July 1, 2025
137X155.jpg?1498835428865 "Swami Venkatesananda")
Guru means 'light'. God, Guru and the inner reality or Atman are synonyms. That inner light is nameless and formless. It is the limitation of our own vision that sees that light as ... a form. The form of the Guru is the manifestation of the Grace of God, the light of lights. Only grace can thus condescend to descend to our level and appear to us in a form that is easy of our comprehension. In fact, that which dispels the shadow of the 'me' is the light, the Guru.
In the very silent presence of the guru, ignorance is dispelled. Words are distracting, disturbing and unnecessary superfluity. Yet again the Grace of the Guru supplements non-verbal communication with verbal communication, because we are deaf to the enlightening eloquence of silence.
The Guru is the light of God that has assumed a human form, by the Grace of God, in answer to our own inner aspiration and prayer. That light dispels the haunting shadow of ignorance, which is the 'me'. Only that which is beyond the 'me' (the Guru) can know how and when this has been achieved. The 'me' does not disappear easily. It is capable of creating its own delusions even of enlightenment, liberation or nirvana. Therefore, the Guru adopts suitable means for the eradication of this 'me'.
The Guru's behavior and teaching may even appear contradictory: that is the way in which He deprives the 'me' of all support. Hence, the scriptures warn: "Do not look into the merits or the demerits of the commands of the Guru. Obey implicitly." It is often the inner tyrant (the self) that demands freedom from external authority and determines what that freedom means.
True freedom is freedom from self which is realized to be nonexistent in the light of the inner Reality, which is the Guru. It is the awakened intelligence that realizses this inner Reality. This awakening of the inner intelligence (or Chit-Shakti) is Shakti-pata. One who brings about this awakening is known as the Guru. However, this Shakti-pata does not take place unless there is self-surrender; until the disciple has come to the end of his own resources and is able to approach the Guru humbly in total devotion (which is of the heart and not of the intellect), and to establish a channel of direct communication by means of loving and devoted service to the Guru. It is when the disciple learns to listen to the Guru 'with the ears of his heart' that the Guru is able to transmit the highest truth direct to the very heart of the disciple.