallen in love with words and lost the world. It’s time to regain it. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
156:Singurul avantaj când studiezi e să te bucuri de ceea ce alții nu au spus. ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
157:Singurul mod de a scăpa de păcat e să îl comiţi,pentru a te debarasa de el. ~ Octavian Paler, #NFDB
158:The guru cannot awaken you; all that he can do is to point out what is. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #NFDB
159:Try everything; listen to everyone. Follow no one. You are your own story guru! ~ Jeff Lyons, #NFDB
160:emotional you” is also the “thinking you” – the way you think is the way you feel. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
161:Singurul lucru mai rău decât un băiat care te urâşte.Un băiat care te iubeşte. ~ Markus Zusak, #NFDB
162:To be human means you can mold situations you are living in the way you want them. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
163:When pain, misery, or anger happen, it is time to look within you, not around you. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
164:Your ideas of good and bad are just a certain level of prejudice against life. The ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
165:A modern Woman is not necessarily...s omeone who just buys expensive stuff... ~ Prabal Gurung, #NFDB
166:I am in constant bliss, day and night, egotism has been dispelled from within me. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
167:Lots of people have understood management as a way of throwing their weight around. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
168:Ama toplum, anne olmaktan çok üvey annedir, gururunu okşayan çocukları sever. ~ Honor de Balzac, #NFDB
169:A human is not a being; he is a becoming. He is an ongoing process, nothing is fixed. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
170:For a human being, life doesn’t seem to end with survival; life begins with survival. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
171:God or Guru never forsakes the devotee who has surrendered him [her] self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
172:I am not here to speak the Truth. I am here just to give you a method to perceive it. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
173:The fear is simply because you are not living with life, You are living in your mind. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
174:There is only one calamity: ignorance. And there is only one solution: enlightenment. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
175:Fruit is the most easily digestible food and all human beings know this instinctively. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
176:A guru trains his disciples to become Krishna dasa, a menial servant of Krishna. ~ Lokanatha Swami, #NFDB
177:Büyük gurular büyük yazar değildirler, fakat büyük yazarlar büyük gurulardır! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
178:Femeile sunt singurul grup exploatat din istorie a carui neputinta a fost idealizata. ~ Erica Jong, #NFDB
179:If your humanity overflows, divinity will follow and serve you. It has no other choice. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
180:My guru said that when he suffers, it brings him closer to God. I have found this, too. ~ Ram Dass, #NFDB
181:The biggest guru-mantra is: never share your secrets with anybody. It will destroy you. ~ Chanakya, #NFDB
182:Your mind is not a solid state, your mind is a fluid. You can make it take on any shape. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
183:Karta (The Creator) and Karim (The beneficient) are the names of the same God. ~ Guru Gobind Singh, #NFDB
184:The role of the Guru is to show the person that he already has what he is looking for. ~ Alan Watts, #NFDB
185:Timpul este singurul capital al oamenilor care n-au altă avere decât inteligenţa. ~ Honor de Balzac, #NFDB
186:Ultimately when I am with you all, what I see is my Guru. And what is he? He is love. ~ Krishna Das, #NFDB
187:Egotism is such a terrible disease, in the love of duality, they do their deeds. ~ Guru Gobind Singh, #NFDB
188:Every thought that arises in the mind has its roots in data you have already accumulated. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
189:This is the fundamental question about life. How do you want to spend this moment? People ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
190:You are struggling with the walls of resistance that you have built around yourself. That ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
191:But as management guru Peter Drucker once said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast. ~ Satya Nadella, #NFDB
192:Confidence and stupidity are a very dangerous combination, but they generally go together. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
193:Even Tidewater’s computer gurus hadn’t been able to trace the origin of his messages. ~ Janet Chapman, #NFDB
194:In egotism, one is assailed by fear, he passes his life totally troubled by fear. ~ Guru Gobind Singh, #NFDB
195:It is our compulsive reaction to the situations in which we are placed that causes stress. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
196:Nanak, the whole world is in distress. He, who believes in the Name, becomes victorious. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
197:Only if you are out of the circus of your mind, you will be hundred percent free of madness ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
198:The question is, are we using our emotions to entangle ourselves or to liberate ourselves? ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
199:Without a single thought on their mind, an ant, a bird, and a bee all just know what to do. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
200:It' easy to find information on Google guru but that's not equal to gaining knowledge. ~ Narendra Modi, #NFDB
201:So long as you have faith in your Guru, nothing will be able to obstruct your way. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
202:So long as you have faith in your guru, nothing will be able to obstruct your way. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
203:The ignorant person is totally blind he does not appreciate the value of the jewel ~ Guru Gobind Singh, #NFDB
204:Blessed, blessed is their Guru, whose mouth tastes the Ambrosial Fruit of the Lord. ~ Guru Gobind Singh, #NFDB
205:Gökyüzü, parlak ışıklarıyla gurur duyar; yeryüzü, parlak zihinleriyle gurur duyar! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
206:I tell the truth; listen everyone. Only those who have Loved, will realise the Lord ~ Guru Gobind Singh, #NFDB
207:My mind and body, my mind and body I cut my body into pieces, and I dedicate these to Him. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
208:No guru, no method, no teacher, just you and I and nature, and the father in the garden. ~ Van Morrison, #NFDB
209:Peace and joy are not things you attain at the end of life. They are the basis of your life. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
210:Sinuciderea e, poate, singurul act uman care e totdeauna sincer, nu e niciodata mimat. ~ Octavian Paler, #NFDB
211:Children, we must cultivate reverence towards all great masters, monks and gurus. ~ Mata Amritanandamayi, #NFDB
212:If you can look at everything lovingly, the whole world becomes beautiful in your experience. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
213:If you consciously get your body into different postures, you can elevate your consciousness. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
214:It is nearly impossible to be here now when you think there is somewhere else to be. ~ Guru Gobind Singh, #NFDB
215:The self is the same. Either you wear a masculine peel or a feminine peel. That is all it is. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
216:By the Grace of God, I am cured of the disease of egotism, and Death no longer terrifies me. ~ Guru Arjan, #NFDB
217:Do not wish evil for others. Do not speak ill of others. Do not obstruct anyones activities. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
218:It is not necessary to meet your guru on the physical plane. The guru is not external. ~ Neem Karoli Baba, #NFDB
219:Life should touch you, even if life smothers you, it's better than remaining untouched by life ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
220:Whatever you do willingly, that is your heaven. Whatever you do unwillingly, that is your hell. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
221:Guru Angad named Guru Amar Das, also a Khatri but of the Bhalla clan, as the third Guru. ~ Rajmohan Gandhi, #NFDB
222:I bow at His Feet constantly, and pray to Him, the Guru, the True Guru, has shown me the Way. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
223:I have no disciples, being myself an aspirant after discipleship and in search of a guru. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
224:I mean, I can cook, but I'd get very nervous having my food being judged by dinner guests. ~ Prabal Gurung, #NFDB
225:It means beginning the journey from the psychological – maya – to the existential – Shi-va. And ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
226:I was a typical teen growing up in the 1960s, when everybody was into gurus and meditation. ~ David Suchet, #NFDB
227:Like the juggler, deceiving by his tricks, one is deluded by egotism, falsehood and illusion. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
228:As people get richer and older, you will see, they start doing more desperate things to be happy. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
229:God is within yourself. Dive within and realize. God, Guru and the Self are the same. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
230:Sunlight comes into your house not because you want it. It happens because you open the windows. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
231:Thou has a thousand eyes and yet not one eye; Thou host a thousand forms and yet not one form. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
232:When your guru gives you a command, you better listen to it. I love everybody. Even George Bush. ~ Ram Dass, #NFDB
233:Your life is just about craving, and making something else tremendously more important than you. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
234:Blissfulness means life is happening in an exuberant manner, and that is all that life seeks. So, ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
235:Discern the real from the illusory, what is existentially true from what is psychologically true. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
236:No matter what the disciple’s problem, the guru advised Kriya Yoga for its solution. ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, #NFDB
237:The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why - Warren Bennis, Leadership Guru ~ Ernest Becker, #NFDB
238:The most incredible thing is that you can know everything you wish to know with your eyes closed. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
239:I'm fascinated by furniture design and interiors, and I want to try designing all that stuff. ~ Prabal Gurung, #NFDB
240:Let no man in the world live in delusion. Without a Guru none can cross over to the other shore. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
241:Belief is just like morality. People who believe something often think they are superior to others. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
242:Blessed, blessed is the True Guru, who has given the supreme gift of the Name of the Lord. ~ Guru Gobind Singh, #NFDB
243:Inner pleasantness is a surefire insurance for the making of a peaceful society and a joyful world. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
244:Morality always differs from person to person, according to time, place, situation—and convenience. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
245:There's such a feeling of satisfaction when something you imagined turned into something real. ~ Prabal Gurung, #NFDB
246:Through shallow intellect, the mind becomes shallow, and one eats the fly, along with the sweets. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
247:You are always your own best guru, your own best teacher, the answers are always inside you. ~ Sathya Sai Baba, #NFDB
248:Die before the one whom you love; to live after he dies is to live a worthless life in this world. ~ Guru Angad, #NFDB
249:[Donald Trump] guru Steve Bannon is worse, he's much scarier. He probably knows what he's doing. ~ Noam Chomsky, #NFDB
250:I hang out with my guru in my heart. And I love everything in the universe. That's all I do all day. ~ Ram Dass, #NFDB
251:Incredible things can be done simply because we are committed that we want it to happen, that's all. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
252:Silahlarıyla, tanklarıyla, füzeleriyle gurur duyan bir millet insanlıktan yoksun demektir! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
253:The reason that 'guru' is such a popular word is because 'charlatan' is so hard to spell. ~ William J Bernstein, #NFDB
254:Sex in the body is fine. Money in the wallet is fine. It is only a problem when they enter your mind. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
255:Singurul lucru care nu poate fi statornicit prin legea majorităţii este conştiinţa omului - Atticus ~ Harper Lee, #NFDB
256:some think it’s in the wine, and others think it’s in the divine, but pleasantness is what everyone’s ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
257:The gurus come from the sickliest nation on earth to tell us how to live. And we pay them for it. ~ Edward Abbey, #NFDB
258:What should the yogi have to fear? Trees, plants, and all that is inside and outside, is He Himself ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
259:He who lowers his mind to the dust of all men’s feet, Sees the Name of God enshrined in every heart. ~ Guru Arjan, #NFDB
260:Thou O Lord, art my Father and Thou my Mother. Thou art the Giver of peace to my soul and very life. ~ Guru Arjan, #NFDB
261:A well-established human mind is referred to as a kalpavriksha, or a wishing tree that grants any boon. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
262:Egotism is such a terrible disease, he dies, to be reincarnated he continues coming and going. ~ Guru Gobind Singh, #NFDB
263:Fruitful is the entire life of those, who feel hunger for the Name of the Lord in their minds. ~ Guru Gobind Singh, #NFDB
264:I love a red lip - it's such a powerful statement. It exudes confidence and makes for a bold look. ~ Prabal Gurung, #NFDB
265:Look for God, suggests my Guru. Look for God like a man with his head on fire looks for water. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, #NFDB
266:Nothing has ever been out of place in this existence. Things have been out of place in human societies. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
267:Rock music had become my religion. Radio my church. And these DJs my priests, rabbis and gurus. ~ Steven Van Zandt, #NFDB
268:Spoken words are of no use whatsoever if the eyes of the Guru meet the eyes of the disciple. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
269:The highest religion is to rise to universal brother hood; aye to consider all creatures your equals. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
270:Vaheguru, forgive me, but a woman must choose the wisdom of lies over the dangers of truth. ~ Shauna Singh Baldwin, #NFDB
271:Dwell in peace in the home of your own being, and the Messenger of Death will not be able to touch you ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
272:Gurus Enable you to see new things. The trouble with Gurus is that you can rarely see beyond them. ~ Kiran Nagarkar, #NFDB
273:if you want to experience a mountain peak, you either elevate yourself to that level, or simply look up. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
274:India is once again ready to play the role of 'Vishvaguru' and work towards the benefit of mankind. ~ Narendra Modi, #NFDB
275:Meeting the True Guru, hunger departs, hunger does not depart by wearing the robes of a beggar. ~ Guru Gobind Singh, #NFDB
276:Sing the songs of joy to the Lord, serve the Name of the Lord, and become the servant of His servants. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
277:Success, prosperity, well-being happens because you have made yourself capable of creating those things. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
278:They have told you, “Seeing is believing.” Seeing is not believing – everyone sees what they want to see. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
279:Dwell in peace in the home of your own being, and the Messenger of Death will not be able to touch you. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
280:God is one, but he has innumerable forms. He is the creator of all and He himself takes the human form. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
281:I'm not a guru. I wish you wouldn't pose these things at me, man. Ask me about women or something. ~ Charles Bukowski, #NFDB
282:It has always seemed to me odd that the world does not realize the immensity of a state of “I do not know. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
283:The body is something that we have gathered through what we eat and mind is an accumulation of impressions. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
284:Those who worship and adore the Lord through the Guru's Word forget all their pain and suffering. ~ Guru Gobind Singh, #NFDB
285:Who's your soul's mate? Consciousness. Soul is your conscious mate. Guru keeps you conscious. ~ Harbhajan Singh Yogi, #NFDB
286:Bach, Shakespeare, Beethoven, Dostoievski şi Nietzsche sunt singurul argument împotriva monoteismului. ~ Emil M Cioran, #NFDB
287:Dar acelasi indem, singurul de care mai era in stare fiinta mea, 'nu te opri', m-a facut sa continui. ~ Octavian Paler, #NFDB
288:Gurur, sanki her gün yapılan bir şeymiş gibi, soylu bir biçimde üzüntüden ölme yetisi anlamındaydı. ~ Joanne Greenberg, #NFDB
289:If you detach yourself from life, you are avoiding life. You are here to experience life, not to avoid life. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
290:My guru, awake in God, knew this world to be nothing but an objectivized dream of the Creator. ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, #NFDB
291:Omul este singurul parazit care-și pregătește capcana, îi pune momeala, apoi calcă de bunăvoie în ea. ~ John Steinbeck, #NFDB
292:Only when you get dis-identified, when you are able to be involved but not entangled, only then it can stop. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
293:Ospăţul este poate - în chip paradoxal - singurul loc în care bucuria celuilalt nu este pizmuită. ~ Nicolae Steinhardt, #NFDB
294:Sunlight comes into your house not because you want it. It happens because you open the windows.” Sadhguru: ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
295:The greatest comforts and lasting peace are obtained, when one eradicates selfishness from within. ~ Guru Gobind Singh, #NFDB
296:Freedom—or mukti or moksha—is seen as the natural longing in every human being and our ultimate destination. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
297:Just beneath the surface of all experiences in life is God's, or the Guru's, compassionate face. ~ Mata Amritanandamayi, #NFDB
298:The genuine Guru is God's representative and he speaks about God and nothing else. ~ A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, #NFDB
299:Creator is just pure intelligence. Intelligence beyond logic is Creator, or what you are referring to as God. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
300:I grew up watching Mickey Mouse and going to Disney World, like, 2,000 times. Mickey Mouse is like my guru. ~ Greg Cipes, #NFDB
301:Only if you know to what extent your logic should go and where it should not go, your life will be beautiful. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
302:The most beautiful moments in life are moments when you are expressing your joy, not when you are seeking it. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
303:When people feel insecure they want to drink and sleep, because sleep is just a small manifestation of death. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
304:If you are a guru or an expert, people will know it. If you aren’t one, no one is going to believe you. In ~ Guy Kawasaki, #NFDB
305:Our psychological birth takes place when we accept a guru who reveals to us the secrets of the Vedas. ~ Devdutt Pattanaik, #NFDB
306:The logic is simple: if you do the right things, the right things will happen to you even without your intent. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
307:Make of the Silence your to-do tasks, of the compassion your wealth and of the meditation your beggar's bowl. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
308:Seeking is not about looking for something. It is about enhancing your perception, your very faculty of seeing. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
309:Sri Gurubhyo Namah.’ Anyone who chants that with attention and humility is immediately blessed by Sri Guru Babaji. ~ Sri M, #NFDB
310:God, Grace and Guru are all synonymous and also eternal and immanent. Is not the Self already within? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
311:If you observe awareness steadily, this awareness itself becomes the Guru that will reveal the Truth. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
312:(Nishan Sahib), which was raised at every gurdwara from the 1620s, when Guru Hargobind led the community. ~ Rajmohan Gandhi, #NFDB
313:One should use information and logic as a drunkard would use a lamp post, only for support, not for illumination. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
314:To program the calories you must consume and the number of hours you must sleep is a foolish way to handle life. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
315:Who are you?’ asked Gurun. ‘I am the Polity black-ops stealth attack ship Obsidian Blade.’ ‘Fuck,’ said Gurun. ~ Neal Asher, #NFDB
316:You can never really know what a guru is as long as you are imprisoned by your own thoughts and circular ego. ~ Krishna Das, #NFDB
317:You must call on God with great yearning. You can hear from the lips of the Guru how God can be realized. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #NFDB
318:Hayatımızda hep onlarla aynı çağ içinde yaşamaktan gurur duyduğumuz bazı olağanüstü insanlar olacaktır! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
319:I have always wanted to branch off and become a fashion guru. I want to share my artistic views with the world. ~ A J McLean, #NFDB
320:Most people are investing their whole lifetime just for their material well-being. Dying to live, this is called. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
321:One should use information and logic as a drunkard would use a lamp post, only for support, not for illumination. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
322:Ramu's faith was the devotionally ploughed soil in which the guru's powerful seed of permanent healing sprouted. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
323:See the brotherhood of all mankind as the highest order of Yogis; conquer your own mind, and conquer the world. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
324:Singurul lucru care mă interesează, i-am spus, este să-mi găsesc liniştea interioară.
