Need for a Guru

Need for Guru

Some days ago I had received a call from someone who has meditation as practise. He is mostly self taught , most of it from books. He followed instructions from the books for significant amount of time. In some rare instances even this can bring about experiences. In due course of time , after couple of years , he started experiencing quite a few things ,

He first started feeling the sensation in ajna chakra.

Then this sensation permeated crown of his head .

Then he started perceiving his heart rhythm distinctly i.e he could sense the rhythmic pulsation in organs of his body. It was as if he was listening to heart beat clearly.

His descriptions were very vivid and was clear that neither he was making it up nor was he under delusion.

Then the most obvious experience started unfolding that of entering into spiral void and traversing in that space. This freaks some people out, but in his case he was feeling good.

These were, in my opinion, clear signs awakening of the most mysterious force in us , that is usually in a state of rest.

He didn't know how to integrate all this and he also sensed that any further plunge would mean he will need to quit his regular life , as these experiences were developing strong sense of distaste for mundane aspects of life , vairagya was gripping him. He was smart in pausing at this point and reducing meditation to bare minimum to ensure a spiritual anchor in life.

From what I gathered , it was evident that he started some meditation practise which began activating latent Shakti top-down instead of most classical ways of bottom-up. This is where role of Guru becomes absolutely indispensable. Under the guidance of the Guru and in association with proper lineage one spends adequate time in preparing the adhara (base) first. Before upward moment or downward movement of Shakti commences, preparing the base is necessary. That will help one handle either the ascent or descent of Shakti.

In some rare cases , due to purva samskaras one might have certain active presence of Shakti which might get expressed even with very little sadhana. But every life we change the attire of the body and corresponding sukshma sharira comes into existence afresh with its own karmic impurities. So work on the adhara is a must . One might be PhD in adhyatma in past lives , but it is necessary to set the basics in place once again before accessing any purva phala. This is where Gurus work also resides for major part. It is not confer great miraculous experiences , but to prepare the base of the aspirant is the enduring work of Guru.