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(Autobiography of Poojya Gurudev Pt. Shriram Sharma Acharya, titled MY LIFE : ITS LEGACY AND MESSAGE continued from previous issue)

Ramkrishna had gone in search of Vivekananda to his house. Samarth Ramdas had discovered Shivaji. Chandragupta was caught hold of by Chanakya. Gokhale won over Gandhi. This equally well applied in my case. Gurudev appeared before me in my house in his astral body when I was fifteen year old, activated and empowered my faith and yoked all the energies of my being in a specific direction. While countless persons wandering in search of a Sadguru return empty-handed after being deceived by quacks, what was particularly special about me for which a divine being had to appear before me uninvited, and spontaneously showered his grace on me? The only rational answer is that I had earned merit for this benediction by satvika austerities over many earlier lifetimes.

This does not happen randomly. It requires devout austerities and overcoming of evil tendencies over a long period of self-effort. A combination of determination, patience and devotion creates the firm background for spiritual awakening. Earning such merit is true discipleship, after which it takes no time to attain fulfilment. It is the attainment of merit, which takes time. No time is taken in finding the Guru. Eklavya’s Dronacharya, prepared out of clay, proved more effective than the real one. When Ramananda refused to initiate Kabir, as he was an untouchable, he discovered a device.

He lay down in the dark on the stairs of Kashighat. When Ramananda passed through the stairs before dawn to take his bath, his feet suddenly fell on the chest of Kabir. Ramananda was startled. He uttered ’Ram’ and drew back. Kabir took this utterance to be his initiation: ’Ram’ as his mantra and Ramananda as his Guru. This is the magic of true faith. When an idol of stone can become God, why cannot an appropriate person be made Guru on the strength of faith and devotion? This does not require whispering something in the ear or performing any rituals. Guru is needed in the path of spiritual awakening because he discharges the dual responsibility of father and teacher.

A child is brought up and educated through the cooperation of both the father, who spends a part of his earnings on his maintenance and education, and the teacher who imparts knowledge to him. Father can fulfil the physical needs whereas the Guru gives guidance for spiritual growth from his accumulated store of divine energy. The disciple can do nothing on his own strength alone. That is the truth behind the saying, ’There is no knowledge without Guru’. There are people who ever remain on vain search of a Guru. Even when they are able to find some illumined person they get disappointed because they undeservedly expect the Guru to bestow on them their divine gifts; and no true master would squander away his hard-earned attainments on an undeserving person for mere gratification of his ego.

A true master is wise enough to judge the worthiness or otherwise of a seeker. Dayananda had transformed his life in accordance with the instructions of his Guru, Virjananda. Vivekananda relinquished all his desires and took to strenuous sadhana to please his Guru. This is the real surrender and devotion to the Guru. Hanuman surrendered himself to Ram and apparently lost everything but became a saint and was empowered to accomplish superhuman tasks that Ram alone could have done. Jumping across the sea, uprooting mountains, setting aflame Lanka were feats that Hanuman could not have been able to do by himself. On his own he was unable even to protect his master, Sugreeva, from the tyranny of Bali. It was unconditional surrender, which created complete integration with the Lord of his devotion.

A little water of Ganga falling in a gutter becomes dirty, but if and when a stream of this polluted water embraces the main stream of Ganga, it loses its separate impure existence and becomes holy Ganga itself. Ordinary and ignorant persons lacking any merit become worthy of initiation into the spiritual path by unconditionally surrendering themselves to a competent awakened soul. On embracing fire, a piece of wood becomes identical with and as bright as fire itself. The aim of devotion is attainment of God awareness, but to establish a link with God, the invisible, it is necessary to take support of some visible symbol. This need can be fulfilled either by idols of God or by some living Guru of spiritual attainment. My aspirations were fulfilled all of a sudden. No doubt, my sadhana had been started long back in previous births to attain worthiness.

Awakening of kundalini power, God realisation, liberation etc. are all subsequent events. The first and the foremost thing is to acquire the ability to attain and bear with equanimity the inrush of divine light and energy, otherwise it creates imbalance and complications as it happens when one tries to lift a weight beyond one’s capacity or eats what one cannot digest. Surrender to the Guru was accomplished on the very first day of our meeting and my loyalty was immediately tested.

Two things were specifically enjoined on me: One, turn a deaf ear to what worldly people say and march ahead towards the goal all alone on your own Strength; Two, practise devout austerity (tapascarya) to make yourself progressively more and more purified in heart and brilliant in intellect. For this, sustain yourself only on barley bread and buttermilk during the period in which twenty-four Gayatri Mahapurascaranas are performed. You will get all divine gifts, which a pilgrim of spiritual path gets on attainment of competence. These gifts will be meant purely for being used for benevolent and altruistic purposes and not for fulfilment of petty selfish motives.

That momentous day of Basant parva became for me a day of adoption of Gurudev’s discipline and beginning of a new way of life. There is no shortage of beggars in this world but there are also rare benevolent persons who gift away everything to deserving persons. Krishna had gifted away, unasked, plentiful prosperity to Sudama. Meeting of my Sadguru was an event of unique and extremely good fortune for me. A glimpse of past births, which Gurudev had unveiled before me related to spiritual masters of rare eminence who were all shining stars in the reformist tradition of Indian saints.

They worked for the well-being and upliftment of religion, society, nation and culture of their times. They were all devotees of God because without divine devotion it is difficult to get rid of sins and impurities and attain spiritual illumination and strength. Along with their own spiritual upliftment, they were engaged in the tasks of transmuting and beautifying this universe, the garden of God. I had no desire to know more than what I was revealed. I thought it proper to sit on one boat, remain under the benevolent protection and seek support of only one master and not to allow my faith to falter. The events relating to the previous births were quite sufficient for my assurance.

Those who undertake the responsibility of performing momentous tasks have to face and surmount great difficulties at every step of the uphill journey. They have to display extraordinary fortitude. This was required of me also in an ample measure. Gurudev has been appearing for my help from time to time. He has been immensely augmenting my own insignificant abilities with his great spiritual force and has been rescuing and uplifting me in critical moments, when my own feeble feet were on the point of staggering. I had decided once for all that my life shall remain surrendered at his feet and I will implicitly comply with his directions.

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