The spiritual teachers OM C. Parkin and ShantiMayi will lead through the international weekend ‘Meeting with Teachers’ on 25 to 27 April 2025 at Gut Saunstorf Monastery: ‘The Guru – The Great Unknown’.
To the Event
In the following interview, they each answer three questions about the principle of the guru on the path to awakening.
OM C. Parkin
OM C. Parkin is a spiritual master, mystic, philosopher and author as well as the initiator of the OM Foundation Inner Science. His teaching of the silent tradition is based on Hindu advaita, as well as on the teachings of the Fourth Way and, on the other hand, on Western paths of experience.
1. Who is or was your guru, and what role did they play on your path to awakening?
My guru was Gangaji, and her teacher was Sri Poonjaji, a master of Advaita. The guru is the dispeller of darkness, the eradicator of the mind. There are many gurus, some limited or even false. The highest guru, the Satguru, is the supreme principle within consciousness, free from subjective limitations. Encountering this principle incarnated in a human form is a rare occurrence.
2. Does a disciple on the path need a guru? If so, why?
Only very few people need a Satguru – in particular those who wish to complete this path. Just because a student embarks on the spiritual path does not mean they truly desire to awaken. Awakening requires the unconditional dedication of all available means. Very few are willing to make such a commitment. Those who are willing – these are the ones who need a Satguru.
3. What difficulties do Westerners, in particular, face when approaching a guru?
The ego itself – not only in Western individuals – is a form of presumption of authority, directed against the SELF. The entire subjective bubble of reality in which each “I” exists is built upon personal power. This applies as much to the personal victim as to the personal perpetrator. The ego seeks to defend these claims to power, even if they are based on lies, as it believes they ensure its survival. The sleep of these personal claims to power is particularly strong in Western individuals, as it is fuelled by the increasing secularisation and “individualisation” of this culture. Reverence for the Divine is being lost within the collective mental matrix of the West. In this state of spiritual alienation, Western people face significant challenges. For mature souls who have cultivated true humility, however, an approach becomes possible.
ShantiMayi
Born in the United States, ShantiMayi’s travels to India brought her to the feet of Sri Hansraj Maharajji, her guru. As a devoted disciple, serving her Master, ShantiMayi became the first Westerner and the first woman to carry the grace of the Sacha lineage.
1. Who is or was your guru, and what role did they play on your path to awakening?
Shri Hansraj Maharajji also known as Sacha Baba was/is my Master. He passed in 2011. Yet, he is still within me. From the day we met, we were not/are not two. And yet, I am I and He is He. When we had our time together (twenty-three years), Maharajji took my heart/awareness through an alchemical transformation. I was willing to go where he directed me to go. He was (still is) the bright light of my life. At the very beginning, the jewels that he offered me was this: “Live like this.
Be aware and be love and wisdom, that will guide you.”
My love for Maharajji was an intensely focused devotion. He was/is my world. He first revealed to me that love is like all of space, immeasurable and absolutely equanimous. All, beyond any description, is held in love, in the same way that the entire universe is held in space. He insisted that I live aware of that, as that.
He also reminded me that constant and grinding thoughts creates endless delusions in all directions. Clear and calm (quiet) mind pierces through the clouds of delusion, and from there, one can truly ’see’. The vastness of love is the vastness of wisdom. Wisdom and love illuminate the ‘Way’ inward. Inward is the ‘Way’ to Self/God realisation.
That’s one of the many spiritual wisdom jewels that my Master mirrored perfectly to me. I received his offering, it’s an ever inward and onward journey.
2. Does a disciple on the path need a guru? If so, why?
The Master and disciple relationship is a most unusual one, no two are alike. Each one is unique, as the Master serves the disciple to mature well along the ‘Way’.
Does one ‘need’ a Guru? There is an ancient statement that goes like this: “When the student (disciple) is ready the Master appears.”
One can never lead without following. The journey is inward to the core of that yearning to be one’s self truly free of self-created mental and emotional storms. The compassionate Master leads the disciple beyond dualities such as, measuring, comparing, judging, projecting and so on. Releasing the disciple from the delusions of misidentifying as this or that, and therefore stuck in a captivated mindset. The Master guides the disciple to releases these self-created traps. To be liberated, the willing disciple, may well need a Guru, one who knows the ‘Way’.
3. What difficulties do Westerners, in particular, face when approaching a guru?
It would be best to not ‘think’ that there are any difficulties at all, no matter if being Westerner or Easterner. The ‘reason’ one approaches the Guru at all is to discover the Master within one’s self, and there, is true union. A true Master and true disciple have one aspiration and one only. That is to lift the veils of ignorance from the disciple’s eyes and heart. Little by little, the disciple ‘sees’ from within the Divine Truth that prevails the entire universe.
