Sri Guru Gita – A Conversation between Siva and Parvati on Guru Tatva - 11

 Gurucharanam Saranam

Yadamghri-kamala-dwandwam Dwandwa-taapa-nivaarakam

Taarakam Bhava-sindhoscha Tam Gurum Pranamaamyaham

Siva said:

(I salute that Guru, the pair of whose lotus feet remove the suffering owing to the consciousness of opposites and take us across the ocean of worldly life.)

Suffering is the mental agony and agitation arising out of dualities in life such as pleasure and pain, success and failure, opulence and poverty or other experiences contrary to our expectations. Just like night follows the day, pleasure too ends in sorrow. All religions in general and Indian spirituality in particular sought to address the question of human suffering. Lord Buddha specifically identified suffering, its cause and its removal, as the basis of his teaching.  Unless we are able to transcend the domain of pleasure and pain we will not be able to experience peace of mind. And the way of peace is to fix our mind on that imperishable eternal truth called God and His glory.

The other day a retired person from Kolkata came to the Ashram. He said he wanted to have peace of mind now since he has fulfilled all his duties as a householder. How can a person hope for peace after retirement if has not thought about it and striven for it until this moment?  Just like we spend our energies for fulfilling other responsibilities in life, one should start the enquiry to find peace early in life. Otherwise it will be difficult because our body and mind get conditioned by the retirement age and you may not have the necessary energy also for such a mission.   

Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru reminds us that every soul is born subject to the universal rules of karma and spiritual evolution. Guru, who knows the disciple’s soul, cuts the karma with the sword of his grace and lifts the disciple to transcendental bliss. Through the service at the feet of the Guru, the soul gets gradually purified of all sins and bad karma. Only then the disciple can hope to reach the realm of God realisation.  So it is important that we connect our children with a realised Guru early in life. The Ashram is a place where an Atma Jnani Guru, a soul knowing Guru lives. Family life is supposed to be linked to the Ashram of such a Guru. In ancient India, children were educated in an Ashram under the guidance of a realised Guru.  This was known as Gurukula system of education. The children were taught not only spiritual science but all other material sciences such as astronomy, architecture, archery, medicine, metallurgy and so on. The Gurukula system was wiped out by the British during the colonial rule.

Worldly life is compared to an ocean because of the hidden dangers in its unfathomable belly and endless expanse.  Our little boat of life may get overturned by the hissing waves and swirling currents.  It is difficult for a truth seeker to swim over to the other end of this perilous ocean all alone. But with the help of Guru, one can cross over this ocean easily and find peace and tranquillity.   

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 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.

The Riddle Called Guru

Unshakeable Devotion and Love of Disciple that leads to the Riddle called Guru.
(By Her Holiness Sishyapoojita Amrita Jnana Tapaswini)

O’ Guru, innumerable are the shades of emotion that I saw in the glimmer of your graceful look. I am merging in you, the immense and eternal figure of cosmic manifestations, melting unaware even to a speck of life. O’ Guru, You exist in the border-less cosmic expanse of love, as the Truth that could be experienced by anyone. Brightly present in me are the hymns of your praise and its sweet reminiscences.

The disciple who examines your whole birth cycles sees the great glory of Light. That is an experiential aspect, which remains as the greatly profound and greatly silent principle. Everyone can know that truth discreetly only through their self-experience. They are fortunate who are capable to take that type of discretion bowing down. They are people who have seen innumerable ‘visions’ before.

When seen about you, it could be seen that you go beyond kalpas and the plains of kalantara gurus. In those pathways, in the long and sweet memories, innumerable clusters of beautiful shapes are seen gathering in you. The magnitude of the sacrifices that remain powerfully in you is a riddle that is inexhaustibly uncountable and inexpressible. O Lord! Do the others know even a little about the greatness of the radiant stream of love that exists in you infinitely?

Once, your Guru locked you up inside an abattoir in its pools of blood. You had known for what it was. Those were the pages of life afire with sacrifice that had been arranged for passing the myriad ridges of mystic experiences related to spiritual planes. Who else can know about this type of punya? Only you could have gained it absorbing the complete character of numerous visionary aspects.

You were a disciple who became the synonym for patience, suffering whatever sacrifice. You had known that the disciple who absorbs this sacrifice crosses over big phases of life. You understood how a disciple should live honouring the wish of Guru and how to accept the decisions of Guru beyond any room for doubt. Through this, you taught the world that it is the unshakeable devotion and love of the disciple that leads to the riddle called Guru.

That saturating attainment is the absoluteness that cannot be shared or gained by anyone in the world now. It is the tatvamasi - the blissful union of soul that cannot be retrieved from anywhere. Praying that everyone should be able to be unified with your boundless, affectionate and ambrosial love!

(Translated from the original Malayalam by Mukundan P.R.)