The Primal Sruti and Primal Realizer

All humanly composed scriptures (Gathas, Vedas, Bible, al-Qur'an, e.g.) are modifications of the primal scripture, the true sruti, the revelation of Heart-Beloved. Various modifications are necessary, due to the variously changing conditions of human societies, but the true sruti remains the constant against which all scriptures are measured. The true sruti is the primal Gatha, the primal Veda, the primal Bible, the primal al-Qur'an.

All human-divine incarnations (Zarathustra, Krishna, Christ, Buddha, e.g.) are manifestations of the primal realizer, the adi-Buddha, the revealer of Heart-Beloved. Various manifestations are necessary, due to the variously changing conditions of human societies, but the true adi-Buddha remains the constant realizer, though in different forms. The adi-Buddha is the primal Prophet, the primal Avatar, the primal Christ, and the primal Sufi.

A Time for Action

Girish: "What? Book-learning? I have seen enough of it. It can't fool me any more.

Master (with a smile): "Do you know my attitude? Books, scriptures, and things like that only point out the way to reach God. After finding the way, what more need is there of books and scriptures? Then comes the time for action.

"A man received a letter from home informing him that certain presents were to be sent to his relatives. The names of the articles were given in the letter. As he was about to go shopping for them, he found that the letter was missing. He began anxiously to search for it, several others joining in the search. For a long time they continued to search. When at last the letter was discovered, his joy knew no bounds. With great eagerness he opened the letter and read it. It said that he was to buy five seers of sweets, a piece of cloth, and a few other things. Then he did not need the letter any more, for it had served its purpose. Putting it aside, he went out to buy the things. How long is such a letter necessary? As long as its contents are not known. When the contents are known one proceeds to carry out the directions.

"In the scriptures you will find the way to realize God. But after getting all the information about the path, you must begin to work. Only then can you attain your goal.
....
"The almanac forecasts the rainfall tor the year. You may squeeze the book, but you won't get a drop of water — not even a single drop." (Laughter.)

All Gurus

All Gurus

Prophets

Buddhas

Avatars

Christs

Are One at the Heart.

But I especially honor

the one who unveiled my eyes,

unto the Ancient One.

I Have Not Said

"I have not said that a Guru is not necessary. But a Guru need not always be in human form. First a person thinks that he is an inferior and that there is a superior, all-knowing, all powerful God who controls his own and the world's destiny and worships him or does Bhakti. When he reaches a certain stage and becomes fit for enlightenment, the same God whom he was worshipping comes as Guru and leads him on. That Guru comes only to tell him 'That God is within yourself. Dive within and realize'. God, Guru and the Self are the same."

-- Ramana Maharshi

The Road of the Heart

"Some of the God-fire in your heart must have rubbed off on your letter I received last evening. I read it to Baba and the look on His face was very deep. His message for you is that you are very fortunate to experience this Love and that you should, "Plunge in, unafraid."

It immediately brought to my mind something Baba told us one evening just before the accident and made us repeat it a few times. It is the lines of an Urdu couplet by a mystic poet: "Understand well this Love is no joke; it is an Ocean of Fire in which you have to plunge deep and drown yourself."

The road of the mind is narrow, and for a dnyani (seeker) it is a long journey. The road of the heart, however, has no limits and it's the most direct to God. For the dnyani there are a thousand questions to all of which the bhakti (lover) has one answer — and it is all-sufficient and satisfying."

-- Mani Irani

Thus Man Becomes God

One can find volumes and volumes of prose and poetry about love, but there are very, very few persons who have found love and experienced it. No amount of reading, listening and learning can ever tell you what love is. Regardless of how much I explain love to you, you will understand it less and less if you think you can grasp it through the intellect or imagination.

Hafiz describes the bare truth about love when he says:

Janab-e ishqra dargah basi bala tar-azaq'l ast: Kasi in astan busad kay jan der astin darad.

The majesty of love lies far beyond the reach of intellect;
only one who has his life up his sleeve dares kiss the threshold of love.

