To those who are teaching, those who are learning to teach, and those who are guiding guests,

No. 1

When you are teaching someone or have taught someone, the question is: has the person learnt it?

No. 2

When you have taught someone, you should feel yourself responsible for them forever:

Are they doing correctly?

Are they practising?

Are they progressing?

Where are they in their progress?

What more is to be done for them? When?

You should worry for them. Then you are a teacher.

No. 3

People are still leaving classes without having learnt even though you may have taught them. Make sure they learn. Otherwise you have not taught.

Do consider what commitment you feel towards these seekers and to their progress.

No. 4

When you teach and you think “I am teaching”, it will

• breed ego

• not give love and inspiration

• Guru’s Grace will not flow

Before teaching, sit for meditation.

Surrender the teaching seat to the Guru

Keep in your heart, “I am not the teacher; Guru alone teaches”.

Then

You will not develop ego

You will give love and inspiration

Guru’s Grace will flow

Answers will come to you

One trick is that:

in between the pauses, you remember your mantra.

For example:

You say “relax your forehead”

Pause, think your mantra

then say “relax your eyebrows”

and so on.

That way you will keep a meditative voice and people’s hearts will listen.

No. 5

OUR LINEAGE (GURU-PARAMPARA)

In Gurudeva Swami Rama a number of lineages merge.

Through his Yoga-Guru Bangali Maharaj, he represents the tradition of the Himalayan Yogis.

In Vedanta, the Tradition goes all the way to the ancient history of Vedanta, through Shankaracharya and Vidyaranya Muni, with the seat at Shringeri.

In Sanyasa, it goes all the way to the Vedic times and then through Shankaracharya’s Dash-nami order, with Bharati lineage, with the seat at Shringeri.

In Christianity, it goes all the way to Christ’s chief disciple St. Peter. How is that? The mystery of that is known to few close disciples.

In the Buddhist tradition, as he had told me at the time of my yoga-initiation, we are preparing the grounds for the coming of  Maitreya Buddha.

We inherit the Tibetan tradition through the Tibetan master who was the guru of the Gurudeva of Swami Rama.

We inherit the bhakti tradition through Madhusudana Saraswati, a former birth of Swami Rama, (who introduced bhakti into Vedanta) in 16th century.

Swami Veda was practically born expounding Vedas and the sutras of Patanjali, a fact attributed by the learned of that time to the knowledge from his previous births. So we inherit the Vedic and Patanjali tradition in this form also.

This convergence of diverse traditions is one of our greatest spiritual strengths.

No. 6

PRACTICE   ADVICE

Practice a kriya until you have mastered it.

How do you know when you have mastered it?

Here are the few stages of mastery.

1. You do not need prompting, or any guidance in going through the kriya; you practice it without getting confused about the sequence and the process. You have internalised it.

2. The kriya gets done in a shorter and shorter time and at a subtler and subtler level.

3. During the kriya, the mind does not wander.

4. The experience or the level of consciousness that the kriya imparts can now be accomplished without the kriya. You go into that state without the kriya.

5. That state of consciousness becomes your basic state at all times; you remain in it.

6. When you guide others through that kriya, they reach the desired depth and state of consciousness. Gradually you do it without words.

7. Your very presence begins to invoke that state of consciousness in them, and that is the real teaching.

When you have mastered one kriya, then ask for the next step.