Imagine a towering mountain and a blemish-less mirror fused into one. Imagine, if you can, that this mountain was made of incandescent light. And imagine that you were put before this mountain. Your breath frozen in your throat, you looked at it...

...this is what your first darshan of Guruji would be like. When He wills this meeting to happen, He will penetrate into the core of your being. You will be denuded of all pretension; your soul will be exposed to His gaze. And when you see yourself in Him, when you glimpse your own lion-like divinity, you will truly be His disciple.

For the Satguru, our Guruji, is a mirror put up before our eyes so that we can recognize ourselves. The Guru, as the word itself shows, removes the darkness (gu) of ignorance with the light (ru) of wisdom. In this nation's sacred tradition, the Guru is put on a pedestal even higher than that of God's. He is seen as the sine qua non of the spiritual journey. He is the guide without whom the tentative first-time climber and the stalwart spiritual mountaineer are both lost. He is not only the path, not only the gate through which the seeker goes, but also the goal, the top of the mountain. He is the Pole Star in the journey from darkness to light, from ignorance to self-illumination. And all the scriptures of the world are but feeble commentaries on His nature. They are the fingers that point to the moon.

But, when you have Guruji's darshan, the moon is right before you - incandescent. If you choose to avert your gaze - not once, but again and again - the light of truth is too strong for you.

The Guru's call is to the divine in you. His word or shabd, His hukm or fiat, is like the pebble that hits the lake: the entire lake shivers with the form of its energy. And, know that this energy is contagious; it is inescapable.

Meeting the Guru or having His darshan is not like going for a social visit: it is like going to war knowing you are going to lose; it is like watching a fire burn the house of your ego down; it is preparation to meet the Highest.

For Satguru robs man of his defenses. You cannot win over a Satguru with words (alas!), you cannot put up an appearance before Him. He knows the truth of your being. Accept that; hide nothing; don't play games with Him.

When you come to Him, it is not who you are that matters; it is not how confounded you are or how dark your deeds were or what promises of saintliness you are know making. What matters is whether you have said: 'Yes!'

That 'yes' is the first, most firm footstep on the spiritual journey.

That 'yes' brings innumerable gifts, that 'yes' clasps you to the Guru's being with a force that even death cannot sunder. That 'yes' brings the Guru's entire clemency, His grace, to you. And that 'yes' is perhaps the disciple's only task. The rest of the journey is a reaffirmation, footstep by footstep, of the first step. That 'yes' is the miracle; the rest are the miraculous details.

An ancient prayer invokes the Guru as Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva (Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnu, Gurur devo Maheshwaray, Gurur sakshat parbrahm, Tasmey Shri Gurve Namah) - the holy trinity of Gods - for the Guru's being is limitless. He is not just the Creator (Brahma), the Preserver (Visnu) the Destroyer (Maheshwarah) or God Absolute (Parbrahm); He is all creation Himself. He is the thousand-eyed, thousand-limbed, thousand-mouthed God. He is the seed, the spore, the sap and the tree of life. No one knows Him. The wise are silent about His nature.

But, before the mirror of the Guru, the disciple sees and knows. That seeing is the true darshan; all the rest are preliminaries that help lead him there. That knowing is truly touching the Guru's feet for only in that moment of illumination is the Guru revealed.

With footsteps of shraddha

The disciple's journey towards the Guru is very strange. The disciple is blind, he is ignorant and cannot see the path. He cannot move ahead on his own. It is the Guru who leads him on. Thus the Guru is not only the goal of the disciple; he is also the guide, the one to whom we are attached with the rope of faith on our mountain climb.

Trust, thus, is the first prerequisite. If you can't trust the Guru, you can't be lead. Hence, even though the Guru is the fountainhead of spirituality, it has been advocated that the would-be disciple check out the Guru before wholeheartedly accepting Him. The Buddha advised as much: "Just as gold is examined through burning, cutting and rubbing; so you should thoroughly test my teachings and accept them. But never out of reverence for me."

Swami Vivekananda had such an attitude at first towards Shri Ramakrishna Paramahansa. It is said that once the young disciple wanted to test his Master's statement that he was unaffected by money. So he put a coin below Ramakrishna's pillow. The Guru could not sleep that night! Vivekananda's test had merely proven the spiritual armour of His Guru.

Rid of doubt, the disciple can then humbly approach the Guru. His relationship with His spiritual guide rests on a firm footing. He can entrust himself to his Guru in life as in death. Only after the strong foundation of trust, or Shraddha, has been laid is the spiritual structure built. Man has to realize anew that he is a spiritual being, made in His image. The Guru prods the disciple to realize his divinity. A small story narrates how.

