Secret Teachings of Jesus

Session 2 Part 4

Babaji: So we have a topic on how to recognize a bona-fide Guru. I’ll try to go through it quickly. First of all, an ordinary human being is not fit to be a Guru, because we have four defects. First of all we tend to commit mistakes, I mean everybody makes mistakes, right? I made a mistake one time, I thought I was wrong. That’s a joke. OK, so we make mistakes, and we’re always in illusion. What does illusion mean? We accept this body as the self. Our consciousness is identified with the material things.

So we’re not seeing the reality, we’re not seeing that we are a spirit soul. That’s illusion. We have imperfect senses. For example, if I look at this close up, it looks big; then if I move it far away, it looks small. But the size is always the same, it never changes. This means our senses are imperfect. They don’t give us accurate information. There are so many optical illusions, there are even auditory illusions, where we can perceive something that is not so.

So we have imperfect senses, and finally we have the tendency to cheat. So this going on, the police are cheating, the businesses are cheating, the government is cheating, the priests are cheating, everybody is cheating. This is the human condition. So ordinary human beings cannot give perfect spiritual knowledge because of these four defects.

So what kind of a person can give perfect spiritual knowledge? What are the qualities of a person who are situated in transcendence? So first we have to search for a Guru, but since we don’t know what self-realization is, it’s very easy to be deceived. And because one of the four defects is cheating, many people are claiming to be Guru who are not really Guru. So we have to be careful about cheating. So how do we find a real Guru?

First is that he is in the disciplic succession from God. What does disciplic succession mean? That means, I have a Guru, my Guru has his Guru, his Guru has Guru all the way back to God. This is the principle of disciplic succession. No one can become a Guru without themselves having a Guru, and if somebody claims otherwise, they’re cheating. When we find a person like that, when we find a Guru, we have to render service to them. In other words; we have to serve them to please them, and we have to ask relevant questions, because we all have different misunderstandings.

There is no ‘one size fits all’ spiritual knowledge. The teaching has to be individualized or customized. So when we see a teacher with huge audiences, and they’re giving one truth, and they say “This is it for everybody,” this is not really spiritual teaching, maybe preliminary spiritual teaching. But real spiritual teaching means personal relationship with a self-realized soul. And then one also should accept initiation. So a real Guru has been initiated by his Guru, and serves and learns from his Guru for his whole life.

That’s the system; without this help of a Guru, no one can become self-realized, because being in illusion and human consciousness is like falling into a well, like being in jail. You can’t get out of jail independently; you have to have some help. So the Guru is the help. And finally you have to accept the Guru’s instructions as your life and soul. So if we see a person like that, who has himself, accepted a Guru, and is serving that Guru with his life and soul, then we can understand this person is a bona-fide Guru. This is my Guru (A.C. Bhaktivedanta swami prabhupada) it’s a picture of my Guru, we have another picture in the next slide.

So we have to see the qualities of a real Guru. He is established in self-control, and has given up the objects of the senses, he is not involved in sense gratification, and he has given up the sense of false ego. What is false ego? “I am this body.” Real ego means “I’m a spirit soul, and I have an eternal relationship with God.” So when someone realizes that eternal relationship with God, then they are fit to teach spiritual knowledge, because teaching self-realization is not an academic discipline. It’s not like going to college and learning out of a book, it’s a school of real life.

So we have to learn from a person who has himself realized this knowledge. It’s not enough to have some position in an ecclesiastical organization, but one has actually have personal realization. It’s just like if you want to be a doctor, going to medical school is not enough. You have to do an internship in a hospital, and study with people who are already doctors. And when they approve you, then you can be a doctor. So it’s like an apprenticeship.

When you study with someone who is self-realized, they show you how to apply this knowledge in all areas of life.

Audience: You said that you get this information from someone else, but could it be that you receive this information from your past life?

