CHAPTER EIGHT

 

WITHOUT A GURU ALL IS DARKNESS

 

 

WITHOUT A Guru we are in utter darkness. The Reality

remains a mere miasma and a mirage. It is an unwritten

law and unspoken language quite un-intelligible except

when a Master Soul by his personal attention makes it

significant. The glamor of the world is so great and

overbearing that passing phantoms appear stable and

substantial, the untrue puts on the mantle of Truth, and

we cannot possibly tear aside the magic veil and escape

from the false charm in which we are enveloped. It is the

Master's Grace that can pull a spirit out of the physical

sheath right above the plane of senses, enabling her to

move unfettered to higher spiritual visions and attain her

native Godhead.

 

Without a Master, it is sheer darkness, and

one sinks into bottomless depths.

 

An embodied spirit cannot have bliss unless it obtains

experience of itself through the grace of a living Master.

He initiates her into esoteric knowledge, which has to be

practiced in the laboratory of the human mind:

 

Without a Master there is blinding darkness,

and one simply cannot know. Without a

Master, spirit does not become Spirit, and

there can be no salvation for her.

Verily, verily, I say unto you that you must

have a Master.

O Mind! ye must turn to some Master Soul.

Accept as Master an adept in the Sound Principle

and he shall wash thee clean of all

impurities.

The Master both by his attention and his

instruction imparts the Knowledge of Truth.

He who has never seen a Master Soul nor

accepted one, simply wastes his life in this

world.

 

A jiva is always in stark darkness. If he closes his eyes,

there is darkness within. Again, he is enveloped in total

ignorance. He who can dispel this darkness of jivas is

called a Guru. The term Guru consists of two words:

Gu meaning darkness and Ru meaning Light. Hence

Guru means one who can lead us from darkness to Light,

from untruth to Truth, and from death to Immortality.

The illustrious poet, Kalidas, speaks of the Guru:

 

He converts darkness into Light and makes the

invisible God visible.

 

As a jiva is clothed in ignorance, all his actions too are

born of ignorance and thus keep him in bondage.

 

The Saints declare that without a Master Soul to

guide us, all charitable deeds and meritorious acts, like

study of the scriptures, keeping of fasts and vigils,

performance of pilgrimages, observance of social customs

and rituals and scrupulous adherence to strict religious

injunctions as of old, do not help in the liberation of a

soul. Kabir Sahib, therefore, in very strong terms warns

us against such acts:

 

The telling of beads and acts of charity,

without a Master Soul to guide, go in vain.

 

None of these bears any fruit. Bullah Shah tells us:

 

O Bullah! Without a Master all thy devotion

would be barren.

 

Unless the inner eye is opened and contact is established

with the Power within, nothing can be of any avail. We

have of necessity to seek a Master who is competent to

wean us from all outer pursuits, pull the spirit out of the

plane of the senses, and lead her step by step from one

plane to another until she is led back to her pre-natal

Home: Sach Khand or Muqam-i-Haq. He dispels all

doubts born of darkness, and gives us Heaven's Light

as a guide, unfailing and unfaltering.

 

With the Guru, the darkness is dispelled; Guru

is there wherever one may turn.

 

With no vision in our eyes, the light of hundreds of

moons and thousands of suns can do us no good. Such

a radiant effulgence would surely fail to end the

darkness of the eyes. In exactly the same way, when

there is no vision in the inner eye, we cannot see the

wonderful brilliance of the soul, and we remain steeped

in pitch darkness.

 

Hundreds of moons and, thousands of suns

together may rise;

Even with such radiance, there is not a speck

of Light.