Concerning this question of "how to recognize the Real Guru amid this 'market' of gurus that every day increases more," do not worry about it! You will be mistaken if you want to know "who is who." You will not be deceived as long as you let God do it for you. If you are real, God will never be unreal to you. If you are real, God is real, and God is real when you are real. When you are real, everything is in its right place, everything is showing up for you as it has to appear. It is what you need at such moment.
When Ramana appeared to me, I had everything it was needed to reject Him... All my intellectual and theological background was set to reject the presence of a Master who was not Jesus Christ, and even worst, without body, already dead. A man without a body, dead! But there was something here that was authentic. The desire for God and Liberation was authentic, then it could not be an illusion or something from the evil, the devil, the demon. If I was praying to Christ and fasting 24 hours, as I did by that time, in those days, every Saturday, to find God, it could not be the devil that was appearing to me at that moment.
Either I trusted in my prayer or in the thoughts of theology I had studied for so long, had read in the Bible and had listened to in the seminary ... Either I stayed with what warmed my heart and filled me with an inexpressible love and an indescribable silence, or I followed the thoughts in turmoil, in doubt, in confusion, in fear, like: "Is this Christ or the devil?" or "what is going on?" Thoughts came like: "You are getting crazy," "What is that? This is madness," "You are losing your mind!" "You are... you are..." Either I stayed with these thoughts or was here, in this inexpressible Space and indescribable Silence and Joy, overcame by a love that I had never felt before for anything, for anyone, for nothing in this world.
Do not worry! Do not worry! God will know how to take care of it. God always knows how to take care of everything.
The challenge ... The great challenge is that the "person" dies within this Presence, and the "person" does not want to die, does not want to lose control. A living Master is the last subway station, the last stop – compulsory landing! There comes a voice saying: "Ladies and gentlemen, leave the train! Last stop!" And the fear of facing what is behind the door, on the outside? "Will it be a real world? Will it be a real life? Will I still be alive or dead, if I take this door that has just opened, hearing this voice that says: 'compulsory landing'." That is the challenge!
Facing the Truth, the Real Guru, there will be no choice, you will not want to choose, if what burned there, all this time, was the fire for the Truth and if you are not playing with this thing, if you are not lying, you do not want the lie anymore. So, do not worry! Never mind! As we have just spoken, the sleep took place and getting out of the sleep also just happens. God takes care of this! Leave it to Bhagavan. He said, "Bhagavan takes care." This was one of his promises. This is Bhagavan's promise, the promise of the Satguru.
This is a way that not even the fool ones could err. In the Bible, there is a verse like this: "Though fools, shall not err therein!" No ego there, you cannot see ego here. Remember the example of the mirror? When you look at the mirror, you do not see the mirror, you see yourself. So, the problem is not there, the problem is here.
The question I ask to you is: Can you trust this? Can you trust in a mind that, for millennia, is just telling fairy tales, making up a world of stories and saying you are ugly, you do not deserve it, you are not worthy, or that you are a sinner deserving the hell? Or it is saying the opposite, that you are very important, a precious soul, you are more beautiful than everyone and more worthy than everybody around you, deserving the best amid all things? The question is: Can you trust in these feelings? Can you trust it? In a moment you are joyful; another, you are sad; one time you are well, another, bad; in a moment, you are in love; another, you are hating; a moment, you are so sure about the truth and right after you are so disappointed, feeling frustrated by believing that you have been deceived.
Can you trust the emotions? Can you trust the sensations? Is it hot or cold? Can you trust these conclusions about what is and what is not? Can you trust this movement of the mind? Can you trust it? Can you trust you are or not? That you have realized the Self or not? Can you trust it? Can you trust in what you say, in what you write or what others tell you, or what you read what others have written? Can you trust it? Can you trust in yourself? Can you trust? Ok! So, do not worry! Never mind! Relax! That is none of your business!
When I talk about surrender, the ego is frightened (not to say scared, let's say frightened), because all it wants is to remain in control. When I talk about surrender, I speak exactly what I am saying to you: abandon yourself, plunge, bow down at the feet of the Grace of God... "But when you use the word God, what are you talking about, Master?"... "Oh, Guru, what are you talking about? I love when you use the word God, and when using the word Consciousness, I am still happy. But when you use the word Guru, I get disconcerted!"... "Oh, Guru, where are your feet so that I throw myself at? If I throw myself at your feet, whose feet am I going to throw myself at?"
All this fight with words that you have there has to fall apart, because it is also within this self-confidence, this illusion to believe that you know. You know nothing! If you knew, you had already settled everything. If you knew anything about the Truth, you would be free, because Truth does not come in parts; it is not like the installments of "Casas Bahia" (a big store from Brazil) that you will pay to pay off it one day. Truth is like a block: oh ... boom ... It falls on you and crushes you. You do not know what the Truth is, but you have this arrogance to believe you know: where the truth is and where it is not, where God is and where He is not, what is true, what is false, what is real and what is not real to yourself. However, you are like a headless chicken.
When I talk about surrender, I mean this thing of giving up... Giving up on trusting in yourself. Notice that this is the opposite of everything you have learned during the whole life – self-affirmation. Give up all you have heard, have read "about," have learned in a course of self-help, self-help books, therapies, supports to be healed. From what? From who? What cure is that? Who can be cured? Who can be saved? Who knows? Who here knows the Truth? When I talk about surrender, I am talking about giving it all up, to let this Consciousness, this Presence, this Guru (give any name for that) care... to take care of that... Take care of this matter. Ramana said, "Leave it to Bhagavan that Bhagavan takes care!"
April 13th, nineteen fifty (04/13/1950), it was morning... The Sun was filling the whole mountain, the clouds of extraordinary beauty in the blue sky, the birds singing... Everybody was around Ramana that morning, tremendously concerned about his clinical condition. In the past last nights, the one who slept near Bhagavan had commented that his body moaned under the pain, under that cancer pain, that fatal disease. Everybody was concerned that morning! He opens his mouth, looking at everybody with indescribable sight, a deep silence, complete disidentification with the body, and tells everyone there: "Why are you so worried? Everything will be fine tomorrow! Tomorrow everything will be fine!"
The next day comes... April 14th, a day of unspeakable Presence at the Ashram, a Silence, filled with Grace, an imperious power, spreading over the whole Arunachala Mountain. The Sun sets on that day and at 8:47 p.m. (that day, April 14th, 1950, a minute before), the peacock makes a common noise that all the peacocks do... One of them makes that noise, that sound, a mixed of a song with a deafening screaming. Ramana, who was lying down, made an effort to sit (and some helped at the moment)... He could still sit in that 1 minute before (8:47 p.m.), and after that sound of the peacock, his last words are: "Have you already given food to him?" He repeats, asking for a second time, "Have you given food to him?" That Silence came back again and they perceived, they felt that it was the time to let the Master be seated. At that moment, all is well! His last breath takes place.
Do not worry! The Guru is always real, if devotion is real! The Guru is always the Truth, if you are the Truth. Everything ends up well, very well, always well!
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