Teachers, Students, Luminaries

People use me as a therapist, but I am not.  People wonder if I am a shaman, but I am not.  People think I am a philosopher, but I am not.  When one puts on the robe of a Guru, one has to be true to God.  Sri Ramakrishna taught about the three kinds of gurus: inferior, mediocre, and superior.  The inferior guru merely gives instruction without enquiring about the student's progress.  The mediocre teacher makes repeated efforts to bring the teachings home to the student, and pleads with him to assimilate them.  But the best teacher is like the physician who appears at your door and forces the medicine down your throat.  So, the teachings must be given in the right atmosphere by the effective teacher.

 

"Realization dawns on the mind in stages."  This insight of Sri Ram cures us of thinking that illumination comes only in a flash.  If it does, it is likely that it will go away in a flash too, and that is the gauge by which to measure authentic realization.  Illumination tends to stay when it dawns slowly.  Make the best and apt conclusion you can make, then, and strive to live in it.  The world will rise up and show you what is wrong with your conclusion.  Then you will make the proper adjustment.  In this way move slowly but securely into Brahman.

 

Importantly, we should notice that the illumined beings who return to the earth, to embodiment in order to help others, are not becoming environmentalists, politicians, or doctors, etc.; they are giving the people the dharmic teachings that purify their minds and lead them to Enlightenment.

 

A student of an ancient rishi once said: "You always talk about Brahman, but what about the world?"  The rishi replied: "Oh that!  It is just the overflow of the bliss of Brahman."  You see, the luminary lives in the body without suffering.  He has transcended the world.  But the student does not know two of these: does not know Brahman, and does not know the bliss of Brahman.  The student, as of yet, only knows the world.