Page 186 - Wisdom Unfurled

advantageous. A mother is the very embodiment of love and affection and only a mother’s heart can bear with patience all the troubles and miseries caused to her by her son. Similarly the Master, the spiritual mother of the disciple, is always on the look out for the welfare of the disciple, his spiritual child. It is due to the affectionate attachment of the mother (Guru) towards the child (disciple) that the attention of the great Father (God) with whom the mother (Guru) is so closely attached is directed towards the disciple. Another aspect of this relationship is revealed by the Master when He observes that just as the mother retains the child for a certain duration in her womb and the child sucks the energy and nourishment through it from the mother for its nurture and growth, the Guru retains the devout disciple in his mental sphere for some time enabling him to draw energy and nourishment from the spiritual waves of the Guru’s thoughts. When the time matures the disciple is born into the brighter world and thence his own spiritual life begins.
The disciple can indeed be delivered into the brighter world even within seven months provided he enters the Guru’s mental sphere surrendering all belongings to him but this event is considerably delayed in most cases as the disciple retains the consciousness of his own thoughts and feelings. The conception of the Guru as the mother promotes in us feelings of love, reverence and surrender which are the main factors weaving the spiritual life.
Selection of a worthy Guide
The selection of a worthy Guru being very important as it can make or mar the aspirant’s spiritual future, the Master proceeds to give an easy method of judging the prospective Guru based upon His own personal experience. When the aspirant comes into contact with a person, the aspirant should try to understand whether the association promotes in him a feeling of peace, calmness and silence without causing any weight upon the mind at least for the duration of the association and if it so happens, the aspirant can conclude that the person can be a fit man to guide him on the spiritual path.
The Master highlights another difficulty associated with the selection of the capable guide; even when such a person satisfying the above mentioned norm for selection is available and accessible, the aspirant may not choose him due to the fact that he does not display miracles such as curing diseases, bringing the dead to life or materializing objects of desire from nowhere. The Master says that a true rajayogi endowed with power of pranahuti does not display miracles as doing so would be derogatory to his position. Citing the example of Christ the Master says that though Christ displayed miracles all his life he could get only twelve disciples and was betrayed finally by one amongst that twelve. This shows that miracles were of no avail in creating faith in Christ but it was only his noble teachings which secured such a large following for