Guru the Brahman?

[Guest guest]

There have been interesting discussions on the need of a guru - is Guru

Brahman etc. reading which I felt compelled to put something in writing.

Due to slow and some times difficult to reach internet facilities here, I

was forced to cut down my activities in Advaitin list. Will join back

regularly once I return in March after my sabbatical.

 

Need of a Guru and the qualifications of the Guru:

 

In the Mudaka Upanishad there is the famous sloka:

 

pareeksha lokaan karma chitaan brahmano

nervedamaayanaaschakRitahkRitena|

tad viJNaanartham sa gurumevabhigachhet

samit paaNih shotriyam brahmanishTam||

 

This sloka is very important in the sense, it discusses briefly (a) the

qualifications of a student (b) when he needs a teacher © the

qualifications of the teacher and (d) how one should approach the teacher or

relationship between the teacher and the student.

 

The first two lines discuss about the student qualifications -

The meaning is a brahmanaH or the one who is seeker of Brahman -since he is

a seeker, he is a conscious entity or chit swaruupa and he is existent

entity or sat swaruupa. Therefore the Brahman that he is seeking is what he

does not have - (or thinks he does not have since he is seeking) - is the

absolute uninterrupted happiness or ananada - since he is still samsaari

engulfed with sorrows or limitations which make him a seeker. - Hence the

first qualification is that he must be a seeker of moksha or liberation from

all limitations that lead to complete and full happiness - That is he must

be mumukshu - seeker of moksha - seeker of liberation from limitations.

 

The sloka continues: Such brahmanaH, pareeksha lokaan karma chitaan - after

examining all the fields of experiences he gained as a result of all his

efforts up to the point - The motivating factor in all our actions that we

perform is to gain absolute happiness or complete freedom from all sorrows -

but if one examines the results of all actions performed, one recognizes

that we did not gain what we are longing for through these actions - this

recognition can come if only we can stand apart and evaluate - for that, one

needs proper discrimination capability for impartial evaluation that is

viveka and detachment from the actions and the results or vairagya - so that

objective evaluation can be made - hence two more qualifications for a

seeker are stressed - viveka and vairagya along with mumukshutvam that was

pointed earlier.

 

Continuing with the sloka - nirvedamaayaanschakRitahkRitena - After

examining all the fields of experiences that he has gained through actions

he realizes that one cannot gain as a result of actions the complete

liberation through actions -- Here the Upanishad emphasizes through the

choice of the words that moksha is not something that can be gained as a

result of actions. It is not a result of going somewhere - VaikunTa or

Heaven or doing something - it is knowing something which cannot be a result

of an action - To recognize that even one should have a proper

discrimination and vairagya.

 

Action is limited since action involves actor, acting and the object of

action - each being mutually exclusive and hence limited. Action being

limited, the result will also be limited. Limited action cannot give

unlimited result or infinite result. Even a series of limited actions will

give only a series of limited results and sum total of series of limited

results will still be limited and not unlimited. Hence by examining all

fields of results of all actions, pareeksha lokaan karma chitaan - a honest

seeker will have to come to realization that no amount of action can give

what he wants - full and complete freedom from sorrow - Once that

conclusion is reached - the seeker is ready - A sadhak becomes a giJNaasu -

seeker of the knowledge - Hence the mother shruti advises that seeker -

tat viJNaaratham sa guru mevaabhigachhet

let that seeker go in search of knowledge - to where? - Knowledge like water

can flow from higher to lower - from a teacher to a taught - Knowledge being

an intellectual process, hence requires a proper frame of mind to give and a

proper frame of mind to receive. Hence the student should be ready to learn

and the teacher should be ready to teach. At least the student has a

motivation to learn - he seeking for unlimited happiness. As a result of

teaching he has some thing to gain - at least that is what he feels as a

student. But the problem is, the teacher has no motivation to give. He

does not gain anything in return by teaching- since the teacher that one is

seeking to gain absolute unlimited happiness must himself be knowledgeable

of that absolute unlimited happiness. If that is so he is not going to gain

any extra happiness as a result of teaching since he is already full and

complete. If he teaches, he has to teach out of compassion and not out of

his need. The sloka is very definite in its advice -not only it says let

him approach a teacher - but it says - gurum eva abhigacheet - eva implies

emphatic that he should approach a teacher alone and no one else - as that

is the path to gain the knowledge that he is seeking. Hence he does need a

teacher.

