Guru Gita Discourse Six

Gurucharanam Saranam

Siva Said:

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.

Comments:
Siva, the popular god of great asceticism, is pleased by the unblemished devotion of Parvati. He equals her to his own Self. Their identification with each other is total. It is the saga of guru and disciple! Guru pours his grace, his ‘Self’ itself to the disciple, like the downpour that soothes the parched earth, the thirty heart of the disciple. Guru with endless patience waits for the arrival of such a disciple and the disciple for such a Guru. Many are people who go to Guru, but more often than not, they do it for the appeasement of worldly desires. And why not? Guru is verily Kamadhenu, the heavenly cow that grants your wishes.

After the era of Siva and Parvati, have we ever heard about another Parvati, the disciple Parvati? It would be wrong to say no. We have an incomparable example in our times, of Sishya Poojita Janani Amrita Jnana Tapaswini, of total surrender, love and dedication to the Guru. Imagine her devotion which forsook the comfort of home at the playful age of a child; imagine that wisdom, that courage which forsook the parents, dear and near ones for the sake of Guru. Sishya Poojita - she has even excelled Parvati of yore in the matter of devotion to Guru. Here one new epic has begun. With the pure passion of love and devotion to Guru, Sishyapoojita earned what a woman could never even dream about in the spiritual realm.

We do come across people, both in the ancient and modern era, who ask questions like ‘who am I’ or ‘who is God’ etc. But we hardly hear this imploration, ‘what is the secret of Guru concept?’, ‘what is the greatness of Guru?’ or how should one identify a Guru? People talk endlessly about the glory of the god of their faith, about the soul and the universe, questions well beyond human clarity; but the Guru concept is abandoned. There are reasons, however. The Guru concept is a highly secretive knowledge and Guru a rare occurrence, a rare manifestation. It is not our dry intellectual conceptions and blind faith that brings about spiritual progression, but the grace of Supreme Light channeled to us through the medium of Guru.

Well, from perennial time, humanity has not well pondered over this question, as affirmed by Siva here that this question Parvati asked about Guru had not been asked by anyone before.

Mukundan