The difference between love and intellect is something like that between night and day; they exist in relation to one another and yet as two different things. Love is real intelligence capable of realizing truth; intellect is best suited to know all about duality, which is born of ignorance and is entirely ignorance. When the sun rises, night is transformed into day. Just so, when love manifests, not-knowing (ignorance) is turned into conscious-knowing (knowledge).

In spite of the difference between a keenly intelligent person and a very unintelligent person, each is equally capable of experiencing love. The quality which determines one's capacity for love is not one's wit or wisdom, but one's readiness to lay down life itself for the beloved, and yet remain alive. One must, so to speak, slough off body, energy, mind and all else, and become dust under the feet of the beloved. This dust of a lover who cannot remain alive without God — just as an ordinary man cannot live without breath — is then transformed into the beloved. Thus man becomes God.

-- Meher Baba

So be it. Svaha!

External Conformity and Spiritual Emancipation

The Two Levels of Christian Life:

1. External Conformity: "[The] stage of external conformity to religious injunctions or traditions is known as the pursuit of Shariat or Karma-Kanda. It covers actions like the offering of daily prayers, visiting of holy places, performance of duties prescribed by scriptures and observance of well established rules of the ethical codes generally accepted by the moral consciousness of the times. The stage of external conformity is useful in its own way as a spiritual discipline; but it is by no means free from evil effects, for it not only tends to make a man dry, rigid and mechanical, but it often nourishes some kind of subtle egotism....

Even at the stage of Shariat or Karma-Kanda allegiance to religions is not infrequently a source of inspiration for many selfless and noble acts for, while these dogmas or creeds are blindly accepted, they are often held with a fervour and enthusiasm which supply a dynamic element to the ideology which has been accepted by the person for the moment. Dogmas and creeds, as compared with barren views and doctrines, have the distinct advantage of being embraced not only by the intellect but also by the heart. They cover and affect a wider part of personality than purely theoretical opinions.

Dogmas and creeds generally, however, are as much a source of evil as of good, because in them the guiding vision is clouded owing to degeneration or suspension of critical thinking. If allegiance to creeds and dogmas has sometimes done good to the individual or to the community to which he belongs, it has more often done harm. Though the mind and heart are involved in allegiance to dogmas and creeds, both function in such case under the serious handicap of suspension of thought. Hence dogmas and creeds do not contribute to unmixed good."

2. Spiritual Emancipation: "The soul often spends several lives in gathering the lessons of external conformity; but there always comes a time when it tires of external conformity and becomes more interested in the realities of the inner life. When the worldly man takes to this higher kind of search he might be said to have become an aspirant. Like the insect which passes on through metamorphosis to the next stage of existence, the soul transcends the phase of external conformity (i.e., Shariat or Karma-Kanda) and enters upon the path of spiritual emancipation (i.e., Tarikat or Moksha-Marga). In this higher phase the soul is no longer satisfied by external conformity with certain rules, but wants to acquire those qualifications which would make its inner life spiritually beautiful....

The rise from Shariat or Karma-Kanda to Tarikat or Moksha-Marga is not to be interpreted therefore as being merely a departure from external conformity. It is not a change from conventionality to idiosyncrasy, from the usual to the unusual, but it is a change from a life of thoughtless acceptance of established traditions, to a mode of being which is based upon thoughtful appreciation of the difference between the important and the unimportant. It is a change from a state of implicit ignorance to a state of critical thoughtfulness. At the stage of mere external conformity the spiritual ignorance of man is often so complete that he does not even realise that he is ignorant. But when the person is being awakened and enters the Path he begins by realising the need for true light. In the initial stages the effort to attain this light takes the form of intellectual discrimination between the lasting and the transitory, the true and the false, the real and the unreal, the important and the unimportant....

