Written Messages

Paris

 29 May 2008

A blessed devotee par excellence has kindly written this message for Kriyabans to ponder over. Devotion is Divisionlessness. Devotion is Divinity.

The most profound blessings have nothing to do with material needs. This disciple has known that a Sat Guru will NEVER let a disciple in surrender go astray. THIS is benediction.

This happened during a retreat in October 2005 at Ranikhet (Himalayas) while climbing to Babaji’s cave. The climb is very steep in places and for bodies not used to mountains, it is arduous. There were more than a hundred disciples in the group and they had split into several small groups. There was a group with the Guru. This disciple took a route to climb that was a little easier on the body, while the Guru was climbing by a more difficult route. When the disciple reached the cave he got a message from another disciple that the Guru was asking for him and the disciple went down again. The Guru had not even reached half the way and he was resting with the disciples in his group. Panting with the exertion, the disciple went to the Guru and bowed at his feet. “Where were you?” asked the Guru, “why were you not with me?” The disciple said he had taken an easier route to climb. “See!” said the Guru, “There is no understanding here. When you are on a pilgrimage with the Guru, why do you seek a route that is easier than that taken by the Guru? The disciple has to be with the Guru whether the path is easy or difficult. If the Guru takes a difficult route and the disciple leaves him to take an easier one, where is the surrender? Why you do only that which is convenient? Why not do that which is correct?”  The disciple walked behind the Guru the rest of the way up. Later when the visit was over a blast of understanding happened and the disciple wept uncontrolled as he realized that the Guru will NEVER allow this body to go astray. The tears were not from grief or joy, but just the body responding to the benediction. This is what a blessing is. Blessings happen. They are not sought or given.

There are people who seek the Guru’s blessing for many things. Some want a job; some want money, some want a child (and some want twins) and so on. These are only applications wrongly addressed. Instead of applying to an organization for a job, the Guru is approached. These are all desires seeking fulfillment.  Guru is not an Employment Exchange, nor an Agency for providing jobs! The Guru once said that like a forest that draws the rain clouds to it, blessings happen in spite of the Guru and in spite of the disciple.

From a Sat Guru’s body blessings always flow but to receive it the body has to be in emptiness and surrender. Blessings are not fulfillment of desires. Perhaps the blessing may fulfill a need of the disciple in his worldly responsibilities, but that is not the motive of the blessing. Blessings have no motives. They are a benediction.

Surrender is always in emptiness. It is not TO any body or personality, but a choiceless state of let-go where one is in the flow of Life. Happening of Surrender is entirely by Grace. Tapas and Swadhyay consolidate this. Blessings flow.

Surrender cannot be taken for granted. There has to be the awareness that even surrender can be lost and the no-mind state could become all mind again. Surrender is by the blessing of the Guru Energy. And if Swadhyay is lost, this energy could also be lost. Swadhyay, Surrender, Emptiness, No-Mind, Blessing, Benediction, Wholeness – all are the same.  And when there is this happening, then one is in Yoga.

Can a body be with the Guru just for being there ---  with no expectations, no seeking, no calculations, such as “I have served the Guru for so long so I must get so much blessing”? This is also happening. This body knows of a kriyaban who served the Guru but has lately been heard to say “What have I got after serving?”

Blessings are a wonder, a mystery, an enigma! They come to those, to whom they come!

JAI BLESSINGS