The Spiritual Teacher & the Spiritual Journey

What does it mean to walk the spiritual path, and how should we understand the role of a spiritual teacher? 

First of all, you must remember that if somebody has discovered something extraordinary, something that embraces many dimensions and is not ordinarily understood or experienced by people, it would be futile to try to put that person into a bracket based on our three-dimensional experiences.

If a person, anybody at all, has experienced or had access to such an expansion of consciousness, they may look at a situation from a completely different angle from the one from which we ordinarily view it. For instance, what others consider a loss, such a person may consider a gain, and what others consider a gain, they may consider a loss. This is quite possible, though not compulsory. We must not create generalised formulas, assuming that everything we consider negative will be seen as positive by such a person, or vice versa. It depends on the situation and the circumstances.

Such a person's mind may be very clear and open, enabling them to see at least a little beyond what ordinary sight allows us to see. They may not, however, be omnipresent, omnipotent or omniscient. No human being with a human brain and body can be omnipresent, omnipotent or omniscient.

If you get this out of your mind, many questions will be answered. Consider the question of why great people appoint somebody as their successor, only for that person to fall short of expectations after their passing. People then ask, “Was he omniscient? If so, how could he have made such a mistake?”

Nobody is omniscient. No human body is omniscient, omnipresent or omnipotent. A person may be a little better than others in certain respects and may still have faults and shortcomings. If a big businessman is successful in many fields but fails in another, would you question his entire business acumen? Or would you acknowledge that he was right in many things and went wrong in one? So what?

If you understand this, a major problem is resolved. Otherwise, we tend to assume that a great person must be infallible. Today, especially, everybody seems to be a guru, a yogi or an avatar. It is difficult to find anybody who is simply himself. Everyone claims to be somebody's avatar. That is the state of Kali Yuga today: nobody is himself; everyone is an avatar of somebody else.

When people who claim to be avatars continue to make mistakes, their followers feel completely let down. Therefore, one has to be very careful about these matters.

When a spiritual teacher or spiritual person takes a decision, says something or does something, and you have spent some time in close association with them, you may begin to understand that there could be an intention behind their actions that you do not know or understand. What you see as positive may be seen as negative by them.

Suppose somebody approaches such a person and says, “I am suffering. I am in great financial difficulty. Please bless me.”

Now, if the spiritual person finds that it would be better for that person's spiritual evolution to lose even what they have, they may say, “Okay, I am blessing you.” The person may then go back and lose everything, wondering, “What is this? This man blessed me, and I lost everything!”

That loss may be good for the person at that particular moment, something they cannot understand because of their limited understanding. Very often, it is sorrow that may wake us up.I am not saying this happens every time, nor does it mean that if you go to a holy person, they will always destroy you. Do not create formulas. You understand what I mean: it depends on the circumstances and the particular situation.

Therefore, the most important key to understanding this is that there are no clear-cut, watertight formulas. We are entering an infinite world in which there are no such watertight compartments.

The Spiritual Journey Has No Shortcuts

There are people who can attain Moksha. If anybody is selling or vending a formula that they claim will take you to Moksha, you should be suspicious. There is no such possibility. If there were, many people would have attained Moksha en masse, millions of them. That is not possible.

It is an individual affair. Every person has to work for themselves, and there are no shortcuts.

Very often, we look for shortcuts in this world, and we look for shortcuts in the spiritual world as well. This is a human tendency. The first thing we must do is get rid of the idea that there are any shortcuts.

There is another illusion: that if you live with a realised person, 35 years for instance, something will rub off on you and you will also become realised. This is not necessarily true.

There was a flower seller who lived with Swami Nityananda for 35 years in Ganeshpuri. When Nityananda passed away, the man was still a flower seller. He had not understood anything of what Nityananda was talking about.

So, merely living with someone does not guarantee spiritual realisation. If anybody says, “I have been associated with so-and-so for such a long time; therefore, I am spiritual,” it is bunkum. That is not true. 

On the other hand, there may be somebody who meets you for five minutes and becomes free. That, too, is possible.

Why, then, am I painting such a bleak picture? Because that is the only way to make people wake up and think. It is not a crime to think. Think on your own, definitely, while understanding that thinking has its limitations. That is all.

The Limitations of Thought

What is experienced in the highest spiritual states takes place when the entire process of thought has calmed down, when thought is no longer moving, when everything is still. In that stillness, whatever happens, happens.

No thought process can solve that problem. Understanding the limitations of thought is therefore very important.

If a person has touched the infinite, at least to some extent, trying to understand that person through thought is also a problem. We are attempting to understand them through our logical thinking process, in which one plus one equals two.

In this case, two plus two may equal nineteen. We are talking about something like quantum physics, where everything is uncertain, rather than Newtonian physics, with its laws of gravity.

Therefore, when you are in the company of a spiritual teacher, do not judge their actions in the ordinary way. Give them some thought. If nothing else, suspend your judgement. Say to yourself, “Let me come to terms with this. I’ll figure it out.

Do not draw immediate conclusions or jump to judgements. The same action, performed by a spiritual person and by us, may have different effects. What the spiritual person does may arise from a different intention and produce a different effect from what happens when we do the same thing.

There Is No External Measure of Spiritual Realisation

A God realized person, or a person who has attained the highest spiritual status need not necessarily be rich or poor, sick or healthy, famous or unknown, articulate or inarticulate. There is no external way of judging spiritual attainment.

Somebody may speak beautifully, but that does not mean that the person has had a spiritual experience. Conversely, a person who is completely inarticulate may be spiritually advanced.

Very often, on this pilgrimage towards the Truth, we will have to break away from and discard many of our favourite, convenient and entertaining ideas that we have acquired in life.

Spiritual progress is not hereditary. You cannot simply appoint your son as your successor and declare him highly spiritual. There is no such thing. It could be anybody.

- Sri M