When a person gives up uncritically accepted dogmas and creeds in favour of views and doctrines to which he has devoted thought, there is a certain amount of advance insofar as his mind has now begun to think and critically examine its beliefs. Very often, however, the newly held beliefs are seen to lack the fervour and enthusiasm which characterised allegiance to dogmas and creeds. If these newly held beliefs lack motive power, they belong only to the superficial aspect of life and they hang loosely upon the person like an overcoat. The mind has been emancipated from the domination of uncultured emotion, but this is often achieved by sacrificing the co-operation of the heart. If the results of critical thought are to be spiritually fruitful, they must again invade and recapture the heart so as to enlist its co-operative functioning.

In other words, the ideas which have been accepted after critical examination must again be released into active life if they are to yield their full benefit. In the process of practical life they often undergo a healthy transformation and become more soundly interwoven with the very fabric of life.

The transition from external conformity (i.e., Shariat or Karma-Kanda) to the life of inner realities (i.e., Tarikat or Moksha-Marga) involves two steps: (i) freeing the mind from the inertia of uncritical acceptance based upon blind imitation and stirring it to critical thinking, and (ii) bringing the results of critical and discriminative thinking into practical life. In order to be spiritually fruitful, thinking must be not only critical but creative. Critical and creative thinking leads to spiritual preparation by cultivating those qualities which contribute towards the perfection and balancing of the mind and the heart and the release of unfettered divine life."

Only a Little While

"My husband, Jeff, and I (Arlene) had heard of Baba from different people in 1975 before we met each other. I was very fascinated when I first heard about Him and purchased God Speaks: The Theme of Creation and Its Purpose by Meher Baba.

In 1980 my husband and I started talking about Baba and contacted Kitty Davy at the Meher Center in Myrtle Beach to order some books. When the box of books came, The Perfect Master, a biography of Meher Baba, was at the top of the box, face up. As soon as Jeff got the box opened for me, I saw Baba's picture on the cover and experienced His beautiful love. Remembering was so sweet, I cried and cried. After a while I could talk and said to Jeff, "I remember, I remember."

I called my twin sister Eileen and told her I had something to show her. She came over right away and when I handed her the book she too said, "I remember knowing Him." Now a flood of thoughts came pouring in. The memory of the summer of 1937; little seven year old twin sisters standing in their play house; the first visit from their beautiful play companion.

As Eileen recalls, "Our friend was sitting across the room in His white robe and sandals, looking radiant and happy. Our little hearts jumped with joy. And we said, 'You will play with us now, you will play with us now.' He nodded His head, smiled happily and put His arms out to welcome us. We ran to Him, to receive His warm embrace. It felt like we were melting into Him.

"Such wonderful visits we remember, like the time we put our mother's big hats on His head. And with each hat we put on, He would make a funny face.

"We remember how much He loved to look in our play purses and always seemed surprised at what He found. How we laughed together. Our most cherished remembrance was serving tea."

Reminiscing about the days we had tea with Baba is always special, Baba sitting and looking so sweet with saucer and tea cup in His beautiful hands. A feeling of something very special seemed to come over us. As we lifted our cups to our lips, Baba's eyes seemed to water and shine with a flow that made our little hearts seem to know He was saying, "I love you, my little ones."

On one visit, Baba put His hands out, palms up, and we knew to put our hands in His. He closed His hands over ours and held our hands in His as He drew us over to Himself. We stood looking into His beautiful face for a long time it seems, enjoying every minute.

He showed us a mischievous side of Himself. We would play a game of slipping our fingers into His. He would pretend He couldn't catch them. Then, just as we thought we were winning, He would close His fingers and catch us every time. How that made us laugh with excitement.

We played hide and seek with Baba. We would put scarves over our heads and He would pull them off, one by one. The expression of joy that would come over His face as he found us hiding under the last one — words cannot describe His beautiful face.

Eileen remembers with delight, "We enjoyed playing that we were actresses on stage. We asked our mother if she would help us fix up a stage setting. She drew a rope across our summer kitchen (that's a small room off the main kitchen). That is where Baba always appeared to us. She hung old drapes over the rope and we took many an extra curtain call there for our playmate, Baba.

