The Guru is God, part two

By Radhika Nair

We are so fortunate to be in the living presence of Amma. Now that we have a perfect Satguru, our focus should be on how to become true disciples. A true disciple should develop qualities like surrender, love, compassion, detachment, renunciation, humility and faith. It seems like a tall order, but when you really love your Guru, the rest will follow. Amma says that when you love your Guru, good conduct and noble qualities will develop; dispassion and surrender will arise spontaneously and you willingly let the Guru mould you.

But how should one love Amma? You should love Her with all your heart. You can start by trying to see Amma in everyone and everything. See your husband, child, parents, boss, grocery man and postman -- everyone as Amma. Visualise in them Amma's sweet form with the nose ring and the white sari. Think of that beautiful beaming smile, the wavy locks of hair, the divine hands and fingers, and above all, those all-knowing, penetrating eyes. You will find yourself being truthful, humble, compassionate and going out of your way to help others. Gradually this will become your very nature.

But how should one love Amma? You should love her with all your heart. You can start by trying to see Amma in everyone and everything. See your husband, child, parents, boss, grocery man and postman -- everyone as Amma. Visualise in them Amma's sweet form with the nose ring and the white sari. Think of that beautiful beaming smile, the wavy locks of hair, the divine hands and fingers, and above all, those all-knowing, penetrating eyes. You will find yourself being truthful, humble, compassionate and going out of your way to help others. Gradually this will become your very nature.

Amma says that by loving others and giving of yourself to others, you will spread light around you like a candle, or fragrance like an incense stick, and in the process your ego will burn up.

The gopis of Vrindavan were very one-pointed. Their hearts ached for their Lord. They were oblivious to the outside world. For every breath they took, they thought of their Lord. Every cell in their bodies vibrated with the name of the Lord. Whatever they did and wherever they looked, they were aware of nothing but their enchanting Sri Krishna. They identified everything with their Guru: intoxicated with love, they would call a spoon Govinda, the sugar Gopala, the plate Mukunda, their clothes Madhava and so on. These are the different names of Lord Krishna. They even thought that they themselves were Krishna. Thus, the gopis were so consumed by love that their individualities disappeared and merged with Sri Krishna.

There is a beautiful story about a devotee's love for her Guru. Her name was Sabari. She was of a low caste. She lived in a forest near the ashram of a sage called Mathanga. Hiding behind bushes and trees, she would listen to the Guru's lessons. She considered the sage to be her Guru. Unseen by him, she served him by removing the thorns, stones and pebbles that lay on the track leading to the river where he used to walk.

She lived on fruits and tubers from the jungle. After many years of intense yearning and tapas (austerities), she was finally accepted by Mathanga, the Mahatma, as a disciple. She had by then reached a ripe old age. He told her to come and reside at the hermitage and to rest. Soon thereafter the sage decided to leave his body. He entrusted the hermitage to Sabari. She pleaded with her Guru to take her, too, because she couldn't conceive of a life without her beloved Guru. But in spite of her pleas, her Guru told her that she should remain and await the arrival of Lord Rama, that she should welcome the Lord with devotion and due honour.

Afterwards, in obedience to her Guru's instructions, she spent every moment of her life waiting for the Lord. She thought, "He might walk in at any time, so I have to be prepared to welcome him." And she was. Sabari always kept her house and its surroundings beautifully clean. Every day she cleaned the room and made the bed so that the Lord would be able to rest when he came. Each day she decorated the house, and not one day passed by when she forgot to pave the pathway to her simple home with fresh, fragrant flowers. She picked the freshest and choicest fruits for the Lord to eat. All the puja articles for the ceremonial washing of the Lord's feet were kept shining and ready for use. The seat for her Lord to sit on was beautifully decorated every day. A sweet fragrance filled the atmosphere.

Every morning Sabari made a garland with freshly picked flowers. The Lord's beautiful form was constantly on her mind. With her eyes fixed on the pathway, Sabari, the great devotee, waited and waited for many years. Finally, the moment arrived when Lord Rama and His brother Lakshman walked into the ashram. Seeing the Lord, Sabari couldn't contain her ecstasy nor suppress her adoration. She ran forward and fell at the feet of the Lord. Through her tears she managed to say that her tapas had now born fruit.

Due to her Guru's grace, she was granted the vision of the Lord. This land had now been sanctified and her Guru's wish fulfilled. She seated the Lord on the peetham, and with tear-laden eyes proceeded to wash His feet. With all her love, she garlanded him with flower, and then proceeded to feed him. She would take a bite off each fruit before feeding it to the Lord, lest the fruit was not sweet enough for him.

Amma says: "Remembrance comes when we forget." Our lives are based on two principles: forgetting and remembering. These two opposing but interdependent acts support our lives. For example, when a doctor is in the hospital, examining and treating his patients, he has to concentrate on his work to the exclusion of everything else. If he keeps thinking about his wife, home and family, how can he fulfil his duty as a doctor? But when he is at home, playing the role of husband and father, he should be able to pay proper attention to his family. For this to happen, he has to remove all thoughts about his work and patients.

This is how it was with Sabari: she forgot herself and only remembered the Lord. And it led to the eternal union with the Lord. Most of us come to Amma with the expectation of instant liberation. We need to develop patience and love for the Guru as Sabari did. With every breath she took, she thought of her Lord. She spent years pining for him. This doesn't mean that we have to spend years and years waiting like Sabari did, but as long as we love Amma and have faith and patience in her, liberation can come to us in an instant. Similarly, if we want to fulfil our lives and attain the goal of Self-realisation, we must forget our worldly surroundings and other affairs, and only remember God, concentrating on him alone.

