Yesterday we spoke about Guru Tattwa or Guru Principle manifesting in human beings. We were invited to examine those teachers whom we want to follow, and to follow the one who is in oneness with the “inner principle”. Of course this relates to our spiritual journey, but there are many teachers in the world not only those who assist us on the spiritual journey and they are all important.
Brow Chakra – brings Leadership Qualities
I just want to say a few words on Guru Tattwa manifesting in human beings. What I have noticed and what I have experienced is, that when the brow chakra is open (Ajna chakra) one develops a certain kind of leadership quality. This is a chakra that helps us to become master of ourselves. As we begin to become master of ourselves and feel our creative power, our power of influence, we automatically begin to lead others.
This is very interesting, you may have this chakra open and it gives you a kind of commanding power, but you don’t think of it as “Guru Chakra”. People with this chakra opened can lead us astray from the path of goodness or they can educate us in many ways, with this power of influence.
Guru Gita speaks about different kinds of Gurus. Of course it takes the time to point out that the Supreme One, is the teacher who can lead you to ultimate freedom. It also describes the qualities of such a teacher so that you can recognize them, but I will deal with that later on.
Gurus Who Teacher us about the External World
Today I want to focus on the one who teaches us in the external world about the external world. They are Gurus too. In my own life I had the opportunity to do this during my spiritual journey. That too was an interesting development. As my own spirituality increased, as my own spiritual power became stronger, even teaching about worldly things, the influence was more, the power was more.
I want to read a verse from Guru Gita that talks about these teachers. It is a simple verse, it just defines the teacher, but because of my own journey and experience I think it is extremely important to honour these teachers as well. So in dealing with this verse today, I am doing that, I am honoring all those teachers in the world who teach us in the institutions of learning. They teach how to understand this world better, how to master the language, how to master the technology that allows us to have better living conditions. I want to respect those teachers too. Let us listen to this verse from Guru Gita.
Varna jaalan idan tadvad vaahya shaastram tu laukikam,
Yasmin devi samabhyastam,
Sa guruh soochakah smrtah
“Soochaka
Guru is one who is well versed in letters and all external worldly sciences.”
This is a Guru too.
What I have found in our society today is that we pay little respect to these Gurus. Of course Guru Gita does not consider this to be the Supreme Teacher but it considers this teacher to be a Guru. In today’s society what I have found is that we have lost the respect for these teachers. So in contemplating this verse I want us to go back to that time when we depended on such teachers, when we needed such teachers and to give them value in our lives.
Even now, even though you’ve matured and some of these systems of education or institutions of learning are behind you, the truth is that we are constantly learning all the time. When you open yourself to learning then you will have great respect for these teachers. If I want to find out anything about worldly sciences, it’s a joy now to just go on the internet and to appreciate the work that these masters in their own right, leave for us.
Spirituality and the Limitation of Worldly Learning - Personal Experience
In the early days of working, when I completed my high school education, I started to work in an industrial area. Of course my plan was to continue my education, to go to University. However while working there and saving money to go to University I began to have a spiritual change and I began to see the limitation of worldly learning.
I thought to myself that in improving my education, I needed to learn how to master the mind. I needed to understand what are the tools inside of me? I needed to understand my emotional being; I needed to understand who I am in the context of life. I thought to myself that the University education that I was thinking of, was not going to offer this to me.
That is when I began to read a lot about spirituality and I became fascinated by the world of spirituality, but I didn’t see an ordinary institute of learning helping me on the spiritual journey. It is not normal for us after high school to go to a spiritual institution as part of our education - immediately we go to Schools of Technology or Schools of The Arts.
The Greatest Work is in Serving Humanity – Personal Experience
I decided then, and this I must say to you, that I was going to give up my work in industry. I made a definite decision to give up my work because I didn’t understand how this could be serving human beings. I thought to myself, the greatest work we can do in the world is serving humanity, not just serving profit based companies. So I left that job and decided to go into teaching. I was given a job in a high school and I started to teach, out of the love of serving and helping people.
Of course it was challenging in those days because I had my own inner struggle that eventually took me to India. There, after some months, having been spiritually awakened, having learned the tools to go deeper inside and to master my inner world, I came back and I went back into teaching.
What was interesting now was the Guru Tattwa was stronger, because in India I had a definite awakening of the brow chakra, and my Guru Tattwa was stronger. When I came into a classroom my attention was powerful, my focus, my thought management, my emotional being – it was all different. Teaching the worldly things became a real joy because of Guru Tattwa.
