Wisdom Roads

Author(s): Lorrence G Muller
Publisher: Continumm New York

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Integral Yoga L.M.: The teacher then is always learning, and not only the disciples or students.
S. SATCH: Yes, and more than the teacher's words, the life itself—and the way you conduct yourself—should educate them. That is what Krishna did. Whatever he did, he did mindfully. He didn't hesitate to do any kind of work; he was a charioteer. He washed his horses, cleaned the chariot, ran the chariot. At the same time, he advised Arjuna. Krishna was working on different levels, at different positions. Whatever he did, he did it well, without feeling any inferiority or superiority about that.
L.M.: Some disciples choose to adulate the teacher, the guru. They are all but saying, I don't really have to meditate. The guru will save me in the end. Is that realistic?
S. SATCH: No, no, you have to save yourself. The teacher will only guide you. It is almost like a highway; the signpost says: Washington—200 miles. You don't go and worship the signpost. Rather, you go in the right direction for two hundred miles; then only you will reach Washington. The teacher can show you the way, he cannot take you there. You have to follow through. If somebody can take you there easily, it makes things easy for you. God could do that; God loves everybody, we say. Why can't God do that? God also sometimes allows you to make mistakes; and by your own mistakes, that makes you learn.
L.M.: We have to pick ourselves up again.
S. SATCH: So take the teacher's advice, and keep and follow the teachings. The teacher is nothing but the teaching, the teaching is the important thing. People adore and worship the teacher, but forget the teaching. What good is it then? It is almost like worshiping a book without knowing what it says inside.
L.M.: I saw that worship of the book at the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine of the Sikhs, in India. I got the impression that the Sikhs had forgotten the essence of the teachings of their founder Guru Nanak.
S. SATCH: Many religions worship the book. Jewish people revere the Torah, but how many people follow what the Torah says? Hindus worship
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