A true guru does not console people to please them. He may even shock them because his purpose is to awaken them.

It is the time of Guru Purnima — the full moon in the month of July. Every year it happens on a different date — not like the fixed dates celebrated by the United Nations. Some people think of guru as a teacher who gives us knowledge. That’s why people have started calling Google as the guru. The teacher is not the right translation of the word guru. The guru is a mystical phenomenon, which has been experienced in the East mainly. The Western world finds it hard to understand this phenomenon and does not go beyond the level of a teacher. A teacher teaches you something and you pay for it — and there it ends. It is a mundane affair — very businesslike.

The guru is neither a teacher nor a preacher. He may be illiterate himself. He does not look for students to sell his knowledge. He seeks disciples with whom he can share his being and consciousness. He functions like a catalytic agent — his very presence transforms the disciples. So a guru is truly a mystical presence. He is a mystic and a master.

The guru is a rare phenomenon, not so easy to find. Of course, we come across thousands of teachers and preachers who claim to be gurus. Some of them publicise their personality on such a large scale and people start following them. They gather followers in millions and have powerful politicians sitting at their feet. They may be doing some social service too like opening schools, hospitals and orphanages. But all this has nothing to do with being a true guru.

A true guru does not console people to please them. He may even shock them because his purpose is to awaken them. He himself is an awakened one, which is the exact definition of a true guru. The people cannot go to him for worldly favours for a successful life. He will not oblige. He simply shows us the way to attain self-realisation, even if it means to fail in worldly matters. For a guru these are meaningless things. He himself has transcended all this and he wants us to transcend these mundane affairs too. He takes us towards the unknown and the unknowable.

Mystic Kabir sings: “It is the mercy of my true guru that has made me know the unknown; I have learned from him how to walk without feet, to see without eyes, to hear without ears, to drink without mouth, to fly without wings; I have brought my love and my meditation into the land where there is no sun and moon, nor day and night.” Kabir says: “The guru is great beyond words, and great is the good fortune of the disciple.”

The enlightened mystic Osho concludes: “The role of the guru is to give you a glimpse of the real — not a teaching, but an awakening. The guru is not a teacher: the guru is an awakener.”

Tantra is quite an ancient spiritual science—at least since the time of Lord Shiva, the wonderful Mahayogi, and the Mystic. He is also the greatest Tantrik master well-known in the world of spirituality. He is reported to have given 112 methods of transformation to his beloved consort Devi Parvati in deep intimacy. These methods were compiled in Vigyana Bhairva Tantra. The world is really indebted to Devi who asked the Lord some questions:  OH SHIVA, WHAT IS YOUR REALITY? WHAT IS THIS WONDER-FILLED UNIVERSE? WHAT CONSTITUTES SEED? WHO CENTERS THE UNIVERSAL WHEEL? WHAT IS THIS LIFE BEYOND FORM PERVADING FORMS? HOW MAY WE ENTER IT FULLY, ABOVE SPACE AND TIME, NAMES AND DESCRIPTIONS? LET MY DOUBTS BE CLEARED!

Saint Kabir is one of the greatest mystics who brought an authentic spiritual revolution in the collective psyche of a large number of people who were either atheists or belonging to the traditional religions. And he did it in such a wonderful way — with his unique bhajans in simple Hindi language. The whole world must feel grateful to mystic poet Rabindranath Tagore for translating these songs into English. In the introduction to a collection of one hundred such songs, Kabir is given a befitting tribute: Kabir belongs to that small group of supreme mystics amongst whom St. Augustine, Ruysbroeck and Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi are perhaps the chief who have achieved that which we might call the synthetic vision of God.

Modern enlightened mystic Osho has also given hundreds of profound discourses on Kabir and one of the series is titled: The Revolution. Osho says: Kabir is a harbinger, a herald of the future, the first flower that heralds the spring. He is one of the greatest poets of religion. He is not a theologian; he does not belong to any religion. All religions belong to him, but he is vast enough to contain all. No particular religion defines him. He is a Hindu and a Muslim and a Christian and a Jain and a Buddhist. He’s a great beauty, a great poetry and a great orchestra.

