The Other Within

As we approach Guru Purnima, I am moved to share my love for the Guru Shakti, the power of the Guru Within. It is a mysterious relationship, as expressed by the ancient poet of Israel: "Depth calleth unto depth" (Psalm 42). A relationship of depth with depth in a realm without boundaries.

A real Master is neither a teacher nor a lawgiver. A Master simply radiates. A Master draws you to the Light, until you discover that the Light is you. The outward Master simply ignites a relationship with the Master inside you.

Here is the irony: in the Guru's grace, you experience how free you really are, and that is precisely when you bow down. It is a bow of gratitude.

To the observer outside this relationship, the bow may look like dependency. But from within the relationship, it is a bow of absolute freedom. The more you are grateful, the more you are free.

Non-dualists insist that the true Self transcends Master and Disciple. They do not understand that Master and Disciple are both within the Self. Their apparent duality reflects the relationship of Self with Self in the unity of Self-Awareness.

In my own experience, after years in the lonely quest for "self-realization," I found it more graceful to surrender. Surrender means, there is an infinite other who is deeper within me than I. The other is my inward open-endedness. My depth keeps opening to him who is more than my mind could ever conceive as "me."

Why should I keep trying to get my mind around God? It is simpler just to fall in love. To fall into the love that beckons from an abyss where I can never touch bottom. That abyss is my Guru.

To call it Self does not express the juice, the sweetness of the relationship. And I always seem to bump up against some indefatigable outpost of my ego. Therefor, my deepest center I call Master. Yes, there is relationship in unity, dialog in the Infinite, sweetness in the crushing of grapes into nectar.

But one grape must be pressed against an other. How can I speak of such a mystery? I love what I cannot understand. God forbid that I understand! I taste my life as a gift. I cannot even call it mine. Every breath, every heartbeat is given. I surrender to the giver, even if the giver is he whom I endlessly become.

Lord, I know that you are my purest Self, yet I also call you Friend. When you are my Self, I am a capacity for infinite Being. When you are my Friend, I am a capacity for infinite Love.

Jai Guru Dev