M-a înţeles perfect. ~ Albert Camus,#NFDB
325:There are three types of gurus in the financial markets: market cycle gurus, magic method gurus, and dead gurus. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
326:There is no such thing as death. There is only life, life, and life alone - moving from one dimension to another. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
327:The teaching of the Guru is just the dwelling in the Heart, through the Experience of the One Reality. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
328:tu floare mie, cu puteri de zodie,
unde și când găsi-voi singurul cuvânt
în cercul nopții să te-ncânt? ~ Lucian Blaga,#NFDB
329:Unless you are actually a ninja, a guru, or a rock star, don't ever use any of those terms in your bio. Ever. ~ Austin Kleon, #NFDB
330:Unless you are actually a ninja, a guru, or a rock star, don’t ever use any of those terms in your bio. Ever. ~ Austin Kleon, #NFDB
331:Bana erdemiyle gururlanan evli kadını hatırlattı. Sadece kocası evde değilken diğer erkeklerle yatıyordu. ~ Robert A Heinlein, #NFDB
332:Bedis, Sodhis, Trehans and Bhallas coming down from Guru Nanak, Guru Ram Das, Guru Angad and Guru Amar Das, ~ Rajmohan Gandhi, #NFDB
333:Breaking through the cyclical laws of physical nature is the basis of the spiritual process that Adiyogi explored. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
334:God and the Guru are identical. He [She] that has earned the Grace of the Guru shall never be forsaken. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
335:God, the world Guru, is wiser than thy mind; trust Him and not that eternal self-seeker and arrogant sceptic. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #NFDB
336:human being who has transcended his intellect, the discriminatory and logical dimensions of his life, is a Buddha. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
337:Life can be tasted and transcended only when there is a distinction between the psychological and the existential. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
338:One should use information and logic as a drunkard would use a lamp post – only for support, not for illumination. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
339:The real guru is the pure intellect within; and the purified, deeply aspiring mind is the disciple. ~ Chinmayananda Saraswati, #NFDB
340:When everything you do is a success, you tend to start believing that the planets revolve around you, not the sun! ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
341:You can learn more from watching the animals than you can from a guru or a minister — or from reading my book. ~ Jane Roberts, #NFDB
342:If you want to know life in its immensity, you need something more than your thoughts, your logic, or your intellect ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
343:Surrender to the Feet of the Guru is the real mantra, in which there will be no fear of Maya’s delusion. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
344:The Lord of man and beast is working in all; His presence is scattered everywhere; There is none else to be seen. ~ Guru Arjan, #NFDB
345:Yogis are not against pleasure. It is just that they are unwilling to settle for little pleasures. They are greedy. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
346:A beautiful woman is a beautiful woman, but a beautiful woman with a brain is an absolutely lethal combination. ~ Prabal Gurung, #NFDB
347:Be the wisdom your support. Be the compassion your guide and listen to the Divine Music that beats in every heart. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
348:Biz gümbürtüye gitmiş insanlarız," diyordu gururla, "biz hayatı ıskalayanlardanız. Hiçbir işe yaramayacağız. ~ Jean Paul Sartre, #NFDB
349:Când mă gândesc la moarte, singurul lucru de care îmi pare rău e că s-ar putea să nu mor din dragoste. ~ Gabriel Garc a M rquez, #NFDB
350:Daca", repeta Roland. Un profesor de-al meu obisnuia sa spuna ca acesta este singurul cuvant cu o mie de litere. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
351:It’s considered totally obscene to make any request to God, because if he doesn’t know, what’s the point asking him? ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
352:Master invisible filling all hearts and directing them from within, to whatever side I look, Thou dwellest there. ~ Bharon Guru, #NFDB
353:The logic is simple: if you do the right things, the right things will happen to you even without your intent. Shiva ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
354:There, where neither your children nor your spouse shall accompany you, the Name of the Lord shall emancipate you. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
355:you look at your child with intelligence, do you see that to get him everything that he asks for is sheer stupidity? ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
356:Hangi özelliğinizle gurur duyduğunuza dikkat edin, çünkü dünya, onu size karşı kullanmak için her şeyi yapacaktır. ~ Amor Towles, #NFDB
357:I met Leo Fender, who is the guru of all amplifiers, and he gave me a Stratocaster. He became a second father to me. ~ Dick Dale, #NFDB
358:I take the dust from the lotus feet of the guru to cleanse the mirror of my mind.” So begins a sacred ode to Hanuman. ~ Ram Dass, #NFDB
359:Once you’ve tried all those things and more, and clearly know that none of it will ever be enough—then you are ready. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
360:Singurul mod de a ne putem pune de acord cu viaţa este să fim în dezacord cu noi înşine.Absurdul este Divinul. ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
361:The logical aspect of your life and the experiential dimension of your life are diametrically opposite to each other. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
362:What does it mean to become a Buddha? “Bu” means “Buddhi,” the intellect. One who is above his intellect is a Buddha. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
363:Believing means you have assumed something that you do not know; seeking means you have realized that you do not know. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
364:Blessed, blessed is the Knower of the Lord, my True Guru, He has taught me to look upon friend and foe alike. ~ Guru Gobind Singh, #NFDB
365:Life cannot be experienced unless there is involvement – the deeper the involvement, the deeper the experience of life. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
366:Plec din viaţa asta cu sigurul regret că, după ce am cântat la atâtea înmormântări, numai la a mea n-am s-o pot face. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
367:Poor villager comes and throws a plastic bag; that’s not the main issue now. The issue is with the affluent, isn’t it? ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
368:Unless you begin to see the hollowness of where you are right now, you will not begin to seek something else strongly. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
369:When everything you do is a success, you tend to start believing that the planets revolve around you, not the sun! And ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
370:An intellectual understanding that is not backed by experiential knowledge can lead to mind games and deceptive states. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
371:But when it comes to the inner situation, there is only one ingredient: you. At least you must happen the way you want. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
372:Rolul lingăului admirator e aproape singurul în care oamenii se îndură unii pe alţii cu oarecare plăcere. ~ Louis Ferdinand C line, #NFDB
373:Saya yakin bahwa rasa cinta adalah guru yang lebih baik ketimbang kewajiban, paling tidak bagi saya." -Einstein- ~ Walter Isaacson, #NFDB
374:You need many teachers, not one teacher; you need many gurus, not one guru; you need many books not one book! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
375:Blessed, blessed is the True Guru, the Immaculate, Almighty Lord God, meeting Him, I meditate on the Name of the Lord. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
376:Even Kings and emperors with heaps of wealth and vast dominion cannot compare with an ant filled with the love of God. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
377:Guru Nanak named as his successor a disciple, Lehna, a Khatri of the Trehan clan, who became known as Guru Angad. ~ Rajmohan Gandhi, #NFDB
378:responsibility is not a teaching in civics. It is the simplest and easiest way for you to express your own divinity. The ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
379:A Guru is there to show you what you are. You are not different from Me. Whatever I am, that is what you are. ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, #NFDB
380:I am neither male nor female, nor am I sexless. I am the Peaceful One, whose form is self-effulgent, powerful radiance. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
381:Înţelepciunea şi experienţa nu transformă omul. Timpul nu transformă omul. Singurul lucru care ne transformă e dragostea ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
382:Life has its ways – a million different ways, the most unexpected ways – to bend you, break you, knead you, and grind you. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
383:Modern science tells us that all of existence is just energy manifesting itself in different ways and in different forms. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
384:Ni-l închipuim pe Dumnezeu, dar simțim dragostea; nu cumva dragostea este singurul, unicul și adevăratul Dumnezeu? ~ Alexandre Dumas, #NFDB
385:Shiva does not spell religion. Shiva spells responsibility – our ability to take our very life process in our hands. When ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
386:The Self alone is. Is not then the Self your Guru? Where else will Grace come from? It is from the Self alone. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
387:The whole art of being a Guru is just this: to constantly puncture people’s egos and still manage to remain their friend. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
388:Whatever has been the highest experience in your life should become the centerpiece around which your life is structured. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
389:All of the religions are looking after the poor. At least leave me alone to look after the rich. I am the rich man's guru. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
390:"Don't follow the past.Don't anticipate the future.Remain in the present moment.Leave your mind alone." ~ Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava, #NFDB
391:I would go out into the desert. The desert was my teacher. I didn't know about gurus and wise people-I wasn't a reader. ~ Byron Katie, #NFDB
392:neuroscientists say that if there is no past information about an object in your mind, you actually cannot see it. Suppose ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
393:The guide, the guru, the leader, the teacher, has passed away; the boy, the student, the servant, is left behind. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
394:Arzulandığı zaman güzeldi, zeki insanların arasında nüktedandı, gururu okşandığında kibirliydi, sevildiği zaman aşıktı. ~ Stefan Zweig, #NFDB
395:I don't know if it's the economy, but finding work as a spiritual guru is really hard. Maybe I should grow my hair out. ~ Dov Davidoff, #NFDB
396:Whatever may be guru - he may be a lunatic or a common person. Once you have accepted him, he is the lord of lords. ~ Neem Karoli Baba, #NFDB
397:If anyone steps on your ego, instantly, he becomes your enemy. But a Guru is a friend who constantly tramples your ego. ~ Jaggi Vasudev, #NFDB
398:If you are really interested in knowing life in all its depth and dimension, it is imperative that you look inward, not out. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
399:Relief from something that you cannot hold within you is always the greatest pleasure, isn’t it? Whatever that thing may be! ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
400:Sunday at 10amET ~ a wonderful event for #GuruPurnima today ~ do join if you are available 🙏🏽😇💜 #SpiritChat twitter.com/SOSmeditate/st…, #NFDB
401:They, who have no eyes in their face, are not called blind. They alone are blind, O Nanak, who stray away from their Lord. ~ Guru Angad, #NFDB
402:When any being calls or really yearns, the existence answers. If the thirst within you is strong enough, God always answers. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
403:It [the Grace of the Guru] is the sweet Fruit whose juice is the supremely pure Bliss that leads one to the Heart. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
404:there's no release, just gurus and self- appointed gods and hucksters. the more people say, the less there is to say. ~ Charles Bukowski, #NFDB
405:Deepika is one of my absolute favourite Bollywood actors. It is wonderful to have someone of her stature wearing my brand ~ Prabal Gurung, #NFDB
406:Fearing this false world which appears to exist, is like fearing the false snake which appears in a rope. ~ Muruganar, Guru Vachaka Kovai, #NFDB
407:It does not matter how large a boundary we set, the moment you become conscious of it, the longing to break it is instinctive. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
408:When it comes to action, capability could play a role. But when it comes to response, it is just a question of willingness. If ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
409:it is singularly unpleasant—for you and for those at the receiving end. It is also counterproductive and therefore inefficient. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
410:The Guru is the formless Self within each of us. He may appear as a body to guide us, but that is only his disguise. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
411:Too many people are hungry not because there is dearth of food. It is because there is dearth of love and care in human hearts. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
412:To rise above the modifications of your mind, when you cease your mind, when you cease to be a part of your mind, that is yoga. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
413:The Guru cannot give you anything new, which you have not already. We are always the Self. Only, we don’t realize it. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
414:The production of children, the nurture of those born, and the daily life of men, of these matters woman is visibly the cause. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
415:There can be no fear, if the Guru's grace descends on one. He will let you know who you are and what your real nature is. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #NFDB
416:a human being, the more intelligent he becomes, the more confused he gets – every step is a confusion. Only an idiot is dead sure. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
417:Even if the world doesn’t happen the way you want it, at least your thoughts and emotions should happen the way you want them to. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
418:Mathilde ura din tot sufletul lipsa de caracter; acesta era singurul cusur de care îi învinuia pe frumoşii tineri
din preajma. ~ Stendhal,#NFDB
419:Once you liberate your mind from being identified with anything, then mind is a miracle; mind is a spectacular circus, not a mess. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
420:One more thing: Unless you are actually a ninja, a guru, or a rock star, don’t ever use any of those terms in your bio. Ever. ~ Austin Kleon, #NFDB
421:Suatu Bangsa Tidak Akan Maju Sebelum Ada Diantara Bangsa itu Segologan Guru yang Suka Berkorban Untuk Keperluan Bangsanya. ~ Mohammad Natsir, #NFDB
422:There is one universal truth: All women, all over the world, want to look beautiful. That is always the theme of my designs. ~ Prabal Gurung, #NFDB
423:Be kind to all beings, this is more meritorious than bathing at the sixty-eight sacred shrines of pilgrimage and donating money. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
424:Evet, aletle öğünmek, diyor Turgut buna. Bir vidasını bile siz yapmadınız, bu kadar gururlanmaya ne hakkınız var? diye tepiniyor. ~ O uz Atay, #NFDB
425:Let each man take the path according to his capacity, understanding and temperament. His true guru will meet him along that path. ~ Sivananda, #NFDB
426:Our lives become beautiful not because we are perfect. Our lives become beautiful because we put our heart into what we are doing. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
427:I am proud to be a Sikh and am a true disciple of Guru Gobind Singh, who sacrificed his entire family for the Sikh religion. ~ Harbhajan Singh, #NFDB
428:Islam adalah guru serta pembimbing ilmu pengetahuan, dan pemimpin serta bapak dari segala pengetahuan. (Said Nursi) ~ Habiburrahman El Shirazy, #NFDB
429:Renunciation, or refusing to identify with that which one gathers (however precious it may be), is the ultimate doorway to knowing. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
430:Any fool will seek liberation when he is suffering. It takes enormous intelligence to seek liberation when everything is going well. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
431:As the Primal Being, Lord Shiva has neither ancestors, nor caste, neither guru, nor education, for he is the origin of all. ~ Wolf Dieter Storl, #NFDB
432:That one plant should be sown and another be produced cannot happen; whatever seed is sown, a plant of that kind even comes forth. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
433:Far from wife and son am 1, far from land and wealth and other notions of that kind. I am the Witness, the Eternal, the Inner Self. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
434:If you employ your intelligence and make an attempt to reach your ultimate nature, this is called gnana yoga, or the yoga of knowing. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
435:I have been saying for many years that we are using the word 'guru' only because 'charlatan' is too long to fit into a headline. ~ Peter Drucker, #NFDB
436:in the inner life, there is only one kind of revolution and it is a silent one. It is about moving from unwillingness to willingness. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
437:Si trebuie sa spun ca negativitatea mortii imi inspira admiratie. Dar este singurul lucru pe care-l pot admira fara sa-l iubesc. ~ Emil M Cioran, #NFDB
438:Şöhret, bakışlarımızı bulandırdı. Şehvet bir sis gibi kalplerimizi sardı. Gurur ruhlarımızı felç edip, benlik boynumuza kement oldu. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
439:Life is a circus when your intellect and your body alone are involved. Life is a dance, when the intelligence begins to play its role. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
440:The innermost light, shining peacefully and timelessly in the heart, is the real Guru. All others merely show the way. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #NFDB
441:When your rationale is immature, it doubts everything. When your rationale matures, it sees everything in a completely different light. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
442:unless we do the right things, the right things will not happen to us: this is true not just of the outside world, but also the inside. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
443:You have too many gurus in this country. They have told you what to do, what to think, what to practice. They are the dictators. ~ Radhanath Swami, #NFDB
444:He who, having lost his parents or being abandoned, by them without ,just cause, gives himself to a ,man , is called a son self given. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
445:If you think you are big, you become small. If you know you are nothing, you become unlimited. That’s the beauty of being a human being. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
446:So the guru goes up to the hot dog guy. Hot dog guy says, ‘What can I get you?’
