Guruvina gulAmanAguva tanaka- Purandarara Dasara krithi

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Hare Srinivasa!Why do we need a guru? How important a part does a guru play in a sadhaka's life? and more are answered in this devaranama by Sri Purandaradasaru. On the occasion of his aaradhana , let us offer our obesiances to this great guru -Dasasreshtaru and seek his blessing for spiritual upliftment. The 4th in the series: guruvinagulAma nAguva tanaka doreyadanna mukuthi Dasaru is talking about the necessity to become a slave of the Guru in order to get moksha. One may say

why should we commit to slavery when we want to be free of bondage. Isn't it another kind of bondage? The difference is that the former is a bondage forged with love and respect for the guru which has the promise of eternal freedom while the latter is result of our past karma and swabhava being put in place by the Lord which will continue eternally if the former is not sought. The term Guru in sanskrit means one who dispels doubts and darkness in the minds of those in pursiut of Shastric studies and desirous of attaining God's grace. During the period of sadhana there are many points where the sadhaka gets stuck and cannot get up without help. This help is given by the guru

who has also received such help from someone before. As he is also one who has traversed a similar path as the sadhaka , he is ever ready to help the true sadhaka who asks for such guidance. Guru is the intermediate person between the Lord and the jiva. The jiva needs to see the Lord and for this he/she needs to acquire and implement the necessary Bhagavata dharmas in order to become pure enough to have the vision of the Lord. But such purity does not come by, by just studying the shastras, the dharmacharanas , the control of the indriyas alone, it comes only when one becomes a slave of the guru. Why should the Guru

want to have slaves? He does not and has no need for slaves. A guru is a person who has realised the Lord's supremacy ,had His bimba aparOxa and has been freed from the Agami and saMchita karmas and is called as AtmajnAni. He has only prArabdha to finsish off. The Lord has kept this in place prescisely because He wants the Guru to show the path to the place where he has reached to other deserving souls. The guiding light and a helping hand is necessary to reach the destination which is long and dark and filled with pitfalls. If one slips then ,if there is no guru to call out to help then one will take endless lifetimes to just stand up on the path again , where as if one has become the slave of the Guru, the guru will uplift one by giving timely advise and knowledge as

well as punya from good deeds from his accumulated good prArabdha to tide one over the bad karma as far as possible. Manduka upanishad says : yam yam lOkam manasa saMvibhAti vishuddasatvaH kAmayate yAmscha kAmAn tam tam lOkam jayate tAmcha kAmAn tasmAdAtmajna hi archayEt bhUtikAmaH || "An atma jnAni is one whose every desire is fulfilled, every blessing is showered by the Lord. Therefore, anyone who desires to prosper, shall worship the AtmajNani." One more reason for propitating the Guru is that the Lord reside with his five roopas of Aniruddha, Pradyumna , Sankarshana, Vasudeva and Narayana forms in the guru. By virtue of being an AtmajNAni he derives blessings from all the five bhagavad roopas seated in his heart lotus. So one may understand that the Lord has shown a path towards the ultimate goal through the blessings of the guru. It is relevant

to note that it is these five forms of the Lord that are invoked in the five alankara brahmins seated during the aaradhana of a guru in Madhva sampradaya. Here the word gulAma is of great significance. gulAma or slave is a person who belongs to the one who is his owner. The relationship is defined as a many to one. Many slaves to one owner. Many sishyAs to one guru. The slave by definition has to do every bidding of the master wihtout any questions . He/she should have no doubt lingering in his/her mind. His/Her entire body and mind should be devoted to following the instructions of his master. In a similar way the sishyA should be a slave to the Guru. One may ask what instructions should one follow from a guru like say " Guru Raghavendraru". Guru Raghavendra swamygalu himself has answered the question in his last

speech. He said,"Now I take leave of you. Though I will not be with you in person my presence will be in my works and in my brindavan. You can serve me best by propagating, studying, preserving and listening to my works. My blessings to you." The answer is that one should study the texts written by the guru and implement the messages in one's life with complete faith that the path they have chosen is the right one. There should not be doubt about the Guru's capability to lead one to the Lord. One should adhere to every word that the Guru says

