"The rating of gurus"
What a fun topic. And very appropriate at this time of the year with MLB all stars happening. However, with baseball it is a little easier to find the great ones. There are certain criteria by which to judge, such as batting average and RBIs and strikeouts; yet even with such clear guidelines undoubtedly disputes will arise. How much harder it is to judge what teacher is “there!” It seems every tradition has such signposts, along with saints and sages who have chopped down such notions. Is he a vegetarian, has he gone beyond that and eats meat? Is he celibate or has he lots of shaktis? Is she a householder or does she live in seclusion? Does she ask for money or lives on what others give without asking? Is there anger or does he use anger for others’ benefit? Does she have titles and dresses spiritually or does she look like anyone else with no titles at all? Is he a pacifist or a martial artist? Is she an artist or write books, or does she simply sit in the silence? Does he work miracles and speak eloquently or is he just very ordinary? The questions are endless and lead nowhere.
Sarlo, on his Guru Rating List, has me down as a Mini Advaitin, (is that like being a mini me?) and that I have been finished off by Ramana and ACIM. But what does “finished off” mean? Does that mean that Janaka is perfect in his Awareness and actions? God, I hope not. Does it mean that I am no longer searching to find perfect answers in a swirling world of forms? Maybe I can buy that. In Monty Python’s, Life of Brian, Brian, the reluctant prophet, is being chased by would-be followers. When cornered Brian yells that he is not the Messiah. A follower cries, “Only a true Messiah would say he is not the Messiah.” “What chance does that give me?” replies Brian. “All right then, I am the Messiah.” “He is the Messiah!” they all exclaim.
The problem is all the baggage and expectations we have about the title Guru or Teacher; just like we have the same with Presidents. Every human will have faults, even our leaders. Hell, so does the Earth. They tend to shake things up a bit, reminding us how imperfect the world is as a place to stand firmly upon .And who is it anyway that sees the faults, the Infinite Self or the ego? Many years ago when I was just consciously starting out on the Path I had a dream. I dreamt that I had met Jesus who was wearing blue jeans and smoking a cigarette. Definitely not fitting my image about what he should look like or doing. I called him on it and he agreed that it was a bad habit and said he would go out into the desert to quit smoking. Then we stood in front of the masses in Constantinople. He spoke first and then I. I told them that they needed no one to tell them what was true, that the Truth was found in each and every one of them. Yes, yes, they cried. Be the leader of our new church. No, I said, you don’t need anyone. And I awoke in tears. A few days later I was reading An Autobiography of a Yogi as I hitchhiked across the States. It felt so familiar, being a disciple and having a master. I cried to God to send me my teacher. A couple of months later I was sitting in front of him, along with the chosen few, out in the desert of Arizona. He touched me and I went into bliss, he manifested gems for me, called in space ships, channeled Ascended masters, told me of my past lives, knew the scriptures, knew everything I thought and loved me as his son. Then I saw devotees with his hands on their throats as they would not surrender to his will and soon I felt his around mine. I fled. Not from fear of death, but because I failed to surrender. I sought to make myself more worthy to surrender as he cast me out to the “outer regions” of God. Like Cain I fled to Australia, marked by the Son of God, as he claimed to be. Yet on a bus I met a little old lady who invited me to her ACIM study group. And when I read in the Course: You are as God created you. It felled me. How could I ever be outside of God, Who is everywhere? Months later I went back and confronted him with that question and walked away, this time in freedom.
I had forgotten the Truth and looked for someone to tell me what is true. It was not the teacher that was false, it was the whole premise. The search can only lead to the false because it is a false start. Every relationship is but a mirror of what we believe. Believe that someone will complete us and they will, for a time, until we are ready to see the truth. And this does not mean that we do not have our relations with parents or lovers or teachers. It just means that we cannot be attached to them always being there the way we want them to in the forms we expect. All forms will come and go. I am a Waldorf teacher and have spent years teaching children. I have taught not because I have reached perfection as a human being but because the work has inspired me and that I have the talent for it. I was made to do it. And I learned from it as well. And the children moved on. If we can look at spiritual teachers in the same way and not put them into celebrity status then we can learn from them—and then move on. I write about God and talk about God not because I an Avatar, or a Perfect Master, or Boddhisattva, but because that is what I really enjoy doing, and like to share what I love, and feel that basically every other topic is a dead end, leading only to death. It is when I try to fit the part or not fit the part of what a spiritual teacher should be, or if I try to figure out what level of jnani I am or not that I get all fucked up. It is simply the mind dividing up God and categorizing into little compartments of lies.
For me, Ramana is the perfect teacher because he pretty much stayed out of figuring out the rights and wrongs of the knotty world of form (and there is nothing wrong about being a bit naughty), and always had us focusing on the real question: Who am I? Who is it that asks all these questions? As for the rest, I just let God take care of His business of creating this Mystery called the World.
2004 Janaka Stagnaro
www.janakastagnaro.com