Concept of GURU

Prince or commoner, rich or poor, every individual who wishes to get empowered and enlightened benefits greatly from the guidance of an able guru. Even the gods sought out gurus for themselves. Lord Krishna's guru was Sandipanirishi. Rama and Laxmana along with many other princes learnt all skills from their spiritual master, Guru Vasishtha. When Swami Vivekananda first visited Ramakrishna Paramahansa he asked: "I have read the Bhagavad Gita and other scriptures several times, i lecture and give discourses on the Gita and Ramayana. Do i still need harbour of a saint; do i still need a guru?" Ramakrishna didn't reply to Vivekananda's question. After a few days Ramakrishna called upon Vivekananda and handed him a parcel to be delivered at a nearby village a few hours away by the sea route. Early morning the boat and sailor would be ready and all he needed to do was to go to the village and deliver the parcel to the designated person. Vivekananda agreed and decided to start early. He found the boat and the sailor ready to put out to sea. Suddenly, upon sitting in the boat, Vivekananda realised that he didn't know the road to the village. He inquired of the sailor who had no clue, either. Vivekananda decided to go back to his guru to ask him the shortest way to the village. Upon this Ramakrishna said, "Narendra, this is my reply to the question you asked me when we met the first time: Today, you have the medium (the boat), you have the resource (the sailor), you have the road (the sea), you know what to do (deliver the parcel) and you also know where to go but you don't know the way. Likewise you have read all the scriptures, and you can conduct wonderful discourses on them. However, to realise the wisdom of scriptures one needs a guru, someone who has already traversed that path so that he can guide you through the journey and encourage you to not give up." In Sanskrit, 'gu' is one who dispels and 'ru' means darkness. Every individual who wishes to rise above his existing levels needs a lighthouse, a guiding star to guide him on the journey of life, who can help by dispelling darkness at every step. Lord Swaminarayan ordained Sikshapatri, containing 212 conventions of code of conduct for every human being. One of the points reads: "Even the most learned of men will become morally declined if he is not involved in devotion to God and in good acquaintance." Many seers have made various suggestions on how to embark on the spiritual path according to their perceived wisdom. Is there a universally accepted spiritual definition? How should one lead one's life which balances both the spiritual and the material? To understand all this and choose the right path for a balanced life of duty, responsibility, love, detachment and striving for higher consciousness, you need the grace and guidance of a spiritual master. As the saying goes "When the disciple is ready the Master arrives." Like a lone ship sailing in turbulent waters hunts for a safe harbour to anchorage, similarly one needs to constantly endeavour in the journey of life for a true guru, a harbour against all storms.

Spirituality Means Willingness to Change By Sri Swami Atmaswarupananda

It is not uncommon that when a speaker is speaking toan audience that he or she will get insights from whatthey said and perhaps be affected even more than theiraudience. This will normally happen if a speaker hasthought deeply upon a subject, if it’s a subject thatthey are keenly interested in. A theme like"Spirituality Means Change" is meant to be such achallenge to the speakers—so that as they prepare thetalk, or give it, they themselves realize theimplications of what they are saying and it goes invery, very deep. When this happens it cannot help butcommunicate itself to the audience. Actually, most of us are not totally satisfied withour lives. We want change. So when we hear thatspirituality means change, we can see many things inour lives that we would like to have changed.Especially we would like to have more Be good, Do goodin our lives. And, also, we would like to expand ourconsciousness beyond its present narrow boundaries—toenter into greater understanding. If that is so, why is it that we haven’t seen greaterchange in ourselves over the years? Why do most of ussometimes even feel that there has been no change, noimprovement? Perhaps the discovery we will make thisis that while there definitely is one part ofourselves that wants to change, there is another partof ourselves that simply does not want to change. Eachone will have to ponder this question for oneself,because no one else can know our interior exactly. Butwhat we may discover by the end of the week is thatthere is a surprising balance between wanting tochange and not wanting to change. Therefore, one way of looking at the themeSpirituality Means Change would be to see that in thefinal analysis spirituality means the willingness tochange. We have all tried to change things and beenunable to do so; we all have things we want to change;we’re in a stalemate. What is the solution? Beingwilling to change. That seems like a very reasonable suggestion. However,if we’re willing to change, then perhaps that impliesthat we will lose control over our lives. But, whatdid Jesus mean when He said, "Follow Me." He implied,"I know best. I know the way. Trust Me. Let go of yourcontrol of your life and put it in my hands." What didLord Krishna mean when He said, "No one crossessamsara without taking refuge in Me alone." What didHe mean when He told us to abandon all dharmas, allour ideas of right and wrong, and take refuge in Himalone. "I will save you from all sins. Don’t worry,"Lord Krishna said. He meant that our idea, our keepingcontrol of our life is what is killing us spiritually.The solution is to trust Him, take refuge in Himalone. And so, as we explore the theme Spirituality MeansChange, perhaps in the final analysis we will have tolook at the subject in terms of Spirituality MeansWillingness to Change.

