Guru Pournima Celebrations

   Life is a celebration. This Guru pournima offers an opportunity to celebrate the Teacher- student relation (Guru-shishya sambandha) in a special way.The students worship the teacher as the second father who  gives a new life. This is essential aspect of the Indian cultural heritage. The Veda mantra clearly states: "Let us study together; let us not hate each other. Let us attain to supreme knowledge". In the light of the present-day education system,this aspect calls for a greater introspection on the part of the students, parents, and the government. The British wanted to convert the Indian population to serve them with the mindset of the white superiority complex during the early days of British rule and destroyed our spiritual and cultural heritage.

    Even today, the gurukula system is the best. But the minority proxy rule despite the Bharatiya Janata paksha majority hold the Hindu majority to ransom and dictate the minority religious cult. This is the tragedy. These minority are not the indigenous, but a converted culture and they (the minority) do not want to concede. Who suffers? The nation  as a whole pays for the historic bungling by the British (of the last three century rule) in India. There is still time to rectify this blunder. But the customs and traditions are gradually given a go-by in the name modernization by our youth.

    The tantra shastra does not preclude worship of the teacher in the anthropomorphic form. The physical teacher is no doubt the visible God (pratyaksha deva) who can correct the student and lift ('da') the student up from ignorance, lead towards light from darkness, and give knowledge. So it is necessary to adore, worship the teachers and get the help to move forward in life.

   However, the spiritual sadhana demands a different kind of exercise- satsanga, nidhidhyasana, dhyana, dharana and samadhi. There is no place for a second person here since it is a lonely inward journey. Atmasakshatkara is the ultimate goal.Hence, this may be construed as an age-specific command to all those who seek moksha after obtaining 'knowledge from the Vedic texts' ('Srividya').

   Thus, the ultimate goal of the embodied jiva seeking redemption from earthly existence and release from eternal bondage of rebirths should not be forgotten in the joy of celebrations!

Ashada shukla Guru Pournima

     gururbrahma gururvishnuh gurureva maheshvarah |
     gurursakshaat parabrahma tasmai shree gurave namah || 

  Mother is the first guru who shows the father; father is the guru who shows the teacher; teacher is one who teaches the alphabets (varnaaksharamaala); and, finally prakruti mata, 'Nature', the Divine Mother, is the teacher who teaches lessons in life. But, whoever redeems us from the grip of maya is the real teacher! This teacher is the 'Self' of all, the Atman. Atman is brahmn, says the Veda.

   Let us contemplate, meditate, on brahmn on this auspicious day of Ashada shukla pournima- dedicated to the guru as the 'guru pournima'.
   "Whoever meditates on brahmn becomes brahmn", says Brahma sutra, shloka 555.

  The Full Moon Day (pournima) is a very auspices day and the full moon-lit night showers elixir (amrut).

Tantra (upaya) contd.

   Paramananda-sutra, a tantra text, prescribes that "One must contemplate on the idea that the master is higher than everything!; that the sacred word  (mantra) is higher than the master; that the deity (devata) is higher than the sacred word; and, that one's own transcendental self (paramatman) is higher than the deity". Thus, the guru is the first step in the ladder of spiritual pursuit. However, the Rk Veda asserts that- Atma eva guru | Atmaivedgm sarvam | Atma is the self of all and it knows everything. As one climbs up the ladder towards samyak prajnya, para samvit, pure consciousness, the lower steps are left to catch the higher and higher ones. So nobody can cling on to the guru, even the parama guru! A guru is absolutely essential for the beginners since the initiation (deeksha) comes from a guru only. But, one should be liberated from all bondage at the end. No guru should bind his disciple and should not force anybody to hold on to his/her principles (tattva) only. Ultimately, all principles (tattva) shall be dropped and the jiva is liberated from eternal bondage. The disciple shall rest in his own self and abide by his own inner master, shiva. Shiva is the 'parama guru', the ultimate master.The tantra shastra dictates that ultimately "the disciple and his/her master become one!"

