Sri Guru Gita - A Discourse between Siva and Parvati

Gurucharanam Saranam

Today is an auspicious day to listen to Sri Guru Gita, the discourse between Siva and Parvati that is said to have taken place on the beautiful mountain of Kailas probably on a moonlit night of Pournami, the full moon day. Among others who listened attentively to this sacred discourse were great sages and rishis. Surely, Sri Guru Gita contains the secret of all secrets for spiritual enlightenment leading to God realisation.

First let us begin with a prayer to the Guru:

Paramaachaarya Padapraaptam, Paramaatma Swaruupakam
Karunaakara Gurum Vande, Bhavaroga Bhishagwaram

(My obeisance to Sri Karunakara Guru, who has attained the seat of Supreme Guru-hood and who is the embodiment of the Absolute Truth and is the healer of the affliction that is life on the earth plane!)

This mantra is an invocation to the Guru seeking his blessings. It is an ancient practice that when we commence a work, first we pray to Guru. All our actions and thoughts, both good and bad, are to be submitted at the divine feet of the Guru. Guru, while talking about daily routine of a devotee advised that we should try to recollect all our thoughts and actions of the day before going to bed so that we can analyse them in our mental screen and make subjective amendments. It is a subjective process that will help internal harmony or the mind-soul integration. The residues of conflicts in life work subjectively and create ripples of disharmony in the mind and body leading to ailments in the form of worry, tension and so on.

We must understand that GURU is a spiritual phenomenon that is one with the Universal Consciousness. Such a Guru will be a Trikala Jnani, i.e. the one who knows the past, present and future. Guru is the projection of the unknowable, immeasurable, nameless ocean of Light, i.e. God. Every phenomenon in the universe is nourished, harmonised and ultimately evolved in this universal consciousness called Guru. The afflictions arising out of the binaries of existence can be harmonised only on this plane of Absolute Truth.