Babaji: This happens, but it is very rare. And a person who has attained self-realization in the past life will show a perfect example. In other words; a real Guru is teaching by example, and not by precept. He is not saying “Do as I say,” he is saying “Do as I do.” So he shows by his example how to live a perfect spiritual life. For example my spiritual Master was already self-realized, and was born in perfect consciousness in this life. But he took a Spiritual Master, and he served his Spiritual Master his whole life.

Did he need to do that for himself? No, but to teach others the right way. Even when God comes to this world, he accepts a spiritual Master.

Audience: And how about Jesus?

Babaji: Jesus was initiated by John the Baptist. Wasn’t it so? Before he started preaching, he took the permission from the previous Master. Even though John said to him “I’m not qualified even to tie your shoes,” remember? But Jesus said “No, you’re the current Master in the disciplic lineage, so I have to get the permission from you, only then I can teach.” Up until that that time, he acted as a student. So this is the principle, and we see it in all the scriptures. This is the quality of humility, means I’m not independently self-realized, but on authority of my Spiritual Master, then I’m approved to teach.

So many qualities of a real spiritual Master. So one very important quality is that he is not violent. Nonviolent means, no killing animals. In other words, he is vegetarian. Not only he is vegetarian, but advises others to become vegetarian also, and shows them how to cook vegetarian food, and so on. He is very simple, tolerant; I already covered clean, accepts a spiritual Master. A real spiritual Master is very clear about the evils of material existence. In other words; he is not willing to tolerate existing in material world or accepting material values.

And he preaches complete transcendence of the values of the material world. In other words if you talk to an average person, and you say “It’s terrible that we have to suffer being born, getting old, getting sick and die.” They’ll say “Oh well, what to do, that’s just life.” But a real Spiritual Master can’t accept that. He may tolerate so my things, but he can’t tolerate that. He himself has to find eternal life, and then he feels driven to help other people finding the same benefit. He can’t sit by and watch the whole world going to hell, because he is driven by compassion.

I mean, if Jesus has just gone India and then absorbed himself in meditation, and not preached, would we know anything about spiritual life? No, so really people who have self-realization, their duty becomes to help others.

So how do we attain self-realization? At some point we have to go to a very quiet lonely place, and simply chant the Holy Name. I think I mentioned this last time, just go to a lonely place, and chant day and night for at least six months. If you do that, you will attain self-realization, guaranteed. No problem, but how many people are going to do that? How many people are very serious about spiritual life? I mean, if someone wants to become a doctor, they go to school for how many years? And then they to internship, and they don’t get any sleep, working day and night, just to become a doctor.

But everything that you earn as a doctor will be taken away from you at the time of death. All that knowledge, all that money, whatever position or respect you get in society, it’s all temporary, it’s all material. But whatever advancement we make in spiritual life is eternal. It cannot ever be taken away from us. So if we take some time out for spiritual advancement, then the benefit of that far outweighs whatever material things we may lose. I mean, what price is happiness? How much is that little happiness that we felt when chanting?

Imagine if you were chanting eight hours, ten hours, twelve hours a day. Then how much happiness would be there? This Holy Name is an ocean of happiness; as much as you want, you can have. How much happiness is enough? So we should be crying, we should be rolling on the ground with that happiness. That’s the result of chanting the Holy Name. What other thing can we do that gives that much happiness?

So the real Spiritual Master will teach this process of chanting the Holy Name. And this is another good point; the real Spiritual Master is not attached to material happiness and suffering. In other words he doesn’t become very exited when something “good” happens, and he doesn’t become depressed when something “bad” happens, but he remains even-minded amid happiness and distress, loss and gain, suffering and enjoyment, winning and losing, honor and dishonor, fame and obscurity. All these material dualities don’t disturb his mind at all. This is the most important characteristic of a person whose mind is simply situated in transcendence.

Remember when we talked about how by being in eternity, this is the solution to all problems? So when so-called problems happen, a person who is self-realized is not disturbed. Simply the action of the material world and the senses. So does that answer your question?

Audience: Having material things and being spiritual, sometimes I thing being a part of God, can’t I have everything, like happiness etc?