Gurucharanam Saranam
The Great Spiritual
Trunk Road of Guru Centric Spirituality
Mukundan P.R.
Spiritual
renaissance in this era involves an evaluation and rectification of errors that
had occurred in the actions (karma) and spiritual practices (dharma) of our
forefathers in the bygone time, Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru had said it. A tree gets its nourishment from its root in
the soil, through the sun, water or other sources. Likewise, our family tree
gets nourishment from its spiritual roots and the virtue of forefathers. If the
forefathers have lived sinfully, if the ancestral souls continue to dwell in
the dark cells of spiritual contamination, one can expect a fall in the
life-fortunes of the offspring too. Even
if we have the best car in the world, we cannot cruise ahead even a little if
there is a traffic jam. Similar is the case of a person, a family or society as
there are our predecessors on the same road which we travel. We cannot progress
in our path when they are stuck before us on the same road. Only a Soul-
Knowing Guru can regulate the traffic on this spiritual trunk road of ancestral
souls.
We have
before us the examples of many families, which once had seen good times, fall
in the pit of penury and oblivion. Most of the families which had temples and
deities installed in them are known to suffer subsequently, because after the
time of their forefathers, who established such practices at home, their
descendents neglected those rituals, as they were either not spiritually
inclined or lacked the time and knowledge for those rituals. As a result, the spiritual fabric of the
family gets weakened, whatever is the merit or demerit of those practices, and
it becomes the cause of ruin of many families. Pitru dharma in Indian religion relates
to this question of uplifting the ancestral souls and the astral status of a
family.
Can we
strengthen the spiritual veins of our family by resorting to the ancient
practices of our forefathers? Would the deities and ancestral souls get
appeased by the renewal of rituals and renovation of temples, which the
astrologers invariably suggest for a cure from pitrudosha, the ancestral
curses? Experiences of several people
prove otherwise. The ancestral problems do not get cured completely or get
cured only partially, that too for a limited period of time, even if the
suggested rituals are performed by the best masters and tantrics in the field. I
would like to quote one experience which proves that such problems could be
cured by sages in the Jnana tradition, not wedded to the ritualistic tradition.
Sri
Chidambaran is a retired Deputy Director of Education in Kerala and lives in
Harippad near Kollam. When faced with diminishing luck and unexpected
calamities in the once well to do family, astrologers were consulted. They revealed that there was pitru dosha in the family. As a
remedy, the astrologers suggested renewal of family temple, reinstallation of deities,
performance of homa etc. that would have cost lakhs of rupees. Sri Chidambaran
kept quiet as the expense was unaffordable. One day, Navajyoti Sri Karunakara
Guru happened to visit his place along with his disciples. The grace of Guru
fell upon him and his family. Guru told him that the problem in his family
could be resolved without the rituals advised by the astrologers. It was as an
experiment he agreed to the suggestion. After all it involved no rituals and
expenditure, he thought.
Guru
asked Sri Chidambaran to call a good astrologer to see the astral chart of the
family. The astrologer revealed the problem of pitru dosha and advised the same
remedy - renovation of temple and reinstallation of deities etc. When the
astrologer heard that the deities and ancestral souls could be removed just
with ‘sankalpam’ (mental resolve) of Guru without any rituals, he said, ‘We are
viewing this scientifically. No individual, let him be any great saint, through
his divine power and meditation, the purifying ritual cannot be performed. If the deities observed in the chart were
seen relocated by ‘sankalpam’ then only it can be believed’, he added.
On the appointed day, Guru reached the
house. There was along with Guru, a
little girl, now a sanyasini in the Ashram. A big crowd had assembled there as
spectators including the family members. The astrologer also arrived in time.
Guru along with the little child sat in the front hall. The astrologer also sat
on one side. Guru asked the astrologer to see what all were there in the
family. After calculations, the astrologer said that it was a very old family
and had an age and tradition of approximately 800 years. It was known from the
chart that there were such and such disturbed deities - Brahma Rakshas, Serpent
(Naga) etc. in the spiritual background of the family. The astrologer also
disclosed that the remedial measure was to build a temple and install them
there.
Guru
called the little girl to his side and said something. After prostrating before
Guru, that girl sat in meditation for sometime.
‘Now you see whether these have moved from here or not,’ Guru asked the
astrologer. The astrologer made his chart
again and looked bewildered for a moment, for, he saw that the disturbed
deities and powers have been vacated. Guru asked him to do the chart once again
to prove it beyond doubt. He did as advised and was astonished to find that
pitrus and deities have been vacated with the sankalpam of Guru. Guru explained
the spiritual background of the family as seen in vision during the
performance: When all the disturbed spirits were asked to move after bringing
them in the radiance of Guru, all except one were ready to move. That one was a
Sanyasi, a member of the family. It was standing there as the family head in
the ancestral zodiac. Although it was desirous of salvation, it was unwilling
to move without someone taking its position. The tears of this Sanyasi were
causing the family to deteriorate. Only after Guru promised to take that
position in the family, the Sanyasi became ready to move. Guru told that it was
a soul which had immense love toward the family.
Sri
Chidambaran demolished the old family temple and built a prayer hall for Guru
in the house. It was the beginning of his journey on the great spiritual trunk
road of Guru centric spirituality. It reveals another dimension of Sanatana
Dharma, which is based on the ancient Indian rishi tradition (Jnana marga) different
from the brahmanical temple tradition suffering from the ills of caste system.
