BANGALORE: Samsaravrksam arudhah patanto narakarnave, Yena caivoddhrtah sarve tasmai srigurave namah.
Salutations to Shri Guru, who has indeed saved all (the devoted ones) who climbed the tree of the mundane world and were falling into the ocean of hell.
Lord Shiva says the relationship between a Guru and His disciple is very magical. Although Guru takes on different roles in our life be it the role of a teacher, guide, mentor, protector, saviour who solves all our problems, he is a friend with whom we can share all our feelings and thoughts. The base of all roles he plays is that he is our Supreme Mother and Father and we are all our Guru’s children. This is the base on which all other relationships unfurl depending on our need. That is why our ancient sacred texts teach us the sloka –
Tvameva mata cha pita tvameva
Tvameva bandhus cha sSakha tvameva
Tvameva vidya dravinam tvameva
Tvameva sarvam mama deva deva
The Guru is the whole and soul of us. As a mother he is protective, caring, loving and nurturing, giving us whatever we need, even before we ask for it. As a father, he is our prathama Guru, the first Guru, in our life who teaches us principles, discipline and orients us towards having a vision and mission in life.
Through this shloka, Lord Shiva emphatically points out — “There must be a vision for the Guru’s children.” Today we are all are caught in the ocean of life. We are living like a kite without a string, flying in the direction of the wind. Many of us don’t have the base of spirituality in our life. We still think it is a concept.
Therefore we are, most of the time, prompted by our senses and ignorance. Whether we are young or old, man or a woman, as long as we have no spiritual aim, we are in samsara. Only when the Light of Wisdom of the Guru shines on our lives, the Guru pulls us out of samsara by guiding us to have an aim in life.
If we look at the monkeys, we observe that a mother monkey tells its child to hold on tightly to her. Then however much she jumps from one branch to another, the baby monkey will not lose its grip on the Mother. Likewise, we must hold on to the Guru. When we follow what he says and hold on to His teachings diligently, we will not de-track or fall off from the spiritual path. We will not sway from our goal and constantly and consistently head towards attaining Nirvana.
The mammal kangaroo leaps 15 feet at a time. However, the Guru takes us across millions of our past lifetimes in one leap. We must just go and sit in his heart. If we go through the lives of our rishis, saints and sages, we learn that most of them followed the grishasta sampradaya, which means they led a family life. They were married, had children, yet they were not trapped in maya or illusion of samsara. They were not caught in any bondage of pain, pleasure or ego. This is because they had the lit the flame of their Guru’s wisdom in them and they constantly kept the flame burning through sadhana, contemplation, meditation, seva and austerities.
We all know that a small mustard seed grows into a big plant, yielding many more mustard seeds. Similarly, one seed of wisdom can grow into a huge tree of wisdom within us, revealing many more truths of wisdom. Therefore we should make a beginning by holding on to at least one teaching, one principle of the Guru. That will open up the entire library of wisdom of the Guru to us. A drowning man clutches even a straw to save himself; likewise we must also hold on to one teaching of the Guru as a saviour or else we will also drown in the ocean of samsara.
The 16th century poet Saint Sundardas from Rajasthan has wonderfully described how the Guru is greater than God himself for pulling us out of the quagmire. He says, “The individual souls created by God are drowned in the ocean of samsara — the ocean of birth and death. The Guru saves them from pain and suffering. Whatever the Guru says comes true. The greatness of the Guru surpasses even that of God. Therefore, even God is pleased by worship of the Saviour – the Guru”.
The Guru makes us realise that as long as we are in samsara, we are in chaos. We will not have the right perception and we begin to believe that whatever we see is true, what we do is right.
If we take the reel of a movie, for example, it runs upside down. It is the lens that makes it straight. Likewise, it is the Guru who enacts the role of lens in our life. To make us understand this, our ancient sages gave us the example of a banyan tree. The roots of the banyan tree are on top. As long as we see it this way, we are in maya. To remove us from this maya, the Guru first manifested as Dakshinamurthy. That is why Lord Dakshinamurthy is known as Prathama Guru Dakshinamurthy – the lord facing South direction, who sits under a banyan tree and imparts wisdom through absolute silence.
When we go in front of a Guru, we must maintain absolute silence. When we speak to the Guru, we should cover our mouth so that our saliva doesn’t pollute the aura of the Guru, one foot away all around the Guru. Our mind also should not be in duality. Remember a mind that resides in duality constantly chatters. The mind says a million things. The reel of cinema runs at 24 frames/sec. That is how fast the mind runs. The Guru stills this running mind and we have to sustain it with sadhana.