Mental Contact Is Best

Sri Ramana Maharshi

9-3-1946 Morning

Q: Does the contact of a devotee with his Guru continue after the passing of the Guru or does it stop? It is possible that for a ripe soul his Self may act as his Guru after the going away of the Guru, but what is the unripe soul to do? B has said that an outer Guru is also needed to push the mind of the devotee towards the Self. Can he come in contact with another adept? Is this contact to be necessarily physical or will a mental contact do? Which is better?

M: As already explained, Guru not being physical form, his contact will continue after his form vanishes. If one jnani exists in the world his influence will be felt by or benefit all people in the world and not simply his immediate disciples.  All the people in the world are divided into his disciples, bhaktas, those who are indifferent to him and those who are even hostile to him and it is said in the following verse that all these classes will be benefited by the existence of a jnani.

From Vedanta Chudamani:

"Four classes of people are benefitted by jivamuktas. By his faith in the jivanmukta, the disciple attains mukti, the bhakta who worships his Guru attains merit, the indifferent who have seen the sacred life of the jivanmukta accquire desire for righteousness and even the sinners get rid of their sins by the mere fact of their having had darshan of such saints."

God comes in the shape of Guru and from outside pushes your mind inside, while being inside as Self he draws you there from within. Such a Guru is needed generally, though not for very rare and advances souls. One can go to another Guru after his Guru passes away. But all Gurus are one, as none of them is the form. Always mental contact is the best.