Some years ago, I read the
real-life story of an old man, who was lost in the mammoth crowd of pilgrims in
the Haridwar Kumbha Mela. He belonged to a set of pilgrims who had travelled
together to the Kumbha Mela from an ashram in New Delhi. When they were on
their way to take a sacred dip in the river, he got separated from the rest of
his party, and was pushed around in the thronging crowd and lost his way. The
policemen on duty found him sobbing by the wayside. "What can we do for
you?" they asked him solicitously. "How can we help you?" The
man had no answer to give them. All he could say again and again was the
repeated sob, "I am lost, I am lost."
Was he really 'lost'? He — the
‘I’ — was physically there, and he himself was aware of it. Haridwar was there
too, with its teeming crowds; the Ganga was there — his sacred destination.
What was lost? Who was lost? What was to be 'found'?
Our consciousness constantly
clings to passing perishable things: my house, my wife, my office, my children,
my money. We cling to the world, to the body, which is mortal. The Guru enables
us to break the illusion and realise our own immortality.
Every night we fall asleep;
every morning we wake up and rise — some of us, with great difficulty it is
true - and resume our daily routine. Have you ever heard of anyone who is
afraid to fall asleep because he is worried that he may not wake up the next
morning? Though we are aware that death can come to us at any time of the day
or night, we shut that out of our consciousness, and live as if we were
immortal, considering death as remote and distant possibility. And yet, many of
us are worried about old age, disease, disability and illness.
We are quite content to go to
sleep and awake; we are quite happy to move from teenage to youth, and youth to
maturity; then why should we be afraid of other physical transformations like
old age and illness? The Guru is the enlightener who can teach us that we are
not the bodies we wear, but the deathless, immortal atman whom weapons cannot
cleave, fires cannot burn and winds cannot dry....
This knowledge of the atman
within is the ultimate Light — Self-Realisation.
Maatru devo bhava...
as little children, we discover the protecting, tender love of our mother, who
nourishes and sustains us when we are too helpless to survive on our own. Pitru devo bhava…. We come
under the benign protection of the father, whose love is of a different kind.
We see God in these beautiful relationships.
As we evolve, we become aware
of our deeper spiritual needs — a hunger which cannot be satiated by worldly
pleasures; a thirst that cannot be quenched by other relationships. Thus begins
our quest for the Guru... thus begins our spiritual unfolding....
TO THE GURU
Gurudeva! Beloved of
this aspiring heart,
Again and again,
have I exclaimed:
"Without thee,
Where would I
be?"
The debt I owe to
thee,
Can never be repaid.
Even If I stood as a
slave
At thy door, birth
after birth,
I would not be able
to make recompense!
Again and again,
have I exclaimed:
"Without thee,
Where would I
be?"
When I thought I
could see all,
I was blind!
Thou didst come
And open the Inner
Eye
And all appearance
faded!
A new realm of
radiance and beauty
Burst into view,
And I realised
I am nothing:
Thou art the All!
Again and again,
have I exclaimed:
"Without thee,
Where would I
be?"