“And the guru says, ‘Make me one. With everything.’ ~ Sara Gran,#NFDB
447:The whole effort of spiritual sciences has always been how to transcend the mind, how to look at life beyond the limitations of the mind. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
448:Even kings and emperors, with mountains of property and oceans of wealth - these are not even equal to an ant, who does not forget God. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
449:Iată, la urma urmei, singurul lucru bun în viață: iubirea.Să ții în brațe o femeie îndrăgită.Asta e marginea fericirii omenești! ~ Guy de Maupassant, #NFDB
450:Mengapa hanya kekerasan, kemarahan, dan kejudesan yang pantas diungkapkan oleh seorang guru? Karena semua itu yang dapat menegakkan wibawa? ~ Mira W, #NFDB
451:Singurul succes care merită să fie râvnit e să trăieşti din plin şi ceea
ce nu poţi obţine. Dacă nu, unica şansă e să fii idiot. ~ Octavian Paler,#NFDB
452:The difference is just willingness and unwillingness. If you take away the willingness, the process of life naturally becomes a suffering. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
453:We really do not need another nuclear explosion to annihilate life on this planet. Just a successful economy can do it quite effectively! ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
454:When you are constantly in pursuit of security, you are in pursuit of death, because life is never secure. It doesn’t matter what you do, ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
455:Guru Amar Das, who died in 1574, also rejected his sons’ claims, he named his son-in-law, Guru Ram Das, a Khatri of the Sodhi clan, ~ Rajmohan Gandhi, #NFDB
456:QBert is pretty much the Jimi Hendrix of DJing. He is so far advanced. So far ahead of everybody else. He's like Yoda! Like the guru. ~ DJ Jazzy Jeff, #NFDB
457:Religion is man-made. Even the men who made it cannot agree on what their prophets or redeemers or gurus actually said or did. ~ Christopher Hitchens, #NFDB
458:The essence of yoga, as we have said before, is just this—to arrive at that moment where there is a clear space between you and your mind. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
459:The giver of the Mantra is the real Guru, for by the repetition of this Mantra one obtains dispassion and renunciation. ~ Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, #NFDB
460:The science of yoga is, quite simply, the science of being in perfect alignment, in absolute harmony, in complete sync with existence. The ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
461:As soon as the devotee is willing to go even to the ends of the earth for spiritual enlightenment, his guru appears nearby.” I ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, #NFDB
462:but being on the spiritual path is not about making life pleasant. It’s about seeing how to transcend both the pleasant and the unpleasant. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
463:Generally, the smartest people on the planet – those people who think they are really smart – tend to have the most horrible relationships. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
464:Most gurus and forecasters are willing to give people what they want: exotic reasons to believe that they are in with the smart crowd. ~ Ruchir Sharma, #NFDB
465:If one has the grace of the Guru, there is no fear. The Guru will open your eyes and tell you who you are and what your real self is. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #NFDB
466:Let each man take the path according to his capacity, understanding and temperament. His true guru will meet him along that path. ~ Sivananda Saraswati, #NFDB
467:Man needs a guru. But a man must have faith in the guru's words. He succeeds in spiritual life by looking on his guru as God Himself. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #NFDB
468:Girls who wear certain kind of dresses, who show certain areas of the body, are not going to like my clothes. You can't please everyone. ~ Prabal Gurung, #NFDB
469:Menulis itu mudah. Tapi bagaimana agar tiap huruf berarti dan bisa membuat pembacamu bergerak ke arah yg lebih baik, tanpa kau gurui. ~ Helvy Tiana Rosa, #NFDB
470:Muddy Waters he play in the river Joan Rivers she play in the mud Swami guru play in a big salad bowl Counting lettuce and chewing his cud ~ Tom Robbins, #NFDB
471:Mysticism is like pure science; it has no use. Mysticism is just the human longing to know… Occult is not science. Occult is just technology. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
472:Satguru knows that there is no death to the disciple. Atma never dies. Even after death he continues to get direction on the path ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, #NFDB
473:The great thing about gurus is not that they make you feel everybody's love. It's that they make you feel that you can love everybody. ~ Larry Brilliant, #NFDB
474:Human perception through the sense organs is always piecemeal. It can give you an illusion of completeness but can never comprehend the whole. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
475:It’s ego – the false self – that exalts the guru and declares the teaching sacred, but nothing is exalted or sacred, only true or not true. ~ Jed McKenna, #NFDB
476:Alone let him constantly meditate in solitude on that which is salutary for his soul, for he who meditates in solitude attains supreme bliss. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
477:The sign of intelligence is that you are constantly wondering. Idiots are always dead sure about every damn thing they are doing in their life. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
478:An idiot is incapable of drawing conclusions. A mystic is unwilling to draw conclusions. The rest have glorified their conclusions as knowledge. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
479:I couldn’t help noticing that people coming out of restaurants always had more joyful faces than those coming out of temples. That intrigued me. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
480:There is no subtraction or division in the mind, there is only addition and multiplication. You cannot take away anything by force from the mind. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
481:Do you share my belief in Swami Vivekananda's dream that India will be a Jagad Guru once again? I see no reason for India to be left behind. ~ Narendra Modi, #NFDB
482:God loves you’ is not significant. If you are in such a way that everybody around you cannot help but fall in love with you – now, that is great! ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
483:Mind is not in any one place. Every cell in this body has its own intelligence. The brain is sitting in your head, but mind is all over the place. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
484:Evelyn’s New Age daughter will discover that a good shag beats hugging a guru any day.”
— Helen Falconer, book reviewer for The Guardian ~ Deborah Moggach,#NFDB
485:Mind is not in any one place. Every cell in this body has its own intelligence. The brain is sitting in your head, but mind is all over the place. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
486:Too much faith in personality has a tendency to produce weakness and idolatry, but intense love for the Guru makes rapid growth possible. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
487:If you are willing, every moment of your life can be a fantastic experience. Just the act of inhaling and exhaling can be a tremendous love affair. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
488:Most carnivorous animals do not eat every day—definitely not three times a day! They know the food they eat moves very slowly through their tracts. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
489:people who have failed in their lives, they are suffering their failure. People who have succeeded in their life, they are suffering their success. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
490:A lot of people pass through the thinking I'm a guru and take enough trips to understand that no, I was just a witness. I was just a witness. ~ Terence McKenna, #NFDB
491:If an appointed daughter by accident dies without ,leaving a son, the husband of the appointed daughter may, without hesitation, take that estate. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
492:Kaba kuvvetin var diye övünme, çünkü bir hayvanın da kaba kuvveti var; ya aklınla ve düşüncelerinle gurur duy ya da sessiz ol otur yerine! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
493:Eating natural foods, in their uncooked condition, when the cells are still alive, will bring an enormous sense of health and vitality to the system. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
494:Az élet egy rézpénz pörgésén múlik. Néha felénk gurul, de többnyire kacéran villogva pörög tovább: Viszlát, drágám, szép volt, jó volt, de elmúlt. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
495:In fact, every kind of pleasantness that we experience—whether peace or joy or ecstasy—is a kind of chemistry. The yogic system has always known this. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
496:The main aspect of meditation is, as you become more meditative, you become the boss, your mind becomes the slave, and that is how it should always be. ~ Sadguru, #NFDB
497:Thus the Gurus were all from the ‘high’ Khatri caste of traders and administrators but within that caste from middle-level clans or sub-castes. ~ Rajmohan Gandhi, #NFDB
498:All are gurus to us, the wicked by their evil deeds say 'do not come near me'. the good are always good, therefore all are like gurus to us. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
499:For a spiritual journey, you don’t have to meditate or visit a temple or listen to a guru! Just live a misty morning while the sun is rising! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
500:Love has nothing to do with someone else. It is all about you. It is a way of being. It essentially means you have brought sweetness into your emotion. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
50
25 Yoga
10 Occultism
4 Integral Yoga
2 Philosophy
1 Hinduism
1 Buddhism
18 Sri Ramakrishna
14 Swami Krishnananda
11 The Mother
9 Aleister Crowley
8 Swami Vivekananda
8 Sri Aurobindo
6 Sri Ramana Maharshi
3 Swami Sivananda Saraswati
21 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
14 The Study and Practice of Yoga
11 Talks
10 The Mothers Agenda
7 Letters On Yoga II
6 The Synthesis Of Yoga
6 Magick Without Tears
6 Bhakti-Yoga
5 Liber ABA
3 The Secret Doctrine
3 The Mother With Letters On The Mother
3 Amrita Gita
2 Words Of The Mother II
2 Words Of Long Ago
2 The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep
2 Talks With Sri Aurobindo
2 Isha Upanishad
2 Essays In Philosophy And Yoga
00.01_-_The_Mother_on_Savitri, #Sweet Mother - Harmonies of Light, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
My child, every day you are going to read Savitri; read properly, with the right attitude, concentrating a little before opening the pages and trying to keep the mind as empty as possible, absolutely without a thought. The direct road is through the heart. I tell you, if you try to really concentrate with this aspiration you can light the flame, the psychic flame, the flame of purification in a very short time, perhaps in a few days. What you cannot do normally, you can do with the help of Savitri. Try and you will see how very different it is, how new, if you read with this attitude, with this something at the back of your consciousness; as though it were an offering to Sri Aurobindo. You know it is charged, fully charged with consciousness; as if Savitri were a being, a real guide. I tell you, whoever, wanting to practice Yoga, tries sincerely and feels the necessity for it, will be able to climb with the help of Savitri to the highest rung of the ladder of Yoga, will be able to find the secret that Savitri represents. And this without the help of a guru. And he will be able to practice it anywhere. For him Savitri alone will be the guide, for all that he needs he will find Savitri. If he remains very quiet when before a difficulty, or when he does not know where to turn to go forward and how to overcome obstacles, for all these hesitations and incertitudes which overwhelm us at every moment, he will have the necessary indications, and the necessary concrete help. If he remains very calm, open, if he aspires sincerely, always he will be as if lead by the hand. If he has faith, the will to give himself and essential sincerity he will reach the final goal.
1.009_-_Perception_and_Reality, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
Here we go to a realm where the revelations of the ancient masters, which are embodied in the sacred scriptures, become our guide. Otherwise we shall be blind we will know nothing. The great masters who are the gurus of mankind, who had plumbed the depths of being and had vision of the cosmic mystery, tell us something which the intellect cannot explain inductively, logically or scientifically. Our individual existence is caused by something which is prior to the manifestation of individuality and, therefore, let not the individual intellect interfere with this subject.
1.00a_-_Introduction, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
But is it plain obstinacy? you do not exercise the sublime Art of guru-bullying. You should have made one frenzied leap to my dying bed, thrust aside the cohorts of Mourning Archimandrites, and wrung my nose until I made you do it.
--
I am sure that Solomon was too good a poet, and too experienced a guru, to tail off with the anticlimax "wise."
1.00_-_Gospel, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
To become a priest of Kli one must undergo a special form of initiation from a qualified guru, and for Sri Ramakrishna a suitable brhmin was found. But no sooner did the brhmin speak the holy word in his ear than Sri Ramakrishna, overwhelmed with emotion, uttered a loud cry and plunged into deep concentration.
--
He saw the sannysi who had previously killed the "sinner" in him again coming out of his body, threatening him with the trident, and ordering him to concentrate on God. Or the same sannysi would visit distant places, following a luminous path, and bring him reports of what was happening there. Sri Ramakrishna used to say later that in the case of an advanced devotee the mind itself becomes the guru, living and moving like an embodied being.
--
Sri Ramakrishna was a learner all his life. He often used to quote a proverb to his disciples: "Friend, the more I live the more I learn." When the excitement created by the Brhmani's declaration was over, he set himself to the task of practising spiritual disciplines according to the traditional methods laid down in the Tantra and Vaishnava scriptures. Hitherto he had pursued his spiritual ideal according to the promptings of his own mind and heart. Now he accepted the Brhmani as his guru and set foot on the traditional highways.
--
The disciplines of Tantra are graded to suit aspirants of all degrees. Exercises are prescribed for people with "animal", "heroic", and "divine" outlooks. Certain of the rites require the presence of members of the opposite sex. Here the aspirant learns to look on woman as the embodiment of the Goddess Kli, the Mother of the Universe. The very basis of Tantra is the Motherhood of God and the glorification of woman. Every part of a woman's body is to be regarded as incarnate Divinity. But the rites are extremely dangerous. The help of a qualified guru is absolutely necessary. An unwary devotee may lose his foothold and fall into a pit of depravity.
