Guru Bhakti

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Guru Bhakti

 

God is an unknown entity. God is an unseen entity.

However, with absolutely irrefutable logic, rational

argument and reason, Vedanta establishes the fact of

God. And through analysis we can infer, “Yes, there

must be a God; it stands to reason. It is irrational

to suppose that there cannot be such a thing as God.

There must be.” And scriptures also tell us that He is

a Being who is sacred, who is holy, all-pure, noble

and sublime. But, nevertheless, God is still for us

only a concept of the mind. We have not seen God. We

have not touched, nor tasted, nor smelt Him. We’ve

only heard about Him. We can only infer Him. We can

only imagine Him.

 

But then, if we are able to see in a human individual

manifestations of holiness, of sanctity, of purity, of

sublimity, of nobility, of goodness, of loftiness of

conduct, character, nature, sentiment, thought,

feeling and action, if we see something out of the

ordinary something extraordinary, something special, a

manifestation of those qualities that we have been

taught to associate only with God then we say: “If

such a human being can exist, God must exist.

Otherwise, from whence do these qualities come which

we do not normally see in anyone?” When we see this

divinity, this holiness, this sanctity, we begin to

realise: “Yes, God I have not seen, but godliness I

have seen.

 

All the qualities attributed to God by the scriptures,

by saints and sages, in all religious contexts those I

see in an unusual measure, in an extraordinary

measure, in this being. Because I have seen this being

and this being is known to me, I am assured that God

is. I know there must be a God.” And in the Vedic

tradition the guru is such a being. The guru becomes

for us pratyaksha devaa, visible God. God reveals

Himself through the guru.

 

 

The guru thus becomes the linking factor, a channel

for putting the wandering, lost jivatma, the

individual Soul, back into contact with its source,

God, the Universal Soul. And just as the guru is a

channel for the jivatma to re-link itself with the

paramatma, even so, if we can create a channel between

ourselves and our guru, then that channel will become

the effecting means of receiving from the guru

guru-kripa, all that the guru is, the knowledge of the

guru, the sanctity of the guru, the purity of the

guru, the spirituality of the guru.

 

 

And that channel is called guru-bhakti. That is why

the significant verse in the Svetasvatara Upanishad:

“yasya deve para bhaktih yatha deve tatha gurau,

tasyaite kathita hyarthah prakasante mahatmanah.” If

you have supreme devotion to God and the same kind of

devotion to your guru, then to you, the essence, the

subtle truths of the scriptures become revealed.” Thus

it is that through guru-bhakti the sadhaka, the

seeker, the disciple, creates an effective link, a

connection, a channel, which enables the guru to share

with the disciple what the guru has been endowed with

from God.

 

So, we have to provide a way for the guru to give what

he wishes to give. And that is through guru-bhakti,

devotion, where there is no place for the ego. If the

thought comes, “I have got great guru-bhakti,” then

finished, that bhakti becomes cancelled, it is

nullified. You yourself must become the very

embodiment of that love, that devotion. There should

be no awareness of some being, some person having that

quality of devotion. Then it becomes a subtle

spiritual ego. The very purpose of the existence of

the guru is to remove the separatist I-consciousness,

the conscious¬ness of being a separate being or

entity, and if guru-bhakti becomes a means of boosting

and sustaining that abhimana (ego), ahamkara (egoism),

then it loses its purpose and becomes self-defeating.

 

Thus true guru-bhakti is egoless, nirabhimana (without

ego), vinamra (humble). Sabari was bhaktisvarupa. She

had great bhakti for Rama, but she was not conscious

that she was a great devotee of Rama. Neither was

Hanuman conscious that he was a great bhakta of Rama.

It was his very nature. He was an embodiment of

devotion for Rama. The gopis of Vrindavan did not know

that they were great devotees of Krishna. They said:

“All we know is that He is the one object to be

adored. We don’t know anything else. We cannot do

anything but adore Him. We are that adoration. It is

our very self. We are not different from that. Take it

away from us and we will die, we will cease to exist.”

They were filled with that love, not with egoistical

awareness of that love.