or has said. One should surrender one's entire being to the guru for his seva. The Lord is pleased by one who serves his bhakta. A guru who is an aparOksha jnAni is definitely a great Haribhakta and the Lord will be pleased with one who serves the guru. The place of the true devotee/guru in the Lord's heart is very high. In the MAhabharata the Lord has said, 'mamah prAnAh hi panDavaH" In the Bhagavatham also when the Sanakadi rishis come to visit Him and are stopped at the entrance by Jaya and Vijaya

and they are offended, at that time the Lord says," I shall punish anyone who behaves offensively to my dear devotees, even if it is my very arms , I shall cut them off." Here the meaning should not be taken literally ie the intention of Sri VedavyAsaru is to convey the important place that Haribhaktas have. So the point that a Guru is a Atmajnani/haribhakta and haribhakta has an important place in the Lord's heart is proved. Now if the Guru entreats the Lord on behalf of the disciple then the Lord will definitely look into the matter. He has said so Himself ie He values the Haribhakta's words. Hence the guru occupies an important place in the sadhana of a jiva. How to please the Guru and make him accept oneself as his slave? To please the guru one has to be a keen student of what the Guru is teaching. One should be diligent in one's study and follow the Guru's instructions to the dot. If one does so to one's best ability with the full faith in the Guru then the guru becomes aware of the devotees presence and comes along to help him. So it is said in the shastras. If we serve a guru who is an aparOksha jnAna and he is pleased then he may send a representative who is also ahead on the path and has a sadhana shareera to interact with us. The anupallave of the song.... paripari shAstravAnEkavanOdi vyartavAyitu bhakuthi Even if one studies many shastras unless one has become the slave of the guru, he cannot make use of the shastra knowledge. To show the importance of seeking the guru prasada we can recollect the story of Karna who studied under Guru Parashurama by saying that he was a brahmin and not a kshatriya. But due to an incident which proved clearly that Karna was a kshatriya, the guru was totally displeased and cursed him that he would not be able to use any of the learning he had gained at the teacher's feet when he actually needed it. So the consequnce of not having the prasada of the Guru is dire. Any learning should be at the feet of the guru and that too with an attitude of humbleness and trust. aaru shAstavaOdidarEnu murAru purANava mugisidarEnu sAri sajjanara saMghava mADade dheeranAgi tA meredarEnu Dasaru says, " If one reads the different shastras and the puranas completely and is proud of his achievement and hence does not want to bow down to the sajjanas - sajjanas are haribhaktas who have cultivated all the marks of Vishnu bhakthi-32 bhagavata dharmas, then all his learning will be wasted. As learning is the means to implement knowledge and thereby move forward towards the goal. This kind of attitude of pride is a definite route to

downfall." Sri Vijayadasaru entreats Guru Purandara Dasaru to take the responsibility to help him overcome pride. It is the first request he makes as he begins the composition. guru puraMdara dAsare nimma charaNa sarasija nammbide garuva rahitana mADi yannanu poreva bAra nimmade This shows the importance of this aspect of a sadhaka. korololu mAleya dharisidarEnu karadali japamani enisidarEnu marulanaMte shareerake lEpava orasikoMDu tA tirugidarEnu Next Dasaru says ,"What if one is wearing a tulasi maale around one's neck and having a japa mala in one's hands, and one spreads the gopichandana on one's body and moves about looking outwardly like a haridasa ,it will not garner him the fruit of sadhana unless he has become the slave of his guru." All these marks of a haridasa should be accompanied by the guru's grace. Whatever the guru says, one should be patient enough to listen and undertake. One cannot feel that one is above this and above that task. One has to submit one's mind to the Guru. Vyasa vittala Dasaru also speaks of his guru as one who has so many gunas and he lists all of them - jnanavantha, balu nidhAni shAntana, mAnya vantan ..... hariya bhajisuva............janake harusha surisuva ,moda bharitana, panchabheda varitana.... dAna mAdalu divya gAna pADalu jnAna doreyadu ivara dIna vAgade lekkavillade dEsha tukki baMdaru dukkavallade lEsha bhakuthi dorekadu Vyasavittala dasaru asks,"Even if you do endless dharmaAcharanah like giving dana going for theertha yatra, etc the spiritual knowledge will not be within your reach if you have not received the grace of the guru. Do you think that by doing all this you will get bhakuthi instead of getting misery?" The main point emphasised is that whatever one does one cannot get jnAna unless one surrenders at the feet of the guru. And the guru is one who should be a haribhakta, a person who has had the vision of the Lord, a person will all the bhagavatha dharmas etc. Even other sadhakas who are more advanced then oneself can become one's immediate guru .nariyara saMgava alidArenu shareerake dukkava paDisidarenu maraiyyana sri puraMdara viTTalana mareyade mandolu bereyuva tanaka Dasaru is saying ," What

