The Greatness Of Guru
The entire cosmic manifestation has been caused by what is known as Brahmn. Brahmn is the prime cause in all respects of the entire cosmic manifestation. Brahmn is formless, without any describable attributes, unborn and without any beginning, subtler than the subtle. The form of Brahmn is beyond human conception. Brahmn is the supreme Lord of the Universe; the whole universe is permeated by Brahmn as unmanifest divinity. Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh are qualified aspects of the eternal, formless Supreme Being and are known as Sagun Brahmn. The tri-quality power of Maya is the power of the Overlord of the entire creation. The three qualities are: ‘sattwa-gun,’ the mode of goodness, ‘rajo-gun,’ the mode of passion, and ‘tamo-gun,’ the mode of ignorance. Vishnu sustains this universe with sattwa-gun, Brahma creates this universe with rajo-gun, and Shiva destroys this universe with tamo-gun. All these activities are being carried out ceaselessly in this world, and behind all these is the eternal Absolute Supreme Being—Brahmn. The Lord and Guru are one, and the Guru alone shows the path of God-realization to the seeker.
Guru is God. A person who sees any difference between Guru and God and who considers Guru as being only in human bodily form is yet unripe and is not aware of the glory of Guru. Guru alone can show a disciple the path of God-realization. It is for this reason that a Guru is considered to be more important than God. Saint Kabir Ji says:
Guru Govind dono khade, kake lagon paye,
Both Guru and Govind stand before me; whom should I revere?
Balihari Guru apne, Govind diyo bataye
I bow to my Guru, for He has shown me Govind (the Divine)
The main essence of spiritual mentorship is to cause conviction in a disciple that there is no difference between Guru and God.
Any type of education or knowledge should be acquired from a competent Guru. Japa (chanting and recitation of names of God), tapa (penance), pilgrimage, yagya, dan (charity), etc., should be done only after obtaining the guidance of a competent Guru regarding the method of performing these. Any such acts done without observing the correct method of performing these prove to be wasteful and do not yield the desired results. Any such acts, even though considered virtuous but done with a view to only show off or to satisfy one’s ego, to earn self-praise, or with arrogance, ultimately prove to be the reason for a man’s downfall.
A person in ignorance does various acts, knowingly or unknowingly, willingly or unwillingly, intentionally or unintentionally, for selfish purposes or out of the call of conscience and instinctively, the fruits of which have to be borne by him. No one can escape from this. To wash away the sins committed, one has to resort to the lotus feet of a Guru and drink the divine nectar of his feet. This actually means totally surrendering to the Guru, treading the path shown by him, following his teachings, and observing his instructions. Treading on the path shown by the Guru enlightens the mind of a disciple, lifts him up spiritually, and confers enlightenment, which burns/destroys all the sins of the disciple.
Resorting to ochre robes, running away from the world or house, and retiring to the jungle does not signify asceticism and is not a must for God-realization. Complete detachment and discarding the world from the mind irrespective of the environment leads to asceticism and the ultimate stage in spirituality.
Going to Guru and meeting him is the pilgrimage of the highest order, for his grace can grant all the objects of life unsolicitedly. For those having full faith in the Guru and who render selfless service to him, Guru’s abode itself is holy Kashi, and water off the Guru’s feet is the water of the holy river Ganges. Guru can confer deliverance and make a disciple cross over the ocean of worldly existence without any solicitation. Such is the greatness of Guru.
By rendering selfless service to the Guru, one can get the benefit of pilgrimage to the holy Tirth of Prayag. The lotus feet of the Guru are actually the lotus feet of Lord Vishnu only. Therefore, when one’s Guru is the Helmsman, there is no need to go on any other pilgrimage. It is only the Guru who can lead one to God and grant self-realization. A disciple should therefore meditate on his Guru, His form, in much the same manner as a devoted and faithful wife always thinks of her husband.
