Follow up to question on how do we give back to our Gurus

[Guest guest]

Beloved Swamiji,

 

Namaste and Pranams!

 

You state that giving the fruits of our actions means supporting the sadhana of

our

beloved Gurus.

 

"We perform several actions in our daily life and throughout our lives; for some

of these

we receive fruit. The fruit take a myriad forms: something material, pleasure,

pain, a

thought, and so on.

 

How does one surrender such fruit and how does this help support the sadhana of

our

Gurus?"

 

Thank you very much for Your time!

 

with love and respect,

srini

 

>> Question from Srini/Nanda and others:

>> ...You and Shree Maa define spirituality as giving more than you take.

>> We receive so much from You and Shree Maa. How do we give back to you?...

>> Swamiji's response:

>> The only way to participate in spiritual life is to give. There are two

>> ways to give: either we give our actions, or we give the fruit of our

>> actions. Being spiritual we will want to do both.

>> Giving of our actions means sadhana. We want to follow the examples of

>> our gurus...

 

>> Giving of the fruits of our actions means supporting their sadhana. The

>> more they are free to pursue their sadhana, the greater is our

>> opportunity to witness and therefore increase in our own disciplines...

[Guest guest]

wanted to make a little comment here, the question is for swamiji of

course, this is for while we wait for his response, and will not be at

all what he will say, but my own thoughts.

 

the matter is both spiritual and practical, but it is eminently

practical, and very specific to our situation.

 

some gurus were worldly kings. some gurus use their followers and

accumulate money and power. our gurus are neither of those. they are

more like jesus, or ramakrsishna. their personal resources are very

minimal. whatever projects they undertake are to teach sadhana. their

more advanced their sadhana is, the more devotees benefit. this

sadhana requires time in a world that wants your time to survive, as

we all know.

 

where will the help come from, if not from devotees? our gurus will

not ask for anything but god/devotion. it is up to devotees to figure

out the needs and provide. this is not a moral judgment at all, but a

matter of practicality. spiritual benefits flow secondarily. when help

is needed, one gives. this doesn't need to be embroidered, but is a

straight forward action of genorosity based on necessity not ego.

 

steve c.