ALCANZANDO LO ABSOLUTO A TRAVÉS DE LO CONCRETO
Todo puede carecer de valor, y todo puede ser invaluable. Hay una diferencia significativa entre estas dos palabras. Algo puede ser invaluable, inestimable, algo a lo que no se le puede poner precio. Al mismo tiempo, otra cosa puede ser completamente inútil, sin ningún valor. La infalibilidad de cualquier objeto o la falta de valor de cualquier entidad es algo subjetivo. Entonces, si es una cuestión subjetiva, el valor de una cosa es, naturalmente, algo individual.
Tienes una fotografía de tu esposa, esposo, padre o madre en tu casa. Sin necesidad de apego sentimental, esa imagen te recuerda cómo tu madre y tu padre te criaron. Despierta en ti un sentimiento de gratitud, el pensamiento de que es bueno estar vivo hoy, y que si no fuera por ellos, no estarías aquí. Vas a un templo hindú y allí encuentras una estatua de Krishna o Rama, o de cualquier Dios en el que crean. La idea aquí no es la idolatría, como ha sido malinterpretada hoy en día. La idea es que, a través de las enseñanzas de ese maestro, puedo alcanzar un objetivo específico en la vida, o estoy en el camino para lograrlo. Así que, a través de la forma concreta, se llega a lo abstracto.
Lo abstracto es inconcebible para la mente humana. La mente consciente solo puede pensar en palabras y símbolos, y sus concepciones y percepciones son limitadas. La mente solo puede concebir o percibir las cosas en una forma concreta. Por lo tanto, para alcanzar lo Absoluto o lo abstracto, se utiliza el medio de lo concreto, que quizás no tenga ningún valor en sí mismo, pero al que tú, de forma subjetiva, puedes otorgarle un valor invaluable como punto de enfoque.
CÓMO ALCANZAR LA CONCENTRACIÓN DE LA MENTE EN UN SOLO PUNTO
La mayoría de las mentes humanas están fragmentadas. Todas las energías de la mente empujan o tiran en diferentes direcciones; no están enfocadas en un solo punto. Usando un objeto, se puede lograr la concentración de la mente en un solo punto. Tratar de concentrarse puede volverse muy difícil; cuando intentas concentrarte en algo, en realidad estás saboteando el propósito mismo de la concentración, porque te vuelves demasiado consciente del acto de concentrarte. Al volverte demasiado consciente de la concentración, agregas una segunda concentración a la inicial. Ahí es donde surge la confusión, y se debilita el poder de la atención misma.
La práctica adecuada sería una conciencia suave del objeto, y esa conciencia suave dirigida hacia el objeto reúne toda tu atención en él. A través del objeto, lo atraviesas, y así es como se alcanza lo abstracto a través de lo concreto. Ese objeto puede ser cualquier cosa: puede ser una simple piedra que utilices para reunir todas tus energías mentales, porque solo al reunir esas energías y lograr una concentración en un solo punto se puede alcanzar lo que está más allá de todo punto.
Debes entender esto con claridad: solo al reunir las energías mentales en una concentración absoluta se puede llegar a lo que es “sin punto”, y por “sin punto” no se entiende algo sin valor, sino más bien un punto invaluable —aquello que está más allá de toda forma, de todo límite, de toda definición.
Estoy completamente en desacuerdo con el uso común de la palabra “inutilidad” o “sin sentido”, como cuando se dice que hacer tal o cual cosa es inútil o no tiene valor. Esa “falta de sentido” que alcanzamos —esa aparente carencia de propósito— tiene un valor incalculable. Esa “inutilidad” que se alcanza, o dicho en términos budistas, ese estado de “no-mente”, es en realidad todas las mentes.
Es el estado donde se trasciende la fragmentación, donde ya no hay conflicto, ni dispersión, ni separación. Es el vacío pleno, la ausencia de ego que lo contiene todo. Por eso, lo que muchos consideran como “sin sentido” es, en lo más profundo, el sentido más elevado.
EL VALOR DE LOS SÍMBOLOS
Entonces, para alcanzar la concentración de la mente en un solo punto, utilizamos un objeto como punto focal. Si seguimos las enseñanzas de un maestro en particular —Cristo, Krishna o Buda—, usamos los símbolos asociados a ese maestro. En nuestro movimiento, las personas utilizan una foto de su gurú para poder recordar ciertas enseñanzas que se les han dado y las prácticas específicas que se les han asignado. Cada vez que esa foto te mira, te recuerdas a ti mismo: ¿hice mi meditación esta mañana? Sirve como un recordatorio.
