Today all of us attend satsanghs to listen to our sadguru. When we follow the spiritual lineage or parampara of our sadguru, the very first thing that he tells us is to change the thinking and feeling patterns ingrained in the mind. When we go to the guru, it is the very nature of things that we have to change. However, sometimes our karma is so densely packed that we cannot change our nature, but the guru still tells us how to change our attitude. Even when we come to our sadguru, for most of us, our karma is still present.
Karmic residues have crystallised within us. After all, our karma is not from this lifetime alone, but from past lifetimes as well. So, to remove this crystallised residue, we have to carve a new attitude. This requires careful chiseling. This is the reason why we come to the sadguru.
Within two or three years of taking refuge at his Lotus Feet, there should be a marked change in us. The sadguru puts us on the speed track to transformation. He says, “You have come with a strong intent to transform yourself. Till now you have generated a mountainous heap of karma for yourself through inappropriate thoughts, feelings and attitudes. Now, exit the karmic loop by rectifying all this, don’t continue to generate more and more karma.”
We must understand that the sadguru has a role to fulfill just as all of us do. All of us are society-oriented souls. We live in society. Though we are not primitive forest dwellers, beneath our veneer of civilised behaviour, many of our feelings are still selfish and animalistic. That is why, in the Kali Yuga or materialistic age, the sadguru comes to refine our feelings and attitude. What makes him gravitate towards us? It is our intention to change. As each day passes, we should feel an urgent need to transform and evolve. Till the last day of our lives, our main goal should be constant transformation. We should feel, “I will change the way I interact with others. Till today my own selfish goals and ambitions decided the nature of my relationship with everybody. That is why I am nice to some people and indifferent towards others. From now I will mingle with everybody with a genuine feeling of love untainted by expectation or inertia.” In this way, when our feelings start becoming soft, gentle and pure, our sadguru turns His gaze towards us.
In this age of rampant materialism, God does not deign to appear before us. That does not mean that He has disappeared. God is always there, but how do we feel His presence? Who brings the feeling of oneness to us? Who brings the feeling of Godliness to us? It is the sadguru who brings a feeling of oneness between us and divinity. He says ,“There is a chaitanya or consciousness inside you. Just allow it to attach itself to God. It is your mind that is making you differ and feel separate from God. It is your mind that is making you misunderstand your true self.” Why do we come to the sadguru? We seek Him because we want Him to rectify our moola chaitanya or basic consciousness. Our intellect can be refined in a regular training programme, but only a sadguru can create a paradigm shift in the basic frequency of our consciousness. That is why he corrects all our shortcomings and literally recreates us. It is he who triggers our awareness and gives us the spiritual bearings in life through His Eternal wisdom and satsanghs.