Sri Guru Gita- A Conversation between Siva and Parvati on Guru Tatva -6

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Mama Ruupaasi Devi Twam Twad-bhaktyartham Vadaamyaham
Lokopakaarakah Prasno Na Kenaapi Kritah Puraa

(O' Divine One! You are my own Being. Owing to your devotion, I am revealing it to you. This question, which is beneficial to the world, has not been asked by anyone before).

Lord Siva is pleased with the unblemished devotion of Parvati. There is a revelation in the Upanishads that in the beginning of creation God divided Himself into a pair, a man and woman. The name of male is Manu and female Satarupa from whom the human race originated. When God thus paired himself in the beginning, everything in nature got paired as male and female. Those who say God has no form are forgetting this creative aspect of God. (Those Hindus who criticise Semitic religions are also forgetting the very Semitic nature of Indian spirituality which extols the One God and His messengers, the Guru medium).

Reminding this truth of creation, Siva equals Parvati to his own Self. Kalidasa mentions in Raghuvamsham that Siva and Parvati are inseparable like ‘word’ and its’ ‘meaning’. The life of Siva and Parvati is also a saga of guru and disciple! The grace of Guru flows down like a downpour that drenches the dry parched earth. Guru with endless patience waits for the arrival of such a disciple and the disciple for such a Guru. There are many a people who go to a Guru, but more often than not, they do it for problem solving or for fulfilment of some wishes. And there is nothing wrong with it because Guru is verily Kamadhenu, the heavenly cow that fulfils wishes!

People talk endlessly about God, about the soul and the universe, all big questions well beyond the grasp of ordinary human intelligence. However, the Guru concept is rarely discussed. There are reasons. First of all, a Guru, when embodied, is seen with the frailties of human nature. Therefore, both the pundit and the ignoramus take the human guru as any other human who cannot be equalled to God. (It is another fact that these people have never seen the God of their imagination and it is impossible also to see any such God).

These people are unable to perceive either the role or transcendent nature of Guru, the Divine in human form as Sri Krishna said in Bhagavat Gita:

“Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature as the Supreme Lord of all that be.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-Gita 9.11).

They cannot be blamed because the Guru concept is a riddle and a true Guru or Poorna Guru, a rare occurrence. From a school master to those who perform mantra, tantra, sacrifices etc. are also called gurus. There are deva rishis and brahma rishis, there are also Vedantins, Yogis, Philosophers and miracle workers under the category of gurus. So there is scope for thorough confusion with regard to gurus. Guru Gita discusses these categories of gurus as well.

There should be adequate punya (soul-virtue) to find a true Guru in life. A person can earn such punya even by offering a glass of water to a mahatma in this birth or previous ones, Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru said. That small gesture of love itself makes him qualified to get a true guru. The rich have become rich through their spiritual merit which includes service to a Guru. Bhagavat Gita affirms this fact. Sri Krishna assures that those devotees of God who had fallen from the path will be reborn in rich families or as famous men.

It is not dry intellectual discussions or blind faith that leads us to spiritual realisation but the grace of God flowing through the medium of Guru. Well, from perennial time humanity has not well pondered over this question as affirmed by Lord Siva here that this question goddess Parvati asked about Guru had not been asked by anyone before.

(Her Holiness Sishya Poojitha - One more jewel of India after the era of goddess Parvati, Gargi, Maitreyi and Meera)

