The Ashram Becomes the Body of The Guru – After He Gives Up His Body
Article by Eve Gardener, modified by Ravi S. Iyer
The above photo is of the Mahasamadhi of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba in his Prasanthi Nilayam ashram, Puttaparthi, India.
An ancient axiom holds that when the disciple is ready, the guru will appear. Much less is said about what happens when the guru disappears or dies – and, for this, disciples and followers are rarely ready. It’s often a far more traumatic event than the death of a family member because the relationships with parents, lovers, and friends are of a different nature. While close relationships can involve deep and lasting love, the love of a guru becomes the lens through which the disciple and follower understands the ‘self’, the ‘other’ and the world.
The guru not only shows the way but is the way. “I am the way, the truth, and the life”, is how Jesus’ disciples remembered him. Or the words Sai Baba used: “I am in your heart – find me there.”
Abhishiktananda, a modern Roman Catholic monk initiated into Indian Advaita by his guru, Gnanananda, writes that “Guru and disciple form a dyad – a pair – whose two components call for each other and belong together. As two poles of a magnet, they can only exist by being related to each other. On the way toward unity, they are a dyad. In ultimate reality, they are non-dual.”
So what happens when the guru dies or goes away? How do disciples cope with the absence of the one living and loving presence that has opened the door to their own heart?
The sudden absence of the guru’s body initially catapults the disciple community into the unknown. This withdrawal presents a crisis.Yet this crisis does have a resolution. From sacred space to fluid reality, the body of the guru eventually becomes the body of the Ashram itself.
The Ashram, that external expression of the guru, is charged with both vibration and memories of all that took place during the guru’s lifetime. Here we can draw on our memories and reflect on all that took place while in the guru’s presence. While in the ashram, in the initial months & years after the bodily passing away of the Guru, we are reminded, and also in those others gathered there, of the pain of loss. It’s a shared experience of grief, that only time can heal.
The atmosphere of the ashram is charged with spiritual vibrations created by the system, discipline, good thoughts and spirituality of many who live in or visited it. When we go to the ashram, we find those positive, spiritual energies flowing, and yet the mind cannot comprehend and the senses cannot see or smell, but only the inner being understands. In order to maintain the purity of those vibrations, it’s important the ashram is kept and respected as the living field of the Guru and his teachings.
Perhaps we can draw inspiration from Rumi, the poet of Divine Love: On losing Shams, he wrote:
Lovers do not suddenly meet somewhere, but they are in each other, all along. The same is true of the spiritual teacher or guru and the disciple.
--- end main content of Eve Gardener blog post ---
Ravi: I think the above message is very relevant for this post-Mahasamadhi phase of the Sathya Sai movement, as well as for individual spiritual aspirants seeking spiritual guidance and inspiration from Kali Yuga Avatar, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. The ashram becomes the body of the guru! There is no need for Sathya Sai devotees to run after so called subtle body or light body or so called communicators and mediums of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. If they need to connect with the body of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba the right place & body for them to come & connect is Prasanthi Nilayam Ashram Body of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, which, of course, has his MAHASAMADHI.
Note: This article is a slightly modified version of the article by Eve Gardener on her blog here: https://sathyasaimemories.wordpress.com/2015/09/05/the-real-deal-for-mrs-phyllis-krystal/. Ms. Eve Gardener has provided me her approval to share contents from her article, on this post, which is free for all viewers without any financial profit motive whatsoever. I thank Eve Gardener for this courtesy. I also thank sathyasai.org for the discourse extract I have shared above.
The above photo is of the Mahasamadhi of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba in his Prasanthi Nilayam ashram, Puttaparthi, India.
[Ravi: I have heard Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba say, so many times, with my own ears while sitting in Sai Kulwant Hall in Prasanthi Nilayam ashram listening to his (live) discourses, that he is not the Sathya Sai body (deha) that we see. And that he is the indweller (dehi), (eternal & changeless spirit within, the Atma/Self).
