The Guru is not a person. My Guru, Muktananda, became and embodied the Guru. So he was and is the Guru. There was nothing of Muktananda that was not the Guru. His vehicles were enlivened by the Guru. Muktananda, like any great being, had surrendered and become the Guru. So what he wanted was not personal. His wants were the Guru’s wants. For me, Baba never let me down; he was always directing me towards Guru and God. And since the Guru was fully within him and Muktananda surrendered to the Guru, he deserved the utmost respect. Baba gave me life, and kept on directing me to the Guru within; everything I have is because of him.
Unfortunately, there are people who decide that the person who embodies the Guru is some form of an authority figure. If these people have something to work out with authority, they will focus on the outer form and miss the Guru. They want to play with the person, not the Guru. The true only reason to go to a Guru is for the Guru. Really, it is that simple. Sooner or later, the choice will have to be either God and Guru or this place is not for me.
In order to truly get what the Guru wants for us, we have to “know” our small self and let it go. We have to know our character’s system so that it does not run us. Remember, the Guru is the power that bestows the grace of God. If we want that power to shower grace on us we have to not be in the way. So even though the Guru keeps pointing us to the Guru, if we are not free we will keep focusing on the person. When the Guru points us to the Guru, he is pointing to the Guru, which is not only within him but within us as well.
This brings us to the only rule: right effort. What is right effort? The effort to stay focused toward God and Guru in the Heart. If we do this right effort, then grace will pour down on us. Bishop Ullathorne said as much in The Groundwork of the Christian Virtues: “Let it be plainly understood that we cannot return to God unless we enter first into ourselves. God is everywhere, but not everywhere to us. There is but one point in the universe where God communicates with us, and that is the centre of our own soul. There He waits for us. There He meets us; there He speaks to us. To seek Him, therefore, we must enter into our own interior”. Śiva Sūtras 1.5 reads, “Effort itself is Bhairava”. Baba’s commentary on that sūtra makes it clear: “Right effort is this: on attaining knowledge of the nature of the highest reality, one strives to remain constantly immersed in the awareness of the inner Self”.
If we can’t do right effort, then we can start where we are. We will need to understand our small self’s system and dismantle it. Our job is to find out what prevents us from right effort, root that out, and then go from there to “right effort”. If we have not done Algebra or Trigonometry we are definitely not ready for Calculus. And there is nothing wrong with that—unless we want and pretend to be somewhere we are not. If we do not accept where we are, then it is clear we do not know our system. Remember, until we are detached, everyone decides and proceeds according to what suits their system.
Last week I wrote this and did not post it. “You were focused on me when you were supposed to be focused on God and Guru. The joke is on you. Guess you don’t know who the Guru is.” We have to know, in every sense of the word, who the Guru is if we are going to go forth to God. We have to surrender to the grace bestowing power of God within and without, which then brings us Home to God.
My manifestation was the distraction some wanted so they did not have to focus on God and Guru. They refused to turn within. Their choice, not mine. So sad: we are always looking for distractions so we do not have to focus on God or Guru. Unfortunately, we want to maintain our sense of self. We believe we can maintain our individuality and be with God. Not one of us can. It is either our small self or God. That is just the way it works. Not my rule, God and Guru’s.
My goal is to live in the Guru, Baba Muktananda, the Bliss of Freedom, 24/7. That is what he wanted for me and everyone. Right effort and grace await each of us.
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