Guru Gita Discourse Five

Gurucharanam Saranam

Kena Maargena Bho Swaamin Dehii Brahmamayo Bhavet
Tat-kripaam Kuru Me Swaamin Namaami Charanau Tava

O Lord! Kindly tell me about that path by which soul attains union with God. O Lord! I bow at your feet.

Comments:
The eternal thirst of the jeeva; the essence of life; that is the question Parvati asked Siva. How to discharge one’s soul in Brahman, in God? In the journey of jeeva for this ultimate goal in life, one does not know how many births and deaths, how many lives of transformation and evolution it had undergone, before reaching this door of enlightenment to knock and ask , ‘how do I merge with God’ and find eternal peace. Parvati is that soul, that symbol of a disciple who has reached to this ultimate refinement in life.

Here we are faced with the real meaning of spirituality. What helps one here is not tradition or culture, blind religiosity or philosophies, rituals or riches, name or fame, but only GURU, of Godly experience. Therefore, to find the peace of soul, neutralizing all dualities in life, one ultimately sets out in search of Guru.

‘The Guru disciple bond is the most sublime subject’, Navajyoti Sri Karuakara Guru said. It goes beyond our traditional concept of Guru and Sishya; the treatment of this subject is taken unduly in a personalized context by some, even in a light vein by few others. Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru takes the concept of Guru and Sishya to a most elevated platform of spiritual realization when he said:

‘It is said that Guru is the embodiment of all dharma (Guru Sakala Dharmatma). We realize ourselves the vice and virtue in our soul accrued through many births and deaths that we have undergone and (in the end) submit everything (this karmic imprints of vice and virtue) at the feet of Guru. Guru by imparting spiritual experience breaks (such) karmic bonds in the light of that experience’.

This is the quintessence of Guru, the essentiality of the medium of Guru in God realization. Here we find Parvati, an example of true spiritual seeker surrendering at the feet of her Guru in all earnestness beseeching him to guide her in the science of the soul.

Mukundan

Guru Gita Discourse Four

Gurucharanam Saranam

Suuta Said:
Kailaasa-shikhare Ramye Bhakti-saadhana Hetave
Pranamya Paarvatii Bhaktyaa Sankaram Paripruchhati

At the beautiful mount of Kailas, Paarvati, bowing in devotion submits a question to Sankara (Siva), for the sake of nurturing devotion.

Paarvati said:

Bhagavan Sarva Dharmajna Vrataanaam Vratanaayakam
Bhruuhi Me Kripayaa Sambho Guru-maahaatmya-muthamam

O Lord! Knower of all Dharma! O Shambhu! You are the greatest among ascetics. Kindly disclose to me the supreme greatness of Guru.

Comments:
For a woman, her husband is her Guide, her Guru and therefore her God. This is the dharma as per Sanatana tradition. A husband should be such an elevated soul with the knowledge of dharma, karma and right spiritual knowledge. In the ancient Rishi tradition, a child is therefore sent to the ashram of Guru to get trained and educated in these concepts. When he thus completes his education from the Guru, he is directed to lead a worldly life according to dharma, based on true spiritual wisdom. Such a man becomes qualified to become a proper householder, an ideal husband.

The conjugal bliss and prosperity of home fundamentally rests on this. It is due to this, Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru has given utmost importance to the institution of marriage and family, by bringing to fore this long lost Rishi tradition in the Ashram. It is the revival of Sanatana Dharma and the noble institution of family.

A husband has a sacred responsibility of elevating his wife too, to the pedestal of his attainments- both spiritual and temporal. How glad we would be to come across such blessed couples in our times! Here we find the epitome of that principle in Siva and Parvati. The example of Siva and Parvati has always been extolled in the sacred literature and by poets like Kalidasa. Kalidasa described the union of Siva and Parvati as inseparable as the 'word' is to its 'meaning'.

Parvati herself is well known for her practices of spiritual austerities. She worships Siva as the greatest ascetic and the knower of dharma. In her devotion to Siva, she finds latent in him the principles of sacred Guru-hood, which inspired her to ask him the question about the whole concept of Guru, which is very much hidden knowledge.

Guru Gita Discourse Three

Gurucharanam Saranam

The Rishis Said:

Guhyaat Guhyatamam Saaram Gurugiita Visheshatah
Twat Prasaadaaccha Shrotavyaa Tat Sarvam Bhruuhi Suuta Naha

O Suuta! Guru Gita is very unique, and its contents holding greatest hidden meaning. Therefore may it please you to render all of that, which would be suitable for our ears!

Comments:

Guru Gita is in the form of a dialogue between Siva and his consort Paarvati. Sage Suuta was a disciple of Vyasa and the son of sage Loma. He was approached by a group of rishis who were eager to go into the depths of the law of Guru. Suuta, then contacts through his visionary wisdom the knowledge that was given by Siva to Parvati on the mystery of GURU. And Suuta relates it to the eager rishis.

Guru Gita thus commences here.

One of the qualities of a spiritual seeker is said to be the quality of inquisitiveness or eagerness for knowledge. Where there is no desire for knowledge, it would be futile to sow the seed of wisdom. Once the disciples of Buddha asked the Noble One that why he was unable to liberate the suffering masses through his teachings of Noble Dharma! Upon this Buddha asked his disciples to go and bring any person they could find desiring liberation.

As advised by Buddha, the disciples went down to the nearby village. Door to door they went. They were surprised to find out that all persons wanted something or the other in life, but not liberation. All wanted just solutions to problems which are in abundance in life and are found to recur without an end. The disciples thus returned to Buddha disappointed. They were unable to find a single person desiring salvation!

Most of us are not prepared to look beyond and search for permanent solutions and remedies to the problems and riddles in life. But the ascetics- the rishis are noble souls of wisdom and the opportunity to learn from a great sage is made use of with an urgency of knowing the truth related to Guru.

Mukundan