"When we came into the summer kitchen one summer morning to play actresses, we saw Baba sitting on the stage. He looked very natural sitting there. As we performed our tap dance and singing and a little play, He would clap and clap. He made us feel so happy and uninhibited. He always made us feel we were pleasing Him. He never spoke but we never noticed or were affected by His silence. His love was so full and everything we did was so pleasing to Him that we only wanted to do more and more. We were never embarrassed even though we were very shy.

"There was one thing He would never let us do and that was touch His feet. He insisted on obedience but he was so loving with it. We never questioned Him, never thought of doing so.

"The last time he appeared to us, He was standing and He said, 'You have seen me for a little while and in a little while I will come again and you will know me. Now I must go and you will not remember these times.' Then his body split into two — two of Him. He went away very quickly into both of us at the same time. Right into us and from that moment until 43 years later, when my sister opened the box and saw Baba's picture on The Perfect Master, she hadn't remembered that He had appeared to us. Neither had I until my sister called me over to her house and I saw His picture and suddenly recalled that He had been with us so long ago. But in Baba's time, it was only a little while."

Understanding the Guru

"An Indian will listen to his guru, nod his head, and go home and, even if he's a deeply religious person, ignore fifty per cent of what the guru has told him, because his own sense of the world tells him to do that," an Indian man who is well versed in Yogic culture said to me recently. But Westerners who jump heart first into a cloistered Indian subculture do not always find it easy to distinguish what is spiritual from what is Indian-or merely the whim of the guru."

A Good Friday Meditation

The One Original Non-Dual Matter


The Original Non-Dual Awareness is Infinite and Eternal.

Being everything it accommodates within itself the Original Non-Dual Matter.

Matter is the Body of Awareness.

Awareness, being Infinite and Eternal, its Body must also be infinite and eternal.

At times the Body appears to be small and at times to stretch into huge shapes.

But even when it seems to have disappeared, it is still within Awareness latently.

Out of the Matter contained within Awareness is projected infinite and eternal Materiality—the Creation, or Finite Everything.

The Original Non-Dual Awareness is One, Infinite and Eternal.

The Original Non-Dual Matter, being in the Non-Dual Awareness is also one, infinite and eternal.

But the Finite Everything that is projected from the Non-Dual Matter comprising innumerable masses or all things in Creation, is innately and unendingly dual.

Within these masses are innumerable temporary masses such as, What is the matter with you? Matter.

What did you eat? Matter.

What is in your hand? Matter.

What do you see? Matter.

And so there is no end to the action and reaction of the experience of Materiality by the innumerable masses of Finite Everything which are projected from the One Original Non-Dual Matter which is infinite.

The Original Non-Dual Awareness is Infinite and Eternal; in it is the Original Non-Dual Matter.

Innumerable masses manifest out of the One Original Non-Dual Matter.

And from these masses is a continuous flow of temporary masses.

And so there are masses and the new-masses of masses within the One Original Non-Dual Matter.

When you compare these masses with the One Original Non-Dual Matter they are indeed matter.

Matter is in Awareness; Awareness would not be a complete whole without Matter.

The Matter that is in Awareness gives birth to matter that seems everything.

Because Matter is, everything seems to be.

All activity everywhere in creation is but a play of Awareness and Matter.

When there is a complete cessation of this activity Matter prevails.

When this Matter is attained you have Awareness.

Relatively, therefore, Matter is Awareness, whereas that which we call Awareness is Matter.

[Inspired by Chp 51, "The One Original Real Nothing", The Everything and the Nothing. The translation-glossary is below.

Awareness is Everything.
Matter (matter/energy, subtle matter, and thought) is Nothing.
Materiality is Nothingness.
Matter is the Body (material, spiritual, and mental body) of God
The Body of God is the Shadow of God.
The finite is the false.
Form is zero.
Imagination is changeableness.
That which is destructible is the dream.
Duality is Illusion.
Non-Duality is Reality.
What is new is what is naught.]

