We continue with more contemplation on this step.
Glimpses on “attitude/bhava towards Guru has been captured from a mega work of Swami Sivananda Maharaj, who wrote a big voluminous treatise named “Guru Bhakti Yoga”.
Fitness
for Guru Worship
To approach a Guru you must be a proper Adhikari. You should possess Vairagya, Viveka, serenity, self-restraint and Yama.
Guru is your redeemer and saviour. Adore him and worship him always.
Prostrate daily before your Guru who is Existence, Knowledge, Bliss Absolute.
Disciple should always remember the form of Guru, always repeat Guru’s holy name, carry out his orders and should think of nothing else than him. Here underlies the secret of Sadhana.
One should adore his Guru as there is no other greater than Guru.
The Guru’s Charanamrita dries up the ocean of Samsara and enables one to acquire essential wealth of Self.
Remember your Guru and saints of all the times when you sit for meditation. You will get their blessings.
Hear the wise words of great souls and follow them.
Do those actions that are pronounced to be right by Sastras and Guru.
Guru is absolutely necessary to show the path to Peace.
Ever remember Guru by worshipping him; thou shalt find happiness.
Sraddha is faith in the scriptures, in the words of Guru, in Isvara and in one’s own self.
The highest Sadhana is to serve Guru without expectation of any fruit.
Sravana is hearing of the Srutis by sitting at the Lotus-Feet of Sat Guru.
Guru’s Grace is necessary for Self-realization.
Have devotion to Guru as much as you have to the Lord. Then only Truth will be revealed to you.
Now, let us progress towards reverence to the “Guru Tattva”.
In life, persons perceive every event or challenge, not with confidence but confused and confounded, wanting definite, unequivocal, and authoritative words of assurance without themselves having to think for a response.
He needs a sure stick to lean on but Ramana Maharshi aptly points out that the stick is to be used even as one uses to shake the logs on the funeral pyre to make the flames ignite and once the purpose is fulfilled then the stick needs to be put aside.
Arjuna represents the confused soul, who with apparent confused speech asks for decisive solution by which he can attain the highest good.
Therefore, most human beings need to be fed by the teacher in easy installments with only outward physical prostrations without having to surrender mentally and with all inclination - Bhava.
Human beings need gods and gurus not as stick but as a crutch to take up their task and give them solutions and remedies in capsules, which they can gulp without having to think or reflect.
They misconstrue the word Srahddha as having faith or belief in some one or the other. But Srahddha is not having blind faith or belief in a God or a Guru, taking the gross form itself as divine.
Srahddha means draining one’s mind of the conditioned thoughts, concepts, beliefs and memories so that it could be receptive without reservation not to the external gross form of the God or the Guru by physical protestation but to the essence within those, being aware that what initiates action is not the external gross form but the subtle essence abiding in them.
Even as when one worships the idol it is not the stone or the metal that is worshipped but the deposited therein, even as when one declares namaste, I adore That One, it is not the stone or the metal that is worshipped but the divine essence therein, even so when one says that he has Sraddha in scriptures or Guru it is being in communion with the internal essence of the scriptures and the teachings of Guru and not merely in their external form.
A
disciple is he who follows the instructions of the Guru to the letter and spirit, who propagates the teachings of the Guru to less evolved souls in the path
till the end of his life.
A true disciple is concerned only with the Divine Nature of the Guru. The Guru’s actions as man is not the disciple’s concern. He is totally oblivious of it. To him, the Guru is Guru even if he acts unconventionally.
Always remember that the nature of a saint is unfathomable. Judge him not. Measure not his divine nature with the inadequate yardstick of your ignorance. Criticize not your Guru’s action which is done on universal vision.
True discipleship opens the vision. It kindles the spiritual fire. It awakens the dormant faculties. It is most necessary in one’s journey along the spiritual path. Guru and disciple become one. Guru blesses, guides and inspires the disciple. He transmits, transforms and spiritualizes him.
(Swami
Sivananda)
Swami Says,
“The first Guru is the mother; her example, her advice, her admonition affects man deepest and longest.
The second is the father, who is admired by the child for his strength and knowledge and feared for the punishments he inflicts.
Next is the teacher, who leads him and guides him into the maze of material knowledge.
But, the Guru (spiritual preceptor) alone can open the inner eye and cleanse the inner instruments of intuition. He induces you to question yourself, "Dheham?" (Am I this body or is this body only a vehicle which I am using) and discover the answer, "Naaham" (I am not this Body).
Then the investigation starts to delve into the reality of the I, "Koham" (Who am I then?) and the answer reveals itself in the purified consciousness, "Soham" (I am He); I am a spark of that Glory; I am Divine.
(Sathya
Sai Speaks V11:Ch44, Divine Discourse July 26, 1972)
Love.