   The mantra (sacred word) and its devata are one. The devata and the disciple are one united by the sacred word. Thus the devata, the mantra and the disciple become one.  The tantra says that "the identity of the master with the deity, the sacred word, and the devotee's own self".

   "The goddess acquires the form of the sacred word (mantra) as matrika; the sacred word acquires the form of the master (deity). Ganapti as 'brahmanaspati' is the mantra form." Finally, the devotee acquires the form of the devotee's self; and, the devotee, while employing the sacred word (mantra/manu) becomes his own self. Thus the self is one's own master, parama guru. (Prof.SKR).

    Guru (the master), the mantra (sacred word), and the chosen deity (devata) are in fact one. It is like the ghata (pot), the kalasha (jar), and the kumbha (pitcher) that are one only. So also, the mantra, the davata and the guru are one only. It is important to attain to this 'oneness' ('ekatva') or unity consciousness should be attained in all spiritual pursuits. The mantra symbolizes the manas (mind), the devata represents prana shakti, and the guru stands for one's own self (Atman).
  Let's not forget that the ultimate goal of human life is to attain to moksha, liberation or emancipation of the embodied soul. The Atman, a speck of stellar dust, has entered the earth and got embedded in an elemental body (pancha bhutatmika shareera), an earthen pot. It is only with a human body that one can take to yoga through a teacher and attain moksha with the help of a devata and mantra. There is nothing wrong in climbing up the stairs by discarding the lower steps once and for all! The jiva has to return home since it has entered the earth after leaving its stellar abode. The jivatman is an embodied soul, but the atman is the star dust!
   Rk Veda calls the 'Atman' as the 'angiras', a spark of fire! We are all mantrasya putrah. the guru, mantra and the devata redeem us and take us back to our abode in heavens. 

Tantra (upaya)

   Our spiritual heritage has no parallel in the world. Some of our learned forefathers had realized the essence of life and knew the path of fulfillment. They developed a number of techniques by which one can attain supreme bliss, happiness, joy in life. The aim of all the jiva is said to be material progress (artha) and fulfilling all desires (kamane) based on righteousness(dharma) with a view to attain liberation, emancipation (moksha) from the chain of repeated births and deaths. many plans (tantra or upaya) have been designed towards this purpose. Tantraraja-tantra is a beautiful text that gives us some interesting techniques. Bhavanopanishad is another text. Srividya gives a number of techniques in this regard and some of these techniques are narrated here, quoting from the text presented by my Rev. Guru. Prof. S.K. Ramachandra Rao inn his book- "The Tantra of Sri Chakra".

  Shree guruh sarvakaranabhuta shaktih |

"The auspicious Master is the all-causative power"

Guru (derived from the root 'gri') is one who instructs Veda to his disciples- 'grinati upadishati vedadi shastrani | The 'guru' is adored as the knowledgeable person, a person of great wisdom and austerity. He removes or destroys ('ru') the ignorance or darkness ('gu') of  the student. girati ajnyanam antrayami rupena, avidyam nashayati | Here, 'gu' is reality and 'ru' is knowledge.

    Who is this 'guru' who helps us to destroy our ignorance, avidya, maya and clears our 'darkness' and leads us to 'Light'?

   The Veda recognizes the preceptor or 'guru' as Manu and, also include the parents as guru. However, scholastic wisdom is imparted by the shiksha-guru. In the traditional Vedic perspective, it is the one who imparts the secret power (shaktipaat) like an electricity board linesman who gives connection of electric power from the electric pole to our meter board. Rather, the 'guru' is like a fire-pot (agnikunda prepared for homa) where we offer our ego with other ari-shadvarga and all karma kleshas as 'purnahuti'.  There are a number of scriptures like the Taittiriya-samhita, Yagnyavalkya-smruti, Aitareya-brahmana that elucidate further details in this regard. Rk Veda lays special stress on the sacred word, 'mantra'. This imparting 'mantra shakti' by a guru is of tantra texts, but there is nothing non-Vedic, avaidika, here.

