Satsangs of Swami Satyananda

ROLE OF THE GURU
Part 4

Samarpan in the guru-disciple relationship

There are two important moments of surrender in human life. One is when one surrenders to the lower instincts, to one's temptations and mental whims. That is the common type of surrender that most people make. Some people are afraid to surrender their ego because they fear they will lose their individuality. They are obviously not aware that they surrender their ego in so many other ways in life. The other moment of surrender is to the guru, the inner essence. If one is a true disciple, one surrenders everything to guru: emotions, brain, intellectuality, good and bad deeds, ego, vanity, past, present and future, security, fears and passions. Nothing belongs to the disciple; he gives everything of himself to his guru.

The outcome of the first surrender is pain, agony and frustration. The result of the second type of surrender is ananda, bliss. The devotee begins to feel that he is no longer alone. There is someone who has the most awe-inspiring love for him, not on a temporary basis, but for eternity, and one begins to feel that the two are somehow one. This realization of unity is the consequence of the disciple's surrender to guru. This losing of oneself is not like death; it is passing over the threshold into higher experience.

Where do guru and disciple unite? Not on a physical, emotional or mental plane, but in total darkness, when everything is finished, in the innermost chamber where everything is dead. There one does not hear a sound or see any form or vision. One is aware of nothing but the guru, shining like a lofty light. That is how guru and disciple must commune with each other, and for that the disciple's ego must be annihilated.

When salt or sugar are mixed with water, the duality ceases; there is no longer any separate identity. That has to be the relationship between God and devotee, and between the guru and his disciple. This is only possible when there is perfect communion between them on the spiritual plane. Body, mind and emotions are temporary; the spirit is eternal and the relationship with the guru should be based on the spirit. If there is anything between the disciple and guru it is between their spirits, not between their bodies or minds. It is not a physical, mental or emotional relationship. Initially the relationship is established on emotional grounds because people belong to the emotional plane. However, the disciple has to step out of the emotional relationship, otherwise the sobriety, tranquility, stability and homogeneity of the mind are lost.

A disciple's individual consciousness and the guru's individual consciousness have to merge into each other. This means that, except for the guru who is always with him, he is able to forget the whole world, whatever he is doing, thinking or feeling. That is communion on the spiritual plane. When one closes one's eyes, one sees the guru. When one cleans the bathroom, one feels him beside one. When one is planning some work, he is there in one's thoughts. One must have this advaita bhava, feeling of unity, with the guru.

The purpose of the guru-disciple relationship is to link with each other on a universal field, to be able to commune with each other. For this to happen the disciple must correlate his mental frequency with that of the guru. The individual mind is only a concept; it is nothing. There is no individual mind, only the universal mind. The universal mind is able to unite with every mind at any time and in any place. It is not a matter of transmission, but of communion and inter-union. Gurus have developed the universal mind, so they can operate anywhere. Every individual is a part of the universal mind, and when he is able to remove the ego, the barrier between him and guru, him and God, the individual and his inner essence, then the guru can communicate with him from any point because the two have the same mind. This has to be understood properly. It requires infinite patience on the part of the guru and infinite patience on the part of the disciple. Unless one has great faith and under­standing and a sort of enlightenment within oneself, the communion cannot be established.

The relationship between guru and disciple is linked by faith. If there is no faith, there is no relationship. The guru is the reflection of the disciple's faith. If the faith of the disciple diminishes, he will see less of it reflecting from the guru. Therefore, to an ordinary disciple the guru plays the role of a kind mother, but shows his real nature only to disciples who have faith, for they are composed of a different material and can withstand the sharp chisel that cuts a beautiful form from a crude piece of wood.

It is to reaffirm the faith that exists in one's nature that emphasis has been placed on the guru-disciple relationship. This relationship is needed to fulfil the sublime aspect of life, and yet it is so difficult to maintain. Most disciples stay with the guru for a few years until they find some fault in him, and then they decide he is not their guru. This crisis occurs in a disciple's life when there is no faith. If the faith of the disciple is strong, the reflection from the guru will be very strong. The personality of the guru is the image of the faith of the disciple. Therefore, Mirabai has also said:

Now I have fallen in love with the guru's feet.
I want nothing but the shelter of his sacred feet.
The illusory world has now become a dream.
For me the ocean of the world has dried up.
Now there is no anxiety to cross it.
The lord of Mira is the clever Krishna,
And she is hopeful of the guru's refuge alone.

