Premnath asked, “After spending such a long time with their guru and receiving so much grace, how can disciples drop away, Pujya Guruji ?”
Shri Nimishananda Guruji said: Some of them fall into the arrogance trap - ‘Now I’ve listened to all this so many times. I know everything. I can manage on my own.’ For others, when hardship comes, their faith in the guru may be undermined.
“The guru’s grace reduces the intensity of the hardship so that what would have hit the disciple at 100 per cent intensity now manifests at just one or two per cent. Not realising this, the disciple mentally blames the guru saying, ‘What’s the use of coming here? My guru has done nothing to prevent my suffering.’ There are other disciples who are dissatisfied with their rate of progress on the path and go in search of a guru who can give them ‘Instant Liberation’.... (laughter) Oh! The wiles of Maya are infinite.
“When a disciple is affected he should regain his balance by recalling the teachings of his guru. It takes so much sadhana and requires the good karma of many, many lifetimes to obtain a guru. One should always keep this in mind. If he throws away this golden opportunity, the disciple will have to pass through several incarnations before he obtains proximity to a guru once again. The guru is unaffected and ever blissful. It is the disciple who incurs the loss.”
Ravindran who was also among the devotees who were participating in the informal satsangh said, “All of us should carefully guard against such a thing happening to us.”
Devotee Hemalatha asked, “Should a disciple have only one guru?”
Shri Nimishananda Guruji said, “Normally each soul feels a strong pull towards one particular guru. Sometimes he may have had the blessing of meeting many enlightened masters before finding his own guru. Occasionally, your own guru may send you to other enlightened beings for a while, but this very seldom happens. For most people the guidance of their own guru will take them from start to finish. That is the easiest way to progress on the path.
The guidance and protection of a guru is like the cool shade of a banyan tree on a blazing summer day. Only when you have been in the scorching sun for a while do you realise the value of this refuge.”
Ravindran asked, “Pujya Guruji, why does the Divine Mother subject us to delusion in the midst of sadhana? It will simply confuse us.”
Nimishananda Guruji chuckled and said, “If you are firmly fused (to Divinity) you will never get confused. It is not the Divine Mother who casts the spell of delusion upon you — it is your own past karma.
“As you perform sadhana, all your vasanas (tendencies) are uncovered layer by layer. If your faith in your guru is strong and your devotion and surrender are unshakable, you will stand firm. If these are fickle, you are likely to be swept away by the tide of Maya.
“The guru can see your past, present and future. They are an open book to him. So every instruction that he gives you is in your own best interest. Forgetting this, if you try to analyse his every injunction and are slow in putting it into practice, you are inviting trouble.
“Gurus have to bring down the mystical truths and convey them through logic and reasoning in order to make you understand. However you can’t examine gurus using the microscope of logic and reasoning. They are far beyond the realm of logic.”