WHAT IS GURUSHAKTI

 

Gurushakti is a universal force that is existent everywhere, and it is eternal. Through the practices that we do, we draw that Shakti unto ourselves. Shakti means energy, and you would know what guru means. So, the energy which the guru imparts is called Gurushakti.

You will find that there is the energy of electricity in a river. Still, to capture the energy in the running water, you need a hydropower plant to capture this energy and transmit it to the generator. It is not the generator that gives the energy on its own. Still, the generator converts the energy of the running water so that the conversion of this energy into electricity goes through all the pipes, and that is why you have light in this room. If man is evolved enough, he could draw this energy from the river himself, but if he is not evolved enough, he uses the generator’s power.

GURUSHAKTI CAN ALSO BE CALLED GRACE

There are many bogus gurus in the world, but a true guru has acquired the ability to make himself into a channel through which, like the generator, the energy flows and is directed to the people.

Gurushakti can also be called Grace. Grace is a word very hard to define, but we can use an analogy here. For example, when we plant a seed to grow a flower, for the flower to grow, so many qualities are needed; it requires the minerals in the ground, and it needs water, light, and heat. We know that if the plant is given too much water or too much heat or fertiliser, it can die and yet when the flower grows, what quality is there, what is there that gives that plant good things in its proper proportion? Just the right amount of water, the right minerals from the ground, the right amount of light and heat. There is a power of coordination, and this power of coordination is Grace.

THE TRUE GURU IS NOTHING BUT A CHANNEL

As we said before, Gurushakti or Grace is forever existent, and the good guru is nothing but a channel, and yet he is a most ordinary man; when he is thirsty, he will drink water, and when he is hungry, he will eat food, and he also has to go to the loo. He is so very, very ordinary. You could compare him with a flute, a piece of wood, a flute through which Divinity blows so that we all can enjoy this beautiful music. The guru who imparts this Gurushakti is only like the generator. He does not manufacture the energy, but it flows through him because he is a channel.

A HUMAN BEING NEEDS A HUMAN IMPULSE

As a human being, one needs the human impulse to impart it because, as we said, this energy embraced is abstract. This abstract energy has to be concretised, and who else could concretise it better for the human being than another human being.

The true guru has experienced life, and perhaps not only one life. Reaching the oneness and communion with Divinity must be the process of many, many lifetimes. And having experienced this communion, he can go back into his previous lives and know the lessons he has learnt, and knowing all the mistakes that were made, he is in a position to advise others not to make those same mistakes. Or, as the saying goes, no saint did not have a past, and there is no sinner with no future. So, every saint has had a history, and every sinner has a lot.

THE QUALITIES OF A GOOD DISCIPLE

A good guru will intuitively know the sufferings of mankind even without a word being spoken. Through the power and Grace of Divinity, he delves deeply into the human soul of the true disciple. So, two qualities are required: a good guru and a good disciple.

The qualities of a good disciple are acceptance, openness, love and devotion, and through these few capacities, which everyone has, you draw this Grace or this Gurushakti to yourself. This Gurushakti is like a well from which you can draw as much water as possible. As the Bhagavad Gita says, if you take a thimble, you can only get a thimble full of water. If you take a one-litre jug, you get one litre of water, and if you take a 50-litre jar, you will get 50 litres of water. So how much you will draw of Gurushakti depends upon you. The greater love and open-mindedness you have, the more regular you are in your practices, and the more you draw from Gurushakti.

These are the principles of Gurushakti, and this is nothing new; it has been demonstrated repeatedly by true masters throughout your lives.

CONSCIOUS EFFORT IS REQUIRED

If you are born with a hole in the bucket, then remember you created the hole. Every person is responsible for himself, and Divinity is a neutral quality. So whatever position we are put in is a creation of ourselves, but there is no hope lost because if you had the ability to create a hole, then be sure to know that you also can mend the hole. So, find ways and means to repair the hole, and your bucket shall never leak.

The ways and means of mending the hole are by doing one’s meditation and personally prescribed practices as given to you by your guru, and secondly by self-help.

That meditation is effortless, one hour a day, half an hour in the morning, half an hour in the evening, but what about the other 23 hours? Are you just going to sleep? Some effort is required during the waking state of life. If you are unemployed, it will not help you sit at home waiting for a job to come to you; you have to look for it. So, an effort is required. If a man is a drunkard, an alcoholic if he does not make any effort to push the bottle a little further and further away, then all the meditation in the world will not help him. The strength that meditation gives you, which is gained without effort, must then be used in the waking state of life and be used with an effort to mend the hole in the bucket.

NO EFFORT, NO IMPROVEMENT

I will tell you a little story. There was a traveller, and because he had been travelling for a long distance, he was tired in the evening, so he found a tree and was resting under the tree. You know the Indian summer is scorching; you do not need blankets; you can sleep outside. So, this man was sleeping under the tree for the night, and this tree was a fruit tree, it is a lovely Indian fruit called jambul, it is something like a plum, little purple colour, very nice. So, he woke up, and his eyes were still closed, and the thought came to his mind, “I wish I had a jambul to eat,” and then when he opened his eyes, he saw a jambul there, because he was sleeping under a jambul tree. Yet when he saw this beautiful jambul, this man thought to himself a second thought: “I wish this jambul could fall right onto my hand.” So lazy, he did not even want to stretch up his hand to pick the jambul. So, in our waking state of life, if we do not make an effort to improve ourselves, improvement will not come.

GURUSHAKTI IS ALWAYS THERE

That is why combined with meditation and self-help, the quality of life improves and as the quality of life improves more, more and more, we draw to ourselves the power of Gurushakti. So, the three things work together. You do not need to ask for Gurushakti, it is always there, but you have to do your meditation, you must make self-help, and the Gurushakti, which is always there, will aid your growth, and there are no more holes in life.

… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang Germany 1978 – 02