Guru Poornima: Guru Is You,
Absolute Bliss Consciousness

Guru is Maun [the silence of the Absolute]. Absolute Bliss Consciousness is Maun. Realization is Maun. When it is Maun, then all is included in it, just as if you are a mother, then all that which is going to happen, your would-be twenty-four children, are all mother. In this way, originally it has been Maun. That is called Shanti [Peace]. When that manifests, then it is Aum. So the Shanti God is Aum. Today, everywhere in India there is the celebration of that which is the supreme basis, the Maun, the Guru, who neither has eyes, ears, mouth, nose, hands, nor feet. Without ears, he hears. Without eyes, he sees. Without body, he walks. Without tongue, he talks. That is Guru.

That which has been called you is the body, mind, intellect, and ego, plus all the thoughts and things which are inside, outside, and around the body. That is called your world. That world has become your I. See, the world that is the creation of the five elements can be seen. Everybody thinks and knows that the mind is there, inside the body. Everybody thinks that there is I, the mind. Therefore, if I, the mind, is the originality of a human being with which he knows all that there is, then I is all that there is.

But why is it that you say, "I am small and you are big"? Because this is the human incarnation, formation, or design, where the I-sense comes. It is said that the I takes on a form. All the parents, teachers, and gurus say this. But they read in scriptures, "You are That who is One without a second." Reading scriptures, they do not know who is knowing this. If scriptures say, "You—He, the Self—are One without a second," then animals are not hearing this, or not knowing it even if they hear. Birds fly in the sky and may hear it, but they do not know what is One without a second. Human beings hear it. But suppose they do not know One without a second, then what are they called? Human beings who are unknowledgeable of One without a second. Then, as a human being, one has to know who knows this. Without Knowledge, no knowledge will be heard, no form can be recognized, nothing can be known. So why is Knowledge not original? Why is it sitting in some archive department in books? Why is Knowledge not with you? Why is Knowledge only with Gurus who can repeat verses from scriptures? If scriptures say, "Thou art That—Tat Twam Asi," then who hears this? Does a book hear it?

That which you are wanting to search for, Tat [That], is Twam [You]. So how close it is! What is Twam? You, the Knowledge. Without You, you do not know anything. But you do not know that you are Knowledge. You try to seek the love of things, of your dad, mom, brother, and sister. Brotherhood is a big movement, but without You, where is brotherhood, motherhood, or fatherhood, where is you the body, the name, or the form? So that You is missing. … The word "missing" is being used by everyone. You are missing That which is there, which is there twenty-four hours, for millions of years. With all human beings and beings, That has been there. That Self is hidden from the eyes, therefore you are not able to see it. You are able to see your body and the parts of your body, but you do not know the Self. …

So what is that which you do not have? Knowledge. You do not have knowledge of Knowledge. Who has Knowledge? Guru. Today is Guru Poornima day. We are celebrating That, who has been completely hidden. But people say that when the moon shines in the month of July, it is Guru Poornima. They look at the moon and say it is Guru Poornima. They do not see the full moon for fourteen days—although it is always the same moon. If the moon becomes a half, a quarter, a third, or a fourth, then why do you say that it is full? That means that you say, "My life is full," but you still do not know where the Life is. …

The question is, why is it that you miss That and, instead of knowing it, you began to falsely call yourself I? You immediately put I on your forehead. This is where Guru is needed. Those people who are educated, who have every thing and form and all kinds of joys in plenty—yet who are not satisfied with those joys, who keep repeating the same joy again and again, again and again—are not perfectly satisfied. Why is this? Because that One who is ever-satisfied, you have de-identified with, and that which is the ever-hungry mind, which is ever-desiring, you say, "That is me. That is I." … Today is a celebration day. That which liberates, relieves, and gives freedom is Guru. [The morning program continues on the roof, with many songs, speeches, and other talks from Swamiji. Then, in the evening we meet for a celebratory dinner outside at the land. Swamiji again speaks there:]

This is the occasion of Guru Poornima, which is actually only known to a few people. Many people do not know what it is. Those who have gone to a gurukul [a school run by a Guru] have understood what Guru is, especially when Gurus have explained its meaning. I would not take much time, as all of you must be waiting for food and were standing for so long [offering garlands], but the meaning of Guru Poornima should be in your hearts. …

Originally, the word Guru was Aanand [absolute Bliss]. As long as Aanand exists on earth, Guru exists. You can watch that Aanand, the Bliss Being, is free, pure, and eternally just the same—so it is called Guru, the Light. If there is darkness and the sun arises, then light tears the darkness, it removes it. All human beings are born with bodies. If lightning shines in the sky—and lightning has no form—it is not that lightning is born of the sky. So the Guru Light is not born. It is always there. But it comes on earth just like lightning comes now and then, now and then. It does not come always. The sun arises in the morning. Everybody knows it. That light is there. But then that light, the sun, is not Guru. With Guru Light you can see the sun, but the sun cannot see you. That means that light is not only light that removes darkness. This Light, equated with Guru, is that which removes the ignorance of a human being. …. That which you do not know is missing—then you are missing Guru. When you come near Guru and start getting the enlightenment of Guru, then you begin to miss. But human beings think, "We are human forms and Guru is also a form, so we are missing a form." So Guru is not like a father who you are missing, as you are missing Amitabh [whose family was at the celebration, but he could not come.] …

Darkness is ignorance in the head or heart of a human being. About what? He does not know that Light. He does not know that he is Guru, that he is from Guru, that Guru manifested as him. You can understand that water can manifest a wave, but when lightning manifests in the sky, you don’t understand. For a very short while you see it [he snaps his fingers], and then it is gone. It is not born. The wave remains in the water, and you think that the water and wave are one. But you never think that the sky and lightning are one, you think that a cloud and lightning are one. In the same way, when you see human bodies, whether small children or big persons, you see that they are human beings who walk with two feet, work with two hands, and see with two eyes. In this way, if a person talks about Guru, then you think that Guru is a person. Then you see Guru and criticize Guru’s language, his manners, his ways, his things, his faces and forms. But Guru is not a form. Why? The disciple is also not a form.

