How Can I have faith etc. ur mail

[Guest guest]

bhaskar.yr

c.c. advaitin

Dear One,

I read your mail with interest. With my very little knowledge, may I attempt to

write the following few lines for your study.

 

The qualifications mentioned for a Guru in Vivekachudamani is for the purpose of

Gurus and not for disciples to judge Gurus. One, who does not have the said

qualifications, should not attempt to teach others. Disciples need not worry

about it. For example, when we are sent to school we never bothered to evaluate

the qualifications or competence of our teachers. We went there with Sradha and

confidence that the teachers concerned would beable to teach us in the

particular subjects. However, the teacher who has never gone even to a school

should not attempt to teach children.

 

If a Guru is not honest to himself about his competence in teaching, he should

not try to teach others, particularly the subject like Vedanta, and if he does,

sooner or later he will be rejected.

 

For selecting a Guru, one does not have to do much in the matter when it comes

to study of Vedanta. At the right time, sooner or later, one gets the

opportunity of exposiing himself to/meeting the right Guru.

 

However, when one approaches a Guru, he should go with a clean slate i.e.

keeping a side all his preconceived knowledge, rather notions, the maps he has

about others, about Gurus, about God, etc. He should have total Sradha on what

the Guru teaches and wait patiently, maybe for years, before he can assimilate

the knowledge flowing from Guru and before he is able to recognize the Ultimate

Truth, as Guru can only indicate the Truth to you and one has to recognize it

himself through constant manana, i.e. analysis in one one’s mind. It can take

years, or maybe many births.

 

In this connection, if one is seriously looking for the Right Teacher, it may be

added, one should try to avoid self proclaimed gurus, people who do miracles,

people who promise you various things, people who expects you to do so many

things, people who are biased and try to impose their own ideas and deviate from

the spirit of Sastras, i.e. Upanishads, Bhagavadgita etc., people who try to

market their product, i.e. the books etc. written by them, people directly or

indirectly try to proclaim they are the best and god sent for liberating others,

people who criticize other teachers because they just do not like them etc. The

real Teacher or Guru expects nothing from his disciplines excepting that the

disciples should understand and assimilate the Knowledge flowing through him and

earlier teachers like Jagadguru Adi Shankaracharya, from the First Teacher,

“Lord Dakshinamurthy” Himself.

 

One should have satsang with people who follow the study and sooner or later one

will come to know whose teachings help.

 

The whole problem is ignorance. Somewhere I read, "Socrates said the Greatest

Evil is Ignorance". Ignorance of what?

 

Ignorance about one's own self, ignorance about others, and ignorance about God,

or the Ultimate Truth. So, the Knowledge is the only remedy, i.e. Knowledge of

one's own self, and when self-ignorance is removed by self-knowledge,

automatically ignorance about others and ignorance about God, vanish.

 

The Teaching started from none other than "Lord Dakshinamurthy" and it is handed

down to us through Great Teachers, who follow the same prakriya i.e. methodology

of teaching followed in the Upanishads.

 

With all good wishes and Hari Om

 

R.S.Mani

 

 

 

 

 

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