The Path of Guru’s Grace

 

Photo Credit: Facebook | Maharshi University of Spirituality

The Path of Guru’s Grace

While there are many generic paths to God, the path of Guru’s Grace (Guru Krupa) is the most important from the point of view of achieving the ultimate in spiritual evolution. In every aspect of life, it is best if we have a guide or a teacher to help us understand, learn and progress. Making spiritual progress is no exception to this Universal rule and it is only by the grace of the eternal Guru Tattva acting through a Guru in human form, that a student makes rapid spiritual progress. No matter what spiritual path we are on, if we try and do it on our own, we can reach only up to a particular spiritual level. Beyond this, Guru’s grace is an absolute necessity to take us to the next level.

Krupa in Sanskrit means ‘to be compassionate’. Gurukrupa or Guru’s Grace is the medium through which the spiritual path opens up for the disciple after which the disciple’s soul unites with the God within through his own individual spiritual practice.

The most important advantage of following the path of Guru’s grace is the time taken to grow spiritually. By serving a Guru’s mission of spreading Spirituality a seeker acquires His grace and makes rapid spiritual progress. While there is no worldly achievement that can compare to acquiring a Guru’s grace, the following example will help in understanding the spirit of the previous sentence. Imagine a student who is poor, but by sheer hard work catches the eye of a billionaire who then gives him a scholarship to a top university and takes care of his future career prospects. Just as that student gets saved from years of slowly climbing up the corporate ladder, so also a seeker of God who earns the grace of a Guru bypasses years of spiritual practice in any other spiritual path.

There is a well-known saying in Sanskrut: ‘Gurukrupa he kevalam shishya param mangalam’. It means that only by the grace of the Guru can the disciple attain his ultimate spiritual progress. It is impossible to reach the level of a Saint and dissolve one’s mind and intellect unless one has the grace of a Guru. No matter what spiritual path one follows other than the path of Guru’s Grace no path can completely purify the mental body, causal body and supra-causal body. Consequently, none of these paths have the capacity to make one attain the final liberation.

Other spiritual paths such as the path of action (Karmayoga), path of knowledge (Dnyānyoga) and path of devotion (Bhaktiyoga) are significant in a seeker’s life only till one is blessed by a Guru. Since the disciple undertakes only the spiritual practice as advised by the Guru thereafter, only the path of Guru’s grace remains. All paths to God finally culminate in a seeker acquiring the grace of a Guru to finally merge into God within.