Being a Teacher of God

There is a part of us which would love nothing more than just becoming so special because of our spirituality; to become Godlike because of our spirituality. To seem like, 'Wow, what a wonderful life I have. I have a pedestal, I have people falling at my feet, all these beautiful things.' And then when I say, actually, to share Satsang is a contract with you and your Satguru—at least, if not the whole world—that you are all right if everything that afflicts them at any level of their being (body, emotional, physical, mental, everything, all afflictions) you are happy to take on to yourself? 'No, I'm fine.' That is really what it is, because a Guru is father, mother, best friend, beloved, everything. So will a father ever say, 'Oh, let my child have that affliction, I don't want to take it from them'? All else is just like lip service.

We may also say all of these things from pride, you see. We may say all of these things from pride, but what is true for you in secret, when there's nobody else that you're performing for, that is what is most important. That is when it smells true, rings true in the heart. And for you to be okay with that, to be happy with that, needs you to be humble like a beggar, like a servant. For you to recognize that the world for now may be giving you a pedestal to sit on, but really you're nothing more than a servant at the feet of God.

Because the servitude has been forgotten by most, that is why all the strange, convoluted things are happening in the name of spirituality. The teacher said something very beautiful; he said, 'I shared with a set of people, and after that they all started talking about how great I am, and they were not talking about how great God is. What a shame.' In the spirituality of today's world, we are full of a world where teachers are like this. They don't realize it is not about them; it is about God. What will happen with any of that? And I'm speaking to all of you as future teachers or even present teachers. What will happen with any of that? You'll plant and plant all these beautiful things here, and then you're going to die. Your name will no longer be yours, your fame will no longer be yours. All the credit goes to somebody who's dead.

There is a great story of Bulleh Shah Ji—I'm not recollecting it fully—but the point of that story was in the farm. He tells the farmer that in your true life, you have to uproot from here and plant there. Uproot from here; don't be so attached to things here because this is Maya, it's not real. But plant there in God's house, in the temple of your heart. Make your life sacred for God. Love makes it sacred for God—unconditional love, not the business of love. Love Him deeply. Love Him deeply even when you think you can't. Trouble yourself—why can't you go through that thing? But love Him, love Him deeply and be available to serve Him. Be faithful, be humble, be prayerful, be obedient, be grateful. These are flowers we can lay in the temple. And never replace Him with 'me'. Don't build your life for you; build it for Him. Don't live your life for you; live it for Him.

Then to be a teacher of God is natural, because your life is already a temple of God. Those who need to feel His presence, who are longing for Him in reality, will naturally come to you. Grace will create the situations. Grace will create the situations, but make it about Him, not about you being a good student or teacher of God. Otherwise, what will happen? Without realizing, you'll just get caught up in some performative spirituality, like Marin was telling us the other day about somebody who is just in a sort of performance spirituality. They can speak a lot of beautiful things from scripture and nice anecdotes and stories and things like that, maybe give beautiful discourse, but do they really bring people to God, to an eternal Atma, to the holiness of God's presence?