Hay ciertas prácticas en nuestro sistema llamadas prácticas de Gurushakti, que algunos de ustedes quizás conozcan y otros incluso practiquen. En esta práctica de Gurushakti, al usar todas tus energías de manera concentrada, estás estableciendo un vínculo directo con la personalidad externa que ves en la foto —que, en realidad, no significa nada; el rostro podría estar en blanco—, pero debe estar presente la conciencia del gurú.
Al crear ese vínculo, utilizas todas tus energías reunidas a través de ese canal hacia las fuerzas universales que están en todas partes. Una vez más, este es un ejemplo de cómo se alcanza lo abstracto a través de lo concreto.
Un verdadero gurú siempre enseñará principios morales y éticos. Siempre te brindará una comprensión de los valores de la vida. A quienes tienen una orientación más intelectual, les explicará cómo funcionan las cosas, porque la mente también necesita satisfacción. Es propia de la mente la necesidad de indagar, y debido a su esencia, requiere respuestas.
Así que el gurú responde a las preguntas que están más presentes en tu mente. Esa imagen allí te recuerda: “Tenía este problema, y esto fue lo que el gurú me dijo.” Ahora déjame reflexionar sobre eso, no aceptarlo ciegamente. Eso sería muy, muy equivocado. Eso pertenece a una esfera diferente: la de la fe. Aquí estamos hablando simplemente de hechos concretos.
La imagen cumple el propósito de haber escuchado, haber reflexionado y poner en práctica lo aprendido. No se trata de teoría; no es como en algunos países comunistas donde el “Gran Hermano” te está vigilando. No, este “hermano mayor” no te vigila; te protege.
Esa protección se logra canalizándote a través de un objeto concreto hacia todas las fuerzas universales que están allí, y que están disponibles a tu disposición, solo con pedirlo. El aire fresco está afuera, pero abre la ventana; el aire fresco siempre ha estado allí.
THE ENTIRETY OF DIVINITY IS WITHIN YOU
If you do not open the window, how will fresh air enter this room? You would think that the divine, universal forces are so vast that how can you, as a little human being, contain it all? You do manage it all. You have the entirety of Divinity within you, which is everywhere and in everyone. If you open the window a wee bit, you cannot say I just got a little fresh air; you got the completeness of fresh air. By opening the window in this room, you get fresh air in its totality, with all the ingredients that constitute fresh air. Yet the same fresh air is here and in India and South Africa and England, everywhere the same. So as an individual, you can enjoy the totality of the fresh air, yet at the same time, the same fresh air is everywhere.
That is why we say that Divinity is smaller than the smallest and more significant than the largest. These old sayings have such deep meanings which we fail to analyse them, and that is what the guru tries to do for you in his talks, by analysing these scriptural passages, perhaps, or the knowledge which he has received through direct perception of the intuitional level, in the sense of knowingness that without reading the book he knows the book. This is very easy; you can do it in a few days.
THE JOB OF THE EXTERNAL GURU IS TO AWAKEN THE INTERNAL GURU
You do not worship the object, but a link is created between you and the object. There is only one thing that has to be worshipped, and that is Divinity itself. A realised man is or can be called the most authentic representative of Divinity on Earth because he is self-realised and in constant communication with Divinity. He and Divinity have found no separateness; they are at-one-ment with each other. And that is what self-integration, self-realisation, and God-realization are all about. It all means the same thing: Man and God are not apart. As Christ has said, “I and my Father are one.”
You do find some such men on this planet, Earth. He might pass you on the road, sitting right next to you and sitting right in front of you. It depends upon your perception; if you can see that embodiment of all Divinity that exists or not, it depends entirely upon you. To see it or not depends upon your perception. But one thing is true, all the great masters, Buddha, Christ, and Krishna, had become one with that divine force.
So, a channel to the object is created not in worship but in a manner of devotion. Devotion is a word to be well understood. Devotion involves love. Without love, there could be no devotion; without that devotion, there could be no real guru-chela relationship. There has to be that communication. Many people have a very erroneous impression that I choose my guru. That is what you think. The guru chooses you. Always. He shall not plant seeds on barren ground, for it would be worthless. But he would try to make the bare ground fertile, which is a lengthy process. But that is what is done. So as another scriptural passage would say, the sower keeps sowing the seeds, and some fall on fertile ground and some on rocks. I do not know the passage, really, but this is the gist of it.
The real teacher goes on sowing, and if there is reasonable ground, it will grow and blossom, for the gardener’s joy is the glory of the flower that blooms to its utmost beauty. And everyone is that blossom; everyone is that flower, perhaps some in bud form, maybe some in seed form, but all the potentiality is there for everyone to awake in you, for everyone to awaken within himself. Therefore, I always say that the job of the external guru is to awaken the internal guru that is within you already. If there is a giant boulder in your path and you have no strength to push it away, you use the law of leverage, a long pole, and you can quickly shift that boulder away. The guru is that pole. The guru is there to be used, not abused.
