Going the Distance in Spiritual Life — Part 10
Refuge in Path and Preceptor & Absorption in Love of Truth
“Godspeed to you in crossing over to the farther shore, beyond all darkness.” — Mundaka Upanisad
Six Solutions for Lack of Spiritual Success: 1. Renounce Cravings, 2. struggle/Self-Effort, 3. Refuge in a Path & Preceptor, 4. Absorption in Love of Truth, 5. Devotion to Discrimination, 6. Freedom from Worldliness (These points can be found and/or inferred in verses 8–10 of the Vivekachudamani.)
“Trying to gain enlightenment without the help of the guru and scriptures is like trying to grow crops only at night.” -Lord Vasishtha
In this post we will take up the third and fourth solutions for lack of Spiritual Success. Swami Prabhavananda translates Shankara’s statement on this topic as follows: “…Let the wise person give up craving for pleasure in external things, and struggle hard for liberation. Let him seek out a noble and high-souled teacher, and become absorbed wholeheartedly in the truth which is taught by him.”
For those who are new to spiritual pursuits, two things should be understood from the start: the qualifications of an authentic teacher and the necessity that one’s own heart and mind be sincere and straightforward. All kinds of detours, back-tracking, failures, and false projections occur when the seeker cannot recognize a “noble and high-souled teacher” and takes an unworthy teacher, or just as important, rejects the authentic one.
The qualifications of the Guru are as follows: the guru must know the essence of the scriptures and be able to transmit them; live a pure and simple life; impart the teachings with no ulterior motive for personal gain; and be a knower of Brahman. There is much to explore about each of these, which will be the focus of a future blog concerned with verse 33 of the Vivekachudamani. However, it should be clear from this list that the seeker needs enough discernment to recognize the difference between the spiritual marketplace of self-proclaimed teachers that occupy the commercial arena for profit, and those teachers, usually unheralded, who are offering the treasures of the scriptures, an authentic spiritual lineage, and their own profound realizations to those who will come near and stay steady. Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita tells us: “The sincere student approaches the wise preceptor with prostration (humility), questioning (about the path and Truth), and service. Then the wise, the knowers of Truth, initiate him/her into the highest Wisdom.”
The seeker’s heart must be sincere and straightforward. Just like the teacher must impart the teachings for no ulterior motive of selfish gain, the would-be student must seek a teacher and the teachings for no selfish, earthly motivation. There is a segment of seekers with mixed intentions that are consciously or unconsciously trying to court favor with God, or the higher Self as they understand it, or even the “universe,” in order to manifest the things they want: relationships, wealth, success in work, children, release from suffering, to fix some problem in their lives, etc. While it is true that Sri Krishna grants that there are four kinds of virtuous persons who worship Him: “…those in distress, those seeking knowledge, those seeking wealth and the ones imbued with wisdom,”[7.16] the difference between those Sri Krishna is referring to and those highlighted previously is that these are already devotees who have surrendered themselves to God. Their egos are attenuated. Whether suffering persists or not, wealth comes or not, they remain steadfast in their spiritual path. It should be noted there are four qualifications of the student as well, which will for the topic of future articles in this series.)
Another essential point made in the verse quoted at the top is that the seeking student, having found a high-souled teacher, must “…become absorbed wholeheartedly in the truth which is taught by him.” In other words, upon finding such a teacher, one’s sole concern should be the truth that is taught — not the personality of the teacher, not how one likes the other personalities of the community of fellow students, not whether one agrees or disagrees with everything the teacher says. All these are beside the point. One has come for the Truth imparted by the teacher and the method given, and for nothing else. Those who do not adhere to this primary point fall away and miss a supreme opportunity. Further, by becoming absorbed in the truth the teacher transmits, all these other considerations fall away naturally.
There is a story from my lineage that exemplifies this. Naren, the future Swami Vivekananda, became responsible for his mother and siblings when his father died suddenly. Friends and associates would not help him. He would go without food so that his mother and siblings could eat. Finally, he sought the help of Sri Ramakrishna, his guru. He poured his heart out to him and pleaded with him to ensure that his family would have food and shelter. Sri Ramakrishna, instead, sent him to the temple of Bhavatarini Ma Kali, telling him to ask Her. Naren did not believe in the forms of God, but did as his teacher told him. When he entered Her shrine, he experienced Her living Presence, and became absorbed in it. His only prayer was for discrimination and renunciation. Gone were all earthly concerns, and all philosophical disputes about whether God was with form or beyond form. When he returned to his teacher, he was chided for not asking Her and was sent back. But such was Naren’s sincerity and one-pointed devotion to Truth, that he immediately became absorbed in Her presence again and begged for discrimination and renunciation alone. Sri Ramakrishna sent him back a third time with the same result.
The young Swami Vivekananda’s devotion to discrimination (between the Eternal and noneternal) segues nicely into the next post, which will take up the fifth Solution for Lack of Spiritual Success.
Note: Images are excerpts from the Dharma Charts of Babaji Bob Kindler.
