A reader from Pennsylvania asks:

Do I need to be in a lineage in order to be a spiritual teacher?

True lineage is a river of vidya shakti, or wisdom energy, being transmitted from the Divine Mother to teachers and on to students through time. Like the sustaining waters of Ma Ganga coursing down Shiva’s locks of hair to those in need, lineage is a supreme blessing. Those who sense her life, compassion and immense intelligence are eager to jump in Her waters.

Sometimes lineages flow endlessly through vast expanses of time, unbroken. Sometimes they manifest seemingly with no precedent.

Sometimes what are called lineages do not carry the vidya shakti they once did, or perhaps they never did.

In order to be a teacher of any value, one must be a true disciple of the river. This is the qualification. Ma is lineage and there is no teaching without her blessing.

Even if you are a Shaivite, you must follow Ma because Ma is the life process of Shiva.

Some have described discipleship as walking a razor’s edge. On either side, are our habits and fixations. Working together as one situation, Guru and disciple expand the edge from horizon to horizon.

The Guru-disciple process is what Ma has given us so that we can surrender and discover natural devotion. Discipleship is the finest flower of natural devotion. Even the Guru bows to a true disciple.

When we discover natural devotion, then we realize the devotion of the scent to the nose, the taste to the tongue, the touch to the body of the world. We discover that the entire world is puja or ritual worship.

To be truly without lineage and to teach is nothing but suffering and a cause of suffering. To teach when one has no experience of discipleship is not teaching; it is perpetuating karma.

To teach when one has only begun to swim in the little eddies and flows of the river is risky because one might never leave that spot, or one might mistake the shoreline tidepools for the whole river.

However, most teachers are limited. There are few highly realized beings on the planet at any one time. Luckily, true teachings of the river can come from limited teachers.

For one’s own Self-realization, it is imperative to know the outlines of one’s own limitations. Be ruthless with yourself and with students.

Students will want to aggrandize teachers in order to make themselves feel safer or more important. Or to perpetuate the Judeo-Christian fantasy that they need to and can be saved. Even sincere teachers will allow themselves to be lulled into fantasy by the fantasies of their students. Or they will even encourage these fantasies.

A sincere disciple can survive and grow even with a limited teacher. A sincere teacher who knows well her or his limitations and practices discipleship before all else is a boon to students. But a teacher who is full of fantasy and is not first and foremost a disciple is truly taking the long way to realization.

In Ma’s love,
Shambhavi

Posted by Shambhavi on November 8th, 2009 | Explore More! Tags: initiation, Shakti, transmission