FW: Antw: a clarification

[Guest guest]

Dear Pradyumna,

Thank you for your long mail, but what is your purpose with this mail?

We all have our relationship with GOD, one shall call GOD a Father or Mother,

Lord Dattatreya or Lord Jesus, what's in a name, what's in a word?

Just feel GOD, sooo many words you wrote, why?

If we look and meditate up on Swamiji's picture, no words are needed from no one,

GOD is everywhere, without words, without name.........

Isn't that a clarification?

With Love from Mother Kalikamba from the Netherlands, Jaya Guru Datta

----------

Van: Pradyumna Upadrashta <prady1977 >

Aan: JAIGURUDATTA

Onderwerp: a clarification

Datum: don, 20 sep 2001 17:44

Perhaps I interpret things incorrectly, so someone

please correct me if i'm wrong.

But since this point is being repeated several times

in these emails, I thought it was important to clarify

the sentence "one must drink the ablutions of the

guru..."

It is to be understood that this is not literally

referring to 'ablutions' -- but it means that one must

thirst for the ADVICE and GUIDANCE of guru and DRINK

(i.e., PARTAKE and UTILIZE) the advice and guidance of

guru in all things. The term 'ablutions' refer to

those things which cleanse (in a physical sense) --

applied in this context, it refers to ADVICE and

GUIDANCE -- because it is the advice and guidance of

guru that 'cleanses' the disciple's behavior/mind. If

a particular advice is given, a disciple should stick

to it and partake it as if it was a glass of water

when you are surrounded by nothing but desert

everywhere. The concept of 'drinking' ablutions refers

to the disciples 'thirst' for the knowledge, guidance,

and experience given by Guru. It is not to be taken as

"oh, i will drink juice now, or i will drink milk

later, etc." (i.e., it is not a question of PERSONAL

PREFERENCE!)-- when one is truly thirsty, one will

drink the offering without thinking about their future

or past or anything else until their thirst is

quenched. The truly thirsty will simply drink whatever

is given to them -- likewise, one takes heed of the

advice, without selfish thoughts/motives or

self-planning, without thoughts of "maybe i'll do it

now, or maybe i'll do it later... etc." If a guru

tells you to do something, then you must do it without

further thought, no questions asked. Without this type

of bhakthi, it is not possible to truly take advantage

of the blessings given by guru. It is the guru's

perogative to provide the necessary advice that will

most benefit the devotee; so the devotee should not

further think about the benefits and disadvantages of

a given advice, he/she should simply do as instructed.

This also brings up another point, which is that any

advice should be taken only IN THE SPIRIT of the

instruction/advice, and not blindly. It is the spirit

of following the instruction that is important, and

not the actual instruction itself. One should do one's

best to follow an advice, and leave the rest to guru.

Too many people sit and worry whether they can or

cannot do something; my question is, why worry when

you have guru supporting and watching over you?

Worrying is a pure waste of your energy and time and

spiritual progress, and it makes you less effective in

carrying out your task. The goal is simply DO the

task, and leave the details to god. So one should stop

fretting and making a fuss about every thing, and

causing problems for everyone in the process of doing

a task. If a person does something in the spirit that

they are responsible for doing it correctly, etc. --

then they are not sacrificing the act to god -- they

still have the ego which says "I am doing such and

such task... I must do a good job... everyone will

comment on how I do this or that..." (The "I" exists

here...) This is totally wrong. One must do the job,

and leave the rest to God. Do something with love, and

do it peacefully, and finish the task in a reasonable

pace and time -- without striving for perfection.

Leave perfection to god -- then, the act (done with

love, and not with arguments and fighting) will be

perfect because god ( or guru) will make it perfect.

No further worries, no further questions, no further

thought. I believe Nike shoes say it best -- "Just do

it".

Gandhi once said "I believe we are all such sinners,

that we should leave judgement to God!" -- the same

applies to everything else. Just leave it to God, stop

judging everything, becoming attached to everything,

and learn to 'go with the flow' as they say.

A thing should be done for the following reasons:

(1) it is the RIGHT thing to do (always ALWAYS do the

right thing)

(2) it is what Guru tells you is the right thing for

you to do (which automatically implies #1)

(3) it is done for the sake of love, or for the sake

of increasing love, or awareness, or devotion, or

self-knowledge (which implies #1 and #2 by default)

-- if you follow any one of these rules by breaking

any of the other rules, then something is definitely

wrong and you should think about what you are doing

very carefully.

One should not take the name of guru, and commit all

sorts of unkind acts against family, friends or even

strangers (verbal, mental, or physical) in the name of

religion or whatever, and then say that it is the

command of the Guru/God. This is one of the great sins

of an inflated ego, in the sense that it is a blatant

lie and it is using Guru in the wrong way. If an act

goes against one's heart/compassion for others -- it

is unlikely that Guru 'told you to do it', unless it

is some kind of test (which is highly unlikely unless

you are so spiritually advanced that Guru is testing

you on such a level, to think that you are is ego in

and of itself). One of the most difficult things is to

watch out for your own ego, it will hit you when you

least expect it. Unfortunately, many never realize

that they are under the sway of their ego, even those

who are constantly watching out for it. People who

'act' humble or who say "oh i am so humble" are not

truly humble -- it is only those who do not realize

their own humility who are truly humble. To realize

one's humility, is the immediate acceptance of the ego

into one's observation of one's humility -- at that

moment, the humility you may have had, will instantly

be lost. So, the lesson here is to stop acting humble,

or trying to BE humble -- just be yourself and don't

worry what others may think. To root out ego, you must

observe the ego, which in and of itself requires ego

to do. There is a great circular unending loop here --

This is why guru is necessary -- to break this loop!

It will take countless lifetimes for you to do it on

your own.

Jesus says "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and

become like children, you will never enter the kingdom

of heaven." (Mt. 18:3) -- if you stop behaving like

children, and begin to behave like adults (i.e., bring

politics, trouble, and ego wherever you go) then you

have already lost the keys to the 'kingdom' of god.

You have lost the ability to discern what is truly

important. Instead of doing things for 'the right

reason' or 'out of love' you will begin to do things

for 'show' or for 'power' or for some personal gain.

The spiritual journey is internal, not external -- the

more external show you make, the less internal growth

you will experience. You will only find that key once

you begin to think innocently and out of genuine

concern for the welfare of others. Help when asked for

help; or when moved by your inner conscience to help.

Don't help because you feel that you can do something

better than someone else. Mother teresa didn't help

the poor because she wanted people to worship her as a

saint -- she did what she did because she CARED. That

is the ego again. The beauty of children is that they

have no ego -- they don't say "i did this, or i did

that" they just play and move on with their lives

without a care for anything. They do things, and leave

everything to god, without even knowing it. That is

why they are innocent. They don't even know what ego

is. Certainly, they possess a LITTLE ego, otherwise

they would not be born (an ego is required for birth

to take place), but it is closer to ego-lessness than

adults can ever be.

Anyway, these are some thoughts i've had, and felt

that I should share with the rest of the group. If

anyone has any thoughts on these, or comments, please

feel free to debate or discuss them. That is what this

group is for.

Anyway, i've written too much for one email. Have fun

reading it all, and hopefully I haven't confused

everyone to madness with all my tangents.

jai guru datta!

pradyumna

--- JAIGURUDATTA wrote:

> If ignorance is to be rooted out, the actions which

> are the causes of births are to be set aside,

> knowledge and detachment are to be attained, one

> must

> drink the ablutions of one's Guru.

>

> So it is established that drinking of the ablutions

> of

> one's Guru will bring in purification, annihilating

> all his sins. Not only that, the inner light of

> knowledge thereby shines bright. As a result, the

> person steps out of the vicious cycle of births and

> deaths.

>

> For all this to happen, ignorance must be destroyed

> first. In this process, some people with a little

> knowledge become doubtful. That also should go along

> with the root cause of ignorance. Birth should not

> be

> there. Even if it is there, it should be devoid of

> action.

>

> "What is this? Can there be a birth without the

> enticement of action?" One might get that doubt.

>

> Some great souls do have birth without the bondage

> of

> action. For example, Namadev. He directly

> conversed

> with Pandarinadh (Krishna)daily. But he asked for

> another birth. Why? Because there was a fraction

> of

> action that remained to be experienced and that

> phase

> would be over with the sorrow of remaining in his

> mother's womb for nine months. After that,

> happiness

> would be ensured without the bondages of actions.

> If

> birth befalls us, it should be the one without

> action.

>

> So what we should desire for is that ignorance,

> birth

> and action should be destroyed. It is not enough.

> Knowledge and detachment should be attained. For

> their attainment the action that causes birth should

> be destroyed. How can it be destroyed? Can your

> Guru help you in this? Will He share some? No. He

> doesn't share the burden; you have to carry the

> weight of your own action.

>

> Guru initiates you into the path to reduce the

> weight

> of action. That's all. So those who serve Guru

> should

> know well about ignorance, birth, action, knowledge

> and detachment.

>

> Some people mistake that in the twin things of

> knowledge and detachment, knowledge alone suffices.

> But knowledge without detachment, you should

> understand, is a waste. All these can be attained

> by

> you, if you take the ablutions of Guru with total

> self-surrender.

>

>

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