--
Sri Ramakrishna set himself to the task of practising the disciplines of Tantra; and at the bidding of the Divine Mother Herself he accepted the Brhmani as his guru. He performed profound and delicate ceremonies in the Panchavati and under the bel-tree at the northern extremity of the temple compound. He practised all the disciplines of the sixty-four principal Tantra books, and it took him never more than three days to achieve the result promised in any one of them. After the observance of a few preliminary rites, he would be overwhelmed with a strange divine fervour and would go into Samdhi, where his mind would dwell in exaltation. Evil ceased to exist for him. The word "carnal"
--
The Brhmani was the enthusiastic teacher and astonished beholder of Sri Ramakrishna in his spiritual progress. She became proud of the achievements of her unique pupil. But the pupil himself was not permitted to rest; his destiny beckoned him forward. His Divine Mother would allow him no respite till he had left behind the entire realm of duality with its visions, experiences, and ecstatic dreams. But for the new ascent the old tender guides would not suffice. The Brhmani, on whom he had depended for three years saw her son escape from her to follow the command of a teacher with masculine strength, a sterner mien, a gnarled physique, and a virile voice. The new guru was a wandering monk, the sturdy Totpuri, whom Sri Ramakrishna learnt to address affectionately as Nangta, the "Naked One", because of his total renunciation of all earthly objects and attachments, including even a piece of wearing-cloth.
--
In the burning flame before him Sri Ramakrishna performed the rituals of destroying his attachment to relatives, friends, body, mind, sense-organs, ego, and the world. The leaping flame swallowed it all, making the initiate free and pure. The sacred thread and the tuft of hair were consigned to the fire, completing his severance from caste, sex, and society. Last of all he burnt in that fire, with all that is holy as his witness, his desire for enjoyment here and hereafter. He uttered the sacred mantras giving assurance of safety and fearlessness to all beings, who were only manifestations of his own Self. The rites completed, the disciple received from the guru the loincloth and ochre robe, the emblems of his new life.
--
Sri Ramakrishna, on the other hand, though fully aware, like his guru, that the world is an illusory appearance, instead of slighting My, like an orthodox monist, acknowledged its power in the relative life. He was all love and reverence for My, perceiving in it a mysterious and majestic expression of Divinity. To him My itself was God, for everything was God. It was one of the faces of Brahman. What he had realized on the heights of the transcendental plane, he also found here below, everywhere about him, under the mysterious garb of names and forms. And this garb was a perfectly transparent sheath, through which he recognized the glory of the Divine Immanence.
--
One day, when guru and disciple were engaged in an animated discussion about Vednta, a servant of the temple garden came there and took a coal from the sacred fire that had been lighted by the great ascetic. He wanted it to light his tobacco. Totpuri flew into a rage and was about to beat the man. Sri Ramakrishna rocked with laughter.
--
Toward the end of 1866 he began to practise the disciplines of Islm. Under the direction of his Mussalman guru he abandoned himself to his new sdhana. He dressed as a Mussalman and repeated the name of Allah.
--
Sri Ramakrishna accepted the divinity of Buddha and used to point out the similarity of his teachings to those of the Upanishads. He also showed great respect for the Tirthankars, who founded Jainism, and for the ten gurus of Sikhism. But he did not speak of them as Divine Incarnations. He was heard to say that the gurus of Sikhism were the reincarnations of King Janaka of ancient India. He kept in his room at Dakshinewar a small statue of Tirthankara Mahvira and a picture of Christ, before which incense was burnt morning and evening.
--
But he remained as ever the willing instrument in the hand of God, the child of the Divine Mother, totally untouched by the idea of being a teacher. He used to say that three ideas - that he was a guru, a father, and a master - pricked his flesh like thorns.
--
But a series of reverses shocked him and he became eager to solve the riddle of life. He had heard people say that in spiritual life the help of a guru was imperative and that the guru was to be regarded as God Himself. But Girish was too well acquainted with human nature to see perfection in a man. His first meeting with Sri Ramakrishna did not impress him at all. He returned home feeling as if he had seen a freak at a circus; for the Master, in a semi-conscious mood, had inquired whether it was evening, though the lamps were burning in the room. But their paths often crossed, and Girish could not avoid further encounters. The Master attended a performance in Girish's Star Theatre. On this occasion, too, Girish found nothing impressive about him. One day, however, Girish happened to see the Master dancing and singing with the devotees. He felt the contagion and wanted to join them, but restrained himself for fear of ridicule. Another day Sri Ramakrishna was about to give him spiritual instruction, when Girish said: "I don't want to listen to instructions. I have myself written many instructions. They are of no use to me. Please help me in a more tangible way if you can." This pleased the Master and he asked Girish to cultivate faith.
As time passed, Girish began to learn that the guru is the one who silently unfolds the disciple's inner life. He became a steadfast devotee of the Master.
--
He claimed to have been initiated by Totpuri and used to say that he had been following the path of knowledge according to his guru's instructions. He possessed a large library of English and Sanskrit books. But though he pretended to have read them, most of the leaves were uncut. The Master knew all his limitations, yet enjoyed listening to him recite from the Vedas and other scriptures. He would always exhort Mahim to meditate on the meaning of the scriptural texts and to practise spiritual discipline.
--
Even before Rkhl's coming to Dakshinewar, the Master had had visions of him as his spiritual son and as a playmate of Krishna at Vrindvan. Rkhl was born of wealthy parents. During his childhood he developed wonderful spiritual traits and used to play at worshipping gods and goddesses. In his teens he was married to a sister of Manomohan Mitra, from whom he first heard of the Master. His father objected to his association with Sri Ramakrishna but afterwards was reassured to find that many celebrated people were visitors at Dakshinewar. The relationship between the Master and this beloved disciple was that of mother and child. Sri Ramakrishna allowed Rkhl many liberties denied to others. But he would not hesitate to chastise the boy for improper actions. At one time Rkhl felt a childlike jealousy because he found that other boys were receiving the Master's affection. He soon got over it and realized his guru as the guru of the whole universe. The Master was worried to hear of his marriage, but was relieved to find that his wife was a spiritual soul who would not be a hindrance to his progress.
--
As he read in college the rationalistic Western philosophers of the nineteenth century, his boyhood faith in God and religion was unsettled. He would not accept religion on mere faith; he wanted demonstration of God. But very soon his passionate nature discovered that mere Universal Reason was cold and bloodless. His emotional nature, dissatisfied with a mere abstraction, required a concrete support to help him in the hours of temptation. He wanted an external power, a guru, who by embodying perfection in the flesh would still the commotion of his soul. Attracted by the magnetic personality of Keshab, he joined the Brhmo Samj and became a singer in its choir. But in the Samj he did not find the guru who could say that he had seen God.
--
A few more meetings completely removed from Narendra's mind the last traces of the notion that Sri Ramakrishna might be a monomaniac or wily hypnotist. His integrity, purity, renunciation, and unselfishness were beyond question. But Narendra could not accept a man, an imperfect mortal, as his guru. As a member of the Brhmo Samj, he could not believe that a human intermediary was necessary between man and God.
--
Jogindranth, on the other hand, was gentle to a fault. One day, under circumstances very like those that had evoked Niranjan's anger, he curbed his temper and held his peace instead of threatening Sri Ramakrishna's abusers. The Master, learning of his conduct, scolded him roundly. Thus to each the fault of the other was recommended as a virtue. The guru was striving to develop, in the first instance, composure, and in the second, mettle. The secret of his training was to build up, by a tactful recognition of the requirements of each given case, the character of the devotee.
--
Kliprasd visited the Master toward the end of 1883. Given to the practice of meditation and the study of the scriptures, Kli was particularly interested in yoga. Feeling the need of a guru in spiritual life, he came to the Master and was accepted as a disciple. The young boy possessed a rational mind and often felt sceptical about the Personal God.
--
In the beginning of September 1885 Sri Ramakrishna was moved to ympukur. Here Narendra organized the young disciples to attend the Master day and night. At first they concealed the Master's illness from their guardians; but when it became more serious they remained with him almost constantly, sweeping aside the objections of their relatives and devoting themselves whole-heartedly to the nursing of their beloved guru.
--
Among the attendants ashi was the embodiment of service. He did not practise meditation, japa, or any of the other disciplines followed by his brother devotees. He was convinced that service to the guru was the only religion for him. He forgot food and rest and was ever ready at the Master's bedside.
--
While the devotees were returning to the garden house, carrying the urn with the sacred ashes, a calm resignation came to their souls and they cried, "Victory unto the guru!"
1.00_-_Gospel_Preface, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
The Master, who divined the mood of desperation in M, his resolve to take leave of this 'play-field of deception', put new faith and hope into him by his gracious words of assurance: "God forbid! Why should you take leave of this world? Do you not feel blessed by discovering your guru? By His grace, what is beyond all imagination or dreams can be easily achieved!" At these words the clouds of despair moved away from the horizon of M.'s mind, and the sunshine of a new hope revealed to him fresh vistas of meaning in life. Referring to this phase of his life, M. used to say, "Behold! where is the resolve to end life, and where, the discovery of God! That is, sorrow should be looked upon as a friend of man. God is all good." ( Ibid P.33.)
--
had sent his devotees who used to keep company with him, to attend the special worship at Belur Math at night. After attending the service at the home shrine, he went through the proof of the Kathmrita for an hour. Suddenly he got a severe attack of neuralgic pain, from which he had been suffering now and then, of late. Before 6 a.m. in the early hours of 4th June 1932 he passed away, fully conscious and chanting: 'gurudeva-Ma, Kole tule na-o (Take me in your arms! O Master! O Mother!!)'
1.010_-_Self-Control_-_The_Alpha_and_Omega_of_Yoga, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
So while self-control is extremely difficult, to miss the practice of self-control is extremely dangerous. Hence, the guidance of a guru is called for, and earnestness of practice is also requisite. Conducive atmosphere, suitable company, activity commensurate with the nature of the goal, and the presence of a competent master or a guru all these are indispensable requisites in the practice of yoga.
1.012_-_Sublimation_-_A_Way_to_Reshuffle_Thought, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
Likewise is a desire. What is the percentage of the intensity of the desire? Is it irresistible and impossible to control? Has it almost taken charge of us? If so, what are we to do? When the desire is very intense, what are we to do? There is only one way - we go to the guru. "My desire is very intense. What am I to do at this time?" The guru will tell us what step to take. If the desire is very mild, then of course we can find the solution by ourselves. Suppose we have a desire to eat a banana. We eat the banana, and the matter is closed; it is not a very serious matter. We want to have a cup of tea. We have a cup of tea and are done with it. But suppose we want to become the President of India. This is a very serious desire. We cannot fulfil it in two or three days, and we may have to take another birth to fulfil it. We have to think very seriously about such desires. "Oh, I have such a desire. I want to become Rashtrapati, and it is an irresistible desire." But the means are such that it is not practicable, and so we will have to take another birth.
--
If we have such desires which cannot be fulfilled in this life on account of prevailing conditions, we will take another birth. But we do not want another birth that is another point. Do we want to go on increasing the number of births because we have got intense desires? Here comes the need for a guru. If we have such terrible desires that are, reasonably speaking, impossible to fulfil, and yet they cannot simply be ignored from the point of view of spiritual practice, a guru's direct guidance is absolutely necessary. The point is that desires cannot be completely neglected. We cannot simply turn a deaf ear, or close our eyes to their cries. They have to be very rationally dealt with and sublimated.
1.01_-_Prayer, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
Bearing this in mind let us try to understand what the great Vedantic commentators have to say on the subject. In explaining the Sutra vrittirasakridupadesht (Meditation is necessary, that having been often enjoined.), Bhagavn Shankara says, "Thus people say, 'He is devoted to the king, he is devoted to the guru'; they say this of him who follows his guru, and does so, having that following as the one end in view. Similarly they say, 'The loving wife meditates on her loving husband'; here also a kind of eager and continuous remembrance is meant." This is devotion according to Shankara.
1.01_-_SAMADHI_PADA, #Patanjali Yoga Sutras, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
sa poorvesham api guruh kalenanavachchhedat
1.01_-_The_Four_Aids, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Utsaha - ideals of effort
guru - ideal guru
Kala - time
1:Yoga-siddhi, the perfection that comes from the practice of Yoga, can be best attained by the combined working of four great instruments. There is, first, the knowledge of the truths, principles, powers and processes that govern the realisation -- sastra. Next comes a patient and persistent action on the lines laid down by the knowledge, the force of our personal effort -- utsaha. There intervenes, third, uplifting our knowledge and effort into the domain of spiritual experience, the direct suggestion, example and influence of the Teacher -- guru. Last comes the instrumentality of Time -- kala; for in all things there is a cycle of their action and a period of the divine movement.
--
5:Ordinarily, the Word from without, representative of the Divine, is needed as an aid ill the work of self-unfolding; and it may be either a word from the past or the more powerful word of the living guru. In some cases this representative word is only taken as a sort of excuse for the inner power to awaken and manifest; it is, as it were, a concession of the omnipotent and omniscient Divine to the generality of a law that governs Nature. Thus it is said in the Upanishads of Krishna, son of Devaki, that he received a word of the Rishi Ghora and had the knowledge. So Ramakrishna, having attained by his own internal effort the central illumination, accepted several teachers in the different paths of Yoga, but always showed in the manner and swiftness of his realisation that this acceptance was a concession to the general rule by which effective knowledge must be received as by a disciple from a guru.
6:But usually the representative influence occupies a much larger place in the life of the Sadhaka. If the Yoga is guided by a received written Shastra, -- some Word from the past which embodies the experience of former Yogins, -- it may be practised either by personal effort alone or with the aid of a guru. The spiritual knowledge is then gained through meditation on the truths that are taught and it is made living and conscious by their realisation in the personal experience; the Yoga proceeds by the results of prescribed methods taught in a Scripture or a tradition and reinforced and illumined by the instructions of the Master. This is a narrower practice, but safe and effective within its limits, because it follows a well-beaten track to a long familiar goal.
--
guru
18:As the supreme Shastra of the integral Yoga is the eternal Veda secret in the heart of every man, so its supreme Guide and Teacher is the inner Guide, the World-Teacher, jagad-guru, secret within us. It is he who destroys our darkness by the resplendent light of his knowledge; that light becomes within us the increasing glory of his own self-revelation. He discloses progressively in us his own nature of freedom, bliss, love, power, immortal being. He sets above us his divine example as our ideal and transforms the lower existence into a reflection of that which it contemplates. By the inpouring of his own influence and presence into us he enables the individual being to attain to identity with the universal and transcendent.
--
21:This inner Guide is often veiled at first by the very intensity of our personal effort and by the ego's preoccupation with itself and its aims. As we gain in clarity and the turmoil of egoistic effort gives place to a calmer self-knowledge, we recognise the source of the growing light within us. We recognise it retrospectively as we realise how all our obscure and conflicting movements have been determined towards an end that we only now begin to perceive, how even before our entrance into the path of the Yoga the evolution of our life has been designedly led towards its turning point. For now we begin to understand the sense of our struggles and efforts, successes and failures. At last we are able to seize the meaning of our ordeals and sufferings and can appreciate the help that was given us by all that hurt and resisted and the utility of our very falls and stumblings. We recognise this divine leading afterwards, not retrospectively but immediately, in the moulding of our thoughts by a transcendent Seer, of our will and actions by an all-embracing Power, of our emotional life by an all-attracting and all-assimilating Bliss and Love. We recognise it too in a more personal relation that from the first touched us or at the last seizes us; we feel the eternal presence of a supreme Master, Friend, Lover, Teacher. We recognise it in the essence of our being as that develops into likeness and oneness with a greater and wider existence; for we perceive that this miraculous development is not the result of our own efforts; an eternal Perfection is moulding us into its own image. One who is the Lord or Ishwara of the Yogic philosophies, the Guide in the conscious being (caitya guru or antaryamin), the Absolute of the thinker, the Unknowable of the Agnostic, the universal Force of the materialist, the supreme Soul and the supreme shakti, the One who is differently named and imaged by the religions, is the Master of our Yoga.
