Guru Gita vs 14

[Guest guest]

Namaste,

 

Vs 14 of the Guru Gita says - " Whoever drinks the water from the Guru's

feet removes the root of ignorance and purifies the karma (activities)

from birth, obtains perfection, wisdom and renunciation. "

 

Of this verse Swamiji explains that this verse speaks of faith,

humility, trust, openess, the highest wisdom (lowliness); one must

however use discrimination to know when this action is appropriate.

 

Jai Maa Jai Swamiji

[Guest guest]

Namaste all,

 

this verse and Swamiji's commentary made me think about discrimination and how

to know when this action is appropriate. How do you know? I hope you don't mind

if I share my musings with you and I hope you will tell me what you all think

and help me deepen my understanding.

 

In the booklet 'Gems of Wisdom', Shree Maa and Swamiji say: " Actions manifest

our love. Work is visible love, the expression of love that we can see. "

 

This, I think, gives us a good yardstick to measure our actions by: if we do

something, is it an expression of love of self or love of God? Whenever we do

something, if we look closely we can see which desire prompted the action.

 

If I am honest, I can see that many times my actions make visible all my

attachments to things and people that are important to 'me'. If we look at it

this way, even drinking the water from the Guru's feet can be an action which

demonstrates love of self more than love of God and Guru, for instance if this

action is an expression of my selfish attachment to appear 'holy' or 'humble'.

If I were to approach the Guru with this attitude, then the action would not be

appropriate, I am inclined to say. Or it could be an expression of my desire not

to look ignorant, even though I have no idea of why I am performing the action.

If that was my motivation, the action would, I think, be inappropriate.

At this point, one easily gets discouraged; there can be all sorts of selfish

reasons and circumstances I can think of why this action would not be

appropriate. Should we say, then, that to drink the water from the Guru's feet

is only appropriate as an expression of Pure Love, without any selfishness? But

then, who of us is without selfishness?

Here, I feel, is where Swamiji's advice, to use our discrimination when this

action is appropriate, proves to be the light which removes darkness. Because I

find that as soon as I stop and think about what my motivation for this action

would be, I become aware of both selfish attachments AND the desire to move

beyond selfishness. And as soon as I become aware of the desire to move beyond

selfishness, the selfish desires lose their power of control and I can make a

choice.

Then I realize that, in order to move beyond selfishness, I must follow in the

Guru's footsteps, because I cannot possibly find my own way out of this forest

of attachments in which I am lost. Thinking thus, the drinking of the water from

the Guru's feet becomes appropriate, I feel, because then it is an expression of

my love and trust, of my willingness to be guided and the recognition that I

don't know all the answers. 'If you don't know the answer, surrender', is the

teaching. It is our faculty of discrimination that makes us aware that we don't

know, but She does, 'whose lotusfeet destroy the great forest conflagration of

all the sea of objects and relationships'.

 

I am grateful to Kaliananda who posted the verse, which made me pick up again

that lovely booklet 'Gems of Wisdom', lovingly prepared by Parvati Maa. Having

read it again, I can recommend it to anyone; these gems don't lose their lustre

and their light brightens your day!

 

with love,

Henny

 

 

 

 

, " kaliananda_saraswati "

<kaliananda_saraswati wrote:

>

>

> Namaste,

>

> Vs 14 of the Guru Gita says - " Whoever drinks the water from the Guru's

> feet removes the root of ignorance and purifies the karma (activities)

> from birth, obtains perfection, wisdom and renunciation. "

>

> Of this verse Swamiji explains that this verse speaks of faith,

> humility, trust, openess, the highest wisdom (lowliness); one must

> however use discrimination to know when this action is appropriate.

>

> Jai Maa Jai Swamiji

>