(Good Friday)

A Holy Saturday Meditation

FIRM FAITH IN CHRIST

Eruch Jessawala

How blessed you are to love and adore Christ! Do so with all the strength of your heart and soul without reservations and confusion. Let not the demon of dual concept of Baba and Christ ever stand in the way of your one-pointed devotion to Christ. Let there be no conflict in your heart howsoever your mind may want to create it. Let not your mental concept of Baba stand in the way of your wholehearted devotion to Christ. The instant your love for Christ is accepted by Him, know that you are accepted by Baba. Avatar Meher Baba and Jesus Christ are but forms and names of the same Ancient One.

At the height of your love for Him, the Grace of Christ will appease your thirst for intellectual certainty and bestow upon you the conviction you seek. Continue to love Christ all the more with the warmth of your heart. True, simple and unadulterated love for Him will make Him touch your heart and awaken it to recognise his present Advent. Force not your mind to do so, but allow your heart to work it out by His Grace. Meanwhile, pay heed to His ancient warning of which you are aware — "run not after false prophets, babas, and masters."

I salute your deep love for and firm faith in Christ. May your love for Him lead you to Him. He is compassionate. He is love.

JAI BABA!

LETTERS FROM THE MANDALI, Vol. II, p. 15, ed. Jim Mistry
1983 © Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust

A Good Friday Meditation

FOLLOW CHRIST'S TEACHINGS

From a newspaper interview
London, December 1934

Q. What hinders me from being a better husband and father?

A. [Meher Baba] You must try as far as possible to live a life that Christ lived. Not by theory and by intellectual understanding only should one try to follow Christianity, but by a feeling that must be lived: Love!

Q. How can I do that?

A. To develop love, you have to do it practically — that is, you have to experience it in everyday life. You must lessen your desires and make others happy by thinking less of your own happiness. This can be done. By desire I mean selfish desires. If you are walking along the road and you find a man stricken with poverty and lying helpless, you will pityingly look at him and go on. If, further on you find your own brother in the same condition, you will at once give him all possible aid. This is generally the case. You will find your mentality lacks that development of love which true Christianity needs. It is all very practical and very simple — only people make it complicated.

Q. Are you ready to give your love to those who, on the basis of the New Testament conception, think you to be wrong in regard to your Christ Consciousness, but who are open to the influence of your love?

A. If you love Jesus, and if you can follow Christ's teachings and live his life, that is more than enough. You don't need to follow me, for by following Jesus with all love, you will indirectly follow me. That is what I know.

THE AWAKENER, Vol. XIV, No. 1, p. 34
Kitty Davy, "Baba's First World Tour, 1932"
Copyright 1971 Universal Spiritual League of America, Inc.

Jivanta Guru-Bhakti Yoga

In Jivanta dharma, the primary, or root, Guru is the Divine Couple, the Heart and the Beloved. The secondary Guru consists of the Buddhas and the Jivanta. The root Guru may take human form. The veneration of the root Guru follows the principles of Guru-Bhakti Yoga ("devotion to the Guru"). A devotee of an embodied root Guru necessarily sees his root Guru as the Highest or as in unsurpassable communion with the Highest: such conceptualization follows from the Guru-Principle of Singularity, as enunciated by Swami Sivananda:

From a doctor you get a prescription. From two doctors you get consultation. From three doctors you get your own cremation.

Even so, if you have many Gurus you will be bewildered. You will be at a loss to know what to do. One Guru will tell you: “Do Soham Japa”. Another will tell you “Do Japa of Sri Ram.” A third Guru will tell you “Hear Anahata Sounds”. You will be puzzled. Stick to one Guru and follow his instructions.

