Guru is not the Goal

“Swami Rama was born in northern India, he was raised from early childhood by the Himalayan sage, Bengali Baba.

Bengali Baba, who is disciple of Mahavatar Baba, known as Babaji. The tradition has no name, and is not affiliated with any of the institutions or religions of the plains of India or other countries surrounding the Himalayas. The tradition of the Himalayan masters encompasses all of the Yogas.

He traveled from monastery to monastery and studied with a variety of Himalayan saints and sages, including his grandmaster, who was living in a remote region of Tibet. His master always remained hidden and never wanted to be known. He always wanted his disciple Rama to be on his own and independent and worked many ways to ensure that he doesn’t get attached and clung to his Guru.

You can read about this fascinating Himalayan master in books authorwd by Swami Rama “Living with the Himalayan Masters” in which he walks about his Master who always encouraged Swami Rama to learn from multiple masters, sometimes where he himself created situations which would lead Swami Rama to learn from other masters. In this book Swami Rama has written about many Himalayan masters who remained hidden to the world, but nothing much about himself. Later Swami Rama’s disciple Pandit Tigunait wrote a booked “Touched by fire” in which much has been written about Swami Rama himself.

About 25 years agony, it would read these books with tears in eyes about the simplicity and greatness of these unknown Masters of the Himalayas, who probably will never get to be seen, but you can certainly experience their presence if you have that reverence and love for these Masters who exist in their subtle bodies.”

~ Jake Light

Below is an article from https://www.oocities.org/swamiramabio/TraditionSwamiRama.htm

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The tradition from which Swami Rama comes is a lineage of sages of the ancient cave monasteries of the Himalayas. This unbroken lineage of teachers is at least 5,000 years old, and includes Swami Rama’s direct teacher, Bengali Baba, and his grand master, the famous Mahavatar Baba, known simply as Babaji of the Himalayas. It is the tradition from which the stories of Shangrila or Shambala have emerged.

However, while the lineage is an ascetic tradition of the Himalayas, many of the sages themselves are also related to the monastic order of Shankaracharya of the 9th century.

This tradition of the Himalayan masters is not itself representative of any formal institutions. Individual sages, teachers, or students of the tradition of the Himalayan caves have started various teaching organizations or service institutions from time to time. Thus, a variety of modern teaching centers may link themselves to this ancient lineage, while none of them are themselves sole representatives.

A diversity of swamis, yogis, and others practice and train seekers in these methods of self-exploration, self-discovery, and self-realization.

The ancient, oral yoga system, recorded by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutra is accepted as a preliminary step.

Philosophically, the Advaita Vedanta system of one absolute Reality without a second is practiced, particularly the Mandukya Upanishad, relating to AUM and the states of waking, dreaming, sleep, and the fourth state, turiya.

Both Mother and Father principles of the universe are acknowledged, practicing purely internal Tantra. Maya (illusion) is seen as the creativity of the Mother principle, and is thus not an obstacle.

While this ancient meditative tradition has influenced many of the world’s religions, the tradition itself is not a religion. All religions are acknowledged as an expression of the one absolute reality, called by many names, including God.

All of the practices are internal and no rituals are performed. (However, since Swami Rama left the body, some of his students who are also teachers are actively promoting rituals along the lines of their personal religious preferences. These rituals are being performed in institutions or ashrams where there were no such religious rituals while Swami Rama was in charge.)

There is not a belief in conversion, changing the cultural habits of others, or introducing any face of God in particular.

Serving humanity through selflessness is an expression of love which one should follow through mind, action, and speech.