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Become a teacher

A spiritual discourse on the essence and responsibility of being a teacher, using the example of a yoga teacher.

"To be a teacher is a blessing because you become a channel of wisdom."

"Knowledge requires another knowledge. You must know when to use it and when not to use it."

Swami Ji addresses the profound role of a teacher as a conduit for divine knowledge. He illustrates the need for discernment with a parable about a loyal but unwise monkey bodyguard, then applies this principle to spiritual teachers, emphasizing the necessity of humility, surrender to a spiritual lineage, and lifelong dedication to avoid the blockages of ego and doubt.

Filming location: Strilky, Cz.

DVD 294

We are on the subject of the teacher. To be a teacher is something indescribable. It does not matter in which faculty—be it gardening, farming, agriculture, a car driver, a doctor, medical teaching, engineering, schools, spiritual teaching, or a yoga teacher. It means you become a channel of wisdom. All knowledge is knowledge, and that knowledge is God's gift. When that God's gift flows through you to others, it means you are blessed and you are special. Knowledge requires additional knowledge. This is very interesting. If your knowledge is one-sided, then you are mistaken. For example, there was a king. Today we have politicians; in the past, there were kings. Thanks to democracy, our kings change rapidly. Otherwise, generations would occupy the throne. It cost a great deal of human blood to give that chair to the common people, to create democracy. In the time of kings, no one was allowed to be king except their own children, the eldest child, which created family conflict when the younger children could not be king. Anyhow, there was one king whose advisors told him he should not trust any bodyguards. They said they should train a proper bodyguard who could not be manipulated by anyone and would be loyal to his duty. The king asked, "Who can be like this?" They said, "Either a dog or a good monkey." As a bodyguard, he agreed. So the dog was like a bodyguard for the outside; nobody could enter the room. And in the room was the monkey. They taught the monkey how to use a sword so that anyone who disturbed or attacked the king, without any consequences, the monkey should use the sword to chop off that person's head. The king should not be disturbed. So the monkey had the sword in hand, tail held a little high, and was walking around, his eyes always on the king. The monkey was very loyal. Suddenly, the king felt distraught and became restless. The king was moving like this. The monkey got alert. He did not see anybody there. Why was the king disturbed? Then the monkey saw a fly. It was disturbing the king. He was observing. The fly was sitting on the tip of the king's nose. The monkey took the sword and chipped out the whole part—half of the nose and the upper teeth. The fly flew away. Therefore, it is said: knowledge requires another knowledge. You must know when to use it and when not to use it. You have a weapon in your hand and you know how to use the weapon, but you should know when you should not use it. So you need knowledge to know when to use and when not to use. You have the knowledge of how to use it, but do not use only that knowledge. You need another knowledge to use this knowledge—when and when not. Similarly, it is for the teachers, and for yoga teachers especially. They should know when and what they should teach. They should know what and when to teach, and how to teach. To be a teacher is a blessing because you become a channel of wisdom. Spiritual knowledge comes directly from God. Where spiritual knowledge is, there is no duality. That spiritual knowledge is not bound to any religion, nor to any country, nor to any politics. Knowledge is for all, even for the animals. If you do not utilize your knowledge—your abilities—then this knowledge will disappear with your death. So it is said: a doctor can only give you treatment if he is alive. A dead doctor, a photo is there, and you go and tell him, "Sir, doctor, please, can you advise me what to do? You are a good surgeon. Can you operate on me?" You will be surprised. The doctor is still smiling as a photo. He cannot do anything. The same with a king. He can give even his kingdom to someone as long as he has his life. After that, he cannot. Similarly, a master can give you liberation and guidance as long as he is in physical form. Afterward, if you pray and meditate, some of his spiritual energy will come as a kind of protection. But you need again a physical master. If you met a physical master once and not anymore in life, that does not matter. It does not matter because you have already met your Master, and He blessed you and gave you a mantra. You should know that the Master never dies. The Guru never dies. Only the body disappears. His grace, His blessing, His light, and His spirituality are with you. Therefore, many people make a mistake when their master leaves this physical world. Suddenly they feel they are alone and wonder, "Who will guide us?" No, you are not alone. You will be guided lifelong. You should follow and surrender to that spiritual lineage, the successor, who will be respectfully chosen to sit on the holy throne, on the holy chair. It is not that the one who is sitting on this holy chair will bless you, but it is that holy chair which is blessing you—meaning