The traditional Christian emphasis upon the unique salvificity of Jesus (Jesus as the embodied root Guru of the Christian) can thus be more fully understood as a necessary part of spiritual sadhana, a part accepted by serious practitioners of all lineages and traditions. The traditional Christian emphasis reflects the divine physics of Enlightenment. All Yogas begin and end in Guru-Bhakti Yoga. Without Guru-Bhakti Yoga, there is no true religion. Swami Sivananda refers specifically to the embodied root Guru, below, but such statements can also be applied to the non-bodily bound Heart-Beloved:

52. A Guru is necessary for every aspirant in the spiritual path.

53. It is only a Guru who will be able to unveil the mystery and meaning of real life and show the way to God-realisation.

54. It is only a preceptor who can teach the disciple the secret about Sadhana.

55. An ideal Guru is one who has attained God-realisation.

56. Such a Guru is pure in thought, word and deed.

57. He has mastery over the senses and the mind.

58. He has knowledge of all the scriptures and is simple, kind and truthful.

59. Guru will be able to awaken the hidden divine power in the innermost core of disciple’s heart.

60. If a disciple has done good Karma in his previous births, if he is doing them now, and if he is sincere and longing for God, he will be sure to meet the real Guru.

61. To derive the full benefit from the Guru, disciple must have implicit faith in him and true devotion for him.

62. The disciple will achieve results in proportion to his faith in his Guru.

63. It is the spiritual teacher who will show the way and finally lead one to God.

64. Guru is none but God Himself in human form.

Like Beads on a String

I am not come to establish any cult, society or organization; nor even to establish a new religion. The religion that I shall give teaches the Knowledge of the One behind the many. The book that I shall make people read is the book of the heart that holds the key to the mystery of life. I shall bring about a happy blending of the head and the heart. I shall revitalize all religions and cults, and bring them together like beads on one string.

-- Meher Baba

Chhagan Thought

On May 10th, the group took a bus to Manmad and then left on the Delhi-Allahabad express train for Hardwar. Near the village of Khandwa an accident occurred; a man was struck by the train and severely injured. Watching the man on the ground, a large crowd gathered and meanwhile Baba dispatched Chhagan to buy some rice and dal from a vendor. Chhagan thought to himself, "A man has just been seriously hurt and all are rushing to see him, yet this God feels hungry and wants something to eat! How can Baba be so merciless? Who could eat at a time like this?" With these thoughts in his mind, Chhagan made his way through the crowd to bring the food, but he could not return as quickly because of the excited crowd on the platform. After some time Baba lost his patience and sent Gustadji to look for him, and when Chhagan returned, Baba admonished him for taking so long.

Watching Baba eat, Chhagan thought, "Outside a man is dying and inside Divinity himself is quietly enjoying his lunch in peace. How can Baba be so cold?"

Baba gestured to Chhagan, "What are you thinking?"

Chhagan replied that it was nothing. Baba shrugged and then spelled out, "You only think of the man who is hurt, but you have no thought for me. How will you help him by thinking about him? Your sympathy is empty; it carries no weight.

"You see me eating food, but what do you know of what I am really doing for that man? If you believe that everything is in my hands and not a leaf moves without my will, then why don't you accept that whatever has happened to him, and whatever will happen to him, is according to my will? Your only duty is to follow my wish. Why give importance to your wish?

"I am eating this food, but it reaches the belly of that man! You can't see that. Remember I am the Benefactor of all. Your sympathy cannot do a damned thing! To fulfill my wish, you have to burn up your desires. Only then will you be fit to serve me."

Baba then sent Chhagan to see the injured man. Chhagan was dumbfounded at the scene which met his eyes. The man had not only regained consciousness, but he was enjoying a cup of hot tea! He was about to be removed to a hospital in an ambulance and the doctor remarked that there was no serious injury. He would be all right and be able to walk once his fracture was set. Hearing this, Chhagan repented for his thoughts. The fact was that Baba was not really hungry, but he pretended to be so in order to revive that man and to teach Chhagan a lesson.

Twenty-Four Gurus

Twenty-four Gurus, following the Avadhut.

