The Importance of Guru

Guru is the dispeller of clouds of ignorance or Avidya from the mind of his disciple! His main aim should be to guide the student to realize his Self! For this, he should be a realized Soul himself! He should have performed penance or meditation and equipped himself with the knowledge needed for it. He is considered as the personification of the Trinity, Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara! Not only that, he is called “Parabrahma”-the Absolute Brahman of which the three gods are the forms. There is nothing that he cannot grant to his student nor is there anything that the student cannot get from him. His grace is the be all and end all for the sishya. Guru should not be enamored of money and material. He should be unostentatious and simple. He should be accessible to all. He should put into practice the precepts that he teaches his students. Ideal Gurus in ancient days were sages Vasishta, Viswamitra, Satananda and many others.

Guru Purnima is dedicated to the great sage Vedavyasa without whom we would not have the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas, and even the Mahabharata! We would have lost even the Divine Song—the Bhagavad-Gita as it forms a part of the great epic! Sage Vyasa is considered as the avatar of Lord Vishnu. “Vyasaya Vishnu rupaya Vyasarupaya Vishnave” His significance to Hinduism is expressed very clearly. He is Brahma without four heads; Vishnu with two shoulders; Siva without the third eye! “achaturvadano brahma dwibahuraparo harihi aphalalochanas Sambhuhu bhagawan Badarayanaha” in short, it is Lord Vishnu who has taken avatar as sage Vedavyasa.

    

Our great land Bharat has been blessed with a galaxy of illustrious Gurus who have revolutionizes the societies of their times! Sri Sankara, Ramanuja and Madhwa, by their own schools of thought, have done yeoman service to humanity. Sankara’s “ Bhaja Govindam” is the quintessence of all Vedanta and shows the path to salvation for the ordinary man! He gave the society the six types of worship viz Saktha, Vaishnava, Saiva, Ganapatya, Saura, and Subrahmanya--the worship of shakthi, Vishnu, Siva, Ganapati, Surya and Subrahmanya. Thus he came to be called “shanmata sthapanacharya”!! His commentaries on various subjects are world famous. True to the meaning of the word “acharya” these three set an example to all teachers in the world by adhering to the ideals they sought to preach!! It is very rare to find such illustrious souls in present day society’

      

In our own days we have quite a number of ideal Gurus.  Among them Shiridi Sai Baba Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Satya Sai Baba are prominent. On some occasions the Guru awaits the disciple. In fact, Sri Ramakrishna was waiting for Narendra who became swami Vivekananda later!! The guru gave him “nirvikalpa Samadhi” and the glimpse of God! Sri Satya Sai is considered as the avatar of Siva and Sakthi! He was totally selfless & has transformed many from evil ways to good! He has radiated Divine Love to all in the universe. In our own day we have seen the essence of asceticism of the ancient days in the form of Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Swamy the Paramacharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam who lived as an example to other Gurus!

      

Gurus can bestow any boon to the disciple. Drona, the guru of the pandavas and kauravas loved Arjuna so much that he taught asthras which he did not teach his own son Aswathama! He even did not allow Ekalavya to become great by asking his thumb as guru dakshina!  Sage Viswamitra created a special heaven for the king Trisanku! The anger of Guru is very disastrous for the student. When Sage Parasurama knew that Karna had learnt archery from him as a disguised Brahmin, he cursed him. As a result, Karna forgot all his asthras at the crucial hour. That led to his death & doom! 

     

The grace of the Guru is the boat that can see us through the sea of samsara! Let us follow the teachings of the guru & get the maximum benefit!!