Mastering the feeling of mastery.

My kind friend AlekSandra told me that she wants to be her own Guru and asked me whether I think it is possible for her to be so.

I have little doubt on the subject; it’s the honest truth that everyone is their own Guru as long as they exist as conscious entities and there is also no other mode of existence.

No one can teach you anything that you do not know already. But you need to realize that you are that.

May be someone can just point the way to it.

Thus the one who know the truth has to first assert that they are nothing but the truth.

“Aham Brahmaasmi.”

I am the absolute.

If he cannot say so who can? As some mistakenly believe, there is no ego in the statement. It’s a statement of fact. It’s not usurping the power of God; it is going beyond that.

It’s becoming the truth itself, even the god’s bow before those who can say so.

Then if the knower wants he can tell others that they are that too.

Tat Tvam Asi

You Are That.

If it falls to the ears of one who is ready for it, it will be realized.

Anyway realizing your own guruness could also be the realization of guruness of others. I will relate an amusing but nonetheless true parable instead of being dry and esoteric to make it clear to you.

A guru taught his disciples that they are nothing but the final truth and everything else in the universe is so too.

One disciple was returning home afterwards and an elephant in a very bad mood was coming that way knocking everything down in its path. The mahout on its back was yelling at everyone to get out of its way. But our man in the freshness of his knowledge thought, my guru has told me that everything is Brahma (The Absolute truth). So I am truth and the elephant is truth, what has the truth to fear from the truth?

So he stood his way and the elephant knocked him over.

Later when the guru visited him at the hospital he complained bitterly to the guru.

It’s because of you that I am in this state. I believed every word you taught me. You told me that everything in the universe is nothing but the truth, and one has nothing to be fear from anything because they are the same as you. You see what that has led me into, an elephant knocked me over, and I am lying here with broken bones. You should never teach something which can’t be proved practically.

The Guru was not displeased. He asked.

Was the elephant coming alone or were there other people around it or were there any mahouts around?

The disciple said grumblingly.

There was a mahout sitting on the elephant. But what has it to do with your teaching and my condition?

The guru smiled.

Wait a second, was the mahout saying something the while?

The disciple was not pleased at this useless discussion but nonetheless replied grudgingly.

I remember now, he was shouting at the people to move away from the path.

The guru shook his head.

Why did you not move away when the mahout was shouting at you to do so? You only included the elephant in your conception of the truth. Was not the mahout truth too? Did I teach you to exclude him from truth? Wasn’t he directly telling you to what to do and what not to do in the situation? Why didn’t you heed his advice? Wasn’t he the expert around there? If you had heeded it you would not be in this state now.

That finally opened the eyes of the poor disciple.

The point of the story is easily obvious. Realizing truth in you is realizing truth in everything else. The knowledge doesn’t inflate your ego and lead you into blunders, but it technically erases the ego completely. Thus to the knower of the truth everything becomes his guru, and he in turn becomes a guru to everything, if they seek his help.

Real mastery is not the wielding of the absolute power; it’s the mastery of mastery itself.

And it is also useful to remember that there is no use in reciting the gospel into the ear of a beast which is out to attack you. If you can’t get out of its way, you have to restrain it so that it won’t harm itself, you and others.

In such cases you may need to show your mastery after all(Wink). You see, the spiritual is not always the ‘not practical’ as some suppose it to be.

It’s something to meditate on, isn’t it?

(This tale belongs to the Vedanta tradition of enquiry. But you may want to know that it also prescribes meditating on the third eye (middle of forehead and not the pineal gland) for realization after the initial instruction)