Message, by H. H. Narasimhaswamiji for Guru Poornima 1952.

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Message, by H. H. Narasimhaswamiji for Guru Poornima 1952.

Ashada Pournima (falling on the 7th of July this year) is known as Vyasa

Pournima and also Guru Poornima. Vyasa, the author or compiler of the four

Vedas, the eighteen puranas, Mahabharata, etc. is the chief of all gurus; and

on this day, Vyasa is first wor­shipped and then the.series of gurus starting

with him and ending with our own immediate guru must be worshipped. What is the

meaning and utility of this worship? As worship in a matter of sentiment

primarily, one need hardly discuss the rational basis for such worship. When

dealing with persons whose stoic pride or stupid indifference or other mental

peculiarity bars them from any worship, the best thing is not to argue, but to

wait for the hand of Time. The whirlinging of time brings in its revenges.

Misfortunes often change the inner attitude of a man and makes him yield more

readily to influences like those of gods, saints or gurus. In actual

experience, the sentiment of devotion to gods, saints or gurus, comes

historically, and as an unnoticed social fact through contact, here­ditary or

other influences, and thereafter the benefits of faith justify the faith. To

those who have the disposition to worship, there is no need to ask for the

meaning or utility of worship. It is part of their nature, and one's own

innermost essence cannot be discussed to see whether there is any justification

for it, for one's nature is the ultimate standpoint from which utility, etc. can

be judged. To those who are accustomed to worship god's the stage for

worshipping gurudeva must at sometime come, and the actual difficulty may arise

in their case whether the guru should be treated as a deva, and should be

worshipped. This point may arise specially in the case of those who indulge in

comparative study of religions, who pick up some ideas from the Christian and

Islamic faiths and begin to apply them to Hindu institutions. To such people,

real difficulties may arise by reason of the inconsistent set of thoughts on

spirituality they have hoarded up in their minds. To Islam and Christianity the

idea of unity of God is of central importance. Jehovah is said to brook no rival

near his throne. Every true worshipper of Jehovah must knock down any other

symbol or personality that is put up as an object of worship so that he may not

get obsessed by the latter, and weaken or lose faith in Jehovah. This principle

of unity may bulk very largely in Christian or Islamic monotheism and may be

easily taken to be its vital centre. But a careful student of Psychology of

religion will discover that this so-called unity is neither a very simple idea

to grasp nor so important an idea after all. Mr. Spearman in his 'Psychology

down the ages' devotes a chapter to the study of unity, and he quotes some

authors as establi­shing the position that unity is neither a fact nor a

possibility, that unity is a tendency, a relative idea, and by no means simple

to understand. The human mind is incapable of thinking only one thing at a

time. Our simplest idea is composed of at least two or three elements, and the

mind has to think of all these elements to form an idea. The human mind also

has a maximum of the number of elements that it can think of simultaneously.

Six is said to be roughly the maximum of the number of ideas that can be

thought of by an ordinary mind at one time. And the idea of God is the result

of the tendency of some persons contemplating the universe around them and

attempting to simplify and analyze the universe to the smallest number of its

components. There is a tendency for the universe to lose its multiplicity more

and more and gradually approximate to the one such as the one original cause,

the one prime source of all being, and that is God.

Yatova Imani Bhutani Jayanle

Vena jatani jeevanti

Yat Prayanti Abhisamviscanti Tad Brahma.

That is, God is That from which all these things or beings arise, That which

maintains them all, and That into which all are withdrawn ultimately.

There­fore, this tendency to unity draws us to the main out­lines of the god

idea. Therefore, this god idea, as shown in the above definition is not a

simple or abso­lute idea. It is three in one and one in three. One will do well

not to over-emphasise this so-called unity of god, at least to the extent of

abhorring religions stressing other features of godhead. Primarily God is that

which has unlimited power, thereby contrasted with man who has limited power.

