Welcome to Day 14 of our 40-Day Retreat 2008.

Yesterday I ended where I was speaking to you about meditation on the Guru and my own experience of meditation on the Guru. Today I want to continue.

Understanding that the Guru Principle is always at work
Before I begin, I want to say that when a person begins to seek, the Universal Guru begins to respond whether you know it or not. The moment a Seeker begins to sincerely seek, the Universe responds. And the ability to decipher what the Universe is trying to tell you is extremely important.

When I look back at my whole spiritual journey, I can see that even before meeting a spiritual Guru, the Universal Guru was already at work. It is marvelous to see that, because it broadens our concept of Guru. When I met a physical Guru I was challenged to go into a deeper awareness and understanding of Guru. Ultimately having experienced that profound inner state, my whole idea of Guru has changed completely.

What is important for us as Seekers is to understand how the Guru Principle is always at work. Not only acting through a physical person, but also acting in a Universe, acting inside of us, and through physical persons. If you can see all of this then the journey begins to become easier. So Guru Tattwa is not just about a person, it is the whole principle of guidance in the Universe.

It is my great joy to be able to share with you this broader concept of Guru and show how it worked for me. I’m sure for many of you it will work, when you understand the concept deeply.

Understanding and Interpreting Guidance
During the first week of the original 40 Days in 1978, I struggled for the first time in terms of understanding guidance. For years before this I had felt so much guidance from the Universe around me, understanding almost everything that it was telling me. Of course I knew I was not at the end of the journey, but I was happy I was so guided by this wonderful energy inside of me. I could feel it responding to my seeking and felt guided by the Universe around me because I could interpret that guidance.

But in this first week of the 40 Days it was taking me to a special place that was initially difficult to understand. I had to go deep to understand even more, how this power can guide you through people around you, through the space around you. This is what happened in the 40 Days of 1978.

I began a special session of chanting (kirtan) and then these very powerful experiences came that I didn’t have before. The throat chakra became very active; a lot of physical kriyas (cleansing experiences) started to happen. The throat became very powerful, and I began to be guided in the next days by this power of the throat. In fact it was so magical that everything I wanted to know began to come through my own voice.

But I had to be very careful on how to interpret that message because of course I never wanted to be caught in interpreting the messages the wrong way. So I had to look at the messages very carefully as they came through and try to understand what is the deeper meaning of this message.

The second day of that 40 Days, (one might call it the first day, because this happened in the previous evening coming into the first day) this intelligent energy, this power inside of me was trying to guide me to a certain aspect of the meditation. Even my body began to move, but I didn’t understand it. It took me an entire week to understand what this energy was trying to say to me. At the end of the week, it seemed that the voice disappeared. It could no longer guide me, I understood that the process was so deep that now it was taking me to a place were the voice could have no longer guided me. I was completely confused. “What was the next step?” I was waiting on this voice to guide me.

Then the magic is that it began to guide from outside of me and the moment I saw it, I was so grateful. The magical step of this meditation to Guru was beyond my understanding at that point.  I was guided to go into a closed room and these instructions came magically through a person outside of me that was being used by this power, it was absolutely amazing. I saw how Guru Power can work outside through another person, even they may not be aware of what is happening or the depth of what they are doing.

Meditate on the Formless and Attributeless
The instruction I got was to stay in a closed space, so my discipline became even more secluded. For the first week I was just in the environment around me, the space of the home. But at the end of this week I was guided to go into a room. The instructions where to meditate on the formless and the attributeless. I struggled for about four hours trying to figure out how to do this - I sat, I just remained still, and I’m trying and trying. I knew deep in my heart it was the most powerful instruction. “Meditate on the formless and attributeless” but I’m struggling.

Identify/Assume the Quality that you admire in the Guru
Then one instruction became very magical to me. It said “focus on the qualities of the teacher whom you know, whom you admire, whom you’d like to be like.  Focus on the quality and begin to show that quality, express that quality”. Of course there were particular qualities about the teacher that I liked and I focused on one of them. The moment I assumed that identity it was magical.

I felt my Consciousness shift into experiencing a new Consciousness. I don’t know how to explain this; I became now “that which I was admiring”. I began to feel it in my being; I began to feel the Consciousness of that Being I was admiring. I began to feel that Consciousness inside of me. It was absolutely so powerful, so meaningful, so purposeful. Then I understood the purpose of the whole week.

