Spiritual Leaders

In the contemporary world one may find or come across many types of leaders, political leaders, social leaders, team leaders etc. each one having a style of their own. Many of us aspire to become leaders in one field or the other and the modern social and economic system demands the production and function of leaders to cater to the development in various spheres in the society. There is one kind of leader who according to me is the True Leader, a leader hard to find (as there are many false leaders who claim to be a spiritual leader) yet with him is plenty of wisdom and love for all, these are the Spiritual Leaders and no other leader can surpass these leaders in any way. This article would talk about such Spiritual Leaders who have been guiding Gods creations from time unknown, this would highlight the qualities of the Spiritual Leaders and help the seeker to identify The True Spiritual Leader within oneself or outside. Spiritual leaders are often the forgotten one in the life of a lay man in the sense we visit many religious places of worship, gurus, priests and perform many a rituals only to gain wealth or to find solutions to some problems that we have but fail to realize the spiritual power in ones self (a story of Ganesh and Murugan)1. Ramalinga swamigal rightly said that though the spiritual shop was opened for fittest devotees there were no takers to carry it in their life. We have given so much importance to money that we do everything for money and have associated money with everything let alone God, we have forgotten about the soul that each one of us have been bestowed with, we seem to have forgotten the purpose of our creation in this world and are drifting like a plank of wood in the ocean which seldom knows from where it came and where it is going. Though we know the purpose it is there only in the texts or in the lips of a speaker but not in the hearts and mind and action of every individual. The aim of life is fulfilled only when the spiritual aspect of our life is recognized and lived by. One man in a thousand perhaps strives for perfection and of those who strive scarcely one knows me in truth - Thirukural. Through the practice of moral virtues alone man and woman could realize their true nature and only in that spiritual realization the meaning of life could be perceived Bagavd Gita. For this journey one needs the guidance of a Spiritual Leader 2 and the Supreme spiritual leader3.

Once the divine couple Shiva and Parvathy got a fruit of knowledge after much thought they decided that it should be given to the children, as there was one fruit and this fruit should be consumed as a whole and not to be cut or shared by two people. Now the problem rose who should get the fruit Ganesh or Murugan. So a task was given (to circle the world thrice) for both of them and who finishes it first would get the fruit, both agreed and Murugan quickly summoned his vehicle and started his journey to circle the world meanwhile Ganesh thought for a while and circled the divine couple thrice and got the fruit. There is much spiritual learning in this story the one that I would like to mention is that spiritual power is within one self and is very close at hand and with little thought and effort one can get a hold on it. 2 Spiritual leader is a guru who guides individuals and groups of people in the way of God. 3 Supreme spiritual leader is the God himself.

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Life is a given boon from God and an opportunity to prove our worthiness to eternity. All souls created no matter of which body or being it is set in has to reach God and this can happen only by following the spiritual path and to show the path many Spiritual Leaders had come and are here and will be coming in the future to do the Will of God. We can reach him through passion on him, love on him and to his creations (big or small, animate or inanimate) and total surrender to his will and from this will commence our spiritual journey towards him. And for such a journey we need a Spiritual Leader (guru) who would help us not only to realize the path or way of God but leads us in the path through and through. Such leadership deserts the ambitions of qualification, designation and the lure of time based position, wealth, place and popularity. Such a noble spiritual leaders who surpass everything except God the Supreme Leader are very rare and may be one among a million. But if there is desire in ones heart to know, to follow the spiritual path the Spiritual Leader appears as rightly said by The great Chinese poet Confucius, "When the student is ready, the teacher appears." Similarly, only when the devotee is ready, will the Guru (Spiritual leader) appear. This is what happened in the life of all the Spiritual Leaders it is either the Supreme Spiritual Leader or the Spiritual Leader finds his disciple a few would be Bulleh Shah and his master4, Simon (peter), Andrew and Jesus5, Swami Vivekananda and Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa6

