Glorifying the role of the Guru, Lord Shiva says, “Guru is the oarsman or the captain of the ship”. Saint Mira through her bhajan also considers her lord as the oarsman. She says, “Kinare Lagao … Nao Kinare Lagao Prabhuji.” In another bhajan she sings… “Morey laagi lagan guru charanana ki. Charana bina mujhe kachu nahi bhave… moha maya sab sapanana ki… jhoot maya sab sapanana ki…”
Singing the glory of the Guru she says that she prays to be firmly placed at the Lotus feet of her guru. There is no use being possessed in the feeling of attachment,as attachment is illusory. So, the Guru makes us feel the ground beneath our feet. That instills confidence of the firm footing in us even if we are in deep troubled waters. It makes our mind stable and gives stability to our thinking process.
The Guru says ‘Don’t worry.’ The ship does not move, but the Guru makes the water of your emotions and thoughts evaporate completely. Emotions will fail to play around with your evolution and feelings become divine. Lord Shiva dedicates not one but a couple of shlokas to emphasise and remind us periodically that our senses, attachment, basis of our relationships require constant supervision. Despite of trimming them periodically with the blades of wisdom and sadhana, they crop up again and again.
So, it is essential to discuss them and contemplate upon how to redirect them towards God constantly and periodically review its implementation through different shlokas of Shri Guru Gita.
Yatsatyena jagatsatyam
yatprakasena bhati tat
Yadanandena nandanti
tasmai srigurave namaha
Salutations to Shri Guru, by whose reality the world is real, by whose light, the world is illuminated and by whose bliss, people are blissful.
The Guru has been sent to this earth during Kaliyuga or Dark Age of materialism to impart righteousness to all of us. Otherwise we will be engaged only in self-centric - fulfillment of desires. We exhibit anger. Jealousy and greed grow within us and everything looks like as an attraction to us. We compare ourselves with others. We take over the earth with negativity and anti-divine principles to accomplish desires. We are projecting these traits without knowing that we should have a divine culture. We act and react unnecessarily to any situation. We develop an indifferent attitude towards spirituality. This always creates troubles for us only.
When the Guru’s feet touch the earth, he teaches us that the earth is divine and it is the God’s own land. He makes us realise what a divine place we are born in. He instills the fact that what makes life beautiful is dharma and so far we had misunderstood life itself. Thus, Lord Shiva manifests in the form of the Guru into our lives.
Through the Guru comes the knowledge of the truth. Infact, the Guru is the truth. Only when the world is illuminated by the Guru will the 6 internal vices -Kama - excessive desires, Krodha - anger, Moha - attachment, Lobha or greed, Mada -
Pride, Matsarya - jealousy be destroyed. It is essential for these qualities to be destroyed in order to experience bliss.
Without bliss there is no light and we are in darkness. Then we will only be in pain. Only the Guru can give us the experience of bliss - Ananda. Otherwise we only experience happiness.
Extract from ‘The Force of Nirvana’ by Shri Shri Nimishananda