Questioner: Some people say that when the student is ready, the master shall appear. And when the student is really ready, the master disappears. What is your take on that?
What’s the best way to approach spiritual transformation? Do you find the Guru, or does the Guru find you? And who should disappear? Sadhguru answers all these questions and more.
Questioner: Some people say that when the student is ready, the master shall appear. And when the student is really ready, the master disappears. What is your take on that?
Sadhguru: The problem with today’s so-called spirituality is, people are busy talking and reading spirituality. Spirituality is not something that you talk or read because it is a dimension of life that is not physical in nature. A bunch of concepts, ethics, or morality will not make spiritual process. This has always been the issue, in every generation: when Gurus or masters, or whatever you call them in different cultures, come, people always compare them to the Gurus or masters of the past.
The next generation also will look at this generation’s Gurus and expect their Gurus to be just like this. And when the next ones come, they say you are not real because the past one was the real one. We have a fetish for the past, because it is gone. We like things which are gone. We love dead people. When they're alive we can't talk to them but when they're dead, oh. Do not pick up all this dead knowledge from books, which say that when you are ready, a Guru will come, and when you are really ready, he will disappear.
When you are really ready, you should disappear. That is the real thing. If the Guru disappears, it is good for him, not good for you. You must be like little children, with no persona. In a child, the person easily disappears, isn't it? If he is angry, you play with him, his persona disappears. Once again, he is joy. Like that, you should also disappear when the Guru has come.
If you are too full of yourself and the Guru disappears, he is very fortunate because he does not have to suffer trying to fill a cup that is already full, or thinks it is full. Right now, focus on how you and all that you have gathered can disappear, including your body, mind, and all those spiritual notions.
You can only gather things, not spirit – it is there. It is just too covered with other things. If you reduce the huge heap that covers it, it will become visible. You must disappear. If the Guru disappears, it means he has abandoned you, maybe because the heap is too big for him. If the possibility is near, we will work with them one way. If there is possibility, but it is a little away, we will work with them another way. If the possibility is far away, we will work with them yet in another way.
It is for you to see that you are in such a way that your possibility is near, and you have done everything that you can. Little things that you do not know how to do, he will do for you. If you do not do anything, do you think he will do all the garbage cleaning? No, you clean up and get rid of all the spiritual nonsense you have gathered so that we can ignite something. If you are damp, how to light you up? If you get rid of all that, then it is easy to light you up. Making yourself fit for the processes is your business.
At different stages in your life, there are some things you can do, and others things you cannot do. If you do what you can, what you cannot do can be done for you. But if you do not do what you can do, no one wants to push you up.
If you look at history – when Krishna came, he was very playful, well dressed, full of love and involvement. People called him a fraud because before him, Rama had come, a very serious, straightforward, absolutely morally correct man. So they said Krishna is not real because a real divine being would be like that. After he died, everyone started saying Krishna was a wonderful being and that there is no one like him.
Then Buddha came. He simply sat. They said, “What kind of a man are you, simply sitting like this like dead? You know how Krishna was? How alive he was, how he played music, how he danced, how he loved? Look at you. You’re as good as a dead man. We don’t want you.” After Gautama the Buddha, many people like this have come in different generations.
Whenever Gurus or spiritual Masters come, people compare them with the previous generation, and say the present ones are no good. When Jesus was alive, people did the most horrible thing to him. After he died, people celebrated that too. We have been doing this since time immemorial. To recognize the value of what is here, you need awareness; you need to be alive to it. After someone is dead, everyone can worship him. Because, once the Guru is gone, you can make what you want out of him.
When he was alive, he was disturbing and making you uncomfortable. So secretly, you wanted him gone. Because a dead Guru is always a fantastic investment. You can start a new religion on him; you can make a living on him. But a live Guru destroys too many of your things. Between possibility and reality, there is a distance. You will have to cover it. We will make that possibility very palpably available to you, but you must take those few steps to get there. There is simply no other way with life.
No matter what is provided to you, unless you take those few steps to cover the distance between possibility and reality, it will not become a reality in your life. It is my wish and my blessing that this must become a reality in your life. That you are a blessing to yourself and to everything around you. You must live like that. If you breathe, life should flourish around you. May you be like that.