--
25:But while it is difficult for man to believe in something unseen within himself, it is easy for him to believe in something which he can image as extraneous to himself. The spiritual progress of most human beings demands an extraneous support, an object of faith outside us. It needs an external image of God; or it needs a human representative, -- Incarnation, Prophet or guru; or it demands both and receives them. For according to the need of the human soul the Divine manifests himself as deity, as human divine or in simple humanity, -- using that thick disguise, which so successfully conceals the Godhead, for a means of transmission of his guidance.
--
28:This also is not enough; a living influence, a living example, a present instruction is needed. For it is only the few who can make the past Teacher and his teaching, the past Incarnation and his example and influence a living force in their lives. For this need also the Hindu discipline provides in the relation of the guru and the disciple. The guru may sometimes be the Incarnation or World-Teacher; but it is sufficient that he should represent to the disciple the divine wisdom, convey to him something of the divine ideal or make him feel the realised relation of the human soul with the Eternal.
29:The Sadhaka of the integral Yoga will make use of all these aids according to his nature; but it is necessary that he should shun their limitations and cast from himself that exclusive tendency of egoistic mind which cries, "My God, my Incarnation, my Prophet, my guru," and opposes it to all other realisation in a sectarian or a fanatical spirit. All sectarianism, all fanaticism must be shunned; for it is inconsistent with the integrity of the divine realisation.
--
32:The Teacher of the integral Yoga will follow as far as he may the method of the Teacher within us. He will lead the disciple through the nature of the disciple. Teaching, example, influence, -- these are the three instruments of the guru. But the wise Teacher will not seek to impose himself or his opinions on the passive acceptance of the receptive mind; he will throw in only what is productive and sure as a seed which will grow under the divine fostering within. He will seek to awaken much more than to instruct; he will aim at the growth of the faculties and the experiences by a natural process and free expansion. He will give a method as an aid, as a utilisable device, not as an imperative formula or a fixed routine. And he will be on his guard against any turning of the means into a limitation, against the mechanising of process. His whole business is to awaken the divine light and set working the divine force of which he himself is only a means and an aid, a body or a channel.
--
35:And it shall also be a sign of the teacher of the integral Yoga that he does not arrogate to himself guruhood in a humanly vain and self-exalting spirit. His work, if he has one, is a trust from above, he himself a channel, a vessel or a representative. He is a man helping his brothers, a child leading children, a Light kindling other lights, an awakened Soul awakening souls, at highest a Power or Presence of the Divine calling to him other powers of the Divine.
1.024_-_Affiliation_With_Larger_Wholes, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
One hundred times the happiness of the emperor of this world is the happiness of the pitris, another level which is superior to the physical world. One hundred times the happiness of the pitris is the happiness of the gandharvas, who are celestial musicians in a world which is still higher than that of the pitris. One hundred times the happiness of the gandharvas is the happiness of the celestials in heaven the devas, as we call them. One hundred times the happiness of these celestials is the happiness of Indra, the king of the gods. One hundred times the happiness of the king of the gods is the happiness of the preceptor, the guru of the gods Brihaspati. One hundred times the happiness of Brihaspati is the happiness of Prajapati, the Creator Brahma. One hundred times the happiness of Brahma the Creator is the happiness of Virat, the Supreme. Beyond that is Hiranyagarbha, and beyond that, Ishvara, and beyond Ishvara is the Absolute.
1.025_-_Sadhana_-_Intensifying_a_Lighted_Flame, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
The meritorious deeds that we performed in previous lives, the good karmas of our past produce a force called 'apurva' in Mimamsa parlance. The good karmas of the past are present in the mind even now as a kind of prarabdha, and when the prarabdha is of a sattvic nature, it permits the rise of a novel type of asking by the soul, which is called spiritual aspiration. It is this peculiar context - which is inscrutable, of course, to anyone's mind which brings a person in contact with a guru. How we come in contact with a guru cannot be understood. It is worked up by mysterious forces from within that are associated with the good deeds of our past lives, etc., and which permit good actions in this present birth. Such forces make it possible for us to think divine thoughts and to take the initial step in the practice of yoga. It is this initial step, as mentioned, which is capable of generating a peculiar potency, enough to carry us forward to the next step. Like the chain reaction of an atomic bomb burst, every step is automatically an urge towards another step.
The more we practise sadhana, the stronger we become and the greater is our capacity to understand, to enlarge our perspective of thinking and to contact reality in deeper profundity. Many factors operate in spiritual practice. The good deeds that we did in the past is one factor. The other factors are the associations that we have established in society with wise people in this present birth, the practical experience that we gain by living in this world, the initiation that we receive from the guru, and the wisdom that we acquire from the guru. Finally, the most mysterious, of course, is the grace of God Himself, which is perennially operating, perpetually working, and infinitely and most abundantly contributing to the onward march of the soul towards its goal.
1.02_-_Karmayoga, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
11
the guru of the nations and carried the light she had to give all over the civilised world, moulding ideas and creating forms which are still extant and a living force. Already the Vedanta and the Yoga have exceeded their Asiatic limit and are beginning to influence the life and practice of America and Europe; and they have long been filtering into Western thought by a hundred indirect channels. But these are small rivers and underground streams. The world waits for the rising of India to receive the divine flood in its fullness.
1.02_-_The_Divine_Teacher, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Asuric austerities troubling the God within or of the sin of those who despise the Divine lodged in the human body or of the same Godhead destroying our ignorance by the blazing lamp of knowledge. It is then the eternal Avatar, this God in man, the divine Consciousness always present in the human being who manifested in a visible form speaks to the human soul in the Gita, illumines the meaning of life and the secret of divine action and gives it the light of the divine knowledge and guidance and the assuring and fortifying word of the Master of existence in the hour when it comes face to face with the painful mystery of the world. This is what the Indian religious consciousness seeks to make near to itself in whatever form, whether in the symbolic human image it enshrines in its temples or in the worship of its
Avatars or in the devotion to the human guru through whom the voice of the one world-Teacher makes itself heard. Through these it strives to awaken to that inner voice, unveil that form of the Formless and stand face to face with that manifest divine
Power, Love and Knowledge.
1.031_-_Intense_Aspiration, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
Why do we travel from place to place, as if we have nothing else to do? The reason is that we want to bring about a corresponding change in our own self, and the external movement has been used as a kind of assistance. But if that change has not become an assistance, the whole effort is futile. Another thing why does it not become helpful? How is it that this imagined external change of condition does not become helpful in bringing about an internal reorientation of living? The reason is that we have not been very honest and sincere. There has been a kind of bungling in the whole attitude of our mind towards what we are seeking, and a kind of confusion a self-deception, we may say. This, again, is due to a lack of proper training from a competent master. Again, I come to this point that a guru is necessary. We cannot tread this path with our own legs. Our legs are very weak, because there are millions of obstacles that can simply shake us from our roots and throw us into the pits, even with all our understanding, which is of no use in the face of these obstacles. The obstacles are violent winds, and our legs are like sand which will be thrown in any direction by these violent movements of winds of desire, and what not.
--
What we should do is, together with our effort at change of physical atmosphere, also try to bring about a gradual change in our internal atmosphere by resorting to certain spiritual disciplines, such as the utilisation of the time on hand for certain definite chosen purposes. When we live in a particular place we have left our homes and have come to Uttarkashi, for instance how do we use our time? Do we go about from place to place, chatting? Then we should go back to our home and stay there. Why do we come to Uttarkashi? We have to utilise the time for a purpose which is more intimate to the object on hand than the way in which we lived earlier. Generally, people take to mantra purascharana a disciplined type of chanting of the mantra that has been given to them by their guru and sacred study of scriptures, such as the Srimad Bhagavata or the Ramayana, or any other holy text which is conducive to pinpointing the mind on the liberation of the soul, which is the ultimate objective.
1.037_-_Preventing_the_Fall_in_Yoga, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
We have to cure these reactions of yoga only through yoga. Drugs will not cure these illnesses. If a headache is caused by intense meditation, it cannot be cured by an aspirin tablet, because it is a result of an intense pressure that we have exerted upon the mind, the nerves and the pranas, and that pressure can be lifted up only by another type of meditation, of which we have to gain the knowledge only through the guru who has initiated us. It is not an easy thing to understand. Sometimes there can be such disturbance of the digestive system that we will have diarrhoea for days or months, and we cannot stop it with medicine. Headache, giddiness and diarrhoea are generally supposed to be the immediate reactions of intense concentration of the mind. We will feel as if the mountains are revolving when we stand up. This is giddiness, and we cannot easily know why this is happening. Sometimes we may be under the impression that we are practising a wrong type of meditation, due to which these reactions are set up. It is not necessarily so. Our meditation may be correct, and yet the reactions can be there.
--
Then doubts will start rising up in the mind and tell us all sorts of stories about our guru and our sadhana, our scripture and religion, and everything. We will start doubting everything; and only a single doubt has to arise in order for ten doubts to rise up as the result of that one doubt. Then we will change the guru. Many people change their gurus, change the method of meditation, change the mantra and move from place to place, because they have found that there is something wrong. "Otherwise, why is it that I am not achieving anything after so many years of effort?" So, after vyadhi and styana comes samsaya or doubt. This is an obstacle, says Patanjali.
--
So we change the technique, and this change of technique, this change of initiation and guru can be compared to digging a well a foot deep, in one thousand places, for water. We have dug only one foot, and we do not find water anywhere, and so we go on digging for a lifetime. In the same way, one thousand gurus will bring us nothing. This is what will happen. This has happened to many people, and nobody can be exempted from this possibility, because doubts do not come like extraneous factors. They are internal illnesses that are conditions of the mind itself.
1.03_-_Invocation_of_Tara, #Tara - The Feminine Divine, #Bokar Rinpoche, #Buddhism
such as those addressed to Shakyamuni Buddha or
Baisajaguru (Sangye Menla, Medicine Buddha).
The Vajrayana tradition is divided into four groups
1.03_-_Spiritual_Realisation,_The_aim_of_Bhakti-Yoga, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
next chapter: 1.04 - The Need of guru
1.04_-_Pratyahara, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
7:When the unsuspecting pupil first approaches his holy but wily guru, and demands magical powers, that Wise One replies that he will confer them, points out with much caution and secrecy some particular spot on the pupil's body which has never previously attracted his attention, and says: "In order to obtain this magical power which you seek, all that is necessary is to wash seven times in the Ganges during seven days, being particularly careful to avoid thinking of that one spot." Of course the unhappy youth spends a disgusted week in thinking of little else.
1.04_-_The_Need_of_Guru, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
object:1.04 - The Need of guru
author class:Swami Vivekananda
--
CHAPTER IV
THE NEED OF guru
--
The person from whose soul such impulse comes is called the guru the teacher; and the person to whose soul the impulse is conveyed is called the Shishya the student. To convey such an impulse to any soul, in the first place, the soul from which it proceeds must possess the power of transmitting it, as it were, to another; and in the second place, the soul to which it is transmitted must be fit to receive it. The seed must be a living seed, and the field must be ready ploughed; and when both these conditions are fulfilled, a wonderful growth of genuine religion takes place. "The true preacher of religion has to be of wonderful capabilities, and clever shall his hearer be" ; and when both of these are really wonderful and extraordinary, then will a splendid spiritual awakening result, and not otherwise. Such alone are the real teachers, and such alone are also the real students, the real aspirants. All others are only playing with spirituality. They have just a little curiosity awakened, just a little intellectual aspiration kindled in them, but are merely standing on the outward fringe of the horizon of religion. There is no doubt some value even in that, as it may in course of time result in the awakening of a real thirst for religion; and it is a mysterious law of nature that as soon as the field is ready, the seed must and does come; as soon as the soul earnestly desires to have religion, the transmitter of the religious force must and does appear to help that soul. When the power that attracts the light of religion in the receiving soul is full and strong, the power which answers to that attraction and sends in light does come as a matter of course.
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There are still greater dangers in regard to the transmitter, the guru. There are many who, though immersed in ignorance, yet, in the pride of their hearts, fancy they know everything, and not only do not stop there, but offer to take others on their shoulders; and thus the blind leading the blind, both fall into the ditch.
1.04_-_The_Sacrifice_the_Triune_Path_and_the_Lord_of_the_Sacrifice, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The Yoga of Divine Works
that comes inevitably in the course and process of the spiritual evolution, and therefore he will not despise or blind himself to the Godhead because it is lodged in a human body, manus.m tanum asritam. Beyond the limited human conception of God, he will pass to the one divine Eternal, but also he will meet him in the faces of the Gods, his cosmic personalities supporting the World-Play, detect him behind the mask of the Vibhutis, embodied World-Forces or human Leaders, reverence and obey him in the guru, worship him in the Avatar. This will be to him his exceeding good fortune if he can meet one who has realised or is becoming That which he seeks for and can by opening to it in this vessel of its manifestation himself realise it. For that is the most palpable sign of the growing fulfilment, the promise of the great mystery of the progressive Descent into Matter which is the secret sense of the material creation and the justification of terrestrial existence.
1.053_-_A_Very_Important_Sadhana, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
We are always in a mood of unhappiness. We cannot know what has happened to us. We are not satisfied neither with people, nor with our sadhana, nor with anything in this world. This disquiet, peacelessness and displeasure which can manifest as a sustained mood in spiritual seekers is due to the presence of the impressions left by frustrated desires. We have not withdrawn our senses from objects wantonly or deliberately, but we have withdrawn them due a pressure from scriptures, guru, atmosphere, monastery, or other conditions.
1.05_-_The_Ascent_of_the_Sacrifice_-_The_Psychic_Being, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
At a certain stage in the Yoga when the mind is sufficiently quieted and no longer supports itself at every step on the sufficiency of its mental certitudes, when the vital has been steadied and subdued and is no longer constantly insistent on its own rash will, demand and desire, when the physical has been sufficiently altered not to bury altogether the inner flame under the mass of its outwardness, obscurity or inertia, an inmost being hidden within and felt only in its rare influences is able to come forward and illumine the rest and take up the lead of the sadhana. Its character is a one-pointed orientation towards the Divine or the Highest, one-pointed and yet plastic in action and movement; it does not create a rigidity of direction like the one-pointed intellect or a bigotry of the regnant idea or impulse like the one-pointed vital force; it is at every moment and with a supple sureness that it points the way to the Truth, automatically distinguishes the right step from the false, extricates the divine or Godward movement from the clinging mixture of the undivine. Its action is like a searchlight showing up all that has to be changed in the nature; it has in it a flame of will insistent on perfection, on an alchemic transmutation of all the inner and outer existence. It sees the divine essence everywhere but rejects the mere mask and the disguising figure. It insists on Truth, on will and strength and mastery, on Joy and Love and Beauty, but on a Truth of abiding Knowledge that surpasses the mere practical momentary truth of the Ignorance, on an inward joy and not on mere vital pleasure, -- for it prefers rather a purifying suffering and sorrow to degrading satisfactions, -- on love winged upward and not tied to the stake of egoistic craving or with its feet sunk in the mire, on beauty restored to its priesthood of interpretation of the Eternal, on strength and will and mastery as instruments not of the ego but of the Spirit. Its will is for the divinisation of life, the expression through it of a higher Truth, its dedication to the Divine and the Eternal.