A cub had been separated from his tribe of lions. He began to live with sheep. In time, his behaviour became exactly like theirs: he no longer roared, he bleated. A tiger saw him one day and was overcome by surprise. He caught hold of the still-young cub and gave him a hard shake. "What is the matter with you?" the tiger roared. "Why do you behave like a sheep?"

The terrified cub insisted that the tiger was mistaken; he was just a sheep. The tiger took the cub to a lake. The cub saw his reflection in the clear water; immediately, the cub realised who he was!

The Guru's none-too-easy task is somewhat similar: He demolishes the apparatus on which our mistaken identity rests. We are His sons, not creatures of mortal flesh and feverish blood. We are divine personages clothed in hide, not desire-led animals. We are souls encased in bodies; not bodies with souls.

Such a complete turnaround occurs only when the disciple truly touches the Guru's feet. It happens when his ego flakes away from his self. Only then does he receive the spiritual charge that wakes him up. The Guru is a spiritual powerhouse, transmitting the current of spirituality into his disciples. At His graceful touch, the disciple awakens.

Much preparatory work has to be done before this can happen. We are ladened with the psychological ferment and karmic baggage of lifetimes. The powerful eddies generated by our karmas acting on minds not equipped with right attitudes can break our legs even as the journey begins. So the Guru skillfully puts us in situations where we learn life-lessons. Armed with the axe of right attitude, we safely hew our path through the many obstacles that are thrown up by our karmas.

The Guru's grace is never more evident when life throws up a challenge or a test. At such times, to quicken the spiritual evolution of his son, the Guru can take the disciple's karma upon himself, alleviating its misery-causing effects. Seeing that we are about to set our foot on a karmic crevasse, He lifts us up and carries us on His own shoulders. What encomiums can be heaped on such a Guru? He can only be silently loved, fully followed.

Yet, there are times when the disciple resents his Guru. The Guru leaves no psychological stone unturned to perfect his spiritual son, and the disciple's commitment wilts as the Guru surgically operates on his mental make-up. Howsoever much the disciple may flinch from his Guru's ego-hurting blows, the Guru - bent on his perfection - carries His task through.

At such weak moments, the disciple can't summon the will required to thwart his habits. However, all that is required is the realization that the Guru is taking pains on his behalf. The Guru's sole interest - unlike the self-interest concealed in every human relationship - is only in the disciple. His only interest is to take the disciple Godward. Whether He moves mountains of karmas out of the disciple's way to do this, whether He heals him of disease or of mental plagues that is solely His wish. These are only means to the final end of leading the disciple to God.

The Guru selflessly spends a huge amount of energy and time in fashioning a disciple. The journey up the spiritual mountain is no picnic. Spirituality, as the Satguru transmits it, is not a comfort-giving philosophy. It is no cosmetic cream that can make our social faces and psychological masks look more beautiful for the moment. It is not a set of rituals and rites that we can fulfill to gratify ourselves or to flatter God. The spiritual terrain is a life-consuming affair. It is not a path that once tread can be walked out of. Once you are with a Guru, once you accept His stewardship, you must go where He leads you.

Spirituality in the hands of the Guru is a weapon to disarm your ego. Unless you are ready to be thus mercilessly exposed, do not seek a Guru or say you follow him. If you come to a Guru, rest assured that you will not receive continual ego massages. In fact, once you have fallen for a Guru, even slight indications of his favour may disappear. The greatness of the Guru lies in that he takes us as we are warts and all. He loves us in spite of our blemishes. He sets no preconditions for our entering his path. Entirely self-sufficient, absorbed in cosmic bliss, he wants nothing, craves nothing. In His vision, all are alike. He sees no distinction, he favours none. Like the sky, He encompasses all without touching them. He is the Eternal Witness. His unblinking eye, steadfast on eternity, is intimate with each and every flowing thought in the stream of his disciples' minds.

The Guru is the highest; He is incomparable. His grandeur is above even that of the lords of heaven. The sun, the moon, the starts are but encrustations of finite cosmic dust on His robe. The Holy trinity, the countless gods and goddesses, the yogic powers are at His feet, ready to do His bidding.

The Guru is God. The Guru is Shiva Himself. In the Shiva Purana, Lord Shiva denies Brahma's plea to create beings bound by mortality. He instead vows to descend on the Earth to remove such beings from the incessant round of births and deaths. He comes today as Guruji.

In the dust of the Guru's feet - ah! what bliss!

May Guruji have mercy on you and me. May the rain of His mercy fall on our foolish heads. May we, through the very charge of His being, be laid at His feet.