FAUSTO RUSSO was an Italian seeker who arrived at the feet of Ram Chandra of Shahjahanpur (Babuji) in Rome in 1976, and who left this world in December 2014. This is a posthumous publication of one of his articles, in which he shares his experience of the role of a Guide in his own evolution, and the importance of silence and learning to listen to the heart.
We see anxiety and tension all round us – in people, organizations, nations and events. It is easy to be disturbed by the confusion they produce. I have often wondered where exactly this disturbance comes from, and the conclusion I have come to is that it comes from the ego. In fact the desires produced by the ego trouble our minds in such a way that we feel great anxiety if they are not fulfilled, when reality doesn’t meet our expectations. If, on the other hand, we follow our inner voice rather than our desires, then deeper guidance prevails and we experience calmness and freedom.
I remember my Guide once saying, “When Babuji is in my heart, I go free like the air because he looks after me. But when he is not with me I have to look after myself, I’m in tension, I’m responsible, and that is a very tragic situation.” In that situation anxiety creeps in and also fear. We feel like a child who has lost sight of his parents and starts wandering around in anguish, with tears in his eyes.
Looking at this situation from another point of view, I have noticed the negative effect that anxiety and agitation have in any field of endeavor – our actions become unbalanced and risk creating further problems.
We try to use a crane to pick up a needle, whereas when we are calm, confident, and have faith, every action utilizes only the minimum amount of energy or effort required.
Another benefit of this state of mind is clarity and perception. We enjoy a wider consciousness, a circular perception, and we are able to evaluate our problems in their right dimension and find the right response. The heart is able to make its voice audible and answer our questions.
Miseries and troubles are easily avoided if we conduct life wisely, following the guidance of a Guide. This guidance is not external, imposing itself from outside, as is commonly thought.
One day we find that an inner voice has been awakened within to help us accept and realize the inner truths, inner impulses and inner verities which until now have lain dormant, unheard.
A Guide creates in us the necessary state of silence in which we can perceive the inner voice – the Voice Real. This Voice Real is heard when all other voices are stilled. In our small and disorderly lives, our minds have become too confused and disturbed by a host of very small things to be able to perceive the soundless messages coming from within. We cannot still them ourselves, so we need a Guide to do it – one who has arrived at selfmastery.
When this silent vacuum is created it is very potent. It is perhaps the greatest power, so it needs to be oriented toward higher objectives, not those coming from material existence. A Guide purifies and opens the recesses of our hearts, allowing them to respond to the universal Voice that has been speaking to human beings from time immemorial.
The terms ‘within’ and ‘without’ are conventions, because the source of inspiration is not positioned in space and time. We are dealing with something beyond those dimensions. Time does not have a beginning or an end; it is circular. When we go beyond it, past, present and future merge in one circular eternal present. I think that ‘truth’ must similarly be circular, and ‘life’ itself too, in the sense that they are infinite and perceivable from higher and higher planes as we grow, as we expand.
As more and more faces of the same Reality appear to us in this journey toward Infinity, I think that one day we will perceive Reality as it is, in its total, circular expression. The great discoveries made in the field of science were achieved when scientists were able to go beyond the mere physical aspect of Reality and penetrate other planes of existence.
In a momentary state when their mind was “silenced,” they were able to go beyond the sensory world to discover higher laws of the universe. Meditation is a way of training the mind to better perceive these subtler planes of existence and allow the spark of intuition to manifest itself.
We all know that it is not advisable to act when we are in a state of excitement or emotion, because this unbalances the mind and leads us into wrong action. So when important decisions are to be taken we feel the need to be alone, to go to a quiet place away from the pressure and excitement of the world, to listen to our heart. It has always been said that, “Silence is the voice of God.” The silence created in our heart, when it is cleaned of emotional impressions, stills the mind and makes it capable of perceiving the divine impulse that emerges from within, coming up in the calm water like a bubble. When the inner ocean is calm and clear, our state of expanded consciousness opens up to us a vast new realm of existence.
Looking at the green lake,
Suddenly my heart wept in prayer,
“When shall I achieve total union with you?”
Then, after a while, I felt my eyes
becoming
clear and calm like the lake,
And from the heart a voice said,
“It will come.”
Article by FAUSTO RUSSO
Art by JASMEE RATHOD
