Namaste Dear Sakthas!

[Guest guest]

Namaste Dear Sakthas!

 

I have been reading a lot of interesting mail in our Saktha Family

Pages. I wish every one a happy New Year and Happy Pongal.

 

As someone has pointed out, there is a Pasupathinath temple in Nepal.

He is said to be 'the Lord of animals'. We were not allowed to take

any item of leather inside the temple, as leather meant that animals

are killed. One has to leave behind cameras, watches, and any thing

that has a leather strap, and leather wallets and everything else. As

the Lord of animals, he is their protector, and hence no leather, we

were told. Here the Linga is 'Pancha-mukha Linga' - Five-faced. There

are actual faces carved on the Linga, one on each of the four sides,

and one on top

 

Regarding the use of Tulsi for the worship of Lakshmi- In some

traditions it is disallowed. For obvious reasons. In these

traditions, a chaste married woman is not allowed to wear the Tulsi

leaves in her hair even as prasad, if she receives it as such from a

temple.

 

Need for Guru? First of all, a correction. Sri Ramakrishna had not

one Guru, but many, one each for each of the paths he explored. For

the Advaita there was Totapuri (hence I am told the Sannyasins of the

Ramakrishna order are Puris - Please correct me if I am wrong about

this, someone.)For Tantra, there was Bhairavi Brahmani. For Christ-

realization, I think it was Michael, and for Islamic sadhana there

was an Islamic Guru. He himself believed in the institution of Guru,

and his sishyas were asked to read the Guru Gita regularly.

 

Now my own opinion on Guru: The dictum that when a sishya is ready,

the Guru appears, is true. In my case it was. Yet I had to wait and

pray for a Guru, and long with all my heart.

Still, after years of retrospection, this is what I believe:

One can go ahead and start a practice, even a mantra, if one is so

inclined (purely for God-realization). There is nothing 'wrong' -

only that something might 'go wrong' - some adverse effects may be

experienced. Still, if one is driven by the longing to start some

spiritual practice, AND IS WILLING TO FACE ANY CONSEQUENCE, one can

go ahead and start. Usually, Help comes, Guidance comes, and

the 'wrongs' (incorrectness) are corrected. After all, THE GURU is

none other than Maa Herself, Brahman, or God, whatever one chooses to

call Her. Swami Sivananda endorses this view. It is always better to

have a Guru, but, he says, if you can't get one, you can start some

practice, Mantra, etc., on your own. I recently met an old lady who

has been doing Upasana of Maa Bhuvaneshwari for forty years. She told

me she has no Guru. She started on her own, but has got help and

guidance from enlightened people along the way.

 

I have known many cases of disillusionment with the Guru, which has

left many a sishya distraught. One even had a nervous breakdown and

had to be hospitalized. Please don't say that they were not ideal

sishyas - that they failed in their Sishya Dharma. Some have bent

over back-wards to be the 'ideal sishya' to live up to all the rules

stated for the ideal sishya. May be these Gurus always had these

shortcomings which were not obvious to the sishyas at first, or,

gurus being human, they deteriorated in their ways.

I have made the above observation with the specific purpose of asking

the learned members of our group, if in any of our sastras there are

rules laid down for Gurus.

If there is a GURU DHARMA as there is a Sishya Dharma? All Gurus, and

all books great and small, are always telling us how to be a good,

perfect, ideal sishya.

 

Continued

[Guest guest]

Very interesting thoughts crystallised, especially the thoughts on Guru Dharma.

 

I agree with you that many a Guru has abused his position as a Guru (from plain observation) and what does one do abouyt that.