God and Guru!

[Guest guest]

Om Amrtesvaryai Namah!!!

 

Namaste dear Ones!!

 

thank you Mani for another wonderful exposition of why we don't need

Gurus or Avataras...

 

on one level, i might partially agree with what you are saying, but

on another it seems that the ego may be speaking about something which

it is not personally acquainted....the ego of knowledge...(i've been

there too, for far too long)...and thus avoiding the issue of the

necessity of the Guru or the Avatara...You think there is no necessity

for the Avatara, but if She or He were not there, neither would

we be....it's just part of the Play...The Divine Mother wants to play

with us...and so She takes a birth just to do so, both in Her

transcendental forms such as Meeramma, Krsna, Christ, and Ammachi,

and as US, her children...no fun without someone to play with!!...

 

There was a mahatma who lived in the forest, and one day a college

professor came to see him....the professor was in a hurry, as he had a

lot of appointments...and he wanted the whole teaching right now!

 

The Mahatma said...."but first let us have a cup of tea!"

 

the hurried professor objected that he had no time, but the Mahatma

insisted, so what could he do...

 

The Mahatma made tea, and then started pouring it into the

professor's cup...he poured and poured and poured until the cup was

filled to the brim...and then he kept on pouring the tea, which now

ran over the lip of the cup and down to the table and the floor....

 

After a little of this the astounded professor said..."Stop! Stop!

it's already full!!!!"

 

the Mahatma smiled and said: "Just so!!!like the cup full of tea, dear

professor, you are filled to the brim with knowledge, and you're in a

rush too...how can we pour more tea into this cup???"

 

as for your cute little question about whether God led me to Guru or

Guru is leading me to God....what a question!!!!!

 

When one sees Guru as God, how can one answer....Which came first? the

chicken or the chicken?

 

When there is no separation between Guru and Divine, how can we speak

of one leading us to the other?

 

When we are lost in the darkness of this world, and a shining light

appears...resolving into the beautiful form of the Devi....who is both

Guru and God to the devotee...what meaning has your question????

 

It's a question for the intellectual mind only......

 

The Divine's answer is itself the longing for the Divine....

 

To the Sakta, the Divine Mother is all...She is the Adi Para

Sakti...the original supreme Power....and all the incarnations flow

out of Her Blissful smile...in that view there is no duality, save the

duality of one's keeping a small separate ego of devotion...just as

Sri Ramakrsna used to....He said that the Mother had told him to

remain in "Bhavamukhi"...so that he wouldn't just go off and leave the

devotees....but in reality She is Nirguna, as well as Saguna....it

depends upon the viewpoint of the devotee...for the Jnani, Nirguna is

the way, and for the Bhakta, Saguna is the way...like the

Vaishnavas...they want to love and worship Krsna forever...They don't

want to BECOME Krsna but to enjoy the Rasa Lila of playing WITH

Krsna...

 

as Bhagavan Sri Ramakrsna Paramahamsadeva said: "this one doesn't want

to become sugar...but merely to taste the sugar"

 

in the same way although realising that the Sakti is really Nirguna,

we still love to love Her as Saguna...because of the deliciousness of

the taste....the sweet, juicy Rasa of ParaBhakti....for that we need

two, and advaita is not so much fun....The Guru (in Amma's case at

least) serves as a reminder to the children of where they too, came

from...not only that, but a true Guru, a SatGuru, an Avatara is like a

huge ocean liner carrying millions across the oceans of transmigration

and delusion....so to say that the Avatara or the Guru is not

necessary, strikes this little child of Amma, as the prattling of a

teenager, in full rebellion....not gonna listen to you no more!!

 

 

if we didn't have such people as Amma in this world, then what worth

would it be to live???as for me She is the Light which lights up my

Life...my Soul,...and fills me with Her Divine Blissful Presence....to

say that She is not necessary is like saying that air is not

necessary, or water.....for just how long can we go without?

