Life is born out of “desire” and lifetime after lifetime we remain prisoners of this desire. During the cycles of these births the soul often remains oblivious to the purpose of life and gets more and more entangled in the various attractions of the physical world — relationships, profession/career, properties, occupations, hobbies — the web of maya which binds one to the senses and their objects.
Desire is unending, and it starts the cycle of karma — one leads to the next and it becomes a successive movement, which continues till the soul decides that the time has come to go back home. One has to pay back for every karma in his/her life. While it is alright to experience and enjoy the pleasures, it is also important to remember the purpose of your life and that for every pleasure one indulges in, there comes an associated pain. That’s what maintains the balance in this creation.
We are limited by our senses and limitation of the mind cannot comprehend either life’s purpose or the ways to achieve it, so we just carry on with our lives with limited vision until we meet a Guru. A Guru defines our path, the purpose of our life and gives us the means to achieve it too.
An individual soul unaware of its capacity remains ignorant until the Guru enlightens him/her with gyan and awakens the hidden potential in the shishya. Lord Ram was just 14 when Maharishi Vishwamitra came to take Him away to annihilate the most dreaded of the demons of those times. Dashrath blinded by the veil of maya was aghast with the idea, but his Guru, Rishi Vashishtha, assured him of the great victory his son was going to mark when grace of Guru Vishwamitra falls upon him. Lord Ram being Vishnu incarnate himself bowed at the feet of the Guru and received grace. The grace of a Guru is the power of the collected tapas performed by the Guru himself which he grants to the shishya. It is said that Maharishi Vishwamitra was capable of slaying all the demons of the earth including Ravan, but he chose to bless Ram, his shishya, to give all his weapons and their energies for Ram to achieve the purpose of his birth.
In this day and age demons like Ravan, Hiranyakashyap and Kansa do not exist in body but they do exist as energies. It is imperative to safeguard yourself before you take a Guru. The ways recommended are the principles of Astanga yoga in general and the five yamas in particular, which are Satya (truth), Asteya (non-stealing), Aparigraha (non-collection), Ahinsa (non-violence) and Brahmacharya (celibacy as code of conduct of Brahma). In Kalyug, any normal person practicing these five yamas has the capacity to become a Guru. And any exalted soul not practicing them can become the embodiment of Ravan.
Yogi Ashwini, the guiding light of Dhyan Foundation, is an authority on yoga, tantra and the Vedic sciences. Contact him at dhyan@dhyanfoundation.com