After the era of Siva and Parvati, Gargi, Maitreyi and Meera, there is another example in our times, of Her Holiness Sishya Poojita Janani Amrita Jnana Tapaswini, the disciple of Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru and the present spiritual head of Santhigiri Ashram whose devotion to Guru is matchless. Born as Radha to (late) Sri Chellappan Pillai and Smt. Ratnamma in Idukki Kallar in Kerala she as a child gets the vision of the Guru even before she met Him in person, runs to prostrate at His feet when the Guru once happened to visit Kallar when she was nine years old surprising everyone, goes with Him compelling the parents, ignoring even the warning of the Guru that ashram-life is too harsh for a child of her age, the parents come back to take her home, she refuses saying ‘I have no life without Guru’, the parents go to Court accusing that their daughter is illegally detained by the Ashram, the male ascetics in the Ashram get angered by the accusations and wanted to throw her out along with all other female disciples, then the Guru said to them, ‘you are all free to leave the Ashram if you so wish, but I cannot forsake women, they are to be given spiritual light if the home as well as the society is to be improved’, Radha stands firm like a mountain in her resolve, wins the battle, her devotion to the Guru deepens, receives transcendental visions and revelations through Guru’s grace, her blameless life and self-sacrifice make her eligible to be Sishya Poojitha, the most venerable among the disciples and finally occupies the chair of Guru Apparent after Guru’s physical departure. Thus the mission of Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru to liberate women and the downtrodden spiritually and socially breaking the barriers of religion, caste, class and gender remains fructified.

Sri Guru Gita - A Conversation between Siva and Parvati on Guru Tatva - 5

Aum Namo Devadevesa Paraatpara Jagat Guro
Sadaasiva Mahaadeva Gurudeekshaam Prayaccha Me
Bhagavan Sarva Dharmajna! Vrataanaam Vratanaayakam
Bruuhi me Kripayaa Sambho, Guru-maahaatmya-muthamam
Kena Maargena Bho Swaamin! Dehii Brahma Mayo Bhavet
Tat Kripaam Kuru Me Swaamin! Namaami Charanau Tava||

(O Lord of all celestial beings! O Transcendental One! O World Teacher, the ever blissful one, Mahadeva! May it please you to clear my doubt as a Guru would attend to his disciple! O Lord! Knower of all Dharma! O Sambho! Kindly disclose to me the greatness of Guru, which is supreme and (the devotion to which) is the foremost vrata (vows) of all vratas. ¡O Lord! Kindly tell me about that path by which soul attains union with God. O Lord! I bow at your feet).

Here we find Parvati surrendering at the feet of Siva, her Guru in all earnestness beseeching him to guide her in the science of the soul. How to merge oneself with Brahman, the Supreme Light of God and find eternal peace? Parvati, who is ripe with penance and purity is the symbol of a truth seeker who has reached the summit of self-realization. Even such noble souls need guidance while ascending higher and higher. One does not know how many births, how many lives of internal transformation the soul might have undergone before reaching this threshold of enlightenment and to ask, ‘How do I merge with the Lord and find eternal peace?’

What helps here is not tradition or culture, religiosity or philosophies, rituals or riches, name or fame but only the Guru. Therefore, one should set out in search of a Guru to find peace neutralizing the bubbling desires within and deluding attachments arising from dual consciousness, which is the cause for all sorrows.

‘Arise! Awake! Approach the feet of the Master and know That’, says Katha Upanishad (1.ii.8). ‘The Guru disciple bond is the most sublime subject’, Navajyoti Sri Karuakara Guru said. ‘It is said that Guru is Sakala Dharmatma, (the embodiment of all dharma). We realize ourselves the vice and virtue (paapa and punya) in the soul accrued through many births and deaths and submit everything at the feet of Guru. Guru by imparting spiritual experience breaks the karmic entanglements…’, mentions Guru.

Here, the Guru becomes the liberator. Bhakta (devotee) is given the opportunity to unburden and sublimate all karmas, good and bad, at the feet of the Guru. And Guru assures him liberation, the bliss of enlightenment through spiritual experiences in order to dispel all doubts and purify the person of all bad karma. The Guru-Sishya concept goes beyond the popular one about Guru. Chindu Ratna, a Research Associate in Santhigiri Social Research Institute defined the role of Guru in a sociological perspective. Guru has the role of the Originator, Sustainer and Annihilator (Srishti, Stiti and Samhara), he explains.

