gurubhakthi

[Guest guest]

[Moderator's Note: The following article is from

http://www.kamakoti.org/souv/1-2.html . In future please only give the url if

the article is from any website. Thank you for sending this.]

Guru Bhakthi

His Holiness Jagadguru

Sri Jayendra Sarasvathi Svamigal

Sri Sankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham

It is said that Guru(preceptor) is greater than God, devotion to

preceptor is more meritorious than that to God. If we ask why, the

answer is that God has not been seen by any one, But the preceptor is

present here and now before us. If a Preceptor who is immaculate and

pure, full of wisdom and steadiness of vision completely free from

weakness, were available to us, the mental peace in search of which

we pray to God is at our reach by devotion to the preceptor. Hence it

is declared

 

 

"Gurur - Brahma

Gurur - Vishnuh

Guru -devo Maheswarah

Gurur - sakshat Param Brahma

Tasmai Sri Gurave namah

 

The Preceptor is Brahma, Vishnu, is the God Maheswara, is verily

Brahma itself. Salutation to such a Preceptor

 

In this verse it is to be noted that total identity between the

Preceptor and Brahman reality is declared. Incidentally, since in

this verse both Siva and Vishnu are clubbed together, if we prostrate

before the preceptor uttering this verse we will get the sense of the

identity of Siva and Vishnu.

 

God performs the works like creating and protecting the world. But

the preceptor does not have these responsibilities. God has

an 'office' while the Preceptor does not have one. is much easier to

get things done by the grace of the preceptor than by the officer God

whom we will have to disturb.

 

Whatever great and auspicious qualities God possesses, the Preceptor

also has, namely, blem-ishless purity, truth, devoid of deceit or

dissimulation, complete control of the senses, infinite compassion

and wisdom. The only difference is that we are able to see the

Preceptor by our eyes, while God is invisible. Hence if we begin to

develop devotion to the preceptor clinging to his holy feet we will

gain with ease all the benefits that we expect from God with effort.

That is why our elders said that devotion to Preceptor is superior in

its effects than that to God.

 

However we should not forget to practice devotion to god, because we

are led to the presence and proximity of the Preceptor only by God.

if the grace of God were not operating, how could one get near the

Preceptor at all?

 

Acharya Sankara has stated in the beginning of the Vivekacudamani

that three things are hard to obtain without God's Grace. They are(1)

birth as a human being, (2) desire to know the truth and to get

liberated and (3) the attainment of holy Preceptor.

 

 

"Durlabham trayameva etat devanugraha - hetukam

manushyatvam mudmukshutvam-purusha-samsargah"

For all people at all ages, the Preceptor is one only. He is

Dakshinamurthy.

 

 

"Sa purvesham api guruh

Kaalena-anavacchedaat."

How could true knowledge have been transmitted to one Preceptor

except through Preceptor of that Preceptor except through Preceptor

of that Preceptor and so on? If we thus trace the line or Preceptor

backwards, God Himself ultimately will become the First preceptor to

his first disciple. That is why we are told not to forget God.

 

Sometimes this matter is stated in a different way. If instead of

speaking of God and Preceptor as two different persons, if we treat

them as one and the same and assume that God has appeared in the form

of a Preceptor, we need not practice two-fold devotion separately as

devotion to the Preceptor. we can consider God Himself as the

preceptor and surrender to Him totally. He will save us by His grace

through the preceptor in human form who after all is only His

manifestation. hence we are taught even at the very outset that the

preceptor is the basis of trinity of God viz. Brahma, Vishnu and

Siva.

 

 

 

"Gurur - Brahma

Gurur - Vishnuh

Gurur - Devo Maheswarah

Gururs - Sakshat Param Brahma

Tasmai Sri Gurave namah

The meaning of the above verse is used sometimes to be explained more

tastefully with reference to Sage Vyasa who is the most important of

all the teachers of the Brahma-vidya.

 

 

"acatur-vadano brahmaa, dvibaahur-aparo-harih;

Aphaalalocanah sambhuh, bhagavaan baadaraayanah."

'Baadaraayana' is another name of Vyasa. He is Brahmaa without four

faces. He is Vishnu with only two hands; He is Siva without the eye

on the forehead. Such is the greatness of Vyasa-Baadadraayana.

 

There is no one greater than the preceptor. We should have full faith

in him. It should be genuine faith. if we have faith that God himself

has appeared in the preceptor's form, then even God is not necessary.

This faith and the devotion that we nourish towards Him, will of

themselves redeem us.

