True Independence

A disciple should cultivate the following three essential attributes: (1) He should take care to remove his defects. (2) Understand the spiritual state of this Guru and (3) Be eager to eradicate Avidya, nescience and make efforts towards that end.

Just seeing the Guru through the external eyes is not sufficient. One has to perceive his spiritual state as well. Only then can we acquire the knowledge of the real being of the Guru, who is established in his real self. Both Arjuna and shakuni were seeing Lord Sri Krishna. Arjuna was caught in despondency while Shakuni was entangled in deceit. When Arjuna understood Sri Krishna and realized his essential being, his despondency came to an end. Had the rascal Shakuni understood the spiritual state of Sri Krishna, he would have been rid of deceit. Swami Vivekananda said, “I am not the person you see. Know my impersonal being.”

Swami Akhandananda was a great soul whose father and himself were worshipped as the Guru. He was a Brahmin by birth and his father was a yogi who had attained to a high spiritual level. Akhandanada was reprimanded many times by his Guru. Once when his Guru was sitting, Akhandanda said, “Guruji! Normally, I feel very happy, but when you scold me I get somewhat disturbed, ”His Guru said, “Who knows what else you may have to bear in the world! If you are not trained at the Guru’s place, then others will come to train you. How can you escape? If you don’t bear it here, you will have to bear it elsewhere.”

One who persists in taking refuge in the Guru, need not how down in front of anybody else. One who doesn’t persist in the refuge of the Guru, has to wander seeking refuge with many others. He will seek refuge with anger, lust, avarice, attachment; with officers and many others. Then his redemption will be out of question! Now the choice is yours…
Either seek refuge in me, the Lord, your real self, or accept the servitude of many others.

If one says that he will take refuge in the indwelling Lord (not in any living Guru), then wherefrom has he learnt the word ‘indwelling’? Didn’t he learn it from any Guru? When you have to tread the unknown path leading to the unknown realm in order to meet the unseen beloved, to seek freedom from the bondage of this world and liberation from the cycle of transmigration, then even if you do anything other than following a Guru, you cannot attain freedom. The scripture says….

‘He who has not the knowledge
of Brahman is doomed,
and is never free from sufferings.’
Tulsidasji has said:

‘Though the clouds rain upon it, the reed neither blossoms nor bears fruit; So the heart of a fool learns not wisdom, thought he may have a Guru like Brahma.’
(The Sri Ramacharitamanas,
Lanka Kanda: 16Kha)
The fools, because of their desires and erroneous notions, fail to benefit even after having a Brahmvetta, a self-realized Guru. Tulsidas censures such people.

‘He who does not reverently accept the advice of such a disinterested well-wisher as his Guru and Master, has his fill of remorse and surely harms himself.’
(The Sri Ramacharitamanasa,
Ayodhya Kanda: 63)
When the intellect gives priority to the samsara (world), then people think that they are in bondage at a place where discourses on Tattavajnana (Brahmic Realizaton) are being delivered. On the other hand, eating drinking and enjoying sense pleasures is considered freedom and standing on their own feet. When a disciple of a self-realized Satguru wants to secure happiness by accumulating external things, then know for sure that they have failed to assimilate the import of satsanga. They have not understood the Satguru’s principle at all. First understand the implication of standing on one’s own feet. To earn, eat, work, procreate, buy a car – is this what you mean by standing on your own feet? You don’t even know when you will breathe your last and become a ghost. What if you go down the drains if the conception doesn’t take place? Is this how you are going to stand on your own feet? If you are thinking of earning and living in luxury, then there are crores of people who earn and have become miserable insomniacs. So what if you earn a ten or fifteen thousand rupees salary. Even if you own millions it does not amount to standing on your own feet, rather the feet are that of wealth and sense indulgence.

To stand on one’s own feet, in fact, implies establishing oneself in the Real Self, the Atman. Other than the satsanga of a self-realized Guru, there is no place to go to stand on one’s own feet. He alone who avails himself of satsanga, who renders selfless service and practices meditation and devotion sincerely is a sincere aspirant. But when the intellect becomes perverted, one considers one’s own feet as others’ and other’s feet as one’s own. To be a slave of the senses and sense-pleasures is what we call standing on our own feet and being independent!

A sadhaka came to Sant Vinoba Bhave and said, “Guruji! I don’t like this ashram, I am going away.”
“Why?”
“I shall live independently now. I am not comfortable here and cannot follow the ashram rules.”

“You mean now you will follow the dictates of your mind?”
“Yes”.
“That means you want to be subservient to your slave. The mind is our slave. And if you want to do what a slave says and not according to the Guru’s principles, it means you are going to become the slave of a slave.
You may go ahead.”

Rather than making the slave subservient to Guru and dharma, one wants to be subservient to Guru and dharma, one wants to be subservient to the slave. Wow! What a great idea! Not a great idea, it is evil intellect. One must have certainly practiced deceit with his brother disciples or committed heinous crime to feel like running away from satsanga. There is not an iota of doubt about this.

Many such people came to Vinoba Bhave’s ashram as well, and the wrethched and wicked ones ran away. Many came to my Guruji’s ashram. Many of them became noble minded, many became partially elevated while several wicked ones ran away. What did my Guruji lose in the bargain? Some ran away with 2 per cent gains, while others got away with 5-25 percent gains. And some wicked ones who became slanderers, brought ruin upon themselves. My Guruji had nothing to loose. What difference did it make when some wretched elements of the media denigrated Vinoba Bhave’s ashram and its management after he departed? One who speaks debased words reflects his debased mentality. A glass half filled with water appears half empty to a wicked mind, but a wise one considers that the glass is half full. When the intellect becomes averse to truth, or one practices deceit with the Guru, or if one’s intellect becomes cursed and one loses his place in the Guru’s heart, he then feels like running away from the place of sadhana. One fails to understand even after getting so much satsanga because he must have slandered or practiced deceit with somebody. That is why I have laid great emphasis on this song:

O Lord, O Giver of Bliss!
Bless us with Knowledge.
Deliver us from all vices quickly.
May we never, even in a dream, slander anybody.
May we never, even in dream,
be jealous of anybody.
May we speak truth,
Never tell a lie,
And develop fraternity.
May we have life divine;
And sing Thy praises.
O Lord, O Giver of Bliss….

Therefore caution your mind that when you are slandering anybody, you are slandering God and thereby destroying your merits. Even when you gossip with one another, see to it that you are not denigrating anybody. Beware! Behold God in all… Brahman in all …
Om… Om…. Om…