RASA INTERVIEWS ASHANKAH YOGI ABOUT GURU & GOD

(RASA'S NEW QUESTIONS AT END)

Dear Guru Rasa,

Your queries on 'Guru as God' are good food for thought and I would love to
throw some
light on that. I am going to take your questions little by little for the
convenience of
understanding and explaining it precisely. Of course, while page after page
can be
written on each of those questions, for now, I would try to keep it short
and simple.

[We are all God, but when we are not realized, we are not considered as
God.]

Who would judge whether we are realized or not? Who has to consider us as
'God' or
otherwise? Nobody. In a way, we are all individuals and we are what we
are. Half the
world doesn't believe Mother Mary to be a virgin. Billions do not believe
that Lord
Krishna existed in body and actually walked the Earth. So, how does it
matter if people
do not believe somebody to be a realized soul or God?

Everything boils down to an Individual's believing oneself to be a realized
soul or God
by his conduct of living on this plane and his relationship with others. It
doesn't
matter even if nobody else believes in the Self-realization of that person.

[In other words, why worship Guru as God when everyone has God inside of
them? Then why
not simply worship all humans, even animals, as God?]

'Brahman Satya Jagad Mithya' (Almighty is Real and World is Unreal).
Everything is just
the manifestation of that Almighty. Thus everything becomes an object of
worship.
Hindus worship animals, humans, trees, fire, water, vehicles, tools and
almost
everything. A typical Hindu wife doesn't drink a drop of water since she
wakes up in the
morning until she has worshiped her husband by waving oil lamp in front of
him and by
taking the dust of his feet and touching that on her head. Those wives, who
cannot do
this everyday does it once a year for which there is a particular religious
day.

Besides this, since everything is refection of God and hence sacred, if a
Hindu person's
foot touches anything by mistake then he has to worship it immediately by
touching that
object and then touching that hand on his head. It's like saluting that
object as an
apology for kicking it by mistake.

Thus, in short, not only the Guru or husbands or parents but even animals
and every
single object are God and can be worshipped and each individual has a choice
what he
wants to treat as his God.

[All Creation is God...then how is Guru different and why should Guru get
any special
privilege? How and why is the Guru the same as God?]

The Sanskrit word 'Guru' is the combination of two words 'Gu' and 'Ru'.
'Gu' means
'darkness' and 'Ru' means 'the act of removal'. Thus a Guru is one who
removes darkness
(ignorance) from the mind of his disciple.

'Ignorance' is the root cause of all our sorrows. Ego, desire, karma and
all such
understandings emerge out of ignorance. And thus, the person who removes
ignorance from
our minds is the most important soul in our lives and that person is called
Guru. We
then undoubtedly regard this great soul to be a Godsend or God Himself.
Thus a Guru gets
special privilege.

But, it's important to know that calling a person, as 'Guru' or calling that
Guru a 'God'
doesn't make much sense unless it's done in the light of a 'Guru-Disciple'
relationship.

The president of a country is president to everybody in that country,
whether one accepts
him as his president or not. The president's law and order will govern
every person in
that nation.

However, it's not the same with a Guru. A guru may be God to his disciples
while he
might be the most ordinary person to other people.

[Why does Guru have POWER but ordinary man on the street or woman has no
power for
healing and shakti? Etc.]

Everyone has same power. But different people use that power differently.
Surgeons use
their powers to operate on hair thin nerves of brains so that dying people
can live
further. Astronauts use their powers to repair satellites at zero gravity
risking their
lives so that billions of people can enjoy television programs. Psychic
readers use
their powers to foretell people's destiny. Most people use their powers for
everyone's
good while some also use their powers to harm others. And then there are
some who waste
their powers by not using them at all. But, everyone has same amount of
powers, whether
he is aware of it or not.

Similarly, some Gurus utilize their powers for healing people. It's not
that gurus have
healing power while an ordinary person doesn't have any power. It's only
that an
ordinary person canalizes his power for some other purpose or even may be
not using it at
all (out of his Free Will); because everyone cannot use one's powers just
for healing
others, as there are other things to do as well.

Another important question is whether it is just the healing power of a guru
that cures a
suffering person or is there something more than that? Assume a guru has
healing power
of touch then why wouldn't he go around twelve to sixteen hours a day and
heal as many
people he could? Supposing the guru has healing power of prayers then why
wouldn't he
pray for the entire world and heal everyone of one's diseases?

