The Presence of a Guru

In India, all of us hear that God is formless, God is everywhere, God is all there is. We hear this, but how many forms of gods do we have? Millions. You see, in every street corner you'll see a different form. So what does this actually mean? It means that although God is formless, in the play of delusion, the Consciousness seems to have deluded itself with attachment or relating only with name and form. There needs to be a doorway. There needs to be something relatable. It can seem like this is the door to my true Being, my true Satguru.

Then what happens? In some cultures, it is prescribed by some prophets or sages that this is a good representation, use this one. You see, the priest will prescribe, 'Okay, this is a good representation, let's use this form.' So you can have Jesus on the cross or some verses from the Quran. In India, it became very democratic. Whatever you like, you can make a form. Do you like... you would like to relate to the God that is naughty, playful, yet all-knowing and beautifully knowledgeable? Okay, let's make Krishna. You feel that God should be always righteous and struggle with all these human conditions and try to go through this journey of human exploration in a very authentic, vulnerable way? Then we have representations of Ram. So whatever form that you are, you can actually imagine there is a representation which can be made or is available already.

And the beauty of any such form is that it takes you out of this 'me, me, me' to trust in a deeper, to trust in a more divine. And these forms also can be the forms of the Masters that have come and gone or still exist in their body. And this is beautiful because although some of us find it strange that why in India we put all of these photos of the Masters everywhere—you see, what is this about?—it's very good because at some point in time, we must have figured that the human nature has become so forgetful about the truth that everywhere I look, I want to be reminded. So here on this wall, Guruji is there. And then this next to the window, Guruji is... volume of the mic is full, my throat volume is not fuller.

So these forms of those aspects of Consciousness which have awakened, who stepped out of the paradigm of the mind and have awakened to a deeper intuitive reality, they serve as good reminders for what possibility exists here in Consciousness. And I'm aware that some of these terms might sound a bit dualistic, but we are talking about how Consciousness operates within the Maya when it is deluded as if it is something. So to remind ourselves that everything is taken care of, we make... and initially we can even say we need an outer representation to show us this.

I've often said that the beauty of having a living Master is that they show you the possibility that it is possible to exist in this world even with a body and family and work. All of this is completely possible without hanging on to the notion of 'what's in it for me' or the idea of 'me.' So this is a great blessing which is available to us. That is why whenever someone asks me, 'Do we need a Master in form?' I usually say that there is nothing in Consciousness which says that things must always be this way, but I have to say that from experience, I've never, never met one who has awakened to their inner truth without the presence of a Master in form.

Even although Ramana Maharshi said that 'I have no human masters or disciples' for that matter, he also said that the mountain Arunachala was his Master. So that representation of Shiva then became his Master. The very Shiva... Shiva is the very source of all of this existence itself, and yet even for the greater sages, initially we need a representation. We seem to need a representation which can be given a form and has a name. So that is the value of having an outer or external Master.

And we must always be grateful for Guruji's presence in our life because, at least for here, I can say that in the play of this life, in spite of so much learning, understanding, reading so many books, doing many, many, many practices, until I had the darshan of the Satguru within through looking into the eyes of Guruji, I did not step completely out of this paradigm of belief, this paradigm thought system. When I say it 'completely,' I use the term a bit loosely—there is no completely, mostly.