Yoga begins and ends with the guru. For a sadhak there’s nothing higher than the guru’s energy. Why? Because guru is the medium between God and you; one who filters, modifies gyan (knowledge) for us to assimilate, one who brings it to the level of our acceptance and tolerance. Without guru kripa (blessing) the sudden flow of gyan can be disastrous.
It is foolish to equate your guru with the physical entity for guru is energy, the medium through which gyan flows to the sishya or disciple.
The guru through the shaktipat sets a person on the path of sadhana. For a sadhak, guru is the basis and ultimate goal of his sadhana, for it is said that one is a disciple only so long as one is a sadhak, that is to say for as long as shakti is not fully communicated to the disciple’s body from that of the guru, through shaktipat. The process requires immense amount of energy, which is transferred from the guru to the shishya. However, if this energy is channelised towards people who have no value for it, the energy dissipates. That is why it is said that knowledge or gyan should not be distributed to those who do not have respect or value for it. And when a disciple is given shaktipat or diksha, siddhi is attained. And on attainment of siddhi, this dualism (guru-shishya relationship) is overcome and they become one.
However, practising without the personal guidance of a guru may do more harm than good. Kundalini is pure power, if awakened in an uncontrolled manner it may cause irreversible damage to the body, because a normal body does not have the capacity to hold this shakti. In the Rudryamala, it is said, “The fool who commences japa and tapas by reading books instead of receiving it from the guru acquires nothing but sin. Guru alone can, in a single moment, destroy the mass of his sins…”
In earlier yugas, gyan was not imbibed by just reading books, listening to discourses, rather gyan was transferred only in one way, from the guru to the shishya. The problem with the majority of people in this world is that we want to know everything intellectually, but we don’t want to practise it. Intellectual understanding is not enough, we need a guru to really explain it.
Now the question is: Why do we need a channel? If the divine is immanent everywhere, then why? Force is like ice-cold water, and we are all like pieces of red-hot stones. If the water is poured on us, we will crack, our bodies will break. That is the meaning of kundalini awakening. The job of a guru is to hold the ice-cold water and bring it to the temperature of the sadhak, because the guru’s temperature is closer to that of the force. The guru then pours the warmed water drop by drop on the shishya, who cools off gradually. It is between you and him.
Yogi Ashwini, the guiding light of Dhyan Foundation, is an authority on yoga, tantra and the Vedic sciences.
Links:
[1] http://archive.asianage.com/yogi-ashwini-632
