Omniscience of the Guru

[Guest guest]

Omniscience of the Guru

 

Q & A with Swami B. V. Tripurari

 

"Physical omniscience pertains to God alone. What could be called

metaphysical omniscience, or knowing the self and God, is what is meant

when it is said that the liberated soul is all-knowing (sarvajna)."

 

Q. I heard that service to one's guru is not considered devotional

service (bhakti) but is rather a means to gather spiritual merit

(sukrti). Is this statement acceptable in light of what Srila

Prabhupada taught us about devotional service?

 

A. You have either been misinformed or have misunderstood what has been

said. One cannot serve Sri Krsna without serving Sri Guru. All service

to Bhagavan is prefaced by glorification of Sri Guru. If service to

Krsna is the body of bhakti, then service to Sri Guru is the limb. Or

it is possible to conceive of service to Sri Guru as service to the

body of bhakti and service to Sri Krsna as its limb. This is guru

bhakti. Of the two, the latter, guru bhakti, is arguably more pleasing

to Sri Krsna.

 

Q. What do you think about the idea that scripture cannot be understood

by the reader unless it is heard directly from a "rasika" guru and

explained by him?

 

A. It is best to study scripture under the guidance of an advanced

Vaisnava. This is the principle, but this does not mean that your

personal time spent studying the sastra is wasted unless you are doing

so in the company of a rasika guru. Actually most devotees spend little

time in the direct physical proximity of their guru. Studying the

guru's writings and the commentaries of the previous acaryas is how the

vast majority of devotees gain scriptural knowledge. How well you will

be able to understand those writings depends on the extent to which you

apply your intelligence to this study, as well as on your level of

spiritual advancement. Studying sastra will help you advance, but

sincere service to Sri Guru will help you even more, even if you are

not in the physical presence of your guru.

 

Q. I have been a devotee for some time but am not very detached. How

can I understand that the scripture says knowledge and detachment

quickly follow bhakti?

 

A. It is important to understand that even though the Bhagavatam says

that knowledge and detachment quickly follow bhakti, it will usually

take some time for this to manifest. It will take even more time for

taste to appear, at least in a lasting sense. Knowledge and detachment

correspond with one another. One in knowledge does not try to pursue

enduring happiness in relation to things that do not endure. One in

knowledge is thus detached as well. Thus knowledge and detachment in

turn correspond with liberation, which is subordinate to or follows

bhakti. So the full sense of this verse is that when one gets suddha

bhakti, knowledge and detachment immediately follow. Therefore, there

is no need to pursue the difficult path of knowledge or detachment

(jnana and vairagya) because by pursuing bhakti, which is comparatively

easy, jnana and vairagya follow automatically.

 

Q. Must the guru be omniscient to hear the prayers of the disciple?

 

A. The guru does not need to be omniscient to hear the prayers of those

who love him. Webster's dictionary defines omniscient as having

infinite awareness or being possessed of universal or complete

knowledge. Infinite awareness and universal knowledge in respect to

knowing every detail of material existence is physical omniscience.

Physical omniscience pertains to God alone. What could be called

metaphysical omniscience, or knowing the self and God, is what is meant

when it is said that the liberated soul is all-knowing (sarvajna).

 

Metaphysically speaking, one who knows God knows everything, but he or

she does not necessarily know what you ate for dinner last night. Then

again, in Gaudiya Vaisnavism we say, as Kant does, that God is

ultimately unknown and unknowable. One can never know him completely.

Even Krsna's eternal associates admit to being unable to fully

understand him. Is Krsna's mother Yasodamayi omniscient, and if so, in

what sense? She certainly does not know what Krsna did with the gopis

last night under the stars!

 

Vaisnavism teaches that a devotee must establish a contention by citing

supporting verses from sastra, so where does it say in sastra that the

guru must be omniscient? Vedanta-sutra does say that fully liberated

souls (videha muktas) can have pervasive knowledge by way of their

aura, which extends like the light of a lamp into other things,

presumably things that they choose to extend themselves into,

pradipavat avesah tatha hi darsayati (Vs 4.4.15). But this does not

mean that they automatically know everything that is happening in the

world or even in the lives of their disciples. Only God knows the

intricate details of everything and everyone.

 

Q. What's the difference between a videha mukta and a jivan mukta? Are

all gurus jivan muktas?

 

A. Not all gurus are jivan muktas. Jivan mukti refers to liberation

within this body and videha mukti refers to final liberation after the

body ceases. For the jnani who is liberated while still in the body,

prarabdha karma, or the karma that is already bearing fruit in the form

of the physical body, is still winding down. When he or she attains

videha mukti, the prarabdha has ended as he or she enters Brahman.

 

For the bhakta, jivan mukti is attained at the mature stage of asakti,

as his or her karma is exhausted. After this stage and while still in

the world the devotee attains bhava bhakti, at which time Bhagavan

takes over the devotee's body through his svarupa-sakti, giving the

devotee full facility to develop an internal spiritual body. However,

even realizing one's internal spiritual body is not synonymous with

videha mukti. In Gaudiya Vaisnavism a videha mukta is one who has left

this mortal world altogether and joined Sri Krsna in his nitya-lila.

 

Q. What is your opinion about citing the following quotations as

evidence from sastra (sastra pramana) supporting the idea of the

omniscience of the guru?

