Let us look at how filter coffee is prepared in South India. Coffee powder is poured into the coffee filter and boiling water is poured on top of the powder. This is done to draw the essence of coffee from the coffee powder that gets collected in a container below in the form of decoction. The decoction is the sum essence of the flavor, aroma and the caffeine element of coffee.
In the same manner, the power of the Guru is the essence of power all gods blended wonderfully like a coffee decoction. Many a times, during the process of extracting the decoction from the filter, the decoction doesn’t get collected into the container below. This is due to the air-block that gets created on top where the water is poured. We then knock gently at the top container the air block is removed and the decoction starts collecting in the container below. The same is likened to austerities, tapas. Because our senses and ego act as hurdles, we will not be able to experience the essence of all Gods within us. Therefore the guru gently knocks at us with wisdom to remove our blockages. Then we will etch the truth in our hearts that the Guru is Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara. This can be likened to blending the coffee decoction with milk that is blending the Jeevtma with Paramatma or blending of the individual soul with the supreme soul. This is adhyatma or practical spirituality.
Once you experience that the guru is Parabrahman you get soaked in the same vibrations. You can convince the world through your noble thoughts, speech and actions only when you are free from duality or dwandhwa. To nurture and sustain this within you, as a disciple you just have to absorb the teachings of the guru. The Guru’s teaching has to be assimilated gradually into our system. Not merely stored in your brain as memory. If you do anything other than this especially in mind, it is duality, dwandhwa. You have to assist yourself in removing dwandhwa because the moment you remove your duality you will find your guru. Without satsanga - the company of the truth and our atmabala or power of our soul, we tend to misunderstand everything, add two and two and come up with infinity.
We also guide our own family and friends in the wrong direction knowingly or unknowingly. The two extremes is the problem of Kaliyuga as both ativrishti and anavrishti are prevalent. We have to convert it to proper drishti - which is the vision of discrimination. Be firm and fixed in mind, because guru is firm and fixed in mind. The Guru is only bothered about how much we have evolved, rather than how long we have been in the ashram. Evolve, evolve, evolve, that’s all says the Guru. If we have to have a goal in life, there must be demons. Only when Ravana is there, is there value for Rama. When Jaya and Vijaya were given the choice of either being born 100 times as the Lord’s devotees or of being born three times as Lord’s enemies, they chose the latter. Without evolution, there is no point in being a disciple. What is the purpose of life when there is no improvement and prosperity? Let us recall from the scriptures, the incident of churning of the ksheera sagara or milky ocean. On one side were the demons and on the other side were the Gods. Shiva swallowed the poison that emerged from the Samudra manthan or churning of the milky ocean for the benefit of the entire cosmos. Goddess Lakshmi, Kamadhenu, Kalpavriksha and many other divine beings and Gods that are essential for sustenance and nurturing of the cosmos manifested.
The same act happens within us. When we churn our mind with teachings of our Guru, then bitterness and poison comes out from within us in the form of negativity which the Guru, embodiment of Shiva swallows so that it doesn’t affect us anymore. When the final wisdom emerges from the churning, Indra - the lord of senses - tries to run away with the nectar of wisdom just like it happened during the samudra manthan. When the nectar of immortality - amrita emerged, Lord Indra ran away with the pot of nectar and four drops of nectar fell in four holy places of Haridwar, Allahabad, Nashik and Ujjain. In all these four places kumbha mela is held once in 12 years.
In the same manner, our minds are churning amrita everyday, every moment. We should not let that be spilt and drained away by our own senses, mind and speech.
Extract from ‘The Force of Nirvana’ by Shri Shri Nimishananda