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"The Importance of the Guru"
Speech by H.H. Shri Swami Vishveshwarananda Saraswati, President, Omkarananda Ashram,
held in Yogalaya Ashram, Muni-ki-reti, on 11th May 2011

My heartfelt Adorations to the Divinity in all of you!

Today I have been requested to speak about the Guru. With Guru you are everything, without Guru you are simply nothing. Swami Omkarananda said: "Guru is Self-Realization in action. Guru is the Remover of darkness. Guru is the Light. Guru is the Remover of ignorance."

Unfortunately, today, multimedia, TV and all kinds of entertainment are robbing us of the true knowledge of the Divine. The darker forces, the so-called "Maya", are trying to keep us away from the Reality. But what can bring us truly to the Reality? It is the Guru. If the Guru is with you, you have a wonderful way to go straight ahead.

Now very often the question was there: "How do you come to the Guru? Do you have to search for a Guru?"

Here very often the history shows: The Guru is looking for you. If He sees that a particular Soul is longing for divine Wisdom, He will definitely call that person. You may not even realize when He calls you. And when He calls you and gives you the opportunity to be with Him, then be devoted to Him. Only absolute and complete surrender to the Guru can bring results. If you are not following strictly the path shown by the Guru, you are simply wasting the life and you are also wasting a lot of the time, which the Guru gives you. Nothing is as precious in life as the Guru. You may be a Bill Gates, you may be a Prime Minister, you may be anything, but you are simply nothing without a real Guru. On the other hand if you are nothing, but if you have a real Guru, you are simply everything. So, what would you like to become? You would like to become everything! And what means everything? You want to realize that for what we have come to this planet here. And who can help you for this? Again the Guru can help you.

There are definitely different types of Gurus. Today the word "Guru" is quite easily used. But what means "Guru"? Guru means "Teacher", a Guidance. If you have a real Guru, a real spiritual Teacher with you, your path is made very, very simple, very easy. But only under that condition, that you are following His footsteps, under the condition that you listen to His wisdom, that you live a life whatever has been suggested to you.

Now, when you are on that spiritual path, and you are with a Guru, the Guru tries to purify your life. There are a lot of obstacles in our hearts, we are tempted with so many things, we are attached to so many things. So, it is not easy to immediately remove this, to remove all our weaknesses, our habits, our jealousy, hatred, passion, lust and everything. It takes time. And therefore it is very essential that you remain steadfast with the Guru.

To follow a Guru is not a one-day matter, where you go there, meet the Guru once, and then you say: "He is my Guru." Sometimes, a real Guru may not accept you even after 10 or 20 years. It needs the development of the disciple to be accepted by a true Guru. And if you are accepted by a true Guru, the heaven is open for you, the Truth is open for you. Otherwise ignorance and other difficulties keep you in a situation where the outcome is absolutely zero. People are being guided by such dangerous forces. The entire life, the entire awareness around them, keeps them anywhere else, but not in the Truth. Now, basically, for what we have come to this planet here? Have we come to this planet to become big politicians, a businessman, a builder or anything else here? If we have not come to this planet for realizing the Truth, our life is simply wasted. God has not given us this life, just that we are becoming a "big" man. You may be a "big" man here, you may achieve great things here, but when you don't realize that inner Source of the Divine Reality, you are absolutely nowhere, you are moving in an ocean of darkness, in an ocean of difficulties, and any temptation can drag you down even more. And the more we are attached to all these worldly and difficult, critical situations, the more we are entering into a painful life.

You see, true happiness can only be achieved if we realize what is the Truth. Otherwise, worldly matters may give us just a happiness for a moment, but this happiness is never lasting. An ever-lasting true happiness can only be achieved through the Realization of the Truth. Who can bring us to the Realization of the Truth? A real Guru. But we have to follow His footsteps. We have to believe Him. We have to be dedicated to the Guru. A true disciple has to be ready to do anything, if it is the wish of the Guru.

Kindly let me tell you a very small story: In the interior Himalayas many, many years before, there was living a great Saint, a really enlightened Soul. A boy went to Him and said: "Oh Guru, please accept me as your disciple."  The Guru said: "You are absolutely not worthy. Go into the world and live there."  But that boy had such an intense feeling that he wants to realize the Truth and that he desperately needs that Guru. Again he went to the Guru and again the Guru sent him away. And that happened even for a third time. The boy was so determined to come close to the Guru, to be accepted by the Guru, that he told the Guru: "If you do not accept me, I will jump down from the mountain, because my life is useless."  The Guru said: "You jump!"  Afterwards the boy simply jumped down and died. Now the Guru called His other disciples and told them: "You bring the body up to me!"  So, they went down, they brought the crushed body in front of the Guru, and the Guru, with His supreme power, put the hands over him, made him alive and told him: "You are my disciple!"

