Faith in the Guru

Om SathGuru Sri Seshadri Swamigal Thiruvadikkae

Sishya: Guruji, “What is the way?”

Guru: Faith in the Guru’s words. One attains God by following the Guru’s instructions step by step. It is like reaching an object by following the trail of a thread.

Awakening the Kundalini

Om Sathguru Sri Seshadri Swamigal Thiruvadikkae

Disciple:

Is it possible for a person, even without faith, to awaken his own Kundalini through practice of Kundalini Yoga?

Master:

The Kundalini may awaken, but what will the person do if he is without faith? If he is without understanding, he won’t progress. He will stop half way. However, if the Guru’s Grace awakens the Kundalini, the grace itself will lead the Kundalini on the proper path; faith will come automatically, in due course.

Disciple:

Are there any dangerous in awakening the Kundalini?

Master:

Some people attempt to awakening the Kundalini forcibly through self- effort or by means of Hatha Yoga. In such cases anything can happen; one can even become mad. But when the Kundalini is awakened by the grace of the Guru, it rises spontaneously and transforms the human body, making it divine. Ultimately, it completes its journey and merges into God.

Disciple:

Can Kundalini be awakened accidentally?

Master:

Yes, but only if an ‘accident’ takes place between a Guru and a disciple. When a disciple who is full of devotion meets a Guru who is saturated with Shakthi (Sheathe), the Kundalini is awakened immediately.

Mantra Initiation

Om Sathguru Sri Seshadri Swamigal Thiruvadikkae

Disciple:

Does mantra initiation usually involves some sort of special ritual performed between the Guru and the disciple?

Master:

More important than any ritual is the faith of the person who receives the mantra. One with faith can receive a Siddha’s mantra in any place, at any time, under any circumstances, and that mantra is guaranteed to bear its fruit. A Siddhapurusha’s mantra (Sri Seshadri Swamigal) is no inert one – it’s fully conscious and not bound by time, space, or ritual. Through the Siddha’s grace, it bears fruit immediately. Ordinarily, there is a ritual for mantra initiation, but the main ritual is faith. Where there is no faith, ritual becomes pointless, where there is great faith, ritual becomes unnecessary.

Positive Emotions and the focus on the Self

Om Sathguru Sri Seshadri Swamigal Thiruvadikkae

Disciple:

I do not mind giving up greed, lust, and anger, but the positive emotions still attract me.

Master:

To become centered in the Self does not mean that the positive things will be destroyed along with the negative. Love, faith, and happiness will remain in even greater measure than before.

Our Faith in the Guru

Om Sathguru Sri Seshadri Swamigal Thiruvadikkae

When we affirm our faith in the Guru as a Divinity:

“O! Raghugana, one does not attain this Brahma Gnana by practising asceticism, rituals, religious duties, study of Vedas or through worship of the God’s presiding over water, fire and the sun, but only by DRENCHING ONE’S BODY WITH THE DUST CLINGING TO THE FEET OF EXALTED SOULS!

How does one seek a Guru?

Om Sathguru Shri Seshadri Swamigal Thiruvadikkae

“Better offer your service to the guru who is living flesh and blood, than to the stone icon or a framed picture of some deity.”

The Chandogyopanishad lays down that a spiritual aspirant must approach a self-realized guru in a proper manner.

There are people, even today, who have the genuine experience of divine vision and self-realization. But they do not travel here and there in the world, building up a crowd of disciples. They stay very quietly away from public view and do sadhana. If you were to find such a one and ask for guidance, he would not be interested in you.

It is not the Guru that makes himself your Guru.

It is you, who must regard him as your Guru,

Place faith in him and meditate on him!

The effect of the Mantra and the Kripa

Om Sathguru Shri Seshadri Swamigal Thiruvadikkae

“Om SathGuru Sri Seshadri Swamigal Thiruvadikkae”

When a Sathpurusha bestows his Kripa on somebody, he removes his faculty of knowing – He strips him off the trinity – the knower, the knowledge and all that is to be known. If a saint tells a man, to remember and perform japa of any particular God and that person does accordingly, only sticking to it by giving up everything else in and of the world, he does not allow his mind and reasoning to thing of or probe into anything else. Then his mind becomes so engrossed in it that it is completely cut off and shut off from the world. This is exactly what is meant by, or, expected of, blind faith. Blind faith thus means shutting off the mind from everything else except the One, in which the faith is placed.

Once the mind gets well attached to any of the Mantras, by constant repetition, then in due course, it begins to remain unaffected by the affairs and relations of this world. If by chance, however, the worldly worries still persist, the karma is soon washed away by the effect of that Mantra, which, being a form of Para-Brahma, is able to wash away the perishable and false impressions of the world. Such is the wonderful result and glory of blind faith in the Sathpurusha.

The Sathpurusha takes responsibility for the whole world, thereafter!