But the most intimate character of the psychic is its pressure towards the Divine through a sacred love, joy and oneness. It is the divine Love that it seeks most, it is the love of the Divine that is its spur, its goal, its star of Truth shining over the luminous cave of the nascent or the still obscure cradle of the new-born godhead within us. In the first long stage of its growth and immature existence it has leaned on earthly love, affection, tenderness, goodwill, compassion, benevolence, on all beauty and gentleness and fineness and light and strength and courage, on all that can help to refine and purify the grossness and commonness of human nature; but it knows how mixed are these human movements at their best and at their worst how fallen and stamped with the mark of ego and self-deceptive sentimental falsehood and the lower self profiting by the imitation of a soul movement. At once, emerging, it is ready and eager to break all the old ties and imperfect emotional activities and replace them by a greater spiritual Truth of love and oneness. It may still admit the human forms and movements, but on condition that they are turned towards the One alone. It accepts only the ties that are helpful, the heart's reverence for the guru, the union of the God-seekers, a spiritual compassion for the ignorant human and animal world and its peoples, the joy and happiness and satisfaction of beauty that comes from the perception of the Divine everywhere. It plunges the nature inward towards its meeting with the immanent Divine in the heart's secret centre and, while that call is there, no reproach of egoism, no mere outward summons of altruism or duty or philanthropy or service will deceive or divert it from its sacred longing and its obedience to the attraction of the Divinity within it. It lifts the being towards a transcendent Ecstasy and is ready to shed all the downward pull of the world from its wings in its uprising to reach the One Highest; but it calls down also this transcendent Love and Beatitude to deliver and transform this world of hatred and strife and division and darkness and jarring Ignorance. It opens to a universal Divine Love, a vast compassion, an intense and immense will for the good of all, for the embrace of the World-Mother enveloping or gathering to her her children, the divine Passion that has plunged into the night for the redemption of the world from the universal Ignorance. It is not attracted or misled by mental imitations or any vital misuse of these great deep-seated Truths of existence; it exposes them with its detecting search-ray and calls down the entire truth of divine Love to heal these malformations, to deliver mental, vital, physical love from their insufficiencies or their perversions and reveal to them their abounding share of the intimacy and the oneness and the ascending ecstasy and the descending rapture.
All true truths of Love and of the works of Love the psychic being accepts in their place; but its flame mounts always upward and it is eager to push the ascent from lesser to higher degrees of Truth, since it knows that only by the ascent to a highest Truth and the descent of that highest Truth can Love be delivered from the cross and placed upon the throne; for the cross is the sign of the Divine Descent barred and marred by the transversal line of a cosmic deformation which turns life into a state of suffering and misfortune. Only by the ascent to the original Truth can the deformation be healed and all the works of love, as too all the works of knowledge and of life, be restored to a divine significance and become part of an integral spiritual existence.
1.06_-_Incarnate_Teachers_and_Incarnation, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
"Know the guru to be Me", says Shri Krishna in the Bhagavata. The moment the world is absolutely bereft of these, it becomes a hideous hell and hastens on to its destruction.
1.06_-_The_Ascent_of_the_Sacrifice_2_The_Works_of_Love_-_The_Works_of_Life, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Two rules alone there are that will diminish the difficulty and obviate the danger. One must reject all that comes from the ego, from vital desire, from the mere mind and its presumptuous reasoning incompetence, all that ministers to these agents of the
Ignorance. One must learn to hear and follow the voice of the inmost soul, the direction of the guru, the command of the Master, the working of the Divine Mother Whoever clings to the desires and weaknesses of the flesh, the cravings and passions of the vital in its turbulent ignorance, the dictates of his personal mind unsilenced and unillumined by a greater knowledge, cannot find the true inner law and is heaping obstacles in the way of the divine fulfilment. Whoever is able to detect and renounce those obscuring agencies and to discern and follow the true Guide within and without will discover the spiritual law and reach the goal of the Yoga.
1.078_-_Kumbhaka_and_Concentration_of_Mind, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
But the suggestion given in this term kala is that a ratio is maintained, and that ratio can be modified according to ones convenience, level of evolution, the extent of practice, etc. This has to be done with the guidance of a guru. One should not meddle with the prana without knowing what happens. Thus, the ratio that is associated with the processes of inhalation, retention and exhalation is what is meant by the term kala.
1.07_-_A_Song_of_Longing_for_Tara,_the_Infallible, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
different place than my mind was at that age! He clearly had meditation experience and a strong connection with Tara. In fact, he speaks of her here as his
personal guru.
From my heart I bow to Divine Mother Tara, essence of love and compassion, the most precious objects of refuge gathered into one. From
--
the nectar of your speech.
Great gurus and small gurus cheat us with their made-up teachings,
selling Dharma, teaching without comprehension, not observing who
is qualied and who is not, being concerned about their own happiness and the eight worldly concerns. Since I can no longer trust
friends of this degenerate age, you are my principal guru. Inspire me,
Divine Mother, essence of love. Arouse the great power of your compassion and think of me.
--
compassion and think of me.
You are my guru, my yidam, my protector, my refuge, my food, my
clothes, my possessions, and my friend. Since your divine quality is
--
inspiration over and over again. One time, they were making 100,000 of these
offerings and requests to guru Rinpoche, Padmasambhava. This little rinpoche asked my friend, Why do we request the Buddha over and over again
Please grant me blessings and inspire me?
--
Verse 3: Spiritual Mentors
Great gurus and small gurus cheat us with their made-up teachings, selling
Dharma, teaching without comprehension, not observing who is qualied
--
worldly concerns. Since I can no longer trust friends of this degenerate age,
you are my principal guru. Inspire me, Divine Mother, essence of love. Arouse
the great power of your compassion and think of me.
--
rush into things.
I think that great gurus refers to famous teachers and small gurus to
--
Dharma or are qualied teachers. Following a particular teacher simply
because he or she is the latest rage is not a good reason. Those who are actually great gurusthat is, those who have correct realizationsare not
involved in the eight worldly concerns and are always humble.
Famous gurus and not-so-famous gurus can cheat us with their made-up
teachings. Some people mix non-Buddhist teachings with Buddhist practices and call it Buddhism. Others misunderstand the Buddhas teachings but
--
difculties, but nobody was able to get through to her. She was convinced
that she was channeling her guru who had passed away. She began teaching
and was apparently charismatic, but then became psychologically manipulative, which left the students confused.
In thinking of the potential corruptions great gurus and small gurus
could fall prey to, we might be tempted to start judging our teachers. This
guru does this, that guru does that, but Im very pure. I would never do any
of these things. We feel superior and look down on our spiritual mentors
--
ego to do this dance.
But its not only the big gurus and small gurus who are involved in the
eight worldly concerns. Lets be inclusive and non-biased and talk about ourselves as well! There are four pairs of worldly concerns, making eight altogether:
--
describes how to become a more qualied disciple.
When we say to Tara, you are my principal guru, it means that the wisdom of the Buddha is our principal guru. Inspire me, Divine Mother, essence
of love. Arouse the great power of your compassion and think of me. Here,
--
power of your compassion and think of me.
The previous verse concerned how to relate to gurus. This verse is about how
to relate to Buddhas and meditation deities (yidams). The following verse concerns our relationship with protectors. These are the principal relationships
--
Verse 8: Refuge and Request
You are my guru, my yidam, my protector, my refuge, my food, my clothes, my
possessions, and my friend. Since your divine quality is everything to me, let
--
wish.
Tara embodies all objects of refugeour gurus, meditation deities
(yidams), and Dharma protectors. Like spiritual food, the wisdom and compassion she represents nourish us. Like clothes, the six far-reaching attitudes
--
Sometimes we pray to be reborn with a precious human life and at other
times in a pure land such as Tushita, Sukhavati, or Akanishta. In the Six-Session guru Yoga we aspire to be reborn in Shambhala. You may wonder: Why
do we pray for so many different rebirths in these various places? Were covering all our bases!
1.07_-_Raja-Yoga_in_Brief, #Raja-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
Where there is fire, or in water or on ground which is strewn with dry leaves, where there are many ant-hills, where there are wild animals, or danger, where four streets meet, where there is too much noise, where there are many wicked persons, Yoga must not be practiced. This applies more particularly to India. Do not practice when the body feels very lazy or ill, or when the mind is very miserable and sorrowful. Go to a place which is well hidden, and where people do not come to disturb you. Do not choose dirty places. Rather choose beautiful scenery, or a room in your own house which is beautiful. When you practice, first salute all the ancient Yogis, and your own guru, and God, and then begin.
1.07_-_The_Mantra_-_OM_-_Word_and_Wisdom, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
But we are now considering not these Mah-purushas, the great Incarnations, but only the Siddhagurus (teachers who have attained the goal); they, as a rule, have to convey the germs of spiritual wisdom to the disciple by means of words (Mantras) to be meditated upon. What are these Mantras?
1.083_-_Choosing_an_Object_for_Concentration, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
We now conclude that this point is not merely a physical point. It is more a type of conceptual point, or rather the centre of our affection, which cannot find a physical location anywhere. It cannot be seen in this world. Such is the intricacy that is involved in the choosing of the object of meditation itself. This difficulty is a little bit obviated by the assistance that we receive from a guru at the time of initiation.
1.08_-_Adhyatma_Yoga, #Amrita Gita, #Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #Hinduism
21. Serve your guru. Be devoted to your guru. Obey him. Have implicit faith in his teachings. You will grow in spirituality. The veil will be torn down. You will attain Self-realisation.
1.096_-_Powers_that_Accrue_in_the_Practice, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
Do not try these methods. They are very dangerous and can lead to anything. You may end up in a mental hospital if you start these techniques without proper purification of the mind. It requires a guru. Nobody may practise these samyamas without proper initiation under a competent master.
1.097_-_Sublimation_of_Object-Consciousness, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
Well, this may be one of the conditions through which the mind passes, or has to pass. As mystical language tells us, it is the dark night of the soul. When we cut off all connections with everything in the world, we have to pass through darkness; we will not enter into light immediately. There will be an interim period of darkness, oblivion and unawareness of everything, which is the frightened condition, a state of affairs where the mind is in fear as to what is happening. There, higher guidance is necessary from a guru, a spiritual master because we will be cast into the winds of unawareness. The mind is afraid of this condition. The moment we withdraw the mind from objects, there is unhappiness because happiness is nothing but contemplation of objects, and the requisition of this meditation is the opposite of it. So it will mean, impliedly, that we are trying to cut at the roots of all the pleasures of the mind by attempting this meditation. Therefore, the mind will not agree.
1.098_-_The_Transformation_from_Human_to_Divine, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
Thus, we cannot be prepared for things now itself, inasmuch as we do not know what it is that is there inside of us. But if we are persistent enough in our practice, these weaknesses will show their heads gradually, like snakes coming out from the hole. They will not come out if the practice is very mild. The practice has to be very intense, continuous, and for hours together daily practice, without remission of effort. If this is not possible, the only other alternative is the knowledge that we have to gain of ourselves through our guru, as our guru is likely to know more about us than we know about ourselves because of his experience, and because of the insight that he has into human nature. But without these preparations, neither can we do anything for ourselves, nor will we accept the advice of others. If this is the situation, then danger is there, ahead.
--
At a stage where we are about to transfer ourselves from the first level to the second level, direct guidance of a competent master is necessary. This is the usual tradition of the Yoga Shastra. When we are highly advanced and can grasp all the meanings for ourselves, we may be able to stand on our own feet; that is true. But there is a particular stage we reach when we have not been endowed with that perception of the meaning behind things, when we have lifted our feet from the ground of the earth and we have not yet reached the summits of the heavens. In the middle of the atmosphere where we are hanging, we will find ourselves helpless. There, the need of a guru is necessary.
1.09_-_Kundalini_Yoga, #Amrita Gita, #Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #Hinduism
12. Learn the Asanas, Pranayama, Bandhas and Mudras under an expert, Siddha Yogi guru.
13. A guru is one who has full illumination, who is endowed with all divine virtues, who is able to remove the doubts of his disciples and guide them in the path of Yoga.
14. The guru transmits his powers to the disciple through Sankalpa (willing), Drishti (sight), Sakti-Sanchar (touch).
--
17. He who has firm faith in the scriptures, who has Sadachara (right conduct), who constantly engages himself in the service of his guru, who is free from lust, anger, delusion, greed, vanity, hatred and egoism can awaken Kundalini, attain perfection and enter into Samadhi quickly.
--
28. He who is addicted to sensual pleasures, who is arrogant, proud, dishonest, untruthful, who disrespects the guru, Sadhus and Saints can never attain success in Kundalini Yoga.
--
37. Kundalini can also be awakened by devotion, strong, pure, irresistible, dynamic will, the grace of the guru and recitation of Mantra.
1.107_-_The_Bestowal_of_a_Divine_Gift, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
Thus, it would be appropriate on the part of everyone to move harmoniously with the requirements of the forces of nature, which is a great judicious act, no doubt, and it requires guidance from inside as well as outside inwardly from our own conscience, outwardly from the guru. Otherwise, there will be tremendous opposition, and we may have to cut off all our practices. We may be bedridden by the psychological onslaughts of those little children whom we ignored earlier when we were very young, and they will come up when we are old.
1.10_-_GRACE_AND_FREE_WILL, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
Human grace comes to us either from persons, or from social groups, or from our own wishes, hopes and imaginings projected outside ourselves and persisting somehow in the psychic medium in a state of what may be called second-hand objectivity. We have all had experience of the different types of human grace. There is, for example, the grace which, during childhood, comes from mother, father, nurse or beloved teacher. At a later stage we experience the grace of friends; the grace of men and women morally better and wiser than ourselves; the grace of the guru, or spiritual director. Then there is the grace which comes to us because of our attachment to country, party, church or other social organizationa grace which has helped even the feeblest and most timid individuals to achieve what, without it, would have been the impossible. And finally there is the grace which we derive from our ideals, whether low or high, whether conceived of in abstract terms or bodied forth in imaginary personifications. To this last type, it would seem, belong many of the graces experienced by the pious adherents of the various religions. The help received by those who devotedly adore or pray to some personal saint, deity or Avatar is often, we may guess, not a genuinely spiritual grace, but a human grace, coming back to the worshipper from the vortex of psychic power set up by repeated acts (his own and other peoples) of faith, yearning and imagination.
1.10_-_Mantra_Yoga, #Amrita Gita, #Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #Hinduism
7. Repetition of Subrahmanya Mantra Om Saravanabhavaya Namah will give success in any undertaking and make you glorious. It will drive off the evil influences and evil spirits. Repetition of Sri Hanuman Mantra, Om Hanumanthaya Namah will bestow victory and strength. Repetition of Panchadasakshara and Sodasakshara (Sri Vidya) will give you wealth, power, freedom, etc. It will give you whatever you want. You must learn this Vidya from a guru alone.