If the disciple's faith is unshakeable and his belief is deep and strong, the guru's personality will dazzle him. Faith can be protected and developed by maintaining a consistent, intimate, indivisible relationship with the guru. For a very long time they live close to each other, until the disciple transcends the barriers of body and mind, until he transcends the nature of matter, and is able to communicate with the guru on an inner level. He develops intense awareness, total awareness, non-dual awareness of the guru on the spiritual plane. In the experience of samarpan in the guru-disciple relationship, the lower sphere of the mind is paralyzed so that the higher sphere becomes sensitive. When that happens, guru feels one with the disciple and sees no difference.

In spiritual life, transcendental knowledge is only given to a disciple whose mind has lost every point of worldly and lower sensitivity, which is unreceptive to lower reflexes, but open to higher ones. The disciple begins to hear his guru's instructions in the unconscious when in deep meditation. Thus, the guru takes him beyond the dead end of the void which the disciple is stuck and shows him the eternal light. The guru permeates the disciple's consciousness through and through, even if he does not want to. For the guru loves the disciple too. When a guru loves his disciple, he is always aware of him, always thinking about him; he suffers from a disciple neurosis. When the disciple loves the guru so much that he can think of nothing else, he has a guru neurosis. This is the first and last requirement for the attainment of samarpan. It is the strongest form of shakti. This awareness is love and it is a very powerful link.

The End

Satsangs of Swami Satyananda

ROLE OF THE GURU

Part 3

What the disciple must do?

There are three types of disciples and a guru ordains them for different purposes. There are the lay disciples or householders; sannyasin disciples or the monastic order; and the interior disciples. For each type, surrender takes place in a different dimension. If the lay disciple surrenders through devotion, it is sufficient. He does not have to surrender his business, family and children to the guru, but he must offer true devotion so that the guru can help give him find peace of mind and right understanding.

The monastic disciple has to surrender his desires and worldly ambitions so that when he leaves monastic life, his entire personality has been transformed. Then he can become a very good messenger of the guru's teachings. The third category of disciple, the intimate disciple, has to surrender everything. Such disciples are very rare, never very many, and the guru selects them for himself. First this disciple is tested, and only those who prove worthy are taken in. These disciples offer everything.

In every type of disciple the one indispensable qualification for surrender is to carry out immediately and spontaneously the commands of the guru. The attitude must be as if some unknown and unseen power compels him to do the work. It is not for the disciple to judge whether he is qualified or competent to undertake the task. He should not even think how it will be possible to complete the task. The disciple who tries to assess his competence before undertaking a task loses his chance to utilize his hidden powers. That is why the disciple should carry out the commands without forethought. It will prove to be a great boon, because then he may enter into the subtle regions of consciousness. If in this sphere he acquires that good quality, then in the next sphere the same also happens. If the disciple's ordinary consciousness is coloured by opposition to the guru's commands, then he will find it difficult to go beyond the plane of ordinary consciousness.

There are two necessary conditions for surrender. The first is faith that one will be able to surrender, and the second is the awareness, "My guru is within me." To achieve these may require breaking the existing patterns of the mind. This is the first step towards samarpan. One must be able to lose one's engrossment in the imaginary problems the mind has imposed upon itself, whether neurosis, psychosis, schizo­phrenia, frustrations or disappointments. Faith allows this to happen; it solves many problems of the mind so one can proceed to experience the inherent truth. To get there, however, one must first accept oneself. One has to come to the point where one can say, "I can do nothing; I cannot renounce; I cannot control the mind. My mind is full of terrible thoughts; I have bad habits!" Such acceptance is humility, and with it begins the process of emptying oneself.

