What happens with the coming of a master? Srinath Raghavan posted the following on fb.
We all live in a personal bubble of our own,
A bubble which is highly colorful but opaque,
So nothing outside it's purview is ever seen by us,
We live and die our life, inside this fantastic bubble,
Thinking and believing whatever in it is the only truth,
Nothing outside can ever exist and it should not too,
We can very well break it's brittle wall from inside,
But we choose not to, for the fear of being exposed to uncertainty,
When with the touch of the Master from outside, the bubble breaks,
That's when we will finally realize, how foolish and limited we were,
To have accepted the truth that's known to us, as the Final Truth...
~ Freedom is breaking the bubble and seeing and feeling the reality beyond your own.
Yes, with the touch of the Master from outside, the bubble breaks and reality dawns. Then as Ramana Maharishi says, "... the spiritual energy of a master transforms the consciousness of men."
Paul Zweig in the introduction to Swami Muktananda’s ‘THE PERFECT RELATIONSHIP’, SYDA Foundation, 1985, writes about the moment the master came into Muktananda's life.
"After almost twenty five years he met Bhagawan Nithyananda who became his guru. In a flash of self understanding he knew that he had found his other half; that now he was whole again."
Swami Muktananda mentions in his book ‘SECRET OF THE SIDDHAS’, Siddha Yoga Publication, 1980, that his master gave him one word that completely transformed him. And he also mentions he had to spend such a long time with Bhagawan Nithyananda to receive it.
Bhagawan Nithyananda, who always traveled barefoot, to everyone’s surprise once wore sandals.
“Take these sandals, put them on,” he instructed Muktananda.
Muktananda questioned his guru, “Gurudev you have worn these Padukas. How can I wear them?’’.
But nevertheless he did accept them. Then at that very moment he saw a ray of light coming from Bhagawan Nithyananda’s eyes and it went straight into him. He could feel it too.
Margaret Simpson writes,
It was searing red hot and so bright that it dazzled his eyes. Every hair on Baba’s (Muktananda) body rose in awe. He kept repeating, “Guru Om, Guru Om, ” He lost all sense of himself. He only came out of it when Nithyananda made a sound. As he set off for home that day carrying Bhagawan’s sandals on his head Muktananda was filled with wonder and gratitude.
Muktananda says,
"That word (Guru Om), which I receive after so many years, spread through my body from head to toe like wildfire carried by the wind. It produced in me both inner heat and the coolness of joy. Before meeting my guru I had practiced many different kinds of yoga, but it was I who had practiced them. However, that word activated a spontaneous yoga within me. I was filled with amazement."
He says everything - postures, Mudras and breathing processes - all these happened on its own. He became ecstatic.
After the awakening of the Shakti, this process of yogic movements began to take place within my entire body. The pulsation of his ecstasy pervades my entire body like the movement of the wind. The Kriyas were his, the yoga was his, and meditation took place because of him. The final message that I received was from him. The power of his word permeates each of my blood cells; the fluids of my entire body are his. That is why I am joyful. Gurudev entered me and replaced all my bodily fluids with his. He evicted me and took up residence in me. He annihilated my ego. By making my individuality his, he became me. This is the guru’s compassion. Only when I lost myself in the ecstasy of Bhagawan Nithyananda did I realize who he was.
Swami Muktananda says his joy arises from the one word - Guru Om; from the churning of the love between the guru and the disciple. He adds,
"Only the guru can know that delight and taste the elixir that arises in every pore of the body."
For Swami Vishnudevananda, meeting his guru entirely changed his outlook on life, as he narrates further in his book ‘MY YEARS WITH THE MASTER’ available at http://www.sivanandaonline.org.
As if by chance, I had found a piece of paper that intrigued me. One night when I was working late and was searching for a misplaced paper, I found a small pamphlet in the trash basket. It was called ‘SADHANA TATTVA’ and was by Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh. As soon as I read it, my body began to shake. It began with ‘An ounce of practice is worth tons of theory.’ Here was a teacher who was down-to-earth and practical. There was nothing mysterious about his teachings; I felt that I had to meet him for myself. I got a few days leave from the army.
I was an arrogant boy on leave from the army. It meant that I had to travel a day and a night from my army base in Jullunder. I would have only a few hours at the Ashram - just to see the Master and then go right back.
The first time I saw Swami Sivananda he was sitting with about 30 or 40 people around him. He looked like an ordinary man among them. The look on his face and manner of speech were simple and straightforward. Each word came from his heart. There was no kind of religious hypocrisy, no sitting on a tiger skin with ashes smeared all over his body. He had an extraordinary spiritual glow.
The second time, I saw him Swami Sivananda was coming up the stairs in my direction. I didn't want to bow my head to him. I was young and arrogant and never wanted to bow my head to anybody -Swami, God - realized soul or whoever, I didn't care. But it is the tradition in India that you should bow your head to a holy man. To avoid the situation I just moved out of his path. The Master saw me and headed in my direction. He asked me who I was and where I was coming from. Then he bowed down and touched my feet!!
My whole body began to shake violently. With all my heart, with all my life and love, I learned to bow without any type of reservation. He touched my heart not with miracles or shows of holiness, but with his perfect ego-less nature. He didn't consider that I was just a stupid boy standing there, though I was just that. He touched my heart and broke the ego. That was my first lesson, and if I could attain one millionth of the state of egolessness of the Master, it is His Grace.
Before leaving, I went down the Ganga where it was the custom of the Ashram to do Aarati (waving of lights) every evening. All the devotees and inmates of the Ashram assembled by the banks of the Ganga to watch Master perform this evening worship. I was skeptical. I was of a scientific temperament and knew that a river is only water, H2O - imagine worshiping H20!! But as I stood there and watched Master waving the lights, I saw the river become a mass of flowing lights. At that instant the river assumed a divine flow, a manifestation of the Grace of the Lord. Master turned and looked at me and in my mind I heard his message, “God pervades everything; this too is His Special Form.”
This entirely changed my outlook on life.
Richard Schiffman in ‘SRI RAMAKRISHNA – A PROPHET FOR THE NEW AGE’, Paragon House, 1989 mentions that Ramakrishna had had a vision of Naren (who later came to be known as Swami Vivekananda). Ramakrishna on meeting Naren immediately recognized him. Richard Schiffman shares Naren’s own account of his first meeting with the master.
Ramakrishna took Naren away from the room where several other devotees were gathered, to the northern
veranda.
To my great surprise, he (Ramakrishna) began to weep with joy. He held me by the hand and addressed me very tenderly, as if I was long familiar to him. He said, “You’ve come so late! Was that right? Couldn’t you have guessed how I’ve been waiting for you? My ears are nearly burnt off listening to the talk of these worldly people. I thought I would burst not having anyone to tell how I really felt!”
He went on like that - raving and weeping. And then suddenly he folded his palms together and began addressing me as if I was some divine being, “I know who you are my Lord. You are Nara, the ancient sage, the incarnation of Lord Narayana. You have come back to earth to take away the sufferings and sorrows of mankind.”
I didn’t answer him and let this wonderful madman go on talking as he chose. Then he took my hand and said, “Promise me you’ll come back here soon, alone.”
I couldn’t refuse his request; it was made so earnestly. So I had to say, “I will.”Hence began a wonderful relationship between the master and his disciple.
The first encounters of gurus with their masters had always amazed me. These precious and prized moments where the guru identifies the disciple and the disciple accepts the teachings of the guru is always exciting to read again and again. I have compiled these sacred moments when the master meets the disciple and vice versa in a book entitled ‘FIRST ENCOUNTERS WITH THE MASTERS’.