One should keep deliberating and meditating upon the Reverend Guru at all times. This is the only way to obtain his blessings. One needs to discard one’s fame, class, glory, praise, position, etc. All these things cause disruption and become a hindrance in the way of achieving insight. Here there is no distinction of class, caste, school of thought, etc. Discarding the thoughts of all these things, one should surrender wholeheartedly to their Gurudev.
Great Icons and Personalities who managed to achieve great heights in their respective lives did so only because their Gurus had lighted up the flame of wisdom in them, whether it be Yamraja as Nachiketa’s Guru, Ashtavakra as King Janak’s Guru, Ramananda as Kabir’s Guru, Govindapadacharya as Shri Adi Shankaracharya’s Guru, Raidas (Ravidas) as Meera’s Guru, Vashishta as Lord Rama’s Guru, Ramakrishna as Vivekananda’s Guru, Ramdas as Shivaji’s Guru, Virjananda as Swami Dayanand Saraswati’s Guru, or Nivruttinath as Gyaneshwar’s Guru!
The greatest ignorance of man today is that he has accepted this material world as the eternal truth and has conveniently forgotten its basic driving force, the chetna, or pure consciousness, whereas the fundamental element of this entire cosmos is that power of pure consciousness. Instead of realizing that the basic element of consciousness—Brahmn—is the elementary truth, man goes to accept the inert substance as the basis of life on this earth, which is the prodigious form of ignorance. It is only the ‘Guru’ who brings us out of this false perception and makes us realize the significance of the Almighty Par-Brahmn. Mother Nature is endowed with three virtues (Sattwa, Rajas, and Tamas); Brahmn is beyond these virtues—He is the Infinite Supreme Being who transcends the three gunas of Maya (power of illusion) and is not influenced by it whatsoever.
It is imperative to acquire the virtue of total surrender before trying to acquire knowledge or wisdom from any Guru. Surrender of one’s mind, intellect, wishes, desires, lusts, and vanity! It is through this kind of unconditional surrender that the disciple earns the compassion and grace of his Guru. King Janak surrendered himself completely; that is how the divine rays of wisdom got transferred into him from his Guru Shri Ashtavakra. Meera, Chaitanya, Dnyaneshwar, and so many others attained supreme wisdom only through unconditional surrender. The fundamental cause of pride in man is the tendency to stake a claim on anything and everything in this world. Discarding one’s vanity could lead to one’s welfare. It is then that the following sentiments come to light:
Mera mujhe mein kuchh nahin, jo kuchh hai so tor;
There is nothing in me; whatever there is, it is Yours.
Tera tujh ko saunp de kya lage hai mor
I offer it all back to You; what do I have left to give?
If a seeker is keen on gaining spiritual knowledge from his Guru, then in that case, he needs to whole-heartedly surrender himself to his Revered Guru. He needs to abandon his pride of ownership that these are the things that belong to me. Everything belongs to Shri Guru. He should consider all his belongings to be rightfully the property of his Guru and not his own. It is only then that he gets the right to be a subject of the Guru’s divine compassion.
Guru is proficient in all Vedas. He is truly the one who can accurately analyze them. He analyzes and expounds the real meaning of Vedanta. He is the one who not only acquires knowledge from other sources but also develops his own wisdom. Whatever he tells, it is not on the basis of bookish knowledge but what he had learned from his own experiences. It is only such a master who can show the right path to his disciple and prompt him to tread on the path of truth and honesty. We should not think of such erudite Gurus as mere humans; instead, we need to regard them as God incarnates and pay our obeisance at their lotus feet.
So astonishing is the grandeur of the Guru that by sheer remembrance of Him, the brilliant stream of wisdom spontaneously appears within the seeker. Even with a little bit of transcendental meditation, the waves of thoughts tend to influence the seeker.