A disciple of a guru or a devotee of God has to be as humble as a blade of grass, egoless and totally submissive, as if he does not exist, as if he were a flute. A hollow piece of bamboo can be made into a flute, but only when there are no knots can it produce a sweet melody. As long as the individual exists, the guru cannot be in him. In order to allow the guru to function through him, the disciple has to empty himself:

The process of emptying oneself is the only practice or sadhana a disciple has to undertake. "Before you, I do not exist. I cannot think. You think through me. I leave the choice of my life in your hands" - this state of mind has to be practised. After all, how long can one hold one's head high if it is full of arrogance and ignorance, conflict and duality?' To rend this duality may take lifetimes. Maybe one's guru is not great. He may be an ordinary man, but when the disciple empties himself, surrenders himself completely in total humility and obedience, things happen. If one surrenders the ego to others in the world one is liable to be exploited and destroyed. But when one surrenders the ego to a person who is compassionate and one's well-wisher, life changes. This person is one's guru, the one in whom complete trust may be placed.

The surrender of sannyasa

The most important preparation for taking Sannyasa is a willingness to dedicate oneself totally. A Sannyasa is one who has dedicated, who has surrendered, who has given up everything that he has and is not going to use for his own self. The day he takes the vow of sannyasa he takes the vow of trusteeship. Sannyasa does not only mean renunciation, it means trusteeship. A sannyasin is simply a trustee of his body, mind, ability, knowledge and money. They are not his, and are to be offered to the guru to fulfill his mission. Then a sannyasin becomes an instrument of the guru.

As long as a sannyasin has the attitude that: "I am the doer," "I am doing" or "I must do," he is functioning on the plane of duality, on the plane of ego, ahamkara. He is functioning with a limited philosophy and limited con­ceptions. Many sannyasins fail in surrender because their primary education in sannyasa is incomplete.

The purpose of taking sannyasa should be to realize through experience one's own infiniteness and to throwaway the idea and experience of limitations. All one's resources, mental powers and emotional capacities will have to be harnessed towards the fulfilment of this goal. The sannyasin must surrender everything he has in order to fulfil that resolve. He has no other purpose in life. Once the sannyasin has achieved this particular objective, then there is a realization of what he should do as his mission for the good of humanity. This mission cannot be a sannyasin's first idea, and aspirants should not lose track of this point.

To be continued…

Satsangs of Swami Satyananda

ROLE OF THE GURU

Part 2

How does the guru bring about samarpan?

One cannot know the level of one's consciousness or the faults that lie within. One may try to correct one's social and mental faults, but there are faults embedded deep within the personality. Therefore, the guru often performs an operation on the disciple known as egodectomy, removal of the ego. This operation is so difficult that many disciples cannot bear it. However if it succeeds, then they reach the goal. Surgery on the ego can be achieved by surrendering one to God, but God is much too kind. Guru is a very hard person; he knows his duty; he knows how each and every individual should live, think and act. He does everything to pulverize the ego of the disciple. One may not understand this unless one becomes a disciple. The ego is the barrier between the individual and divinity, between disciple and guru. It is a very hard nut to crack; it is the 'I' which can sometimes be very subtle. It is because of the ego that complete surrender becomes difficult. The greater the ego, the lesser the receptivity. As the ego becomes subtler, the receptivity becomes greater.

By serving the guru ceaselessly, the ego of the disciple is effaced. He no longer thinks, "I came to my guru for self realization and he is only getting me to clean the toilets! He has an unpaid servant in me." The guru creates conditions so that the disciple may purify himself. He also gives sadhana that will aid the process. In the course of time, the disciple's ego is gradually curbed and surrender occurs spontaneously, all one's worldly ways and abnormalities end; the external current is switched off and the internal light comes on.

There is an awakening which comes only when one has totally laid down one's arms. The surrender of disciple to guru is not like the surrender of a servant or a war prisoner, but once the disciple has surrendered, he knows it and says, "Take my life and do what you will." The true guru does not make his disciple surrender the world, but his limited self, the veil of ignorance that hangs between his ego and the all pervasive reality.

