Guru and God

Guru and God both appear before me. To whom should I prostrate?
I bow before the Guru who introduced God to me.
-Kabir

In one of his discussions with fellow disciples of Ramakrishna, Vivekananda referred to Ramakrishna as God. Another disciple objected, saying, ‘Surely that is extreme. I agree that the Master is enlightened, but how can he be God?’

Vivekananda asked his fellow disciple, ‘What do you know about God?’

The fellow disciple said, ‘Oh, God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent.’

Vivekananda asked, ‘What do you mean by saying that God is omnipresent?’

The disciple said, ‘God is everywhere.’

Vivekananda said, ‘Surely then you must be able to see him now in that case.’

The disciple was confused and did not know what to say further.

Vivekananda told him, ‘To you God is a concept that you can not see, a notion that you do not even know or understand. Here is the Master in front of you who is God in reality.’

Someone asked me, ‘What is the difference between God and Guru?’

I told him, ‘What do you know about God? All you know is a bunch of words, concepts. You have no clue as to what you are talking about when you refer to God. To you he is just an idea, an imagination of what you believe to be the ultimate energy and universal consciousness, or whatever name you wish to give something you know nothing about!’

The Brahmanda Purana says,
Guru is Shiva sans his three eyes,
Vishnu sans his four arms
Brahma sans his four heads.
He is Parama Shiva himself in human form

The guru is real. He is the reality of the ultimate cosmic energy. He is here and now. He is in the present; He is the present. He is the bridge between you and the concept of God. In that sense he is greater than God.

Some one asked me, ‘Are you God?’
I told him, ‘If you do not know what or who God is, how can you ask me whether I am God? God cannot be defined. He can only be experienced.’
Let me tell you one thing clearly, ‘I am not here to prove that I am God. I am here to prove that you are God.’

Do we need a Guru?

Significance of a guru

It is very difficult especially for the modern mind to understand the need for a guru or Master.

The guru is the one who gives you a glimpse of the Real, the truth of who you are.
He is not here to teach; he is here to awaken. The guru is the only scripture which is alive.

Surrender towards God is difficult because you don’t know where God is or who God is. The guru is One with the Whole; he has reached the Ultimate. Through him, you can also take the quantum jump into the arms of God.

The only thing standing between you and your true nature of bliss is your ego. The process of becoming a disciple is the process of renouncing your ego. The ego is very difficult to drop because dropping it means losing the solid identity that you have been carrying thinking you need it for survival. Dropping the ego looks like death when actually it is the ego that stands between you and life.

Dropping the ego is possible only in a relationship of deep trust, love and reverence with the guru. Then slowly you gather the courage and risk dropping the only thing you cling onto throughout your life - your ego, because now you know you will only fall into the unfailing safety net of the infinite love and compassion of Existence embodied by the guru.

As of now, any experience which you add to your being adds more and more fear or greed. Instead of that, any experience which you add to your being should become strength and awareness, leading you to more awareness. This is the cognitive shift, the psychological revolution the guru does on you that results in your complete transformation.

Learning from Life vs Learning from Master
You may ask, ‘Why do I need a guru? I can learn from life.’
Please understand, learning from life or learning from time is very hard as life teaches through pain.

Learning from Master is a very sweet experience, a very joyful experience. The Master first puts you in his lap and gives you the anesthesia of love before he starts his operation on the tumor of your ego. Because he showers his love, you will not even know the pain of going through the transformation.
But when the life teaches, life does not have the anesthesia of life. It can’t make you forget the pain and has to teach you only through pain.

Master is intense life. Not only can he teach you, he will also see to it that you go through the whole transformation beautifully and joyfully.


Gurum Bhajé - Guru Poornima 2008 celebrations with Paramahamsa Nithyananda on 17th July at Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam, Off Mysore Road, Bidadi-562109, India
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