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Essence and Significance of a Spiritual Guru.

Introduction

“A guru comes when the student is ready”, So, are you ready to receive your Guru? If so, this series on Guru Purnima is aimed at to act as an enabler for you to come closure to your Guru.

Every year Bharat celebrates Guru Purnima during the period of intersection of Uttarayana and Dakshinayana i.e., the path of the Sun when changes from Northern course to the Southern direction. We So, on the full moon day that falls during this period we celebrate it as Guru Purnima and venerate all the gurus that we Bharath has known as so far. It is most famously known as Vyasa Purnima.

Significance and Essence of a Spiritual Guru

Who is a Spiritual Guru?

One of the verses in Manduka Upanishad says “To know the supreme, one must humbly approach a spiritual master who is not only well versed in the scriptures but is also firmly rooted in the realization of the absolute truth”. The verse focuses on the essence of a spiritual guru and why one needs to seek such a spiritual master. I personally understand this verse anchors us in understanding whom should we seek and who is a true spiritual master? Especially, in today’s day and age, when all the information is at everyone’s finger tips and we have technology which can easily copy and share the information across the borders without boundaries, it’s hard to spot a true guru for a common man. So, merely being well versed in the scriptures will not make anyone a spiritual guru. One has to implement the wisdom and live the truth. As Manduka Upanishad says, a genuine spiritual guru is well versed in the scriptures as well rooted in the absolute truth what is knowns Brahaman in Vedic language.

You will come across many who are well versed in Vedic Scriptures but are living their life as any common man and pursuing worldly desires without any discrimination since they view and believe both as separate. But you will never come across anyone who is not well versed in the Vedic scripture and are rooted in the absolute truth or in Vedic language known as Brahman or in layman’s language a Satguru or Sadhguru. Because there are many ways to reach the absolute truth and in the most famous perhaps, per the main stream culture of Bharath, the way is through the Vedic Scriptures. It is the simplest way to attain the truth through a qualified guru. You might be curious and if you are a follower of other off stream culture or tantra you might be offended a bit but let me explain. Let’s take an example of a Wheel. We need them to run our vehicles, bicycles and other transportation vehicles. So, we go to the registered authorised seller and we buy them paying the necessary price. Do you try to invent the wheel first because you don’t the trust the inventor? and then assembly it to your vehicle whenever you need to replace your wheel? In the same way, other off stream cultures are like you are trying to first invent the wheel on your own and then assemble them to your vehicle. It costs your time and comes with high risk of failure. While the path of following Vedic scripture is like instead of reinventing the wheel, you use your discretion. So, you go the authorised dealer to get the wheels and assemble them using a mechanic or on your own if you are an expert. It’s easy to follow and integrate in your daily life as well as a fool proof way to realize the absolute truth.

To understand little bit in depth, we need to know how the Vedic scriptures happened. These scriptures are not something written by someone or anyone but it’s the accumulation of the realization of many gurus or back then they were known as Realised Rishis. And this realization happened with Rishis who were spread across Bharath and lived in different generations and times. They were not related to each other. So, you can understand, how the realization of the absolute truth was same across everyone! These realizations happened with every Rishi who had reached the goddess Aditi or the highest level of consciousness while residing on the planet Earth.

Goddess Aditi is the primary Guru who has created these eternal sounds that has woven entire universe. That is another reason why in the Bharath’s Culture, mother is known as the first guru. Vedas are the way to understand the way these eternal sounds work. So, in a way, these Rishis who understood these eternal sounds through listening to them from the subtlest dimensions were also Scientists of Bharath. First, they heard these eternal sounds which emanated from goddess Aditi’s womb from the subtlest dimension, contemplated on them and later shared the wisdom with others and strategically passed down to the next generation through Guru disciples’ system. The Vedic Wisdom kept secret through passing down in the Guru Disciple relationship for ages until they realised the need to record those truth on the Birch barks and Palm leaves and spread it to everyman.

Guru Veda Vyasa

Later, emerged those Rishis known as Vyasa who played a major role in segregating the wisdom into 4 different Vedas and many different Scriptures. Eventually, we marked a cosmically aligned day that produces the highest spiritual energy every year to honour to these spiritual masters and show our gratitude for the wisdom that they have shared in the form of Vedic Scriptures. And thus started the culture of celebration Guru Purnima or Vyasa Purnima. The word Vyasa is a common noun and so does the word Guru. They are the state of Consciousness rishis successfully gained access to, heard the eternal subtle sounds and brought down to the Earth in the common language. Interestingly, the Vedic language which is today well known as Sanskrit acted as the bridge between the common man or normal human consciousness and the highest consciousness or Aditi Consciousness. So, you will see that all the Vedic scriptures were written in Sanskrit. So, Sanskrit is not just any language that was used to communicate by the people but it comes with the power of manifestation too.

Guru Purnima Day

You might be wondering what’s special about the full moon day that falls in the period when the Sun is changing his path from North to South? Let’s try to understand it. The first half of the year is when the Sun is moving towards the Northern direction. The planet Earth witnesses, full blooms, and green fields everywhere in short this is the harvesting period of what we had already sown in the previous year. While the second half, is the period when the Sun moves in the Southern direction, the planet Earth witnesses, empty fields with rainy days. So, the farmers know, this is the period to sow seeds to get the harvest after the next 6 months when the Sun travels towards the North. So, the input that makes our us, particularly, physical body, is the food/Produce of the Earth/agriculture and that is aligned with the seasonal cycle. It goes without the need for much scientific research and exploration to understand, even human beings need to align themselves with the rhythm of the Earth and the season to stay healthy and wise. Like, post-harvest, the planet Earth becomes an empty field where we can sow new seeds to grow whatever we want, similarly, human beings are also available to access those spiritual energies which opens up during this period particularly, during the intersection of the Southern and Northern path of the Sun. And when the full moon is on, our minds become a lot more open and easily, we can align ourselves on the path that we need to go without much effort making it as a significant spiritual event. That is the reason we celebrate Guru Purnima day on this occasion.

So, where ever you are, whatever you are, show gratitude to all the gurus starting from your mother. That is the first step on the spiritual path. In the next article, I will discuss on Guru Shishya tradition.