--
16. Get the Mantra initiation from your guru. Or pray to your Ishta Devata and start doing Japa of the particular Mantra, if you find it difficult to get a guru.
1.10_-_The_Methods_and_the_Means, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
The test of Ahimsa is absence of jealousy. Any man may do a good deed or make a good gift on the spur of the moment or under the pressure of some superstition or priestcraft; but the real lover of mankind is he who is jealous of none. The so-called great men of the world may all be seen to become jealous of each other for a small name, for a little fame, and for a few bits of gold. So long as this jealousy exists in a heart, it is far away from the perfection of Ahimsa. The cow does not eat meat, nor does the sheep. Are they great Yogis, great non-injurers (Ahimsakas)? Any fool may abstain from eating this or that; surely that gives him no more distinction than to herbivorous animals. The man who will mercilessly cheat widows and orphans and do the vilest deeds for money is worse than any brute even if he lives entirely on grass. The man whose heart never cherishes even the thought of injury to any one, who rejoices at the prosperity of even his greatest enemy, that man is the Bhakta, he is the Yogi, he is the guru of all, even though he lives every day of his life on the flesh of swine. Therefore we must always remember that external practices have value only as helps to develop internal purity. It is better to have internal purity alone when minute attention to external observances is not practicable.
1.12_-_The_Divine_Work, #unset, #Rudolf Steiner, #Occultism
a way of living proper to the path we follow or enjoined by the
spiritual guide and master, the guru, or else dictated by a Guide
within us. But in the last state of the soul's infinity and freedom
1.12_-_The_Superconscient, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
There exists in India a secret knowledge based upon sounds and the differences of vibratory modes found on different planes of consciousness. If we pronounce the sound OM, for example, we clearly feel its vibrations enveloping the head centers, while the sound RAM affects the navel center. And since each of our centers of consciousness is in direct contact with a plane, we can, by the repetition of certain sounds (japa), come into contact with the corresponding plane of consciousness.200 This is the basis of an entire spiritual discipline, called "tantric" because it originates from sacred texts known as Tantra. The basic or essential sounds that have the power to establish the contact are called mantras. The mantras, usually secret and given to the disciple by his guru,201 are of all kinds (there are many levels within each plane of consciousness), and may serve the most contradictory purposes. By combining certain sounds, one can at the lower levels of consciousness generally at the vital level come in contact with the corresponding forces and acquire many strange powers: some mantras can cause death (in five minutes, with violent vomiting), some mantras can strike with precision a particular part or organ of the body, some mantras can cure, some mantras can start a fire, protect, or cast spells. This type of magic, or chemistry of vibrations, derives simply from a conscious handling of the lower vibrations. But there is a higher magic, which also derives from handling vibrations, on higher planes of consciousness. This is poetry, music, the spiritual mantras of the Upanishads and the Veda, the mantras given by a guru to his disciple to help him come consciously into direct contact with a special plane of consciousness, a force or a divine being. In this case, the sound holds in itself the power of experience and realization it is a sound that makes one see.
--
200 - Looking at the diagram of the centers of consciousness, we notice that each center contains a Sanskrit letter: Lam, Vam, Ram, Yam, Ham, Om, in ascending order. These essential sounds represent the particular vibrations that command the forces of each plane. (See A. Avalon, The Serpent Power.)
201 - One may read mantras in a book and repeat them endlessly to no avail. They will have no power or "active force" unless given by a Master or guru.
202 - The Human Cycle, 15:5
1.200-1.224_Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
D.: How to begin? Your Grace is needed for it.
M.: Grace is always there. Dispassion cannot be acquired, nor realization of the Truth, nor inherence in the Self, in the absence of gurus Grace, the Master quoted.
Practice is necessary. It is like training a roguish bull confined to his stall by tempting him with luscious grass and preventing him from straying.
--
Such association is both mental and physical. The extremely visible being (of the guru) pushes the mind inward. He is also in the heart of the seeker and so he draws the latters inward-bent mind into the Heart.
This question is asked only when the man begins to meditate and finds it difficult. Let him practise breath-control just a little and the mind will be purified. It does not now sink into the heart because the latent tendencies stand as obstacles. They are removed by breath-control or association with the wise. In fact the mind is always in the Heart. But it is restive and moves about on account of latent tendencies. When the tendencies are made ineffective it will be restful and at peace.
1.2.01_-_The_Call_and_the_Capacity, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
1 The correspondent suggested that in this Yoga a disciple with an occidental mentality might be "even better off" than a disciple with a traditional Indian mentality of humility and respect for the guru. - Ed.
1.2.07_-_Surrender, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
What I meant by surrender was this inner surrender of the mind and vital. There is of course the outer surrender also, the giving up of all that is found to conflict with the spirit or need of the sadhana, the offering, the obedience to the guidance of the Divine, whether directly, if one has reached that stage, or through the psychic or to the guidance of the guru. I may say that prayopavesana does not seem to me to have anything to do with surrender; it is a form of tapasya of a very austere and in my opinion very excessive kind, often dangerous. But what I was speaking of in my letter was the inner surrender.
1.2.08_-_Faith, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
I ask you to have faith in the Divine, in the Divine Grace, in the truth of the sadhana, in the eventual triumph of the spirit over its mental and vital and physical difficulties, in the Path and the
guru, in the existence of things other than are written in the philosophy of Haeckel or Huxley or Bertrand Russell, because if these things are not true, there is no meaning in the Yoga.
1.240_-_1.300_Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
D.: A certain young man from Dindigul spoke to Sri Bhagavan, saying that he had learnt by his stay for a few days; that all that he need do was to enquire, "Who am I?" He wanted to know if any discipline was to be observed and started with the question: "Where should I do the enquiry?" meaning if he should do it in guru sannidhi (the presence of the Master).
--
Self?
M.: Yes. To the one from whom Grace is sought. God, guru and Self are only different forms of the same.
--
On worshipping God, God appears to you as guru. On serving
guru He manifests as the Self. This is the rationale.
--
They consider themselves fit for being called disciples. What can
I say to them? I do not call myself a disciple or a guru.
--
D.: It is said that the guru can make his disciple realise the Self by transmitting some of his own power to him? Is it true?
M.: Yes. The guru does not bring about Self-Realisation. He simply removes the obstacles to it. The Self is always realised.
D.: Is there absolute necessity of a guru for Self-Realisation?
M.: So long as you seek Self-Realisation the guru is necessary.
guru is the Self. Take guru to be the Real Self and your self as the individual self.
--
So long as duality persists in you the guru is necessary. Because you identify yourself with the body you think the guru, too, to be some body. You are not the body, nor is the guru. You are the Self and so is the guru.
--
D.: How can one know whether a particular individual is competent to be a guru?
M.: By the peace of mind found in his presence and by the sense of respect you feel for him.
D.: If the guru happens to turn out incompetent, what will be the fate of the disciple who has implicit faith in him?
M.: Each one according to his merits.
--
D.: It is said in Srimad Bhagavad Gita: "Realise the Self with pure intellect and also by service to guru and by enquiry." How are they to be reconciled?
M.: Iswaro gururatmeti - Iswara, guru and Self are identical. So long as the sense of duality persists in you, you seek a guru considering that he stands apart. He however teaches you the truth and you gain the insight.
--
M.: Because samskaras have not been destroyed. Unless the samskaras cease to exist, there will always be doubt and confusion
(sandeha, viparita). All efforts are directed to destroying doubt and confusion. To do so their roots must be cut. Their roots are the samskaras. These are rendered ineffective by practice as prescribed by the guru. The guru leaves it to the seeker to do this much so that he might himself find out that there is no ignorance. This truth mentioned is in the stage of the hearing of the Truth (sravana). That is not drdha (firm). For making it unshaken, one has to practise reflection (manana) and one-pointedness (nididhyasana). These two processes scorch the seeds of vasanas so that they are rendered ineffective.
--
Q.: There are gurus for each asrama. Is there a guru for atyasrama?
M.: Yes.
Q.: But you do not admit a guru.
M.: There is a guru for everyone. I admit a guru for me also.
Q.: Who is your guru.
--
Q.: For whom?
M.: For myself. The guru may be internal or external. He may reveal
Himself internally or communicate externally.
1.240_-_Talks_2, #unset, #Rudolf Steiner, #Occultism
Talk 257.
D.: A certain young man from Dindigul spoke to Sri Bhagavan, saying that he had learnt by his stay for a few days; that all that he need do was to enquire, Who am I? He wanted to know if any discipline was to be observed and started with the question: Where should I do the enquiry? meaning if he should do it in guru sannidhi (the presence of the Master).
M.: The enquiry should be from where the I is.
--
Self?
M.: Yes. To the one from whom Grace is sought. God, guru and Self are only different forms of the same.
D.: Please explain, so that I may understand.
M.: So long as you think you are the individual you believe in God.
On worshipping God, God appears to you as guru. On serving
guru He manifests as the Self. This is the rationale.
Talk 272.
--
They consider themselves fit for being called disciples. What can
I say to them? I do not call myself a disciple or a guru.
Q.: How did you approve the building of Skandasramam on the Hill which was temple-land, without previously obtaining permission from the authorities?
--
M.: They are synonymous.
D.: It is said that the guru can make his disciple realise the Self by transmitting some of his own power to him? Is it true?
M.: Yes. The guru does not bring about Self-Realisation. He simply removes the obstacles to it. The Self is always realised.
D.: Is there absolute necessity of a guru for Self-Realisation?
M.: So long as you seek Self-Realisation the guru is necessary.
guru is the Self. Take guru to be the Real Self and your self as the individual self.
The disappearance of this sense of duality is removal of ignorance.
So long as duality persists in you the guru is necessary. Because you identify yourself with the body you think the guru, too, to be some body. You are not the body, nor is the guru. You are the Self and so is the guru.
This knowledge is gained by what you call Self-Realisation.
D.: How can one know whether a particular individual is competent to be a guru?
M.: By the peace of mind found in his presence and by the sense of respect you feel for him.
D.: If the guru happens to turn out incompetent, what will be the fate of the disciple who has implicit faith in him?
M.: Each one according to his merits.
--
Talk 284.
D.: It is said in Srimad Bhagavad Gita: Realise the Self with pure intellect and also by service to guru and by enquiry. How are they to be reconciled?
M.: Iswaro gururatmeti - Iswara, guru and Self are identical. So long as the sense of duality persists in you, you seek a guru considering that he stands apart. He however teaches you the truth and you gain the insight.
D.: Kindly explain: ahameko name kaschit nahamanyasya kasyachit naham pasyami yasyaham tam na pasyami yo mama (I am alone; none is mine; of none else am I, I see none whose I am, none who is mine).
--
M.: Because samskaras have not been destroyed. Unless the samskaras cease to exist, there will always be doubt and confusion
(sandeha, viparita). All efforts are directed to destroying doubt and confusion. To do so their roots must be cut. Their roots are the samskaras. These are rendered ineffective by practice as prescribed by the guru. The guru leaves it to the seeker to do this much so that he might himself find out that there is no ignorance. This truth mentioned is in the stage of the hearing of the Truth (sravana). That is not drdha (firm). For making it unshaken, one has to practise reflection (manana) and one-pointedness (nididhyasana). These two processes scorch the seeds of vasanas so that they are rendered ineffective.
Some extraordinary persons get drdha jnana (unshaken knowledge) even on hearing the Truth only once (sakrchhravana matrena).
--
M.: There are characteristics of it mentioned.
Q.: There are gurus for each asrama. Is there a guru for atyasrama?
M.: Yes.
Q.: But you do not admit a guru.
M.: There is a guru for everyone. I admit a guru for me also.
Q.: Who is your guru.
M.: The Self.
Q.: For whom?
M.: For myself. The guru may be internal or external. He may reveal
Himself internally or communicate externally.
--
A question was again raised regarding the function of the guru.
M.: Because the man is not able to help himself, finding himself too weak, he seeks more strength in the shape of a guru.
Talk 303.
--
M.: Yes, quite. Attachment is bondage. Attachment disappears with the elimination of the ego.
D.: Realisation is said to be helped by gurus Grace.
M.: guru is none other than the Self.
D.: Krishna had Sandipini for his guru and so Rama had Vasishta.
M.: guru is said to be external for the seeker. The in-turn of the mind is brought about by the guru. Since the seeker is out-ward-bent he is advised to learn from a guru whom he will in due course find to be the Self.
D.: May I have gurus Grace?
M.: Grace is always there.
--
He is eternal? Of what are you thinking, His body?
D.: He taught others while alive. Those around Him must have realised. I seek a similar living guru.
M.: Is Gita then useless after He withdrew His body? Did He speak of His body as Krishna?
Natwewaham jatu nasam ... (Never I was not....)
D.: But I want a living guru who can say the truth first hand.
M.: The fate of the guru will be similar to the fate of Krishna.
The questioner retired. Later, Sri Bhagavan said: Divine sight means
--
It is for such as these that Sri Sankara revealed the essence of the commentaries in this short treatise, The Crown-gem of Discrimination, explaining in detail the points that have to be grasped by those who seek absolution, and thereby directing them to the true and straight path.
LEARNING WONT DO: Sri Sankara opens the theme by observing that it is hard indeed to attain human birth, and one should (having attained it) strive for the realisation of the bliss of liberation, which is verily the nature of ones being. By jnana or Knowledge alone is this bliss realised, and jnana is achieved only through vichara or steady enquiry. In order to know this method of enquiry, says Sri Sankara, one should seek the favour of a guru, and proceeds to describe the qualities of the guru and his sishya and how the latter should approach and serve his master.
He further emphasises that in order to realise the bliss of liberation ones own individual effort is an essential factor. Mere book-learning never yields this bliss which can be realised only through enquiry or vichara, which consists of sravana or devoted attention to the precepts of the guru, manana or deep contemplation and Nididhyasana or the cultivation of steady poise in the Self.
THE THREE PATHS: The three bodies - physical, subtle and causal - are non-self and are unreal. The Self, or I, is quite different from them.
It is due to ignorance that the sense of the Self or the I notion is foisted on that which is not Self, and this indeed is bondage. Since from ignorance arises bondage, from Knowledge ensues liberation.
To know this from the guru is sravana.
To reject the three bodies consisting of the five sheaths (physical, vital, mental, gnostic and blissful) as not I and to extract through subtle
--
Sat or Brahman, and being not different from it is rejected as such and is affirmed as nothing else but Brahman. The instruction by the
guru to the disciple of the Mahavakya, Tat-tvam-asi, which declares the identity of the Self and the Supreme, is upadesa. The disciple is then enjoined to remain in the beatitude of Aham-Brahman - I the
Absolute. Nevertheless the old tendencies of the mind sprout up thick and strong and form an obstruction (to that state of beatitude). These tendencies are threefold and egoism, which is their root, flourishes in the externalised and differentiating consciousness caused by the forces of vikshepa or dissipation (due to rajas) and avarana or envelopment
--
The disciple who has reached this stage then relates his personal experience. The liberated one is free indeed to act as he pleases, and when he leaves the mortal frame, attains absolution, and returns not to this birth which is death.
Sri Sankara thus describes Realisation that connotes liberation as twofold, i.e., jivanmukti and videha mukti referred to above. Moreover, in this short treatise, written in the form of a dialogue between a guru and his disciple, he has considered many relevant topics.
