Seeking And Finding, The “Get Real” Factor

If you dream of finding a great Teacher, a Master, the operative advice is, “get real.” Great teachers may appear once in a hundred years. Masters require great sacrifice of those willing to follow them … and as we are not prepared to pay the price, it’s best to start exactly where we find ourselves with the help that is within reach. More likely I can find a guide, someone who knows the way but is still in the process of becoming. A useful guide is one who will help me to connect to my authentic self, that self that is connected to God. No shame, no blame, no fear, marks this journey, where every inner movement needs to be seen without judgment.  – His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama

inevitably, sooner or later the teacher dies.

We will hear his voice no more.
It is the end of an era.
You, you mourn.
With the spiritual parent gone, you are no longer the child.
What is a pupil to do?
To find another teacher seems necessary, but wait— What did he or she teach you?  The source of  “I Am” is within.

Richard Gere inspired by the Dalai Lama

George Harrison and Ravi Shankar inspired

by The Hari Krishnas and Sathya Sai Baba

Deva Premal and Miten Inspired by Osho

FINDING

The wise say I can learn from everyone I meet.  But exactly what is it that is being learned? What can I glean from some rough lout, some timid or repressed soul, some crazy?  Surely they have nothing to teach an educated person like me. But there is no better teacher than the mirror, and every person can be my mirror, reflecting back to me some aspect of myself, particularly when it is something I dislike. I contain multitudes, as Walt Whitman put it. There is nothing I can see in another that I do not also contain to some degree—cheat, murderer, martyr, hero, and much more. Looking closely I discover that fundamentally we are all alike—all subject to the same passions and hopes, and this touches a feeling of compassion in me that does not otherwise appear.

My deepest guilty secret is gradually revealed to me: I believe that at least in some respect, I am better than everyone else. Only a penetrating view of my inner world dispels this pernicious illusion.
Books are helpful—reading prepares the mind and books are available where a living guide is not to be found. But eventually we need the human connection. A book cannot look back at me and hear my tone of voice. It cannot remind me to release the tension in my shoulders. It does not know when I am ready for the next step.

https://parabola.org/2014/07/26/how-to-find-a-spiritual-teacher/

On Reaching The Sixth Anniversary Of the Passing Of Sathya Sai Baba – Make Yourself A Light!

Swami in his 40’s

“I need only one ‘Mandir’ – Your Hearts!

Preserve the purity of your hearts, so that SAI may reside therein

….

We are coming up to the sixth anniversary of the passing of Sathya Sai Baba. To honour his most sapient teaching, I have written a small article called  “The Source.” It is posted below.  Sai Baba may have been the most high-lighted guru of his day, but his message is no different from other distinguished teachers who have lived, taught and left a remarkable legacy of a time-honoured practice to go within. He always stressed the need for inner reflection. He stressed that spiritual practices can only be done with the help of the body. All education obtained is through the body. Everything we are is due to the facility of the body. Both our merit and demerit are the result of  actions performed with the help of our bodies. And that all important incessant search for peace is a heartfelt attempt to find the God Source inside our own bodies but we are not just the body, we  are far greater than that.

WHY FIGHT OVER BODY PARTS? – THE SOURCE IS WITHIN.

Someone said something extraordinary to me the other day, while we were discussing Sathya Sai baba and the Muddenahalli splinter group. The now infamous group who have forged ahead in Sai Baba’s name. They said why be attached to body parts when you can seek the Source within? True, why do we hang onto body parts or a body form, when the wisest teachers tell us clearly we are not a body. The source of wisdom is love and that is something we can all find within ourselves. All spiritual teachers speak with one voice, when they say that a flesh and blood temporary body is just a vehicle to be used while on Earth. We are all just body-parts with the potential of finding the eternal truth within us. Best to focus and find that sacred place in our hearts where the in-dweller resides. Yes, it takes a lot of determination and dedication but it is not without merit, that we eventually find out that our spiritual teacher’s guidance is both wise and compassionate. But as always in cases of well-known spiritual teachers, once they pass from this world, those pivotal devotees who once held positions or power within their late teachers setup, struggle over the right to carry his/her name on in their own chosen way. They claim power and possession over their late teacher’s movement and cause confusion and division among followers. Power struggles are part of every religion and almost all sects. Such power struggle are normal in this ego-centric world, often going against everything their late teacher had taught. When hard nosed egos decides they are the one and only “Source of Light and Knowledge,” and they are the chosen ones, they literally go out of their way to be deliberately spiteful and vengeful to others, who do not see them as the “new mouth-piece” for their late teacher.

