Dear Sundari
I heard Ramji last Sunday talk about trusting a Vedanta teacher only if they have fully actualized their ego. What does that mean, and how does one tell? I have been convinced before that I found the perfect teacher who was someone to respect and follow without question, and been very wrong indeed. In fact there is so much on offer in the spiritual world that it seems impossible to tell if anyone can be trusted. Could you explain why I can put my trust in someone such as James – or yourself – because you claim to be qualified Vedanta teachers? And why do I even need a teacher, why can I not do self-inquiry on my own? There is so much available online.
Sundari: The ‘spiritual market place’ is a human institution, imperfect in every way. Because your options are limited, you find yourself in it by no fault of your own. You can wander in it for twenty plus years and realize that the means available to you are faulty. And although it was not your intention and you had no idea how to seek when you began, you may have actually qualified yourself while you were there. All seeking is a mistake but it is a good mistake. We call it a ‘leading error’ because it may very well indirectly lead you to where you need to be.
You cannot teach Vedanta to yourself. Reading books and listening to unqualified teachers does not work. It is natural to begin your journey in this way but there is an obvious downside: your ignorance will cause you to interpret what you read.
Vedanta works when you are ready to stop seeking because it is a valid means of knowledge for realizing the Self, and it stands independent of any teacher. It requires qualifications, unlike most other teachings on offer. It works, if the student is qualified, understands the value of the means of knowledge, has faith in the teachings , is committed to moksa and has found a teacher who is qualified to teach it.
If the student is properly qualified they will have the humility to have total faith in the teachings, and thus submit to the teacher in trust as its representative. If the teacher is qualified, meaning they have totally objectified their ego, there is never a question of the student being right. Isvara in the form of the teacher/Isvara is the only trusted authority. Rightness only belongs to the scripture.
How do you know if a teacher has actualized their ego and is qualified to teach you nonduality? They will teach you as the Self and not as an ego; they will teach according to the scripture and not their interpretation of it; they will make it very clear upfront that the nondual scripture has nothing to do with them; they may help you to correct your psychological blockages but will not allow or encourage any dependence on them; they will make themselves redundant as soon as possible; they will live the teachings and be a role model for them. Most importantly, they inspire confidence by teaching you in the spirit of friendship and equality.
If such a teacher manifests for you, count yourself among the very fortunate. And if they hand out a tough lesson for your ego, take it as a blessing directly from God. You do not give it to your ego, if freedom from it is your main aim. Of course we need discrimination in surrendering to a teacher as truly qualified Vedanta teachers are very rare indeed. The problem many inquirers have in the West, particularly where the tradition of Vedanta does not include taking the vow of chastity or donning the robes of the renunciate, is making the mistake of confusing the teacher with the person. When the ease of friendship allows such openness, personal devotion to a teacher as a friend can lead to judging them as a person. We see this often.
An enlightened person is not necessarily a qualified teacher and a qualified teacher is not necessarily enlightened! If my teaching is nothing more than me and my enlightenment story…what I did, what happened to me…it is not going to work for you. My enlightenment and the conclusions I draw from it do not amount to a teaching because the problem is ignorance. Ignorance is hard wired and belongs to me. If you have removed yours, mine remains, unless you can show me how to remove it.
Walk the Talk
Enlightenment has no meaning without right conduct. It is quite amazing that in this day and age the ‘crazy wisdom’ idea still has legs. “Do as I say, not as I do,” is not a teaching. What use is enlightenment if it amounts to nothing more than a license for the ego to indulge its cravings? I feel sad that so many Indian and India related gurus have compromised themselves over the years and given truth a bad name over the most banal vices: money, sex, fame, or power. One imagines that the vices of the enlightened should somehow be more exotic. Over a hundred years ago, Sri Ramakrishna said that all obstacles to enlightenment could be reduced to two: women, meaning sex, and gold. It applies equally to teaching.
When someone sits in front of you on a throne with hundreds of people staring at them and the ‘energy’ is wonderful, you are tempted to imagine that they are very enlightened. In reality, you know nothing about who they really are. A pleasing image and good feelings is all you require. A discriminating seeker is a fly on the wall and buzzes unobtrusively into the life of a teacher to see if he or she shines outside the limelight. Find out where the money goes. Listen to the gossip with discrimination; often where there is smoke there is fire. Public figures are always suspect. They often suffer low self esteem and are clever at creating an image of themselves as caring souls, but a healthy dose of suspicion is warranted. The more ‘spiritual’ they are, the greater should be your doubt. Experience teaches that spirituality is a popular refuge for scoundrels.
