Lots of people claim dead Spiritual Gurus as their root or Sat Guru. Sri Sivananda, Ramana Maharshi, Sri Anandamayi Ma, Sri Ramakrishna, and Neem Karoli Baba are favorites of the dead Spiritual Guru disciples. This is somewhat of a tradition, and it seems to be even more prevalent in India.
Therefore one is free to dream up feel-good fantasies. By and large, people with dead or absent Spiritual Gurus are in greater danger of remaining wrapped up in illusion and delusion that preserves the sense of separation and feeds fixation.
How can you discern if this is your situation? If your dead Spiritual Guru or the Spiritual Guru far away never scares you, confuses you, pisses you off, makes you cry with frustration, or electrifies you with self-recognition, you are not in a Sat Guru relationship.
Dead or alive, near or far, a true Spiritual Guru is a mirror of Your egotistical self, an unconditional openness in which you can clearly, and terrifyingly, see the degree to which you are caught up in the tensions of “me, myself and I.”
Even the open flow of compassion through your Spiritual Guru should have an edge of the terrifying. Why? Because the oceanic compassion of a Sat Guru sweeps away all concept, all safe bunkers of self-limiting ideas.
The Sat Guru shows us what is possible in the context of a human life, and it is so much more than anything we can imagine.
The Sat Guru answers our longing so fully, we discover the cosmic nature of that longing. You might cry like a baby upon hearing Reality’s answer to its little child, but it will be a cry so simple and complex, so complete and inadequate, so full of wonder, relief, and despair, so utterly paradoxical, there will be no way to tell stories about it later on.
If, in your relationship with your dead Spiritual Guru, you are always in a state of nice, comfortable, blissed-out bhakti, or ordinary and equally comfortable rationalization, you can be sure that fantasy is still at play.
The Sat Guru is not comfortable to those who are not used to the full flow of Reality.
The Sat Guru’s compassion is both tender and fierce. Not knowing the fierce aspect of compassion means, for most of us, that we will not find the strength to recognize our real condition.
The Sat Guru’s compassion is utterly personal and utterly impersonal. Not knowing the impersonal aspect of compassion means that we will not open to unconditional compassion. Our expression of compassion will remain limited and self-motivated.
Discovering the Sat Guru, meeting the opportunity of Sat Guru, is discovering the ineffable something for which you have always longed but could never name.
You may want to throw yourself at your Spiritual Guru's feet, fall into your Spiritual Guru's arms, and run away all at the same time.
Whatever your Spiritual Guru says or does, and whatever your reaction, even in the midst of seeming to reject what your teacher is showing you, you will know without a doubt that you are being delivered to the truth of your situation.
The Sat Guru is an explosion of Reality in your body, your mind, and your heart.
This explosion may be noisy and dramatic, or nearly imperceptible. But nonetheless, it is a situation of enormous dynamism. You cannot help but be moved. You cannot help but tremble at times with both fear and gratitude.
A teacher is chosen after due consideration. You do not choose a Sat Guru. Sat Guru is not a decision. Sat Guru is a sudden discovery of your Self. Sat Guru is a phenomenon, a shift in awareness.
The world presents us with infinite possibilities for Self-realization. So, why not a dead Spiritual Guru, or far-away Spiritual Guru?
If a student is capable of meeting the ever-present phenomenon of Sat Guru in this form, why not?
Because of the split artificial minds of Negative emotions and selfish ego.
The Sat Guru "channels the incidental cause of all evolution, the energy of the soul, which removes the samskaras or energy blockages as a farmer removes stones from the water course" – Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 4:3
The energy of the Buddhafield surrounding a Sat Guru forces all samskaras or energy blockages out into the light of day, showing the student the symptoms of their blockages which cause the student to be separate from the original cause the Purusha the Soul, as negative emotions and negative thoughts.
As the Spiritual Guru notices the samskara or Energy Blockage caused pain of the student he sometimes chooses to remove the energy blockage through Meditation and Samyama – The Energy Enhancement Seven Step Process.
Only when the student can stay in the presence of the Spiritual Guru and absorb the energy of the Soul without any negative symptoms can the Student be said to have reached Enlightenment.
The Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda - A Separate Reality
The Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda