Why do we connect to a spiritual master? | Mohanji
We need to know why we are connecting to a master. A master is a supposedly lit camphor, somebody who’s already lit. That’s the aspiration of every unlit camphor. That’s why you’re connecting to somebody.
What is a guru?
A material that is your aspiration.
What aspiration?
To be lit camphor, to be enlightened. To be complete, to be fulfilled; to be the expansion, not the limitation. That’s the guru. But if you don’t achieve that by connecting to the guru, what are you doing? Doing nothing.
Do you think practices get you there?
No way. Practices are disciplines. Practices are for alignment – a disciplined action for the sake of alignment. That’s, of course, good because without discipline, you cannot connect; you cannot progress. That’s for sure. But a mechanical activity never takes you there.
Another thing: somebody is following, so I’m also following. Do you think it’ll work? It won’t work. Then if somebody leaves, they also leave. If you are not clear, any time you can leave. And what are you leaving? The opportunity to get lit.
What did I say? When green wood becomes dry wood, it easily catches fire. So, it takes time to become dry wood. It needs a lot of sunshine. It’s painful. All the emotions and all the things which brought you and put you on earth repeatedly, life after life, lifetime after lifetime, should completely become dry.
It’s not a boring thing. It’s actually freedom. You experience extraordinary freedom where you need nothing from the earth. Otherwise, all positions are binding. All possessions are binding. All relations are binding. Everything is binding.
So how do you come out of this? That’s where you look at a person who has already come out of it – as an aspiration. But please understand, you are also unlit camphor. The same material which is lit is already sitting inside you. All it takes is one spark. As you saw in this, it didn’t take a lot of effort to light camphor, right? You just brought it close to the fire. That’s all; it catches fire.
But this camphor should reach the fire to catch fire. Usually, we don’t allow it. By the time it comes closer, old habits, old patterns take you back; they pull you back. What pulls you back? Habits, patterns, fears, confusion, phobias, doubts. They take you back. They keep bringing you back. Then what do you get out of it? Another lifetime of the same pattern; the same thing repeated over and over again.
Aspirations to actualizations
This Guru Poornima is a day where the aspirations can have actualization. What’s the aspiration? To be free; simple. Free from what? This binding cycle of birth and death connected to patterns. Patterns bring you back. Patterns bring desires; patterns bring inclinations, tendencies, insecurities; everything is brought by patterns. And patterns are repeated actions or experiences which have percolated into your system, which is brought into your system. You carry this after every death.
Every death, you carry the same thing to the next body. The same software goes to the next body, and then that software functions as a human being. That’s what we call a human being. Ownership is a big trap. You can’t own even your body. Nothing you can own; everything is a trap. Once you start seeing these things – all your habits, all your relations, positions, possessions, notions, concepts, everything you’ll see from above from a state of detachment, then you see that you are in the path. Every guru’s aspiration is to make others the same. I can only share what I am with you. I cannot share something else.
When you go to many doors and knock on many doors, finally, nobody opens them. Or everybody opens it, but you can’t enter. Many times, people knock on one door, then before they open, they go to another door and another door. Knocking is happening. Activity is happening, but you’re entering nowhere. Until you enter, you don’t get food. If you are standing outside, probably no food comes your way. You got to go and sit down in a chair so that somebody can serve you.
This is very important to understand because today is Guru Poornima, and I’m not mincing words; I might as well tell the frank truth frankly. We need to know why we are connecting to a master. A master is a supposedly lit camphor, somebody who’s already lit. That’s the aspiration of every unlit camphor. That’s why you’re connecting to somebody.
That’s why I also say you should take time before connecting. Don’t just go thinking it’s lit camphor and connect; maybe there’s nothing. It’s only just a flash of the box, not light, not actually a flame. Sometimes we connect to unlit camphor boxes. But because there’s a flash, we get attracted. We get attracted to light by nature. Children get attracted; you can see that. They get attracted to light. Like that, we get attracted to light. But there are false lights also – flashes. The moon has no light without the sun, and the moon is not the sun.
Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt
Proofread by Yogesh Pandit