Sane or Saintly?

Dear James 

I have subscribed to your YouTube channel membership and I listen often to you (the Satsangs are not at a time that I can log in easily from India). 

I heard the one with with “Alf” yesterday where he took off suddenly – and I wanted to tell you that I think the way you handled it was awesome. When you show your own humanness and anger, draw your boundaries, say your piece and own it and then so quickly settle back down into the role of teacher and being true to the teachings, I always feel a spark of love and admiration and hope. I’d much rather see real,authentic humanness than some show of saintly perfection. 

It is brilliant to be able to witness such an exchange.

Thank you so very very much for being you and sharing yourself and the teachings so generously,

Kumar

P.S. separately, your audio books read aloud by you are my absolute favorite thing to listen to these days! I have them all already in print and Kindle but keep re-listening to the Yoga of Love and the Yoga of the Three Energies.

Hi Kumar,

You are welcome. There is no equal to Vedanta, for sure.  And the teacher is part of the package.  Swamiji defined a mahatma as a sane person, not a saint, although sane people are often saintly.  You got a very important instruction—much appreciated by the way—from that argument with Alf.   To whit: the teacher, who is Isvara, is free of his or her equipment.  I met him at breakfast the following day and invited him to return to the class, which he did, but the need to glorify the teacher, is built in.  And rightly so because the teaching doesn’t work without a certain degree of respect, dare I say reverence? However, the good stuff as well as the bad needs to be examined under the lens of Vedanta’s powerful microscope.  If not, how free is the jiva‘s freedom?  This is not to say that seekers shouldn’t question the teacher and the teaching, but they need to have their Vedantic ducks in line because no one has yet to find a chink in the Vedas armor.   Anyway, thanks for writing.  I’m going to post it on the web as a timely reminder.  

Yes, the Yoga of Love and the Yoga of Three Energies cover the most “advanced” topics.

Om and Prem,

James