1. Jivanta
2. Jesus Christ
3. Bhagavan Krishna
4. Gautama Buddha
5. Guru Nanak
6. Mahavira
7. Baha'ullah
8. Lao Zu
9. Kong Fuzu
10. Swami Sivananda
11. Paramahansa Yogananda
12. Ramakrishna Paramahansa
13. Swami Rudrananda
14. Mata Amritanandamayi
15. Meher Baba
16. Rumi
17. Swami Vivekananda
18. Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati
19. Hazrat Inayat Khan
20. Guru Rasa
21. Mother Meera
22. Upasni Maharaj
23. Adi Da Samraj
24. Eknath Easwaran

Christ, My Bodhisattva

I'll comment later on this excerpt of the larger "Christ, My Bodhisattva" article from Christianity Today, Vol. 51, No. 5, May 2007, issue. (Find out what a Bodhisattva does!)

Multinational businessman and politician Ram Gidoomal talks about 'translating' the gospel in today's world.

Interview by Andy Crouch | posted 4/27/2007 08:29AM

The popular conception of a missionary as a pale-skinned, pith-helmeted traveler in a distant, "primitive" land is amazingly hard to dislodge. Ram Gidoomal fits none of these stereotypes. But he is certainly on a mission, if not many missions at once. Having arrived in London as a refugee from India by way of Africa, Gidoomal chose Imperial College for his undergraduate degree, because it was a short bus ride from his family's shop. Today, after building several successful businesses and running twice for Mayor of London, he has built a reputation as a tireless social entrepreneur whose activism encompasses race relations, financial opportunity, and environmental sustainability in Britain and South Asia, as well as Christian ministry among the South Asian diaspora. He spoke with the Christian Vision Project's editorial director, Andy Crouch, over lunch at his alma mater—where he is now a member of the board of governors—with the wide-ranging enthusiasm of someone who has spent his life exploring our "big question" for 2007: What must we learn, and unlearn, to be agents of God's mission in the world?

You come from a Hindu religious background and attended Muslim schools in Africa, yet you became a follower of Jesus during your studies at university.

At the university, I was out of the family context, with the need for something that could make sense of the wider world in which I found myself. I started reading about Jesus. I was intrigued by the strong basis for his historical existence.

In my cultural context, the biggest religious problem is your karma: your karmic debt. What you sow, you reap. You come to this earth with a karmic account, then you die and you're reincarnated, and that depends on how you've done in this life. When I read about Jesus' death on the Cross, it wasn't so much the sacrifice for sin that struck me as the sacrifice for karma. The Christians I met spoke of sin in this life, but that was meaningless to me. Karma was what mattered. So I decided, When they talk about sin, I think of karma, and I believe Jesus died for my karma, so I am going to accept him on those terms.

As my mother and others in my family challenged my faith, I found that biblical concepts were only helpful if they were properly translated. My mother would say, "Jesus is a swear word. They use it in the shop every day. Why do you follow this man?" She had followed a guru called Ramakrishna Parmahansa from India; then she switched to a guru named Radha Soami. One of the functions of a guru is to give you a mantra, but when she went to the initiation, some people got the mantra and others didn't. She felt some of those who were refused were more deserving than her, and that troubled her.

So when she came to stay with us after our first child was born, she opened one of the Bibles that we had strewn all over the place, and she happened upon this verse, "Whoever comes to me, I will not cast out." She said, "Your Bible is very strange! 'Whoever comes to me'—define whoever!" She had a hard time believing that Jesus would never refuse anybody. But that's the case, I said, because he's the sanatan sat guru.

Sanatan is a Sanskrit word meaning "eternal"; sat guru means "true living way." You can put John 14:6 in brackets after that! He is "the way, the truth, and the life." Guru is a living way. There are lots of sat gurus, but try to find a sanatan sat guru. No guru claims to be sanatan. Then she said, "Tell me more about this guru, who will love everybody." So I said, "Not only is he a sanatan sat guru, he paid for karma. He paid our karmic debt."

There must be many perplexing things for someone who comes to faith as an outsider.