Bulleh Shah was born in Syed family. Thus he was descendant of Prophet Mohammed. Bulleh Shah was well versed in many scriptures but whatever he knew from scriptures was not his personal experience. So Bulleh Shah was searching for a Guru. And whenever a seeker is ready, Guru appears. This is the rule of existence. Bulleh shah had a deep desire to meet his Guru who can take him to other shore. He was doing many spiritual practices even before meeting guru and had some spiritual powers also. But his heart was not satisfied. His thirst for God was very deep and only real experience could have satisfied it. One day he heard about one man Inayat Shah who had attained the Ultimate. Bulleh Shah belonged to a very rich family but this man was from very low caste family land. He was a Gardener. When Bulleh Shah first time went to meet Inayat Shah, he was planting an Onion crop. Inayat Shah's back was towards Bulleh Shah. Now Bulleh Shah didnt have the courage to call the attention of Inayat Shah. Bulleh Shah Saw there are many mango trees in front of Inayat Shah. Bulleh Shah closed his eyes and remembered Allah for a minute. Mangoes started falling from the tree. When mangoes started falling Inayat Shah looked at falling mangoes and saw one man standing behind him. Inayat Shah said Oh you thief, why you are making these mangoes fall Bulleh Shah looked here and there but there was no one around. Bulleh shah said if you are asking me then see, I dont have any stone or stick in my hand. How can I make these mangoes fall Inayat Shah said You are clever also. What do you want? Bulleh Shah said I am searching for God and he fell at Inayat Shahs feet. Inayat Shah said Why you are falling below. Look upwards towards me. Bulleh shah looked towards Inayat Shah. And the way Inayat Shah looked at him. Seeing so much compassion and love in Inayat Shah Eyes and Bulleh shah fell in deep love with him.
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Jesus was walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers fishing and he said to them Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.- Mathew 4(18&19) 6 Naren (Swami Vivekananda) was searching for someone who could show him God. Naren went to many Meditators and Yogis like Devandra Nath Tagore but no one could satisfy his sharp intellect and rational mind. On the other part of same city Sri Ramakrishna was waiting eagerly for young Boys who were supposed to join him in the divine play. Some times in deep anguish Sri Ramakrishna used to climb the roof of building and cry come Oh, My boys come One day one college professor discussed about Sri Ramakrishna in front of young Naren and Naren went to see Sri Ramakrishna in Dakshineswar. Naren was careless about his clothes and appearance but his eyes which were partly withdrawn was telling the treasure which he was carrying inside his heart. Sri Ramakrishna recognized Naren instantly

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The Supreme Spiritual Leader He is the omnipotent supreme spiritual leader of all and through him comes the energy and synergy. He is the uncomparable and uncompetable source of power, authority and peace. God the leader is neither a dictator nor a servant but a friend who leads, guides, nurtures, etc... individually and in groups. He is the leader who has gone before you and has led the way; he is both the follower and the leader, he is before and after and the one who walks through the creature at all times7. In him is the immense power that is transmitted and gets radiated to the people through his selected ones to whom he gives the authority to Love over his creations. God leads in mysterious ways of which no one has knowledge off. He brought us from nothing and He leads the people from the unknown 8 to the known9 and to the unknown (past, present and future). Unknown Known

He brought forth you and me from the unknown to the known and guides us in the journey back to the unknown through constantly testing and evaluating each and every one of us through his chosen ones, so that we live for eternity and rejoice or relish the fruits of eternity. Some ways through which God leads: He gives and leads pleasure and pain He takes and leads pleasure and pain By this he tests us for purity and consistency in our thoughts and actions, so that we reach a stage of freedom from pleasure and pain which is mentioned in Kandha Guru Kavacham10, Buddhism11, even Chidambara Ragasiyam12. Pain and pleasure holds a man to the worldly things and is a hindrance to reach God and if one attains mastery over or freedom from pain and pleasure means he has overcome the worldly things and he has reached a state of emptiness, and this emptiness signifies that the individual is no more susceptible to temptation and is in the divine path. This state of emptiness by itself has immense powers within it and is present in all of his creations, this is the self which is the ultimate truth and

