It is written in our scriptures,
“Guru binu bhavnidhi tare na koi. Hari viranchi Shankar sam hoi.”
Nobody can cross the worldly ocean of illusion without the Spiritual Master. Nobody can get salvation without taking shelter of the Spiritual Master.
Saint Tulsidas wrote at the beginning of the Ramcharitmanasa,
“Bandoun guru pad kanj kripa sindhu nar roop Hari.
Maha moh tam punj jasu vachan ravi karni kar.”
I prostrate before my Spiritual Master, who is the ocean of Grace in human form. His Word is like the sun which dispels the darkness of ignorance, lust and attachment.
In India , the Spiritual Master is revered and accepted by people everywhere, whereas people in other countries wonder why India glorifies the Satguru so much. In India , we pray to the Master because Spiritual Knowledge is acquired by his grace and it is considered to be very important. To transform an iron piece into a magnet we bring it into contact with a magnet. This magnet is rubbed from one end to the other of the iron piece and by this process, the iron piece becomes a magnet by and by. Similarly it is said,
“Guru ko kijiye dandvat, koti koti pranam.
Keet na jane bhring ko, Guru kar len ap saman”.
It is said that a bhringi wasp transforms the larva of the insect in its cocoon into another bhringi wasp by emitting a humming sound . Similarly, Guru Maharaj transforms a disciple into master like himself. So we prostrate before Guru Maharaj Ji and salute him endlessly.
Our saints stated,
“Jhukte hain wo jinme jan hoti hai aur
akre rehna to murde ki pahchan hoti hai.”
Those that have life can bend, while rigidity is a sign of death .
So, it is the tradition in our country to bow to Guru Maharaj Ji. The Spiritual Master enlightens a disciple, just like the sun dispels the darkness of night when it rises in the morning. Sunlight is white light but it contains seven colours. Sometimes you may have seen that when a ray of light passes through a raindrop, then a rainbow is formed in the sky. It does not mean that deities are responsible for the red, crimson, yellow, violet, green, blue and indigo there. The truth is that clouds carry water particles. When a sunray passes through such a rain drop, then it is split into seven different colours, which is called a ‘rainbow'. Similarly, when light is emitted from a diamond, it also splits into seven colours. It is said that there is lustre within a diamond and light is emitted from it.
Likewise, when Guru Maharaj Ji imparts the Spiritual Knowledge then the secret is revealed. Seven colours are not visible in ordinary light. For that you will have to pass the light through a prism. Then you will see seven colours. Similarly, spiritual power is hidden within a human being but he does not know it. By the grace of the Master, the whole spiritual world is revealed within his heart. Our scriptures describe Spiritual Knowledge and it is said that the reality of the entire creation is that Energy, that Power.
There is a prayer to Bhagwati (God the Mother), which says,
“Ya devi sarva bhooteshu shakti roopen sansthitah.
Namastasyai, namastasyai, namastasyai namo namah”
O Goddess, we salute you because you are Power, you are Energy . What is this Light? It is nothing but energy. Whatever you are hearing, is energy of sound. Energy permeates the whole creation. There is no place where there is no energy.
Guru Dronacharya Ji wanted to explain the same thing to his disciples, the Pandavas. He gave a stick to each of them and asked them to break it where no one was seeing them. All the Pandavas except Arjuna broke their sticks. Guru Dronacharya Ji asked Arjuna why he did not break his stick. Arjuna replied that he could not find a place where no one was seeing him. He said, “Even if there was nobody else there, I was myself able to see. Even if I closed my eyes still God was seeing me. So I could not break the stick.” Guru Dronacharya Ji was very happy to hear this and said that he wanted to explain this very thing – that the energy of consciousness is everywhere - to him.
So it is said,
“Har jagah moujood hai lekin najar ata nahin.
Yog sadhan ke bina koi usay pata nahin.”
He is not visible while He is everywhere. None can know Him without yoga sadhana (spiritual insight).
Einstein explained this using the formula E=Mc 2. It means that energy is equal to mass into velocity of light squared. He also expounded a very beautiful theory. Suppose there are twin brothers. If one of them travels in a rocket through space at the speed of light and the other brother stays on Earth, then the brother in the rocket does not age and remains as he was before going into space, whereas his brother will become old. So, when you travel at speed of light, time slows down for you, which means that you pass your life more slowly and that is why the first brother remains young.
Lord Krishna tells Arjuna,
“Nana shashtra pathen loke nana devat poojanam.
Atmagyan bina Partha sarva karma nirarthakam.”
All actions and rituals such as reading various scriptures and worshipping various gods and goddesses are futile without Spiritual Knowledge.
So our saints said-
“ Apun ko ap hi men payo. Shabda hi shabda bhayo ujiyaro, Sadguru bhed batayo.”
I found self within myself. The Word alone was there with its radiance all around of which the Spiritual Master revealed the secret.
Hindus worship Lord Ganesh. It is written in the Ramcharitmanasa,
“ Nam prabhaw jani ganrau. Pratham poojiyat nam Prabhau.”
Ganesh Ji knew the glory of the Name, due to which he is worshipped before all the other gods and goddesses.
Tulsidas further writes,
“Sumiri pawansut pawan namu. Apne wash kar rakheu Ramu.”
Pawansut (Hanuman) remembered the Holy Name and this is how he could influence Lord Ram to get His grace.
All these things are written in our scriptures and they are testimony that saints achieved the highest goal by virtue of meditation and by remembering the Holy Name. So, that is the only path to salvation.
In Indian mythology, there is a story that the sage Agastya drank the sea in one gulp. We would wonder how big his stomach must be, if he could drink the entire sea in one gulp. The correct meaning of this is that Agastya Rishi was a great sailor, and such a great navigator that he had measured the depths of the ocean and knew how to navigate and travel by sea. He carried statues of our great deities Lord Shankar and Ma Durga to Bali and Indonesia and installed them there. So people there give great importance to Agastya Muni. In other words, our saints and sages took the tradition of our country to many countries and spread the Indian culture there. Such great was the culture in our country, but nowadays, due to ignorance, we are fighting amongst ourselves. This will never make our country strong. Only when there is love, unity, and goodwill will we become deserving sons and daughters of our country. The jealousy, disparity and malice amongst our countrymen will be eradicated when we are united.
Gandhiji said,
“Ishwar Allah tero Nam, sabko sanmati de bhagwan.”
‘ Ishwar' and ‘Allah' are both your names. May God grant good sense to everyone. We must know the true Name of God from the Satguru, the Spiritual Master.
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