This is in reply to a query from from Smt. Vijayabala, about What is Guru tatvam?
The question is very simple, but the answer is an ocean! Guru Tatvam is that tatvam which cannot be explained in few words or sentences, it is to be experienced. First of all, Guru is one who gives you answers for four questions mainly. There are many questions which we bother about, and which aren’t so useful to the subtle body, they are always useful for physical body.
And the four questions we need to put, they are:
- Who am I?
- Where I have come from?
- Where I will be going back?
- And what time I have?
Guru is one who gives an explanation and makes you experience the answers by yourself,
‘Swaroopa nirupana hetave’
If you take the Guru mantram, Guru mantram is the condensed form of Guru. It explains who is Guru? Guru is not the one, who just teaches some subject matters, even if it is yoga or meditation and it just leaves it there. Guru makes you experience. Guru is the one who has understood the Devi tatvam, the tatva of the cosmic energy.
And when you catch hold of the feet of Guru by the upaadhi, you also get that experience of Universal Mother. It’s like electric current passing through a wire and even if you see the Durga Suktam –
‘Jatavedase sunavama somam’
and in the Sri Suktam –
‘Deva sakhah keertisccha maninasah’.
So here, the agni who is having another name of jataveda, is termed as ‘deva sakhah’, he is one who is the closest to devas. So, if you want to send an application, you send it through their friend, who is closest. In the same way much closer than that, much greater than that, Guru and Devi, they are not different!
Another form of formless devi is Guru!
Having said that, is the Guru just limited to the 5 ft and 5 inches or 6ft and 6 inches or is he limited to blood, mucus, bones etc?
NO….
The lifestyle of a Guru, the teachings, the essence of teachings, and the implementation of teachings in your life are important. When you do that, the experience you get, the belief you have, a staunch belief! That’s why I always say, once you take a Guru Mantram, then you should surrender to your Guru totally.
Yesterday Kushal was asking me, we are in Pune right now, can we get Guru Mantra? We already got a Guru; can we get mantra deeksha from another person. Here this is a very important question.
If you get the mantram from some person, like from your grandfather or priest of temple, one mantra, that is not the mantra deeksha we are talking about.
A Guru sets the path to a specific tradition, say for an example, Sri Vidya, a Tantra Vidya,Dattatreya tradition, and then takes you all along the path. He first he gives you a Guru mantram. Once you take the guru mantram from any guru, it is not correct to change the Guru afterwards, even though, the fickle mind says that this Guru may be much more powerful than that Guru, and he has got much more super natural powers, he can solve the problems, you know things like that…. it’s just Maya!
A rolling stone that has no marks. Many of the SreeGurus, ParamGurus, they are just an ordinary people, but the actual shishya is worldwide guru, that is, there are many cases like that. So, once you take the Guru Mantram from anyone, it is just a bond, you are wedded to him, kalyanam! Kalyanamis not the marriage, we aren’t talking about in the mundane world, there may be divorces in that marriage. For this marriage, kalyanam it is a bond for Universal auspiciousness. Through Guru you learn something and through you the world learn something. And the whole world gets that energy. So, the kalyanam, the bond between you and Guru for the auspiciousness of the world is kalyanam. And once that is made, is for life time! Come whatever may be, Amma may send so many people to you, much more attractive, much more strong and powerful. But then also, no… my Guru is my Guru! I will listen, I will listen to all the Gurus, but when it comes to difference of the tradition or the difference of the path which my Guru has specified, I will come back to my Guru and ask him, that this noble person is telling me something, can I follow that? And you need to take permission of that from your Guru and then if he says yes… YES. If he says no… NO. Because this is a specific path, and in this path, whatever experiences you get they lead to Mother. But if you change the path, again you have to start from the beginning and the life span is very small. That is the answer to the question, “Can we take deeksha from another Guru. If you have Guru Mantram, that’s it!!
And coming back to Guru Mantram, it says,
“Eim hreem sreem Eim kleem souh
Hamsah sivah soham
Hasakh phrem hasaksha malavarayum hasoum
Sahaksha malavaraeem sohaouh
Swaroopa nirupana hetave swagurave
Sri Annapoornambha sahita, Sri Amrutanandanatha Saraswathi,
SriGuru Sri paadukam pujayaami tarpayaami namaha
My Guru, as you all know, Amrutanandanatha Saraswathi, he is the guru for me for my lifetime, and guru patni is Annapoornambha. I may be going to different people for learning something, but in the same path, again in the same tradition.
So, this mantram, ‘Eim hreem sreem….’. The first Eim beejakshara is knowledge, the knowledge to understand, and, the auspiciousness in the world.
‘Poornamadah, Poornamidham’,
‘Sahasrashirsha purushah sahasraksha sahasrapaath’.
Purusha Suktam is not the male. Many people misunderstand that Purusha Suktam is male and Sri Suktam is for female, so female can’t recite Purusha Suktam. Purusha is completeness, not a male or female, rather He is beyond the gender!
Maha Vishnu, Parabrahma Swaroopa, that Purusha they are referring, so that purusha is always auspicious whether he is in the form of decoy or in the form of saint or in the form of atheist or nastika. He is always auspicious, so that kind of knowledge to see the world as auspicious everywhere every moment, that is Eim.
Hreem is that kind of knowledge which makes you enjoy that auspiciousness, without any differentiation. Sometimes you become saint and next moment you become devil,that happens! Maintaining the steady flow of awareness, to understand that everything in the world is auspicious and enjoying the auspiciousness and having the bliss in your self is Hreem.
