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Guru Gita
Guru Gita, Hymn, Praise, Chant of the Guru , is a Sanskrit text included in Skanda Purana, the largest of the 18 Puranas. Traditionally the composition of these Puranas is attributed to rishi (sage) Vyasa.
Following the ancient Indian tradition to salute one’s Guru and God at the beginning of a literary work the author says:
I salute my Guru’s feet, whose greatness is unimaginable and beyond any description; they have a pinkish splendour and are awe-inspiring; their significance is beyond any logic and they are mighty in their pre-eminence.
I bow to the Sustainer of the Universe, the Great Brahman (God without form), whose form, even if He assumes many forms, cannot be confined only to a particular one and Who is above all attributes.
Once, in the Naimisha forest, some sages said to Suta:
“Guru Gita is the most confidential of all confidential knowledge. We want to hear about it through your grace, so, O son, talk to us about it in his wholeness.”
Suta said:
Once Shiva and Parvati were seated on a beautiful summit of Mount Kailash and Goddess, bowing before Him with devotion, made the following request to Her husband, Lord Shiva, so that devotion and penance could be practiced:
“I bow to Your feet, O Great Lord, O Sada Shiva (Eternal Bestower of Bliss) Who are the Lord of all gods, beyond the range of even Supreme Knowledge (the Knowledge of Spiritual Truths as separated from mundane knowledge) and the Universal Spiritual Teacher. Please initiate Me as my Guru and tell me how one can attain the state of experiencing to be one with Brahman.”
Lord Shiva said:
“O Parvati ,You are My very Self. For your satisfaction I will tell you this. Your question
was put with the intention of doing good to all; no one has ever asked Me this question before. Listen, O Graceful One , to the answer which is very difficult to come across in the three worlds: the Great Truth is that the Guru is none other than Brahman Himself. [The three worlds are Bhu, Bhuva and Swah ;the Earth, the Atmosphere and Heaven].
If one has the same kind of deep devotion for one’s Guru and for one’s Ishtadeva ( the form of God to which one is devoted) , all one’s desires ( spiritual and mundane) will surely be fulfilled.
Gu means darkness (ignorance) and ru obstacle. So the Guru is the One Who is an obstacle to darkness. G joined to u means darkness. The Guru is the One Who destroys ignorance.
Without Guru’s grace no one can grasp the essence of the Vedas, Puranas, Dharmashastras, Mantras, Yantras, Mimansas, Smritis, Uchchatana, Nyaya, Kalpa and Itihasas.
(PURANAS: works on ancient Hindu mythology.
DHARMASHASTRAS: religious and moral treatises.
MANTRA: a magic formula, a prayer sacred to a deity.
MIMANSAS: the six systems of Indian philosophy.
SMRITIS: works on traditional law, civil or religious.
UCHCHATANA: a spell to ruin an enemy.
NYAYA: works on logic.
KALPA: one of VEDANGAS; It contains rules for certain rituals.
ITIHASAS: the big epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata)
The disciple should salute the Guru saying:
“I bow to the Guru, whose Lotus Feet can save one from the misery caused by the different pairs of opposites (happiness and sorrow, heat and cold, gain and loss) and enable one to cross the ocean of the never-ending series of birth and re-birth in the world.
One can understand the Vedas, Puranas and Shastras only through Guru’s grace. So, in the world, the Guru is the One Who knows the essence of Vedas and other similar branches of knowledge.
The Shastras about Shiva and Shakti, as those embodying other kinds of spiritual knowledge, cause only confusion in those with unsteady mind, who have not attained the real knowledge about the Guru. Performing Yajnas (fasting for spiritual good), practising penance, charity, japa (repeating a mantra) and going on pilgrimages to holy places, all these actions are useless for them. Indeed, no knowledge about the self is true other than that learnt from the Guru; therefore the wise must make an effort to attain it.
