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SILENT GURU: Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi has a reputation of being a Silent Guru. He is appropriately called the Silent One. Bhagavan felt that teaching denotes duality; the Guru and the disciple, while Bhagavan was the Pure Non-dual Essence. He was a self-made sage and his profound teachings are transmitted in silence. He had no guru to his credit. Swami Sadhu Om referred to Bhagavan as the Mouna Guru. Bhagavan did not even allow his true disciple, Sri Muruganar, or any-one of similar status, to consider or treat him as a guru. Those around him understood that guru is not the physical body but is the ever-living spirit; the Infinite Consciousness that exist within all of us.

But Bhagavan did not say anywhere that a guru is not necessary. The guru need not always be in human form. First a person thinks that he is an inferior and that there is a superior, all knowing powerful God who controls his own and the world’s destiny and worships him or does Bhakti. When he reaches a certain stage and becomes fit for enlightenment, the same God whom he was worshipping comes as a Guru and leads him on. That Guru comes only to tell him that ‘God is within yourself. Dive within and realise. God, Guru and the Self, are the same, said Bhagavan. Contact with Jnanis is good as they will work through silence. They will leave some day. Or you might leave them. But God’s contact remains even after the physical form of the Guru vanishes.

Bhagavan extolled Lord Dakshinamurthi as his guru.  The state we call realization is simply being oneself, not knowing anything or becoming anything. If one has realized, he is that which alone is, and which alone has always been. He cannot describe that state. He can only be That. Of course, we loosely talk of Self-realization for want of a better term.  That which is, is peace. All that we need do is to keep quiet. Peace is our real nature. We spoil it. What is required is that we cease to spoil it. 

‘Continuously enquire and seek alone that grace in the Heart’ said Bhagavan. Our guru’s form is the Reality that sleeps without sleeping in the heart; the seat of consciousness. He is self-luminous effluence that shines in the heart like a beautiful lamp that needs no kindling. Only He who unifies the individual Self, bestowing in this way the direct experience of supreme Self knowledge, is extolled by the great ones as the real form of the absolute Reality and the true Self. Accept Him alone as the Guru, the Supreme.

But how many of us could immediately hear or experience the unspoken, the unwritten word. Some of us regretfully don’t seem to hear anything in the presence of elders or gurus as the mind is always wandering! Even if we are listening, we seem to trap trivial matters like a water filter that lets pure water flow down. In Tamil we call this ‘neyari’. 

Then again, how do we learn from nature? Do we need to hear the melody of the flute to learn from the bamboo? The river that flows out to the sea and the bees that collect honey have a thing or two to teach us also. The bamboo, the bee or the river did not stand in front of us on a teaching pedestal. We learn by silent observation. Out ancient rishis too heard the pranava Om in their absolute silence and gave us the vedas. Even the illumined ones who have gained jnana at the holy feet of gurus, aspire silent teachings from Him. They need their silence for contemplation and inner learning. 

Bhagavan’s views are presented as an exception to the general rule of guru-sisya parampara in the Hindu tradition. Thus it is food for thought while we reflect Guru Purnima. Hari Om

yogi ananda saraswathi