In Harrogate Swami Satsangi said something that has been turning over at the back of my mind ever since. She said that the role of initiator had now been passed to her, as Swami Niranjan would be staying in India, and she explained by saying that Guru is a tattwa, and that the tattwa had been passed to her by Paramahamsa-ji.
Tattwas are often thought of as the figures that represent them. A red triangle for air, a silver crescent for water. But those are not the tattwas, those are symbols representing the tattwa, and which provide a focus that allows access to the tattwa itself. A tattwa is actually an all pervasive field. The tattwa 'Tejas' (fire), for example, is present everywhere in the universe. It is more prevalent in some areas than it is in others. The same with the other tattwas that we are familiar with: pritthivi (earth), vayu (air), apas (water) and akasha (spirit). These extend through all space time, in various levels of intensity.
This is how gravity works.
Gravity is everywhere in the entire universe. And just as there is only one vayu, and only one tejas etc, there is only one gravity.
The gravity that the earth 'has' that holds us to its surface is the same gravity that the sun has that holds the earth in orbit round the sun, and is the same gravity that holds the galaxies together across the vastness of space. There are not separate gravities that each of these has.
The way it works is that gravity exists as 'field' throughout all of space. In the sense of a 'magnetic field'. It' sone field, but in some places it is more intense, and in others it is less intense. With gravity, what determines the intensity is the presence of matter. So, Poornamurti (my wife) is small, and has very little gravity. I'm a bigger, and have a little more. The earth is much, much bigger, and it causes a significant increase in intensity of the gravity field. The sun is a million times bigger than earth, and causes an intensity a million times stronger. In between the stars and galaxies, gravity is stretched very thin. It's still there. It's everywhere, but its so small, its hard to even detect.
It's one gravity, but the presence of something (matter) makes it stronger in some places than it is in others.
Guru is the same.
There is one Guru, spread throughout the whole of creation, and wherever you go, Guru is there. But in some places it's more intense than others. And it is the presence of something that determines the intensity of the 'Guru-field'. It's the presence of 'spiritual aptitude' for want of a better word. So, someone such as Paramahamsa-ji is an intense ball of 'spiritual aptitude', and in His presence, the Guru field is incredibly strong.
So, there is only one Guru, and that Guru is always there wherever you are, and with the right equipment can always be detected and 'tuned in to', but in some places, it's easier to feel, such as in the presence of the people we call 'Guru'.
It's interesting that one of the meaning of the word 'guru' is 'heavy'!