The guru also continuously tests the disciple's sincerity and devotion, for he has to make sure that the disciple's mind will not shake at any moment. It is very important that the guru to be able to handle the disciple without any difficulty. If the disciple does not respond to the guru's instructions, suggestions or inspiration at the ordinary intellectual level, then how can the guru direct him in the higher realms?' The guru should be able to influence and direct his disciple's mind, his conscious thinking, in any direction: right, left, down into tile ditch, up on to the mountain, into fire or water.

For that purpose, the guru gives the disciple different exercises to check whether his awareness is responding and how far he has progressed on the path of surrender. Disciples realize the quality of their faith only when the guru presents them with certain difficult tests. This is especially true of Sannyasin disciples who live with him, who have a total relationship with him. At a certain time during their stay, they are tested. At that time the disciple who passes is the one' whose faith does not break. The guru gives him something in the form of a reward. It is called guru kripa, guru's grace.

A teacher, an acharya, can help one learn asana, pranayama and simple meditation practices, but such a master has limitations. Only the guru without limitations knows how to lead the ignorant and the blind to the path of self-realization by opening their third eye. A disciple may be academically intelligent, may have the highest of faculties and immense wealth, but his spiritual eyes are not yet open due to the veil of illusion or ignorance, maya or auidya. Only the guru can help one develop inner vision. Self-purification and karmic dissolution start in the service of guru. The disciple can carry on sadhana only in the conscious realms, while the guru helps him in the unconscious. He opens the closed door for the disciple and makes self-awakening possible. As the disciple develops his relationship with the guru, based on bhakti and shraddha, devotion and faith, an awakening begins to take place within him. The external guru helps to awaken the inner guru; he acts as a detonator to explode the guru tattwa within.

When the awakening begins, a transformation comes about in the structure of the mind and consciousness. It is not just a change, but a complete metamorphosis akin to a dog becoming a horse. The mind becomes entirely different; the structure of thinking undergoes a total transformation in quality, form, assessments and values. At the same time, perception or inner cognition becomes very subtle; one is able to apprehend the subtle essence. In this enlightened state of existence come revelations and inspirations; and clear-cut path unfolds before one. One realizes what is to done. If Nature has chosen one to become a Christ, to lead thousands of people, to heal hundreds, one will do it. This is when the disciple becomes a tool, a medium, an instrument of the cosmic process.

To be continued...

Satsangs of Swami Satyananda

ROLE OF THE GURU

Part 1

Samarpan is an intangible experience which springs from the very depths of one's being at a certain point of spiritual evolution, when one wants to lose oneself in something larger. To catch hold of this fleeting experience many try to immerse themselves in nature, poetry or God yet more often than not it eludes them. It is crucial to understand that to arrive at this state means the end of a journey and the beginning of a new road. There has been a glimpse, but the full experience is yet to come.

Here the guru plays an important role. He is the tangible manifestation of the aspirant's innate longing to surrender to a higher reality. The intensity of the aspirant's feeling brings him to his guru, for the fullness of surrender is rarely achieved without the guiding light of a superior being.

Most aspirants, who come to a guru, therefore carry a spark of samarpan in their hearts. However, as one's association with the guru grows and his expert hands chisel away at the personality, one realizes how frail the quality one's surrender was, how rigid the mind, how insidious the ego, and how vital the guru. Surrender to God is at best an idea for the spiritual neophyte, but in the presence of the guru it becomes a living experience, although not necessary an easy one.

Who is the guru?

The guru is the one who guides the disciple's life systemati­cally, the one who steers the boat. In order to learn how to surrender to God, one must first have a guru. Surrender needs to be practiced first with the guru, for without the grace of guru the path of surrender is not easily discovered. One needs to have that connection through which grace can flow. Without a living connection, without a guru, it is very difficult to connect with the subtle Supreme Reality, and receive His grace. The disciple's relationship with the guru is the test of the disciple's sincerity and devotion. In submission, however, the disciple is not throwing away his personality, but rather offering his limited self to one who will change it into the infinite Self. God takes over from there.

