Guru Gita Discourse Two

Gurucharanam Saranam

Sri Guru Gita
(The Guru Disciple Paradigm)

Achintya-avyaktaruupaaya Nirgunaaya Gunaatmane
Samastha-jagadaadhaara Muurthaye Brahmane Namah

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

Comments: Sant Kabir once said that if God and Guru were to come together before him, he would first bow at the feet of Guru; for it was Guru who made him experience God! Though the Supreme Light of Consciousness (Nirguna Brahman, Brahman without attributes) is the changeless Reality, it can be experienced only through the existential binary - the Jeevatma (Individual Soul) and Paramatma (Saguna Brahman, the Supreme Manifested Self with attributes).

The individual soul is only a relative truth in as much as that it has no independent and permanent existence of its own. Jeevatma is tethered to the Supreme Manifested Self, like the wave is to the ocean, like the child is to its father. The universe comprising of all souls has its support and sustenance in this Supreme Manifested Self, the Saguna Brahman. It is the cosmic projection of Nirguna Brahman and indivisibly cohabitant. That is the reason, Guru, the Saguna Brahman, is realized and worshipped as Brahman itself. Guru Gita tries to project this truth throughout its discourse.

This mantra is both the invocation and definition of God. In beautiful terms, it tries to define God as the Unknowable and Indefinable Support of the Universe, the Eternal Truth, with and without Attributes.

Mukundan