God, Guru and Ego- an Oxymoron!

“Don’t bring your personality in the presence of God and Guru” said Pujya Guruji in a recent satsang.

Such a powerful teaching in such a short sentence... to me it carries the essence of Sharanagati.

Being involved in activities for so long where a distinct personality, the uniqueness or USP of an individual comes at a premium, where individuality is recognised, celebrated and rewarded (and therefore flaunted), it is indeed a daunting task to begin eliminating that personality. It is not overnight that one can drop all the ego-garbage one has collected over the years. With lack of awareness, it could, and does, creep into our interaction with the Guru too. Our words may be carefully chosen with appropriate usage respectful words like ‘Pujya Guruji’ and ‘with His grace’ and ‘Lotus Feet’ etc etc, but the body language- the manner of speaking, dressing and sitting may declare our attitude of assumed superiority from roof tops.

Talking out of turn, not paying attention to what is being said by others, interjecting a conversation abruptly with one’s own views, arguing a point with logic in the presence of elders, speaking loudly, yawning etc are considered bad manners in every situation, but in the presence of Pujya Guruji this behaviour is nothing short of blasphemous. It takes a lot of awareness, born out of sadhana, to be able to subjugate and transform these basic instincts into divine ones.

I humbly pray to Pujya Guruji to bless us all with the will to engage in rigorous sadhana, so that our Shraddha, Bhakti and Sharanagati will increase exponentially every moment, so that we deserve the blessings of Pujya Guruji, showered on us so benevolently, lovingly and unconditionally; so that our egos are completely erased, so that we do not flaunt our family backgrounds, education, professions, knowledge, biases, affiliations and achievements in His presence, so that we attain and retain the eligibility to be in Pujya Guruji’s Divine Presence, likely to be taken for granted by us in our ignorance.

I take heart in another sentence uttered by Pujya Guruji recently- “There has been progress in all of you, very very small- as small as an atom maybe, but there has been some progress every day” (not His exact words). This progress is despite our best efforts to the contrary, I think! Pure Grace, that’s all.

I surrender these thoughts and desires at Pujya Guruji’s Lotus Feet. Gurucharanarpanamastu

Jai Guru Nimishananda