The guru and disciple are strangers to each other in the beginning, but the disciple finds faith in the guru. First, he practices surrender and belief in the guru and finally in God. He starts learning the A, B, C of surrender through the guru and develops it with continuous practice. In this faith, he sees the shadow, reflection and splendor of God. When, through practice, one's faith becomes strong, clear and divine, when it is generated through a pure mind and heart, one sees God. Then God, who was defined in various ways by other people, becomes apparent. The Guru Stotram says:

Gururbrahma gururvishnuh gururdevo maheshvarah.

Guru is Brahma, guru is Vishnu and guru is Shiva.

Guru is Brahma because he creates for his disciple a new and wondrous world; he is Vishnu because he sustains and protects him, he is Shiva because he annihilates the world of individuality. All great saints have underlined the necessity of a guru. It has also been said in the Ramacharitamanas that no one can cross the ocean of samsara without the guru's help, even if he is Brahma or Shiva.

The guru represents two realities: the teacher and the all-permeating Essence. The guru is both the teacher and the being who dwells in the disciple's heart. As a teacher he can teach, and as the indweller of the heart he guides the passages of the disciple's evolution and spiritual fulfillment. A true guru-disciple relationship is an experience of union with the inner spirit, which makes one go deeper into oneself and brings one closer to God. It is an experience that completely stupefies one.

From a practical point of view, the guru is qualified to tell the disciple how to practice surrender because he has undergone the entire process himself. There must have been a time when he was affected by mental agitation, faced conflicts and was pulled by the passions of life. Based on how he managed and overcame the situations, he can guide his disciples through their mental and emotional ex­periences. It is obviously safe to seek the help of a person who has undergone the same experience as oneself, and mastered it.

To be continued…

Satsangs of Swami Satyananda

Is it necessary to have a guru for one to achieve self-realization, or can a person guide him self by taking clues from his environment, whether it be from books, etc.? What is guru?

In order to learn any science, you need a teacher. Yoga is a science. Self-realization is also a science, and for that, you need a teacher. But the teacher is not a tutor; he must be a guru. In 'order to experience self-realization, one has to open the doors to inner awareness. If you practice yoga, meditation and other sadhanas with the help of books, you can have a lot of good experiences, and if you are endowed with intuition and a clear mind, you can go very far in spiritual life.

However, everybody is not endowed with intuition. They have their own emotional intellectual and intuitive limitations. Therefore, it is safer to have a guru who can guide you along the path of self-awareness, or self-realization. The point is clear. It is possible for a select few to tread the whole path by themselves, but not for everybody. And if we make the mistake of telling people that they can do it without a guru, then we will be encouraging a sort of risk.

When you are treading this path, the consciousness changes, and experiences also change. Sometimes you begin to have changes in the quality of perception, and at that time, you don't know what to do. You don't know whether you are going crazy or losing yourself, or whether what you are doing is right. You can be­come very frightened; this doesn't apply only to spiritual life. If you take some kinds of heavy drugs, you can also get changes in consciousness and not know what to do. If, when you are practising meditation or any other sadhana, the experience changes or the awareness changes, and you are feeling something unusual, whom are you going to approach for the right answer?

Now, another point. Guru is not an external reality; that is the truth. Guru is an internal reality. The enlightened being is in everybody. You too have it, but it is beyond communication. How do you contact that enlightened being within yourself? That enlightened being, that guru, is the transcendental reality. Your awareness is the mundane awareness, and there is no communication between them. In order to have realization of that inner guide (inner guru), an external guru is necessary.

It is a simple law; in order to detonate a bomb, you need a fuse. Without it, you can do nothing. You have a cartridge, but you can't use it. The cartridge has to be put into the rifle, then it can blow. In the same way, the inner guru has to manifest. This manifestation of the inner guru can occasionally take place in intuitive people spontaneously, but in most people it is not possible. They need an outer guru to help them.