 

The greater the growth of devotion and the greater the

reverence for the guru, the greater is the inflow of

the guru's grace. The greater the desire to carry out

the ideals and principles of the guru in life and the

greater the keen eagerness and firm determination to

carry out the instructions of the guru faithfully,

meticulously, day after day, in one’s daily activities

and life, the greater is the inflow of the guru’s

grace. Gurudev was never tired of again and again

reiterating: “Obedience is better than reverence.” And

Vivekananda came down heavily upon mere sentiment and

emotion. He said that this sentiment has ruined us. We

have become backboneless; we lack a sense of purpose.

 

And what have the Upanishads put before us to

illustrate true devotion? One disciple came to his

guru as a young boy and the guru told him that it was

his duty to collect firewood daily for the havan. He

went on doing it without questioning. He was not

allowed to cut green trees; and so the whole day, with

great difficulty, he searched for and cut dry wood,

put it on his head and returned only in the evening.

The guru never gave him any spiritual instructions or

teachings. Years went by. The disciple forgot time,

until one day he realised he had become old, his hair

and beard had become silver-white. Suddenly he burst

into tears: “What is my fate? My whole life has passed

away and the guru has not yet given me brahma-jnana.”

He had become old. He had served his guru without

question ever since he was a young boy. That was his

devotion.

 

Another disciple was asked to take the guru ‘s cattle

to pasture. He had to be with the cattle all day. The

guru did not ask his wife to prepare any lunch for

him, and he did not have permission to drink milk from

the cows. So the whole day he went hungry, only

quenching his thirst with water. Days, months, years

passed this way.

 

And one disciple was asked to irrigate the guru ‘s

fields. He had to let the water into the fields and

make sure that it did not leak out. After working the

whole day, one evening he discovered a leak in one of

the earthen walls. He tried to plug it with some clay.

It kept leaking. He tried all methods to repair it,

and finally not knowing what else to do, he decided to

plug it with his own body. So he lay down, curled

himself into a ball and stopped the leak. After

nightfall, when he had not returned, the guru became

anxious and so with several of his disciples went

searching for him. Finally they found him in his

curled up position stopping the leak.

 

That was the type of guru-bhakti they had. It was not

mere sentiment. It was true guru-bhakti. It had iron

behind it. It had immense strength behind it. It had

determination, sattvic determination, behind it. These

are a few towering examples of guru-bhakti in our

scriptures. There are many others. They come from all

traditions. They are all sanketa matra (indicators) of

the stuff that guru-bhakti is made of. It is divine

power, it is divine force, not merely silly human

sentiment, not merely emotion.

 

When such guru-bhakti is there towards the guru, such

obedience, such great desire to carry out his behest,

biddings and teachings, then illumination

automatically descends from the guru to the disciple.

The illumination in which the guru is established

comes like a spark flying from one end of an exposed

wire to another. For when the weeping old disciple was

taken by the guru’s wife to the guru and explained why

he was weeping, the guru replied:

“What! What do you mean, you have no illumination!”

Immediately, the disciple became illumined. Why?

Because of his total self-effacement, total

dedication, his un¬questioning carrying out of the

behest of the guru, because of the exemplary type of

devotion that filled his heart: “I have come to a

guru. I must serve him. This is my greatest good

fortune.”

 

Thus the most effective way of deriving maximum

benefit from the guru is to create a channel of lofty,

sublime devotion to the guru, heroic guru-bhakti. And

it is that heroic guru-bhakti where there is the

greatest love and reverence combined with the highest

obedience, the highest desire to please the guru by

carrying out his instructions, that becomes the great

channel for the inflow of guru-kripa. In that way,

spiritual vision dawns and you " see " Reality, you

“behold” Reality.

 

That is the tradition. That is the true inner dynamics

of the guru sishya relationship through which the

disciple is able to benefit in a maximum measure from

the guru. Thus we have known from our scriptures, from

our ancient bhaktas, from the narratives of ancient

disciples, their relationship to their gurus. Thus we

have learnt this great secret. May we all be

benefited.

 

May the grace of all the brahma-vidya-gurus, from

ancient times up to the present, be upon you. May you

ponder deeply, reflect deeply, upon what an ideal

disciple should be, what constitutes real

discipleship, and become benefited thereby.

 

 

 

 

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