Though Kabir was an illiterate, without any schooling, a poor weaver — unlike Buddha, Mahavira, Ram and Krishna — yet he could transform the lives of millions of people. He liberated them from the bondage of superstitions. He was truly a rebellious spirit. Osho describes Kabir as the Christ of the East. Christ was the son of a carpenter and speaks in the same revolutionary way as Kabir. Both have great similarities. They belong to the same earth, they are very earthy, but both have great insights.

Kabir awakens the consciousness of people who want to seek God and offers them a song: Moko Kahaan Dhoondhe Re Bande. Where dost thou seek me?/ Lo! I am beside thee./ I am neither in temple nor in mosque./I am neither in Kaaba nor in Kailash./ Neither am I in rites and ceremonies nor in Yoga and renunciation./ If thou art a true seeker, thou shalt at once see me: thou shalt meet me in a moment of time.

Kabir introduced ulatbaansis (upside-down verse) to express the inexpressible just like Zen Koans. Apparently, these ulatbaansis are not something logical. They destroy the ordinary logic and take us to the mystical realm. Kabir declares: “I was wonderstruck when I saw the ocean on fire!” How can the ocean ever catch fire? If water can catch fire, then there cannot be anything like science in the world. And then Kabir says: “I have seen another miracle: the fish left the ocean and climbed up a tree.”

Such things do happen in the spiritual realm beyond mind. Kabir describes it as unmani avastha — a transcendental space beyond mind.

We need to learn the art of meditation in our busy life — participating in everything can be a meditation.

Most of us live our daily life with a certain routine—which is based on our environment of family, society, nationality, besides our own personal tendencies and weaknesses.

We follow a certain way of living and we pick up certain habits to fit with our environment. These habits occupy our consciousness, consume our time and enslave our being. Gradually, it becomes very hard to become free from their bondage.

We are expected to attend religious ceremonies and rituals, social functions, group parties — this way we are forced to conform to everything that makes us a respectable member of the society. We develop certain habits of eating and drinking, smoking and gossiping.

All this is so  time-consuming that it drains our energy; we are not left with any time and space to be with ourselves. We find no time to meditate and to explore our own being.

In such a situation, the question arises how to make space for meditation and become a free individual.

Osho gives a clue in one Sufi story: Two disciples of a great master were walking in the garden of the master’s house. They were allowed to walk every day, morning, evening.

The walking was a kind of meditation, a walking meditation — just as Zen people do walking meditation.

You cannot sit for 24 hours — the legs need a little movement, the blood needs a little circulation — so in Zen and in Sufism both, you meditate for a few hours sitting and then you start meditating walking. But the meditation continues; walking or sitting, the inner current remains the same.

They both were smokers. They both wanted to ask for the permission of the master, so they both decided, “Tomorrow, we’ll ask him. At the most, he will say no, but we are going to ask. And it doesn’t seem such a sacrilegious act to smoke in the garden; we will not be smoking in his house itself. ”

The next day they met in the garden. One was furious — furious because the other was smoking — and he said, “What happened? I also asked, but he simply flatly refused and said no. And you are smoking? Are you not abiding by his orders?”

He said, “But he has said yes to me.”

This looked very unjust. And the first said, “I will go and immediately inquire as to why he said no to me and yes to you.”

The other said, “Wait a minute. Please tell me what you had asked.” He said, “What I had asked? I had asked a simple thing, “Can I smoke while meditating?” He said, “No! and he looked very angry.”

The other started laughing; he said, “Now I know what is the matter. I asked, “Can I meditate while smoking? He said yes.”

It all depends. Just a little difference and life is totally something else. Now, there is a great difference. Asking, “Can I smoke while meditating?” is just ugly. But asking, “Can I meditate while smoking?” — it’s perfectly okay. Good! At least you will be meditating.

We need to learn the art of meditation in our busy life — participating in everything can be a meditation.