The master is the ultimate luxury in your life. When the master happens in our lives, nothing else is needed. If he does not happen, nothing else is of use. He is a channel to bring wisdom to our life and to update it, according to our need.

Life energy and the master are not two different things. Masters again and again emphasize the beautiful concept called experiencing the master inside. Only until you experience the master inside, you think you need the master from the outer world. Once you experience the master inside, you don’t need the master from the outer world. See, when a meditation technique is done with a master, it becomes an alchemy process. If you do it alone in your home it is called meditation. When you do it along with the master, in the presence of the master, guided by the master, it becomes alchemy. It is like boiling you. The process becomes so alive and intense.

A small story:

There was a young lady who did not know cooking. But she wanted to make something for a potluck dinner that she was going to. She got hold of a cookery book and tried making a dessert.

She was holding the book in one hand. The instructions said, ‘Put the vessel on the stove.’

She did.

Then it said, ‘Put half a cup of flour.’

She did so.

Then, ‘Add water half a liter, add a little sugar and stir it for twenty minutes.’ She followed every instruction exactly but nothing happened even after twenty minutes.

Why?

Because the book did not tell her to light the fire!

In the same way when you are doing meditation on your own, sometimes you may forget to light the fire. The master’s presence itself is fire. It will ensure the product happens, the alchemy happens.

People ask me, ‘Swamiji, why should you insist on the presence of the master?’

Of course, you can listen to my words on an audio CD or a DVD. But when you sit here, the honesty that radiates in my eyes, the truth that expresses in my body language will catch you. You will catch it. You will feel the click, the connection, ‘Yes, he is talking the truth.’ Even if you want to suspect, suddenly you will see your logic has no power over you anymore. These words are simply entering you beyond your logic. This will happen only when you sit in the presence of the master. We call that as Upanishad – just being around, sitting, and opening up to the master.

Open yourself with trust and just drop yourself into trust. You will see the master standing there to hold you. Just drop yourself from your head and fall into the abyss of the heart. The master will be there to hold you and make you enlightened, that’s all.

source: Living Enlightenment