← Guru-Bhakti YogaHis teaching on the Guru

INTRODUCTION

Knowledge is subject-object relation. It is a process, and not being. All processes are movements brought about by an interaction of external stimuli and internal condition. The rise of knowledge in an individual is a mysterious process effected through such an interaction. No doubt, knowledge in its essential nature is universal and does not admit of any process. But by the rise of knowledge what is meant is not the existence of this transcendent awareness, but the process of the manifestation of it in the relative individual the highest knowledge is called Swaroopa-Jnana, knowledge of being as such. But the rise of knowledge in the Jiva is a relative act of the expression of this Swaroopa-Jnana through the Vritti of the Manas. Hence during the process of the rise knowledge takes the form of what is termed Vritti Jnana. Ana Vritti-Jnana is definitely a spatio-temporal condition of consciousness.

Vritti-Jnana is the same as psychological consciousness, whatever be the degree of its intensity, depth and expansiveness. Vritti-Jnana therefore cannot appear without the relation of the subject to an object. This relation is the coming together of the subjective and the objective processes in the universe. Every event is a commingling of two events or conditions, one acting as the subject and the other as the object. The spiritual aspirant may be considered from his point of view a subjective entity in which spiritual knowledge manifests itself by degrees. Now this manifestation of knowledge is really the reflection of the Transcendental Consciousness through the mind which gradually increases its transparency by the process of self discipline and concentration. It is the difference in the degree of transparency in the mind that is responsible for the difference that we notice in the degree of intensity of the manifestation of knowledge. As every event, in order to take place, requires an external agency, the aspirant is in need of a Guru to enable the manifestation of the knowledge within him. The disciple and the Guru are two complementary entities or bits of universal process acting on each other in a reciprocal manner. The factors that bring about the rise of knowledge in the disciple are the receptive capacity of the disciple and the consciousness-force of the Guru. There cannot be such a knowledge-interaction if the psychic condition of the disciple is not well-prepared and made ready to fit in with the nature of the entry of the consciousness of the Guru into it. This condition has to be fulfilled when any event in this universe takes place. No interaction of any kind can take place anywhere unless two complementary phases of universal process came together.

That knowledge can rise of its own accord from within by self-analysis and that an external Guru is not necessary at all is not a universally acceptable tenet. History has shown that the educational process is in great need of the intense activity of teachers in any branch of learning. If knowledge can naturally rise in everyone without any aid whatsoever there would be no need for schools, colleges and universities in the world. Even those who try to propound this misleading theory of the self-competency of the individual who can act independent of teachers are persons who have been trained by teachers. Yes; the effort on the part of the disciple or student is not, in any way, a small factor in the revelation of knowledge; it is as important as the need for instruction by a teacher. In this universe the subject and the object stand on the same level of reality, which fact is proved by the possibility of a mutual interaction of the two. There is no reaction between forces of different planes of consciousness, though in the case of the action of the Guru it is possible that he may focus his higher consciousness through the medium of a lesser plane in which the disciple is placed, in order to bring about the required transformation in the mind of the latter. This process of the action of the Guru’s consciousness is called Shakti-Sanchara or the descent of movement of the power of the Guru in the disciple. There are cases where Gurus have even done Sadhana for the evolution of the disciples by bringing about the purification of the mind of the disciples through direct intervention of a higher consciousness.

There are people who carp and say: “We can find out good and evil, right and wrong, truth and falsehood, by consulting our conscience. There is no need for an external Guru.” It should be remembered that the conscience will not help a person in attaining to correct understanding unless he has reached the height of purity and desirelessness. The impure conscience cannot give right suggestion. The animal conscience cannot direct a person to spiritual knowledge. One’s reason and intellectual convictions are tremendously influenced by one’s subconscious and unconscious mind. The intellect, in most cases, acts as a mere tool in the hands of buried instincts and desires. The conscience of the individual speaks in accordance with his tendencies, proclivities, inclinations, education, habits, passions and the society in which he is placed. The conscience of a savage speaks a language entirely different from that of a civilised European. The Conscience of an African Negro speaks in a manner quite different from the one in which the conscience of an ethically developed Yogi of India does. The sense of duty ingrained in a clerk, a car-driver, a scavenger, a collector and a king is not the same. There are ten different consciences in ten different persons brought up in ten different conditions. Virochana thought for himself, took guidance from his conscience, enquired for himself and came to the conclusion that body is the ultimate self. It should be remembered that the human consciousness is entangled in animal instincts, emotions and gross desires. The tendency of the mind of man is to move in this direction of sense and ego, and not towards higher knowledge. A complete surrender of personality to the Guru who is endowed with the highest realisation avoids such pitfalls on the path of Sadhana and takes the aspirant safely to the light that shines beyond the darkness of Samsara. Human reason and human conscience act in the manner in which they are trained, and as ordinarily they are accustomed to function in accordance with the laws of the appearance of the world and the objects of sense and of the cravings and the ambitions of the ego, they cannot be expected to take one spontaneously to the higher realms of spiritual knowledge.

