GURU
by Dhesegaan a/l Bala Krishnan
Sosanam
bhavasindhosca , jnapanam sarasampadah
Gurof
padodakam samyak , tasmai srigurave namah
Hari Om !
A
very good day to His Holiness Sri Swami Jitatmananda Saraswati and fellow
spiritual seekers who are present today . I thank Sri Swamiji for giving me
this opportunity to talk today . On this
very auspicious day , I wish to present you a talk entitled “Guru” .
Today
, the biggest conflict a spiritual seeker faces is to find the right guru .
Nearly everyone claim to be a qualified
guru . Worst still , many are carried away by whims and fancies when we talk
about guru . They think the man with the longest and whitest beard in town is a
guru . If they hear of miracle men at some corner of the city , they rush there
and make him their guru . Why ? Because many don’t know what it means by a guru
.
“Gu” means darkness and ”ru” means dispeller
or remover . Thus , the word ”guru” means the dispeller of darkness . Darkness
represents ignorance because in dark , you cannot see anything . So too the
veil of ignorance covers whatever that exists . To remove darkness , we need
light . Light represents knowledge . In the presence of light , whatever
existing can be seen . The light does not bring anything new into the room but
it makes everything in the room visible to you . So is the nature of knowledge
. It does not create something new but it sheds light to whatever it there .
That is when you find something new , you say you ‘dis-covered’ something . You
dis-covered it . It was there but covered and you uncovered it with a certain
amount of knowledge .
That
is exactly what the guru does . He imparts knowledge on you and the ignorance
is removed . Honestly speaking , he did not create something new out of you .
He just removed the veil of ignorance . Just like a sculptor . The sculptor has
a clear vision of the Lord’s form in a piece of stone but you cannot . To make
you see the same vision as he can , he removes the parts and pieces of the
stone that covers the form he can see . After that sculpting , now you can see
what he can . The guru has already identified himself with Isvara . But , he
comes down to your level of understanding and lifts you up to his level , helping
you to get the same vision that he already has Therefore , you call a guru daya-sindhu .
Do
I really need a guru ? Can I self-study the sastras ? After all , its just another language and
with a dictionary , I can learn it . Why need a guru ?
Perhaps
you could do so if the Vedas was just any ordinary literature text . Why ,
today people even do PHD researches on Shakespeare’s literature works , saying
that his words are so rich in meaning that it is worth doing a research on it .
If a puny mortal’s words could be so meaningful , how would the words of the Isvara’s be ? The
Vedas are directly from the Isvara , so it has many hidden and indirect
meanings which can be unfolded only by a proper methodology . This methodology
is what we call sampradaya . Only a guru who has been through this sampradaya
can help you to discover the meanings of the sastra .
The
sastra itself highlights the need of a guru in one’s spiritual pursuit . Lord
Krsna and Arjuna were very close friends . But , when did Krsna taught Arjuna
the Gita ? He did not say , “ O Arjuna , are you free now ? Come , I tell you a
story called Gita “ . At that moment , Arjuna would surely not be bothered by
what Krsna was going to say . Nor would Krsna’s words be valued if it was told
then . But , in the battlefield , when he was in the biggest dilemma of his
life , Arjuna asked for the teaching . Note that the teaching is only given
when it is asked . Even than , Krsna waited until Arjuna mentioned “sisyas
teham “ . Only when Arjuna accepted Krsna as his guru , did Krsna accept Arjuna
as his sisya and imparted the teaching . In the Katho Upanishad , we see a
young spiritual seeker called Naciketas asking Lord Yama himself to teach him
self-knowledge . Though Lord Yama tried to delude Naciketas with wordly desire
, Naciketas was firm in his spiritual seeking . He accepted the Lord as his
teacher and he asked for the teaching . Only then he got it .
In
both examples , we see that only if there is asking , then the teaching is
given . At the same time , there is an attitude of acceptance between the guru
and sisya . The guru accepts the sisya and the sisya accepts the guru . That is
why the dialogues between a guru and sisya is a samvada (discussion ) and not
just a vada ( argument) . For the sisya to develop acceptance for his guru , he
must have sraddha in the words of the guru . Adi Sankara defines sraddha as “ guru-vedanta-vakyesu
visvasah sraddha” , meaning sraddha is trust in the words of the
teacher and the scripture . Another way of saying it is “ The guru is the sastra and the sastra is
the guru “ ., I am referring to intellectual trust not just a blind trust
. Vedanta offers something to understand not a set of
beliefs . So , there is work for my intellect . To believe that I will go to
heaven after death , I don’t need an intellect . To believe that there is
a judgemental God waiting to throw me
into hell for my sins , I don’t need an intellect . If I am born just follow a set of beliefs , then I would say
God has wasted his grace on me by giving me an intellect .
Here
, sraddha means , “ If I don’t see the fact , then there are doubts in my
understanding and not in my teacher’s words . So , I have to clarify that
doubts to see the fact “ . It is just like when I wake up in the morning and I
open my eyes , I’m sure I can see something . That certainty , that unwavering
trust is called sraddha .
Sometimes
, people say that when they look into their guru’s eyes , they get the answers
for all the questions . It seems as though the guru is able to converse with
them only with his eyes . If this was really possible , then God would not have
taken the trouble to give you a mouth to talk . He would have made us all mute
so that we develop this “talking-by-eyes” power . For any learning to take
place , a dialogue has to take place between guru and sisya . Lord Dakshinamurti
did not teach in silence . He used silence as a pramana , as an instrument to
explain Brahman . In silence , no learning can take place . Even if you sit in
silence for years , skies will not open and drop knowledge on you . In silence
, there is just silence ! Nothing more .
Adi
Sankara said that there are three very rare and precious boons(varam) in a
human’s life . First , to be born as a
human itself is a very rare and precious boon . Second , to desire for moksa
(mumukshutvam) is another very rare and precious boon . Thirdly , to get the
right guru to guide you in your spiritual pursuit is a very rare and precious
boon . Blessed with a wonderful guru right in front of us , let us make use of
this boon well to attain moksa .
Thank you
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