Now, why I am telling you this story is: Who of us has that type of dedication, even if the Guru is keeping you aside? The Guru doesn't keep you aside, because He doesn't like you. But the Guru keeps you aside, because He wants to purify you. So, when you are fit, when your heart has been purified, then He will accept you and then He can give you the secret of a divine life, then He can keep His hands above you and bless you, and then He can grant you Self-Realization.

So, it is a very clear fact, that without a real Guru, a divine life is absolutely impossible. Of course, we can live a worldly life, we can in the morning go to the working place, we can carry on like this in the evening, we can see TV and all this, we can go to the disco, do all kinds of things - how much happiness we will derive from that? Have we really got the feeling of something extraordinary? Are we really in a situation, where we can say that we are liberated? Never! If we want to get out of this misery of this worldly life, we have to spiritualize our life, we have to purify our life and we have to understand, that the greatness of the Guru is supreme, that with Him you can obtain everything. "The Guru is the ladder," Guru Nanak said. Guru is the ladder to the Supreme Reality, to the Heaven, to the Jewel of the Nectar of Immortality, to the endless Beauty and the Power and Perfection. Even Guru Nanak was very clear about this fact here. And all the Gurus in this line are absolutely one and the same. Once you realize the Truth, the Truth is unmatched. It is always one and the same. Maybe from different parts of religion people are moving towards the Truth, maybe from Hinduism, maybe from Islam, from Sikhism, from Christianity, from anything else, but finally, everybody will reach the Truth.

Finally, each and every one, in every religion, needs a Guru. If he has a real Guru, he has the guide with him, he can make progress, he can truly be liberated. But you see, on one hand you can't have a spiritual Guru and on the other hand live a very worldly life. If the Guru accepts you, he gives you Power. But if you then continue to live a bad and very worldly life you misuse the Power given to you and you will even harm your Guru. Once you have started to be with the Guru and to live a truly religious life, then please live it perfectly.

And once you have taken up this life, then be with Him, don't change. There are people who say very often: "He is my Guru, that is also my Guru, that other person is also my Guru..."  How many Gurus one can have here? Lord is only one. So, have your Guru, that one, and that Guru will bring you to that what you are truly being born for - to the true Liberation.

But on one hand, one cannot live a worldly life and on the other hand expect from the Guru that He does wonders for you. You see, the Guru gives you the key, but you have to turn it. You have to open the lock. He will do everything, but you have to cooperate. Even then, the Guru takes a lot of pain on His shoulders, so that you can make progress. Many Avataras have taken a lot of pain upon themselves so that others can make progress. Great Saints have taken pain on their shoulders, so that we can grow. This is their Greatness and their Power.

Slowly, slowly, in a very subtle way, mankind always goes towards degeneration. We find, what we earlier objected as bad, we slowly feel, "oh, this is the right thing."  And slowly, slowly man degenerates. But from time to time an Avatara is coming like Krishna, like Buddha, like so many great Saints, in order to give again the right knowledge, to give the understanding, what for we are actually living. Those real great Saints are trying to bring humanity out of this endless source of pain, of this endless chain of rebirth. How many times we want to come again and again on this planet over here? Even if we think: "Today everything is fine,"  but ask yourself: "Are we truly permanently happy?"  Maybe you will be happy for a while, when you get a beautiful new car, wonderful mobile phones and so. How long is this happiness lasting? The next day a better new mobile phone comes and suddenly yours becomes an old phone. Anything which is in the world can never give you eternal happiness. Only truly spiritual life can give you eternal happiness. Only truly spiritual, pure life can take you out of this misery of coming and going and coming and going. Today you are sitting here, tomorrow you don't know where you will be, or where you will be, when your body will be gone. But when you have your Guru, then the Guru can guide you in this life and He can even guide you in the next life. So, the value of a Guru is of the highest importance here.

We can learn from all these great Saints. The Saints have given up the entire worldly life. These Saints are not attracted to whatever outer beauty is put in front of them. These Saints are here to show to the people how to live a spiritual and divine life. And here again I have to appreciate the wonderful way, that people, like Shri Gopalacharyaji, are always trying with nice divine music, with Bhajan-Kirtan, to touch the inner heart and to show to all devotees with a tremendous wisdom and with lots of comparisons through Shlokas, this divine Wisdom, which is being taught by Krishna, by Lord Rama and others. He tries to bring this Wisdom into the hearts of the people and he tries to get the people more and more close to the Divinity. Are not such people extraordinary?

