Theo. – Last time, when you spoke about your spiritual quest, didn’t you tell me that you had met Shri Ram Chandra? Were you in quest of an Indian Master?
The Elder – No! I was in search of God, inwardly, concretely, through my own experience.
Theo. – What made you trust him and be sure you were with the right person?
The Elder – The results this spiritual practice produced. My quest was now oriented and God showed me that I was in safe hands and on the right track.
Theo. – Could you tell me what your first contact with God was like?
The Elder – I was thirteen then. Our French teacher had suggested we should write a free essay. I decided I would proceed on an inner journey, within the classroom, and describe it through. As I was reaching the end of the experience, I suddenly faced a bright throne and the being of light who was seated there. I was amazed, completely stunned. It was so powerful that I could not resist bowing down to him, stretching out my hands to touch his feet of light. The very moment I touched them, I felt I was being absorbed, and merging in him.
Theo. – And you described the experience to your French teacher?
The Elder (smiling)
– Not exactly. I said I had merged with my Self. Don’t forget that I was living in Saint-Ouen, a communist territory!
Theo. – In Yoga, the Self is also called the Atman, isn’t it?
The Elder – Which is a mere way to express the divine aspect in man. God has never let me down. He entrusted me to my spiritual Masters until I would be mature enough to be directly connected to Him.
Theo. – And what is the connection like?
The Elder – Simple, very simple indeed.
Theo. – Then why didn’t he directly take care of you?
The Elder – He did. He entrusted me, at first, to the care of my mother, who was my first Master, and afterwards, to realized Masters: Babuji, to begin with, then Chariji after Babuji passed away.
Theo. – You were in search of God, not of a Master, however advanced he may have been! What is the advantage of having a spiritual master?
The Elder – He is just as my parents had been for the kid and the teenager I was. A living Master is an example, a model. A spiritual Master is someone who has realized the Ultimate through his own humanness. He has a body, a mind, an intellect and a soul, just like us. He aspires to the Ultimate, but just like us again, he meets difficulties, the same as ours. He suffers like us. Twice he has traveled the Path of Truth (sadpad), the way to the Supreme.
Theo. – Why did you say ‘twice’?
The Elder – First, he had to do it as a disciple, in a state of uncertainty, as most of us will, and then once more as a pending Master, in order to be perfectly acquainted with the initiatory route and all its implied obstacles, dangers or even shortcuts…
Theo. – Which is the biggest danger we’ll have to face along such a path? There is talk of demons, of dwellers at the threshold…
The Elder – No, none of this will happen The biggest dangers are our selves, our tendencies, our egos… Prior to our union with God, we need to purify ourselves, that is to say that we have to get rid of all our tendencies, of all our samskaras, in other terms, and make ourselves simpler.
Theo. – Turn our complexity into the mere simplicity God is.
The Elder – Well! God is Nothing… and All.
Theo. – And we are always too much!
The Elder – Babuji used to say: “More and more of less and less.”
Theo. – It’s worth a Japanese koan, but it sounds good.
The Elder – A living spiritual guide will help you work simultaneously on every front of the being – firsthand, as it were.
Theo. – What purpose does he serve?
The Elder – To begin with, he teaches us the basics, as they do in Yoga, and then how to meditate and purify our hearts. Once our hearts have been purified; we can directly be connected to our Inner Master, which we also name atman, soul, Self God, etc. And that’s all there it is to it.
Theo. – When are we directly in touch with God?
The Elder – Once we have become matured spiritual adults, after the long training God entrusted our parents with giving us, and after the one we receive later from our spiritual guides, who are leading us along the path.
Theo. – As far as I understand, your family was not really interested in religion and spiritual Masters. How di you live the moment you entrusted yourself to a Master?
The Elder – Quite naturally. My family believed in Providence. We would pay much attention to coincidences, to signs. My father used to say: “Chance means God is sneaking past unnoticed.” My parents were suspicious of gurus and institutions, but they loved referring to departed Masters.
Theo. – Which Masters?
The Elder – Master Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, saints of yesteryear. As for the living ones, caution was required.
Theo. – Now, what about you?
The Elder – I was looking for a master, but at the time I didn’t know what it meant,. My search was more for a trainer who could teach me all that I needed, whereas a Master is another story.
Theo. – How did you discover him?
The Elder – It was by taking small steps and meditating on the heart, and also because I could appreciate the effects of transmission. My first meeting with Babuji, in Nice, was quite decisive. I was most impressed and I wanted to never leave him.
Theo. – Why?
The Elder – I did not know, then. So far, my approach, like my parents’, had been merely intellectual and based on knowledge.
Theo. – That is jnana-yoga and the reason why you much appreciated Rosicrucianism, Theosophy and Anthroposophy.
The Elder – It is, but I had observed that such approaches were limited. Knowing is not Being. With Babuji, I was facing the sort of Master described in the book The History of the Saints, by Spalding, or an Autobiography of a Yogi, by Yogananda. It was no longer literature, and I was facing a true living being, a real saint.
Theo. – Weren’t you suspicious anymore?
The Elder – I still was, but only gently. Six months later, I went to see Babuji in Shahjahanpur, in India. During the same journey, I also met the Dalai Lama, in Benares, the saint Ma Anandamayi, as well as many other gurus at the kumbamela in Allahabad. One of them had been living there for two hundred and sixty years! Yet, none of them could ever touch my heart as Babuji did, not even Kalu Rimpoche nor the Karmana, whom I admired so much and thought they were great Masters.
Theo. – When did you see Babuji as a spiritual Master?
The Elder – It was during my second trip to India, when my Inner Master recognized Babuji as a divine Master. Then my heart decided to totally rely on him, and my mind just followed. Then I could really start searching for the Ultimate.
Theo. – What was lacking before?
The Elder – The sublime love that changes everything when you are approaching God.
Theo. – Hadn’t you been made a Sahaj Marg preceptor already?
The Elder – I had. But in order to be completed, Raja-Yoga demands that you should combine bhakti-yoga, jnana-yoga and karma-yoga; and above all, the Raja-Yoga they then constitute must be impelled by the heart, whose essence is sublime Love.
Theo. – What did it change for you?
The Elder – It allowed me to totally surrender to my divine Master, at long last, to him who would lead me to God.
Theo. – Had you got the way to do it?
The Elder – Not at all! When you start going to Primary school, you learn how to read even though you are not likely to understand your teacher’s instructional capabilities, but if you properly follow his recommendations, after six months you’ll be able to read and write, and twelve years later, you will go to university. Then you will need another five years to obtain a master’s degree, and then….
Theo. – Nothing has yet been realized, hasn’t it?
The Elder – Our spiritual Masters’ teaching is mysterious, as you already know. We may all be able to understand, one day.
Theo. – When we are travelling the initiatory path for the second time maybe?
The Elder smiled and was absorbed into silence.
Theophile the Elder
An excerpt from Dialogs with Theophile the Elder
Theophile the Younger’s initiation