The Guru Within and Valuing the Highest

The Atma is the Guru. The Atma is the Guru. He is the one that we are in the discipleship of. The outer Guru is just an instrument, just a tiny fraction of that, just to give you a taste. You see, the outer Guru is just to give you a taste of the higher possibility of what your life could be. So what you taste in coming to the physical arena of Satsang is the appetizer. A lot of these food metaphors are coming these days. Good. It is His light which He bestows on us by His grace. But He doesn't force it upon us.

The Atma is the Guru. He is the one that we are in the discipleship of. The outer Guru is just an instrument, just a tiny fraction of that, just to give you a taste. You see, the outer Guru is just to give you a taste of the higher possibility of what your life could be. So what you taste in coming to the physical arena of Satsang is the appetizer. A lot of these food metaphors are coming these days. Good. It is His light which He bestows on us by His grace, but He doesn't force it upon us. How would it be if you were just like, 'Relationship, relationship, relationship, relationship,' and God is giving us Atma and you see, if you don't learn to value the highest, then it is not received. Our whole life is money, money, money, money, money, but God is still revealing the highest truth to us in our heart? It doesn't happen like that.

There's a great Sufi saying over this which I can't fully remember. He said—I forget who—but he said, 'Do you ask the wages from the one whose house you didn't sweep for the whole month?' Do you ask for wages from the one whose house you didn't sweep for the month? You can only ask to receive from that which we are in service to. You cannot serve the minor and expect to receive the major. So then, because there's a worldly life, especially for householders like us, what to do? Focus on prayer at least one or two hours, at least two to four hours. Okay, one or two hours, but as much as possible, take out time during the day to be with God, to take God's name, to be in His presence.