It's not that healing touches or prayers do not work, it certainly does.
But, mostly
there are other factors too which work simultaneously. 'Good karma of the
sufferer to
have found such a guru' and 'faith of the sufferer in that guru' are other
important
factors which, actually play critical role in the guru's healing the
sufferer.

Last but not the least, a guru's healing a person by his power of touch or
prayer may not
be the ultimate remedy of the sufferer. 'Don't give fish to a hungry man,
teach him
fishing' as is often said, gurus mostly try to teach the sufferers how to
overcome their
sufferings. A guru may give a mantra to the sufferer and ask him to chant
it with great
devotion that would rid him of his suffering. If a guru uses his powers to
heal the
sufferer then next day the person might come back with his other pains and
look upon the
guru to be his family doctor.

Once a woman brought her dead son to Buddha and said, 'everyone calls you
God. If that's
true then bring back my son to life'. Buddha agreed to bring her son back
to life but
for a condition. She has to bring just one handful of rice from a family
where there has
never been a death. The woman went from one house to another the entire day
and finally
returned to Buddha empty handed. In every family there were deaths, either
the family
had lost at least a child or spouse or parent or grandparent or great
grandparent or
great-great grandparent and so on. The grieving woman realized her mistake
and
apologized to Buddha. Buddha could have brought back her dead son to life
but that's not
how life works. People need to understand the hard facts of life.

It is good to have a guru who would solve our problems. But it's even
better to have a
guru, who would teach us to face and overcome our problems.

Love and peace,
Ashankah
************************


[We are all God, but when we are not realized, we are not considered as
God.]

Who would judge whether we are realized or not? Who has to consider us as
'God' or
otherwise? Nobody. In a way, we are all individuals and we are what we
are. Half the
world doesn't believe Mother Mary to be a virgin. Billions do not believe
that Lord
Krishna existed in body and actually walked the Earth. So, how does it
matter if people
do not believe somebody to be a realized soul or God?

Everything boils down to an Individual's believing oneself to be a realized
soul or God
by his conduct of living on this plane and his relationship with others. It
doesn't
matter even if nobody else believes in the Self-realization of that person.



RASA: HOWEVER, CAN A GURU OR REALIZED PERSON HELP SOMEONE WHO IS WITHOUT
BELIEF OR FAITH THAT GOD CAN WORK THROUGH THEM? SO IN ORDER TO HEAL OR
TRANSMIT SHAKTI, IS BELIEF NECESSARY, AT LEAST IN SOME CASES, IN THE GURU?

MYSELF FOR EXAMPLE, I HAVE HEALING POWER AND SHAKTI POWER. MY FRIENDS HAVE
ASKED ME TO PRAY FOR SOMEONE'S HEALING, WITHOUT THE OTHER PERSON KNOWING
ABOUT IT, AND THE OTHER PERSON WAS HEALED. BUT WHEN THIS PERSON, FOR
EXAMPLE, WAS TOLD I HAD PRAYED FOR HIM AND THAT IS WHY A WOUND HE HAD
STARTED TO HEAL, HE GOT ANGRY AND SCREAMED HE DID NOT WANT MY PRAYER, AND
IMMEDIATELY, THE HEALING STOPPED. WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE? I HAVE TOLD A
LADY I WOULD PRAY FOR HER AND SHE GOT ANGRY, SURELY NOTHING FROM ME THEN
WOULD GO TO HER, BUT IF SHE HAD NOT GOT ANGRY, IF I HAD PRAYED FOR HER,
PERHAPS THE PRAYER WOULD HAVE REACHED HER. WHAT I AM SAYING HERE PERHAPS IS
THAT GRACE AND SHAKTI CAN BE TRANSMITTED BY THE WILL OF THE GURU, AND GRACE
AND SHAKTI CAN BE RECEIVED OR RESISTED BY THE RECIPIENT. DO YOU AGREE?

[In other words, why worship Guru as God when everyone has God inside of
them? Then why
not simply worship all humans, even animals, as God?]