In Santhigiri the Guru plays the role of shaping a healthy and virtuous human race. Today, one of the major challenges in front of man is a society free from diseases, disabilities and moral downfall. There should be spiritual guidance with regard to marriage and married life in order to prevent the birth of a meritless generation. Therefore, Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru gave utmost importance to the generative aspect, which is Srishti or creation. The system of marriage and childbirth the great Guru initiated will ensure the birth of supramental souls and a supramental age, which Aravind Ghosh had envisioned.

Today, life poses a major challenge before man. He has to be productive to sustain himself and others around him. Consumerism has unsettled the holistic perspective of life. Entrepreneurs vie with each other to offer more and more products and services that change the way man wants to live. Profit motive makes entrepreneurs less responsible to man’s concerns about health and environment as well as exploitation of natural resources. The Guru showed an alternative way of self-reliant commune life. Only the products that are essentially required by the community is produced without harming Nature. There are educational institutions, hospitals, manufacture of Ayurveda and Siddha medicines and other small-scale enterprises in Santhigiri that meet the demands of the community. Here, life becomes a collective effort which eases the burden of a life individually lived. This is Sthiti or sustenance.

Another area of worry in man’s life is the thought about his karma and its consequences here and hereafter. He is worried about diseases and death. Man is in need of a sound doctrine that can alleviate the worry about death and suffering. Here, Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru presents a concept that is founded on Sanatana Dharma. The soul is caught in an evolutionary journey wherein life does not end with the present. Each birth is an opportunity to evolve higher and higher until it merges with Brahman, the Supreme Truth. Our actions and our view of life determine the sorrow as well as happiness in life. When a person blindly follows ritualistic tradition, soul’s progressive evolution gets arrested. Thus, the Guru’s ideology helps the followers transcend the fear of death. This is Samhara, the annihilation of the fear of death.

Sri Guru Gita- A Conversation between Siva and Parvati on Guru Tatva -4

Suuta Said:
Kailaasa-shikhare Ramye Bhakti-saadhana Hetave
Pranamya Paarvatii Bhaktyaa Sankaram Paripruchhati

(At the beautiful mount of Kailas, Paarvati, bowing in devotion submits a question to Sankara (Siva), for the sake of nurturing devotion).

Now a misguided campaign is going on in Kerala against the entry of women in Sabarimala temple. It is a rare occasion in history when both men and women join a self-defeating campaign blinded by superstitions and the crafty policies of a priest-class, which had for long denied women the rights for spiritual performances including the right to cover their nakedness. One gets both pained and surprised by seeing this foolery. Sri Guru Gita shows how the gods and sages of India helped women in their spiritual growth and gave them freedom to ask questions. In fact, no spiritual performance is complete without the participation of women because man and woman are the inseparable creation of God.

For a woman, the husband is her guide, her Guru and therefore a divine being. The husband is even equated to God in Sanatana Dharma. This is the ideal situation according to the wise rishis, but we know it is quite difficult if not impossible to find such a noble soul as husband in this age. A husband should be a spiritually elevated soul with the knowledge of dharma, karma and transcendental knowledge.
In the ancient Rishi tradition, a child is sent to an ashram to get trained and educated in dharma (spiritual knowledge), artha (wealth), kama (desire fulfillment) and moksha (liberation) under an enlightened guru.

The ashram education package includes practical knowledge related to God realization as well as exposure to the riddles of Creation, Life and Death. Only the right spiritual knowledge leads the soul to lasting freedom and joy. It is an exercise to find the meaning of life itself. Dharma-Artha-Kama-Moksha scheme works out our cravings in life while fulfilling the duties as householders towards the family, society and the world at large. In this process, one is supposed to develop the soul with virtues like truthfulness, purity, compassion, love, self-sacrifice, etc. which leads to personal fulfillment and moksha. But sadly, the western education has wiped out this Indian system of gurukul education, which has made Indians (Hindus) spiritual illiterates and a culturally devastated lot.

