Guru Poornima - what it is?

[Guest guest]

THE GURU POONIMA IS AHEAD OF US –WHAT IT IS AND WHY TO PERFORM?

 

We are all the result of an act between Prakruthi and Purusha. We are

existent with this stoola deha on account of a conjunction between a male and

female in literal terms. But in respect of Guru – the Master who always tries

to refine us – it is a selfless act. Only his teachings and education to us

make to us earn our bread and try for further processes of life. His selfless

sacrifice is the only best asset for any of us. Therefore he has to be

worshipped as GURU BRAHMA, GURU VISHNU, GURU DEVO MAHESWARA- in other words we

see the Holy Guru in all forms of Lords. As per Sanatana Dharma Sastra, Guru

has to be worshipped first, before worshipping any other Lord, for the simple

reason, Guru only can explain us what the form of Lord is, how the Lord has to

be approached, and the shortest possible way to remain at the Lotus feet of the

Lord. In the absence of guidance from Guru, we remain in darkness and

ignorance.

 

DHYANA MOOLAM GURORMURTHI; POOJA MOOLAM GURU PADAM; MANTRA MOOLAM GURORVAKYAM;

MOKSHA MOOLAM GURO KRUPAH

 

There is nothing greater than Guru for Dhyanam, nothing greater for worship than

the Lotus feet of Guru, nothing more than the words of Guru for Mantra Shakti

and nothing more than Guru Krupa for Moksha or Mukti. That means everything is

Guru and Guru only. Sometimes I have seen a few who expects their Guru to their

likes, but it should be remembered in whatever position Guru is, what ever

clothes he wear, wherever he sits, HE IS GURU and only that perception takes us

close to refinement.

 

Mruga Mudra is one which acts like an Antenna to touch the lotus feet of Guru

before we commence any Pooja. This is to be learned from Guru or from those who

knew it. Then there are three steps of Gurus like SWAGURU, PARAMAGURU (Guruji’s

guru), PARAMESHTI GURU (Guruji’s Guru’s Guru) like father, grand father and

great grand father. For Every stage we have a specific system of Mantra and the

ultimate is GURU MAHAA PAADUKA – in which we find Mahaa Vakyaas etc as a step to

open all the Doors of God/Goddess for a clear and visible Darshan.

 

The Guru Gayathri is like this : GNANA PRADAAYA VIDMAHE, MUKTI KAARANAAYA

DHEEMAHI, TANNOO GURU PRACHODAYAAT. For those who could not go for Guru Mantra

and other Mudraas, this is the easiest way of respecting Guru. Please remember

– NA GURO RADHIKAM – there is nothing bigger than; better than; pious than;

sacred than – Guru and his HOLY WORD. Let us wish to have Guru Krupa forever

and forever for our peaceful existence and for elevations – Moksham.

 

MAY HIS HOLINESS GURU PROTECT US FOR A RESPECTFUL AND PEACEFUL LIFE JOURNEY AND

FOR ATTAINING MOKSHA.

 

Affly yours HARA HARA MAHADEVA DR P V SESHA SAI ASWAMEDHAYAAJI

 

Adhyatmitka Ratna, Sri Yaaga Vidya Praveena, Vedanta Visarada

Dr P V Sesha Sai Aswamedhayaaji

(www.ashwamedhayaagam.org E Mails: shodasisai,

shodasisai, shodasisai

3724, Spencer’s Street, # 221, Torrance, 90503 California, USA

Phones Mobile: 310 293 9066 Land Line 310 921 6138

7th July 2006

[Guest guest]

OM SRI GURUVEE NAMAHA

 

OM SRI GANESHAYA NAMAHA

 

OM SRI MATHREE NAMAHA

 

SRI VIDYAAM PARIPOORNA MERU SIKHAREE BINDHU

TRIKOONOOJWALAAM

VAAGEESHAADI SAMASTHA BHOOTA JANANEEM MANJEE

SIVAAKAARAKE

KAMAKSHEM KARUNA RASARNAVAMAYAM KAMESHWARANGASTHITHAM

KANJYAAM CHINMAYA KAMAKOTI NILAYAM SRI BRAMHA VIDYAAM

BAJEE

 

I was instructed by the Divine Mother to write about

GURU. If I have to write about the Guru’s, the task

that she has given me is not an easy one. So I was

thinking where to start and Devi herself showed that I

should start from Mother. In our books it is said

MATHRU DEVOO BHAVA, PITHRU DEVOO BHAVA, GURU DEVOO

BHAVA, ATHITHI DEVOO BHAVA.