   Thus a real guru is one who imparts (upadesha) the secret power of the sacred word (mantra-shakti). This is common to China, Tibet, and Japanese traditions, too. There cannot be moksha or release from bondage without the help of mantra deeksha from an attained guru.  This 'diksha' (derived from 'dah' meaning 'to burn') from a guru is considered to be a rebirth! Once the guru touches the disciple and imparts the 'mantra', transfers his spiritual power through the power of the sacred word (mantra-shakti), the physical and mental impurities (karma klesha) are burnt away and the jiva is purified and made fit enough to enter the spiritual realms. such a guru who transforms his disciple and initiates him/her to spiritual realms is a 'Sri-guru'. All other efforts may seem futile when we consider this aspect seriously.
 The tantra shastra, particularly, tantraraja-tantra and bhavana upanishad, prescribe synchronization- "the unison of the manas (Mind) and the prana (vital-forces) in order to realize the Self (Atma sakshatkara)". Purity of mind (chitta shuddhi) of the highest order through practice of laya yoga like manolaya or manonasha is called for here. The state of equilibrium of mind (stitaprajnyata) has to be attained. in fact, half the battle is won with the conquest of mind since mind is the stumbling block in spiritual progress.
   Now, the physical master as a guru is meant only to purify the mind of the disciple and fortify the disciple's desire and aspiration towards spirituality. The guru as the preceptor plays a very important role since the disciple has to be initiated into the spiritual realm of pure consciousness drawing him/her away from the sensuous worldly indulgences, But the master, the guru, in reality is his own 'self', dhruti, determination to pursue spiritual path. It is with this view the aspirant is advised to sit in contemplation, dhyan, meditation focusing attention on 'ajnya chakra'- the point between the eyebrows (bhru). The guru is the regulating principle located here. Awakening takes place here.
   Hence, a guru initiates a disciple and kick him out asking him/her to attain Atmasakshatkaar (realization of the self) sitting in contemplation on brahmn in a secluded life. No guru wants his disciples to pester him time and again!

    

 

Descent and Ascent of the jiva

The 'jivatman' is the embodied soul. Atman is a speck of stellar dust particle that comes as quanta from radiation from stars, distant or near. This has energy that can diversify into numerous states and enter into and operate creating and sustaining various types of living and non-living beings. One such operating system is the physical entity called the 'jivatman'.

  In scientific studies, these energy particles are studied in detail by physicists and they have analyzed the subatomic particles down to the tiniest 'ion' and discovered the ionic charges as positive and negative ones!So far none has ever discovered the energy particle that operates as the life-force, ('prana shakti') in the living beings.Nobody knows how it enters a physical entity in gaseous, liquid, or solid state. Now we have a paraphernalia of elements like hydrogen, oxygen.carbon, and their compounds in permutation and combination, and a variety of living and nonliving beings made out of them.

   However,Vedanta is very clear about all these. The Sankhyans present 26 principles, whereas, the Shaivagama present 36 principles as under:

The first principle (tattva) is Parabrahman or Parameshvara.

All that is found in the physical world are the manifests forms of Shiva or Lakshmi-Narayanatattva.

The next principle is 'purusha, the seed of creation. This is variously described as the 'Father in Heavens' or Supreme Lord and we will simply take it as the 'Hiranya garbha' the 'olden egg', may be the Sun from which emanate all the planets and their satellites, including the earth and its life forms.In fact,Sunis the  mother of all planets and the Earth is the mother of all living beings (jiva rashi) and each one of us have a physical mother and a father as the male and female principle. This is just like a box within a box!.

Before. coming to the living beings as jivatman, we can trace our birth to the 26 or 36 principles as given below:

The Narayana and Lakshmi principle of the Vaishnava and the Shiva and Shive principle of Shaivagama Shastra.

