Talks with Guru – The First Lesson

In this sub series of the journey of the Pilgrim, he sits at his feet and earns his teachings from his Guru. The article in the series Talks with Guru are subjective in nature with the teacher spontaneously responding to inquiries into non-duality through a series of queries the seriously inquisitive beginner puts across.

A point to note is that the non-dual Truth is infinite and can be experienced & explained in infinite number of ways, which may look conflicting at times, but each being right from an unique perspective.

Pilgrim: What is spirituality?

Guru: Spirituality is my daily life & my complete experience. Spirituality is “being aware”. It is no different from my existence, what I am and my true nature. In some cases, I am only aware of my body & mind & hence I make the mistake of thinking that spirituality is something outside of me and I have to be somewhat different to be spiritual. When my awareness changes from just my body to something that encompasses even that which I cannot observe through my 5 senses, I become spiritually aware.

Pilgrim: How does one become spiritual?

Guru: I cannot be something that I already am by nature. I am spirit, psyche, matter, non-matter, mind everything at once & all together. I am not one or some of these. Hence I am spiritual, psychical, material, mental, physical all from the beginning. There is no need for me to try to be one of these when I am all of these and much more. I can only be aware of this complete existence & acknowledge my awareness of all these forms and much more.

Pilgrim: How is a spiritual person different from a non-spiritual person?

Guru: When I isolate an existence to either one of a few of the above, do I start experiencing that existence as a set of qualities, a combination of utilities and of course a name & a form.

That is how I see a “person” – as if I am seeing the limited view just through a small window in my room. It is like saying “light” is a different type of electromagnetic field, where as the name “light” is given my man to a small range of frequencies of an infinite stretch of electromagnetic waves which can be experienced by my eyes.

When I see a “person”, I perceive them with my senses, which invariably leaves out anything outside the physical qualities. This is a very limited and very inaccurate view of yourself. This is the main difference from someone who would only focus on the aspects that can be perceived by the 5 objective senses.

Pilgrim: Does a spiritual person see anything different than someone who is not spiritual?

Guru: I see with my eyes. The eyes are a part of the optical systems that allows us to perceive and visualize things that interact with light around us. If something does not interact with light, or is such in dimensions that the interactions are too small or too big for the eyes to comprehend, I do not see such a thing.

As an example, I do not see dark matter. I do not see things in the dark. I do not see the atom or water vapor or the electromagnetic waves from the sun. This technical eye is not designed to perceive such existences. So my eyes, although they can see some, are quite inadequate to see everything.

The eyes of one “person” is almost similar to the eyes of another. Thus someone who is blind can be operated to have another pair of eyes implanted and he can then see just like anyone with healthy eyes. This means that all human eyes are built the same way. The construction of the eyes are no different from someone who understands the complete nature of existence versus someone who believes that one is just this body & mind.

Pilgrim: How does science conflict with spirituality?

Guru: What we call as science is objective set of rules and patterns to predict an outcome of certain events. If this happens, then we should expect that. If this happens under so and so condition, then we should expect that and that with certain amount of certainty.

However, science is also a great effort battling with uncertainty. Quantum physics is all about a gracious way of accepting the fact that science, in its truest most fundamental level are conflicting and quite uncertain. Finally science is grasping the fact that nature cannot be completely understood by one within the bounds of nature. That’s how objective sciences are close to spiritual sciences.

Spiritual sciences are also predictable and repeatable under certain conditions. However, unlike objective sciences, spiritual sciences are subjective and hence you would not find a general formula that applies to everyone. It is almost like saying that even though the school educational curriculum are same for all students, some would excel while others would fail. That is no fault of the curriculum but solely the sincerity, self effort and the readiness of the student.

Spiritual sciences are practiced in confidence between a guru & a devoted disciple and happens outside the views of others. Their progress is constant and their progress is forward. The disciple is prepared & trained by the guru to be capable of receiving such education. For those who are not yet ready to receive that education, the guru might advise a certain type of lifestyle to prepare oneself slowly.

Pilgrim: How does one begin this process of understanding?

Guru: Infinite is That and infinite are the ways to understand That. However no matter what one does to understand, or how much one understands, it will never be complete. One has to come to terms with this fact. Often, depending on how one approaches the infinite, understanding has to be resolved within conflicting circumstances.

Nature has no conflicts as much as nature has no intellect. One way the process could begin is to slowly tamper down one’s intellect, one’s power and intent of reasoning and one’s idea that only things that can be reasoned out or objectively proven are the only reality.

Another path is to start being truly inclusive, where qualities would not matter any more. Qualities like right or wrong, true or false etc will slowly fade and all that is Here & Now will be the only Truth. This is not to say that one gives up the sense of just & unjust or moral or immoral, but it is enough to be conscious of not being an inconvenience to anyone.

There are numerous other ways. Pick the one that is most affordable to you, not one that would be difficult for you to practice consciously or adhere to diligently. But do not deprive your experience of anything. Do not quell or suppress your desires to an extent where they manifest later on with such tremendous vigor and desperation that you lose your balance. Be moderate in what you do. Above all, build the intelligence in you that there is much more to you than just your body & your mind & slowly seek ways to discover them without expecting what that should be like.

Pilgrim bows at the feet of the Guru.