God leads Israel out of Egypt, in the day he was the cloud and at night a column of fire. Ref Exodus chapter in Bible. His realm, the ultimate knowledge and truth, the one from which all the creature came 9 This world, the one that all the creature are living now, a place which is not permanent, a place where in we must prove our self worthy of God, take efforts to search and reach God 10 "Skanda Guru Kavasam," is another famous Tamil hymn in praise of Lord Murugan - in the form of our Guru. By Sri Saanthaanantha Swaamigal in which line 248 goes like this inba thunbaththai iruvizhiyAl virattiduvAi 11 A state of emptiness 12 Thillai Natarajar Temple Chidambaram has a secret chamber and is believed to host the Chidambara ragasiyam, it is actually an empty space.
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essence of all which Uddalaka taught to his son Sevaketu13 and this self abides in the supreme self and has no end. He looks for purity of mind and soul, which is realized through love, love for all both big and small, looks for consistency in love, love for him and his creations a love which is impeccable a love which in incessant a love which grows by day and night; in joy and strengthened in sorrows a love which surpasses the self and moves into the realm of God himself. The supreme spiritual leader is a forgiving leader if one pleads for it with mind and soul he gives it to him. He has given freedom to all his creations, a freedom which at time has led few among us to walk away from him yet he forgives 14. A freedom with responsibility is given. The freedom to love and responsibility to identify, know, learn and follow his way. A freedom to go beyond the good and bad and this is the first step to reach him. To make his will come true he has chosen and sent and will send spiritual leaders who are the lamp 15 and lamb16 to test and guide the willing ones to show the way to him through love and love alone. The Spiritual Leader The spiritual leaders sole belief is in God and they do not want (they long for Gods love) and fear nothing except two things: One the fear of losing Gods love17 , Two the fear of losing closeness with God 18. They are not stopped by anything they know the path and continuously keep on marching with faith in God, never intimidated and never perturbed. The spiritual leaders are handpicked by God himself from his garden and constantly tested and trialed as gold is smelted. They are smelted for perfection in Gods own workshop. They are not trained in institutions, they dont belong to any religion rather they surpass religion. They have come only to spread the word and the way of God. As and when people go astray the Spiritual Leaders arise to bring them to the divine path, to warn people to mould them. The spiritual leaders have lineage of leaders where the lineage is not determined by birth, age, gender, caste, class, clan, money or power but by Gods will.

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Uddalaka explains to his son about the self through the example of a Nyagrodha tree. The essence or the whole of the tree is in the empty space inside the seed of that tree (this is also called as the void and is present in the atom of all cells and this holds the essence of all) 14 Rejecting manna write the story. 15 Lamp is the one who guides the creatures in Gods way, he helps creatures to seek the inner light 16 Lamb is one who scarifies himself for the sake of God with delight like Jesus who sacrificed himself on the cross without remorse. 17 Irai anbu Gods Love 18 Irai nerukam Closeness with God / Oneness with God

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The Nature of Spiritual Leaders The qualities of the spiritual leaders are consistent for they have seen and been in oneness with the Supreme spiritual leader and their attributes are permanent and never change at any situation and time. And the ones who want to be spiritual leaders or become spiritual, needs to imbibe these qualities in their life and strictly adhere to them. Compassionate and Selfless the spiritual leaders are compassionate and selfless by nature or they learn it in their life and it becomes their nature. They have attained oneness with God and so respect all the beings as one this is what James a servant of God and follower of Jesus followed and asks his brethren to do 19 , they do not discriminate the creations of God to them everything is the same. They are empathetic towards all the creatures many of us would have read or heard about a sage who was so selfless and empathetic that one day he came near a river and saw an ant struggling in the water and so he put a leaf near the ant on the water so that the ant could save itself. There is this story of yet another saint who tried to save a scorpion and every time he attempted this scorpion bit him but he saved the scorpion, his disciples were bewildered by the act of their guru that they asked him why did he save the scorpions life as it is poisonous and had stung him to which the guru replied it is the nature of the scorpion to sting and it is my nature to save its (anybodys) life. Most often we would have read that the spiritual leaders working or being with bad people. They are with them and they convert the bad people to good ones. In Bible one could clearly see that Jesus was with bad people like the tax collectors, prostitutes and that he had changed many a wrong doers and had brought them to the path of the God, one such person was Saul20. Patience and Tolerance the Spiritual leaders are very patient and have conquered anger. The strongest person is the one who has conquered anger Quran, Krishna speaks about the importance of controlling anger in Bagavad Gita (16.2.) One day Mother Theresa was at the door step of a rich man asking for some help for the poor children, this man spitted in her hand and said take it, mother replied that I will take that for myself now give something for my poor children, she never showed her anger and remained patience all the time. There were many Spiritual Leaders who were mocked at, made fun off, humiliated and threatened but they faced it always with a smile on the face and love in their hearts like Muhammad Nabi 21and others. The spiritual leaders have to be patient with others in every
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The letter of James, chapter 2 verse 1 to 13 says My brethren, show no partiality as you hold the faith ..See no difference between the rich and poor but treat them equally. 20 Saul was a threat to Jesus and his followers he even had murdered the followers of Jesus, but God made him as the chosen one and the Spiritual leader (Jesus) found him and made him an instrument to spread the word of God- Acts 9 (1-19) talks about how Saul was chosen and baptized to do Gods Will. 21 Every day prophet Muhammad would walk through the streets early in the morning around 5.00 am to the masjid for prayers when he crossed a particular house a old woman would clean her house and put the waste on the prophets head from upstairs, everyday this happened and the Prophet never said a word nor did he think of any ill to that woman, one day the old woman