Mahat comes first as pure Consciousness followed by the three gunas- rajas, tamas and sattva; these are followed by the buddhi, prana and manas.Then come the 5 elements (pancha mahabhuta)- Space(akasha), Air (vayu), Fire (agni), Water (jal), and Earth (soil (pruthivi); The anglicised version is different from the samskruta version here.These five elements have their respective tanmatra or subtler aspects such as sparsha, shabdha, rupa, rasa and gandha respectively; there arise the five sense organs -skin, ear, eyes, nose and tongue to experience the elements by man. Thus, all the resources required for creation emanate from Lakshmi or Shive (Parvati- Sarsavati, durga, whatever one may wish to name it!).

   Shiva is endowed with the power of- creation, sustenance, dissolution, grace and ability to appear and disappear in whatever form and wherever he likes!

  In the Vaishnava principle, everything, all powers such as aishvarya, jnyana, shakti, bala, virya, tejas required for creation is exercised by Lakshmi on behalf of Narayana, Her beloved and She is sovereign.  Thus, the living beings (jiva rashi) enjoy or suffer at the mercy of Devi, the divine mother; however, the sufferings are the making of the jivas, and not attributed to the Mother, since She is benevolent, kind and supportive to Her children.The ego, neglect of the mother is the cause of sufferings of the jivas.Mother's grace is always there to all those who seek it!
  The Divine Mother assists the jiva in the ascent back to its pure and pristine state. Devi as Yogamaye (Kundalini) will help it to discard what all is acquired by the jiva and takes it to its pure state of 'Light'.

Desire

   The term 'desire' stands for ichha, sankapla (samsk.). 'de' is the root term for divine, bhgavat-sankalpa or Ishvarechhe. Creation is the desire of the supreme and it is symbolically expressed as 'shive' the desire of 'shiva' to express or manifest Himself. The difference between 'shiva and shive lies in the last syllable 'a' and 'e'; while 'a' stands for 'brahman' or desire, 'e' stands for action, the creative power(kriya-shakti). Shiva as prakasha and shive as vimarsha are the fundamental principles of creation. Thus, desire is the 'sire' force or shakti of 'de' - the divine. Ichha, jnyan and kriya are the powers (shakti) of shive. This is expressed as a triangle (trikona) in the 'Sri-chakra'. The entire process of creation,sustenance and dissolution lies in the triangle with shiva as the point, bindu, that expands into tribindu and then manifests as shive.This is the fundamental principle.

   Thus creation, sustenance and dissolution of the universe lie in the hands of 'shiva'. Since,shiva only manifests as the jiva, all the qualities of shiva are also manifest in the jiva, albeit, in a mini-scale, sankuchitata or 'kanchuka' way. Now, this understanding helps the jiva to understand the basic principle of creation and entrust everything to the supreme Lord and be happy. Also, it is  possible to expand oneself and overcome all the limitations of space, time, and causality (kaala, desha, karya-karana) and attain to shiva by taking recourse to  yoga (samadhi). This is shiva samavesha. This samavesha is as good as mukti, moksha and there ensues no further embodiment.
   Actually, the desire leads to delusion.This process is very simple. First, there arises desire which paves for the resolve (sankalpa) and action (karma). There lies great aspiration, dream and ambition and tension here. This begets an obsession, too. These very forcesact as an obstruction to success since the buddhi gets muddled.Mind is engrossed in the obsession that it forgets its goal.How to overcome these terrific forces? Yoga isthe only way.
  Actually, a wise man, jnyani, will curb the desire once he/she knows how it leads to total delusion. He/she curbs the desire by putting a simple question to himself/herself- why is it i am running after the insatiable desires? What is it i get by attaining these worldly success. All these will never redeem me, he/she thinks. Further, the jiva asks "Will it anyway help me to get the vision, insight, atma- sakshatkaar and 'jivanmuktata'?" then, he/she will desist all desires that leads to delusion by taking recourse to yoga. Finally yoga will redeem the jiva from its repeated embodiments.
 