the spiritual lineage. Therefore, before you accept someone as a guru, you should look at the background, the spiritual lineage. That is very important. You surrender there, and you get the guidance. Then that master will guide you. He will give you that light, the blessing, and you become the channel of that. So, to be a yoga teacher—for me, you are those channels through which Mahāprabhujī's light is flowing, the light is shining. Around the world we have thousands of yoga teachers, and all these yoga teachers, when they are faithful and teaching faithfully, then this light is going through them. One has this consciousness of "nāhaṁ kartā." Spirituality can be lost very quickly. If you think that you go for one, two days, years, holidays, making in India, in some ashram, and making spiritual sādhanā, and then you come back and you do whatever you like, you are still spiritual? No, you are not spiritual. You think, "I can do whatever I want." No, you are not spiritual. Westerners often make a mistake. They go to India, spend a little time there, have a nice annual vacation, nice food, have fun, do something for a few days, wear orange clothes, come back here, jump into the stairs, and think they are still spiritual. You have to dedicate your life long, that is it. You have to learn to give, that is it. So, it is not so easy. Out of so many teachers, many failed. You know, when you go to the cardiologist, they tell you you have some blockages. When you have blockages in your arteries, the blood does not flow properly. So, the artery through which spirituality is flowing through the teacher is blocked when the ego comes, when confidence is gone, and when you begin to say, "I can do it. I don't need." Then you have the blockage. In an emergency, there is only one hope: to get a bypass. You have to have a bypass operation. That bypass operation means you come to the Master and accept your ignorance and your negative thinking, and say, "Master, please give me bamboo on the head," to open my arteries again so that the love of God flows through you all the time; you become a giver. But when you begin to play tricks with people, and ego, and even deny your master, then it is gone. Many, many European yoga teachers went to India, learned, and then came back saying, "We don't need a guru." I said, "Yes, of course, you don't need a guru to go to hell. You need a guru to come to heaven." That is it, because no guru will lead you to hell. So this is very wrong, negative. It means though they were there so long and tried to learn the wisdom, they did not learn this: to realize what is the Master. When you begin to teach, and before that you chant "Nāhaṁkartā," mentally or loudly, your entire being is filled with the presence of the Divine Master. Every tissue, every blood cell is enlightened and vibrating through the divine resonance when you remember this. Then, in your words, there is power. Then you are doing teaching as a seva, not as your profession, not for earning your bread. If you do this, very soon you will fail. Very soon, disturbances will take place—disturbances in family relations, with friends, and many, many things. You do not see it in the beginning, but you will see very soon, and spirituality is lost. Therefore, Mahāprabhujī said in one bhajan: "O my mind, you lost everything with the kuśaṅgīs, the people of the kuśaṅga." So, to become a yoga teacher, to be a yoga teacher and to teach or guide people, is a great blessing. You should know what it means. The teacher has the highest place in the universe. It is said: when the rain falls, water flows down from here up to down, to the valley. It does not flow from down to up. Similarly, the knowledge of the Master flows to those disciples in whose heart there is surrender. But in the heart where doubt and ego dwell, then nothing will remain there; it will flow away. So many students, many yoga teachers fail because they begin to think, "I do it. I will do it," and doubts and doubts and doubts. If you cannot remove your doubts, then what kind of teacher are you? You should become the master of yourself first. Otherwise, someone said there is a very beautiful example, but I do not know how to put it into translation form. It is said that the teacher is so hungry, starving, and has nothing to eat; he is just licking the plate. And the disciple comes and tells the teacher, "Please give me eating." The teacher himself does not have anything. But this is not a good way to put together this poetry. So if you have not solved your problem, your doubt, your confusions, your nervousness, your unclarity, if you are not able to answer your questions, what are you teaching others? Then you are not a teacher, or maybe you are, but there are so many stones, and water flows slowly. That artery is blocked, and very little blood goes through from time to time. It means the blind hand finds also corn—the blind hand. Therefore, if you are a yoga teacher, you must become a master of yourself. Answer your questions and be very clear in your heart. Do not play with the people; then, of course, you will fail. You can be a good friend, you could be a very good cheater, nice talking, but you are not a teacher. So become the teacher, then you will see how divine it is. Then it is so divine, nothing will disturb you. Therefore, it is said in one bhajan. Thank you for watching.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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