'Brahman Satya Jagad Mithya' (Almighty is Real and World is Unreal).
Everything is just
the manifestation of that Almighty. Thus everything becomes an object of
worship.
Hindus worship animals, humans, trees, fire, water, vehicles, tools and
almost
everything. A typical Hindu wife doesn't drink a drop of water since she
wakes up in the
morning until she has worshiped her husband by waving oil lamp in front of
him and by
taking the dust of his feet and touching that on her head.



RASA: THIS IS DISTURBING...IT SEEMS MORE LOGICAL THE OTHER WAY AROUND, MEN
WORSHIPPING THE DUST OF THE FEET OF WOMAN, SINCE HE DEVELOPED IN HER WOMB
FOR NINE MONTHS, SHE CLOTHED HIM WITH THE BODY OF A HUMAN, AND WHEN HE CAME
OUT OF HER BIRTH CANAL, SHE NURTURED HIM FOR YEARS BEFORE HE COULD BE AN
INDEPENDENT HUMAN BEING. IT SEEMS TO ME THAT MALES HAVE FORCED WOMEN INTO
SOME SORT OF SLAVERY OF WORSHIPPING THEM, THE MALES, WHEN IT IS WOMEN WHO
SHOULD BE WORSHIPPED AS MOTHERS.



Those wives, who cannot do
this everyday does it once a year for which there is a particular religious
day.

Besides this, since everything is reflection of God and hence sacred, if a
Hindu person's
foot touches anything by mistake then he has to worship it immediately by
touching that
object and then touching that hand on his head. It's like saluting that
object as an
apology for kicking it by mistake.



RASA: IS THIS THE PRACTICE OF ORTHODOX HINDUS? IS IT A KNOWN PRACTICE OR
ESOTERIC? I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THE LAST TWO PRACTICES.

Thus, in short, not only the Guru or husbands or parents but even animals
and every
single object are God and can be worshipped and each individual has a choice
what he
wants to treat as his God.



RASA: YES, I CAN SEE THAT AND I SOMETIMES GO OUTSIDE AND KISS THE BIG MAPLE
TREE OUTSIDE AND TELL IT I LOVE IT. I BELIEVE THAT BECAUSE OF THIS RITUAL
WHEN THERE WAS A HUGE WIND, A GIANT BRANCH WEIGHING A TON CAME OFF THE TREE
AND INSTEAD OF HITTING THE HOUSE OR FALLING ON THE PATH, IT FELL NEATLY ON A
BANK BEHIND MY HOUSE, NOT HITTING THE HOUSE NOR THE PATH AROUND THE HOUSE,
THE MAPLE TREE RETURNED MY LOVE. IT IS ALIVE, HAS CONSCIOUSNESS AND
FEELINGS AND RECIPROCATED.

[All Creation is God...then how is Guru different and why should Guru get
any special
privilege? How and why is the Guru the same as God?]

The Sanskrit word 'Guru' is the combination of two words 'Gu' and 'Ru'.
'Gu' means
'darkness' and 'Ru' means 'the act of removal'. Thus a Guru is one who
removes darkness
(ignorance) from the mind of his disciple.

'Ignorance' is the root cause of all our sorrows. Ego, desire, karma and
all such
understandings emerge out of ignorance. And thus, the person who removes
ignorance from
our minds is the most important soul in our lives and that person is called
Guru.



RASA: BY IGNORANCE YOU MEAN THE IGNORANCE OF GOD, I PRESUME, AND ALL THAT
IS OF GOD.



We
then undoubtedly regard this great soul to be a Godsend or God Himself.
Thus a Guru gets
special privilege.

But, it's important to know that calling a person, as 'Guru' or calling that
Guru a 'God'
doesn't make much sense unless it's done in the light of a 'Guru-Disciple'
relationship.

The president of a country is president to everybody in that country,
whether one accepts
him as his president or not. The president's law and order will govern
every person in
that nation.

However, it's not the same with a Guru. A guru may be God to his disciples
while he
might be the most ordinary person to other people.

[Why does Guru have POWER but ordinary man on the street or woman has no
power for
healing and shakti? Etc.]

Everyone has same power. But different people use that power differently.
Surgeons use
their powers to operate on hair thin nerves of brains so that dying people
can live
further. Astronauts use their powers to repair satellites at zero gravity
risking their
lives so that billions of people can enjoy television programs. Psychic
readers use
their powers to foretell people's destiny. Most people use their powers for
everyone's
good while some also use their powers to harm others. And then there are
some who waste
their powers by not using them at all. But, everyone has same amount of
powers, whether
he is aware of it or not.