Control of Thought: The Mind and Control of Thought

Control of Thought
1. The mind is like a wheel which revolves endlessly with tremendous velocity. It generates new thoughts with every revolution. This wheel is set in motion by the vibration of psychic Prana or subtle Prana. The practice of Pranayama lessens the velocity of the mind and slows down the wheel gradually. Perfect control of Prana will bring the wheel to a standstill.

2. Alcohol, meat, Rajasic foods, cinema, novel-reading, obscene songs, obscene sights, evil company, obscene talks will make the wheel of mind revolve very rapidly whereas fruits, Sattvic food, company of Mahatmas, study of religious books, solitude, Japa, Kirtan, concentration, meditation, enquiry of 'Who am I?' will slow down the wheel and eventually bring it down to a standstill.

3. Identify yourself with the Immortal Self. Enquire 'Who am I?' whenever thoughts arise in your mind. All the thoughts will gradually die.

4. Fewer the desires, lesser the thoughts. Become absolutely desireless. The wheel will stop entirely. If you reduce your wants, if you do not try to fulfill your desires, if you try to eradicate your desires one by one, your thoughts will diminish in frequency and length. The number of thoughts per minute will also decrease. Fewer the thoughts, greater the peace. Remember this always. A wealthy man who does speculation in a big city and who has a large number of thoughts has a restless mind, in spite of his comforts, whereas, a Sadhu who lives in the cave of Himalayas and who is practicing thought-control is very happy in spite of his poverty.

5. Concentration will increase by lessening the number of thoughts. Certainly it is an uphill work to reduce the number of thoughts. In the beginning it will be taxing you much. The task will be very unpleasant. But later on you will rejoice as you will get immense strength of mind and internal peace by reduction of thoughts. Armed with the patience, perseverance, vigilance, fiery determination and iron will, you can crush the thoughts easily just as you crush a lemon or an orange with ease. After crushing, it will be easy for you to root them out. Mere crushing or suppression will not suffice. There may be again resurrection of thoughts. They should be totally eradicated, just as a loose tooth is rooted out.

6. When you give a blow on the head of a snake with a stick and crush its head, it remains absolutely motionless for some time. You think it is dead. All of a sudden it raise its head and runs swiftly. Even so the thoughts that were once crushed and suppressed by you regain strength and raise up their heads. They must be destroyed totally beyond resurrection.

7. It is very difficult to fix the mind on one thought in the beginning. Diminish the number of thoughts. Try to have thoughts on one subject. If you think of a rose you can have all sorts of thoughts connected with rose only. You can think of different kinds of roses that are grown in different parts of the world. You can think of the various preparations that are made out of roses and their uses. You can allow even thoughts of other kinds of flowers to enter; but do not entertain thoughts of fruits and vegetables. Check the aimless wandering of the mind. Do not have thoughts at random when you think of a rose. Gradually you can fix the mind on one thought. You will have to discipline the mind daily. Eternal vigilance is needed in thought-control.

8. Fewer the thoughts, greater the mental strength and concentration. Suppose the average number of thoughts that pass through your brain within one hour is one hundred. If you succeed in reducing them by constant practice of concentration and meditation to ninety you have gained ten per cent of power of concentration of mind. Every thought that is reduced adds strength and peace to the mind. Reduction of even one thought will give you mental strength and peace of mind. You may not be able to feel this in the beginning as you do not possess a subtle intellect; but there is a spiritual thermometer inside to register the reduction of even a single thought. If you reduce one thought the mental strength that you have gained by this reduction will help you to reduce the second thought easily.