The idea was to become, to identify with, to assume that quality that you admire in the other. Then I began to follow it (quality) as my own. The focus for me at that time was on the energy and power of the Guru that I loved. I loved his energy and his power and I began to focus on that. That just put me into a phenomenal space.

Then, my real secluded period began. I didn’t need anybody. Even the person that was guiding me, whom the instructions were coming from, it vanished the way she was doing it. And then the moment I understood, the guidance began inside of me again. But it was like an adventure because I had to figure out – “What to do with this Consciousness?” “How do I go further?” I had a number of books with me that were important, but every day as I continued this journey I could feel this Consciousness growing and growing. I had marvellous experiences of this Consciousness unfolding in the weeks that followed, until the fullness of the experience came, until the Bindu was pierced completely.

Understanding the Meaning of ‘Meditation on the Guru’
It is extremely important to understand what meditation on the Guru means. It is not on the physical person, it is in a ‘quality’ in those who manifest Guru Tattwa. It is focusing on that quality that we love, admire, adore, want to have and beginning to identify with it.

Then when grace comes - because I have to use the word grace - because you have to use all the effort, but it comes when it will come, grace decides. I’ll talk about grace later on and how to work with grace because you don’t want to become anxious and stressed-out as you follow these instructions that you’re getting.

But it was a marvellous period after that, every day was magical, all the confusion went. Then what was amazing was that the whole environment around me continued to be kept in a state of discipline, a state of high energy. And I could see how universal grace was creating this space with me. It was so beautiful, I felt so held by the Universe. Everybody seemed to be working so powerfully as though being driven by some unknown power and energy to make everything perfect around me. I’m ever so grateful for that. Then after 40 Days the magic – it was absolutely beautiful.

So meditation on the Guru is such a powerful thing. However one needs to move away from the idea that you are meditating on the physical person and go into the qualities that you love when you see persons with Guru Tattva. Do not only adore it, although these qualities are outside of you, begin to identify with them inside of you. That was the magical shift in my consciousness.

As I have said before, grace is always pouring. If you are really seeking, the Universe is going to send you the answers. Only thing is you need to have the ability to decipher, to decode, to interpret, to understand because answers may be coming around you, but you discard them.

I’ll leave you with one verse of Guru Gita that is very powerful. It says:

Guroo Padishta Margena
Manah Shuddhim Tu Karayet
Anityan Khandayet Sarvam
Yatkinchid Aatma Gocharam 

“One should follow the path or the method prescribed by the Guru, follow the instructions of the Guru.”

And remember the instructions do not only come from an outside person, it comes from inside and it comes from everywhere around you if you look carefully.

Anityan Khandayet Sarvam - “and discard all that is not real, not true, that is transient”

Yatkinchid Aatma Gocharam  - “all that is transient, that is ascribed or attributed to the Self inside of you, all those false ideas”; “I am a physical person”; “I’m not worthy”; whatever limitation you ascribe to that great power inside of you “discard it and follow the path, the teachings given to you by the Guru.”  It is asking you to be discriminating and devoted. It says “by following these, you are going to purify the mind.”

Guroo Padishta Margena
Manah Shuddhim Tu Karayet

            - “You’re going to purify the mind.”

During this period I really had to be one-pointed, I had to decode the message, and everything that was false I had to move it away. In fact, throughout the entire 40 Days I had to discard that which was false, that which was limiting. I had to go deeper and deeper into the experience of Self.
 
I leave you with that today and we can continue tomorrow this beautiful adventure into Guru Consciousness. Just to say “that day there was a shift in the Consciousness that took me into what is really Guru Consciousness”.

Post meditation remarks:

Let us think of what freedom means, and what meditation on the Guru leading to freedom means. When Kundalini is awakened it brings freedom. When we focus on the breathing our centers are pierced a little more as we feel the prana move along the channel. And when we come to the bindu, we have a final step to the space beyond space and form.

I look forward to our continued conversations, and I say “conversation” because even though I speak, you respond to me – energetically. And energetically it is an exchange. That is communication at a deeper level.

Have a blessed day everyone.