We are not forms. But we see forms, as suppose lightning suddenly makes Arohini. You say that she is Kirti’s daughter. Lightning is not a son and not a daughter. So Guru Light is not a son or daughter, not a father or mother. Yet our sages and saints have spoken, "Gururu Brahma, Gururu Vishnu, Gururu Devo Maheshwara [Guru the Creator, Guru the Maintainer, Guru the Dissolver]." Why? There is nobody—neither Brahma, nor Vishnu, nor Mahesh—there is only Guru. But there is imagination in the head of an artist. He imagines. He thinks that God must be Brahma, who created this world, and then he makes Brahma. I want to let you know that today is the day of that formless Being, the pure Intelligence, which has no form. …

Guru’s power is Intelligence. Power is not a leaf or a flower. You have seen electricity. It is a power, it is not a form. So that formless Intelligence which reflects through the human mind appears to be a human being. Here is the difficulty, whether it is Intelligence that is Guru or an intelligent guru that is Guru. But whoever as a human being comes to know that Life, that Being, that Originality—"That Thou Art, That I Am, That All This Is"—he becomes worthy of celebration. It so happens. You have seen that on this occasion all of you had garlands in your hands, and I didn’t bring any garland for you. Why? You are already garlanded in me. You are in my heart. But the practical reality is that I see you and you see me. Then our consciousness is human. With eyes, we are human beings. But with Guru Consciousness, we are divine. Today is the day of Divinity. It is Guru Poornima. I welcome all of you as Gurus. Thank you very much everyone. Most welcome. [Dinner is followed by more speeches, and then a program of songs in Gandharv Hall. This is Swamiji’s final speech of the evening:]

When your heart and mind have a sense of freedom—these are the words—at that time you are the one who can take a decision in a split second and are not affected. When your heart and mind are free, then you can initiate anything, immediately or later on, without being affected. So the realization of the Self is meant to make a human being completely liberated and free from the effect of his senses, heart, and mind. Although a human being ordinarily does not know that this is possible, yet he desires it. People say, "Don’t desire it," so they curb and completely finish it. They say, "As long as you have desires, you are caught, bound, and cannot be freed." So an intelligent person stops dropping all his desires. Such as Aasha is very good on the drum set, but for the last twenty years, rather more than that, she has not touched it. When she was asked to play, she said, "I have no desire to." I said, "What is this? Desire or no desire, you play." [Laughter.] That’s all. How is it that she could play? Guru’s words. Guru’s words immediately create freedom. Your bondage is liberated and your darkness is gone—when the sun shines, darkness cannot stay. So realization is that type of sun which, when it shines, there remains no ignorance of the fact that God is there, that You are there as Pure, Free, and Forever. This ignorance, this darkness, is removed.

It comes to someone unasked for, naturally. To some, it can be achieved by making efforts. So all kinds of people are there, and Guru never minds. Whoever comes in front of him, he knows that they are all Me, and that Me needs liberation. Everybody is caught in something. Somebody is caught in language, somebody else is caught in class, richness, poverty, smallness, greatness, fame, or name. All that happens. … If something is not according to your mind, you think that God is not pleased with you. That’s why you must have seen that when I leave I say, "God bless you," but if people say, "Please shower blessings on me," I don’t extend them. It’s not my habit that I should say, "My blessings will work." Why? If the blessings of a person would work, then nobody would die [laughter], nobody would fall sick, nobody would fail, and nobody would have his mind disappointed or frustrated. All that has been created by God. It is a niyati [blueprint] of a human being that makes you like that. If you are a cat, however great that cat prays that "The dog should not chase me…" [Laughter.] Yes, so you have understood the point that Freedom is the highest. That is Liberation. …

Our point on Guru Poornima day is that all the persons who have joined us must know what they stand for in life. That is Freedom. In any way, whatever means you adopt, but you must get Freedom. … Guru was kind enough. He’s standing over there [there is a photo of Swamiji’s Guru, Swami Raamanandji, on the stage] having an umbrella, and he has no electricity [the power had gone off during the program]. He’s my Guruji, who had initiated me [into meditation] when I was seven years old. As everybody has a Guru and his photograph, I also do. But when you realize, then all is You and You are all. At that time, Freedom is Guru. The highest realization is Guru Realization, and that is Freedom. You are not afraid of death. You are not afraid of any kind of difficulty. You are not afraid of loss and gain. You are not afraid of any kind of bondage.

Anytime, you should be aware. You have seen that this has been a practical demonstration for thirty-three years. You have been seeing one person. One person is in front of you. But he only does that which suits him. Why? Guru is there. Whatever suits Guru, you should do that. Guru’s nature is Sat Chit Aanand. So, as a human being, if you adopt Guru, Sat Chit Aanand, then it is your duty as a disciple to be always be tuned in to Sat Chit Aanand. This is the end of Guru Poornima. My blessings to you. Remain established in Sat Chit Aanand—Pure Existence, Pure Consciousness, Pure Bliss. That Thou Art. Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum.