uups

[Guest guest]

Dear Mani

 

<<To err is human. Are you not taking a "childish" view of Karma?..... uuuups!>>

 

Your posting remainded me of a beautifull passage from a book called Sri Guru

and His Grace. Any Vedic astrologer is always in risk of deviating from the

right path & making mistakes. That is some of the reasons why we should be

protected by higher authorities like Sri Guru. Many astrologers in this list

are aware of that protection but some do not. So, i thought that by quoting

that book is going to give inspiration to many.

 

Regards,

 

Natabara Das

 

"To err is human. To err is inevitable for all, being not perfect. Still, no

one wants to remain imperfect. There is an element within all that is animate

that tends towards perfection. If it were not so, we would feel no want at all.

Our tendency towards perfection is certainly very weak and limited, otherwise we

could attain the goal at once. Our limited capacity and tendency for perfection

makes room for the guide or guru.

The imperfect is not so if it is not in need of help, and that also from beyond

itself. The perfect is not perfect if He cannot assert Himself or help others,

and that too, of His own accord. So the guidance to perfection or Absolute Truth

is necessarily a function of the Absolute Himself, and the Divine Agent through

whom this function manifests is Sri Guru, or the Divine Guide.

 

For a seeker of the Absolute Truth, submission to the guru is unavoidable. A

class of thinkers believes, however, that when scientific research is possible,

why cannot higher spiritual knowledge also be evolved from within? Such people

are ignorant of the most essential nature of Absolute Knowledge - that He alone

is the Absolute Subject, and all else, including ourselves, constitutionally

stand only as an object to His omniscient vision. It is impossible for the eye

to see the mind; it can have some connection with the mind only when the latter

cares to mind it. In a similar way, our connection with Absolute Knowledge

depends mainly on His sweet will. We must solely depend on His agent, or the

Spiritual Master, through whom He likes to distribute Himself.

 

Our human society -- with its finest culture -- forms but an infinitesimal part

of the dynamic Absolute. How, except by the direct and positive method of

revelation, dare we hope to comprehend or evolve any conception of the

supernatural knowledge of the unconditioned Infinite? All intellectual giants

prove themselves but pygmies before the Absolute Omniscient Omnipotence who

reserves the right to give Himself away through His own agents alone.

 

To our best knowledge and sincerity, however, we should see not to submit to a

false agent. Here of course, we can't help ourselves very much, because in our

present state we are mainly guided by our previous samskara, or acquired nature.

"Birds of the same feather flock together." Yet, although we are generally

overpowered by habit, there is still the possibility of free choice to a certain

extent, especially in the human species, otherwise correction becomes

impossible, and punishment mere vengeance. Reality can assert itself. Light does

not require darkness for its positive proof. The sun by itself can establish its

supremacy over all other lights. Before an open and unbiased eye, the sad guru

[real guide] shines above all professors of phenomenon.

 

Sri Guru manifests himself mainly in a twofold way -- as the director from

within, and the preceptor from without. Both functions of the Absolute help an

individual soul, a disciple, to reach the absolute goal. In our fallen state we

cannot catch the proper direction of the inner guide, so the merciful

manifestation of the preceptor without is our sole help and hope. But at the

same time, it is only by the grace of the guru within that we can recognize the

real preceptor without, and submit to his holy feet.

 

A bona fide disciple must always remain fully awake to the fact that his highest

spiritual fortune is but a gracious grant from the Absolute Lord, and not a

matter of right to be demanded or fought out. Constitutionally, we are equipped

only to be proper recipients of God's favor. In this connection, it should be

clearly understood that an individual soul can never be substantially the same

as the Absolute Person. Not even in his liberated or fully realized condition

can an individual soul be one with Godhead. The misconception of oneness has

been introduced from the slothful nondiscrimination of the Absolute Personality

from the luminous orb around His eternal, spiritual, and blissful home. In fact,

an individual soul constitutes only a part of a particular power of intermediate

value of the Supreme Lord, and as such he is capable of being converted from

both sides. He differs from the Absolute Entity both in quantity and quality,

and is merely a dependent entity on the Absolute. In other words, the Absolute

Lord Krishna is the Master, and an individual jiva soul is His constitutional

subordinate, or servant.

 

Such a relationship is constant and really wholesome for the jiva. The

apprehension of slavery does not arise, because of his free choice and immense

positive gain. The freedom and individuality of the jiva are not only unharmed

by surrender to the Absolute Good, but they really thrive in Him alone.

Individual freedom and interest are the part and parcel of those who are of the

Absolute, and so they are quite at home there, as a fish is at home in water or

an animal in a healthy atmosphere. But the freedom, as well as all other

qualities of the Supreme Personality, are unlimited and transcendental, and so

only by their partial functions they harmonize all relative entities.

 

Sri Guru is not exclusively the same as the Supreme Lord Himself, but he fully

represents the essence of the whole normal potency, and embodies the most

comprehensive and excellent service and favor of the Lord. As he is the fittest

servitor of the Lord, he is empowered by the Lord to reinstate all misguided

souls to their best interest. So, Guru is the Divine Messenger of immortal hope

and joy in this mortal and miserable world. His advent is the most auspicious

and happy event to the suffering animation, and can be compared to the rising of

the morning star that can guide the traveller lost in the desert. A gentle touch

of Sri Guru's merciful hand can wipe off the incessant tears from all weeping

eyes. A patriot or philanthropist makes the problem only worse in his frantic

and futile attempt to alleviate the deep rooted pain of a suffering soul, as an

ignorant doctor does in eagerly handling an unfortunate patient. O the day when

this poor soul realizes the causeless grace of Sri Gurudev.

 

Swami B.R. Sridhar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

natabara wrote:

> Dear Mani

>

> <<To err is human. Are you not taking a "childish" view of Karma?.....

> uuuups!>>

>

> Your posting remainded me of a beautifull passage from a book called Sri Guru

> and His Grace.

 

Good posting. What i meant was, to quote from it:"Yet, although we are generally

overpowered by habit, there is still the possibility of free choice to a certain

extent, especially in the human species, otherwise correction becomes

impossible, and punishment mere vengeance."

 

Mani