Guru and Purnima are two words. Purnima is Full moon, in all its glory. So, therefore, all purnimas with all the great teachers, Vyasa Purnima, Buddha Purnima, everything are celebrated when the moon appears in all its glory.
For us, it’s not just the outside full moon but opening our mind, freeing it of all defects, keeping it clear, open and full. Purnima would then mean Purna and to shift the mind from its limited state to the unlimited state is Purnima for us. And whoever helps in that is a Guru. Could be anybody, need not necessarily be me. Anyone who helps us to see our limitations, break through them and move forward to greater expansion of mind and finally, of course ‘Nirvana’, ‘Kaivalya’ or ‘Moksha’, you can consider in some way, your Guru.
Sometimes, the greatest teachers are found at home. The best teacher to check your ego is the husband or the wife. If you ask people outside, you may be putting up an image. At home, he/she knows what you are. Therefore, they are also Gurus. Little children are also gurus. You will find that little children with their innocent hearts, sometimes do and say things, in our complicated mode of thinking that we can’t even grasp.
While you should follow, understand and practice the teachings of the Guru, you need not imitate the Guru. Don’t imitate but try to listen to what is being said and try to put in your practice in your life as much as you can. Let’s not say that in one day, I am going to attain Moksha.
I must tell you this, one day I told Maheshwarnath Babaji that I want to do 10 days of tapasya like Dhruva, no water, no food, stand on one leg. Babaji looked at me and said ‘Paagal ho gaye kya?’ He said, ‘You have got the best gift that anyone could have got, Me. And I am with you and I am guiding you, did I ask you to do this? No. Then where the hell did you get this idea from?’ ‘Which yuga are you in? That was Satya yuga, Treta yuga, you are in Kali yuga, nobody can do that. So give up that idea.’
But I insisted. I was a terrible fellow. So, I did it for three days, got fed up and tired. I thought I was going to die. Then Babaji came and said, ‘Bas karo, chalo..’.
So, don’t overreach, don’t push too hard, follow the middle path.
This is a day when we should put our attempts into opening our mind and make it unlimited as much as you can. Follow moderate procedures, don’t push too hard. If you push too hard, in three days, you will fail and fall deeper than you were before.
The Upanishad describes the path to the Truth as ‘shurasya dhara’, the edge of a razor. Some of you must have read a beautiful novel by Somerset Maugham called The Razor’s Edge. He wrote that after visiting Ramana Maharshi. It is a story of a cab driver, actually who does his work, drives the cab but his mind is on fulfilment of spiritual teachings. We live in this world, actually like walking on the razor’s edge. You can go this way or that way and you can get your feet cut but then if you are truly interested in the spiritual, it has to happen. You need to do that. If you think everything has to be to be hunky dory, it doesn’t work. It is dangerous.
So, apply your mind, apply your body, be moderate and move towards opening your mind. Second, listen to what is being taught, don’t imitate the Guru. Third, when you are with the spiritual teacher, don’t try to conclude that you know about this person. Keep it open.
Now, as a teacher, with different people, I am at different levels. Otherwise, I cannot bring them up. If I become aloof and stand alone and somewhere where you can’t even touch me or reach me, then I cannot help people. If you need to help people, you need to be what they are at least temporarily or pretend to be. You cannot understand them unless you are with them and see what’s happening. But if you are spiritually strong, then you will not fall into a pit in which they have fallen.
So, if I tell somebody you should meditate for six hours, and somebody else who sees that person or talks to that person, should not say I also should meditate for six hours a day. Perhaps, for each person it may be different. You may have to meditate 10 minutes a day because you cannot go beyond that or you may have to meditate the whole day. So, while it’s good to exchange notes, discuss what M said to me and so on, make sure you don’t put your ideas into them and say M said this. Very important to note.
So, keep your mind transparent, open, and put your effort into freeing it from the conditionings in which you are. If you do that, then you have become the full moon yourself. The Pournima is within you.
I lived with Maheswarnath Babaji for years and the respect I gave him was not by trying to suck his toes. I respected him of course, because he was like a father, mother, friend and a Guru put together but I bowed down to him for helping me to open my mind to higher realities. Not for anything else. I never asked Babaji to give me this or to give me that or something in the material world, I just said, ‘Take me there’. But be careful, unless you are prepared to ask that, don’t ask. Because when you get it, you may not be able to take it. Some people have heard or read about Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, some great persons, so they also go and stand in front of Kali or somebody, ‘take away everything, I want only you but when she starts pulling the rug, then you say ‘give everything back, please, I can’t!’ Be truthful, say exactly what is there.
Lastly, unfortunately, we can see your mind. So, don’t pretend. Be truthful. If you think I am an idiot, say that. Don’t think this guy is an idiot and pretend to say ‘you are a great satguru, you are etc. He knows.
So, having said this, all of you have the capacity to reach there. There is nobody who cannot reach that. Some may reach tomorrow, some may reach today, some may reach after some time. The statement of hope that I can give you is every human being is entitled to Kaivalya. Keep it in mind. Let that be your main thought.
So this is my job. To sum up :
One, your mind, which is conditioned has to be unconditioned, to become Purna, like the Purnima,
Two, the teacher is there to guide you into that but you have to put in your effort. You can’t say he will do everything and I will do what I want.
Three, don’t imitate. Know where you are and move accordingly. Don’t overreach. Be moderate but don’t forget that this is what you want. Whatever you do, keep in mind what you want is that, not this. If that happens, believe me, the Lord or the Supreme Reality has it’s own way of looking after you. Believe me. You think if I don’t do this, what will happen? Nothing will happen.
And if possible, this is the last statement, try not to run around and look for nadis and astrologers the moment you sneeze or have loose motions. Makes no sense. In the core of your consciousness is a spark of the divine. If you are going towards that, it also creates situations for you. so , why should you wander around in other places?
We all are helpless at certain points. So, we pray to the higher powers, to the Supreme Being. When you pray, don’t say I want this and I want that. The Supreme Being knows everything, what you need and what you want. What you need, may not be what you want. Distinguish between what you want and what you need. The best prayer is ‘You know everything, do what is best for me, I will lead a good life and finally reach Moksha’. If you don’t want Moksha, don’t tell a lie, let me lead a good life. You can’t lie to the Supreme Being, stick to the truth.
As far as possible, don’t cause injury to others. When I say other living beings, please include human beings also in it. Because I know people who feed sugar to ants and don’t mind bumping them off business competitors. That’s not ahimsa.
So, these are the things you should seriously think about and do the best that you can.
A human being passes through many births. In different births, you go through different problems. So, it’s not as if I don’t know what you are going through. In the Gita, Krishna makes a beautiful statement to Arjuna. He says, ‘Arjuna, you and I have both passed through innumerable times, the only difference is that I know and you don’t know’.
‘Every saint has a past, therefore, every sinner has a future.’ Very good words, wherever they come from. Keep this in mind. It will give you hope. When I realize this, tomorrow I may change.
–Sri M
