Sunday Service Reading #30

From Rays of the One Light
Do You Need a Guru?
(to long readings)

Truth is one and eternal. Realize oneness with it in your deathless Self, within. The following commentary is based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.

Many people scoff at the idea of having a guru. True to human nature generally, they make a virtue of their scoffing. “I am responsible for what I do,” they announce, “responsible for my mistakes as well as for my victories. What would I ever learn if I handed over my development to someone else? To depend on another for guidance would be an act of spiritual cowardice.”

It would be understandable for someone gifted with some trivial ability, for instance with words, to insist on doing his crossword puzzle himself without letting anyone else help him. But supposing, even in such trivial matters, he had no such gift? What virtue would there be in refusing to learn? For that matter, where would the gift itself come from? That which is a gift is not a native ability. Still, crossword puzzles are hardly an important challenge. What if a person wanted to do something daring: to climb a cliff, for instance, but refused to study the art of mountain climbing? He would climb at the risk of his life.

And how much more is risked than physical life in the great adventure of the divine search, where the risk is to salvation itself! Where is the sacrifice in seeking guidance? Even a mountain guide wouldn't presume to do one's climbing for one; his purpose would be only to help the neophyte to climb safely. To have a wise guru is not a sign of weakness, but of plain common sense.

All the saints, aware as they are of the hazards of the adventure, agree on the importance of having a guide, or guru. And these are the heroes speaking, not cowards or spiritual weaklings.

Jesus emphasized the importance of having a teacher by asking John the Baptist to baptize him.

In the Gospel of St. Matthew, Chapter 3, we read of his coming to John. “Thus,” Jesus said to John, “it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.”

In the Bhagavad Gita, the fourth Chapter, Sri Krishna says:

Open thyself to those who have attained wisdom. They will be thy teachers. Ask questions of them [both verbally and mentally]. Serve them faithfully, and with devotion.

How is the devotee to recognize one who has attained wisdom? The Bhagavad Gita gives us this inspiring description of the sage:

By this sign is he known,
Being of equal grace to comrades, friends,
Chance-comers, strangers, lovers, enemies,
Aliens and kinsmen; loving all alike,
Evil or good.

Thus, through holy scripture, God has spoken to mankind.

VIDEO of Asha's Service on this Subject from 7-26-09

Sunday Service on 7/26/2009 from Ananda Palo Alto on Vimeo.

VIDEO of Pranaba's Service on this Subject from 7-26-09

MP3 For Download (or online listening) of Pranaba's Service on this Subject from 7-26-09

MP3 For Download (or online listening) of Swami's Service on this Subject from 7-28-02

MP3 for Download (or online listening) of another of Diksha's Service on this Subject from 7-27-08

MP3 for Download (or online listening) of another of Gary's Service on this Subject from 7-27-08

MP3 for Download (or online listening) of Asha's Service on this Subject from 7-29-07

MP3 for Download (or online listening) of Anandi's Service on this Subject from 7-29-07

Long Readings from the 3 Volume Set:
Rays of the Same Light

#30
(Titled: The Need for a Spiritual Teacher in Rays of the Same Light and Numbered 30)

This passage is from the Gospel of St. Matthew, Chapter 3, Verses 13-15:

"Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him,

"But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?

"And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." 

Commentary

The baptism of Jesus not only describes an important episode in his life, but contains a vital teaching. For if even Jesus felt it necessary to be baptized formally before he began his life work, how much more do the rest of us need baptism.

Divine grace must be received not only inwardly, in meditation, but also outwardly, through some qualified human channel. This grace is not given lightly. We must attract it to us by the magnetic quality of our devotion.

Spiritual magnetism is acquired in much the same way as a bar of iron is magnetized: through contact with a magnetic source. Divine power is transmitted by great masters to their disciples, and on through successive generations of disciples to the world. This is what is meant by the statement at the beginning of the Gospel of St. John: "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." (John 1:12)

Jesus said, "I am the vine, ye are the branches." He was referring to the divine life which had been sent through him to the world. He meant that, just as branches cannot live apart from the vine out of which they grow, even so the spiritual life of his disciples would wither and die, if ever they cut themselves off from their attunement with him.

The devotee cannot flourish on his own. Nor can he presume to claim discipleship under a great savior by attuning himself with him only "in the Spirit," while scorning outward affiliation with him or with the direct line of his disciples. Such repudiation of the outward link to divine blessings is like the branch claiming to draw its sustenance from afar, without establishing a direct connection with the vine. It is vitally necessary for the devotee to attune himself humbly to the flow of grace that descends from God through a great master, or from him through the line of his disciples. This descent must be not only in the Spirit; it must manifest itself, as well, in this world in which we live physically.

In this misunderstanding many of the Christian Gnostics erred. Their emphasis was, and rightly so, on their own inner experience of truth. But they overemphasized this experience. They denied outward physical realities altogether. They even denied the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus, they claimed, was so purely spiritual that he would never have recognized material reality by returning to it, having once left it behind. In this denial they set themselves above their fellow Christians, above even the apostles. They tried to justify their aloofness by the direct spiritual connection they felt they had to the Lord Himself — as if pride, from whatever motive, were ever pleasing to God!

Jesus demonstrated, however, by accepting formal baptism for himself as the fulfillment of "all righteousness" that an outward connection is necessary also. He emphasized, besides, the importance of making that connection with a spiritually qualified person, rather than with one who acts merely officially on behalf of some church. For he went for baptism to John, whom the priests themselves considered unorthodox; he didn't seek out one of the Pharisees.

Jesus made it clear, then, that according to divine law, the true devotee should seek baptism from a true channel of God. This is what he meant by the words, "the fulfillment of all righteousness."

