Question:

Ektaji Jai Guru Dev, Can you please give me tips on how to get a Proper True Darshan of Gurudev during this upcoming Guru Poornima. The mind gets swept away with the much fanfare and misses seeing the Guru in his full presence. How do we not get caught in so-called Guru chasing? How to be centered and soak in the Guru, please enlighten!

Answer:

There is only one answer for that – DO NOT SEE THE GURU as a physical being! See the HIGHER ENERGY called Guru Principle or Guru Tattva! This is a more complicated phenomenon than it sounds.

Our mind has invisible hooks. We hook ourselves onto that we ‘like’ and that we ‘dislike’ in this material world. We hook onto People. Situations and Things that are pleasant as well as unpleasant. And our hook makes us believe, ‘what we are hooked onto is true’! Thus concepts are born. This is mental conditioning. Throughout our life, we utilize the same mental conditioning hooks to pave our future path.

When we step into the spiritual world, because of past conditioning, we hook ourselves onto the physical body of the Guru. As the intellect is crude for a beginner on the path, he does not understand ‘Brahman Consciousness/Supreme Energy’; as crude intellect only understands that which is tangible.

• • But slowly as you mature, you start experiencing the higher energy of the ‘Guru in the physical body’. This is the First happening that propels you to the GURU Tattva!
  • A little more maturity happens when you listen/read Gurudev’s wisdom on the ancient scriptures, and that propels you to the Second Happening – You realize that the Guru is a Siddha who comes back in the body just to help us mere mortals walk the spiritual path to Moksha [Liberation].

This shakes your initial hook that was hooked onto ‘Guru as a physical being’. You slowly start recognizing your reason for coming onto the ‘Spiritual Path’.

• • The Third Happening is you become crystal clear that the only focus of your life should be “To fulfill the Purpose of the Guru Tattva taking the Guru’s body as recognized in the second happening i.e. carve your path to your own Moksha”.

Nothing short of ‘you attaining Moksha’ can fulfill the Guru’s purpose. This self-understanding shakes the hook off the ‘Guru as a physical being’ and hooks onto the ENERGY or ‘Guru Tattva inhabiting in that Body’.

The test of Maaya:

Remember, unless your hook is firmly established in the ‘Guru Tattva’, you may shuttle between the 2 hooks for a while. It depends on the intensity of your commitment and authenticity of your efforts on your own spiritual path that will determine how soon you get established in the ‘Guru Tattva’.

Getting Established in Guru Tattva:

This is the point where the so-called ‘Mandala [fanfare/frills/organization/politics, etc]’ disappears from your vision. You suddenly get a clear vision on this spiritual path and then nothing around that center attracts you or tempts you anymore. Then the focus is just the pure ‘Guru Tattva’.

May you get centered in the ‘Supreme Principle of Brahman Consciousness’. Shanta Bhava!