I was asked the following question:
You are my teacher, but I was wondering if it was all right to visit other Masters.
To which I respond:
Everything is more about your relationship with it, than about it. Â Better to have a healthy relationship with a bad thing (which would mean stay away from it) than an unhealthy relationship with a good thing. Â If your relationship with visiting other “Masters” was healthy, then it would probably be fine. Â But there are many things to consider here.
First and foremost, the vast majority of those considered spiritual Masters today would be more appropriately students rather than teachers. Â Too too many have some intellectual knowledge or lifestyle/behavioral patterns that they consider spiritual and so decide they are rightly spiritual teachers. Â Though they may be quite well intended, they lead so so many sincere seekers astray. Â A true Master is a much rarer thing than most seekers realize.
Secondly, the subtle difference makes all the difference. Â I can not tell you how many times people have come to me and told me of a book or teacher that ‘says all the same things that I do.’ Â Yet when I look at what they teach, I am appalled. Â It is easy to drift off course without even realizing it.
If there were a genuine Master out there to visit, it would probably be ok. Â But do you really believe you have the ability to tell? Â People easily fall for a lofty belief system, a dramatic appearance, magic tricks, or emotional performances. Most alleged “teachers” are simply more fully indoctrinated into a paradigm than their students are. Enlightenment means liberation, not indoctrination. Yet indoctrination into the notion of liberation is not enlightenment. It is all highly elusive, evading many well-known “spiritual masters”.
Also keep in mind, as Ramana Maharshi put it, when you are traveling down a river it is best to have both feet in one boat.
This is Kali Yuga, the Age of Ignorance. Â You need to be careful.
There is the story about a great saint who had many supernatural powers. Â It is said that he could fly through the air and walk through walls. Â Do you know what his motto was? Â Safety first.
Even reconsidering my last grueling year, I consider my karma most excellent that you found me. Thank you so very much from the depths of my heart and soul. Jai Guru Dev. (this time while reading, you did not walk in the Union, you called on the phone)
What makes a thing bad?
In the presence of unconditional love, can anything really be bad?
Can love exist simaltaneously with judgement?
One last one… I keep getting tripped up with my own notion that is
anything that supports life best serves the moment
But I guess I have become the judge of that…
Please shine some light over here my recent karma has been
very challenging and weather reports from astrologers have only added
to the confusion in my heart of what to wear when I go outside… 🙂
Very early on, you told me to protect my mind. That has helped me make some very good decisions. It also keeps me aware of the importance of ongoing discernment. Thank you.
Ditto to what Donna said! How lucky am I?! I would not waste my time now looking for or considering another. That time is better spent in reflection of what has been and is continuing to be taught.
Yes i like your meditations to and i know about to avatars in india i want to visit them i think they are real avatars i would love tto hear your opinion about them but i know you dont want to talk public about other masters, would you talk in a email about them just private?
I have heard/read about other teachers and I see an echo of the things you have taught but the depth is missing. When I struggle with doubt about my spiritual path, all I have to do is look at how much my life has changed with your teachings and I say thank you, thank you, thank you-
Blessings Guru Dev
After my first Surya class I threw away all my self-help books and I’ve had no interest in “visiting” any other masters. However, I would not say that my relationship with this is healthy. I have a very hard time listening to and truly accepting other people’s different spiritual practices and paths.
Hi Eri,
I really enjoy your sincere comments and inquiries. It feels like you are always putting your whole heart out there. Regarding the above, I think a more important question you might want to ask yourself is why you feel the need to travel half around the globe to check out avatars if you were fortunate enough to find a real teacher right here in the US. I believe the question of what it is you are looking for in a teacher might be much more relevant than whether those avatars are “real” or not. If you read Brahmarshi’s blog again keeping this in mind, the answer to your questions will fall right into your lab… If they don’t, I wish you safe travels to India!
I am one of those people who, in my early years, was trying to learn from several teachers. I remember finally realizing that Brahmarshi was right… I was going to fall in the river if I kept trying to go downstream with a foot in each boat. When I really contemplated the situation I knew Brahmarshi was the real deal, dropped the other teachers, and never looked back. From one who looked into many other spiritual teachings- we are all sooooooo lucky to be learning from this master!
What makes a thing bad?
IT IS NOT IN HARMONY WITH THE UNDERLYING ESSENCE OF LIFE
In the presence of unconditional love, can anything really be bad?
OF COURSE
Can love exist simaltaneously with judgement?
OF COURSE… DEPENDING UPON YOUR DEFINITION OF ‘JUDGEMENT’.
One last one… I keep getting tripped up with my own notion that is
anything that supports life best serves the moment YES… CORRECT… GO ON…
But I guess I have become the judge of that… EXACTLY
i know about to avatars in india i want to visit them i think they are real avatars.
