SITTING AT THE FEET OF THE GURU 2

Are we living a dream? Bharathi certainly thinks so in a song that he wrote. So what about the dream we have when we go to sleep? A dream within a dream? Then again we carry so many dreams with us while staying awake waiting for the hour to honour it. Then we came with so many dreams too that gave a purpose and reason to take birth. So are we made of dreams. Is this what life is all about. In the movie "Inception" which suggests this aspect of a dream within a dream an attempt is made in placing an idea into one's subconscious. When the lead actor says that there is no use in threatening another in a dream, he is told that killing him would just wake him up, but pain...is in the mind and she shoots the hostage's feet. And so we are having a terrifying nightmare right? and someone comes and shakes us and we come out of our dream into this life that is another dream. Whatever anguish and pain felt in the dream is not felt while awake. But when my pain in the lower back was so intense at one point it woke me up from my sleep.

Can we possibly comprehend this life that we are living and the role that we are living? Am I in someone's dream then? Similarly, is everyone else in my dream too? 

Ruzbeh Ruzbeh Bharucha shares a common belief that was held by his grandma,

"When I was young my maternal grandmother would often tell me, ‘You had a dream where you cried a lot, that’s good beta, instead of crying in this so-called real world, Baba took care of an unpleasant experience and pain in the dream world’." Going by what Ruzbeh wrote can we then consider a dream as an extension of our lives where we partially work out our karma too?

Going on pilgrimages that take their toll on us is said to remove our karma. Sitting before a Yagna and placing offerings into the fire pit is said to remove our past karma too. Ruzbeh Bharucha in writing on his blog says that "It is only the Ether Element that takes one closer to The One" and mentions further that,

"Baba Sai says in channeling that through the power of silence, calmness, chanting and meditation, a Divine Fire (not to be confused with the Fire Element) burns away the karma that is encased in the causal body. Once the karma is burnt away and remember karma is karma, both good and bad karma are burnt away, making your slate in the pristine state in which it came when the spark left The Great Flame." 

Knowing that though the guru was in charge we should equally take the necessary measures for example locking up the home before we retire for the day or off the lights and water after usage, right? We cannot expect the guru to do that right? But what if the efforts just did not get noticed by these quarters. Recently I was venting my frustration to Mahin over how my efforts to curb certain things in society were not responded to by the parties concerned. It was as if their hands were tied.  Though initially, I told myself that it did not get the consent and blessing of the guru, I needed answers to these questions. I asked Agathiyar for some form of clarity. He immediately sang Tirumular's song to me and clarified that the answers are with the guru. It was so obvious and I had missed it.

தெளிவு குருவின் திருமேனி காண்டல்
தெளிவு குருவின் திருநாமம் செப்பல்
தெளிவு குருவின் திருவார்த்தை கேட்டல்
தெளிவு குருவின் திருஉரு சிந்தித்தல்தானே

How apt and true and he made me realize that all the answers were with the guru. He knows and is not acting or interfering for a reason. But yet we want him to change the state of things. How stupid could I be? That is ignorance on my part.

Swami Muktananda in his "Kundalini - The Secret of Life", Siddha Yoga Publication, 1994, writes,

“If he tries to discover a path by himself, he will simply go around in circles, walking for a long time but never reaching his goal. The Guru has found everything you are seeking; that which you want has become the Guru’s wealth. The difference between you and the Guru is that you are the seed and the Guru is the full-grown tree; you are the beginning, and he is the end.” 

Swami Muktananda proclaims that the Masters themselves were the secret! Paul Zweig in the introduction to Swami Muktananda’s "The Perfect Relationship", Syda Foundation, 1985, writes, 

“He (Swami Muktananda) felt that God's ‘secret’ was not contained in any Sanskrit formula, ancient ritual, or technique of meditation; that severe austerities and physical deprivation would not reveal it. He felt that the ‘secret’ resided with great beings, with saints; they were themselves the ‘secret’ and he could learn what they were by loving them and sitting at their feet.”

Swami Muktananda stresses, 

“Without the Guru’s company, it is difficult to contemplate the self. Without the Guru’s teaching, there is no discipline in one’s life. Without the Guru’s blessing, there is no love. Without the Guru’s knowledge, there is no end to desire, the intellect does not receive the light of wisdom, and the delusion and pain created by duality are not eradicated, nor are doubts dispelled. The Guru is as necessary as Prana, the life force, is necessary to the body.” 

Swami Muktananda’s Guru, Bhagawan Nithyananda too spoke of the importance of a Guru. He told Muktananda, 

“Meditation on the Guru gives you life. All knowledge is in meditation on the Guru.” 

These words were like a Mantra to Muktananda. This is what Agathiyar pointed out to me in the above song too. This is further strengthened by Sadhu Om in paying tribute to his guru Bhagawan Ramana and his teachings in this song by Sriram Parthasarathy.