The Guru is the treasure trove of the Universe who can grant us what we need or seek. This truth is widely known and disciples throng around the Guru for fulfillment of their needs. Many come to him in pain and sickness and seek healing of their miseries. After the healing and receiving the blessings of good health, many such disciples seek fulfillment of immediate desires from the Guru and stay on with the him following his teachings. There are many other disciples who come to the Guru for the fulfillment of their wants – wealth, power, family, property, possessions, name and fame. When they receive the blessings of the Guru and their needs are fulfilled they go to the next level of seeking knowledge. Many come to the Guru out of curiosity, to get knowledge and understand the working of the Universe. When they attain some levels of knowledge and their heads and heart bow to the magnificence of the Universe and its workings, they seek the final knowledge of Self Realization. Many come directly to the Guru for self realisation and work to attain it.
The disciples who work on erasing their ego and overcoming their negative qualities are the ones who progress quickly. We need to have a basic understanding about the nature of desires – that they are endless and can never be fulfilled. When we have been given enough wealth to fulfil basic needs in life and we are also blessed with the intelligence, knowledge and experience to earn and progress in material world, our focus with the Guru should not be aimed at more wealth, name, fame and material aspiration but with spiritual progress. The disciples who seek the Guru for sake of self realisation are the ones who move quickly forward.
The quickest way of progressing in the spiritual path and towards God is doing seva or service to the Guru. Seva would mean doing any work allotted by the Guru. It can be cooking or cleaning or washing or teaching, spreading the teachings etc. If no work is allotted to the disciple, following the teachings of the Guru and doing the daily practices are seva. The Guru should be seen as the Primordial Energy of the Universe and be treated and respected in a suitable manner. The Guru is not his body. He is the sum total of the knowledge and powers of Divinity which has come down to earth to teach and guide man and lead him towards light and knowledge. When the human foibles of the Guru are not highlighted and only his divinity focussed upon, the Guru Shakti responds and guides the disciple in the right manner. The disciple who sees Divinity in his Guru, experiences the Formless Power of the Universe in Him – the Nirguna ParaBrahman. The disciple who seeks nothing for himself but to serve and love his Guru receives all the treasures of the Universe. Guru bhakti is a combination of love for the Formless and the form of the Guru in his body. Enough has been said, seen and known about disciples who have guru bhakti and do selfless service to the Guru.
The disciple has to transcend his lower beastly nature to reveal the divinity within him. Man has been blessed with the sixth sense, knowledge, intelligence and discrimination to rise higher to his true destiny. Instead, if the disciple indulges in the craftiness of the fox, the poisonous tongue of the viper, the greed for enormous wealth, endless lust and schemes to fulfil it, he falls from his lofty status as man and is reborn as an animal or reptile or insect. It takes endless cycles of birth and rebirths to attain the birth of man and then climb steadily on the path of spirituality.
The disciple who sees the Ultimate in his Guru and surrenders to Him is blessed indeed. The Guru takes on the responsibility of the material welfare and spiritual progress of such a disciple. The Guru Shakti or the Grace of the Guru guides the disciple each moment of his life. This does not mean that the disciple does not face problems. It means that he is guided to the right solutions and strengthened to face problems effortlessly. The burdens and responsibilities of such a disciple are literally shouldered by the Guru and the disciple is guided and taken by hand towards his goal of self realisation as the disciple has total and unconditional surrender towards the Guru. The disciple who sees the Universe in the Guru attains the Universe effortlessly.
