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Sadhaka : An aspirant approaches a guru with a goal to attain the highest Bliss and eternal Happiness and Peace. What are the duties of a disciple? How should he prepare himself for this mysterious journey on spiritual path? Gurudev : A disciple is he who follows the instructions of the guru to the letter and spirit and who propagates the teachings of the guru till the end of his life. True discipleship opens the vision, kindles the spiritual fire. It awakens the dormant faculties. The aspirant, before he desires the grace of the Master, should deserve it. The supply of divine grace comes only when there is a real thirst in the aspirant and when he is fit to receive it. Guru's grace descends upon those who feel utterly humble and faithful. Surrender draws down guru's grace, and grace of the guru makes the surrender complete. The true disciple obeys his guru with pure love, for love's sake only a disciple who obeys his guru can have command over his lower self. Obedience is better than reverence. The disciple has to cleanse himself, purity himself, and make himself a perfectly faultless piece of marble, and then has to put himself under the expert sculpture, his guru, to be carved and chiseled in the image of God. Swamiji : We are the distilled quintessence of pure Divinity. Our recognition of the guru's gurutva - "he is my guru; I follow him,"- is to be demonstrated by our persistent, persevering, continuous, unbroken attempt - again and again, and yet again - to make manifest our higher nature, the God-principle within us which we are. The essence of the guru is to remove the ignorance that is the cause of bondage, sorrow and suffering. And the essence of a disciple is a keen eagerness to be free from ignorance - the essential nature of which is ego - and attain Illumination. A hundred gurus cannot help unless the disciple has a keen desire for liberation. For the sake of the Goal, a devotee must be willing to give up everything, and the most important of all, to renounce his little self. "Whosoever clings to his life shall lose it, and whosoever loses his life shall save it." "Kill this little 'I', Die to live, Lead the divine life". We have to make a start. Until we make ourselves fit and generate we will not be able to fully make use of the guru as the divine being. We have to develop in us the Divine consciousness in us. The consciousness that we are immortal beings, we are Sat-Chid-Ananda. Then we can demand that Satchidananda consciousness from the guru, and the guru will be able to give it. We have to work out an inner transformation. Until that is done, the divine nature will not become fully revealed to us. Therefore, our sadhana should be to generate divine consciousness and to shed away our human consciousness. If we begin to live as divine beings, then gradually, the guru-kripa and the divine aspect of the guru will begin to manifest. Day and night our sadhana should be to cultivate perfection. We have to break the old set of ideas, preconceived notions and self-conceit. Ego is the first barrier. Ahimsa (non-injury and harmlessness), satya (truthfulness) and bramacharya (celibacy, control of senses) constitute the essential part of gurutattva. And embodying it in ourselves, reflecting it in all its fullness is discipleship. To become an embodiment of compassion, kindness, truthfulness, perfect self-control and contemplation is the essence of discipleship. Cultivate the consciousness of perennial presence of the guru: "He pervades all my life. He is with me wherever I go. I am myself a living temple of his presence. He urges me in the right direction from within." Then, at all times, upon each step of our day-to-day life, before we act, we will feel: "How would he who is beside me want me to act at this moment?" |
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