Those who teach the theory that a Guru is not necessary and that each one should follow one’s own reason and conscience forget the ostensible fact that they themselves take on themselves the role of the Gurus to those whom they teach the doctrine. They begin to command respect, adoration and worship as great teachers, though they teach that there is no need for a teacher. We know how the Buddha, for example, asked his disciples to think for themselves rationally and convince themselves for themselves in regard to the validity of the doctrine which he preached and not to accept anything by mere authority of his word. He did not propound the worship of any god, too. However, the result has been that he is being worshipped as a Great Guru and even a God. The teaching in regard to thinking for oneself and the denial of the need for a Guru naturally implies the acceptance, on the part of the taught, of the person who teaches as a Guru. It is found that the need for a Guru cannot be overcome in any walk of life. It is the nature of human experience to get effected by a process of subject-object interaction.

There is a feeling among some people in the West that the ‘dependence’ of the disciple on the Guru is a psychological bondage which according to the theory of psycho-analysis has to be got over. In this connection it has to be noted however that the relation of the disciple to the Guru is not the psychological dependence which psycho-analysis is familiar with but the surrender of personality to the care of a higher consciousness which includes and transcends the limited individualistic consciousness of the disciple. Further, the disciple’s dependence on the Guru takes the form of a personal relationship only in the beginning, but in the end it becomes a veritable surrender of the individual to the universal. The Guru becomes a symbol of the Eternal. The patient’s dependence on the psycho analyst will not doubt a relationship from which the patient has to break himself away, for this dependence is brought about temporarily for the sake of bringing about a relief of tension in the mind of the patient. When the task is done, the dependence is broken and overcome and the patient becomes free and independent as before. But neither in the beginning nor in the end the relationship of the disciple to the Guru takes the shape of an undesirable dependence. It is dependence on the universal through and through. The Guru is taken not as a body or even as a personality but as a representation of the highest spiritual reality. Thus the dependence of the disciple on the Guru is a gradual process of self-purification on the part of the disciple and of his final attainment of the supreme Godhead.

There are some who often cite the instance of Yajnavalkya’s dissociation of himself from his Guru Vaishampayana as an indication even in ancient times of the possibility of one’s leading an independent spiritual life unrelated to any Guru other than oneself. It is true that Yajnavalkya disconnected himself from Vaishampayana, but this was not because he was not loyal to his Guru but because the Guru was enraged at him and asked him to quit his Ashrama after returning to him whatever knowledge he had imparted. This, of course, created in Yajnavalkya a distrust towards all human Gurus, but he did not give up his search for a Guru. Instead of feeling that there is no need for having a Guru and that one can proceed for oneself independently along the spiritual path, he resorted to a superior Guru, the Sun-God Himself. There is no argument whatsoever in the behaviour of Yajnavalkya which can establish or demonstrate the undesirability of dedicating oneself to a Guru. And when Yajnavalkya acquired a fresh knowledge from the Sun-God, he was ready to impart it to the other disciples of his previous Guru at the request of the latter who is said to have been highly pleased later on at the tremendous strength and aspiration and courage which Yajnavalkya revealed in propitiating the Sun-God.

The highest Guru is God Himself Who reveals Himself in manifold forms through Nature. The universe in which we live is a great teacher of the lessons of life. Every event that occurs before our eyes presents itself before us as a deep lesson with deep significance in it, if only we would be alive to the manner in which Nature works. The universe is the body of God, and it operates in a very mysterious way embracing within its processes the whole gamut of experience, internal as well as external, subjective as well as objective. All that we sense, feel or understand is meant to bring about in us the necessary transformation required in our evolution towards the Supreme Being.

When the process of universal evolution is cut off from our individual consciousness, it goes by the name of mechanistic evolution which seems to drag all individuals with it by force and over which no individual seems to have any control. But when this evolution becomes a part and parcel of one’s consciousness and is assimilated into one’s consciousness it is called the process of Yoga. Yoga is really the cosmic evolution envisaged by the human consciousness in its own Self and with which it has identified its own being. It may also be said to be a compression as it were of the whole scheme of a cosmic process in the human consciousness. When this is done, the surrender of the individual to the Will of God or the Law of the Supreme becomes so complete that all apparent conflict that is seen to exist between the operations of Nature and the ambitions of man vanishes altogether, and human aspiration becomes inseparable from Divine Will and the processes of the universe. This is the highest concept of the Guru, to which every aspirant has to rise, ultimately. The acceptance of a personal Guru is a preparation for and is one of the steps leading to the final absorption of the individual in the Universal. There are various stages in the development of the concept of the Guru and in the manner in which one surrenders oneself to the Guru. But in no stage of spiritual Sadhana can the need for the Guru be overlooked, for the Guru is a name applied to the different degrees in which the Absolute manifests Itself in relation to the aspirant endeavouring to realise it in his Self.