40. Surrender to the Guru
(Darshan given on August 12th, 1996)
A visitor: … of the darshan of the Guru and the relationship of the Guru to the chela, why is the Guru so important? In many religions the Guru…
Swamiji: Why is it necessary to bask in the sunlight? It is always said that people should bask in the sunlight. Why should they? They can sit in the cave inside. Why should they bask in the sunlight? It is because the energy of the sun enters this person. That is why you are sitting in the sun. So the Guru, as he is an established spiritual master, from his body some energy emanates which is a spiritual power, and people come near that person as much as possible so that they may be charged with that magnetic influence that is emanating from that person; otherwise, there is no purpose. Just as when you sit in the sun you get the warmth, you sit near the spiritual hero and his potential energy travels some distance from his body. How far it travels depends upon the quantum of energy that he has got. It will be 3 feet, 4 feet, 10 feet, half a kilometre, one kilometre, whatever it is. Sometimes it can be several kilometres also, if the person is very powerful. So that is the purpose. You are basking in the warmth of the magnetic force generated by the personality of the great spiritual master. Now what else do you want to ask?
Visitor: Is it important to completely submit to the Guru?
Swamiji: No, there is no need of submitting. You have to submit to that which has given the strength to the Guru, because a wrong notion can enter the mind, thinking that the physical appearance of the Guru is the Guru. This idea may enter the disciple, and they will start clinging to the Guru's body. Then the spiritual becomes unspiritual immediately. The Guru is the medium through which the energy is flowing. The energy is the important thing, not the body through which it is flowing. So if the person dies, people feel shattered: “My Guru has gone.” That means their understanding of the Guru is poor. That which has gone away was not the Guru. The Guru is that energy that permeated and entered that personality. The force is the Guru, the energy is the Guru, the spiritual impulse that was inside is the Guru, not the physical body; but nobody can easily understand. Human sentiment is so crude, it clings to anything. Clinging is the habit of every human being. You have to cling to something, and they cling to an image, an idol, a Guru, whatever it is.
So in order that this sorrow consequent upon the physical death of the Guru may not upset the mind of the disciple, the disciple should be equally enlightened. Only a powerful tungsten wire can draw the electricity and give you light. If you tie a rope inside, it won't draw the energy of the power. So if the disciple is like a rope, the energy will not flow through that person. It is not enough if the Guru is great. The disciple also has to be great; otherwise, there will be no en rapport between the two. Just as high-frequency energy that is flowing everywhere cannot be caught by the ears or the eyes, and you can catch it through a television set or a radio set because of its high-frequency mechanism, likewise, if the disciple is a low-frequency individual, even if God is sitting there, he won't understand that God is there. Because it is so high potential, His presence is not felt by him. Even if a Godman is sitting, you cannot recognise him because the receiver is very poor.
So surrender has no meaning. It is the understanding that is important. You have to surrender to that universal force which permeates through the personality of that spiritual hero. Clinging to the body of a person is not good; otherwise, you will suffer afterwards because that to which you cling goes away one day, and then you will be in misery. Everything perishes, and the body of the Guru also will perish. Even Incarnations perish, so why do you cling to anybody? You must use the power of discrimination and understanding so that gain or loss will not make any difference as far as the physical perception of the eye is concerned.
So I do not use that word 'surrender', and all that. It is a common glib word that untutored disciples use. “I surrendered to the Guru and suffered afterwards.” This is no good. Anything that brings suffering has a sting of error behind it. Always you must see the consequence of an action. The consequence of an action will decide the usefulness and the correctness of the action. That which is immediately pleasant need not necessarily be a good thing. Don't surrender yourself to anybody except the Almighty Lord.
There are Gurus who are very eager to have disciples surrender to them, many in the world. Those Gurus who say, “Come, come, come, I will enlighten you,” you must dread them and run away from that place. There are Gurus like that. “Come, I will give you samadhi. Come, you will reach God.” You leave that place and go away immediately. Don't sit there because it is a terrible thing to say like that. Nobody should say like that: “I will give you samadhi and take you to God.” Whoever says that is misguiding the person. It is better to be humble always, efface yourself, be a nothing; then everything will enter.
I am a self-effacing seeker, that's all. I want nothing, not even disciples, not money, not property, not friends. I want nothing. That position that I am maintaining makes me happy. The last will be the first in heaven. He who is first here will be the last in heaven. So don't be too eager to be important in this world. God will see to it that you are thrown out in the dustbin. He who has already received the blessing of this world need not ask for blessing from God afterwards because God will say, “Already you have got the blessing of humanity; why do you come to Me?”
If the world has rejected you, then God will take you, but this is a very painful thing to hear. Why should you be rejected by the world? That means the world cannot see properly what is there. It sees only what is not there. The world does not exist at all. It is only a vibratory movement of some energy quantum which looks like concentrated objects. There are people who say the world does not exist, and you must understand why they say that. There are only waves of energy – as people say, quanta of energy, waves everywhere, vibrations, fluxations – and nothing exists really, solidly. So neither the Guru exists nor the disciple exists. Only that One thing exists. If the mind can accept this, you are free, and nobody can harm you afterwards. All attachment will cease. We are clinging to forms which are not really existing. Forms do not exist. There are only conglomerations of electric energy deludingly appearing as solid objects. Do you understand me? So don't be caught by Gurus and all that. We don't want it.