 

MATHRU DEVOO BHAVA, which means treat thy mother as

god. It is from the mother that all living beings take

their birth irrespective of humans or it be animals or

birds. The love of mother is inexplicable. That may be

the reason that Lalitha Sahasranama starts with OM SRI

MATHA. From the mother we know who our father is. The

most compassionate, loving, caring and what not a

mother is. Is it possible to evaluate the value of

mother? Even if all the wealth in this world is

accumulated and weighed in a balance with mother, the

plate in which one has placed mother will be down.

 

Saint Adi Shankara when he wanted to go for Sanyasa

promises his mother that when she feels to see him he

will be by her side. Later in the life of Adi Shankara

when he was in the Himalayas he feels that mother is

calling him. He leaves for Kaladi and finds mother in

her deathbed and asks her what she wants from him.

Being a great devotee of Lord Shiva she requests for a

vision of the lord. Shankara meditates on the lord and

Shiva gives Darshan to his mother. She finds Shiva

this form and gets frightened and asks that’s she want

to have the vision of Lord Vishnu and she gets it with

the help of Shankara. She merges with Lord Vishnu in

the form of a jyothi. While giving all this help to

his mother he says that even if I take a 1000 janmas I

will not be able to fulfill even 1/100000th of what

you have done to me when you carried me in your womb.

That is the greatness of any Mother.

 

PITHRU DEVOO BHAVA, treat thy father as god. Without

father we are not there. He is the one who passes on

the lineage down. When Mother is PRAKRUTHI, father is

the PURUSHA, without these two powers there is no

world. In fact the momentum of Prakruthi and Purusha

the world lives, even the atom lives. Mother if

PRAKRUTHI is Maha Maya or Devi herself while father if

PURUSHA is Shiva himself. Thus by worshipping our

father and mother we are indirectly worshipping the

SHIVA PARVATHY as DAMBATHY or COUPLE.

 

When mother gives us birth and makes a man out of us,

it is father who guides us what we should be and he

paves the way for it. In fact it is the duty of the

father to show us the right way and lead us to GURU. I

recollect in Maha Bagavatham that Nandagopa took

Krishna to the Saint Sandipani for the gurukula

vaasam. So the father leads his son to be initiated by

a Guru what all he has to be initiated. If this is the

case of Sri Krishna an incarnation of Lord Maha

Vishnu, who knew all what he should know, but to get

the best out of knowledge he knew he became a disciple

to Saint Sandipani and took him as his guru. This

shows very well that any vidya is incomplete without a

Guru. That’s why it is said

 

GURUR BRAMHA GURUR VISHNU GURUR DEEVOO MAHESHWARA

GURU SAKSHAAT PARABRAMHA THASMAI SRI GURAVEE NAMAHA

 

Guru is every thing. He is the Knowledge, He is the

Shakti, He is the Divine Soul or Paramaatman, He is

the Love, He is Compassion and He is what not. Guru’s

LOTUS feet, if one worships his/her sin is washed off,

attains Jnana and ultimately Moksha or salvation. How

great are the feet of a Guru. Usually in any Bajans

the mangalam is sung at last but in Sampradaya Bajans

it starts with THOTAKA MANGALAM. Reason when Saint Adi

Shankara was walking his disciple Thotakacharya walked

backwards that he did not like to show his back to his

Guru and sang the Thotaka Mangalam while walking.

Still this Mangalam is sung in all Sampradaya Bajans

as the first song. This shows the love a disciple has

towards his Guru.

 

In all the Tantra texts the first chapter is always

dedicated to the Guru Disciple relationship. A Big

Question Why? The answer is very very simple. Without

a Guru any disciple cannot attain the mantra siddhi.

Here one thing to be noted is the DIKSHA KRAMA, which

bonds the Guru with his disciple. This bondage of a

disciple with the Guru is not only for this Janma.

This is from the last birth or even before that. Guru

Shishya relation is very sacred. Only those who are

initiated will know the greatness of one’s Guru.

 

To get a good guru for a disciple and to get a good

disciple for a guru is purely due to the grace of

Goddess. This guru disciple relation is based on the

poorva Janma punya only. All the Tantra texts even

discuss this relation and who a guru is as well as who

a disciple is. How to match the relation between a

guru and a disciple according to the birth stars and

rasi is also mentioned. But if one looks into this

entire aspect one may not find a good guru or a guru

may not find a good disciple. After initiation all the

good and the bad deeds done by the disciple will

affect the guru. So the first and foremost duty of a

disciple is to adhere the norms laid by the guru as

far as the mantra with which he has initiated the

disciple. There are so many rules that a disciple has

to adhere when gets initiated to a mantra. These rules

are laid down after the initiation. The main important

aspect in the initiation is that, after the mantra

diksha the guru changes the name of the disciple. For

e.g. Ramakrishna’s name will be changed to ……… ANANDA

NATHA. The reason is that the worldly name has no

relevance as to the initiated name. That is the

initiated person becomes a born again here. Usually an

initiation will be followed after the Devi pooja. The

question arises as to what is the day or when the guru

will initiate the disciple. ANY DAY THE GURU INITIATES

THE DISCIPLE IS THE BEST DAY FOR THE INITIATION. Mind

of the Guru tells him what should be initiated to the

disciple. What mantras to be given at the time of

initiation etc.

