translation he was the Guru of even the oldest teachers since he is not limited
by time. In Sutra number 23 Maharshi Patanjali explained that to
control the mind we will need to surrender to God, he is now explaining
the supreme position of God so he says that God was the Guru of even the oldest
gurus. What does this word Guru mean? "quoting scriptures"
"quoting scriptures"
'GU' means
ignorance
And 'RU' means to destroy. That personality who destroys the ignorance within us and
brings us to the light of knowledge is the Guru. Since eternity we have been
separated from God. It's not a physical separation because God is sitting inside
us
physically God and the soul are in one place but the consciousness has become
unhinged that is the illusion this material energy Maya has created an
illusion and what is the illusion Maya means, does anybody know what Maya means?
that which is not. The Maya creates the illusion that you are separate from God
while you are actually one with him you are a tiny part of him, so we have our
eternal relationship with God but under this illusion that I am separate from
him we have spent lifetimes and the ignorance is making us think that we
will be subject to death and again birth and again death and again birth while
the fact is that we the souls are eternal immortal ever existing. We are running
after the miseries of this world thinking there is happiness in them
we are paranoidly fearful of death while the soul does not have any death, it
merely changes bodies like we change clothes every day.
So this ignorance within us is separating us from God, that ignorance needs to be
eradicated. How will we eradicate it? Veda Vyasa says
"quoting scriptures"
he says the ignorance is in our intellect itself so the intellect
by its own contemplation cannot remove its ignorance. Just like can you catch
your bootstraps and lift yourself up? No why not there is no basis to lift
yourself up similarly the ignorance is in the
intellect now the intellect will go on thinking it will not be able to figure
out its mistakes, but the mistakes are all there we want happiness we get
misery we want life we go towards death we want peace and we get agitation so
these are all signs of ignorance that ignorance is there in all of us. Now with
the ignorance in the intellect no matter how much the intellect contemplates it
cannot completely remove its defects. I like to give the example of one Gopal
one cowherd boy he used to milk a cow. It was the Indian Gorani it had big horns
and those horns because of a deformity were bent inwards like this, so between
the two horns and the top of the head there was this triangular space. Now
this cowherd boy while milking the cow he used to eye that space and think can my head
go through it or not can my head go through it or
not. People have all their whimsical habits you know like when people walk on the
floor I should walk on the leaving out the grooves or I should walk on the
grooves, everybody has their mind falls into a fancy. So his mind had fallen into
this fancy can my head go through that gap. Every day while milking the cow this
used to be his thought. After one and a half years his curiosity got the better
of him. He said today I have to try it out he grabbed the horns of the cow and
pushed his head in. Now the head did go in but the cow got startled because it's
in it's three and a half years lifespan nobody had ever done this to it so the
cow lifted its head up and complained and his feet were raised from the ground
he thought what is this death by hanging?! To remove the pressure from his neck he
grabbed the cow's neck now the cow started lifting its hind legs and moving
away. He said I'm going to die come and save me, the villagers came they grabbed
him and they grabbed the cow as well and extracted him from there they said my
dear fellow are you crazy?!
"quoting scriptures" there's a Sutra Chanakya pundit has written. If you act
without discrimination it can lead to tremendous disaster. Did you not think
before you put your head there?He said who said I did not think I thought for
one and a half years there I put my head there. Now he did think for one and a
half years but his thinking was all wrong. So Veda Vyasa says the same is
the problem here, you go on and on thinking your mind as yet is full of the
defects of anger, hatred, greed, envy, illusion.. you will not be able to attain
perfect knowledge. Now the other source is the books the
scriptures. If you want knowledge you access the scriptures, these Vedic
scriptures have perfect knowledge in them and there are so many scriptures so
we will read the scriptures and gather knowledge. The scriptures themselves tell
us that they cannot be understood without the teacher.
"quoting scriptures"
the Bhagavad-Gita says Sri Krishna tells
Arjuna, that Arjun find a Guru approach him submissively inquire into the
absolute truth he shall impart that knowledge onto you. The Bhagwatam says
"quoting Bhagwatam"
we need to find such a Guru who's a theoretical and
practical person. In other words somebody who has understood these scriptures and
practically realized their meaning such a Guru will impart this knowledge to us.
and the Bhagwatam says "quoting Bhagwatam"
in order to know God
approach a Guru. So the scriptures are telling us that
find a teacher just like we get knowledge in the material realm, if we
wish to learn science or arts we find a teacher and we have the textbooks with
the help of this we acquire knowledge.
Swami Vivekanand said the living secrets must be passed down from master to
disciple in every science much more so in spiritual science, so there's a
difference between a teacher who gives material knowledge and teacher who gives
spiritual knowledge the Guru the Sadhguru. The teacher who is giving material
knowledge is materially motivated the teacher who's giving spiritual knowledge
has no material motivation, he is giving it out of compassion he is merely giving
it to help the disciple that's a big big difference. This guru is selfless and
because he is self less he's trustworthy. So how did that guru get the knowledge
he got it from his Guru how did that Guru get the knowledge he got it from
his Guru how did he get the knowledge he got it from his Guru, so this is how the
knowledge is coming Shri Krishna talks about it in the Bhagavad-Gita. So how did
the first Guru get the knowledge. So Maharishi Patanjali says they got it from
God himself. Those gurus who were so elevated who were at that platform where
they had reached God they got it directly from God himself. So what is the
position of God he is the Guru even of the earliest Gurus. Now what do we do
supposing we don't have a guru how do we go ahead on this path do we need to wait
till we find a guru no because then we might keep waiting
all our life, that's not recommended. It's not a good policy if we don't have a
Guru you try and understand from the saints, from the scriptures and whatever
you have understand to put it in practice and then as you go along the
path the guru may just come along. God may help you find the guru so we are
not to wait let us move ahead and see what Maharishi Patanjali has to tell us..