Not For Sale

Not For Sale

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The special function that arises in the world that serves the illumination of men (and women) wherein they know God perfectly and know their own nature perfectly is the Guru. The Guru is the center of practice, the Guru is the center of spiritual life. The relationship to the Guru, Satsang, is the condition, the true principle.

So, the internal business of the Ashram is the relationship to the Guru. Wherever it is forgotten or offended, or suppressed, or minimized, or made artificial, or not served, the ashram fails to be an ashram.

The secret activity that offends the world that takes place within an ashram is the relationship to the Guru. It is unspeakable in the world. It’s unacceptable, so all ashrams are secret societies in a sense because the world is offended by them. The world operates on a totally different principle. From the point of view of the world, even in the so-called spiritual associations that exist in the world, is always one that will try to minimize and make nothing of Satsang.

So, Satsang is the prize of an ashram in its most intimate function. It cannot be sold. It should not be made public in the way spiritual groups tend to make their gurus public. Just as a man and a woman appear in public married and everybody understands what that means, the devotee or the disciple appears in the world as the disciple of some Guru and everybody understands what that means. But married people don’t make love in the street. Just so, the true disciple does not make of his Satsang some sort of public monstrosity available just for fun.

There are real conditions for the approach to the Guru, and no one has access to the Guru who does not meet those conditions, who is not willing to go through that process of transformation. The Guru is not openly available like a book on a table.

Adi Da Samraj, 1975

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