The Best Teachers have an Awakened Brow Chakra
Then I began to realize that the best teachers who are teaching us, they have this brow centre awakened and they may not know that they have spirituality awakened in them. When I meet very competent people, very intelligent people in their field I think “Wow, they have their brow chakra open but they don’t know it.” And there are powerful teachers involved in the worldly sciences but they don’t know they have their brow chakra open.
All powerful teachers have their brow chakra open, even when they are teaching us the worldly subjects. When you see a command over the subject, when you see the power of influence, when they are willing to enlighten and wake up other minds like good professors and teachers do, it is wonderful to watch the play of learning and growing and stimulation of young minds. That is what teaching became to me.
Continuing Worldly Learning after Spiritual Realization – Personal Experience
As you know I stayed in this teaching job throughout my spiritual journey, with two visits to India during this period and a strong spiritual discipline. My entire day was involved in spiritual discipline. Then I had the wonderful blessing of the experience of 40 Days in seclusion and the further opening up of my inner being. I felt the power of the Crown centre stabilize inside of me.
Then at the age of 24 I had this beautiful feeling of peace, love and joy in my inner being, feeling this powerful connection to my Source in every moment. I knew that my service to humanity was going to be greater. But I was 24, I didn’t know how to gather people together in a powerful way, I didn’t know how to reach out to people, and I felt very ashamed to speak openly about my spiritual experiences because they seemed so out of the normal, that I thought people would consider me crazy.
For years I kept this hidden. But the magical thing is, in those years when I felt “I don’t know how to fulfill my role, what do I do?” I felt this power inside of me to touch people’s lives, but I didn’t know how to use it. I decided that I was going to University; I was going to the normal institute of learning and that gave me the experience of looking at teachers at that level.
Now I had a different kind of awareness. I saw how teachers at that level (the tertiary level) interacted and I could see this Guru power, but of course they didn’t see it as Guru power. I had great respect for their intelligence, but I always thought that they were missing something in order to be the highest class of teacher. However, I enjoyed my years at university simply because I had so much mind power, a broader perspective to life, knowing exactly what my purpose was. So when the students around me were still struggling with self identity, mental challenges, emotional challenges and relationship challenges, I felt so free.
Creating a Passion – Personal Experience
The subject I did was engineering, but I didn’t have any real passion for engineering like people who are born with a passion. My passion was spirituality. However I created a passion; I had the power to create passion to use it and also to be detached from it. I created a passion for learning engineering; I wanted to see how an engineer sees the world. I immersed myself in that feeling of how an engineer sees the world, and I learned the science of engineering.
Of course you know how these institutions are, you have to learn a lot of things, memorize them and then write them back. However I had mastered the art of thinking, I had learned to manage the mind, so it was exciting for me. How do I do well here just by using the power of the mind? By using the power of intelligence? University became a play, a play of creativity, a play of understanding the world, a play of seeing the laws of nature and learning how to work with the laws of nature to create machines and use them for bettering human life.
Using Guru Power While Teaching – Personal Experience
After University I got into work and the practical experience of engineering and during those years I also taught evening classes at a technical college. I used the Guru power as I taught, so it was a joy to be immersed in the worldly knowledge, using the mastery of my mind. Awakening, stimulating thinking in people and wherever I could I’d put in spiritual thoughts, I stimulated minds to think deeper, to develop values, ethics, self management, relationships and that has simply been a joy.
In the teaching profession, I saw how colleagues struggled; with not liking the job, struggled with conflict with employers, but of course I was detached from all of that. In all the worldly institutions where I worked I considered it service to humanity. And I always worked with great joy, not for human beings, but for the betterment of life.
But I understood what these teachers go through, and it would be a great joy when the teachers that we have in this system, go a little deeper inside to touch the spiritual part in them, then they become more brilliant in the secular world.
The Blue Star Learning Centre
We have a learning center in Blue Star and the idea is that even though we are involved in the worldly education it must be based on spiritual values, spiritual ideas. So in talking about the Suchak Guru I think it is a very powerful and important role in our society, to guide our minds in the early days. I wish that such Gurus, such teachers could embrace spiritual values, and their position could be much more effective in helping us to create a better world.
Honouring and Valuing these Teachers
In talking with you today I want to give value to these teachers. I continue to honour them; I learn from them, they become Gurus to me too. Whenever I want to learn any worldly thing, I have to go to the worldly Guru and I see how important they are.
So let us learn to respect these teachers and to be good students and to inspire them with our own spirituality. For those of us who are involved in this profession [teaching], let us embrace it lovingly and look for the deeper spiritual values that will make the Suchak Guru even more powerful.