THE GURU CAN BE A GUIDE
The guru is nothing but that pole to be used as leverage to clear your path, to take all the impediments and problems away so that your progress towards home could be smooth. Sometimes the night is dark, and you are stumbling around, and if the channel you have formed with love for the guru is sincere and pure, he appears there with a lantern all the time. I know about some that pretend they meditate, but some of you that are really into meditation have felt this. When a problem crops up and other solutions come, the problem is solved.
By your Self, you are invoking a great universal force through the medium of a channel. There is so much water in the reservoir, but that water has to reach your kitchen tap. You have a big pipe from the extensive pool, and from the big line, other smaller pipes and smaller pipes until you have the same water in your kitchen from the reservoir, which could be fifty miles away. These intermediary things are needed; the pipes are needed to bring the water from the reservoir to the tap in your kitchen. That is why Jesus beautifully said, “No one reaches the Father but through me.” It is very, very accurate if it is adequately understood. Christ was saying that a person has to reach that level of Christ’s consciousness to reach the Father and all that there is. Because he has travelled the path, the guru’s job can be as a guide; he can show you how to reach that consciousness. That is all the guru does. Nothing else. He is more ordinary than ordinary. I have a very favourite joke: you must become extraordinary to become more ordinary than ordinary.
A GURU IS AN ORDINARY MAN OF FLESH AND BLOOD
A guru is of flesh and blood, an ordinary man. He is like a father, he pats you on the back, and sometimes if he cannot get things through the top, he uses the belt from the bottom. It is all part of the game, part of life. There is the Father. The guru is the friend to whom you confide; you open up your heart and say, “This is what troubles me”, and I know this so well with thousands of meditators throughout the world; my mail is about 2000 letters a month, where things which a wife cannot tell her husband or the husband cannot say to the wife, that can be disclosed to a guru. Because, although he is so much in love with you, he can still be that friend to be objective about your problem and the true guru; I am talking of true gurus because there are a lot of bogus gurus around; the true guru can be objective about the problem. Because of the deep love that he has, he just cannot help helping.
Whenever a letter comes, the problem is immediately seen, and the solution is seen simultaneously because there is no problem without a solution inherent in it; the answer is always in the issue. In other words, it is all the solutions put together mixed up which causes the problem. Think about that one.
So, at that moment, seeing the problem as a friend, as a father, as a friend, a prayer wells up within his heart because he has reached the goal; he is in communion with all the forces there are in the universe. He is one with the Father, and because of that, just a single thought, a single prayer directed to the person, solves the problem for the person. That does not mean, “Dear Gururaj, I need one million pounds in 24 hours. Send it to me.” That would be unreasonable, of course. “I am in love with Queen Elizabeth, and do something so I can marry her.” That is unreasonable. But something within reason. Something within reason, and that is required.
THE PATH TO JOY IS JOYOUS ITSELF
Gurus are funny people, they are funny, and the way they work is a mystery that they cannot understand. They can be so hard and firm and put their foot down, and the following day they will write a little note saying, “My beloved so and so, I love you.”
For example, if you have a bottle with a small narrow neck and you have some salts or whatever in there, you cannot get the spoon in the right way, then why not turn the spoon around and put it the upside-down way, to loosen the stuff in the bottle. That is what the guru does. Whichever way possible, he wants to see Chela progress on the path of evolution and become happier daily.
Happiness is not something achieved by waving a wand. If any guru comes to you and tells you that in ten minutes or half an hour, I will wave my wand and all your samskaras are gone, your whole slate will be clean and rubbed off, and you are in nirvana or self-realisation, please stay far away from such people. Do me that favour. But the true guru will tell you how to rub off that slate. He will show you. In rubbing off all the markings on that blackboard, all the mistakes you have made, he will show you how to rub it off.
In the rubbing off, some friction is involved, but that friction is necessary. So do not think the path to self-realisation is all roses. Some thorns also, and remember that if there were no thorns, there would be no roses. You show me a thornless rose, and you cannot.
For some people, the path is so much easier, and for some, it is more complicated. But as you proceed on the path, the burden becomes lighter and lighter. Therefore, I say the path to joyousness is joyful too. You start off carrying a bundle of a hundred pounds, and as you walk along having that bundle with the guru at your side, he breaks that bundle, and some things start falling slowly, and it becomes lighter and lighter and lighter. You see how it works.
… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang US 1978 – 02
