[Srividya-Tantra] Guru Query Answered

February 10, 2009

The attached message is written by a learned man. I belive in one of your postings about Mahaperiyaval of Kanchi where this person did sapthasati homam without Navakshari upadesham and periyaval asked how his daughter was etc... So if our sages and saints have decreed that initiation is required, are they wrong and this person is right? please explain

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if one's parents did not do a proper "anna praasana" ritual (the ritual of first feeding of solid food to a baby) to one, should one consider oneself not entitled to eat any solid food? Not doing a mantra because of no initiation is basically like that.

Getting initiation is good, especially if the one initiating has some level of sadhana in that mantra. But it is neither necessary nor sufficient for making progress in your own sadhana.

If you see my homam document, I gave an analogy for this. A millionaire may open a bank account in his son's name with a starting balance of a million dollars. This is akin to a good guru initiating a sishya in a mantra. Sishya starts off by getting some of guru's attainment. But the son may waste those million dollars and end up with nothing. Similarly the sishya may fall and not achieve anything. Another person may not have anyone to give money and may start off with a zero bank balance but accumulate millions of dollars with own effort. This is akin to a person doing sadhana with a mantra without guru and attaining some level in the mantra.

Some people hold the view that mantras cannot be chanted without a proper "initiation" . This view is especially prevalent in some sections of society w.r.t. navarna mantra. However, I disagree with that view.

If you know the mantra (!), just chant it. What would an initiating guru have done for you? Perhaps he would've given some of his attainment in the mantra to you. Well, you can do it yourself if you work hard. Or a guru would've taught you the right nyasas to be done before the mantra. Well, you can get the nyasas from books too. Moreover, what most people do today for nyasas is anyway just a ritual with no meaning. Nyasa literally means placement. You place various sounds in various body parts (like the tips of various fingers, heart, top of head, eyes etc). People merely act out some signals while saying the sounds. This "placement" is actually supposed to be an internal act and it creates an ideal environment for the repetition of mantra. Due to the external actions, what is supposed to occur internally does not occur in most. So the sounds end up not getting properly placed in the body. In other words, what I am trying to

say is that most people do not know how to "place" various "sounds" in various body parts. They merely perform meaningless ritualistic actions. So, if you do not know nyasas, you are not really missing much compared to others who were initiated.

In my humble opinion, the most important qualification is to have devotion and sense of surrender to Her. If you have them, you can consider yourself "highly initiated".

--- On Tue, 2/10/09, Group Owner <para_anuloma wrote:

Group Owner <para_anuloma[srividya-Tantra] Guru Query AnsweredSrividya-Tantra Received: Tuesday, February 10, 2009, 7:13 AM

Query:

how can we assess that the guru of srividya is a sidhaguru because adisciple or a bhakt cannot ask the guru directly to him that {"are yousidha in srividya"} and it is difficult to understand that the guruhas got atmasakshakaram because,JAGADGURU ADI SANKARA CHARYA told inthe book VIVEKACHUDAMANI that ONE CANNOT EXPLAIN theathmasakshatkaram.Is reading the book and understand the srividya isenough that the ["intiation of srividya manthra"] through the book bythe author because,such type of books are can only be written by thesrividya upasakas--Kotaru Raghu

II Om Shree Guru Padukaam Sharanam Prapadhye' II

Reply:

Dear Member,

Srividya Upasana can never be had through books.It is most dangerous and insufficient, to say the least.It is like asking," Since I do not know how to build a Nuclear Bomb myself and cannot find a scientist who can help me with this, can I read from a book and build it?" Such queries arise purely from a clever play of the egoic mind which tries to see fallacious logic.

Maybe a Nuclear bomb might be built seeing a book but Srividya Upasana can never or should never be practiced using books.The books might have been written by Srividya Upasakas and they follow their Guru Parampara and Sampradaya and many times a puja or ritual is customized for the disciple's need.

Kularnava tantra says " At the beginning of Japa a Sadhaka is affected by birth uncleanness, and at the end of Japa by death uncleanness." A mantra affected by these two forms of uncleanness is never perfect and fruitful.And atrue Srividya Guru sees the "birth uncleanness'' before imparting a mantra and sees to that you do not get a "death uncleanness" after chanting the mantra.