O Goddess, for your good I am going to tell you how, after being purified of all sins by serving the Guru’s Feet, one can attain union with Brahman. In due time, one acquires the merit of going on pilgrimage to holy places without having been there. Having meditated on the Guru’s feet ,one must sprinkle on his head the water in which those Feet have been bathed.
One must drink that water too, as it dries up the slime of sin (it destroys the slime), enlightens with knowledge the minds of those who are longing for that knowledge and enables them to cross the ocean of the Universe (to attain mukty or liberation). By drinking that water ignorance is uprooted; no longer bound by one’s actions, one gets clear of the cycle of birth and re-birth and attains detachment and knowledge. One must get into the habit of drinking that water, eating the food left by the Guru, meditating on Him and repeating continually the Hymn to the Guru.
The Guru’s dwelling is as sacred as the holy city of Kashi(Benares); the water, in which His Feet have been bathed, is the water of the Ganges, by drinking that water one crosses the ocean of Maya (illusion) and becomes Brahman; the Guru is lord Vishweshwara himself (Shiva, whose ancient temple, Vishvanath Mandir, known as Golden Temple, stands in Kashi). He is the One Who enables us to cross the ocean of Maya and reveals the secret of Brahman. The place made holy by the touch of His Feet is as sacred as the great holy place Prayaga (the confluence of the rivers Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati), so one should live in that place and salute the Guru ( or his picture or statue, if He has given up the gross body). One should always meditate on Him and repeat His name, carry out His commands and repeat and meditate the Mantra received by Him.
Brahman indeed resides in Guru’s mouth and one attains it through His grace (following the instructions that pass His lips). One must constantly meditate on His form as a virtuous wife always thinks of her husband. One must try to become disciple of that precious gem that is Guru, even at risk of losing his order of religious life ( being a Brahmachari, a house holder, etc.), caste (social condition) and reputation that normally gives immense satisfaction; those whose mind is constantly directed towards the Guru, can easily attain the ultimate happiness (divine bliss). So one must strive to the utmost to become a true devotee of Him.
In the three worlds it is the different categories of gods such as Devas, Suras, Pannagas who can speak the truth about the past, present and future) They say that knowledge regarding how one can attain liberation, residing in Guru’s mouth, can be attained by devotion to Him.
Gu means darkness (ignorance) and ru means what destroys that, so, no any doubt, Guru alone is the destroyer of ignorance. In the word Guru the first letter, Gu, stands for Maya (the great illusion which causes ignorance) and the second letter, ru, for Brahman, who dispels that illusion. So the Guru’s status is the highest and is difficult to attain even for gods; Its praises are sung even by groups of divine singers, the Haahaas, the Hoohoos and the Gandharvas.
No doubt, for gods too, even Reality (Brahman) is not higher than the Guru. One should be prepared to sacrifice for Him the articles for sitting (mats, carpets, chairs, etc.), for sleeping, clothes, means of transport, ornaments and his family too, if that pleases Him. A spiritual seeker should adore and worship the Guru and be prepared to offer Him all his dearest possessions to attain His Grace.
O Graceful One, the ignorant, who takes his body for his own real Self, goes to hell. The scope of the body is , in fact, limited to worms and insects (worms and insects eat it up, if buried) and ashes (it is burnt to ashes, if cremated); it contains phlegm, blood, marrow, skin and stinking excreta. So one should offer his body, wealth and possessions to the Guru. Salutations to Shri Guru Who raised the disciple from the state of the body consciousness to that of Brahman consciousness.
The disciple should sing in praise of the Guru:
I bow to the Guru, Who is Brahma, Vishnu and Mahadeva (Shiva) incarnate; the Guru is indeed Parabrahma or God Himself. [Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are the tree forms of God, the Hindu Trinity. Though in each form He is compassionate and the Supreme Benefactor to all, He , in these three forms, respectively performs the functions of creation, preservation and destruction].
I bow the Guru, Who is the real mother and father and the other friends and relatives; there is indeed nothing higher than Him.
I bow to the Guru, Who is the cause of all the worlds, Who enables one to cross the ocean of the Universe (to attain liberation or Mukti)and Who is the source of all knowledge and bliss.