…
SO LISTEN TO THE WISDOM OF THE TEACHER AND DON’T ALLOW BODY PARTS TO INTERFERE WITH YOUR SEARCH FOR THE INNER SOURCE. ❤ ❤ ❤

The early days in the old Mandir

 

Sathya Sai Baba’s words on mediums and cheats.

 

Today, Sai Baba’s Samadhi  has a concentrated energy force that permeates all areas of his ashram. Very much like  a vortex of a storm, this energy or shakti is far-reaching.  The uplifting vibrations are  apparent in and around the Shine, embedded as they are, in every nook and cranny of the immediate area of the Samadhi. The guru’s shakti has now become a forceful tool for enlightenment. For those who come to the Shrine to worship and practise, there’s nothing better than the vibrations of the late Sai Baba.

 

 

Master Kabir – Children Of Light

The Ascended Masters are our elder brethren, highly evolved souls, also known as the Illumined Ones or the Elect. Those who have incarnated on Earth have been teachers, prophets, leaders or creative artists. Because they have been so much more evolved than we are and have, therefore, seen life with Divine understanding they have acted and spoken differently from the average human being. As a result many of them have been martyred, ridiculed and put to death. Only subsequently have they been deified or turned into saints. They have paved the way for us and we are assured that as our turn comes to ascend we will have an easier passage.

In order to help us now many of the Ascended Masters are communicating telepathically with people whose vibrations are high enough to receive their messages. As more individuals are becoming enlightened and dedicating themselves to the spiritual path, the Illumined Ones are able to impress or channel through them great waves of light, hope, inspiration and truth. When we are ready for the responsibility which is inherent in working with the Illumined Ones they will guide and assist us in our evolution. In the past this is something that only happened to the very few who were aware and pure enough to tune in to their broadcast. Now it is available to us as soon as we raise our vibrational frequency high enough. These are some of the Ascended Masters on whom you may call for help.

Here’s a little about the Ascended Master Kabir

Six hundred years ago Kabir was born in India in 1398 AD. He lived for 120 years and is said to have relinquished his body in 1518. This period is also said to be the beginning of Bhakti Movement in India.

A weaver by profession, Kabir ranks among the world’s greatest poets. Back home in India, he is perhaps the most quoted author. The Holy Guru Granth Sahib contains over 500 verses by Kabir. The Sikh community in particular and others who follow the Holy Granth, hold Kabir in the same reverence as the other ten Gurus.

Kabir openly criticized all sects and gave a new direction to the Indian philosophy. This is due to his straight forward approach that has a universal appeal. It is for this reason that Kabir is held in high esteem all over the world. To call Kabir a universal Guru is not an over exaggeration. To me personally, the very name Kabir means Guru’s Grace.

I have been personally very deeply influenced by reading Kabir.  Kibir reveals my feelings and also, how this idea of my translating Kabir’s verses, came into its being.

Here is one of Kabir’s love songs along with the translation.

The Master is an expert Dyer, He has colored my veil

Removing the dark stains, he gave that color of love
By washing which fades not but becomes brighter by the day
Using water of affection in the tub of feelings, He poured the color of love
Rinsing away the bodily sorrows and dirt, the Expert dyed it deftly
The Master who dyed the veil is expert, beloved and great
I surrender everything to Him – Body, Mind, Wealth and Life
Says Kabir, The Beloved Dyer is benevolent on me
Covered with this cool veil, My being is blissfully fulfilled.

Explanation

In this wonderful love song, Kabir brings into focus the sense of completeness,  fulfillment and realization of the Truth within.

Most of the worldly acquisitions (referred as colorings) lose their luster over time. In other words, even though they may attract us immensely in the beginning, they lose their charm as time progresses. For example if we buy a new car, we feel so thrilled to have it as our possession. Even other people compliment us on our new acquisition. We take extreme care that it doesn’t get dirty, stained or scratched/bumped by another vehicle. But as time progresses, it slowly becomes just like any other possession we have.

Kabir, in this song, points out how a spiritual or inward-directed coloring is the only reality that actually grows in its beauty and luster with time. The veil, in this song, represents the sheaths of perception that cover our innermost being. These sheaths, in turn, are the mechanism of how we perceive reality. The coloring of spirituality (given to us by the Guru) indeed permeates all these sheaths. While normally our perceptions are covered by a myriad of worldly colors, the spiritual coloring, on the other hand, is unique, one-pointed and singular. That is, it replaces our dispersed perspective by a single color of love for God. This oneness removes confusion and cleanses the root of all maladies. And once an unalloyed clarity emerges even this color disappears, making us the display the glorious radiance of our inner being in all its purity and joy.

Translation by

Rajender Krishan