 

"Yasmin vijnate sarvam evam vijnatam bhavati. Anyone who is a devotee

of the Lord knows about the Lord to some extent, and devotional service

to the Lord makes him able to know everything by the grace of the Lord.

Although a devotee may apparently express himself to be ignorant, he is

full of knowledge in every intricate matter." (SB 3.7.8, Bhaktivedanta

purport)

 

"The Vedic mantras say, yasmin vijnate sarvam evam vijnatam bhavati.

When the devotee sees the Supreme Personality of Godhead by his

meditation, or when he sees the Lord personally, face to face, he

becomes aware of everything within this universe. Indeed, nothing is

unknown to him. Everything within this material world is fully

manifested to a devotee who has seen the Supreme Personality of

Godhead." (SB. 8.6.9, Bhaktivedanta purport)

 

"When Dhruva Maharaja was talking with his mother, Suniti, of all the

incidents that had taken place in the palace, Narada was not present.

Thus the question may be raised how Narada overheard all these topics.

The answer is that Narada is trikala jna; he is so powerful that he can

understand the past, future and present of everyone's heart, just like

the Supersoul, the Supreme Personality of Godhead." (SB 4.8.25,

Bhaktivedanta purport)

 

A. What you have cited here are the words of the guru, in this case

Srila Prabhupada's purports. Sastra pramana refers to verses from

scripture such as the Vedas, Upanisads, Bhagavad-gita, and so forth, or

in the case of Gaudiya Vaisnavism, the writings of our sastra-acaryas

such as Baladeva Vidyabhusana or the Six Goswamis. Even the guru must

cite sastra pramana to support his words.

 

This is not to say that Srila Prabhupada's purports are not evidence,

but what he means in these instances must be balanced with what sastra

says when addressing this point directly. This is not what Srila

Prabhupada is doing in the purports cited. For example, intricate

knowledge and knowledge of everything in the universe could easily be

construed to mean that one who has such knowledge knows that the world

is but the modes of nature. This conforms to the metaphysical notion of

omniscience. Furthermore, when directly addressing this issue, Srila

Prabhupada said that he was not omniscient. It has also been pointed

out that knowing something about a disciple's past or hearing his or

her prayers does not indicate omniscience in the full sense of the term

by any means.

 

In this regard, a disciple once said to Srila Prabhupada, "We see, for

instance, sometimes the acarya may seem to forget something or not to

know something, so from our point of view, if someone has forgotten,

that is an imperfection."

 

Srila Prabhupada replied, "Then you do not understand. Acarya is not

God, omniscient. He is servant of God. His business is to preach bhakti

cult. That is acarya."

 

At that point, another disciple said to Srila Prabhupada, "In one

purport in the Bhagavad-gita, you write that a disciple of a bona fide

spiritual master is supposed to know everything."

 

To this Srila Prabhupada replied, "Everything means whatever his guru

knows, he should know, that much. Not like God, everything. Within his

limit, that's all. If he tries to understand whatever his guru has

said, that much is 'everything.' Otherwise, 'everything' does not mean

that we know everything, like God, like Krsna. That is not possible. If

he regularly chants and follows the regulative principles, follows the

orders of guru, then he knows everything. Because if he knows that

Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then he knows everything.

That's all. Not that he should know as Krsna. Yasmin vijnate sarvam eva

vijnata: if he accepts Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the

Absolute Truth, then he knows everything. That is finish."

 

Also Srila Rupa Goswami, whose words for all Gaudiya Vaisnavas are

considered sastra, has directly addressed this issue. In his

Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, southern division, first wave, Krsna's

qualities are listed and it is said that only the first fifty qualities

can appear in pure devotees to a minute extent. Sri Rupa says that

omniscience, the 52nd, is only partially present in Lord Siva, while it

is fully exhibited in Krsna.

 

This statement of Sri Rupa confirms that great personalities who have

received the mercy of Bhagavan partially possess only the first fifty

qualities of Krsna, which do not include omniscience. Omniscient

(sarvajna) is defined later in this way: "One who knows everything in

the minds of others, even when separated by time and space, is called

omniscient." (Brs. 2.1.182) The example given is Srimad-Bhagavatam

1.15.11, where Kunti mentions how Krsna, even though far away, knew the

danger the Pandavas were placed in when Durvasa and his disciples came

to see them just after they had eaten, and how Krsna suddenly appeared

and saved them.

 

It is not uncommon for a guru to have heightened psychic abilities, but

omniscience is another thing. Although Sri Baladeva Vidyabhusana does

attribute "pervasive knowledge" to the mukta in the sutra that I cited

earlier, this does not mean that a mukta possesses omniscience like

God. Furthermore, Sri Baladeva is referring to the videha mukta, not

the jivan mukta. In any case, according to scripture only Krsna is

omniscient, but of course one who knows Krsna knows everything--meaning

that he knows everything that he needs to know.

 

Questions or comments may be submitted at the Q&A Forum

http://www.swami.org/sanga/ or email sangaeditor (AT) swami (DOT) org.

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Moderator: sangaeditor (AT) swami (DOT) org

Monday, September, 26, 2005, Vol. VII, No. 12

Readership: 11,797

Back issue archive: http://www.eScribe.com/religion/sanga

Sanga website: http://www.swami.org/sanga

Audarya Bookstore: http://www.swami.org/merchant.mv

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

If you need to update your contact address, please drop us a note at

editor (AT) swami (DOT) org. Thank you.