Science, Philosophy, Religion, and Spirituality

   One must be very clear as to what he/she is trying to understand. Ultimately all that is 'to be known'(jnyeya) is 'Knowledge' ('vid' / vidya) only. Moreover, what is 'to be known' is the 'Knower' (jnyata) and the Knower is the Self, the Atman. The knowledge of the Self, 'Atmajnyan' is what all one has to obtain having born as a human being who is endowed with the gift of 'buddhi', faculty. In this sense of the term all that we know is knowledge that may be classified as science(vijnyan), philosophy (tattva-jnyan), religion and spirituality depending on one's own faith.  Thus, we all dwell in one or the other faculty and, that way, all knowledge obtained here is incomplete.

   But, then what is total knowledge? Totality is pure consciousness. Totality is 'wholeness', 'purnam' as enunciated in the doctrine of 'purnam'. Everything that is found here (idam-ta) is complete, pure, and it has manifest from 'That' ('tat') which is 'purnam'. 'Tattva'  is generally known as the principle; but, it is the 'one's self' (tat tvam). This has to be realized. This realization willnot come as long as we dabble in the worldly pursuits (loukika vyavahara). All that is worldly come under the 'bhur-bhuvah-svar'. One has to take to yoga (dhyana, dharana and savikalpa and nirvikalpa samadhi states), and transcend the three realms- jagrata, svapna, sushupti and reach turiya (the fourth state) as well as, rise up from the basal plexus (muladhara), svadhishthana, and the manipura plexus of consciousness in order to reach this mahat level where equanimity or non-duality state is attained. This is the first step in spiritual practice, adhyatma sadhana. 

   Thus, all worldly knowledge may be useful to live a successful worldly life; but, no real happiness, joy, or true happiness and mukti /moksha or 'emancipation of the  embodied soul' is possible engaged with this worldly life. One is 'here' or 'there', that's all!
 Now, as regards science, it deals with matter and the study goes to the sub-atomic particles and the core of the substance including the  jiva (life).But it has got its limitations.It deals with matter under the constraints of time, space, and causality. The scientist or the object of his study will never transcend the material basis of all that exists- moving or non-moving (charaachara). Hence it is stayput; nothing further is possible and truth remains a secret. No scientific analysis will ever take us to the 'truth', the 'sat'- the Reality of Existence'.
   As regards, philosophy, the same that is said about the science and scientific investigation also holds good here. Philosophy cannot reveal the 'self', the Atman, the core of the substance. Nothing is certain in philosophy since it goes on and on with expositions,dialogues, views, and opinions. Thus it remains a mere love of words, philo sophia.  Many universities have already discontinued philosophy from their curriculum.
  Philosophy should not be confused with 'tattva darshan' (Bharatiya darshana shastra) that tries to take us to thedoorofbrahman, the Reality. This includes sankhya, yoga, nyaya and vaisheshika and purva and utaara mimamsa (Vedanta). This is a complete vidya by itself. It culminates in the visioning or 'darshan'.
   Rituals and Spiritual practices (sadhana) are both contradictory and complimentary. As a complimentary factor, religious practices gradually leads jiva to the culmination of moksha, step by step. Here, jnyana, bhakti, vairagya and yoga sadhana are advocated. If the person holds on toblind ritualistic practices without ever understanding the main purpose, moksha, it will be a waste of life. It will not lead to moksha, emancipation, or release of the jiva from repeated births and deaths. The whole purpose of all knowledge is to get rid of this earthly existence where old age, sickness and death are certain!
  In away, all knowledge should terminate in the 'unity consciousness', samyak-prajnya. Nothing will take us to this level of consciousness!One has to overcome duality. Both the bhakta and Bhagavanta must be welded by the heat of bhakti. This merger, oneness, 'unity' is called for in all our endeavors. This oneness comes from contemplation (dhyan/chitta ekagrata), also known as 'meditation'.