 

For the Vaishnava, devotion to Preceptor is the most important and

primary.

 

If we commit and offence against God, there is no need to seeking

pardon from God himself. It is enough if the Preceptor pardoned us.

God's anger will at once be appeased. On the contrary, if one offends

the preceptor, and seeks pardon from God, nothing would happen. God

himself would tell him that He is helpless in the matter. he will ask

us to get the pardon from the preceptor alone.

 

The Preceptor can intercede on behalf of the disciple and recommend

to God to pardon the sinner. God will never disregard this

recommendation. If, on the contrary, the preceptor is sinned against

there could be none to protect the sinner. There is a verse which

tells us this.

 

 

 

"Gurur-pitaa, gurur-maataa, guru-daivam, guru-gatih,

Sive-rysgte gurustraataa, gurur rushte na kascana.

That is why the scriptures enjoin the devotion to the preceptor. If a

Preceptor, perfect in all respects is not available, one has to take

to some Preceptor as a spiritual guide even though he is of a grade

less and practice devotion to him and through him to God.

 

No benefit accrues to God or Guru by our devotion to them. The great

benefit is only ours. What is that?

 

We have impurities and are fickle-minded. We are not able to fix the

mind in one point even for a second. Only when we set our thought on

one who is ever pure, is full of wisdom, is constant and inflexible

like a dried wood, that state of immutability will be won by us also.

We will become the same as He. The object of our thought need not

necessarily be God. It may be any object or any person whom we

consider to be possessed of such spiritual qualities as those of a

Preceptor. We will become one with Him. Only when the mind stops to

wander, self will shine forth. That is, we will know our true nature

of bliss. Devotion to Guru or God is indispensable for the restraint

of the mind.

 

In the Chandogya Upanishad itself it is declared that only by the

grace of the Guru true knowledge is possible. It says "aacaaryavaan

purusho veda" (only one who has a Preceptor, gains true knowledge).

 

It puts the idea in the form of short story.

 

A man belonging to Gandhara (now known as Kandahar) was kidnapped by

some dacoits and was abandoned blindfold in a forest. what will be

his predicament? How could he return to his country not knowing where

he was?

 

Similar is the case with us. Maya, the deluding power, has left us

blindfold in the world. In the above story, some wayfarer happens to

come on the way in the forest. He removes the blind and instructs him

on the way back to Gandhara. The poor man follows the instructions

and reaches his place.

 

Similarly, we are now blinded by ignorance and can, following the

instruction of the Preceptor, get our ignorance removed and attain

release. This is the parable in the Chandogya Upanishad.

 

Sri Sankara Bhagavatpada, renowned as the world teacher (Jagadguru),

sings the praise of the Guru everywhere. He asked "What if one has

all the glories? What is the use of it all if his mind is not bound

to the lotus feet of the Preceptor?" He asks "what if?" not once, but

repeatedly. In the poem Gurdvashtakam (consisting of eight verses),

he asks as a refrain at the end of every line "What if" in all the 32

lines.

 

And also in the teaching just on the eve of his casting off the

mortal coils he commands; "Take to a Preceptor who is a savant and is

pure. Then do service at his holy feet every day. Seek the

instruction on Brahman, symbolised in the single syllable Om! Listen

to the Mahavaakyas of Upanishads!"

 

 

"Sad-vidvan upasrpyatam pratidinam

tatpadukaa sevyatam brahmaika akasaram

arthyatam srutisriri-vaakyam samaakarnyataam."

There is no parallel to the Guru. He may be compared a philosopher's

stone which turns the base metal into gold. But even this comparison

is not Quite correct because the philosopher's stone turns base metal

only into gold. it does not transform that metal into another

philosopher's stone. But the Preceptor turns even the dullard into a

wise sage like him.

 

When we look at the line of the Preceptors one by one, and our

Paramacharya, the doubt deepens whether there could be any one

comparable to him. We should contemplate on the Paramacharya not

merely as a God walking amidst us but the Supreme non-dual Brahman

who is beyond all difference and determinations.

 

Narayana Narayana

[Guest guest]

, "omnagarajan" <omnagarajan>

wrote:

> [Moderator's Note: The following article is from

> http://www.kamakoti.org/souv/1-2.html . In future please only give

the url if the article is from any website. Thank you for sending

this.]

 

Dear Members:

 

a) If you are cutting and pasting a huge article from WWW. Pls give

the URL alone. Dont post the whole article.

 

b) If you are quoting from websites, pls indicate the portions you are

cutting and pasting clearly.

 

Thanks

 

Ravi