The road on which we attain worldly and ephemeral pleasures is not the right path to possibly realize God. Living in the world, one aspires to achieve money, fame, honor, position, respect, etc. And to achieve these things, one has to depend on vices like lies, cheating, deceit, theft, murder, and kidnapping. The crux behind all this is one’s lust and passion for transient enjoyments! The basic thing is one’s ego. Those who remain totally involved with the materialistic world fall into the ditch of hell. In order to get rid of all these vices, one needs to seek the refuge of Shri Gurudev. It is the Guru who changes the course of life and inspires one to follow the path of God-realization, which leads them towards salvation, saving them from reigning in hell.
This world is such a jungle that once a man gets ensnared in it, he is unable to see the road towards his welfare. He does not get what he aspires to or longs for; instead, he gets whatever is undesirable. This world is full of vices such as disease, sorrow, hatred, weariness, jealousy, attachment, despise, conflict, violence, viciousness, vengeance, and subjugation, etc., and cannot be a source of peace and happiness to anyone. Man never experiences blissful joy living in this world. He keeps wandering like the one who has lost his direction. His mind gets deluded living in this world. The more he tries to hold on to the world, the more he gets entrapped. In such a situation, it is only a True Master, a Sad-Guru, who can show him the right path and lead him to eternal peace and joy.
A single drop of a Revered Guru’s charnāmrita (the holy water that is obtained by washing the Guru’s lotus feet) is capable of giving multitudinous times more blessings than what can be obtained by visiting all the holy places of the world. What King Janak could not earn all his life, his Guru Ashtāvakra gave him in a fraction of a second, which led to his emancipation. What Arjun could not achieve all his life, Lord Krishna gave it to him in such a short lapse of time. What Nivruttinath gave to Gyandev (Gyaneshwar) astounded him. What Ramakrishna gave to Swami Vivekananda helped him spread the essence of Vedanta in the world. Such is the significance and greatness of the Guru. Kabirdas has said the following in this context:
Teerath gaye to ek phal, sant mile phal chaar
Visiting a pilgrimage site yields one fruit,
Sad-Guru mile to anant phal, kahe Kabir vichar
Meeting a saint yields four fruits,
But meeting a True Guru yields infinite fruits, says Kabir, reflecting on this
Kabir
Performing religious rites, praying, fasting, going on various pilgrimages, or doing severe penances, yoga, etc., without following the injunctions of the Holy Scriptures and proper procedures; or even offering obeisance to various deities, if not done in a proper prescribed manner, may cause annoyance to them, and that may just lead to unfavorable results. It is only a Revered Guru who can save us from the wrath of deities. But if our Guru gets annoyed, then there is no one who can save us. So, it is imperative to perform all the rites only with the complete guidance and directions of the Guru; this would undoubtedly give us favorable results. Therefore, seeking the Guru’s refuge is the only exclusive way out.
The Guru, who has achieved Self-Realization, is the Real Guru. No one else can be considered to be a True Guru. It is not possible to know one’s soul, one’s real self, through logic, and it is not possible to know it even with the chanting of Vedas. This subject is beyond the horizon of intellect and can only be perceived through self-experience. Even astrologers cannot understand this because astrology is an apara vidya (one that deals with this material world), which is not meant for Self-Realization. This cannot be understood by religious practices either. There is no action that can lead to Self-Realization. This element and essence of the Guru is so pure that it can only be understood by one possessing an equally pure soul.
The whole idea of liberation is related to the mind and not to the physical being; being liberated from the mind is actually what deliverance is all about. According to the Vedas, ‘Mann évam manushyānām kāranam bandha mokshayoh,’ which means this mind is the root cause of all attachments or the main source towards liberation. No Guru can deliver wisdom without the essential cleansing of the mind. If holy nectar is transferred into a vessel full of poison, even that nectar turns poisonous. Similarly, if wisdom were transferred to a wretched mind, it would misuse that wisdom. So, the Guru has to be very cautious about this.
