Much has been written about the feet of the spiritual masters. Many stories reflect the reverence in which the guru’s feet are held. There exists a wealth of traditional knowledge about the multi-layered meaning and significance of the guru’s feet. Here, however, I would, as in so many other matters, like to talk from personal experience… and offer a few anecdotes.
The worship of the spiritual master’s feet, while firmly embedded in oriental culture, sits awkwardly in the West. The western mind has some aversion or fetish or Victorian embarrassment, even shame, about feet. The Nisargadatta volume, The Nectar of the Lord’s Feet, for example, was mysteriously transformed into The Nectar of Immortality before it became popular with western readers.
Our feet are quite extraordinary and through the years my own and others’ feet have yielded a wealth of teaching insights. Is this because they are the part of our anatomy that is most often in contact with the earth? Is it because they, by extension, denote the meeting of our soul and spirit with the world of matter?
Symbolically the guru’s feet are the whole of her or him. Containing the ending of the nerve currents from throughout the entire body, they stand in a sense both literally and metaphorically for the guru him or herself. Therefore to touch the spiritual master’s feet is to touch the master. Feet fill us with gratitude for anyone we love in our life, for their presence here on this earth and with us. But how much more do the feet of the guru incite our heart feeling and endless thankfulness for the divine presence?
The guru’s feet stand in the heart of the spiritual aspirant. The meaning of this reflects the reality of the higher chakras or energy system in the body. The chakras below the heart or fourth chakra reflect personal, animalistic concerns relating to the world of matter, survival, and procreation. The chakras above the heart reflect our higher or spiritual sensibilities aspirations, capacities, and potential.
This position for the feet of your spiritual master, teacher, or guru with whom you are practicing sadhana is highly significant. It denotes your spiritual destiny as the Divine Person. The Divine Person or God standing in your heart feels at first like a massive weight. Then, as your heart responds with acceptance and yields to the pressure, so the heart breaks open… and open… and open. The only way to receive the guru’s grace is with complete surrender. Total acquiescence reveals your true nature. Love becomes a storm in you, clearing away all impurities and leaving you in the impersonal, pristine state of source-less Love itself.
There is a wonderful story about Ramana Maharshi. A woman who practiced ceaseless devotion, the way of bhakti, always performed a traditional ritual when she came to Ramana for darshan. She prostrated herself daily before Bhagavan, touched his feet and would then place her hands on her eyes.
One day Bhagavan addressed the woman:
Only the Supreme Self, which is ever shining in your Heart as the reality, is the Sadguru. The pure awareness, which is shining as the inward illumination ‘I’ is his gracious feet. The contact with these inner holy feet alone can give you true redemption. Joining the eye of reflected consciousness, which is your sense of individuality, to those holy feet, which are the real consciousness, is the union of the feet and the head that is the real significance of the word ‘asi’ (being-ness). As these inner holy feet can be held naturally and unceasingly, hereafter, with an inward-turned mind, cling to that inner awareness that is your own real nature. This alone is the proper way for the removal of bondage and the attainment of the supreme truth.
Being is the pure state, attained when the individual merges with pure consciousness. The heart is the location of this merging and the feet of the Divine Person standing in the individual heart transcends any difference whatsoever. Love, Being, and the True Understanding are the three aspects of the true Heart.
Divine grace flows through the feet of the guru. During his second visit to Ramakrishna, Narendra (later Vivekananda) had an extraordinary experience. Ramakrishna drew near him in an ecstatic mood, muttered some words, fixed his eyes on him, and placed his right foot on Narendra’s body. At this touch Naren saw, with eyes open, the walls, the room, the temple garden, everything vanishing, and even himself disappearing into a void. He felt sure that he was facing death. He cried out, ‘What are you doing to me? I have my parents, brothers, and sisters at home.’ Ramakrishna laughed and stroked Narendra’s chest, restoring him to his normal mood and said, ‘All right, everything will happen in due time.’
To those of you who aspire to the third stage of awakening, which I have spoken about in many lectures and written about in many books now, I advise the simplicity of the direct heart-opening practice of worship. Find someone who inspires you with such love that merely to see their picture, to hear their words, or to be in their presence ignites the heart of longing and centers you in the flow of radiant love.
When you find or suspect you have found that one, do not hold back. Your liberation is in sight and all else pales into triviality. When you feel the guru’s feet standing in your own heart, surrender to the pressure, which is the grace of Love.
Richard Harvey is a psycho-spiritual psychotherapist, spiritual teacher, and author. He is the founder of The Center for Human Awakening and has developed a form of depth-psychotherapy called Sacred Attention Therapy (SAT) that proposes a 3-stage model of human awakening. Richard can be reached at [email protected].
