Clarification of Doubts

In Spirituality, no matter how much theoretical information one has access to, one's spiritual practice will not be smooth unless needling doubts are clarified. If you should have any questions related to spirituality, please email us at Weekly.

Worshipping a Guru

Question: According to the science of Spirituality one becomes a disciple only after the Guru accepts us as one. Till then we have no Guru as such, and also we should not call someone as our Guru. I am confused as to whom we should worship on Gurupurnima. Is it necessary to become a disciple to worship a Guru? Please guide.

– Mr. Milind Joshi, India.

Dear Mr. Joshi,

Your understanding on the concept of being a disciple and having a manifest form of a Guru is absolutely right. Like God, Guru has two aspects: the manifest and the unmanifest aspect. The unmanifest aspect is the Guru principle, and the manifest aspect is the principle that flows through a physical medium, such as a Saint. Why the need of a manifest medium? The answer to that is that the grace of the principle can be accessed only through a physical medium. The following example will make this concept clearer. The electricity that flows in all our homes comes from one common source. However, each house has an individual unit controlling the power supply to that house, and only when that power supply is turned on does the house get the electric supply. Though the Guru principle is one, it is similar. For a seeker to be graced, it has to flow through a physical medium. The Guru of the manifest or physical form also controls the amount of energy or grace that we need.

As you have rightly pointed out, one does not become a disciple until a manifest Guru accepts him as one. However, one has to remember that the Guru is primarily a principle. Hence, on Gurupurnima day we worship the Guru principle. The reason for keeping a photograph of a Saint when doing ritualistic worship, in our case it was the photograph of the Guru of the founder of the Sanatan organization (His Holiness Bhaktaraj Maharaj), is because of the need for a gross representation of that unmanifest principle. Just as in the ritualistic worship of Lord Ganesh, we use His idol when performing the ritual, although Lord Ganesh is primarily an unmanifest principle. Similarly, the photograph of a Saint or Guru is used to represent the Guru principle.

*If one is not currently doing any spiritual practice, or to complement one's current spiritual practice, one can begin with the simple, but powerful spiritual practice of chanting or constantly remembering God's Name according to one's religion. Chanting also acts as a useful complement to any spiritual path one may be already following. It is a practice recommended for the current times by Holy texts and Saints of all religions.

Seekers in the initial stages of spiritual practice (less than one year) can repeat The Name of the Lord as per their religion (refer to Issue 3 Clarification of Doubts section for details).
Seekers who have been doing regular spiritual practice for over a year or so can determine the appropriate chant for them from the experiment given in Issue 124, Message to Seekers section.