My spiritual eyes were blind and closed owing to dark ignorance. I bow to the Guru, Who opened them by applying the antimony of knowledge.
God pervades everything, animate and inanimate, in the Universe. Salutations to Shri Guru, Who brought me face to face with Him.
He is my real father, mother and the other relatives; the Guru is my Deity too. I received from Him the knowledge about the real nature of the Universe ( about its impermanence). This is why I salute Him.
I bow to the Guru, on Whose existence depends the existence of the Universe; His splendour illuminates it and His bliss is at the root of Creation.
I bow to the Guru, Who sustains and illuminates with His splendour all that is. One can have real love for his children and family only if he is truly devoted to Him. I bow and pay homage to the Guru, Whose grace enables one to think about his spiritual advancement and to be in the same mental state when awake, asleep or in deep sleep (without dreams).
I pay homage to the Guru, Who knows that one should not look at the Universe as separate from the Creator and Who always shows the same appearance ( Who is always in the same high state of union with Brahman).
Whoever be the great soul who has initiated the disciple giving him a Mantra and whatever the spiritual goal to achieve, the disciple must identify whit it his whole being. I salute Shri Guru, who gives him this experience of union with Mantra.
I bow to the Guru, Who, even if He is the cause (the initiator), appears as the effect (the Knowledge imparted to the disciple). Indeed He identifies Himself with the effect.
In spite of its multiplicity (diversity), the Universe is One ( being the manifestation of Brahman, its cause). Likewise, the Guru (the cause) and the knowledge He imparts (the effect) are one. I salute Shri Guru ( in the form representing both cause and effect).
If, somehow, Shiva (God) gets angry with the disciple, the Guru saves him, but if the Guru gets angry, even Shiva cannot save him. Therefore the disciple must take refuge in the Guru with every effort.
I pay homage to the Guru’s Feet, the greatness of Which is beyond any description and imagination, Which have an happy pinkish colour and Which are a symbol of union with Shiva.
Gu means one who is beyond (not influenced by) the three gunas and ru one who is not bound to any form or incarnation. So, the Guru is the one who gives the disciple the state of being beyond the gunas. [The Gunas are three: Sattva (purity, goodness, virtue), Rajas (the quality of being very active), Tamas (ignorance).
Lord Shiva says:
O Beloved, the Guru (in His spiritual influence) is as cooling as the Moon ( He cools His disciples’ minds who are burning with disgust and worry for being entangled in the world). He is indeed Shiva without three eyes, Vishnu without the four arms, and Brahma without four heads. ( The Guru is beyond Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma )
The disciple should turn to the Guru saying:
O Guru, You are an ocean of compassion, I pray You with my hands joined, so that your Grace may lead me to spiritual elevation and finally to liberation.
Lord Shiva says:
The elevated form of the Guru can be found only by one’s discriminating eye ( by just exercising his own innate faculty of discrimination, one can recognise the real Guru), but the unlucky one does not see it , just as a blind person cannot see the sunrise.
My Dear, everyday one must bow with devotion in the direction where the Guru’s Feet are (where His temporary or permanent dwelling place or ashram is).
Everyday the disciple must offer Mantras with sweet and fresh flowers ( so fresh that bees are still humming on them), held in the scoop of his hands, in the direction in which resides the Guru, Lord of the World and Constant Witness to the cycle of Creation and Destruction.
The three attributes ( Sattva, Rajas and Tamas), great mundane prosperity and the hundred kinds of difficult Pranayamas that cure all disease, etc., none of them is the mean to attain Shivahood (the state of Shiva). But, even with a small portion of the Guru’s Grace, the disciple can reach the supreme goal as soon as he concentrates on his Prana (breath, vital air).Therefore he must serve the Guru, Whose mind is always concentrated on the Supreme and Who knows the real meaning and importance of the Vedas.
The Guru is Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu ( the Preserver) and Shiva (the destroyer). He is Universe itself and so he must be worshipped.