In the Kulaagama, Gurus have been described as of six classes

1. Instigator

2. Inaugurator

3. Explainer

4. Director

5. Teacher

6. Illuminator

Thus, a Srividya Guru would first instigate a desire at the behest of Amba in the disciple and the disciple is then drawn to him.

The aspirant who decides to take up this Upasana must be

1. Extremely sincere

2. Devoted to SriDevi

3. Possesses good character

4. Hailing from a good family

5. Pure in mind

6.Keen on attaining the 4 Purusharthas(dharmArthakAmamOksA)

7. Who has studied or atleast takes in interest in Vedas and Upanishads

8. Considersthis path the means of BrahmaGnana.

Only such a Shishya when seeking a Srividya Guru is really successful.

Upadesha learnt from books causes the following to happen:

1. Increases the misery of the aspirant

2. Unproductive and also detrimental to the wellbeing of himself and his family

3. Incurs the wrath of Devi dueto disrespect of the sacred bond of Shishya and Guru.

The Guru actually draws His disciples and thus there is no question of the Shishya "assessing" a Guru's worth as a ''Siddhaguru"."Praapthi" must be there too.

(If the temple is in the form of a Srichakra Mahameru, who will perform the worship of the temple? Im just wondering here)

These days, deplorably, many charlatans for pelf and power start Srividya crash courses, workshops,etc and it has become a business oriented thing.People build temples with unique shapes and designs, claiming commands and oracles/orders of Devi(where none existed in the first place),fabricate stories around the temple,perform unseen and unheard of rituals,effect fake miracles to attract people and build commercial ventures around the temple for mere commerce.All these do not constitute for Srividya and is a mere waste of time.I wish they use some other word for all these and not even use the word Srividya for anything.

"Growing beards and adorning a Tripundreekam with a kumkuma dot on the forehead doth not make a Gnani"--Adhiyaman Yogi

One might as well sit in home and chant Hare'Rama Hare' Krishna mantra.Im not joking here.Infact, this mantra too is powerful in relieving the sins of Kaliyuga.

Srividya is a Moksha-Vidhya.

II Mokshaika Hetu Vidhya Srividhya Na samshayaha: II

Rameshwara Suri, in the course of his commentary on the Parashurama Kalpasutras, quotes this verse:guravo bahavaH santi shishyavittApahArakAH .durlabhoyaM gurudevi shishyasantApahArakaH.One should look for Guru who rids shishya of his ignorance, not wealth!

Due to the grace of a proper Guru, all the obstacles and inconveniences of the shishya in acquiring Brahma Jnana are destroyed. By constantly chanting the mantra taught to him, the shishya overcomes all misery and enjoys supreme bliss. The mantra is verily the essence of the Guru-Guruparampara and the Devi in a small pill.The more such pills are taken daily, the better the spiritual health of the aspirant.

One example of how powerful yantras are printed in books and that too faulty manner(like above) and then propogandized for some minor benefit.What the defect is in the above Yantra will not be said by me but if one knows Telugu and reads through the text below one finds that they have told some parrot-like story about getting all benefits(which again totally false)

These days people like to read from books, consider themselves as Ekalavya(even Ekalavya learnt the initial arrow-shooting practices from Dronacharya and then he was shooed away by him because he lied to his Guru and then practiced it on his own.We celebrate such negative heros and authors either do not know or conviniently forget that Ekalavya supported the Kuru dynasty(Kauravas) and Dronacharya who knew this did not want adharma to succeed)

One must serve one's Guru to the best of one's ability, having total faith in the Guru and chanting the mantra taught by him constantly.Now, this does not mean one should not have viveka and vichara andd totally surrender one's mathi.One must use vichakshana gnanam(discriminative intellect), study scriptures and sometimes even clarify or challenge one's Guru.Only if a Guru is able to satisfy Him in all matters scriptural and spiritual, can He be called a True Srividya Guru.