Similarly, some Gurus utilize their powers for healing people. It's not
that gurus have
healing power while an ordinary person doesn't have any power.



RASA: PERHAPS I SHOULD REPHRASE MY QUESTION. WHY DOES A GURU HAVE POWER
FOR SPIRITUAL THINGS, SUCH AS HEALING AND SHAKTI TRANSMISSION, WHILE OTHER
PERSONS DO NOT? EVERYONE HAS POWER YOU SAY, BUT NOT FOR DOING WHAT THE GURU
DOES, CERTAINLY.



It's only that an
ordinary person canalizes his power for some other purpose or even may be
not using it at
all (out of his Free Will); because everyone cannot use one's powers just
for healing
others, as there are other things to do as well.

Another important question is whether it is just the healing power of a guru
that cures a
suffering person or is there something more than that? Assume a guru has
healing power
of touch then why wouldn't he go around twelve to sixteen hours a day and
heal as many
people he could? Supposing the guru has healing power of prayers then why
wouldn't he
pray for the entire world and heal everyone of one's diseases?



RASA: CERTAINLY THERE ARE RULES CONCERNING THE GIFTS, HOW THE GIFTS ARE
USED. IT TAKES AT TIMES SOME EFFORT ON THE PART OF THE GURU OR HEALER - IT
IS NOT DONE WITHOUT SOME COST, SOME WORK, AND THIS CANNOT BE DONE AT ALL
TIMES, BUT REQUIRES A FOCUS, A CONCENTRATION OF ONE'S MIND AND BODY AND
ENERGY. WHEN I PRAY I KNOW THE PRAYER HAS POWER ACCORDING TO HOW MUCH I PUT
INTO IT, AND WHEN I DO NOT PUT MUCH ENERGY INTO MY PRAYER, IT DOES NOT BEAR
AS MUCH FRUIT.

It's not that healing touches or prayers do not work, it certainly does.
But, mostly
there are other factors too which work simultaneously. 'Good karma of the
sufferer to
have found such a guru' and 'faith of the sufferer in that guru' are other
important
factors which, actually play critical role in the guru's healing the
sufferer.

Last but not the least, a guru's healing a person by his power of touch or
prayer may not
be the ultimate remedy of the sufferer. 'Don't give fish to a hungry man,
teach him
fishing' as is often said, gurus mostly try to teach the sufferers how to
overcome their
sufferings. A guru may give a mantra to the sufferer and ask him to chant
it with great
devotion that would rid him of his suffering. If a guru uses his powers to
heal the
sufferer then next day the person might come back with his other pains and
look upon the
guru to be his family doctor.



RASA: HAHAHA. THIS HAS HAPPENED TO ME MANY TIMES. IT IS DANGEROUS TO TELL
PEOPLE YOUR ABILITIES, IT IS LIKE A RICH PERSON TELLING PEOPLE ABOUT HIS
MONEY, AND ALL THEY DO IS COME AROUND FOR SOME MORE.

Once a woman brought her dead son to Buddha and said, 'everyone calls you
God. If that's
true then bring back my son to life'. Buddha agreed to bring her son back
to life but
for a condition. She has to bring just one handful of rice from a family
where there has
never been a death. The woman went from one house to another the entire day
and finally
returned to Buddha empty handed. In every family there were deaths, either
the family
had lost at least a child or spouse or parent or grandparent or great
grandparent or
great-great grandparent and so on. The grieving woman realized her mistake
and
apologized to Buddha. Buddha could have brought back her dead son to life
but that's not
how life works.



RASA: I HEARD A DIFFERENT VERSION OF THIS STORY, BUT NO MATTER. THERE MUST
BE THOUSANDS OF STORIES ABOUT BUDDAH CHANGED INTO OTHER THINGS.



People need to understand the hard facts of life.

It is good to have a guru who would solve our problems. But it's even
better to have a
guru, who would teach us to face and overcome our problems.



RASA: IT IS HARD FOR THE GURU ALSO, WE ARE HUMAN. HAHAHA.

THANK YOU SO MUCH. I WILL ASK MORE THINGS LATER...(RASA)

Love and peace,
Ashankah



Ashankah's group:



http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ashankah_Yogis_Self-Realization_Satsang/?yguid=213\
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