The disciple should say: I salute the Guru, at Whose lotus Feet fall even great scholars well-read in all Vedas; He is the Sun for the lotus of Vedanta (thanks to Him the real meaning of Vedanta and the knowledge contained in Upanishads is revealed, just as the sun makes the lotus bloom).
I bow to the Guru, nothing is higher than Him in all the three worlds and one must direct his thoughts and words towards Him.
Lord Shiva says:
By Guru’s Grace the disciples derive power from Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and the gods; undoubtedly, by serving Him, they attain liberation.
A real Guru , who can give joy (real and eternal), is a Jnani ( one who has attained knowledge), a Karmi ( one who keeps performing right actions without worrying about their fruits) and a Yogi ( one who has perfect control over the functioning of his mind). A false guru, devoid of these three qualities and merely posing as a Jnani should be kept far away.
The disciple says:
I bow to the Guru; by merely thinking about Him, He bestows knowledge on the the disciple’s mind and so He is the bestower of the infinite store of knowledge.
Lord Shiva says:
The true way of serving the Guru is unknown even to the gods, the Kinnaras, Gandharvas, Manes, Yakshas, Charanas and sages. With their egos conceited by the power coming from penance and scholarship, if even the Rishis (seers and sages), Nagas and Siddhas do not serve the Guru in the right manner, they keep on moving in the cycle of birth and rebirth just as the millwheel turns in a water mill, and they don’t attain liberation.
[Kinnara: mythical figure with the head of a horse and the body of a man.
Yaksha: one of the attendants of Kubera, god of riches.
Gandharva: celestial musician ; he is regarded as demigod.
Charana: heavenly singer.
Naga: a semi-divine being with the tail of a snake and the face of a human being.
Siddha: a semi-divine being having the eight Siddhis or supernatural faculties (powers).]
O Great Goddess, meditation on the Guru is a source of all joy and comfort, as also devotion to God and finally liberation.
Meditating on the Guru’s physical form meditating on the Infinite Shiva; repeating the Guru’s name means repeating the name itself of God Shiva (that is, Guru and God Shiva are one).
The disciple says:
I speak in praise of the Guru, Who is Brahman Himself; I sing the glory of the Guru, Who is Brahman Himself, I meditate on the Guru, Who is Brahman Himself. I salute the Guru, Who is Brahman Himself.
I bow in honour to the Guru, Who is an incarnation of the bliss coming from the union with Brahman; the bestower of bliss; detached; Knowledge incarnate; beyond the pairs of opposites ( pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat); infinite and all-pervading like the sky; the goal of the great spiritual statement: “You ( the individual soul) are That (Brahman)”; One ( free from all ties); eternal (beyond any change); free from all taint; firmly established in His high spiritual state; a constant and detached witness to Creation, Preservation and Destruction; beyond all ideas and emotions ( His mind is completely under His control) and untouched by any of the Three attributes ( Sattva, Rajas and Tamas).
I regularly bow to the Guru Who is bliss incarnate and so He bestows bliss on His disciples; Who is always joyous, self-realised, the greatest of the Yogis, worthy of being worshipped and the best healer for those who are suffering form the disease of the world (the one who can show the path to liberation).
Lord Shiva says:
Here is the form of the Guru on which the disciple should meditate: the Guru’s divine form is seated on a lion skin on a throne and is resting on the central part of the lotus of the disciple’s heart; a digit of moon adorns His head; He is blessing the disciple to bestow the desired bliss on him.
He is wearing white clothes; His body is bright, smeared with sandal paste and adorned with garlands of pearls; He is in a happy mood; He has two eyes; Divine Energy is on the left part of His throne; there is a smile on His lips; everything about Him suggests that He is an ocean of peace and compassion.
The disciple says:
I bow to the Guru Who is constantly engaged in the five-fold action of creating, preserving, destroying, carefully storing the seeds from which, in due time, a new creation will rise) and recreating.