God is that which has unlimited excellences of perfection, etc., whereas man

has only a few good qualities and abundance of limitations. God is the

perfection of not merely power but also of kindness and grace that come to the

rescue of man, and help him out of his helplessness. God is this essentially

omnipotence, omniscience and all perfect love. In evolving these ideas, mankind

has had always to utilise those great souls, the pro­phets, the seers, the

saints, etc., through whom such vast stores of the above excellences were

manifested in claiming to bless the men that approached them. It is through men

and men's excellences that the god idea was formed primarily, and these men were

the god-men. They were the men of Light and leading, and were the destroyers of

darkness. Therefore they were gurus in every sense. Guru means the great one,

the perfect one. Guru also means the destroyer of darkness, intellectual or

spiritual. Therefore, as a matter of fact, these leading lights of humanity

were worshipped as gurudevas, and guru worship may have been the origin of all

worship; next in each particular group of human beings, the forms of worship

multi­plied and developed so variously that a number of ideas entered into

worship and religion. It is the wisest for all sane people not to despise the

religion that is practised by others, if especially the results of adoption of

religion in the concerned communities is as good as might be expected in any

group of human beings. Monotheists must respect the best religious thought and

practice developed amongst polytheists or pantheists. One of the best

institutions developed amongst polytheists is guru worship. To some with

Western ideas, this may seem strange. 'The guru is after all a human being who

is seen and handled, whereas God is something unseen and too great to be

handled, and ergo the guru cannot be god' say some. To such logicians, one

should point out that human nature does not proceed by logic, but by actual

experi­ences of various sorts, and that abstractions derived from our practice,

if jumbled -together in the form of syllogisms, may lead to conclusions totally

wrong. We must test our conclusions from time to time by the actual facts of

experience. Adopting this pragmatic test, every honest man must declare that in

the records of history, many great names of eminent spiritual giants can be

found where guru worship has led to the best results. Sri Ramakrishna

Pararnahamsa is one standing instance. Sri Chaitanya, Sri Nittal, etc., form

other instances. Kabir, Sri Sai Baba and others form excellent instances to

show that guru worship has been a very important fact if not the sole important

fact in deciding the spiritual destiny of such great souls. Baba in fact said,

'We need no other sadhana; the guru is our only sadhana'. And his method was

absolute surrender and implicit faith in everything uttered by the guru. The

result was a life of ideas, a life of brilliant service to humanity, a life

that developed into a personality with full powers of siddhis utilised almost

wholly to the cause of service of humanity. Sri Sai Baba had wonderful powers

of knowing what happened anywhere at any time, even in the remotest part of the

country. He had the power to watch devotees and intervene where necessary to

help them. M. W. Pradhan may be falling down in a fit in the High Court of

Bombay, out Baba, his dearly loving guru at Shirdi notes it at the time and

says 'Is Pradhan come?', meaning 'Is he dead?' By the guru's kind intervention,

(unseen intervention of course), Pradhan revives and gets back home. And people

who started from Shirdi to go and see what happened to Pradhan were surprised

to note that at the very time of his fainting, Baba was aware of the fact, and

announced 'It is all right'. These instances go to show what the powers of

Samartha Sadgurus are and how they utilised them for the benefit of the

devotees whom they loved and over whom they kept watch. If there are gurus who

are keeping such watch over one's spiri­tual and temporal destinies, and if

they are armed with such superhuman powers and superhuman love, why deny them

the name of deva and why object to guru worship? Some one may answer that only

in cases of persons having a Samartha Sad Guru like Sai Baba to guard them,

there is any need to go in for guru worship. The answer to this objection,

which is an objection to the general practice of guru puja on this day, or on

similar occasions is that which Baba Him­self gave. He has advised people not

to cavil at their gurus because they are not possessed of all siddhis. Said He,

'Your guru may not have wonderful powers like those possessed by another's guru,

but stick to your own and be intensely devoted; you will derive the fruit of

your devotion . The fact is that it is the intensity of one's devotion that is

mainly responsible for the good effects of guru bhakti. A Dronacharya may not

accept Ekalaiva for his sishya, but the white heat of Ekalaiva's bhakti enables

him to put up a clay image of Dronacharya, and that image suffices to give him

all the benefits that Dronacharya in flesh and blood could give to Arjuna. A

Ramananda might refuse to give formal initiation to a Muslim at Kabir was

supposed to be. But Kabir's determination to make himself a sishya was quiet

sufficient. He laid himself down on some steps over which Ramananda had to walk

to get his early morning bath before the dawn broke. And Ramananda's utterance

of Ram, Ram, when treading upon the body of Kabir was found to be a sufficient

upadesa of Rama mantra to Kabir. These are not given as the only basis for our

conclu­sions. Guru Bhakti or bhakti to the guru has decidedly an objective as

well as a subjective side to it. The guru's extraordinary powers working

through his fleshy body have an undoubted effect and power. This was

demonstrated several times by Sri Sai Baba Himself as also by other well known

gurus. Hastha deeksha and karma deeksha have an effect over the disciples'

bodies and souls. Saktinipata is claimed to be the direct result of deeksha

from a guru or a series of gurus. When discussing the exact extent to which the

physical body is a necessary adjunct or basis of the guru influence, one may

very well say that the ordinary fleshy guru is an undoubted advantage to the

pupil. But one must avoid overgeneralising in this matter. Persons they are who

say occasionally that they do not went dead gurus. A Vaisya lady on one occasion

said to the President of the All India Sai Samaj. Why do you preach a dead guru;

why not present us with a living guru?'. Then instenses were quoted of Baba's

present watch, power and kindness from the President's own experience, and that

convin­ced the lady and removed her objections. 'Can I get a guru; a moksha

guru, one who loves me and pursues me like the hound of Heaven'? is a question

which we sometimes hear. Sai was this hound of Heaven and is this hound of

Heaven pursuing us. He told several people that He has been their former guru,

janma after janma, and that He brought them together to be in contact with Him

in this janma. To one or more, He promised to be with him or them in future

janmas also. If one is really anxious to get Sai for the guru, he certainly can

get Sai. The Guru Poornirua "wor­ship which can be adapted to other days will be

part of the means for this purpose. One must deserve before desiring. So, if one

really desires Sai for the guru, one must make oneself more and more fit to be a

Sai' bhakta. 'Machittah sat at am bhava is the direction given by Sri Krishna to

Arjuna in the Gita, and Sai Krishna in this age has given the same advice.

Psycho­logy shows that is the only advice to give. By constantly dwelling upon

anybody or any set of ideas, the mind and heart get moulded into the object

concentrated upon. The more of Sai we think, the more we love him. The more

easy it becomes to love him, the more Sai-like we develop. Even siddhis one

might develop by. siddhia are comparatively speaking, un-important. The chief

thing is, let us dwell upon Sai's wonderful powers, wonderful perfections,

wonder­ful love and let us keep this in mind by remembering the innumerable

instances of his dealings with bhaktas evidencing these qualities. If these are

constantly kept in mind, we become Sai minded, and Sai will love us, and mutual

love will unite us.

Venkatesastu Sayeesah, Tayor bhedo na vidyate

Tayor Ikyam Smaran Nityan

Tat sthanam labhate Narah

which means:"By constantly remembering that Sayeesa is the same as Venkatesa and

that the divine qualities that constitute the one spirit are the same as those

consti­tuting the other spirit, that unity of spirit gets possession of our

personality, and we become That." This is the utility. This is the

justification of guru puja especially Sai Puja.