The literal meaning of guru is not 'teacher' or 'tutor'. It is a Sanskrit word, and its literal meaning is, 'dispeller of darkness'. As you bring a light into a room, the darkness is dispelled and everything in the room is illuminated. In the same way, within yourself, within your inner life, there are many things which you are not able to see, because there is total darkness there. At the most, with a little meditation, you can have a few visions, but not too much. It is 'very rudimentary. Sometimes the boys and girls take drugs and have a lot of experiences,but that is nothing. It is scratching the crust of the consciousness. All the experiences that we hear about through drugs, or through this meditation or that meditation, only scratch the upper crust.

The inner experiences are fantastic, as you will read in the Upanishads, books on nada yoga, and others. They are the experiences related to realization, to the invisible realms of the universe, to the real spiritual life. They are not expressions of your subconscious mind. In order to illuminate those exper­iences, you need light, and that light is the inner light.

What is the inner light? There is external light, and there is internal light. The external light is the light of the mind, and with! the light of the mind, you are able to perceive the external objects and their meanings. Some people have less light, and some people have more light. Those who have less light, have dull perceptions, and those who have bright light have bet­ter perceptions. They can relate themselves to nature, to the objects, to music, to people, and the many other things around them. That is through the external light, called the mind. In the same way, you have inner light which has nothing to do with the mind, but has to do with intuition. In Sanskrit it is called atma, the light of the Self.

It is with the light of the Self, the atma, the intuition, that the inner knowledge and experiences are perceived. That inner light is known as guru. That is

the literal meaning. So, I am not your guru; he is not your guru; none of you can become someone's guru, but you can become a detonator to the guru. I can help you to express your inner guru. You need me in order to realize that inner guru.

Because we are not able to see the inner light, we call the outer guide, guru. Hence, we must use two terms, 'guru' and 'satguru'. So the word guru is used to mean the external person, and the word satguru is used for the inner guide. Therefore, the sincere aspirants, seekers on the spiritual path, must remember that the satguru is within them, but with the outer mind, they cannot have any communication with it. Hence, they need a guru, and that guru will help them to have realization of the inner light or inner guide.

Satsangs of Swami Satyananda

How does the guru-disciple relationship express itself and how can the disciple help the guru's mission?

In ordinary human terms it is very difficult to say what would be the form of the relationship be­tween guru and disciple but everyone, according to his evolution, can manifest some sort of devotion, some sort of relationship, between guru and disciple. Some consider the guru as their father and mother, some consider him as a higher divine being, some consider him as the dearest person, some consider him just as a teacher of higher sciences. I am only giving you these examples but others can be given.

I think that, according to the evolution of the dis­ciple, any type of relationship can be experienced with the guru. However, one thing has to be important in this relationship- whether the relationship is divine or empirical, it has to be able to consume your mind. If your relationship with the guru is not able to scrape duality from your mind, then that relationship is imper­fect. You must have seen in the rainy season, when the light burns, the moths go with a driving force to­wards that light and they die there. That has to be the depth and intensity of the relationship. If this kind of relationship is established between the guru and the disciple, then the relationship acts as a great cata­lyst.

The real guru is within you, he is known as sat-guru. I can talk about him and you can listen, but you will not know him. The inner guru is far beyond our reach. Intellectually you cannot reach him. Even if you believe in him too much, still you can't reach him, because the inner guru is not a subject of mind and outer understanding.

The external guru acts as a catalyst and explodes the experience of the inner guru. Duality should go. lf the duality does not go then the inner guru does not manifest. What is duality? You must also know that. When the perception and the perceiver are seen differ­ently, it's called duality. In duality there is subject and object all the time. In dreams you have duality because you are the seer of the dream. In external life, day to day life, there is always duality because you are the experiencer and the world is the experience. When your relationship with the guru becomes very intense, then you forget the duality for some time.

When duality begins to disappear for some time, for a short time there is a sort of imbalance. When you drink a little more alcohol you know some sort of im­balance is there, or when you take a drug like mari­juana. The imbalance which is caused by the intense relationship between you and your guru is different, but it can be felt by every true disciple.

This imbalance which a true disciple experiences is a philosophic imbalance or sometimes it is an im­balance concerning your relationship with other people, or with the objects in your daily life. Sometimes you have a little problem with your family, sometimes you have a little problem with your previous beliefs, some­times you have a problem with your attachments, but this is very temporary. If you can patiently wait, then this imbalance will be settled.