We worship and meditate on the Guru, with the dust raised from His Feet , devotees in all ages build an embankment that enables them to cross the ocean of the Universe.
Lord Shiva says:
At dawn the disciple must try to see (to meditate) the two-eyed and two-armed Guru seated on the white lotus of his head ( on Sahasrara Chakra, the thousand-petaled lotus, which is the last stage of the ascent of Kundalini); he should see the Guru as an incarnation of peace, with His arms and hands in a pose suggesting that He is blessing the disciple and protecting him from fear; the disciple must also keep on repeating His name.
The disciple says:
I bow to the Guru, Who is indeed Brahman. He is eternal and is always in a spiritually elevated state; He is free from all taint, unperturbed and free from egoism; ( being the same as Brahman), He is formless; He is completely free from any kind of ignorance, always the same (beyond all change) and an embodiment of knowledge and bliss.
Lord Shiva says:
In a soothing silvery white like the colour of the Moon, The Guru, Eternal Seed of Creation, is at the centre of Brahmarandra, the Sahasrara or Withe thousand-petaled Lotus. He should be meditated as seated on the triangle which symbolizes Supreme Energy and is at the same time a form of Brahman, and which is in Sahasrara.
(Brahmarandra: fontanelle; opening in the top of the head.
Sahasrara: the last chakra touched by Kundalini or Supreme Energy in her ascent inside the subtle body)
Having had Darshana (meeting-contact) with the Guru in the Sahasrara, the disciple ecstatically says: “ The truth about all that exists in the Universe and beyond that, it has been revealed to me. All the other insights are now imaginary (unreal) to me! All my senses are merged in Brahman together with my spiritual vision; I have attained the insight which has revealed to me the real nature of the senses and they are so automatically controlled! Now that insight alone is my wealth and prosperity! My vision is now constantly directed only towards Brahman, Who is the essence of all the worlds just as the ‘meru’ (the central bead bigger than the others) is the most prominent of all the beads in an Hindu rosary (Mala)!
Being knowledge revealed to him because of the Darshana with the Guru, the disciple ecstatically says: “Nothing is beyond the Guru; no one is above the guru! No one is beyond the Guru; no one is greater than the Guru! That is my commandment; so , authoritatively, I say!”
The Guru is bliss incarnate; He is indeed Shiva. Bliss and the Guru are one; He is really Shiva! That is a commandment of Shiva Himself; that is said on Shiva’s authority! The authority for saying so is indeed Shiva; certainly it is one of His commandments!”
Lord Shiva says:
After the disciple has realised the greatness of the Guru, Whose real nature has been revealed above, knowledge will be automatically revealed to him. He will attain liberation as a result of being initiated by the Guru.
The disciple should purify his mind by following the path shown by the Guru; whatever ephemeral thought comes to his mind should be properly judged and discarded.
All that can be known is short-lived, but the knowledge of Brahman is beyond the mind, eternal. Following the Guru’s instructions, the disciple should regard objective phenomena and Knowledge (which is synonymous with Brahman) as one.
The disciple says:
I bow to the Guru, Who is indeed the Eternal Brahman, the abode of peace, unconfined even by space, free from ignorance and beyond yogic practices.
I bow to the Guru, Who pervades the whole Universe, including all that is motionless , able to move, free from taint and peaceful.
I bow to the Guru, Whose support is the energy coming from knowledge, Who wears the elements as a garland ( Who has perfect control over that energy and the elements) and Who bestows mundane prosperity on the disciple and finally liberation.
I bow to the Guru, Who burns away with the fire of Knowledge the disciple’s Karma (actions), accumulated through countless incarnations.(A human being must bear the consequences, good or bad, of his karma; that is why he keeps being born. Burning away his karma, the Guru helps him to get clear of the cycle of birth and rebirth, and he is liberated.)
There is no Truth greater than the Guru; there is no penance greater than serving Him; and there is no knowledge greater than the Knowledge of the reality attained through His grace. (That is why) I salute Shri Guru.