The Ashram-centric life or Guru-Sishya relationship is to learn about life. Only in the presence of the sun, darkness gets dispelled. Similarly, the divine presence of Guru in life illumines our minds and cleanses the impurities or karmic entanglements. After the education in dharma and other worldly subjects living in the Ashram of Guru, the student is directed to lead the life of a householder. Only such a man becomes qualified to become a successful householder, an ideal husband, who can help his wife grow spiritually as equal partners in the path of the Divine.

The conjugal bliss and prosperity fundamentally rest on this spiritual harmony between a husband and wife. When there is no such spiritual harmony, very unpleasant experiences await such couples. A girl or boy, therefore, should marry only under the spiritual guidance of an all-knowing Guru. There is a lot to be said about marriage and how to beget a fortunate child without any type of physical and mental debilities. This subject also comes under the spiritual guidance of a realized Guru. Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru has given utmost importance to the institution of marriage and family by bringing to fore this long lost Rishi tradition in the Ashram. The help and guidance mothers get from the Ashram prior to and during pregnancy and after childbirth is beyond words.

A husband has the sacred responsibility of elevating his wife too to the pedestal of his attainments- both spiritual and temporal. How glad we would be to come across such blessed couples in our times! Here we find the epitome of that principle in Siva and Parvati. The example of Siva and Parvati has always been extolled in the sacred literature. Kalidasa described the union of Siva and Parvati as inseparable as the 'word' is with its 'meaning'. Parvati herself is well known for her practices of spiritual austerities. She worships Siva as the greatest ascetic and the knower of dharma. In her devotion to Siva, she finds latent in him the sacred Guru-hood, which inspired her to ask questions about the mystery behind the Guru-Sishya relationship.

Sri Guru Gita- A Conversation between Siva and Parvati on Guru Tatva - 3

Rishaya Uvacha:
Guhyaat Guhyatamam Saaram Gurugiita Visheshatah
Twat Prasaadaaccha Shrotavyaa Tat Sarvam Bhruuhi Suuta Naha

(The Rishis said: O Suuta! Guru Gita is very unique, and its contents holding greatest hidden meaning. Therefore, may it please you to render all of that, which would be suitable for our ears).

Here, Guru Gita has been described as a text that contains the greatest spiritual secrets to be known by seekers since it dwells upon Guru Tatva in depth. Maharshi Suuta was a disciple of Vyasa and the son of sage Loma. He was approached by a group of rishis who were eager to know about the mystery of Guru. Suuta, then, through his visionary faculty narrates to the eager rishis the conversation that took place between Siva and Parvati on the mystery of GURU.

One of the qualities of a seeker is the eagerness for spiritual knowledge. Where there is no desire for knowledge, it would be futile to discourse on spiritual knowledge. There was a time (in 1970s) when thousands of young people especially from the West along with some Indians crowded the ghats and gallies of Varanasi, Rishikesh and other holy places seeking transcendental wisdom. I don’t know where all they have disappeared. It was not an unrelated occurrence without any sufficient cause. That was the time when God’s Light descended on India. Then, in the far south, a unique spiritual event was taking place - revelations from the Light of God through a less known Soul who lived secluded in a thatched hut away from all publicity - Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru. First of all, it is difficult to have ‘mumukshutvam’ the desire for salvation. Even if one has ‘mumukshutvam’, only through the virtues of many lives it is possible to reach at the feet of the appointed One. So the spiritual wave of 1970s dissipated.

Presently, we are concentrated only on the fulfilment of desires. So, there is the increase of rituals. ‘Pongala Hinduism’ is more popular than salvation. Once the disciples of Buddha asked the Noble One that why he was not able to give salvation to the people who are suffering from worldly sorrows through his Noble Dharma! Upon this Buddha asked his disciples to go and bring any person desiring enlightenment. The disciples went down to the village. Door to door they went. Some were suffering from poverty and they wanted money, some others wanted a progeny or a bridegroom for their daughters or the healing of a disease, and so on. The disciples returned to Buddha unable to find a single soul desiring salvation.

