Satsangh..

Satsangh means association with Sat or Reality. One who knows or has realized Sat is also regarded as Sat. Such association is absolutely necessary for all. Sankara has said, "In all the three worlds there is no boat like satsangh to carry one safely across the ocean of births and deaths."

Guru or Master not being physical, His contact will continue after His form vanishes. If one Master exists in the world, His influence will be felt by or benefit all people in the world, and not simply His immediate disciples. As described in Vedanta Chudamani, all the people in the world can be put under four categories: The Guru's disciples, bhaktas, those who are indifferent to Him and those who are hostile to Him. All these will be benefited by the existence of the Master — each in his own way and to various degrees.

Is a "living" Guru/Master necessary?

Sri Ramana Maharshi:
I have not said that a Guru/Master is not necessary. But a Guru/Master need not always be in human form. First a person thinks that he is inferior and that there is a superior, all-knowing, all powerful God who controls his own and the world's destiny and worships him or does bhakti. When he reaches a certain stage and becomes fit for enlightenment, the same God whom he was worshipping comes as Guru and leads him onward. That Guru comes only to tell him, `That God is within yourself. Dive within and realize'. God, Guru and the Self are the same.
Realization is the result of the Master's (Guru's) grace, more than teachings, lectures, meditations, etc. They are only secondary aids, whereas the former is the primary and essential cause.
Guru's grace is always there. You imagine it to be something somewhere high up in the sky, far away and which has to descend. It is really inside you in your Heart, and the moment, by any of the methods, you effect subsidence or merger of the mind into its source, the grace rushes forth, spouting as from a spring from within you.
Contact with Master is good. They will work through silence. A Guru is not the physical form. Hence His contact remains even after the physical form of the Guru vanishes.
After your bhakti to God has matured you, God comes in the shape of a Guru and from outside pushes your mind inside, while being inside as Self He draws you there from within. Such a Guru is needed generally, though not for very rare and advanced souls.
One can go to another Guru after one's Guru passes away.
But after all, Gurus are one, as none of them are the form. Mental contact is always the best.

The Role of a Guru or Master !!

The Guru/Master Gita (verse 17) aptly describes the Guru/master as “dispeller of darkness” (from gu, “darkness” and ru, “that which dispels”). A true, God-illumined guru is one who, in his attainment of self-mastery, has realized his identity with the omnipresent Spirit. Such a one is uniquely qualified to lead the seeker on his or her inward journey toward perfection.

“The blind cannot lead the blind,” said Paramahansaji. “Only a master, one who knows God and is one with God, may rightly teach others about Him. To regain one’s divinity one must have such a master or guru. He who faithfully follows a true guru becomes like him, for the guru helps to elevate the disciple to his own level of realization.”

The guru-disciple relationship is the highest expression of friendship, for it is based on unconditional divine love and wisdom. It is the loftiest and most sacred of all relationships. Christ and his disciples were all one in spirit, as are my master [Swami Sri Yukteswar] and I and those who are in tune with me, because of the common bond of God’s divine love....One who partakes of this relationship is on the way to wisdom and freedom.

By Paramahansa Yogananda

 

Samskara or Impressions !!

"Samskara" can be translated very nearly by inherent tendency. Using the simile of a lake for the mind, every ripple, every wave that rises in the mind, when it subsides, does not die out entirely, but leaves a mark and a future possibility of that wave coming out again. This mark, with the possibility of the wave reappearing, is what is called Samskara. Every work that we do, every movement of the body, every thought that we think, leaves such an impression on the mind-stuff, and even when such impressions are not obvious on the surface they are sufficiently strong to work beneath the surface, subconsciously.

