The Guru as a Marriage Priest to God

Now at least here, and probably I can speak for all outer teachers, they cannot make the Atma Darshan happen for you. They can bless you with it. They can point you to it. But when the eyes of the heart will open up for you to meet the holy presence, and when that holy presence will gift you the Darshan of the highest, that is only God's grace. So he said that the Guru is the one who—in India, you know, everywhere actually—so we just had a big fat Indian wedding. So when the marriage happens, we weren't there for this part of course, but when the marriage happens, then there is a priest which is making the marriage happen, you see, who's doing the ceremonies. And this is most cultures and traditions. So he said that the Guru's role is like that; the outer Guru's role is like that of the marriage priest. But the relationship that's being formed is between ourselves and God.

I like this analogy. I like this analogy because sometimes we may feel like that is devaluing our teacher. It is not devaluing because without the priest the wedding can't happen. You see, so it is more than sufficient value. So basically an enabler, a catalyst to help us walk on this path of holy matrimony, holy union of our soul with God. What is our soul without this matrimony?

The hungry ghost. Yes. Yes. Yes. The hungry ghost. Zombie life. And I often wonder whether these things that I say or come up in Satsang to say are exaggerations. And I look at this one, it sounds very scary. But it's not an exaggeration. It's not an exaggeration at all. What am I implying by it? I'm implying that true life hasn't actually sprouted in us because all we take ourselves to be is this flesh and blood worldly object, and we take the world, everything around us, to be worldly phenomena, and we think that is the extent of what is. But the true life which is beyond all of this is not met. You see, so initially we try to become a better zombie by trying to use God to make our worldly life better. 'Oh God, please give me more money. God, please give me better relationship.' You see, but all of these things are not about any reality, not about any true life. True life happens when we meet God. When we come to Atma Darshan.

So we meet in Satsang for this holy ceremony where this priest is sitting trying to get you married. The groom is always ready. The groom is always ready. We may not believe that, but your faith tells you that. But this groom has one condition. What is that? That you must love the groom more than the world. You must be interested in the groom more than the world, and not just in lip service. Your life has to be a symbol of that. Your life has to represent that. How can we represent that in our lives? What is the sign of love?