Or see the wonderful disciples Shankaratilakji is having. How dedicated they are, cutting their hair, wearing a traditional dress and being dedicated to build up something with an iron discipline. Iron discipline is very essential. Without discipline and without hard work nothing is possible. For a spiritual achievement, for a spiritual progress, hard work is immensely needed, because our mind is the biggest enemy of all of us. Every time the mind is trying to drag us down. One single second is sufficient, it can pull you down and can make your life most miserable. Therefore the wisdom says: "Empty mind is devil's workshop."  Nothing is worse than idleness. Idleness is the root cause for all tragedy, for all blunder, for all difficulties.

So, how your Guruji is usually trying to guide you? He says: "You enter into a life of Karma Yoga."  Karma Yoga means selfless, divine service. Be engaged from morning till evening. Don't ask for reward. Not even a "thank you"  you should take. Krishna has clearly said: "Do your service without expecting anything!"  But how many are ready to do a service without expecting anything? In the evening we are waiting till our pockets are full. But if our life could be in such a way, that we can do selfless, divine service, which is called Karma Yoga, from morning till evening, then our mind will be so much concentrated on our work, that even sickness and other problems have difficulties to catch us.

See, the Guru is always giving wonderful advices also. The Guru is telling you: "You recite Mantras!"  "Pray without break!"  Every Guru, every Saint says: "You pray constantly!"  Prayer is a pure protector. Now ask yourself in the evening: "How many minutes I have prayed during the day?"  We may have gossiped, or wasted time on anything. Maybe we are awake for 18 hours, and maybe for 17 hours we did nothing else than gossip, criticize, entering into nonsense, politics, criticizing the neighbour, criticizing the others, checking: "Oh, their dress is not ok..., oh, this is not ok...,"  anything else we think, but we don't think of our prayers, even if the Guru has given us a beautiful Mantra like Gayatri Mantra or other wonderful Mantras. Let us try once to constantly recite this type of Mantras. Then see how the life is going to change, and see how suddenly happiness is there. You can be your own judge. The more your spiritual progress is there, the more your happiness increases in your heart. But I am not speaking of happiness due to outer things like a beautiful camera or those many other things. Because this camera is perishable, one day it will go. In the same way, your beautiful first class mobile phone will go one day. True happiness is achieved through prayers, meditation, through purification of your heart. That will never go, that will remain forever with you.

And if you acquire such a type of purity, you have to remain with it, because every time there is a challenge, every time there is a temptation. Has not history shown, that sometimes even great Saints were tempted so much, that they entered into the biggest difficulties? The closer you are coming to the Truth, the bigger the difficulty, which will be put in front of you. And who can protect you from all of this? The true Guru. But He can only protect you, when you go strictly on His line. Even an inch going away from the line and the guidance of the Guru can make you fall down into a tragedy, which may cost you life after life. So important is the guidance of the Guru!

A real Guru can never be tempted by any worldly pleasures, whatsoever may be there. No real Guru can ever die. The spiritual Guru is always here, even if He one day leaves the body aside. But He is always there. And the Guru will always be with the true disciple and will always guide him and give him exactly the right intuitions what to do, eternally.

India is a most wonderful place. India is a very spiritual country and that is what makes India No. 1 in the world, not the politics, not the economy, not all these things here. It is spiritual power, which India has. And India is very rare in this field here. So many cultures have come and have gone, but the Vedic culture was, is and will always be one of the highest cultures, with one of the finest wisdom. We simply have to act according to it, we have to follow it, we have to read, read books of holy people here. Try always to remain in the company of holy people. "Tell me with whom you are going and I am telling you who you are."  The company of yours matters a lot. A good friend is always trying to bring you up. A bad "friend" is always trying to bring you into misery. So, your friendship with saintly people is very important. Your life should always be in such a way.

India is full of beautiful Temples. India is full of the presence of great Divinities, Saints and Sages. Simply go into a Temple, pray to Them and you will get an answer. That is definitely, what any Guru would like to tell you. See, the Guru may not always be with you outwardly, but when your dedication to the Guru is so deep, then wherever you go, He is there, even if His body is thousands of kilometres away. And the real Guru, whom you are having in your heart, even while you only think of Him, at that particular moment He is here and He will save you. But you have to believe in Him. You have to be dedicated to Him. You have to follow His words with sincere action, then only the results will come.