What we are every moment is determined by the sum-total of these impressions on the mind. What I am just at this moment is the effect of the sum-total of all the impressions of my past life. This is really what is meant by character; each man's character is determined by the sum-total of these impressions. If good impressions prevail, the character becomes good; if bad, it becomes bad. If a man continuously hears bad words, thinks bad thoughts, does bad actions, his mind will be full of bad impressions; and they will influence his thought and work without his being conscious of the fact. In fact, these bad impressions are always working, and their resultant must be evil; and that man will be a bad man; he cannot help it; the sum-total of these impressions in him will create the strong motive power for doing bad actions; he will be like a machine in the hands of his impressions, and they will force him to do evil. Similarly, if a man thinks good thoughts and does good works, the sum-total of these impressions will be good; and they, in a similar manner, will force him to do good even in spite of himself.

When a man has done so much good work and thought so many good thoughts that there is an irresistible tendency in him to do good, in spite of himself and even if he wishes to do evil, his mind, as the sum-total of his tendencies,will not allow him to do so; the tendencies will turn him back; he is completely under the influence of the good tendencies. When such is the case, a man's good character is said to be established.

Source: Teachings of Great Masters

Spiritual knowledge, Intellectual help & Physical help..

Spiritual knowledge is the only thing that can destroy our miseries for ever; any other knowledge satisfies wants only for a time. It is only With the knowledge of the spirit that the faculty of want is annihilated for ever; so helping man spiritually is the highest help that can be given to him; he who gives man spiritual knowledge is the greatest benefactor of mankind, and as such we always find that those were the most powerful of men who helped man in his spiritual needs; because spirituality is the true basis of all our activities in life. A spiritually strong and sound man will be strong in every other respect, if he so wishes; until there is spiritual strength in man even physical needs cannot be well satisfied.

Next to spiritual comes intellectual help; the gift of knowledge is a far higher gift than that of food and clothes; it is even higher than giving life to a man, because the real life of man consists of knowledge; ignorance is death, knowledge is life. Life is of very little value, if it is a life in the dark, groping through ignorance and misery.

Next in order comes, of course, helping a man physically. Therefore, in considering the question of helping others. We must always strive not to commit the mistake of thinking that physical help is the only help that can be given,it is not only the last but the least, because it cannot bring about permanent satisfaction. The misery that I feel when I am hungry is satisfied by eating, but hunger returns; my misery can cease only when I am satisfied beyond all want. Then hunger will not make me miserable; no distress, no sorrow will be able to move me. So that help which tends to make us strong spiritually is the highest, next to it comes intellectual help, and after that physical help.

 

Source: By Great Masters

Purpose of Meditation..

`Supreme Being (GOD) is the seer, the thinker, the all-pervading Self’. And, since the beginning of creation, He has distributed Himself in all objects according to their own nature while remaining attribute less. The Supreme Being has divided himself over the years into all the attributes seen in the world before us. By itself being without any movement, it has distributed itself to this variegated world. Therefore, to get back to It, one must turn away from this differentiation and get back into the Unity. Differentiation has taken place – now to get back into Unity is the purpose of Meditation.

`The Supreme Being is absolutely clear, still, silent, peaceful and all-pervading’. But we see only differences. We see only strife and chaos. Great Saints teach us to come out of this differentiation, back to the essential Unity. That is the purpose of the teaching and that is the purpose of meditation.

Source: Wisdom Of Rishis , by Sri M

Mind Gives Birth to Ego & Pride !!

When a description of the Supreme Being is given and when it is said that one’s essential identity is not different from that Supreme Being, The saint who moves closer and closer to That Supreme Being begins to have these attributes little by little. So the person established in the stability of the Supreme Self also `cannot be injured’. Of course, if he stands in the middle of the road and gets hit, he will be injured; but we don’t mean that! Psychologically, one cannot injure him, because he has not made an image for himself. There is nothing that one can break; because only if one has an image can it be broken! Here, images have all been discarded and there is only stillness. One should remember as long as there is movement, (movement in Mind which gives birth to Ego & Pride) there is an image.

 

Here Knowledge = Divine Knowledge or Knowledge about one self !!

Reference: Upanishads , by Master Sri M.