Many times this causes great concern in the life of the disciple, because you have one mind. When you give your whole mind to your guru then you have difficulty relating to others. If you give a little of your mind to your guru, a little to your job, a little to your friends and a little to the people you love, then there is a lot of dissipation. In ordinary life we can maintain this balance. You love your children, you love your hus­band, you give love to your wife, you relate with your friends and to your business and professional work, but this balance is sometimes lost on account of this intensity of relationship between guru and disciple.

The disciple has nothing to do for his guru. Only one thing he has to accomplish to perfect his love and devotion to his guru. In this connection whatever he does for the guru becomes an act of devotion. It is like this; when the mother is cooking lunch or dinner for her child it is also an act of love for her child. In the same way, when the disciple is working for his guru in any form, that is also an act of devotion or bhakti.

You have selfish actions and selfless actions. In the world all your actions are self -orientated, but the actions for the guru are not self-orientated, they are devotion-orientated or dedication-orientated. When you work for your family and your friends there is an object, there is an aim, there is an idea behind it, but working for the guru is a sort of karma yoga. In fact this is also a very delicate subject because many times disciples be­come missionaries and then the real purpose is lost. The purpose is the dedication of your emotion.

Satsangs of Swami Satyananda

When the guru and disciple live together, apart from the teachings given by the guru, is there a specific shakti or energy which the guru trans­mits to the disciple, and which lives from that time onwards in the disciple?

There are two types of gurus and two types of disciples. Some gurus are tutors and their disciples are students; that is the process of teaching. They teach hatha yoga, raja yoga, gyana yoga, Gita, etc. and are known as acharyas.

However, the true process of guru is through transmission. There is total rapport between guru and chela; they function almost on the same level and at the same frequency, and the guru transmits his energy to the disciple at the intuitive level. However, it does not happen with every disciple and with every guru.

Ramakrishna Paramahansa was a great, realized person in our times. He had many disciples who used to come to him, and he used to instruct them on gyana, on knowledge. That is called satsang, just as I am talking to you now. But what happened between Ramakrishna and Vivekananda at one time, is called transmission and that transmission in the vedic terminology, and in the yogic and tantric terminology, is known as shaktipath.

Shaktipath is the transfer of the inner energy of the guru to the disciple, but as I said, it does not happen between every guru and every disciple. Ramakrishna did it only with Vivekananda. Even when there is transmission of shaktipath from a guru to a disciple, it is necessary for the disciple to improve his own quality, so that he becomes a good conductor of the guru's spiritual energy. The perfect disciple is one who surrenders his ego; surrender of the buddhi, or surrender of emotion, is not the ultimate surrender.

You love your guru; that's alright, and you decide, 'Okay, from today, I'm going to surrender', but that's not final. Buddhi is not the last item of spiritual life. Buddhi is a crust, the intellect. The emotions, too, your bhakti, are only a part of it. You can cry for your guru, 'Guru, where have you gone? I am pining for you. I cannot live without you. Please come.' That's emotion, but it's not final.

However, there is a very hard nut to crack, and that is the 'I ', and that 'I' is sometimes very subtle. Swami Sivananda used to say that even the process of renunciation becomes the basis for ego. Sometimes you are very humble; you are the most humble; you are ready to serve anyone without distinction. Even that humility can become the basis for ego. Sannyasa, compassion, mercy, charity, '1 am nothing, my Lord', can all become the basis of ego. It is such a powerful force and demon in man, that it can assume thousands of forms.

How do we become free from ego? By perfecting discipleship. The perfection of discipleship is the perfecting of sadhana also. There are many beautiful stories in the Upanishads, the Puranas, and other ancient books, where the disciples were tested in various ways, and many of them found that they did not come up to the mark. Some of the disciples, on the other hand, succeeded. When salt or sugars are mixed with water, the duality ceases. They become one; there is no longer any separate identity. That has to be the relationship between God and devotee, and between the guru and his disciple