My Lord is the Lord of all the worlds, my Guru is the Guru of All. My Self is the same as the Self of all other living beings; I salute Shri Guru Who brought me to this realization.
The Guru is the beginning; He is without a beginning; He is greater than any god and in the whole Universe nothing is greater than Him. (That is why) I salute Shri Guru.
Lord Shiva says:
The root of meditation is the Guru’s form (the disciple should meditate on His form). The root of worship are His feet (the disciple should worship His feet). The root of the Mantra is His utterance and the root of liberation is His Grace ( liberation can be attained only through His Grace).
The great merit gained by bathing in the waters of all the holy places on this Earth, bounded by the seven seas, is equivalent only to a thousand part of that gained by applying to the body only one drop of the water in which the Guru’s Feet have been bathed.
The Guru is the Universe, which is a gross manifestation of Braham, Vishnu and Shiva. There is nothing greater than the Guru; therefore he should be properly worshipped.
Through devotion to the Guru a disciple can attain liberation even without attaining knowledge. Since nothing is as great as the Guru, the disciple should, with devotion, propitiate Him in the proper way.
O Great Goddess, if a disciple, knowing all that has been said above regarding the greatness of the Guru, feels contempt for the Guru, he goes to terrifying hells and has to remain there as long as the Sun and the Moon exist.
Gu stands for the quality of being beyond the three attributes (Sattva, Rajas and Tamas) and ru means without form; the Guru is called so because He is without any form or attribute.
That great soul worthy of being called Guru is the one who, cutting with the sword of compassion the bondage of the disciple, graces him with perfect bliss.
One should always repeat the Guru’s name and meditate on Him as long as he lives; one should never forget the Guru even though he has attained liberation.
The disciple should never lie to the Guru, talk to Him with arrogance or sit before him in an insolent pose. A disciple ,who talks with arrogance to his Guru, wishing to get the better of him in argument, becomes a Brahmarakshasa (a kind of evil demon) of a place without water in a forest.
O Parvati, the Guru protects the disciple, if he is cursed by sages, nagas or gods too; He protects him even from the fear of death. Gods and sages are simply powerless before the Guru; as a result of His curse they lose their power and are even ruined, losing it permanently.
It is only by serving the Guru that a disciples acquires the knowledge contained in the Vedas and Shrutis and gets to know the real nature of the elements. The disciples who have acquired knowledge in this way are called Sanyasins; the others only make a show of being Sanyasins, merely wearing ochre clothes.
(Shrutis: sacred texts.
Ochre: the colour of the Sanyasins’ clothes).
O Goddess, I told you the qualities of a free person (of a liberated soul while he is still in the gross body). He indeed sanctifies the place where he lives.
O Goddess, the two letters Gu and ru together constitute the greatest Mantra, which is the great goal to which all the expressions contained in the Vedas and Smritis lead.
Just as a lamp can be lighted from another lamp, the disciple should, through the Guru’s Grace, acquire the knowledge about Brahman, Who is Eternal, Formless, beyond the three attributes, Perfect, Unperturbed and free from any taint and egoism.
The far advanced disciple says:
Through the Guru’s Grace the disciple should see in himself the True Self (Brahman); following this path of liberation he acquires the knowledge of the Self. The entire creation, animate and inanimate, is the gross form of God; I salute the Guru of all the worlds Who has bestowed His Grace on me giving me this knowledge.
I salute the Guru, Who is eternal and an embodiment of knowledge and bliss. He is not different from all that is; He is beyond birth and death, perfect and without ego, beyond the three attributes and always conscious of His Real Self. He is beyond the scope of even knowledge that leads to the realization of Brahman. He is, for the disciple, the object of meditation and eternal source of bliss. He has to be meditated seated at the centre of the Inner Consciousness (the Soul)and of the same complexion as alabaster.
One should meditate on the Self as reflected in his own inner Consciousness, just as an image is seen reflected in a clean mirror; one should be conscious of the Truth expressed in the Mantra “ I am That (Brahman)”.