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aspect of their life, they have to wait for the will of God, and even Indra had to spend many years more that 100 years with Prajapati to know the secret of self Simple and Humble they are very simple and humble; they never show off nor become proud of themselves and their deeds. Their simpleness and humbleness can be seen in their eyes, their words and deeds and even in their dress as Bulleh Shah saw in his Guru Inayat Shahs eyes. They never take credit of their deeds as they dont see it as the work of their hand but of Gods. All the spiritual leaders are simple, modest and humble, to name a few Jesus, Muhammad Nabi, Guru Nanak, Saibaba, Ramakrishna, Mehaboobe Subhani, Fatima Sam, etc. all of them led a simple life and chose humility as their clothing. Prayerful the spiritual leaders are prayerful. They spend the day and night praying and meditating God. They are not bothered about material food they are always hungry for the spiritual food. They pray for each and every breath they take in a leave out, for the every beat of the heart, such is their devotion to God. The importance of prayers especially praying late in the night, praying alone is said in many spiritual texts and all the spiritual leaders have practiced them, Jesus also asked his disciples to pray (he asks them to stay awake and pray through the night). When they pray they ask for one thing to reach him. Though the spiritual leaders have the powers to perform miracles they dont perform it for their personal life including their family members incase if they have one. They have found out the truth that man cannot take with him the wealth, name, fame, friendship, joys and sorrows after death and nobody can recommend anyone in the last day, the day of the judgment says the Quran. The prayers that one has done alone and the good deeds that he has done will speak for him and nothing else will. No Attachment and Desire - they dont desire for anything other than Gods love. They dont thirst nor fell hunger. They are ready to share whatever they have with others, if needed they would give their entire possession to others like Karnan22 for they not want. Even if they havent eaten for days together is some ones asks for food they would give. The spiritual leaders never ask or demand anything from others like the sage and the Jackfruit23, it
failed to put the household waste on the prophet, he after finishing his prayers went to the womans house and enquired about her health, and did not utter a word about the wrong behavior of that woman and this changed her mind and she became his disciple. - Bhukari 22 Karna happily gives away the fruits of his dharma to Krishna who comes disguised as a poor man 23 Once there lived a great sage in the forest whom many people visited for many reasons. The sage didnt have any desire and he did not want any offerings from the people especially money so he said to them if at all they want to offer him something they could offer fruits but the person who brings the fruit should pick up one from that he had brought and swallow it at one go right in front of the sage. One day there were many people to see him all waiting in a queue to give offerings and take blessings all of them had brought fruits with them, the first one had brought lemons and he swallowed one, the next had brought gooseberries and one person had brought pineapples and now he had to swallow it as a whole, the man seemed to be very happy and laughing all the while though his mouth was bleeding, when asked why he was laughing he replied that the next person had brought jack fruit.

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is only us who always want to give or bribe the gurus or the God himself. They dont desire to live and eagerly await death so that they reach the Supreme Spiritual Leader. I would conclude here by saying that all of us should realize the purpose of our creation, learn from our Gurus (Spiritual Leaders) and walk in the path of God, resist temptation, pray and love everyone and everything. Our journeys started from God and should end in God. A Parsi saying goes like this Pasithu24 iru, Thanithu 25iru, Vilithu26 iru (translated in Tamil) those who are able to do that will achieve greater things in God. In God all things are possible and in him is the promise of eternal life Amen.

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Always be spiritually hungry, try to conquer material hunger. Be alone and meditate over God, let not the worldly things hold you stay aloof from them, dont have any attachments in this world other than God 26 Always be awake and aware, be watchful and vigilant and keep on praying day and night

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