Then Sreem is the tyaaga guna, Prajo Guna. Once you understand this, you need to leave this. That means every time your awareness should be pure, as a sphatika, ie
“Shudha sphatika sankadam”
So it should be pure as a crystal so that further you can receive more knowledge and experience further more experiences and leave it.
‘Srishthi, Stithi, Laya’
This happens in us. You receive Srishthi, you experience Stithi and you leave Laya. If Laya is not there, then the whole world will be so crowded, just in one or two days, it will be such that there will be no place to even stand. Laya is also important as important as Srishthi. In the same way when a thought comes, leaving the thought is also important. Many people don’t find peace of mind in their lives because they hold on to the thoughts, they hold on to the memories, they hold on to the people, experience, places. For example ,this is my house, I cannot leave. This kind of holding (gruhanam) on creates pain. So to relieve yourself of the pain, you need to have Sreem [the kind of knowledge that can relieve you of your experiences]. This is outside world.
Then comes second set of three letters are ‘Eim Kleem Souh’.
Eim, is that kind of knowledge which gives you a technique of finding out your own disabilities like anger, lust, greed, ignorance and desires. All these are malinas and unfortunately, because our indriyas are externally focused, we see the malinas in the world and we don’t focus those indriyasinwards. We don’t take care of the inner form which is the sukshma. So Eim is that kind of knowledge which gives you the ability to understand what are your drawbacks, what you need to do to get the answers to the four questions which are,
Who am I ?
Where I came from ?
Where I will be going back ?
What time I have in this world ?
So these four questions you continuously recite and repeat Eim, Guru is the one who gives this knowledge.
Then comes Kleem once you understand, what is my drawback, what is that, which is stopping me to understand the Supreme Consciousness, to merge with Her. Why I am not able to find the world uniform. Why I am making difference between mine and others and so many differences
And when you understand that, Kleem is that kind of knowledge that makes the ego in you flow. Ego is not just an ahankaram. Ego is finding the difference between you and the world. Ego is to desire something, ego is duality. Once you have duality, you have ego! So the root is duality, so duality flows with the Kleem Beja aksharam.
Souh, then you enjoy the pure state of consciousness ie Soubhagyam. Finally the souhbhagyam is coming as the sixth letter-
Eim Hreem Sreem Eim Kleem Souh
Then ……
‘Hamsa Siva Soham’
Ham refers to you, Sa refers to prakariti. Siva is the one which sees both you and prakariti. Both you and prakariti, listen to this word carefully, Ham is you Sah is the world, Siva is the atmapadartham in you. He sees both you and the world and then once you are in the Siva tatva,then you come in the reverse, Soham, so there is no difference between me and the world,Soham, Hamsa, is duality then the Siva tatva comes, Soham, Siva is the Guru!
Hamsa Siva Soham, then, once there is no difference, comes…
‘Hasakha phrem’
Ha is you, Sah is the world, Kha is the sky, there is no bond, because there are differences, you are bonded, you are bonded to your wife, you are bonded to your family, children, career, business, money and all these are strings which are tying you in the mundane world.
Once a Guru comes into your life, he just cuts those strings very easily so that you both can fly. You and prakariti(the world). You are the Siva then, prakariti is the Shakthi. Both of them fly in the air. Kha is akasha, phrem is vihara(jolly trip). Akasha and vihara. It’s not just flying in the air in a rocket or an aeroplane, it’s just urdha mukha alochana, that means higher thoughts, everything of higher thoughts. If anything happens, you are not bothered, anybody hurts you, you are not affected. You look at the world as your own creation.You look at the world as if there is no difference.Because there is no difference between you and the world, haskha phrem.
Hasaksha. Once this happens, then the difference between ha and Sa, you and prakariti is removed. Malavrayum is the Bejakshara in
‘Sahaaksha malavarayeem’, Malavrayum is the Siva beejakshram.
Guru padas are two feet. One is analysis, the main foot Siva. The other is when you do the analysis on your own self, you get the bliss. When you do the analysis of the world created by you in the form of mind then you get pain and pleasure. What do you want? Do you want pain or pleasure? Anybody would want bliss. So ‘hasaksha malavrayum’ is the Siva padam, which makes you analyze yourself continuously like asking the four questions……
Who am I ?
Where I came from ?
Where I will be going back ?
What time I have in this world ?
Then,
‘Sahaksha malavaraeem’
Again, the same thing in the reverse order. The difference between the prakariti and you will be removed with the Shakthi Beja aksharam – malavaraeem
Hasaum is the Siva Padam, Sahahau is the Shakthi Padam.
‘Swaroopa nirupana hetave’
The word nirupana is very important. If you are holding on to the feet of your Guru, for how long, till your last breath. Then at some point, he proves who you are! He proves[nirupana]! He’s not telling, atma paramatma swarupa, dhyaanam, all these words jumbling, he will not do. He will make you understand who you are.
‘Swaropa Nirupana hetave’
For that reason only a Guru comes to you in your life. Then the name of the Sri Guru comes. Guru is not a simple word, Guru is not a form, but he is a lifestyle, by holding on to that
Guru will not teach, ‘Dhakka dene ke liye Guru. Dhakka dene ke baad woh chor denge, khali dekhte rahenge!!’
Whenever you are in trouble, whenever you are in confusion, if you recite the Guru mantram, he will be there always, but he will test you until you completely believe him! So ….
‘Rupa Nirupama hetave swagurave, Sri Annapoorna sahitha Sri Amritananda Natha Saraswathi, Sri padukam pujyami tarpayami Namaha’
The names of Guru will come here, and these names will be changing.
So Guru is that form, it’s a lifestyle by understanding which you experience the same experiences as Guru!
Sree Matre Namaha