श्रुति स्मृति पुराणानाम् आलयं करुणालयम् /
नमामि भगवद्पाद शङ्करं लोकशङ्करम् //
गुरुर्ब्रह्मा गुरुर्विष्णु गुरुर्देवो महेश्वरः /
गुरुः साक्षात् परम्ब्रह्म तस्मै श्री गुरवे नमः //
गुरुर्ब्रह्मा गुरुर्विष्णु गुरुर्देवो महेश्वरः /
गुरुः साक्षात् परम्ब्रह्म तस्मै श्री गुरवे नमः //
The importance of Gurubhakti in our culture is well known. The above zlOka
encapsulates the importance of devotion to the guru that our elders often stress. This zlOka, roughly translated would mean: " Guru (guru, गुरु ) is the embodiment of Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma. I salute that Guru."
To write about Guru and Guru bhakti, I have no qualification. I am simply reproducing some profound thoughts from the upanayasams of mahatmas that I have been listening to lately.
The first thought that I wish to share is from a lecture by Sri Ganesha Sharma. He says: (translated from Tamil)
" In our sanAtana dharma, we believe in many Gods and Godesses. However just as in a company there is an MD and below him there are managers, whom the employee will be actually in contact with, the Gurus are the managers of the system that is this cosmos. The Vedas celebrate the Guru as "देवाना ँ ह्रृदयेभ्यो नमः " i.e. "Salutations to the one who resides in the heart of the dEvAs."
Now there is this small doubt that in the upanishads it is said thus: " मातृ देवो भव , पितृ देवो भव , अचार्य देवो भव " i.e. Before the AcArya, we must first consider the mother and father as God! Hence isn't the Guru given only the third position? This is not the case! What we cannot get by propitiating God, we can get only by worshipping the Guru. And that is JnAna! And why do we need JnAna? For mokSa! Thus to worship a Guru, to get this privilege, we must have a narajanma i.e. birth in the form of a man. We need this body to do Guru upAsana just like an artist requires a canvas to draw a portrait! Who gives us that canvas? Our parents, of course. To thank our mother and father for their kindness in having given us this body, the vEdas instruct us to think of our parents as Ishvara swarUpa. To explain this further, Adi Sankara says:
" शरणम् न भवति जननी न पिता न सोदाराश्चान्ये , शरणम् देशिक शरणम् " which means that " my surrender is not to the mother, not to the father, not to the brother or anyone else, my surrender is to the Guru!" (Notice that we are talking about surrender, not respect or service). This is surprising because we hold our parents in very high esteem. However if we get entangled in their attachment, then our quest for JnAna would become tainted and the path to our salvation would then become besmirched with the impurity of attachment which is then so detrimental to our achieving mOkSa. Hence our service to our parents should be such that it does not create an obstacle in our ultimate goal i.e. mOkSa. It should be like the lotus in the water. Neither of them affects the other!
The only one who can thus show us the path and shed light on the path of JnAna, without any hindrance is the guru! (Perhaps it is for the reasons stated above that our scriptures lay emphasis on gurukulavAsa) Adi Sankara's own disciple Sri Totakacharya (तोटकाचार्य) says: " भव शङ्कर देशिक मे शरणम् " , reflecting his own Guru's words, in his famous "tOTakAStakam" (तोटकाष्टकम). Remember that " guru" , "AcArya " and "dEzika " are more or less the same. The "guru" is the one who is the preceptor because of his own acquired abilities and knowledge. The "Acharya "or the "dEzika" is the one who not only teaches but also shows us the path by action i.e. He puts to practice whatever he preaches. "
All Gods and Godesses in our scriptures have been addressed as a form of Guru. Sri Ganesha Sharma quotes the following from them:
" 1) ambAL is extolled by a thousand names in the lalita sahasranAma. But in the end she is described as " dakSiNamUrtirUpiNi" (दक्षिणामूर्तिरूपिणी ) , "gurumUrtI" (गुरुमूर्ती ) and "zivaJnAnapradAyini" (शिवज्ञानप्रदायिनी) . "SivaJnAna" is nothing but the knowledge of advaita i.e. "aham brahmAsmi" (अहं ब्रह्मास्मि ). ambAL is praised as the preceptor of this knowledge.
