As seekers, we make the mistake of sitting at the feet of one's guru and wanting to see them do "tricks" and "magic" and learn about their powers and might, failing to ask to know and learn how the guru had served his guru. It is in looking into the lives of the close disciples of the established gurus that we come to learn humbleness and respect, service and dedication, love and compassion. There are many disciples who soon turned out into fine gurus in history. We should learn from these disciples turned masters.
Totapuri and Ramakrishna
Richard Schiffman in his "Ramakrishna - A Prophet for the New Age" writes,
Totapuri did not recognize Ramakrishna when he first caught sight of him amidst a gathering of pilgrims by the Ganges. Totapuri had not received the divine edict to search out Ramakrishna and to instruct him. Quite against the aloof habits of his sadhu’s life he (Totapuri) felt compelled to make an unusual offer. Totapuri strode to Ramakrishna and addressed him, “My son I see that you have already traveled far along the way to truth. If you wish it I can help you reach the next stage. I will teach you Vedanta.” The prospect of fresh spiritual instruction thrilled Ramakrishna as always with a joyous expectancy. “I will have to get my mother’s permission first,” replied Ramakrishna and off he went to the temple of Kali. He was back in a moment and conveyed his mother’s consent to Totapuri. The divine mother had given her assent revealing that it was for the purpose of his instruction in non-dualism that she had brought Totapuri to Dakshineswar. From that moment onward Ramakrishna gave himself unreservedly to the holy man’s care.
But Ramakrishna struggled mightily, Richard Schiffman writes, to follow Totapuri’s instruction on meditation.
It was no use; the last and most subtle barrier, the golden chain of his devotion, barred the path. The personal God who had lighted his way and guided his steps now stood as a barrier to the realization of the impersonal reality.
Gnana Jothiamma shared with me back then how her favourite Mother and Goddess Kali and Father and Karupanasamy backed off after delivering her to Agathiyar. Mahindren who was compeled to read the Nadi after his friends had their respective readings, sought permission from Mother Kali first.
Richard Schiffman conveys Ramakrishna’s own electrifying description,
“I tried on several occasions to concentrate my mind on the truth of Advaita Vedanta; but each time the form of the Mother intervened. I said to Totapuri in despair, “It’s no good. I will never be able to lift my spirit to the unconditioned state and find myself face to face with the Atman!”
"He replied severely, “What do you mean you can’t? You must!”
"Looking about him he found a shard of glass. He took it and struck the point between my eyes, saying, and “Concentrate your mind on that point.”
"Then I began to meditate with all my might, and soon the gracious form of the Divine Mother appeared. I used my discrimination as a sword and cut her in two. The last barrier vanished and my spirit immediately precipitated itself beyond the plane of the conditioned. I lost myself in Samadhi.”
Now I understand why Agathiyar asked me to even let go of him. Only then could I know Sivam.
Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda
From "The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Introduction by Swami Nikhilananda", we learn that,
Narendra, because of his Brahmo upbringing, considered it wholly blasphemous to look on man as one with his Creator. One day at the temple garden he laughingly said to a friend: "How silly! This jug is God! This cup is God! Whatever we see is God! And we too are God! Nothing could be more absurd." Sri Ramakrishna came out of his room and gently touched him. Spellbound, he immediately perceived that everything in the world was indeed God. A new universe opened around him. Returning home in a dazed state, he found there too that the food, the plate, the eater himself, the people around him, were all God. When he walked in the street, he saw that the cabs, the horses, the streams of people, the buildings, were all Brahman. It took him a number of days to recover his normal self. He had a foretaste of the great experiences yet to come and realized that the words of the Vedanta were true.
Richard Schiffman in his "Sri Ramakrishna – A Prophet for the New Age", Paragon House, 1989,
Ramakrishna through the purity of his vision saw through the thin veneer of personality and perceived directly the divine spark yearning for expression deep within these spiritual aspirants. .... Each soul was an open book for him, and he knew all of its dark secrets and all of its bright possibilities.
Richard Schiffman writes,
a song, a word, or a touch from Ramakrishna could awaken the dormant spiritual consciousness of his devotees. In those who were poised to receive it even a casual glance from the master during one of his ecstasies might release a veritable flood tide of bliss.
Similarly it has been said of other masters.
Truman Caylor Wadlington in his book YOGI RAMSURATKUMAR - THE GODCHILD OF TIRUVANNAMALAI writes,
Meeting the Maharishi’s (Ramana) gaze he went into a visual rapport with him and completely lost himself in the timeless wonder of that Godly soul. He felt as though he existed during that short while not as his solitary physical body but something far greater, far more glorious and vast. His innermost being underwent a spiritual transfiguration.
Swami Ramdas in VISION, the monthly journal of Anandaashram comments further about his state,
"Ramdas went to Ramana in a state of complete obliviousness of the world. He felt thrills of ecstasy in his presence. The Maharishi made the awakening permanent in Ramdas."
He is quoted in the FRAGRANT PETALS published by Sri Ramanasramam, 2005. Ramdas addressed Ramana on his first visit to the Maharishi,
“Maharaj here stands before thee a humble slave. Have pity on him. His only prayer to thee is to give him thy blessing.”
Ramana turned to look at Ramdas and nodded his head. A thrill of inexpressible joy coursed through Ramdas, his whole body quivering like a leaf in the breeze.
Ramdas and Yogi Ramsuratkumar
Truman Caylor Wadlington in his book YOGI RAMSURATKUMAR - THE GODCHILD OF TIRUVANNAMALAI and Ma Devaki in YOGI RAMSURATKUMAR -THE DIVINE BEGGAR, published by Yogi Ramsuratkumar Ashram, Tiruvannamalai, July 2008, describe the state of transformation that took place after Yogi Ramsuratkumar came to his masters.
Truman Caylor Wadlington writes,
However, unlike his meetings with Ramana and Aurobindo he felt no attraction to Ramdas. Ramsuratkumar could not bring himself to accept Ramdas’s life of luxury. He returned to his home in Kashi. Ramsuratkumar visited Ramdas repeatedly but he felt the same way towards Ramdas each time he was with Ramdas. When Ramana followed by Aurobindo, passed away, Ramsuratkumar thought that he should open himself to the remaining sole savior Ramdas. In 1952, he arrived again at Ramdas’s ashrams; only this time Ramdas turned out to be an entirely different person.
Ma Devaki writes,
According to Sri Yogiji, the four years of tutelage under Sri Aurobindo and Maharishi Ramana were a period of ceaseless transformation of the human into the divine - a period of construction of all that was conducive, destruction of all that was dross and sublimation of all into greater and greater awakening. His days see-sawed between heights of ecstasy and depths of gloom.
For many years Ramdas had secretly worked on the disciple to accustom his body gradually to higher rates of vibration.
When finally the Yogi came to Ramdas,
Then Ramdas initiated him into the repetition of the Ram Mantra. What was to transpire immediately was a vivification of the centers or Chakras of the inner man, a radical elimination of all impurities and a sudden influx of energy directed through the master and accompanied by a release of latent spiritual fire within the disciple. The initiation would throw him into the cosmic dimensions of the divine mind and open doors to fields of activity and realms of consciousness hitherto unknown to him.
Truman writes,
In the course of only seven days and seven nights the yogi made the great exodus from the kingdom of man to the kingdom of God. The latent forces released within him combined with the power of the master whipped him out of bondage into limitless freedom and from the mists of human intelligence into the luminous consciousness of the divine mind.
"Every saint has a past; Every sinner has a future." Let us not explore the past of the saints but learn how he transformed himself into a master.