The devotee and his Guru

Om Sathguru Sri Seshadri Swamigal Thiruvadikkae

….Without ‘NAMA’, Meera incessantly repeated, you cannot reach Him. It is, in fact, the realization by man of his Divinity. But this, she repeated, could be possible only through the help of the GURU. And the Guru will come only when the aspirant lies ill, crying for beatific vision. He gives us the gift of the ‘NAMA’, and the path becomes accesible to the recipient.

I obtained the gift of “Nama”:

The Sathguru bestowed the invaluable article,

And by His kindness made me His own.

The love for the Guru must be unadulterated, unselfish and spontaneous. The Guru is He who will open the gate that guards the entrance to the Divine Throne. There must be implicit faith in Him. An honest heart wins Him over. How tenderly Meera loved her Guru and with what tenacity, is depicted in her beautiful lines, full of pathos and music and brimming with genuine feelings of affection and respect for the Teacher -

My mind cherishes the love of the Guru’s Feet

I like nothing but Them:

the world to me is but a dream.

The Ocean of metempsychosis is dried up for me:

no anxiety to cross it ails me.

My Lord is Giridhara Naagara:

My eyes have turned inward to obtain His vision.

How many are those honest people that have the stern faith and hope in the Teacher? It is very nice to sit philosophizing that the world is a dream. The Guru will open the devotee’s eyes and show him the hypocrisy of the world and its transient nature. Only then would the devotee turn his back from the world and realize that this was a dream! This hollowness will be shown to him as a stern reality as God was shown to Vivekananda by His Guru Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.

 

(Excerpts from The Story of Meera Bai, Gita Press – The Doctrine of Shabda)