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© 2005 Sanatan Sanstha

Principles of Spirituality

Path Of Guru's Grace (Gurukrupayoga)

God and the Guru

Similarities

    God and the Guru are One and the same. The Guru is the manifest form of God while the unmanifest form of the Guru is God.

• A bank has several branches. According to one's convenience, one opens an account and deposits money in a branch that is local to them. Since the benefits obtained from any local branch is same as the main branch, there is no need to take the trouble of going to the main branch situated elsewhere in a distant place to deposit the money. Just as the money deposited in any branch of a bank finally reaches its main branch, so also service rendered unto the Guru, that is, the manifest form of God, amounts to that of God. Spiritual emotion (bhav), devotion, service, sacrifice, etc., are easier to practice in the context of God's manifest (sagun) form, that is, the Guru, instead of doing them for the invisible, unmanifest God.

• After worshipping God devotedly, He is appeased and arranges for one to meet the Guru, and when the Guru is appeased, The Lord manifests before oneself to grant a vision.

• Fulfilling one's desires through The Lord, Guru and Saints, by doing spiritual practice with worldly expectations (sakam spiritual practice), one gradually develops detachment (vairagya) while experiencing object pleasure. Thus one automatically becomes ready to undertake spiritual practice done without worldly expectations (nishkam). This phenomenon does not occur when the same wishes are fulfilled by doing sakam spiritual practice of lesser divine energies such as subordinate deities (kshudradevata), as one remains stuck in sakam and does not proceed towards nishkam.

*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.

• To begin with, one can repeat God's Name according to their religion (refer to Issue 3 Clarification of Doubts section for a list of God's Names as per various religions), or the Name that they feel most comfortable chanting.

• Interested readers can determine the exact chant for them from the experiment given inIssue 124, Message to Seekers section.