Both of them cried out, "Master, Master help us! We need your guidance. We need your light."
The Master said, "If both of you speak together, I cannot do any justice to you. So tell me, one of you, what is actually bothering you."
So one of them said, "Master, the bone of contention is you and nobody else."
"What?"
The disciple continued, "He says that the Master, the Guru, is more important than God. I say, impossible, God is more important. He says the Guru is more important because the Guru shows the way, paves the way, and the Guru takes the disciple to God. He says also that though God cares for everyone, even the sleeping and unaspiring, if one wants immediate concern and blessing from God, it is through the Guru that one can have it. That is why the Guru is more important.
"But I say, no. It is God who has given this kind of love and compassion to the Guru, and God has made the Guru an instrument to help mankind. So to me, God is more important.
"He says that there is a Goal. True, there is a Goal, but if somebody doesn't take him to that Goal, that somebody being his Guru, then God will always remain a far cry. He says the Goal may be there, but who is taking me to the Goal? I can't go alone, I don't know the road. So my Guru is more important because the Goal will not come to me.
"I say, no. The Goal may not come to me, but the Goal is God. Now if your Guru takes you to the Goal, God, and then at that point if God does not care for you, then where is the importance of the messenger? The Guru can take someone near the Goal, but if the Goal doesn't care for that person, then naturally it is useless. A human being can take somebody to a Master, to a boss, but if the boss is not pleased with the person that the Guru has brought, then naturally the case is hopeless. The most important thing is not who has taken the disciple, but who is pleased with the disciple. If God is pleased with someone then that is more than enough.
"Now he says that if Guru accepts someone as his dearest disciple, then he takes on his shoulders the Law of Karma. It is like a father. When the father knows that the son has done something wrong and the father wants to save the son, the father takes the punishment on himself. This is the Guru. But God is the Universal Father. He deals with His Cosmic Law. If we do something wrong, God will give us the consequences; we shall be punished. He feels that Guru is more important, because Guru takes the punishment that the disciple deserves on his own shoulders, whereas God will always follow His Cosmic Law.
"But I say, no, God is not punishing us, God is giving us only experience. Who is punishing whom? God is having His own experience in us and through us, so we are not getting any punishment, but rather God is enjoying or suffering through us, in us.
"Moreover, God existed before the Guru came into the manifestation, and God will continue to be God long after the Guru leaves the field of manifestation. The Guru came from God and he will return to God, his Source. But God is Infinite and Eternal. Never will He cease to exist. God is the All, Guru is the temporary embodiment.
"Guru, I have the utmost devotion to you. Although he is saying that you are more important than God and I am saying that God is more important, I do have the utmost faith in you. Would you please illumine us in this matter?"
The Guru said, "Look here. If you think that the Guru is the body, then the Guru is not at all important. If you think that Guru is the soul, then Guru and God are equally important, equally one. But if you feel that the Guru is the Infinite Self, the Transcendental Self, then you have to feel that it is neither the body of the Guru nor the soul of the Guru, but the Supreme in him who is the Transcendental Self. The Supreme is the Guru, everybody's Guru. Now if you want to separate the physical, the soul and the Transcendental Self, if you want to separate them into three different parts, then you will never realise God, you can never realise the Highest Truth. In order to realise the Highest Truth, you should serve the physical aspect of the Master, love the soul of the Master, and adore the Transcendental Self of the Master. The most important thing is to see in the physical the boundless light of the Master, in the soul, the consciousness of inseparable oneness, and in the Self, the Eternal Liberation. Then only the Master and God can become one. Then God's physical body for the disciple is God's manifestation in the Guru, and the inner body of the Master is God's Realisation.
"God the Guru, and God the aspiring disciple can go together, and both are equally important in the Divine Drama. Similarly, Guru and disciple are equally important in this Eternal Game."From:Sri Chinmoy,Love realised, surrender fulfilled, oneness manifested, Chinmoy Publishing Company, New York, 1971
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