As a reference example of it, I have given below an extract from the 2003 Gurupurnima discourse given by Swami (Sathya Sai Baba) after he suffered the hip injury which greatly reduced his bodily movements. From http://www.sathyasai.org/discour/2003/d030713.html:
I am not the deha (body); I am the Dehi (Indweller).
The body is made up of five elements and is bound to perish sooner or later,
but the Indweller has neither birth nor death.
The Indweller has no attachment whatsoever and is the eternal witness.
Truly speaking, the Indweller, who is in the form of the Atma,
is verily God Himself.
(Telugu Poem)
The Atma has neither birth nor death. It has no pain or suffering.
--- end Swami discourse extract ---
So Swami clearly hammered in the message that he (Sathya Sai Baba) was not the body (alone) but the spirit indweller. And so, Sathya Sai Baba, in that sense, CANNOT die. It is only his body that has died. However, at some places in the article content below, the words dies, death & disappearance are used in relation to a Guru, which also has a validity from a practical/material reality point of view. It should be noted that it refers to only death of the body of the Guru, and not death of the spirit of the Guru. end-Ravi]
The guru not only shows the way but is the way. “I am the way, the truth, and the life”, is how Jesus’ disciples remembered him. Or the words Sai Baba used: “I am in your heart – find me there.”
Abhishiktananda, a modern Roman Catholic monk initiated into Indian Advaita by his guru, Gnanananda, writes that “Guru and disciple form a dyad – a pair – whose two components call for each other and belong together. As two poles of a magnet, they can only exist by being related to each other. On the way toward unity, they are a dyad. In ultimate reality, they are non-dual.”
So what happens when the guru dies or goes away? How do disciples cope with the absence of the one living and loving presence that has opened the door to their own heart?
The sudden absence of the guru’s body initially catapults the disciple community into the unknown. This withdrawal presents a crisis.Yet this crisis does have a resolution. From sacred space to fluid reality, the body of the guru eventually becomes the body of the Ashram itself.
The Ashram, that external expression of the guru, is charged with both vibration and memories of all that took place during the guru’s lifetime. Here we can draw on our memories and reflect on all that took place while in the guru’s presence. While in the ashram, in the initial months & years after the bodily passing away of the Guru, we are reminded, and also in those others gathered there, of the pain of loss. It’s a shared experience of grief, that only time can heal.
The atmosphere of the ashram is charged with spiritual vibrations created by the system, discipline, good thoughts and spirituality of many who live in or visited it. When we go to the ashram, we find those positive, spiritual energies flowing, and yet the mind cannot comprehend and the senses cannot see or smell, but only the inner being understands. In order to maintain the purity of those vibrations, it’s important the ashram is kept and respected as the living field of the Guru and his teachings.
Perhaps we can draw inspiration from Rumi, the poet of Divine Love: On losing Shams, he wrote:
Lovers do not suddenly meet somewhere, but they are in each other, all along. The same is true of the spiritual teacher or guru and the disciple.
--- end main content of Eve Gardener blog post ---
Ravi: I think the above message is very relevant for this post-Mahasamadhi phase of the Sathya Sai movement, as well as for individual spiritual aspirants seeking spiritual guidance and inspiration from Kali Yuga Avatar, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. The ashram becomes the body of the guru! There is no need for Sathya Sai devotees to run after so called subtle body or light body or so called communicators and mediums of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. If they need to connect with the body of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba the right place & body for them to come & connect is Prasanthi Nilayam Ashram Body of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, which, of course, has his MAHASAMADHI.
Note: This article is a slightly modified version of the article by Eve Gardener on her blog here: https://sathyasaimemories.wordpress.com/2015/09/05/the-real-deal-for-mrs-phyllis-krystal/. Ms. Eve Gardener has provided me her approval to share contents from her article, on this post, which is free for all viewers without any financial profit motive whatsoever. I thank Eve Gardener for this courtesy. I also thank sathyasai.org for the discourse extract I have shared above.
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