2.) In kandar anubhUti ( கந்தர் அநூபூதி ), Sri Arunagirinathar (அருணகிரிநாதர்) , after having eulogized Sri Muruga with so many epithets, finally calls out to him as "guruvAy varuvAy aruLvAy guhanE!" ( குருவாய் வருவாய் அருள்வாய் குஹனே !" )
3.) In the zyAmaLA daNDakam, the famous poet Kalidasa describes ambAL as " देशिक रूपेण दर्शिताभ्यतयाम " i.e. one who can be seen in the form of a preceptor. "
I have one more reference to add. Sri Mutthuswami Dikshitar also refers to Lord Subrahmanya as "guruguha" (गुरुगुह) i.e. the one who resides in the form of guru, in the deep cave(guha) of the mind (as interpreted by Sri Sri Kanchi Mahaswamigal).
In this manner, our scriptures say that the Guru is the "manager" of the Almighty, who is the MD of the company called the bhavasagara (ocean of worldly desires).
The next thought is from a discourse of Sri Mahaperiyava, the 68th pontiff of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham. The following is an abridged version of His ideas which can found here in detail.
"God is sthANu i.e. immovable or stable. God remains stable amidst all the confusion in this world. Bhakti is the means to achieve oneness with the Paramatma. Just like we would hold a pillar to protect ouselves from a gale, we must hold on to the Almighty steadily with bhakti. We say that God is omniscient. Still we pray. Why? Doesn't God know what we want? Or does He wait to be asked, so that He can delight, like an ordinary man, at our suffering? We pray in order to alleviate and vent out our pain. That way we can ease our mind and continue on our path of bhakti. It is said in the Thirukkural (திருக்குறள் ) that if we associate ourselves with the one free from any attachment, we ourselves become detached. Likewise, if we keep God in our mind continuously, we ourselves become one with Him. This is the fundamental of advaita vEdAnta that Adi Sankara propounded.
Guru is Izvara in human form.Only, the Guru does not have the three fold functions of creation, preservation and destruction. However if we follow a Guru, then there is no need even for God! Guru bhakti is considered even more superior to daiva bhakti!"
I know I wanted to write about Sri Tyagaraja Swami's composition: gurulEka in which He has beautifully captured the essence of Gurubhakti, but I think I will write it on a fresh post, maybe tomorrow.
Sri kriSNArpaNamastu!
encapsulates the importance of devotion to the guru that our elders often stress. This zlOka, roughly translated would mean: " Guru (guru, गुरु ) is the embodiment of Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma. I salute that Guru."
To write about Guru and Guru bhakti, I have no qualification. I am simply reproducing some profound thoughts from the upanayasams of mahatmas that I have been listening to lately.
The first thought that I wish to share is from a lecture by Sri Ganesha Sharma. He says: (translated from Tamil)
" In our sanAtana dharma, we believe in many Gods and Godesses. However just as in a company there is an MD and below him there are managers, whom the employee will be actually in contact with, the Gurus are the managers of the system that is this cosmos. The Vedas celebrate the Guru as "देवाना ँ ह्रृदयेभ्यो नमः " i.e. "Salutations to the one who resides in the heart of the dEvAs."
Now there is this small doubt that in the upanishads it is said thus: " मातृ देवो भव , पितृ देवो भव , अचार्य देवो भव " i.e. Before the AcArya, we must first consider the mother and father as God! Hence isn't the Guru given only the third position? This is not the case! What we cannot get by propitiating God, we can get only by worshipping the Guru. And that is JnAna! And why do we need JnAna? For mokSa! Thus to worship a Guru, to get this privilege, we must have a narajanma i.e. birth in the form of a man. We need this body to do Guru upAsana just like an artist requires a canvas to draw a portrait! Who gives us that canvas? Our parents, of course. To thank our mother and father for their kindness in having given us this body, the vEdas instruct us to think of our parents as Ishvara swarUpa. To explain this further, Adi Sankara says:
" शरणम् न भवति जननी न पिता न सोदाराश्चान्ये , शरणम् देशिक शरणम् " which means that " my surrender is not to the mother, not to the father, not to the brother or anyone else, my surrender is to the Guru!" (Notice that we are talking about surrender, not respect or service). This is surprising because we hold our parents in very high esteem. However if we get entangled in their attachment, then our quest for JnAna would become tainted and the path to our salvation would then become besmirched with the impurity of attachment which is then so detrimental to our achieving mOkSa. Hence our service to our parents should be such that it does not create an obstacle in our ultimate goal i.e. mOkSa. It should be like the lotus in the water. Neither of them affects the other!
The only one who can thus show us the path and shed light on the path of JnAna, without any hindrance is the guru! (Perhaps it is for the reasons stated above that our scriptures lay emphasis on gurukulavAsa) Adi Sankara's own disciple Sri Totakacharya (तोटकाचार्य) says: " भव शङ्कर देशिक मे शरणम् " , reflecting his own Guru's words, in his famous "tOTakAStakam" (तोटकाष्टकम). Remember that " guru" , "AcArya " and "dEzika " are more or less the same. The "guru" is the one who is the preceptor because of his own acquired abilities and knowledge. The "Acharya "or the "dEzika" is the one who not only teaches but also shows us the path by action i.e. He puts to practice whatever he preaches. "
All Gods and Godesses in our scriptures have been addressed as a form of Guru. Sri Ganesha Sharma quotes the following from them:
" 1) ambAL is extolled by a thousand names in the lalita sahasranAma. But in the end she is described as " dakSiNamUrtirUpiNi" (दक्षिणामूर्तिरूपिणी ) , "gurumUrtI" (गुरुमूर्ती ) and "zivaJnAnapradAyini" (शिवज्ञानप्रदायिनी) . "SivaJnAna" is nothing but the knowledge of advaita i.e. "aham brahmAsmi" (अहं ब्रह्मास्मि ). ambAL is praised as the preceptor of this knowledge.
2.) In kandar anubhUti ( கந்தர் அநூபூதி ), Sri Arunagirinathar (அருணகிரிநாதர்) , after having eulogized Sri Muruga with so many epithets, finally calls out to him as "guruvAy varuvAy aruLvAy guhanE!" ( குருவாய் வருவாய் அருள்வாய் குஹனே !" )
3.) In the zyAmaLA daNDakam, the famous poet Kalidasa describes ambAL as " देशिक रूपेण दर्शिताभ्यतयाम " i.e. one who can be seen in the form of a preceptor. "
I have one more reference to add. Sri Mutthuswami Dikshitar also refers to Lord Subrahmanya as "guruguha" (गुरुगुह) i.e. the one who resides in the form of guru, in the deep cave(guha) of the mind (as interpreted by Sri Sri Kanchi Mahaswamigal).
In this manner, our scriptures say that the Guru is the "manager" of the Almighty, who is the MD of the company called the bhavasagara (ocean of worldly desires).
The next thought is from a discourse of Sri Mahaperiyava, the 68th pontiff of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham. The following is an abridged version of His ideas which can found here in detail.
"God is sthANu i.e. immovable or stable. God remains stable amidst all the confusion in this world. Bhakti is the means to achieve oneness with the Paramatma. Just like we would hold a pillar to protect ouselves from a gale, we must hold on to the Almighty steadily with bhakti. We say that God is omniscient. Still we pray. Why? Doesn't God know what we want? Or does He wait to be asked, so that He can delight, like an ordinary man, at our suffering? We pray in order to alleviate and vent out our pain. That way we can ease our mind and continue on our path of bhakti. It is said in the Thirukkural (திருக்குறள் ) that if we associate ourselves with the one free from any attachment, we ourselves become detached. Likewise, if we keep God in our mind continuously, we ourselves become one with Him. This is the fundamental of advaita vEdAnta that Adi Sankara propounded.
Guru is Izvara in human form.Only, the Guru does not have the three fold functions of creation, preservation and destruction. However if we follow a Guru, then there is no need even for God! Guru bhakti is considered even more superior to daiva bhakti!"
I know I wanted to write about Sri Tyagaraja Swami's composition: gurulEka in which He has beautifully captured the essence of Gurubhakti, but I think I will write it on a fresh post, maybe tomorrow.
Sri kriSNArpaNamastu!
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