I recall my first visit to church here, my first church ever, St. Paul's Onslow Square. I went to the evening service, so none of my friends or relations would see me going. The first thing I looked for on walking in was the shoebox. I wanted to take my shoes off: This is holy ground, and you're asking me to come in with my dirty, filthy feet and go into the presence of God? This is not right; this is not holy. I must take my shoes off. But they told me there was no place for shoes. So I went to sit on the floor, in the proper position of respect, and the usher said to sit on the wooden bench. Then the organ blasted out, and I thought, Who has died? Because organ music was just for funerals in my mind. It was an alien experience. There's a whole lot of unlearning to be done in asking how we can communicate the message of Jesus with simplicity [in a way] that will take these barriers away.

In the end, I've found I've been able to use my skills in business to help start some of these translations. We've produced a series of books and cds that connect with the South Asian experience. Fortunately, I was able to pay for publication, because in the early days, not many Christian publishers were willing to take on a book that talked about Jesus as the bodhisattva who fulfilled his dharma to pay for my karma to negate samsara and achieve nirvana!

Gurus

Once, while Dattatreya was roaming in a forest happily, he met king Yadu, who on seeing Dattatreya so happy, asked him the secrets of his happiness and also the name of his Guru. Dattatreya said that the Atman alone was his Guru, and yet, he had learned wisdom from twenty-four individuals and that they were, therefore, his Gurus.

Dattatreya then mentioned the names of his twenty-four Gurus and spoke of the wisdom that he had learnt from each:

“The names of my twenty-four teachers are: 1. Earth, 2. Water, 3. Air, 4. Fire, 5. Sky, 6. Moon, 7. Sun, 8. Pigeon, 9. Python, 10. Ocean, 11. Moth, 12. Bee, 13. Honey-gatherer, 14. Elephant, 15. Deer, 16. Fish, 17. Dancing-girl Pingala, 18. Raven, 19. Child, 20. Maiden, 21. Serpent, 22. An arrow-maker, 23. Spider and 24. Beetle.”

....

The king was highly impressed by the teachings of Dattatreya. He abandoned the world and practised constant meditation on the Self.

Dattatreya was absolutely free from intolerance or prejudice of any kind. He learnt wisdom from whatever source it came. All seekers after Wisdom should follow the example of Dattatreya.

All Great Ones Had Their Teachers

All great ones had their teachers. All the sages, saints, prophets, world teachers, incarnations, great men have had their own Gurus, however great they might have been. Svetaketu learnt the nature of Truth from Uddalaka, Maitreyi from Yajnavalkya, Bhrigu from Varuna, Narada from Sanatkumara, Nachiketas from Yama, Indra from Prajapati; and several others humbly went to wise ones, observed strict Brahmacharya, practised rigorous discipline, and learnt Brahma-Vidya from them.

Lord Krishna sat at the feet of His Guru Sandipani. Lord Rama had Guru Vasishtha who gave Him Upadesa. Lord Jesus sought John to be baptised by him on the banks of the river Jordan. Even Devas have Brihaspati as their Guru. Even the greatest among the divine beings sat at the feet of Guru Dakshinamurti.

-- Swami Sivananda

Take Up and Read!

I was saying these things and weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when, lo, I heard the voice as of a boy or girl, I know not which, coming from a neighbouring house, chanting, and oft repeating, "Take up and read; take up and read."
-- St. Augustine

The Beloved has produced two books for us to read: the Book of Nature, and the Book of God. The Book of Nature is the Beloved's Creation, Light, Atoms, Molecules, Life, Plants, Animals, and Men and Women. The Book of God is the Buddha, the Christ, and silent, unwritten, and written words thereof, such as the Bible, the Qur'an, and the Vedas.

The Book of Nature is the Jivanta.
The Book of God is the Buddha.

The Guru is not just the Buddha, the Christ, but also the Jivanta, the Creation.

Read any Book, and that Book will take you to the Beloved.