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Should initiates be in love ?

To: alt.magick.tantra
From: "Tryaksa" 
Subject: Re: Should initiates be in love ?
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1999 05:35:31 -0800

mdhjwh wrote in message <381E7FD4.CD127201@ozemail.com.au>...

>How do we know we have found 'your real guru'?
>Yogananda described it as a kind 'falling in love' -
>hence the vulnerability of the student who is asked to
>accept so much on faith.

No, you shouldn't be asked to accept *anything* on faith.  You keep making
this point, as if your guru were going to ask you to believe that they had
super-human powers or somesuch.  You shouldn't be asked to accept
anything... here, again, is what I wrote that you were responding to:

>Your real guru already knows you,
>and knows your doubts about yourself, and about everything involved with
>initiation and your progress.  He or she will start with you just as
>you are at the moment you find each other, because that's all that you are
and
>all that could possibly be meaningful to you at the moment.  He/she should
ask
>you to do nothing that is against your nature at this moment.

Where does this entail accepting anything on faith?  The guru (and by this I
mean the real one, not a cheap imitation with an agenda whom you pay for the
privilege of attending their workshops) takes you for what you are... for
what you *already believe* and what you *already do*.  It's a deeply, deeply
personal relationship.  Your guru shouldn't be trying to sell you
anything... neither a package deal at a yoga hotel, nor a belief system, nor
anything at all.  If the so-called guru is asking you to take something on
faith, then it's not the real thing.

The problem here, I think, is that you're equating all gurus with the
mass-market sort who have some sort of big organization behind them and 1000
students who sit around for mass satsang.  This sort does tend to be the
easiest to come across; they're usually somewhat savvy at marketing
themselves, or retain people who know how to advertise for them.  Really,
though, most gurus aren't like this.  They're not all Ravi Shankars and Sri
Chinmoys.  Most of them, you've never even heard of, and never will.  Most
of them aren't interested in mass marketing and running workshops.  In fact,
especially these days, many potential gurus don't even want their names out
there, because it brings them problems when they are approached by people
whom they don't feel comfortable taking on as students!  When I took diksa,
one of the conditions was that I couldn't give out the name of my guru for
seven years to avoid exactly this sort of difficulty.  This was made a
condition for two reasons... one being that it would help keep me, the
student, humble about where I was (i.e., no name-dropping), and the other
being that my guru has his own life and his own work to attend to, and
doesn't want to have that interfered with by a lot of dilettantes and
ill-wishers.

A real guru, I think, shares their own life with you.  The commitment is
entirely voluntary and based upon nothing more than this great mutual bond
of love and friendship.  There is no need, and no desire, to sell you
anything at all.

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