"The very first step in understanding what this is all about is giving up the concept of an active, volitional 'I' as a separate entity and accepting the passive role of perceiving and functioning as a process." - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Sunday, January 13, 2019

Love for Guru Necessary

Saradamma

For realization, in addition to a pure mind, there must be intense love for the Guru; at the same time one must also fear him. One also needs to be very humble. The Guru will test the devotee many times. If the humility is not there the devotee's ego will react and he or she will fail the test. I was subjected to many tests during my sadhana, sometimes to test my love and devotion and sometimes because my ego had reared its heard. All the tests were necessary. A devotee may feel that he is in heaven for weeks at a time because of good meditations or because he is feeling much love for the Guru. However, one angry word from the Guru, or a period of being ignored by him, and the heaven dissolves like a mirage. These tests put one's spiritual progress int perspective. The inculcate humility and surrender in the devotee because they make him realize how shaky the foundations of his spiritual attainments are. They keep the ego under control by making the devotee realize his own shortcomings. Only when one's love or equanimity remains firm through all such tests is one ready for Self-realization.

Some of the tests which Swamy (Sri Lakshmana Swamy) gave me may appear to have been a little cruel or pointless, but one should not have the idea that Swamy was sitting in his room thinking, "I will test Sarada in such and such a way." Swamy is the Self and he has no mind with which to entertain such thoughts. These tests were spontaneous manifestations of the Self. Swamy id not think up these tests. It was the Self which was testing me because I needed to be tested.

Because I realized the Self some people here are now thinking, "Saradamma is testing me". I am not planning and thinking up these tests because there is no thinking and no "I" to plan. It is only the Self. If I hit a devotee, ignore him or subject him to an apparently humiliating experience, it is only the Self testing the devotee. If the devotee gets angry or wants to fight back, then the devotee fails the test. Such tests are going on here all the time. The Self witnesses the result of each test and notes how pure, humble and egoless the devotee is. When the mind has been completely purified and such tests are no longer necessary, then the Self consumes and destroys the mind and realization occurs.

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सर्वभूताधिवासं यद्भूतेषु च वसत्यपि।
सर्वानुग्राहकत्वेन तद्स्म्यहं वासुदेवः॥

That in whom reside all beings and who resides in all beings,
who is the giver of grace to all, the Supreme Soul of the universe, the limitless being:
I AM THAT. -- Amritabindu Upanishad