 

What kind of teacher he has to approach - It says now qualifications of a

teacher - shrotriam and brahmanishTam - Shrotriam has a very deep meaning -

he should be a teacher who has the knowledge of shruti - or scriptures - He

cannot teach anything he wants - he must be qualified to teach Shruti’s that

is he himself be a master of the Shruti’s - Shruti stands for more than

just knowledge of scriptures - Shruti means that one has heard - so the

teacher is the one who has heard the knowledge from his teacher - this is

what is called sampradaya - a chain of teacher to the taught -and his

teacher must also be a shotriya - heard from his teacher - It is not that

teacher has learned his scripture by studying privately by himself- he has

learned in the sampradaya system - a system where he has served his teacher

and learned first hand going through the discipline of the disciple. Since

the teacher has to teach a student - that teacher must be capable of

teaching that particular student. Just as the students are special in their

own way due to their backgrounds - the teachers are also special since they

were students once, with their own peculiarities. Hence a teacher to sought

must be a type of teacher that has the capacity to teach that particular

type of student. If a student is highly contemplative, he needs only a

teacher who can guide him how to contemplate on the highest - type like

Bhagavaan Ramana . If the student has lot of intellectual questions, he

needs a teacher who is patient enough to answer all the question he has.

Hence Shotriam is that kind of teacher who can come down to the level of the

student and uplift him - Hence Shruti is emphatic that he should seek a

teacher who can help him in gaining that knowledge that he is seeking.

Finally he must be brahma nishTam - that one who is fully established in

Brahman. If I need to learn chemistry, I have to approach a teacher who

knows chemistry - no use of going to a teacher who knows astrology. If I

want to learn brahma vidya, I need to have a teacher who himself knows

bhramavidya - But brahmavidya is not knowing something - it is not an

objective knowledge - it is subjective experience with associated knowledge

that I am Brahman and not ‘this is Brahman’ - I am happiness and not this is

happiness. Hence it is not possessing brahmavidya but completely being

established that I am that self that pervades everything. He should knows

himself or his self - If he knows his self what good it do for the student

unless that self he knows is the self in all. Hence it is not an

intellectual knowledge but intense subjective experience of the knowledge

that he has learned from his teacher through sampradaya teaching.

 

Since the teacher has nothing to gain by teaching, the student is at the

mercy of the teacher for learning. Hence scripture advises the student to

approach such teacher with certain attitude that is conducive to learning

from the teacher. This is emphasized by the sloka as samit paniH - approach

the teacher with handful of firewood - It is not that the teacher cares for

firewood - emphasis is only that the attitude of service to the teacher.

Why should the teacher be served. The teacher is there not for his sake but

for the students sake. Since he has gained what all need to be gained, he

is nothing but Brahman (aham brahmaasmi is his knowledge). He is embodied

not for his sake but to fulfill the needs of all seekers who are seeking

such a teacher. That is the law of nature. Teachers are provided when the

student is ready - God or Iswara fulfills the desires of the students by

being there in the form of the teacher when is longing for such a teacher.

 

Here is we have catch 21. The student is advised to approach a teacher who

is shotriyam and brahma nishTam - one can evaluate if he knows how to teach

but how to evaluate if he is brahmanishTa. To evaluate if the other is

brahmanishTa, it is said that one has be a brahmanishTa. But if one is

already brahmanishTa then one does not need a teacher. Hence it is said

that it only by the grace of God that one is led to a teacher who is

brahmanisTa.

 

In VivekachuuDamani - shanakar starts - manushyatwam, mumu

durlabham trayameviatad daivaanugraha hetukam |

manushyatvam, mumukshutvam and mahaapurusha samsrayam||

 

Three things are very difficult to get and one has it that is due to the

grace of God only - they are the birth as human being, desire to get

liberation and the association with the great soul.

 

Those that have the good fortune of having found such a teacher cannot but

endorse Shankara’s statement.

 

There is no litmus test to check whether a particular teacher is

BrahmanishTa or not. Although Bhagavaan Krishna provides how a realized

soul acts in the world in the second chapter of Geeta, even to appreacite

those qualities in a teacher, the student should have the requisite frame of

mind. In reality the student develops a sense of feeling that this one is

my teacher and that he is is fully established in that state -Without that

understanding from the student the teaching will not be effective. That

sense will come only by constant observation of the teacher - hence student

is asked to stay in Gurukula and be with teacher. It will give a chance to

teacher to study the student if he deserves that knowledge and a chance to

student if the teacher is appropriate for him.

 

If the teacher has realized - what has he realized - he has realized that he

is Brahman and that is the nature of knowledge - If he has realized that,

then he cannot be different from Brahman - hence as Shree Ram Chandran

pointed out Guru brahma guru Vishnu etc. follows and it is not just a praise

but a fact, since that is what the teacher is, and that is what the

realization implies. (Infact that is what everyone is but the teacher has

realized that and the student has yet to realize). He is the living God

that one can identify with - for a student who has the proper frame of mind.

