How can I be a good disciple to my guru?

Ans: Ans: We have to provide a way for the guru to give what he wishes to give, and that is through devotion to the guru, where there is no place for the ego. But if the thought comes, 'I have got great devotion for the guru and am a great disciple,' then finished, that devotion is cancelled and nullified. You yourself must become the very embodiment of that love and devotion, but there should be no awareness of some person having that quality of devotion. The very purpose of the guru is to remove the separate I-consciousness, the consciousness of being a separate entity. Thus, true devotion to the guru is egoless.

The greater the growth of devotion and the greater the reverence for the guru, the greater is the inflow of the guru's grace. The greater the desire to carry out the ideals of the guru and follow his instructions faithfully, the greater is the inflow of the guru's grace. Swami Sivananda was never tired of saying, "Obedience is better than reverence." True devotion to the guru is not mere sentiment. It has to have an iron will behind it, an immense strength. When such guru-devotion is there, such great desire to carry out his teachings, then illumination automatically descends from the guru to the disciple. The illumination in which the guru is established comes like a spark flying from one end of an exposed wire to another. It is that heroic devotion to the guru, where there is the greatest love and reverence combined with the highest obedience-that becomes the great channel for the inflow of guru's grace.