Amma says there is still another very quick shortcut to our long journey towards reaching the heights of love for our Guru: crying for God with all our heart. In fact, Amma says that to cry for God for five minutes is equal to one hour of meditation. When you cry, your heart begins to open up; it is very intense and you lose yourself in that process. Your focus is only on God. You will find that after you have cried your heart out, your very nature changes. You soften and start to surrender and accept.

Being a mother, I have often had to discipline my children. My son, Krishnan Unni, used to be naughty at times. This was when he was younger. I used to ground him at the ashram, which meant no going out to play. At night before going to bed, while meditating, I would cry to Amma. So Krishnan Unni would stay awake, and after I had cried my heart out, he would approach me and get all his punishments waived. He knew his mom well, and being manipulative used this moment when his mother's heart had opened. Even a child knows that after crying for God his mother's divine qualities, such as love, compassion and forgiveness, will blossom. Normally we all have these godly attributes, but they are buried deep in our hearts. We have to unravel them. Amma says that the state we attain by crying to God is equal to the bliss that the yogi experiences in samadhi. Crying to God is not mental weakness; it makes the mind completely one-pointed.

Our beloved Amma has herself exemplified to the world how one's deep longing and tears for God can take one to the bliss of God-consciousness. Amma, being God herself, went through all the different phases of spiritual practice, not personally needing it, but creating an example for all future generations. When the all-powerful God took birth on earth, She didn't have to choose such harsh and pitiable surroundings as She did -- She could have chosen to be born in the lap of luxury, or at least into a more comfortable childhood. But that was not to be. The embodiment of compassion had to show the world that one can attain God even if one has to go through the roughest childhood. She put herself through the path of devotion, work, knowledge and meditation, declaring to the world that all paths merge into one.

There are so many ways to develop one's love for Amma. Once we make that tiny bit of effort, Amma's grace starts to flow. She starts to transform us. We all have some love for Amma. She is constantly working on us. Every moment She performs miracles with our lives. Looking back, we all know how we have changed. Many of us were impatient, arrogant, intolerant and less loving. Through Amma's grace, each one of us has changed. This is the untold miracle.

In our ashram, there are many miracles to tell. There is a boy from Germany who now lives permanently in the ashram. About three years ago, he and a group of his friends were travelling through India. He had been a drug addict and an alcoholic and had dropped out of school. His family was obviously very worried, but were unable to make him change his ways. This youngster was travelling on a tourist boat with his friends, and they happened to pass the ashram. He had no interest in spirituality, but he and his friends decided to stay the night at the ashram. They spent the day outside, thoroughly enjoying themselves on the beach, missing Amma's bhajans.

The next morning at 4:00 a.m. he woke up and decided to take a walk and see the ashram for the first time. Stumbling into the prayer hall where the morning prayers were in progress, he decided to sit through it and found himself transfixed. That day, not knowing why, he broke away from the group and decided to stay behind and go for Amma's darshan. Well, the miracle happened. By Amma's single touch, he was transformed. He became a changed person, dropping all of his addictions and bad habits. Seeing this transformation, even his parents, who had never met Amma before, became ardent devotees. Only God or Amma can bring about the seemingly impossible transformation that happens within us.

Even in my case, I have a miracle to tell. My son, Krishnan Unni, had the habit of sucking his fingers. Except when he was talking or eating, he always had two of his fingers in his mouth. I tried to break this habit of his, trying many different techniques, but everything failed. All I could do was pray to Amma. We all have Amma. No matter is insignificant or small to Her because, for Her, everything is pervaded with God-consciousness. And above all, She always hears our prayers. So this concern of mine was Amma's concern too. I prayed to Amma to remove this habit of his. At the age of three, when Krishnan Unni flew with me to India to visit Amma's ashram for the first time, even while seated on the plane and in the car, he kept sucking his fingers. But the moment he entered the ashram grounds, by Amma's miracle, he stopped this habit and thereafter never sucked his fingers again!

Every one of us has miracles to tell. Only God can do the impossible. In my case, I indulged in all the material pleasures around me. I had no special knowledge of the Vedas or scriptures, nor did I perform any pujas, selfless work or have any knowledge of meditation. Yet, by simply loving Amma, with Her grace I could painlessly give up my family, home and pleasures. This is my greatest miracle. We should be like the gopis of Vrindavan, trying to spend every moment we can with Amma. In Her physical absence we should pine for Her incessantly. Chanting her name, reading books about her life and her teachings, and visiting her ashrams-all this helps us to keep our connection with her alive.

At Amritapuri, we have the climate of Hawaii, but every grain of sand there vibrates with Amma's divine energy because they have witnessed Her play. The soil in Amritapuri is the most fertile soil in the world, for it nurtures the seed of spirituality, which has been planted in us by Amma. In that divine climate and soil, that seed will sprout into a beautiful, strong and sturdy tree, which not only provides shade to humanity, but also abundant fruit.

Through constant remembrance of our beloved Satguru Amma, we will start to bind Amma to us with the rope of love. And She will become our food. This constant process of spiritual purification stops the mind from functioning selfishly. The little "I" disappears and one becomes identified with Amma. Soon only the pure Self remains and all one's actions become selfless.

Let us all pray to our beloved Sat Guru Amma to grace us with strength and determination, so that we may truly become engulfed and consumed in love. Amma, please save us all by merging this very life and breath of ours in thy Lotus Feet.