Guru Bhakti: A Lesson in Love

III

Swami Ji says:

Contemplate thou on the form of the Master; besides it there is no other way of escape from bondage.

The term dhyan, contemplation, is derived from the root dhi which means to fix the attention on the Living Master. I may illustrate my point by taking the analogy of a newly wedded girl coming back to her parents’ home. However busy she may appear to be in household chores, all the time she thinks of her husband. In exactly the same way, the attention of the disciple should always be grounded in the Master – the Word made flesh. Guru is Godman, i.e., man plus God. Those who get attached to man only remain entangled in the body, while those who see the God manifested in the man, the link with Him is revealed to the disciple. He learns quickly how to rise above the body. As you think so you become. It is He who loves us first, and our Love is simply reciprocal. Mother loves the newly born child first and the child loves the mother in return. Our Love is but a kind of reaction of the Love of the Master Who has drawn us to Him.

Gurbani says:

The Master loves the disciple with all His life.

This is known as Gurubhakti. When you think of the Master with all your heart and soul, you cannot but obey Him implicitly.

Christ said:

If you love me, keep my commandments.

Love calls for direct and immediate obedience and not merely lip service. In this respect there is a general weakness in all of us and we fail miserably. We must learn to understand Him and be able to do what He bids us to do even though, at moments what He says may not appear sound to us. He speaks from a higher level and sees things from afar to which we have yet no access. So if all the time we think of Him, no matter while we are engaged in worldly pursuits, we will gradually imbibe His spirit. Our outer entanglements shall not then bind us. In this way we will get cut off from outer attachments, the more His Divine Power will enter into us and transform us into His likeness.

Christ has said:

I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringth forth much fruit: for without me, ye can do nothing.

St John 15:1-5

All this may be likened to a grafting process. When we engraft the twig of one tree in the body of another tree, then the fruit of the second tree will be of the quality and taste of the tree from which it got the graft. Similarly, if the disciple reasonably develops his receptivity by constant devotion, loving faith and implicit obedience, he will when asked, give you the same reply to a question as you would get from the Master Himself. When two hearts work in unison they operate with the same vibrations, as in telepathy. Such a disciple naturally gets from the Master His own impulses. So Gurubhakti is the sine qua non on the Path of the Masters.

Swami Ji has rightly said:

Those who engage in the practice of listening to the Sound Current without Gurubhakti or devotion to the Master are but fools.

The essence of Gurubhakti is that our thoughts and feelings be detached from all else and be centred at one focal point, the eye-focus.

Our Hazur used to illustrate this sublime truth thus:

Suppose there is a pipe with many holes or small openings in it from which the water is trickling drop by drop. If we were to close down all these holes save one, then the water will gush forth from the one hole left open in a strong current and to a great height. Exactly in the same way if we cut off all our worldly connections, then the sensory currents will get collected at one point and then shoot forth from the tenth opening at the eye-focus.

Hazur used to say that the Guru does not need our devotions but if we adore him and offer our unstinted Love to Him, it is helpful for our Inner Spiritual Progress. The principle of as you think so you become works here.

Swami Ji says:

The Holy Word or the Shabd is revealed just by the Grace of the Guru and then the long and strong arm of the Master pulls the spirit currents out from the body below.