We teach by precept and example. Only an extremely advanced, highly qualified person can get the knowledge from a rogue…if at all. Freedom talk is seductive and cheap, but who is actually free? When you meet a free person, you can feel it. There is a lightness, an unconcernedness, an ascetic simplicity to them that is unmistakable. They never have an agenda.
You should run fast when a teacher tries to recruit you. You should run twice as fast when a teacher tells you what to do, or tries to convince you they have ‘special’ powers. A teacher is someone who reveals the truth. If you see the truth, it will do the work for you. Who are you if your self confidence is so low that you cannot figure out how to live your life? A teacher who asks you to surrender to him or her…or accepts your slavish personal devotion is an immature insecure human being, not a teacher no matter how glorious he or she appears to be. As are you for offering it. You need be only a devotee of the truth, nothing else.
A teacher who allows you to become dependent is not a teacher. He or she is power hungry. And a teacher who tries to hang on to you when you want to leave, who tries to convince you that you are compromising your enlightenment is a scoundrel.
A real teacher will be happy to see you leave, knowing full well that life is the best teacher and that you will be back, not necessarily to him or her, but to the teaching. If the teacher is on the level and the teaching works—like Vedanta—you should feel more and more free of the teacher as the teaching progresses. A few weeks after I met my teacher he said, “Sit down and listen. We will have you out of here as quickly as possible because you are using up valuable space that someone else can use.”
A teacher who expects you to believe his or her words based on an epiphany you have had in his or her presence is not a teacher. A teacher who convinces you that your ego needs busting or that your mind needs to be destroyed is very dangerous. Fame does not a teacher make; groups of people can be as deluded as individuals. You will notice that the teachers around whom cults of personality develop invariably make the mind the enemy. Whenever a doubt happens, you are told that it is just ‘mind’ and asked to dismiss it. If you find yourself with this kind of teacher and teaching, it means that he or she does not have a valid means of knowledge and is power hungry or needy. It is amazing how many popular teachers actually need your love. If you feel that a teacher needs you, head for the hills. You are asking for trouble. A true teacher is dispassionate and self fulfilled and has nothing to gain by teaching you.
A teacher who teaches silence does not have a teaching. Silence is happy with ignorance. A teacher who teaches experiential enlightenment is not a teacher because you are always experiencing the self; there is always only consciousness. Finally, a teacher who does not present the downside of his or her teaching is not a teacher. Osho, for example, touted tantra. Perhaps tantra is a legitimate path for qualified people. However, sexual tantra barely deserves mention in so far as it is only one of many techniques. Sexual tantra works as far as non-dual epiphanies go…if you are lucky. However, sexual tantra, which is a perfect set up for unfulfilled immature egos, has a glaring problem. The technique that gives you the experience of non-duality produces attachment to the technique! You become attached to sex, not the knowledge of non-duality which should absorb your mind. Fixing the mind on the self is self inquiry. Instead it is concerned with the next sexual episode.
It is the duty of a teacher to warn against attachment and offer techniques like karma yoga that destroy attachment instead of it. Instead, Osho used this teaching to attract thousands and further his pursuit of fame and fortune which led to his undoing and serious damage to many of his followers. Only Vedanta fearlessly points out the downside of everything to help you develop dispassion. Had I been interested in attracting people I would have avoided informing seekers of the long list of qualifications enumerated in this chapter.
I understand that it may be difficult to hear this message but keep in mind that these statements are in harmony with a teaching that has worked for thousands of years, that is as solid as the truth on which it is based. Your confidence is in it will be well place and a valuable asset. Don’t squander it on damaged goods.
Of course, I tout Vedanta because it worked for James and me and for many others since time immemorial. But Vedanta is only a means of knowledge. It is the boat to get you across the river. As I said above, as Vedanta teachers, we have see you as the Self, as an equal. We do not look down on you, nor do we feel superior because there is only one self and we are all it.
Finally, keep in mind that there are also teachers who know the truth, know they are the truth and live dharmic lives but do not have a legitimate means of self knowledge. It is not the kiss of death to associate with them; you can gain much. And do not lament if you have been used and abused at the hands of a spiritual teacher. Take it as a gift and don’t give up. When the time is right the right teacher will appear.
Sundari