9. In rubber plantation, planters take recourse to the method of thinning out the rubber trees by cutting the small surplus trees which stand in the vicinity of big trees. By so doing they can tap more milk or rubber juice from the big trees. Even so you must thin out the thoughts by destroying them one by one to drink the ambrosial milk or nectar of Immortality.

10. When the tail of a lizard is cut, the cut end will flutter about for some time, as there is still a little residual Prana in the tail. After one or two minutes all motion will cease. Even so, even after thinning and reduction of thoughts, some thoughts will move about like the tail of the lizard. But they are powerless. They cannot do any serious havoc. There is no vitality in them. Just as the drowning man tries to catch anything to save himself, so also these lifeless thoughts try their level best to come back to their previous state of life and vigour. If you go on with your daily practice of concentration and meditation regularly, they will die by themselves like a gheeless lamp.

11. In the beginning of your practice of thought-control you will experience great difficulty. You will have to wage war with them. They will have to struggle their level best for their own existence. They will say: "We have every right to remain in this place of mind. We have a sole monopoly from time immemorial to occupy this area. Why should we vacate our dominion now? We will fight for our birthright till the end." They will pounce upon you with great ferocity. When you sit for meditation only all sorts of evil thoughts will crop up. As you attempt to suppress them they want to attack you with redoubled force and vigour. But positive always overcomes the negative. Just as darkness cannot stand before the sun, just as a leopard cannot stand before the lion so also all these dark, negative thoughts, these invisible intruders, enemies of peace, cannot stand before the sublime divine thoughts. They must die by themselves.

12. Just as the warrior chops off the heads of his enemies one by one, when they come of a fortress through a trap door, so also chop the thoughts one by one when they emerge out through the trap door to the surface of the mind.

13. The substitution method is very easy and effective in the destruction of evil thoughts. Cultivate positive virtuous thoughts of mercy, love, purity, forgiveness, integrity, generosity, humility, etc., in the garden of your mind. The negative vicious thoughts of hatred, lust, anger, greed, pride, etc., will die by themselves. It is difficult to destroy the evil thoughts by attacking them directly. You will have to tax your will and waste your energy.

14. Suppose the evil thoughts stay in your mind for twelve hours and recur every third day. If you can make them stay for ten hours and recur once in a week by daily practice of concentration and meditation that is a decided improvement. If you continue your practice, the period of stay and recurrence will be gradually lessened. Eventually they will disappear altogether. Compare your present state of mind with that of last year or year before last. You will be able to find out your progress. The progress will be very slow in the beginning. It will be difficult for you to gauge your growth and progress.

15. Thoughts gain strength by repetition. If you entertain an evil thought or a good thought once, this evil thought or good thought has a tendency to recur again. Thoughts crowd together. Just as the birds of the same feather flock together, so also if you entertain one evil thought all sorts of evil thoughts join together and attack you. If you entertain any good thought, all good thoughts join together.

16. Like attracts like. If you entertain evil thought that thought attracts all sorts of evil thoughts from others. You pass on that thought to others also. Thought moves. Thought is a living dynamic force. Thought is a thing. If you allow your mind to dwell on a sublime thought, this thought will attract good thoughts from others. You pass on good thoughts to others. You pollute the world with your bad thoughts. You help the world with your good thoughts.

17. When you reach the spiritual summit of thoughtlessness you will reach the abode of Immortality and eternal peace and supreme bliss. O Ram! Start your homeward journey. March boldly in the spiritual path. Be not afraid of difficulties. Be bold. Ascend peak after peak. Cross the deep ravines of subtle Moha and pride that come on your way. Take a long jump and cross the mystic frontier of Avyaktam. Chop off the thoughts that wage again and again a guerrilla war. Enter now the infinite domain of pure bliss and highest knowledge. Regain your old pristine divine glory. Rest in your Sat-chit-ananda Svarupa.

From "Easy Steps to Yoga" by Sri Swami Sivananda.