 

as for the Sakti, we cannot go at all without Her, because without Her

enlivening this sack of bones, it will collapse in a dead heap on the

floor, suitable only for burning....remember Adi Sankaracharya's

encounter with the Devi in the mountains....when he was lying ill on

the trail to the next town...with dysentery i think...unable to get

up...passed out...unconscious....woke up to the delicious feeling of

cool water splashing on his fevered brow...and the beautiful form of a

young woman...who regarded him laughingly...."Where are you off

to?"She asked...He said he was on his way to the next town for a

debate to prove the superiority of Advaita vedanta over the other

views....Now Adi Sankaracharya at this time was a pure

nondualist....he didn't believe in the Devas...or the Devi...to him

they were just all imagination...and only advaita had any charm....

so there he is, lying helpless on the roadside...and all his advait

vedanta in the world will not get him up and on the road again....

So when the young lady asked Him why he didn't go on....he could only

weakly collapse on the ground, whispering...."i have no sakti...all my

sakti is gone"...(meaning strength)...the young lady laughed heartily,

gaily, like the tinkling of a brook to his "joke", and said:

"But you don't believe in Me!!!"...Sankara got the shock of his life,

when he realised who he was talking to....The Devi Herself had

appeared by his side to succour him, who didn't even believe in

Her!!!!

 

Needless to say, after that, Adi Sankara's attitude towards the Devi

changed radically....he is justifiably famous as well for his

beautiful odes to the Devi...eg the SaundaryaLahari...Waves of

Bliss...

His prayers for forgiveness of his mistakes to the Devi is also

famous...he is the one who said in this prayer:

 

"Many a bad son is born, but never a bad Mother."

 

to this day the Shankaracharya Maths although strongly advaita, have

the Sri Yantra in the temple, as well as the Devi's Names are sung

regularly....because even those Strongly Advaita monks realize the

necessity of loving and worshipping the Devi....

 

 

 

As for our beloved Dasji, who thinks that Devi never incarnates,

because his Vaisnava scriptures never said so....he should perhaps

consult the Srimad Bhagavatam again....take a little looksee at the

events surrounding Lord Krsna's birth, and the miracles therein...and

tell me that the Devi did not incarnate....Who then is the Little

Girl, Who was the real baby of Yasoda and Nanda????What happened to

Her???

 

as i recall it....When Vasudeva brought newborne Sri Krsna out of

prison and across the Yamuna to the home of Nanda and Yasoda....there

was already a little baby Girl there, lying in Her Mother's dozing

arms....the baby Girl was removed...and Sri Krsna was deposited in

the sleeping woman's arms....

Vasudeva then carried the Girl back across the Yamuna to the prison

where Devaki still lay...thru the strangely open locked doors, and the

sleeping guards...and to Devaki...Just as the Girl was put in Devaki's

arms, She started crying and the magic spell was broken....the guards

awoke, heard the crying and fetched King Kamsa, who had pledged to

kill everyone of Devaki's children.....King Kamsa grabbed the little

Girl, and raised Her up to bash Her brains out....the anguished Devaki

cried out: "She's just a little girl!!!How can She hurt you?"

Kamsa merely laughed and raised Her higher...just as he was about to

dash Her brains out the little Girl flew out of his hands and assuming

the form of the Divine Mother, laughed at him and told him that his

enemy Sri Krsna yet lived.....and he was a fool.....and then She

disappeared...Her role in that form over.

 

how does that do it for the Devi incarnations in the Bhagavatam?

Then of course there is the beautiful Sri Radharani....in our sakta

view She is also Divine Mother playing with Her friend Krsna....really

they are not separate, but to play they have assumed these forms...and

of course how could we forget Sri Sitaji?????

She is worshipped as a Goddess by even the Vaishnavas...and yet She is

said to have incarnated on this earth a long long time ago to play

with Sri Rama.....

 

When we say that Siva is Visnu's best devotee and Visnu is Siva's best

devotee, of course we don't say, although it's true, that they are

both the Devi's greatest devotees...and She is their

Mother/sister/daughter, and wife......without Her, their breath would

not want to flow......

 

Siva without Sakti is Shava.....

 

Siva without Sakti is a corpse!!!

 

thus i have heard.

 

 

In Mother's Divine Love,

and in Her Service,

this little son

salutes you

most humbly,

lovingly,

 

as ever,

Your Own Self,

 

visvanathan

 

OM Amrtesvaryai Namah!!