is the use if one controls the indriyas and performs penance by starving the body of all comforts and pleasures unless one has kept the father of kAma, Purandara vittala in one's mind without even a second of wavering." mareyade manadolu bereyuva - incessant contemplation of the Lord and His auspicious attributes. The relation between getting mukthi and guru's grace and the guru's grace and uninteruppted meditation can be seen here. In the three charanams, it was whatever you do you don't get mukthi until you become guru's slave. The last charanam says that the point of doing any kind indriya nigraha, tapas will be wasted if one does not remember the Lord in one's heart all

the time. This means that the guru's grace is the cause for being able to do such constant meditation and one in this state is called a stithaprajNa. In order to become a stithaprajNa one has to 1. have subdued all the six diseases of the mind - kAma, krodha, lObha. mOha,mada, matsarya . 2. Be unaffected by the duals in life - sukha duka, jaya-apajaya etc. 3. Have gained the knowledge of the Lord and His infinite auspicious attributes depending on one's ability, thoroughly and clearly without doubts and be able to recall this

knowledge. 4. Should have performed nishkAma karma over many lives to have a clean antahkarana and thereby have the ability to recall this knowledge at the time of contemplation. This is echoed by Ananda vittala dasaru aMtaraMgana tiLiso srimanthane aMtaraMgana tiLiso brAMtha janarige kaMtupitana dUta maMtrAlaya vAsa All the above steps 1-4 are not just learning which is acquired by theory. It has to be practised lifetime after lifetime and are very subtle to grasp and have control over. In fact on one's own one will never be able to do it, then how comes the question. That is where Dasaru says, "Go and become the slave of your chosen guru and he will guide you on the path to the state of a

stithaprajNa. After that the guru's Guru will take over and then the Guru's guru's guru and so on till the moola Guru MukyaprAna devuru and then finally our moola guru will lead us to the Lord. Now it works out that not only for our benefit do we need a guru but for all those we network with. Let us take heed of Dasau's words this day, which is the day of his aaradhana and try to implement his intructions to the best of our ability. Guru Raghavendra himself has said that this is the best seva that we can do to a guru. A beautiful dasarapada by Shyamasundara vittala dasaru, Dasa guru puraMdara dAsa guru vAsavanAmaka Dasa guru bhoosurarige danarAshi samarpisi vyAsarayara UpadEshagonMDa haridAsa haridAsa Please visit http://www.aarshavani.org to listen to this composition sung by Vyasadasa bhajana mandali, Hyderabad as well as Guru

Purandaradasara suladhi composed by Vijayadasaru sung by Raichur Smt Lakshmi. The gurumahAtmya suLadhi by bAdarAyana dasaru explains the need for guru's grace and explains the benefits of having a guru as well the misery befalling a person without guru's grace and ends like this siriguru ajaguru sakala jagatguru siri bAdarayana viTTala kaRUNisi darishana koDuvanu ninna mana

maMdiradolu gurupAdOdaka guru uchchishTa bhuMgisu guruvantaryAmi sri bAdarayana viTTalana nambU Sri KrishnArpanamastuI am not the doer, Lord Hari is the doer,Whatever He makes me do is His worship by His graceR.Parimala

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