 

Thus the sloka emphasizes when and why a teacher is required and to whom and

what type of teacher that is needed?

 

Hair Om!

Sadananda

[Guest guest]

[sadananda]

[cut]

>What kind of teacher he has to approach - It says now

>qualifications of a teacher - shrotriam and brahmanishTam

 

Thank you for your enlightening discourse, but I wish to ask

where are we to find such caliber of teachers ?

You admit later on that its a tricky situation, since the student

must also have certain qualifications and then you suggests

using the sense of "feeling out the teacher". But this is prone

to serious errors and I've seen seekers suffer drastic upheavals

even to the point of suicide when their bogus teachers are exposed.

 

This is the reason why I no longer recommend people to this path;

the classical guru-disciple relationship.

Only because, in this culture-where the guru principle is mightily

feared and resisted, and where strategic legal and political forces

are dedicated to its eradication-I cannot, as a blanket and public

statement, recommend to people that they pursue that noble Path

without also informing them of what a culturally and personally

hazardous course it is indeed.

>From what I have read, many people seemed to have been

successful in this pursuit, especially in the past.

I am completely happy about that, and I hope that positive

influence can continue..

At the same time, I have received an enormous amount of grief,

from personal and professional quarters.

Blanket, public statements for such endorsement are simply no

longer a diplomatic, intelligent, skillful way to steer people to

guru-chela relationship.

 

But for those students who are ready, and who fully understand

the gravity of the decision, I recommend that they pursue that

Way to the extent that they are capable: student, disciple, devotee.

 

~dave

[Guest guest]

>"Dave Sirjue" <Dave_Sirjue

 

Dave I am delighted to receive a heart warming response. What you pointed

out is true and I will respond to the point you raised from what I have

understood and followed. Each one has to make his decision. But here are

the guide lines sages have adviced in the past.

>

>

>[sadananda]

> [cut]

> >What kind of teacher he has to approach - It says now

> >qualifications of a teacher - shrotriam and brahmanishTam

>

>Thank you for your enlightening discourse, but I wish to ask

>where are we to find such caliber of teachers ?

>You admit later on that its a tricky situation, since the student

>must also have certain qualifications and then you suggests

>using the sense of "feeling out the teacher". But this is prone

>to serious errors and I've seen seekers suffer drastic upheavals

>even to the point of suicide when their bogus teachers are exposed.

 

Similar question was asked once to Swami Chinmayananda. His answer was

simple. When we go to supermarket, there are shelfs and shelfs filled will

all sorts of packages. When I go supermarket, I go insearch of what I want.

Obviously I have to use my intellect evaluate what I need and what is the

most suitable to my need. If I pick up the worng package from the shelf, I

cannot blame the manager for keeping that on the shelf becuase there is

someone out there who needs that package to fulfill his needs. If I pick up

the package and learn that it is worng then, I have at least learned that I

should be more carefull next time and also that particualr package is

useless to me- In a way picking up that package has tought me atleast that

much stuff and my intellect is more mature now to evaluate better next time.

This is in a nut shell a teaching too that I needed.

 

The fact of matter is one should not go in search of a guru - that is the

wrong appraoch. Swamiji used to say - a flower does not have to in search of

a bee. Bee shall come when the flower is ready. That is the law of nature.

What is to be done is keep the mind open and but use discrimination or

intelelct to evalute if one is gaing help form that teacher. A friend of

mine went to Swamiji and asked "sir Are you my Guru?" Swamiji immediately

said No. It is the student who has discover that that particular one is my

teacher - this is based on recogniztion or realization that he had been

great help in his sadhana and without that help he could not have evolved.

Then only guru is realized. Hence it is said association with person of

such caliber is a blessing indeed only due to grace of God. This is

gracefull way of saying - since grace of god is nothing but results of ones

own action in the past. That is one should merit such a tacher and such a

teacher will come. or a student recognizes such a help from a person who he

will consider as his teacher.

 

As you pointed out Teacher is only a torch light - to shed light on the path

and also on the goal. Walk towards the path has tobe done by the student.

 

I would not recommed any one to go and find a teacher nor I recommend to

discard anyone off hand - there is a famous sloka by shakara -that sat sangh

is very importnat - open oneself to satsangh - company of the good and noble

and assoicate with them. That way the mind gets purified and one discovers

his teacher.

 

Hari Om!

Sadananda