Credits and Debits of Being With and Without Guru

These five golden attributes find their way into those having a Satguru:
(1) They develop the insight to safeguard their knowledge and sublime emotions.
(2) Their sufferings are mitigated.
(3) They succeed in becoming introverted to gain inner joy.
(4) Their prosperity and virtues increase automatically and effortlessly.
(5) Their life is filled with bliss, peace and joy.

Those without a Satguru suffer from the following five major troubles:
(1) However they attempt to gratify their senses, their brooding never ends. ‘I lost her…. Why did so and so do this? Why did this happen to me….’ He is always caviling always repenting.
(2) They are always clouded by desires and expectations, ‘I should get this, I should eat that, I should enjoy such and such pleasures, I should teach him a lesson….I should do that….’
‘I…..I….I…..I…..’ The darkness of egoism will engulf them.
(3) They will remain deprived of spiritual knowledge and its benefits.
(4) They have no idea of the existence of God and their fate.
(5) They are ignorant of what will happen to them after death.

One having a Guru knows that his Guru mantra will help him after death and he is sure that he will not go to lower births after death. They know that either they will go to the Lord’s abode, or by the japa of Om….Om….Om… and contemplation its meaning at the time of death, they will attain liberation.
The Lord says in the Guru

Omithyekaksharam brahma Vyaharannamanusmaran
Vah prayati tyjandeham sa yati parama gathim

“One who departs casting off his body while uttering ‘Om’, the Brahman in the form of the mono-syllable, and dwelling on me in my absolute aspect, reaches the supreme goal.’
(8.13)

the Lord grants Supreme Beatitude to those who chant ‘Om’ contemplating its meaning at the time of death. Even in the higher realms, one’s religious merit is not reduced. Those residing in heaven on the strength of their tapasya, charities and sacrifices, their religious merit are reduced with the passage of time and when it gets exhausted they fall from the heavens. But iof a devotee engaged in sadhana for the Lord alone, dies before realizing god, then he is granted a period of rest in the heavens. They can live there for one thousand or ten thousand years as per their sweet will.

Arjuna asked, “O Lord! If proceeds along the path of salvation and gets engaged in spiritual and devotional endeavors, and renouncing worldly pleasures and sense-enjoyments lives a frugal, self-restrained and altruistic life, but his sadhana is rent asunder by death like winds, what is the fate of such a sadhaka? They neither realize God nor enjoy worldly pleasures.” The Lord said, “No, it is not like that.

Na he kalyankritkaschdudurgati taath gutchati

“For none who strives for self-redemption (i.e. God-realizaton) ever meets with evil destiny.” (The Gita: 6.40)

You are working on a project and fall asleep in the middle of it. The impression on your mind of the mater studied or the work done are not erased by sleep. Similarly the effect of sadhana is not destroyed by the sleep of death. After enjoying the pleasures of heavens at will, such a devotee of the Lord is born again into the house of the pure and prosperous, or into the house of yogis. If he/she is an advanced sadhaka, he/she may go to the abode of Lord Brahma and live there till the life of Lord Brahma. In the end Lord Brahma will instruct them into the great aphorism, ‘I am Brahman’ and the sadhaka will attain perfection and become one with the Supreme Brahman. So don’t spare much tought for how you should live here in this world. Think rather of life after death. You need not worry about this life, as it will proceed along the lines predestined.

Even though you don’t want them to, troubles, illnesses, losses, price-inflation and taxes will come to plague you. Similarly, even without your asking, pleasant circumstances and pleasures will come. Miseries too will come and go. Your whole life will be spent this way, don’t worry about it.

So, Guruless persons who do not have a Guru are plagued by these five miseries. And one who takes mantra-diksha from a Satguru and follows the satguru’s principle is blessed indeed.