The mind is framed on the basis of previous birth’s sanskaras; its actions in this world are based on these sanskaras. It is completely unaware of self-consciousness. It cannot differentiate between reality and illusion. It has no awareness of the eternal and transitory. It is basically selfish. It is mostly concerned about its own selfish desires and interests. It can go to any extent to fulfill its egocentric pursuits. The mind, being extremely fidgety and restless, does not stay in one place. It has more than one thousand instincts. Collecting and devoting them all to the feet of the Revered Guru is what sādhnā is all about! It has been stated about the mind that:
Mann lobhi mann lalchi mann chanchal mann chor
The mind is greedy, the mind is desirous, the mind is restless, the mind is a thief—
Mann ke mate na chaliye palak palak mann aur
One should not trust the mind; it changes every moment
It is because of the mind that vices like jealousy, enmity, hatred, hostility, anger, attachment, and greed, etc., arise within; and these are the signs of an impure and perverted mind. Man becomes a victim of various kinds of physical and mental diseases mainly because of the mind. The mind is the basic reason for all kinds of perverseness in this world. It is only when we find a True Guru that we are truly guided in the ways of purifying our minds. Talking about the importance of a Guru, Kabirdas says:
Yeh tan vish ki belari, Guru amrit ki khan,
This body is a vessel of poison, while the Guru is a mine of nectar.
Sheesh diye jo Guru mile to bhi sasta jaan.
Sab dharti kagaz karo lekhani sab ban raaye,
Sat samund ki massse karon Guru gun likha na jaaye
Even if one offers their head, meeting the Guru is still inexpensive.
If the entire earth were paper, and all the trees were pens,
And the ocean were ink, it would still be insufficient to write the praises of the Guru
Summary:
The passage elaborates on the profound spiritual concept of Brahmn, the formless and supreme cause of the cosmic manifestation, and the crucial role of a Guru in leading a disciple towards God-realization. Brahmn, beyond human comprehension, is the unmanifest divinity permeating the universe, with Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva representing its sagun (manifest) aspects. The text emphasizes that a Guru, regarded as equal to God, is indispensable for spiritual enlightenment, guiding seekers through the complexities of life and leading them towards liberation. The Guru’s teachings and the disciple’s complete surrender to the Guru are vital for attaining true wisdom and escaping the cycles of worldly existence.
The passage also highlights the importance of selfless service, humility, and unwavering faith in the Guru. It underscores the futility of religious practices done without proper guidance and the transformative power of a Guru in purifying the disciple’s mind, leading to the ultimate goal of self-realization. The grandeur of a Guru is described as unparalleled, with their blessings considered more potent than any pilgrimage or ritual, capable of delivering a soul from the bondage of worldly attachments and guiding it to eternal peace and joy.
Important Points:
- Brahmn: The formless, supreme cause of the universe, beyond human comprehension.
- Sagun Brahmn: Manifestations of Brahmn as Brahma (creation), Vishnu (sustenance), and Shiva (destruction).
- Guru as God: The Guru is seen as equal to God, guiding the disciple to God-realization.
- Complete Surrender: Essential for spiritual progress, involving the abandonment of ego and selfish desires.
- Purification of the Mind: A critical step for receiving true wisdom and self-realization.
- Selfless Service: A key virtue in spirituality, leading to divine grace and spiritual progress.
- Role of Guru: The Guru’s guidance is necessary for performing religious acts correctly and avoiding negative consequences.
- Guru’s Blessings: Considered more powerful than any ritual or pilgrimage, capable of granting liberation.
- Detachment: True asceticism is achieved through mental detachment, not physical renunciation.
- Mind as the Root Cause: The mind is the source of both bondage and liberation, requiring the Guru’s guidance for purification.
- Transcendence: The Guru helps the disciple transcend the illusions of the material world.
- True Wisdom: Gained through the Guru’s teachings, not through intellectual pursuits or rituals.
- Kabir’s Teachings: The value of a Guru’s guidance is immeasurable, surpassing all worldly achievements.
- Spiritual Pilgrimage: The Guru’s presence is the highest form of pilgrimage, offering the ultimate spiritual benefits.
- Importance of Guru: Reverence for the Guru is crucial for spiritual success and ultimate liberation.
