Freedom of Will, and Obedience-PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA
My Guru said to me: “Allow me to discipline you, for freedom of will consists not in doing things according to the dictates of prenatal or postnatal habits or mental whims, but according to the suggestions of wisdom and free choice.” He continued, “If you tune in your will with mine, you will find freedom. Formerly, my will was guided by habits, but when I tuned it in with the God guided and Wisdom guided will of my Guru, I found freedom.”
To tune in with a soul whose will is guided by wisdom is to find freedom of will. Most teachers who slavishly control their students after the pattern of dogmatic teachings, destroy the power of free will in them, but obedience to a Guru does not produce spiritual blindness in the disciple. On the contrary, it develops his third eye of wisdom and intuition. Most teachers want their students to see through the teacher’s eyes, but a Guru disciplines the disciple only until he can guide himself through wisdom. A Guru (a Preceptor) is sent by God.
If a disciple, after following a Guru for a long time, should spurn him, then he actually spurns the help sent by God. A Guru is not a help for this life only. He also makes a spiritual soul contact with the disciple, and says, “Let our friendship be eternal, and let us help each other through incarnations until we are both completely emancipated in spirit. Sometimes, likewise, an advanced disciple can help a Guru, and vice versa. Such friendship is not based on any selfish consideration or on any condition. Such Divine friendship and perpetual good will expressed between two or more souls gives birth to the ever pure, unselfish, all emancipating Divine Love. My Master said to me, “I will be your friend from now until Eternity, no matter whether you are on the lowest mental plane or on the highest plane of wisdom. I will be your friend if ever you should err, for then you will need my friendship more than at any other time.”
When I accepted my Master’s unconditional friendship, he said, “Will you be my friend under all circumstances? Will you protect me in my highest or in my lowest strata of mind?” I was amazed—I was stupefied, for how could I dream of my Master being in the lowest strata, but until I vowed to be his friend always, under all circumstances, he did not rest. He was gladdened when I said, “I will be thine always.”
It was then, after this amazing spiritual compact, that I understood the significance of a Guru, and really, I never found complete satisfaction, comfort, and God-consciousness until I tuned myself in with the Divine consciousness of my Master.
Jesus knew of above law of emancipation. He must have found in John his reincarnated Guru. (A Guru, although inferior in spiritual quality, is a Guru just the same, a vehicle of God always) That is why Jesus insisted on being baptized by John the Baptist. Jesus also had spoken of John the Baptist as the reincarnated prophet, Elias (Elijah). Next, in connection with the baptism of Jesus Christ, it is very important to remember the spiritual baptism and the spiritual experiences of Jesus which followed his physical baptism with water by John.
Freedom of Will, and Obedience
My Guru said to me: “Allow me to discipline you, for freedom of will consists not in doing things according to the dictates of prenatal or postnatal habits or mental whims, but according to the suggestions of wisdom and free choice.” He continued, “If you tune in your will with mine, you will find freedom. Formerly, my will was guided by habits, but when I tuned it in with the God guided and Wisdom guided will of my Guru, I found freedom.”
To tune in with a soul whose will is guided by wisdom is to find freedom of will. Most teachers who slavishly control their students after the pattern of dogmatic teachings, destroy the power of free will in them, but obedience to a Guru does not produce spiritual blindness in the disciple. On the contrary, it develops his third eye of wisdom and intuition. Most teachers want their students to see through the teacher’s eyes, but a Guru disciplines the disciple only until he can guide himself through wisdom. A Guru (a Preceptor) is sent by God.
If a disciple, after following a Guru for a long time, should spurn him, then he actually spurns the help sent by God. A Guru is not a help for this life only. He also makes a spiritual soul contact with the disciple, and says, “Let our friendship be eternal, and let us help each other through incarnations until we are both completely emancipated in spirit. Sometimes, likewise, an advanced disciple can help a Guru, and vice versa. Such friendship is not based on any selfish consideration or on any condition. Such Divine friendship and perpetual good will expressed between two or more souls gives birth to the ever pure, unselfish, all emancipating Divine Love. My Master said to me, “I will be your friend from now until Eternity, no matter whether you are on the lowest mental plane or on the highest plane of wisdom. I will be your friend if ever you should err, for then you will need my friendship more than at any other time.”
When I accepted my Master’s unconditional friendship, he said, “Will you be my friend under all circumstances? Will you protect me in my highest or in my lowest strata of mind?” I was amazed—I was stupefied, for how could I dream of my Master being in the lowest strata, but until I vowed to be his friend always, under all circumstances, he did not rest. He was gladdened when I said, “I will be thine always.”
It was then, after this amazing spiritual compact, that I understood the significance of a Guru, and really, I never found complete satisfaction, comfort, and God-consciousness until I tuned myself in with the Divine consciousness of my Master.
Jesus knew of above law of emancipation. He must have found in John his reincarnated Guru. (A Guru, although inferior in spiritual quality, is a Guru just the same, a vehicle of God always) That is why Jesus insisted on being baptized by John the Baptist. Jesus also had spoken of John the Baptist as the reincarnated prophet, Elias (Elijah). Next, in connection with the baptism of Jesus Christ, it is very important to remember the spiritual baptism and the spiritual experiences of Jesus which followed his physical baptism with water by John.
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