This is also achieving a milestone in one’s spiritual endeavours. It is only when a man feels love and devotion can he use the experiences of life for spiritual progression. It is not possible to progress in life without experience. A true Guru never answers a disciple’s queries but ensures that the latter finds the answers by himself. The relationship between Arjuna and Krishna is a testimony to the sanctimonious relationship that exists between the Guru and the disciple. The intimacy that is built between them on account of friendship, love, understanding helps foster knowledge. The language of silence, the language of love is the language of God. It is also the language of meditation and self contemplation.
This language is something that cannot be grasped in words, and the only criteria for learning it is that the learner should be inclined to do so. The disciple should worship the divine mother and earn grace for this. Only by having the qualities of love, perseverance, and surrender, compassion, kindness, and love can the Guru’s message be put into practise. What is learnt from the Guru should not be relegated to the dustbin of the mind. It should always live alive in the pupil’s heart and guide him through times of distress. By ensuring this, the disciple becomes a part of the Guru. When he reaches such a state, there is no scope for discrimination, doubts, qualms, misgivings, or apprehensions.
There is also no scope for contention on who is right and who is wrong. Both the Guru and the disciple become complimentary to each other and feed each other’s spiritual aspirations. Also, the need to nurse of justify arrogance does not arise at all.
A disciple who shares a cordial relationship with his Guru realises that more than the latter’s words, the meanings they carry, and the intention with which they are said become important. He partakes the message in the Guru’s words with complete devotion and enjoys the spiritual elixir.
The Guru’s words have the power to change the disciple’s mind and provoke it. Arrogance slowly disappears in the disciple and the burden of accumulated karma is dissipated. Until he comes into contact with the ultimate reality, a disciple tests Guru’s silence and his words and the relevance that they carry against his own spiritual experiences. Between such a Guru and disciple, there is no scope for arrogance, hypocrisy, discussions, or, for that matter, even a dialogue as everything happens through the language of silence.
A true Guru never finds it difficult to answer the queries of his disciple. In fact, it is the latter’s mind filled with curiosity that satisfies the Guru. The Guru not only allays the apprehension in the disciple’s mind but sometimes even silences the mind. Because initially, the mind is not ready to grasp the reality or prepared to accept the subtle.
The article is taken from the book Touch Stone by Gurumatha Amma