The Power of Enlightened Words

[Guest guest]

David Godman: " I remember a conversation I had with Maharaj on my

first visit. I can't remember how we got round to the subject, but we

ended up talking about the power of the Guru and the various channels

it manifested through. I had been deeply impressed and deeply moved

by I am That, and I told him so.

 

DG: For several months I have been reading I am That. Through those

words I felt a very strong connection with you and the teachings. Can

one have a connection with a Guru simply by reading his words, or is

it necessary to come in person to see him?

 

Maharaj: The words will do their work wherever you hear or read them.

You can come here and listen to them in person, or you can read them

in a book. If the teacher is enlightened, there will be a power in

them.

 

DG: In my particular case I read the words of a Guru who was still

alive, and those words compelled me to come here and see you. Perhaps

your words had such a strong effect because you are still alive and

teaching. I made contact with a living teacher, a living presence.

What about a hypothetical case of someone picking up I am That in

fifty years' time, and in a country several thousand miles away. That

person will never have a chance to see you. Will those words still

have the power to transform and awaken?

 

Maharaj: Time and space exist in your mind, not in the Self. There is

no limit to the power of the Self. The power of the Self is always

present, always working, always the same. What varies is the

readiness and willingness of people to turn their attention to it. If

someone picks up this book ten thousand miles away in a thousand

years' time, those words will do their work if the reader is in the

right state to listen to and assimilate the words.

 

He didn't actually say that one could get enlightened by reading the

words of a dead Guru, but he was quite clear that the words of an

enlightened being, even in book form, were charged with a power that

future generations could tune into. I think I asked this particular

question because of my relationship with Ramana Maharshi. I was

the 'hypothetical' person in the question who had discovered the

words of great but deceased Guru. I suppose I really wanted to know

whether Ramana Maharshi could be the Guru for someone like me who had

been born years after he passed away. Maharaj didn't really answer

that question for me, but he did convince me that a considerable part

of the power and the authority of Guru could be found in his recorded

teachings. "

 

 

P: The operative phrase here is: " if the reader is in the right

state? " Does she/he resonate with that particular teacher? If a fruit

is ready to fall, the slightest breeze, or even its own weight will

bring it down. No magical powers are involved.