When I talk to some people and when I quote something of the Srividya Scriptures, they say:

"My Guru said this, he said that... and this... we don't care what the shaastras say" This is not the right attitude, the right spirit.This is mere laziness on the partof the sadhaka.The ever-vigilant sadhaka is always on a search, an eternal search.He reads as many related shastras as possible and then uses his God-given intellect and then decides upon his course of action with the guidance of a Guru.

The moment a Guru says, "Shastras are not important, don't care for them", especially in this Srividya marga, then it means he knows nothing and is just taking people for a ride with his organization and charisma.This was told by my Gurunatha even though He does not keep mentioning about Shastras(though encouraging one to study it fully).This again is Kaliyuga Maya.

In Srividya, the guru shishya lineage has come as an unbroken chain, starting from the first guru, Paramashiva.

''At the time of Diksha, the Guru will teach the Guru Paduka mantra. The shishya is taught about his immediate Guru, his Guru's Guru and his Guru. The Shishya should develop the attitude that the Guru's feet rest on his head, the Paramaguru's feet on the Guru's head and so on.''(This statement is given in the scriptures).

As the Phala Sruti of Sri Lalita Sahasranama says, only the person who in crores of births and deaths has sung the names of other deities will develop some sincerity and interest in singing the names of Mahatripurasundari.Only in the last Janma, one becomes a Srividya Upasaka. Those who have earned this through their Tapas in many Janmas, will enter this Upasana Marga.

When Aadishankara said in Viveka Chudamani: "One cannot explain Aathmasaakshatkaram" It means that such knowledge is not to be understood by the tool called mind but by means of an experiential means THROUGH the grace of a Guru.This is the proper way of understanding this.

Also, the same Viveka Chudamani in verse 28 says thus:

Even though torpid or mediocre, this yearning for Freedom, through the grace of the Guru, may bear fruit (being developed) by means of Vairagya (renunciation), Shama (calmness), and so on.

He starts with "Grace of Guru" and not a mere reading of texts, convincing oneself euphemistically that those were written by Srividya Upasakas.Every spiritual path, especially Srividya, requires the guidance of an enlightened Guru, without who, the spiritual journey is into a dark, unknown territory. A person becomes a spiritual aspirant, when he possesses the sAdhanA ChatuShTaya(talked about in the above Viveka Chudamani):

Viveka - discrimination

Vairagya - dispassion

ShamAdi Shat Sampatti (the treasure of six qualities: Shama - control or mastery over the mind, dama - control of the sensory organs or Indriyas, Uparati - strict observance of one's Dharma, TitikshA - endurance of heat, cold, pleasure, pain etc., shraddhA - faith in the words of Guru and Veda Shastra, Samadhana - contentedness and single-pointedness of the mind).

Mumukshatva - Intense desire for liberation.

Viveka Chudamani also mentions that a Guru must have Brahma-nishta and a Shrotriya. Srividya Marga being a Guru-baddha marga must be "listened to" and then "learnt" and not merely "read".This forms the unbroken lineage.

Verse 160 of Viveka Chudamani says thus:

The stupid man thinks he is the body, the book-learned man identifies himself with the mixture of body and soul, while the sage possessed of realisation due to discrimination looks upon the eternal Atman as his Self, and thinks, "I am Brahman".Here too Adishankara clearly dilineates the uselessness of bookish knowledge.

There are many such instances where He quotes both the importance of having a Guru and also the uselessnessof mere bookish knowledge.

'Bookish knowledge' when obtained from a proper Guru becomes Gnana as the words in the book become an experiential reality.This is the beauty! I can tell this from my limited and humble experience itself, though a totally unqualified and undesreving person that Iam, many experiences quoted in Srividya texts, Anubhutis as mentioned from Purushasuktha to Durga suktha, and many aparokshanubhavas, happened to me and when these were realized by me in the meditative states purely because my Gurunatha deigned to give me.

Sri Adi Shankara Himself is a Samayacharin(Samayachara Srividya Sampradaya practioner) and thus had a Guru Himself.

So, while quoting one text(in this case Viveka Chudamani) one must never quote selectively and try to understand the import in a wholistic manner.

Yours yogically,

Shreeram Balijepalli

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