Talks Excerpt 299. Swamiji says it is more difficult to get a guru than to get God.

From Mother Radha’s notes, written at Swamiji’s feet.

We must reflect our Ideal [Ishta Devata] in our daily lives. Thoughts of the past, if glorious, will inspire you today. Otherwise, bury them.

The diksha guru, the guru who initiates you and gives you mantra diksha, shows you the path to [God] realisation. There can only be one guru who gives you mantra diksha.

And the siksha gurus, the teaching gurus? Serve them, love them, and meditate on their teachings. The siksha gurus may be many.

It is more difficult to get a guru than to get God.

Mirabai said, ‘Hari brought me to the guru’s feet, and the guru took me to God.’

In the Bhagavad Gita it says that we can know the spiritual teacher by ‘prostration, enquiry, and humble service‘.

‘The wise who have seen the Truth, will instruct you in that knowledge.’

The murti [statue, sculpture, image] in the temple, if you think it is stone, it will be stone. If you enter there with reverence, thinking it is God or Krishna, it will be. You will forget the stone and remember Krishna. Similarly, if you think the guru is a man, he remains a man to you. If you think the guru is God, your mind is uplifted to that level and you will become God.

The guru is a clean mirror reflecting God clearly.

If you think you are impure, what you think you become. So if you think, ‘God, God, God,’ you become God. If you think, ‘Stone, stone, stone,’ you become stone.

Think your guru is divine. The guru sweeps the dirty places clean and in the end you realise you are the Guru. When the mind is pure and guides you correctly, then you become your own Guru. Then there is no guru, no chela [disciple]. All you see is God, God, God.

We think we have surrendered [to the guru] but we have not. If we had, we would be humbler than a blade of grass.

To the guru there is only God everywhere.

The free-to-read or download, 396 page Flipbook version of Swamiji’s biography is available by clicking HERE.

These recordings or the excerpts from them, were made from the early 1970s onward, by Mother Radha, a close devotee of Swamiji’s and edited for uploading here by our gurubhai and her son, Brother Tim. Please be mindful that what Swamiji was saying may have been specific to an individual or a group of people with him, at the time.