Parable of the Magnet
GURU’S GRACE IN
ADVANCE
“The inherent
character of a magnet is to exercise attractive power which can be experienced
by materials that are receptive and responsive to that power, such as a piece
of iron or steel-alloy.
“Place a magnet
on a table and a bit of iron in the vicinity. The latter would move rapidly
towards the magnet in a straight line and cling to it. In due course, if the attachment persists,
the iron itself could become a magnet on its own. The quality that is induced in it to start
with, could be retained by it also.
“The jiva (by which
term we mean the embodied soul) is in the nature of a piece of iron which,
given the appropriate conditions, cannot but journey towards the Magnet which
is the
“Let us go back
to the example we commenced from.
Suppose the aforesaid piece of iron, although in the field of influence
of the magnet, happens to be embedded in earth that has built up into a hard
crust around it. It would be
experiencing the pull of the magnet all right, but there would be no tangible
evidence because it has been reduced to a state of immobility. Sun and rain would weaken the hardened mud
over a process of time and then the iron would be able to shake itself loose
and embark on its destined journey to the magnet in one rapid movement.
“The piece of
iron is neither animate nor sentient and it has to wait for Time to liberate
itself from the entrenchment and entanglement. But man is different in that he
is having a discriminating mind which can aid the natural phenomenon of
Liberation. What is holding down the
embodied soul, Sirs? It is the burden of
two layers of karmas – sanchita
and prarabdha. Investigating into the cause and manner of
bondage, man has to initiate appropriate self-effort to reverse the knots of
the past. He should also be vigilant not
to form further entanglements. This is
the strategy of applying plus-and-minus corrections to one’s thoughts and
desires after prior-evaluation of their possible effects. However intricate the knots be, they could be
loosened in this method. It is not
different from solving a crossword puzzle.
You pore over the clues one by one and write down the answers that come
to you. Then you tarry there and see
whether the adjoining clues ‘Across’ or ‘Down’ lend themselves to yield a word
or two. Sooner than you think, the
blanks would be filled and you may pat yourself on your back (without spraining
your wrist of course!).
“The soul has
been stagnating in the terrestrial field too long, generation after generation,
but once the thrust towards Liberation arises, along with it would come the
motive force for shaking off the shackles. ‘Shake your chains to earth like
dew, which in sleep had fallen on you,’ said the Poet Shelley.
“What I have
said thus far is mainly by way of elucidation to some ardent seekers who have
conveyed to me their considered finding that in their case the Guru’s Grace had
been operating on them long before they came to attend our Programmes. This is a perspicacious observation on their
part and it reveals that the deserving quotient had been in them all along,
working for the loosening of their karmic ties.
“That practical
Scripture Yoga Vaasishtam
says unequivocally that an earnest aspirant realises the Self only through his
own effort and the appearance of a Guru along the Path is only a matter of
tradition.
“The Guru, if
he is a jnaani,
is no different from Brahman which he
has identified himself with and become one with. There is only one Magnet and
it is always exercising its pull on you.
The instant you become conscious of this truth, you qualify yourself to
be an active participant in the task of your own Liberation.”
— Sage TGN
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