 

The initiation process is elaborate and will depend

upon the guru what form of initiation is to be given.

There are various ways of initiation and the

initiation method depends on the guru parampara.

 

The way of worshipping Devi is in 3 ways, which are 1.

Dakshinamoorty matam (way), 2. Hayagriva matam and 3.

Aananda Bhairava matam. The Lord Dakshinamoorty

initiated his disciple Dattathreya and Dattathreya to

Parasurama. Parasurama initiated his disciple Sumedas

and he came out with a book called PARASURAAMA KALPA

SUTHRAM. There are evidences that Dakshinamoorty matam

was in prevalence, which consisted of 24 lakhs granta

Sankhya. Dattathreya reduced this voluminous book to

24,000 slokas. Parasurama reduced these 24,000 slokas

to 336 and initiated Sumedas. There are so many

tantras, which has come down from Lord Dakshinamoorty.

 

Now let us try to understand how this guru parampara

came into being. All the tantras have come in the

form of question and answer form between Devi and

Shiva. When Shiva was guru Shakti became the disciple

and when Shakti was guru Shiva became disciple. This

is called SAMPRADAYA NYAYA. Sitting in MAHODYANA

PEETA, which is in the form of PRAKAASHANADA, Maha

Kameshwara (SARYANANADA NATHA) initiated Devi (PARA

BHATTARIKA) the Sri Vidya mantra and the pooja

principles. She initiated UDDESANANDA NATHA (MAHA

BHAGAMAALINI) (THRETHA YUGA), SASHTESANANDA NATHA

(MAHA VAJREESWARI) (DWAPARA YUGA) and MITHRESANANDA

NATHA (MAHA KAMESHWARI)(KALI YUGA). These 3 persons

represent each AUKA in the guru mandala. Uddesananda

Natha represents Divyaukha, Sashtesananda Natha

represents Siddaukha and Mithresananda Natha

represents Manaaukha. Uddesananda Natha initiated

PRAKASHANANDA NATHA, VIMARSHANANADA NATHA and

ANANDANADA NATHA in Thretha Yuga. In Dwapara Yuga

Sashtesananda Natha initiated JNANANANDA NATHA,

POORNANANDA NATHA and SATYANANDA NATHA. In Kali Yuga,

Mithresananda Natha initiated SWABHAVANANDA NATHA,

PRATIPANANDA NATHA and SUPAKANANADA NATHA. This 3 x 3

Nathas form the NAVANATHAS of guru parampara and are

worshipped in the Sri Yantra.

Ananda Bhairava beeja is also called as NAVANATHA

BEEJA. The NAVA VEERAS mentioned in the Skanda purana

as the brothers of LORD SUBRAMANYA are this

Navanathas. Adi Sankara in SAUNDARYA LAHARI has

mentioned that Shiva and Devi are ANANDA BHAIRAVA and

ANANDA BHAIRAVI. So Shiva and Shakti are part and

parcel of the Navanathas also.

 

The sloka, which praises the GURU, is worth mentioning

here.

 

KOTI KOTI MAHA DHANATH KOTI KOTI MAHA VRATHATH

KOTI KOTI MAHA YAJNATH PARA SRI PAATHU SAMSMRUTHI

KOTI KOTI MANTRA JAPAATH KOTI THEERTHA VAKAHANAATH

KOTI KOTI DEEVAARCHANATH DEVI PARA SRI PADUKA SMRUTHI

MAHA ROGEE MAHOTH PAAKEE MAHA DOSHA MAHA BHAYEE

MAHAPATHI MAHAPAAYEE SMRUTHAA RAKSHATHI PAADUKAA

DURAACHAREE DURAALAABHEE DUSSANGEE DUSHPRATHIGAAHEE

DURAAKAAREE CHA DURBHUTHAU SMRUTHAA RAKSHATI PAADUKAA.