--
Bhagavan observed:
The sastras say that one must serve a guru for 12 years for getting
Self-Realisation. What does guru do? Does he hand it over to the disciple? Is not the Self always realised? What does the common belief mean then? The man is always the Self and yet he does not know it. He confounds it with the non-self, viz., the body etc.
--
The anecdotes differ in different books. We are not concerned with the names and the embellishments. The tatva, i.e., the moral, must not be lost sight of. The disciple surrenders himself to the master. That means there is no vestige of individuality retained by the disciple. If the surrender is complete all sense of individuality is lost and there is thus no cause for misery. The eternal being is only happiness. That is revealed.
Without understanding it aright, people think that the guru teaches the disciple something like TATVAMASI and that the disciple realises
I am Brahman. In their ignorance they conceive of Brahman as something more huge and powerful than anything else. With a limited
--
I grows up enormous? He will be enormously ignorant and foolish!
This false I must perish. Its annihilation is the fruit of guru seva.
Realisation is eternal and it is not newly brought about by the guru.
He helps in the removal of ignorance. That is all.
--
D.: Is not grace more effective than abhyasa?
M.: guru simply helps you in the eradication of ignorance. Does he hand over Realisation to you?
D.: We are ignorant.
M.: Inasmuch as you say you are ignorant, you are wise. Is he a madman who says that he is mad? gurus Grace is like a hand extended to help you out of water, or it makes your way easier for the removal of ignorance.
D.: Is it not like a medicine to cure the disease of avidya?
M.: What is medicine for? It is only to restore the patient to the original state of health. What is this talk of guru. Grace, God, etc.? Does the guru hold you by the hand and whisper something in your ear? You imagine him to be like yourself. Because you are with a body you think that he is also a body in order to do something tangible to you. His work lies within. How is guru gained? God, who is immanent, in his Grace takes pity on the loving devotee and manifests Himself as a being according to the devotees standard.
The devotee thinks that he is a man and expects relationship as between bodies. But the guru, who is God or Self incarnate, works from within, helps the man to see the error of his ways, guides him in the right path until he realises the Self within.
After such realisation the disciple feels, I was so worried before. I am after all the Self, the same as before but not affected by anything; where is he who was miserable? He is nowhere to be seen.
What should we do now? Only act up to the words of the master, work within. The guru is both within and without. So he creates conditions to drive you inward and prepares the interior to drag you to the centre. Thus he gives a push from without and exerts a pull from within so that you may be fixed at the centre.
In sleep you are centred within. Simultaneously with waking your mind rushes out, thinking this, that and all else. This must be checked. It is possible only for the agent who can work both within and without. Can he be identified with a body? We think that the world can be conquered by our efforts. When frustrated externally and driven internally, we feel Oh! oh! There is a power higher than man. The existence of the higher power must be admitted and recognised. The ego is a very powerful elephant and cannot be brought under control by anyone less than a lion, who is no other than the guru in this instance; whose very look makes the elephant tremble and die. We will know in due course that our
--
Let him put it down: he will find the load reaches the destination all the same. Similarly, let us not pose as the doers, but resign ourselves to the guiding Power.
D.: Swami Vivekananda says that a spiritual guru can transfer spirituality substantially to the disciple.
M.: Is there a substance to be transferred? Transfer means eradication of the sense of being the disciple. The master does it. Not that the man was something at one time and metamorphosed later into another.
D.: Is not Grace the gift of the guru?
M.: God, Grace and guru are all synonymous and also eternal and immanent. Is not the Self already within? Is it for the guru to bestow
It by his look? If a guru thinks so, he does not deserve the name.
--
- hasta diksha, sparsa diksha, chakshu diksha, mano diksha, etc.)
They also say that the guru makes some rites with fire, water, japa, mantras, etc., and call such fantastic performances dikshas, as if the disciple (sishya) becomes ripe only after such processes are gone through by the guru.
If the individual is sought he is nowhere to be found. Such is the
guru. Such is Dakshinamurti. What did he do? He was silent; the disciples appeared before him. He maintained silence, the doubts of the disciples were dispelled, which means that they lost their individual identities. That is jnana and not all the verbiage usually associated with it.
Silence is the most potent form of work. However vast and emphatic the sastras may be, they fail in their effect. The guru is quiet and peace prevails in all. His silence is more vast and more emphatic than all the sastras put together. These questions arise because of the feeling, that having been here so long, heard so much, exerted so hard, one has not gained anything. The work proceeding within is not apparent. In fact the guru is always within you.
Thayumanavar says: Oh Lord! Coming with me all along the births, never abandoning me and finally rescuing me! Such is the experience of Realisation.
Srimad Bhagavad Gita says the same in a different way, We two are not only now but have ever been so.
D.: Does not the guru take a concrete form?
M.: What is meant by concrete? Because you identify your being with your body, you raise this question. Find out if you are the body.
--
Talk 422.
Dr. Venkata Rao, a visitor from Guntur, asked: A guru asks his disciple to do things contrary to ethical principles. But the disciple, having accepted the person as the master, desires to please the master but his moral sense obstructs him. What should he do under the circumstances?
M.: (No reply).
D.: I shall make myself clear. The guru asked his disciple to commit a theft and the disciple did not do it. The master then said, I wanted to test you to see if you had completely surrendered yourself or retained your individuality. It is now clear what it is. Is the guru right in ordering the disciple that way?
M.: (Still no reply).
Another person observed: There are persons on whom I refuse to sit in judgement. Still I cannot help feeling if they deserve the appellation of gurus. They appear bogus men. If they be really worthy they would not order the disciples in that way.
M.: But the person says, It is for a test.
--
M.: The question might be referred to the person himself, i.e., the
guru. He is responsible for the situation.
--
Will-power or any other is gained by practice (abhyasa).
D.: Is success not dependent on gurus Grace?
M.: Yes, it is. Is not your practice itself due to such Grace? The fruits are the result of the practice and follow it automatically. There is a stanza in Kaivalya which says, O guru! You have been always with me watching me through several reincarnations, and ordaining my course until I was liberated. The Self manifests externally as guru when occasion arises; otherwise He is always within, doing the needful.
--
D.: Does Bhagavan give diksha (initiation)?
M.: Mowna (silence) is the best and the most potent diksha. That was practised by Sri Dakshinamurti. Touch, look, etc., are all of a lower order. Silence (mowna diksha) changes the hearts of all. There is no guru and no disciple.
The ajnani confounds his body with the Self and so he takes the others body for the guru. But does the guru think his body to be the Self?
He has transcended the body. There are no differences for Him. So the ajnani cannot appreciate the standpoint of guru and of sishya.
D.: Is there then no difference between the one and the other?
--
God only after the mind arises. God is not different from the Self.
The Self is objectified as God. So also with guru.
The Professor returned in the evening and asked something about good actions. He further wondered why Brahman is said to be sacchidananda, but not God.
--
D.: I am always at your feet. Will Bhagavan give us some upadesha to follow? Otherwise how can I get the help living 600 miles away?
M.: That Sadguru is within.
D.: Sadguru is necessary to guide me to understand it.
M.: The Sadguru is within.
D.: I want a visible guru.
M.: That visible guru says that He is within.
D.: Can I throw myself at the mercy of the Sadguru?
M.: Yes. Instructions are necessary only so long as one has not surrendered oneself.
--
M.: Meditation depends on strength of mind. It must be unceasing, even when one is engaged in work. Particular time is meant for novices.
D.: Will Sadguru place His hand on my head to assure me of His help?
I will have the consolation that His promise will be fulfilled.
--
D.: May I come near, Sir? (for blessing).
M.: Such doubts should not arise in you. They contradict your statement of surrender. Sadguru is always on your head.
D.: Surrender comes after effort.
1.300_-_1.400_Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
A question was again raised regarding the function of the guru.
M.: Because the man is not able to help himself, finding himself too weak, he seeks more strength in the shape of a guru.
--
D.: Realisation is said to be helped by guru's Grace.
M.: guru is none other than the Self.
D.: Krishna had Sandipini for his guru and so Rama had Vasishta.
M.: guru is said to be external for the seeker. The in-turn of the mind is brought about by the guru. Since the seeker is out-ward-bent he is advised to learn from a guru whom he will in due course find to be the Self.
D.: May I have guru's Grace?
M.: Grace is always there.
--
He is eternal? Of what are you thinking, His body?
D.: He taught others while alive. Those around Him must have realised. I seek a similar living guru.
--
Natwewaham jatu nasam ... (Never I was not....)
D.: But I want a living guru who can say the truth first hand.
M.: The fate of the guru will be similar to the fate of Krishna.
--
LEARNING WON'T DO: Sri Sankara opens the theme by observing that it is hard indeed to attain human birth, and one should (having attained it) strive for the realisation of the bliss of liberation, which is verily the nature of one's being. By jnana or Knowledge alone is this bliss realised, and jnana is achieved only through vichara or steady enquiry. In order to know this method of enquiry, says Sri Sankara, one should seek the favour of a guru, and proceeds to describe the qualities of the guru and his sishya and how the latter should approach and serve his master.
He further emphasises that in order to realise the bliss of liberation one's own individual effort is an essential factor. Mere book-learning never yields this bliss which can be realised only through enquiry or vichara, which consists of sravana or devoted attention to the precepts of the guru, manana or deep contemplation and Nididhyasana or the cultivation of steady poise in the Self.
--
To know this from the guru is sravana.
--
Sat or Brahman, and being not different from it is rejected as such and is affirmed as nothing else but Brahman. The instruction by the
guru to the disciple of the Mahavakya, Tat-tvam-asi, which declares the identity of the Self and the Supreme, is upadesa. The disciple is then enjoined to remain in the beatitude of Aham-Brahman - 'I' the
Absolute. Nevertheless the old tendencies of the mind sprout up thick and strong and form an obstruction (to that state of beatitude). These tendencies are threefold and egoism, which is their root, flourishes in the externalised and differentiating consciousness caused by the forces of vikshepa or dissipation (due to rajas) and avarana or envelopment
--
Sri Sankara thus describes Realisation that connotes liberation as twofold, i.e., jivanmukti and videha mukti referred to above. Moreover, in this short treatise, written in the form of a dialogue between a guru and his disciple, he has considered many relevant topics.
--
Bhagavan observed:
The sastras say that one must serve a guru for 12 years for getting
Self-Realisation. What does guru do? Does he hand it over to the disciple? Is not the Self always realised? What does the common belief mean then? The man is always the Self and yet he does not know it. He confounds it with the non-self, viz., the body etc.
--
Without understanding it aright, people think that the guru teaches the disciple something like "TATVAMASI" and that the disciple realises
"I am Brahman". In their ignorance they conceive of Brahman as something more huge and powerful than anything else. With a limited
--
'I' grows up enormous? He will be enormously ignorant and foolish!
This false 'I' must perish. Its annihilation is the fruit of guru seva.
Realisation is eternal and it is not newly brought about by the guru.
--
D.: Is not grace more effective than abhyasa?
M.: guru simply helps you in the eradication of ignorance. Does he hand over Realisation to you?
D.: We are ignorant.
--
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
M.: Inasmuch as you say you are ignorant, you are wise. Is he a madman who says that he is mad? guru's Grace is like a hand extended to help you out of water, or it makes your way easier for the removal of ignorance.
D.: Is it not like a medicine to cure the disease of avidya?
M.: What is medicine for? It is only to restore the patient to the original state of health. What is this talk of guru. Grace, God, etc.? Does the guru hold you by the hand and whisper something in your ear? You imagine him to be like yourself. Because you are with a body you think that he is also a body in order to do something tangible to you. His work lies within. How is guru gained? God, who is immanent, in his Grace takes pity on the loving devotee and manifests Himself as a being according to the devotee's standard.
The devotee thinks that he is a man and expects relationship as between bodies. But the guru, who is God or Self incarnate, works from within, helps the man to see the error of his ways, guides him in the right path until he realises the Self within.
After such realisation the disciple feels, "I was so worried before. I am after all the Self, the same as before but not affected by anything; where is he who was miserable? He is nowhere to be seen."
What should we do now? Only act up to the words of the master, work within. The guru is both within and without. So he creates conditions to drive you inward and prepares the interior to drag you to the centre. Thus he gives a push from without and exerts a pull from within so that you may be fixed at the centre.
In sleep you are centred within. Simultaneously with waking your mind rushes out, thinking this, that and all else. This must be checked. It is possible only for the agent who can work both within and without. Can he be identified with a body? We think that the world can be conquered by our efforts. When frustrated externally and driven internally, we feel "Oh! oh! There is a power higher than man." The existence of the higher power must be admitted and recognised. The ego is a very powerful elephant and cannot be brought under control by anyone less than a lion, who is no other than the guru in this instance; whose very look makes the elephant tremble and die. We will know in due course that our
383
--
D.: Swami Vivekananda says that a spiritual guru can transfer spirituality substantially to the disciple.
--
D.: Is not Grace the gift of the guru?
M.: God, Grace and guru are all synonymous and also eternal and immanent. Is not the Self already within? Is it for the guru to bestow
It by his look? If a guru thinks so, he does not deserve the name.
--
- hasta diksha, sparsa diksha, chakshu diksha, mano diksha, etc.)
They also say that the guru makes some rites with fire, water, japa, mantras, etc., and call such fantastic performances dikshas, as if the disciple (sishya) becomes ripe only after such processes are gone through by the guru.
If the individual is sought he is nowhere to be found. Such is the
guru. Such is Dakshinamurti. What did he do? He was silent; the disciples appeared before him. He maintained silence, the doubts of the disciples were dispelled, which means that they lost their individual identities. That is jnana and not all the verbiage usually associated with it.
Silence is the most potent form of work. However vast and emphatic the sastras may be, they fail in their effect. The guru is quiet and peace prevails in all. His silence is more vast and more emphatic than all the sastras put together. These questions arise because of the feeling, that having been here so long, heard so much, exerted so hard, one has not gained anything. The work proceeding within is not apparent. In fact the guru is always within you.
--
Srimad Bhagavad Gita says the same in a different way, "We two are not only now but have ever been so."
D.: Does not the guru take a concrete form?
M.: What is meant by concrete? Because you identify your being with your body, you raise this question. Find out if you are the body.
1.3.02_-_Equality_The_Chief_Support, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
One in spite of all differences, degrees, disparities in the manifestation. The mental principle of equality tries to ignore or else to destroy the differences, degrees and disparities, to act as if all were equal there or to try and make all equal. It is like Hriday, the nephew of Ramakrishna, who when he got the touch from Ramakrishna began to shout, "Ramakrishna, you are the Brahman and I too am the Brahman; there is no difference between us", till Ramakrishna, as he refused to be quiet, had to withdraw the power. Or like the disciple who refused to listen to the Mahout and stood before the elephant, saying, "I am
Brahman", until the elephant took him up in his trunk and put him aside. When he complained to his guru, the guru said,
"Yes, but why didn't you listen to the Mahout Brahman? That was why the elephant Brahman had to lift you up and put you out of harm's way." In the manifestation there are two sides to the Truth and you cannot ignore either.
1.37_-_Death_-_Fear_-_.Magical_Memory., #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
If it should happen that you have that faculty, and no gift at all for the other, it's just too bad; you'd better buzz off, and get another Holy guru less one-legged.)