Most of us are unable to look beyond and search for durable peace. We are enslaved by our physical wants, mental desires and intellectual thirsts. We are trapped in our vicious karma and vasanas, so unable to step into that world of tranquility, purity and eternal bliss for which the soul thirsts. But the rishis are noble souls who ever want to dwell in the world of transcendental wisdom. Their minds constantly debate on the question of life here and hereafter, on the question of God and Self or how to wriggle out of this horrible karmic pool. The Guru concept is an inseparable part of this enquiry, hence their eagerness to hear about it from a great soul - Maharshi Suuta.

Sri Guru Gita - A Discourse between Siva and Parvati- 2

Achintyaavyakta Ruupaaya, Nirgunaaya Gunaatmane
Samasta-Jagadaadhaara, Muurthaye Brahmane Namah

(Salutations to Brahman, the Supreme Being, who is incomprehensible and of indefinite form, who is with and without attributes and the support of the whole universe!)

Sant Kabir once said that if God and Guru were to appear before him, he would first bow at the feet of the Guru for it was Guru who made him experience God! Although Nirguna Brahman (God without attributes) is the changeless Reality, it can be experienced only through the binary of Jeevatma and Paramatma. Paramatma here is Saguna Brahman, God with attributes. Jeevatma or individual soul comes into existence from the projection or sankalpa of Paramatma. Jeevatma has no independent or permanent existence of its own as it is bound to Paramatma like the wave is to the ocean, like the smell is to a flower or like the child is to its father. In short the universe comprising of all animate and inanimate beings is the projection of Paramatma, the Comic Soul.

Paramatama or Saguna Brahman is with attributes, i.e. with name, a definite form along with qualities and the power to imagine and act (Sankalpa Shakti and Kriya Shakti). Different sects in Hinduism address him Siva, Vishnu, Goddess, Surya, Ganapati, Krishna and so on according to their vision and experience, although they too accept Nirguna Brahman as the ultimate truth. Buddhists and Jains advise the followers to concentrate only on deeds or karma, rather than debating about a God that is beyond human intelligence. However, they believe in the concept of Mahatmas or Arahats whom mankind has to follow for attaining Nirvana or enlightenment.

In Christianity, Paramatma is called the Father in Heaven. In Islam, they say Allah, which is supposed to be Nirguna Brahman, God without attributes. Islam does not accept the concept of Saguna Brahman. They suppose that Nirguna Brahman has all the power to create, judge and punish. However, this idea is not acceptable because the God which creates, judges and punishes, that God requires a mind to imagine and intelligence to order the universal function. He should also have a physical form. In the scriptures it is said that God, desiring to create the world, first projected himself in the form of a man (Purusha). This Purusha was split into two, a man and woman by his own will for the purpose of procreation. We can assume that Purusha, the first projection of formless God (Nirguna Brahman) is Manu, the Adi Guru or the primordial ancestor of human universe. It is said that the solar system was born out of the sankalpam of Manu. That is why the age of our solar system is calculated in terms of the time cycle of Manu or Manvantara.

God without form, name and qualities is an unknowable abstract concept. God is said to be pure light, consciousness and bliss. (Sat Chit Ananda). In that state of God, there is no mind, no intelligence, no imagination or karma of any type including creation. It is said to be a state of pure bliss untouched by gunas or qualities. That is why the rishis called this state of God as Nirguna Brahman, which can think and act only when it transforms itself into an embodiment with Jnana Shakti, Kriya Shakti and Sankalpa Shakti (the power of knowledge, volition and action).

Realized Gurus are the mind-born embodiments of the Purusha in human form. A few great souls crossing many spiritual skies or lokas attain the abode of Paramatma through tapasya or austerities spanning many births. Such souls are sent by God for man’s spiritual guidance. That is the reason, Guru is realized and worshipped as Paramatma or Brahman itself. Guru Gita tries to project this truth throughout its discourse. This mantra is both the invocation and definition of God. It tries to define God in beautiful terms as the Unknowable and Indefinable Support of the Universe, the Eternal Truth, with and without Attributes.