 

One who remembers the guru and worships his Paduka

will really attain Moksha. Where is the PADUKA of

Guru? In our Sahasrara Cakra there is said to be a

lotus with 1000 petals. Outside the center of the

lotus a 12-petal lotus is there. In the center of this

lotus there is a triangle, which is called

AMALAALAYAM. In the Amalaalayam Guru’s foot has to be

worshipped. Devi is mentioned in Lalitha sahasranama

as GURU MANDALA RUPINI. In this 12-petal lotus shrines

the beeja mantras of guru mantra. In this triangle,

each angle comprises of 16 mathrukas and on the edge

are HA, SA and KHSA, totaling to 51 letters. Each

angle of the triangle is NADA, BINDHU and KALA. The

bindhu in the center of the triangle is called as

PARABINDHU. This 12-petal lotus’s bujas are HA, SA,

KA, PFREM, HA SA KHSA MA LA VA RA YUUM. HASAKFREM-

these 4 beejas are called KECHARI BEEJAS. HA SA KSHA

MA LA VA RA YUUM (YEEM) is NAVANATHA BEEJAS. HAKARA

and SAKARA are the foot of the guru. HAM SAM is KAMA

KALA. The universe, at the time of Maha Pralaya will

merge into the HAMSA swaroopa Kamakala and when the

procreation starts it starts from there. In this HAMSA

throne sits the Guru’s foot. The 2 feet of the guru is

combination of Prakasha and Vimarsha. Guru’s foot is

the representation of Ardhanaareeswara or Eeswari. So

falling at the foot of the Guru and taking his

blessings is equal to falling at the foot of Shiva and

Shakti. If the Guru’s kadaksha falls at the disciple

no one can ever surpass him. This guru kadaksha comes

in various ways to the disciple. We can say that

Guru’s kadaksha is the way in which the Guru initiates

the disciple. There are so many ways by which Guru

blesses his disciple. The process of Guru’s blessings

takes the name of DIKSHA. A Guru may give Diksha when

he imparts to the disciple the sacred mantra of Devi

as well as MAHA VAKHYA.

 

Any day the guru feel is auspicious is always

auspicious. As mentioned earlier Guru imparts the

knowledge about PARA BRAMHAN in various ways as he

deem fit for the disciple, which is called Diksha. The

various Diksha kramas are NAYANA DIKSHA, SPARSHA

DIKSHA, VACHAKA DIKSHA, MANASA DIKSHA, MANTRA DIKSHA,

YOGA DIKSHA, AUTHIRI DIKSHA and others. Among these

Diksha kramas Authiri Diksha is done with a homa.

 

If one refers SKANDA PURANA where by Lord Subramanya,

initiates Lord Shiva with the meaning of Pranava

Mantra, and Put Lord Brahma in prison for not knowing

the meaning of Pranava Mantra, after kicking Brahma

with his legs. Lord Brahma gets unconscious and was

dragged to prison by the commander of Lord Subramanya

– VEER BAHU. The question is amoung Lord Shiva and

Lord Brahma, who is more fortunate. It is of course

Lord Brahma as he gets Lord Subramanya’s PAADA DIKSHA.

 

Amoung devas, rishis and human beings, Lord Subramanya

has initiated one in this entire category.

Amoung devas Lord Shiva, rishis Saint Agasthya and

human being Saint Arunagirinaadar, leaving alone Lord

Brahma.

Lord Muruga, The Commander in Chief of the devas or

called as DEVA SENAPATHI, has been given the VEL or

the Spear which He hold in his hand by Devi Herself

when He was going to the battle field to fight the

SURAPADMA’S. The VEL itself is DEVI, as she has taken

it from her own body and given to Him. So worshipping

the VEL is worshipping Devi.

 

According to the PRAPANCHASAARA SAARA SANGRAHAM

complied by Saint Adi Shankara, there are 12 devotees

who have worshiped Goddess Mother LALITHA MAHA

TRIPURASUNDARI. They are MANU, CHANDRA, KUBERA,

VISHNU, SIVA, SKANDA (LORD MURUGA), NANDI, KAAMA,

AGASTHYA, LOPAAMUDRA (Wife of Agasthya), DURVAASA and

BRAMHA. All these devotees had worshipped by making or

inventing their own mantras of SRIVIDHYA. These

mantras are available in the Prapanchasaara Saara

Sangraham. But due to the link or lack of disciples

the mantras are either lost in the line or the lineage

stopped with out a disciple. So those mantras are

available but there are no Gurus to transfer or to

continue the lineage. The only Vidya’s which are

prevalent now are the mantras which were used by KAAMA

and LOPAAMUDRA. The Srividhya mantra used by KAAMA or

the God of Love, is called KAADI VIDHYA and the mantra

used by LOPAAMUDRA is called HAADI VIDHYA. Loopamudra

vidhya is also called SWAROOPAVIMARSHINI vidhya.

 

All these mantras can give the Upasakaas effect only

if these mantras are obtained from a Guru by way of

diksha and the punascharanas done as said by Guru. As

said if god gets angry the guru can save his disciple

but if Guru gets angry no one can help the disciple.