Guest guest Posted August 14, 2001 Report Share Posted August 14, 2001 , "Viorica Weissman" <viorica@z...> wrote: [snip] > It is a basic tenet of Sri Ramana's teaching that a Guru > is necessary for almost everyone who is striving towards > a permanent awareness of the Self. The catalytic role of > the Guru in spiritual development is therefore crucial; > except in rare instances, ignorance of the Self is so deeply > rooted that individual seekers are unable to escape from > it by their own efforts. > > Although Sri Ramana taught that a Guru is indispensable > for those seeking Self-realisation, he also pointed out > that the Guru has no power to bring about realisation in > those who are not energetically seeking it. > If the individual seeker makes a serious attempt to discover > the Self, then the grace and power of the Guru will > automatically start to flow. If no such attempt is made, > the Guru is helpless. While Ramana's wisdom on matters of Self realization is quite beyond question, it is difficult to see past the fact that making these kind of statements can appear to be self serving for some. Saying that we must rely on a guru makes sense when coming from the mouth of someone who promotes themselves as a guru. The fact is that there are very few individuals who offer themselves as gurus *and* are truly qualified to do so. However, we can find plenty of gurus who have no business being such, and here is where the danger lies. If we are led to believe that we *must* find a guru, we might be more inclined to take the first one that comes along. While it may be our karma to fall prey to a false one, knowing that we can rely on our own inner guru might help us to avoid this fate. There is also the problem of occluding expectation. If we decide to believe that we must have a guru to be blessed with realization, we have just created a hindrance to realization's manifestation in our lives. Why place a condition on something that is eternally unconditioned? The fact is that people come to realization without gurus. I know of three such cases. Of course, having a real guru is a wonderful blessing. I've been very fortunate to be blessed with such a guru. However, I'd be hard pressed to say that ours is a formal relationship. He gave the initiation and then got out of Mother's way. She's been in charge ever since. Mother Shakti is the guru of the gurus, for it is She who bestows liberation, whether She manifests as a physical guru or not. Instead of looking for some person in a body first, we might look to Her as our first and foremost guru, and not worry about finding a wo/man in a body. If it is our karma and Her will, then the physical guru will manifest. We are all the Self at all times eternally. While some of us are still seeking to understand this as our truth, we can always rest assured that the real guru is always inside us, closer than our own breath, and that this guru can always be relied upon, day or night, to gently and steadily bring us into the light of our identity as Brahman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 14, 2001 Report Share Posted August 14, 2001 , jodyrrr@h... wrote:> in charge ever since. > > Mother Shakti is the guru of the gurus, for it is She who bestows > liberation, whether She manifests as a physical guru or not. > Instead of looking for some person in a body first, we might > look to Her as our first and foremost guru, and not worry about > finding a wo/man in a body. If it is our karma and Her will, then > the physical guru will manifest. > > We are all the Self at all times eternally. While some of us are still > seeking to understand this as our truth, we can always rest assured > that the real guru is always inside us, closer than our own breath, > and that this guru can always be relied upon, day or night, to gently > and steadily bring us into the light of our identity as Brahman. Namaste Jody, Actually Ramana didn't say what kind of guru!! The word in sanskrit means dispeller of darkness. The only person that can be a guru is Brahman, which means at the human level a jivanmukti, all else are frauds. Using the old addage, 'if you can't do it then teach it'. Actually my most effective 'guru', was an ant I was observing one day, as he went about his work, with detachment. There is only ever one guru the inner guru, that is why they say the guru is God/Jivanmukti. Most 'probable', gurus/muktis like; Buddha, Jesus, Ramana etc didn't have a travelling road show, and from history look like they didn't teach until they were gurus proper. Ultimately there is no Sakti, she is also an illusion.......ONS...Tony. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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