In glory of Guru
The Sanskrit word “Guru” means the person who dispels darkness of ignorance from our mind. In one famous Sanskrit shloka the Guru is placed at a higher position than God. God, who is the creator, sustainer and destroyer (Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh) is unreachable without the path opened up by the Guru. Hence the immediate and most critical role of the Guru is acknowledged as more important than anything or anyone else. Without a guru’s guidance, one cannot progress on the path of spirituality. When one is blessed by a satguru (true guru) appearing in one’s life, the guru not only takes on the task of guidance but also the karmic burden of the shishya (the disciple). And the momentous task of guiding us from ignorance to knowledge, from darkness to light, and from mortality to immortality is a selfless one.
Through worldly life, our vision generally remains clouded in ignorance under the influence of maya (illusion formed of material energies), and what we take to be real is but a fleeting material manifestation. What we take to be the self is also a similar accumulation of material energies. In forgetting our spiritual nature, we get attached to our false ego, and develop a sense of identity formed of labels rather than the essence of one’s soul and its path. As puppets of material energy, we manifest anger, pride, greed and other soul degrading impulses. When our soul’s multi-lifetime journey gets stuck in the mud of materialism, only a true guru can excavate us, and can get our spiritual wheel moving on the path to liberation.
We may encounter many great teachers who come into our life to give us knowledge about specific skills that help us make a living, or even become better human beings as we operate in the external world. We respect and acknowledge them as shiksha gurus (teachers of skill-based learning). But a diksha guru is one who sets us on the inward journey of subtle energy realms and like a mirror, brings awareness of our imperfections, and the needs of one’s individual spiritual journey, and then provides us with tools drawn from self-experience and realization that move us forward. Our worldly joy and peace also depends much on our inner stability and purification of our mind. And only a true guru who is self-realized can provide us the training and the tools of inner purification.
The Bhagawad Gita says that whenever virtue subsides, and wickedness prevails, God manifests from age to age, to establish virtue and to destroy evils (4/7).
The manifestation of God is said to take place in many forms – the concept of avatars is defined as a partial manifestation (anshavatar) or a complete manifestation (purnavatar). Great gurus such as Parashuram are said to be anshavatars of God whereas Krishna is said to be a purnavatar. So God also manifests partially in the human form of true gurus, who manifest the six Godly qualities of splendor, virtue, glory, opulence, knowledge, dispassion and work as an instrument of God. Paramhansa Yogananda said, “a true guru, who has attained union with God, is qualified to lead others to the goal”.
Such a guru, by transferring his spiritual energy (shaktipath), can bring in an instant, a spiritually uplifting experience that creates an enlightenment experience for the deserving disciple.
As it happened in the life of Swami Vivekananda, who was an atheist and a non-believer in idol worship. As a young man when he went to meet Sri Ram Krishna, with an intension of arguing with him about the existence of God. Sri Ram Krishna could read his mind and so without getting into an argument, wanted to make him experience a state of grace that was available to him. He touched him on his shoulder and in a moment, passed his spiritual energy to Vivekananda who instantly went into Samadhi for several hours. When he came out from his Samadhi, his lived experience of this state of grace transformed his being and through his guru’s grace, he experienced his higher consciousness and oneness with the supreme soul. Later in his life, he repeatedly mentioned that if in all his teachings, if he ever uttered a word of truth, it is not his but his guru’s. Such humility and devotion to his guru was the force for him to do great service for humanity all through his life. Such astonishing experiences have happened in the life of many enlightened souls. But spiritual progress happens only when disciple’s sincere devotion and effort matches with his guru’s sincere responsibility.
As in the originator of the lineage of Paramhansa Yogananda, Babaji had assured Lahiri Mahasaya (Paramhansa Yogananda’s guru), that “like a mother bird guarding her young; I followed you, as your soul sailed over the sea of life and death. And as you reincarnated, grew up, and began seeking God, I was ever there watching you”.
Describing the sacred guru-shishya relationship, Paramhansa Yogananda said; the spiritual soul contact between guru and disciple is one of eternal, unconditional divine love and friendship, bearing no taint of any selfish consideration. Devotion to guru is not personality worship. We learn to breakdown the ego through the path of devotion. Success of spiritual sadhana depends 25% on devotee’s effort; 25% on guru’s guidance and 50% on God’s grace.
To find a true guru is a very difficult task. Especially in today’s world, we find an over abundance of self-proclaimed gurus. They pull crowds by showing miracles (siddhis), or promises of liberation. But often they are not liberated beings themselves and are tied to worldly desires of fame and money. Yogananda ji said the path of spirituality is not a path of circus, neither can a blind person can show the path to another blind. So one must be very discriminative in choosing a real guru.
The tradition of showing respect to guru, is a deep rooted concept in Hindu culture. Every year a day designated as Gurupurnima day (a specific full moon) is celebrated all over India for showing great respect to gurus.
Devotion towards guru is beautifully expressed in few lines of Kabir’s (a mystic poet from the 15th century) doha (verse). He said “if guru and Govinda (God) stand together, I will bow down to my guru first, as he guided me the way to reach Govinda (God). Thus the path to God realization rests upon the abilities of the guru and the devotion of the shishya – that is a primary step on the path to spiritual enlightenment.
Edited by Prodeep Bose