And God Himself affirmed this truth. For although Jesus was already one with Him, it was after his baptism that the voice came from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:17)

Most Christians seem to feel no special need to learn from others who are more experienced on the path than themselves. Still less do they feel any need to receive the blessings of saintly souls. Baptism, for them, if it wasn't imposed on them in infancy, is a formality, a rite of acceptance. According to many of them, baptized Christians are "saints" already in Christ.

Many admirers of other great masters, too, feel that all they need to do is believe in those masters. Some, like the Gnostics of old, ignore even the masters themselves, and imagine that by merely following their teachings they will go straight to God. Such austere souls actually look upon the disciples of a great master as mere custodians for his teachings, and not as living channels of his spiritual power.

A careful study, however, of a wide spectrum of those who have followed in the footsteps of the masters reveals a different story. Devotees who have sought humbly to abide, like the branches of the vine described by Jesus, in the truth that God sent to earth through the masters, bear the stamp on their lives of a certain inner grace. Those, on the other hand, who hold themselves aloof from outward affiliation, and who think to progress by their own efforts alone, usually lack, by comparison, a certain radiance.

Those, again, whose association is merely nominal reveal far less joy in their lives, usually, than those disciples whose attunement includes active service to the master's mission. Those, in other words, who seek to pass on to others the blessings they receive become, in the process, more blessed themselves.

Acceptance of outward channels, and attunement with them, is important for another reason as well: It serves as a safeguard against that ever-present threat on the path: pride. Jesus, by receiving baptism from John the Baptist, was emphasizing also the need to check one's inner progress against the accumulated wisdom of the ages.

To sum up: If one wants to find God, he must seek divine grace through a true spiritual channel. Such a channel will be sent to every sincere seeker by God. This is the spiritual law. It is, as Jesus put it, the fulfillment "of all righteousness."

Thus, through the Holy Bible, God has spoken to mankind.

Bhagavad Gita

Right Discipleship    

"Open thyself to those who have attained wisdom. They will be thy teachers. Ask questions of them (both verbally and mentally). Serve them faithfully, and with devotion."

Commentary

Here the Bhagavad Gita teaches the attitudes of the sincere devotee.

It is common for seekers nowadays to reject the need for discipleship altogether. Steeped in ego-consciousness, they confuse self-affirmation with soul-freedom, and discipleship with ruthless manipulation on the part of the teacher, and mindless subservience on that of his disciples.

What would be the point of even starting the spiritual journey, if there were no chance of ever developing spiritually? Assuming that development is, in fact, possible, is it not absurd to imagine that everyone whose life is dedicated to finding God must, by very virtue of his dedication, be a fraud?

In simple truth, the greatest human beings are those whose lives are the most perfectly attuned to God's will, and who channel His love most perfectly to others.

It is, of course, true also that many students submit themselves too readily to training under people who are unfit to teach. If one succeeds in finding a teacher, however, whose wisdom includes humility, and who wants nothing of his students but their highest welfare — certainly there are such people to be found, even in worldly walks of life — he will be wise to consider the possibility of receiving serious training under him.

The neophyte in every walk of life needs guidance and instruction from others of greater experience. The aspiring artist needs to study under a competent artist. The novice musician needs to learn from another who is qualified in music. Even on a jungle safari, one needs a guide who is familiar with the trails.

The task of finding a true spiritual teacher is rendered easier, in a sense, by the fact that God consciously answers the true devotee's prayers, and sends him help according to his needs. As a well-known saying puts it, "When the disciple is ready, the teacher appears."

When a teacher's manifest purpose is selflessly to share with others the truths that he knows, and to draw people to God alone rather than to himself, he may at least be trusted. If the seeker, further, feels a deep inward affinity with him, he will do well to establish a relationship with him as a student, and learn from him, as the Gita prescribes here, always with faith above all in God.

Openness to the guidance of the wise is essential for the spiritual aspirant. Only by attunement with one of deep wisdom can a person acquire wisdom himself. It must, moreover, be an attunement in humility. That student who imagines that his spiritual gains will be greater if he continually voices his own opinions, or attempts to engage the teacher in outward debate, will never be able to rise above his own thought processes. Wise, rather, is that humble disciple who opens his heart and mind to receive. The overintellectual student fails to realize that true teaching is a sharing on soul levels, and not a sharing of mere ideas.

Receptivity is the door through which divine understanding can enter into human consciousness. The Gita says here to ask questions — not with words only, but above all in the silence of inner communion. Wisdom is not achieved through unquestioning acceptance. Right attitude in the disciple concerns not whether to ask, but how to ask. The worthy student doesn't want to block the flow of divine inspiration by the intrusion of his ego. He seeks rather to drink ever more deeply from the fountain of intuitive truth. He knows that opinions — whether his own or anyone else's — are but sparks compared to the blazing sun of Truth, and that Truth lies beyond human ideation.

Serving the teacher — the final practice recommended in this passage — is another important means of transcending ego-consciousness, and of opening oneself in deeper attunement to the wisdom and inspiration flowing to the disciple through the teacher.

Service is a means of making more practical and concrete the disciple's efforts to receive truth. By service, his commitment is preserved from becoming passive. By service to the teacher, his consciousness becomes vitally, ever-increasingly creative and aware, and thus capable of attuning itself to the Spirit in cosmic consciousness.

To find God, then, the essentials are these: faith, openness, questioning with complete sincerity, and a spirit of humble service. Such, the Bhagavad Gita tells us, are the attitudes of true discipleship. They are necessary in everyone with a sincere longing to know God.

Thus, through the Bhagavad Gita, God has spoken to mankind. Back to Top of Page

Longest Reading from the Book
The Promise of Immortality
NOTE: This book ended at Reading #26.

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