And finally, for what we have to come to this planet? Have we come for our enjoyment, our pleasure, our good food in the evening, which fills our stomach? Afterwards different diseases like diabetics and all kinds of problems will be here. Is this our life here? That means, we are tempted by certain things, which are all perishable. We should not hold ourselves on to things which are perishable. We should hold on to a matter which is imperishable. Then only true happiness will come. Is it not, that everybody is in search for true happiness? But man is ignorant and searches in the wrong place for the true happiness. And what he experiences because of this? He might have acquired a whole house, full of gadgets and all kinds of things. He lives for 2-3 years in a great happiness. One day robbers come and make his house empty, and he is morally down, he is disturbed, frustrated, etc. So, has this house given him eternal happiness? It has given him sorrow. The more he got, the bigger was the sorrow, when he had to leave. So, why greatest Saints are leaving everything? Why they leave even the smallest thing? They don't want to be attached to anything. A little attachment is sufficient to bring us down to a level which is very, very dangerous. So, we have to control ourselves and with the help of a Guru we are definitely capable to make our lives in such a way that we become shining personalities, not only for ourselves but for each and everybody who is in touch with us.

A person who is truly dedicated to the Guru will be a shining Light, a Power, a divine Light, which affects others also. He will be always in a very joyous, in a very happy mood.

In India there is a wonderful saying: "Guru is greater than God."  You see, the Lord is here, he is everything. He is here. I cannot touch Him, though He is here. But I can go to the Guru, touch the Guruji, He is here. So, for me, Guru is greater than God. That is a very essential thing. God has taken a form - maybe the form of Adishankaracharya, maybe the form of any great Saint. So, we can go to them, we can talk to them, we can request them. We can ask them for help and they will help. It is God Himself who will help, because they have manifested Him in their living of a divine life, of a pure life. And God has entered them, and they can affect your life. So, it is very essential to always try to be on the holy feet of a Guru. Humbly, nicely try to serve Him.

See, there are so many unfortunate qualities in our hearts: Arrogance, jealousy, hatred and lust. Sometimes the Guru may also test you. You see, the Guru is not always here, to just give you nice flowery words, each and everything and to overflow you with any kind of comfortable things. A real Guru, who likes you, makes you work very hard, and may put you in a situation, which may seem to be very, very difficult. See, there is a saying: "When God likes you, He corrects you."  It is very essential. Then only we can make progress. Suppose, if a mother is there, who likes her child like anything and gives to her child chocolates and chocolates and chocolates, then the child is finally spoilt from top to bottom. And finally the child has to go to the dentist, and so on. But a wise, loving mother gives to the child only that much chocolate, which she feels is just necessary and not harmful for the child. And so does the Guru. He gives you exactly that what you need for your progress. But that sometimes is not so easy for the disciple to understand.

And one thing more, when we speak of the Guru - and I have been requested today to speak about the importance of the Guru - one thing you have to know: Once you have taken up the path shown by a real Guru, don't change your way, remain steadfast, whatsoever is there. What sometimes happens is, that disciples, because of temptations, are entering into a very negative life and afterwards their minds will be so much blinded by the darkness of their own bad lives, that in their eyes the Guru, whom they first realized as God Himself, suddenly becomes for them a bad personality. And they will start attacking the Guru. Very often this danger has happened, that people, who have been thrown away from the spiritual path because of their own weaknesses, have afterwards attacked the Guru. But if you attack a Saint, a God-realized Personality, the suffering will be endless. Nothing is worse than this kind of suffering. So once you have the Guru, stick on to Him, be loyal to Him, follow His Heart. He is the man who brings you right to that place, where you belong. He knows exactly what you need. But our whole heart should be concentrated on that.

You see, worldly matters, worldly power and all kinds of things are very momentary. Worldly power cannot help us out in certain situations. You may be the most powerful man, but when your car is just two minutes before a crash, can anyone save you? Impossible! But what can really save you is, when you have dedication, when you are at the holy feet of a real Guru, who protects you and who will see that even that car crash doesn't take place, or if at all it takes place, it will happen in such a way, that you are practically not being hurt. So wonderful and so powerful is the real Guru!

So, it is very essential that we follow the great Saints, that we follow their footsteps, that we follow their advices. If we are doing this in a true way and with a happy heart, then we will suddenly experience wonderful things in our lives. We will enjoy Bliss and we may even start dancing in divine Happiness.

My heartfelt Adorations and Thanks to all of you for the few moments I could speak to you. Thank you, thank you, thank you very much!

Swami Omkarananda Maharaj ki Jay!
 

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