I WONDER WHY ANYONE WHO READS THESE BLOGS WOULD WANT TO GO ANYWHERE OTHER THAN MOUNT SOMA.
OF COURSE, I DO KNOW WHY. BUT THE MORE IMPORTANT QUESTION IS: DO YOU?
The real teacher is inside of you, Whoever could lead and guide to help you find that inside forever true teacher of yours is your true spiritual teacher for life. In to out of approach of spirituality is the sure way to go, You could surely find from Brahmarshi’s teaching, what more you want from the true spiritual teacher? He never try to ” outside in” to tell you what to do, but not this and not that. You will reach to your inside teacher just by following the path he guides you through. I have considered myself pretty lucky, searching all my life, went to different kind of religions, read tons of books. I have realized that in my late middle age. I have found one, he is Brahmarshi at Mount Soma.
I cannot fathom that anyone who has been in Brahmarshi’s presence for even 3 minutes would not know that they had just been introduced to the only Master Teacher on this earth at this time. How do people not recognize how blessed they are to have found you? Once you have found your teacher, why can’t it easily fall into place for you to get to the ashram? Why the seemingly insurmountabe obstacles? Why can’t I get there? I feel like I’m wasting my life.
To Nina:
I had huge hurdles to overcome before I finally made it to the Ashram.
Sometimes it felt like my boat was stuck in the doldrums, sometimes torrential squalls, thunderstorms and hurricanes.
One foot in front of the other, forward always forward, and the pieces finally come together.
Nancy
Early on, Sanjay asked me why I would waste my time digging shallow holes all over the place when I had found the Wellspring.
Years ago when I first started in the Surya program, I was also involved in and had actually followed the lead to Brahmarishi from former students and teachers of SEH. When I first heard the reminder to have both feet in a single boat, I came back to Texas and declared myself for the teachings of Brahmarishi. I could have been a “spiritual master” or teacher with the other program; instead I chose to follow Brahmarshi’s guiding light and never felt like I was bailing water from a sinking ship. I am that blessed! Thank you for your constant refinement Guru Dev.
It is not appropriate for a student to bow to a teacher unless the teacher has awakened to universal love. That is to say, has awakened to the level of consciousness that the teacher and the student are one. It is not an attitude. It is a state of being. It can also be said another way. The teacher no longer exists. That experience can not be conveyed in words. You must experience it for yourself. It is called liberation. It looks like nothing in particular. It just is. All else is maya. To function through maya, without losing your Self to maya, is the gift the enlightened offer the world.
H dear brahmarshi and marion, Brahmarshi you say you dont understand why anybody reading this blog dont want to come to mount soma yes i undertsand but doesnt the other Master can say the same thing, i for 1 dont want to disrespect you in anyway i love what you do!! But i love those other to masters both and 1 is god on earth and is awakening thousands off people its amazing(awakening not enligtening) but he says hes not a guru but we should consider him as a deity and that you its good to have a guru beside him, now i did you meditation with hes online eye meditation and deeksha sins this week i start to feel my brain working and kundalini rising its great, and this god has a 28 day program where its said that 98% awaken who go there i want to go, and the other avatar wich is a guru like you, what i love about him is he has all kind off kriyas and health teachings wealth teaching great morning statsangs and his energy darshan seems to be amazing i want to go to his 21 day program in india soon and you offcourse i love to your building a englitend city i hope to be there at hanuman inguarition the last temple opening i mist i wish to god i be there second june, but you understand where im coming from your all great, and like osho said steel enligtment from the teachers they have eternity, and Nithyananda said it nice to he said its good to go to several masters 1 cant break your ego, and its like having a garland and collecting it with nice flowers from all over and offcourse when i click with a guru i will do his teachings but i just want to learn ass much ass possible and see whats clicks best for me and marion thanks for your nice comment and btw i live in Europe, so Brahmarsi i really dont want to offend you in anyway, im just searching i want the be the best i can be on all points sorry for the long post but again thanks. And i hope i can help you in the furure with your temple
One day I was reading something Brahmarshi wrote. As I was reading, it occured to me that what he was saying was different than when others would say something similar. When others would say it, the words would not match their eyes and heart. That day I read his blog I felt the difference, his words matched his eyes and his heart. I then knew the meaning of direct experience, to me it feels he speaks and writes from it. However, I had to learn it at my pace of understanding. No one could have explained it to me, until I felt it. I don’t mean to be disrespectful towards anyone-this is just my experience of truth uninterrupted by distortion. I have never felt it from anyone else so clearly.
That is fine Eri, if that is what you choose to do.
I would just suggest that you keep the points of this blog in mind.
Remember, the spiritual path, as Adi Shankara said, is the path of discernment.
I look forward to meeting you some day.