One should meditate upon the Purusha (the Supreme Being) Who is Supreme Consciousness, thinking of Him as of the size of a thumb. I will speak now about how one feels in this state of meditation.
I, beyond birth and rebirth, devotedly meditate on the Purusha, who never gets old, the Eternal Being, without a beginning and beyond all change; He is indeed Supreme Consciousness and bliss.
O Parvati- Lord Shiva says- here are some of the attributes of Brahman, by which one can form an idea of His nature: He is source of unprecedented bliss, eternal, bright, free from disease, not touched by sensuality and beyond all that exists; He is the giver of joy and prosperity; He is Bliss Itself, beyond all change, imperceptible and incomprehensible; He is without those attributes such as name and form and so beyond description.
By their own nature ,some substances like camphor and some flowers have a cooling or heating effect. Similarly, Brahman is eternal by nature.
After becoming like That (Brahman), the disciple can live anywhere; He will become one with Brahman just as a certain kind of worm becomes a wasp.
O Parvati, why should I talk to you so much about the Guru’s greatness? The truth, in brief, is this one: without the Guru’s Grace it is difficult for the disciple to keep his mind still, even though he may study any number of Shastras.
I bow to the Guru because, thank to the Mantra given by Him, the disciple can realize his own Self in a fraction of a second and make his mind steady.
Constantly meditating on the Guru, one becomes indistinguishable from Brahman; one certainly loses attachment to one’s body, rank and looks.
Identifying one’s own Self (the Soul) with that of all the other creatures, one must meditate on Brahman, as nothing is greater than that Supreme Being, Who is beyond all misery.
Freed from any kind of attachment by the benevolent glance of the Guru, the disciple should, by His Grace, remain in solitude, absorbed in his own Self, embracing all creation, and experience peace and freedom from desire.
Whether he gets or not food, clothes, etc., and whether what he receives is enough or not for his needs, the disciple should use it, with his mind always happy and free from desire.
There is a state called the State of Omniscience , when one attains it , he can feel his soul as embracing all creation; the practitioner always feels calm and blissful and so he is happy everywhere.
Such a person enables not only the people of his own dynasty but those of innumerable other dynasties too, to cross in a moment the ocean of Maya. Therefore, having recognised Him as worthy of being the Guru, one should always salute Him with due respect , falling flat on the ground and singing hymns to Him. Doing so the mind becomes stable and the Self is realized.
The Guru protects the disciple from Shiva’s wrath, but there is no one who can protect him from the Guru’s anger. Therefore, after having found his Guru, the disciple should serve Him well.
An aspiring disciple yearning for knowledge should keep on calling the great souls of the Saints till his heart finds a Guru, just as a bee that, yearning for honey, keeps flying from flower to flower.
The disciple should shun that guru who is without knowledge or simply a liar and a cheater because, if he does not know the way to steady his own mind , how can he enable others to steady their minds? Can a rock be used as a mean for crossing a river?
Such a guru, who was not able to cross the ocean of Maya, cannot help others to cross it and the disciple should simply discard and shun him, refuse to salute him even under constraint, because such a self-proclaimed guru only causes delusion; these kind of gurus must be absolutely shunned.
O Goddess, a disciple should not be praised by anyone, if he has not risen to be an ideal disciple, but he too, in due time, attains Knowledge Through perfect devotion to the Guru.
Gurus are believed to be subdivided into five categories: those who conceal their high spiritual state and the Knowledge they have attained and who don’t seem to be different from common people; those who are firmly established in their high spiritual state; those who follow the path of devotion; those who observe silence with their minds always fixed on Brahman; and those who have given up all worldly desires forever.
The disciple should keep hidden the Mantra, the Guru’s wooden sandals and any other object symbolizing His Grace, because having been them given to him by the Guru Himself, since what has been attained through His Grace always helps him to achieve the desired ends.
Shunning the True Guru drives one to death and giving up the Mantra to poverty. If a disciples gives up both he Guru and the Mantra, he goes to hell known as Ravrava.
Those who falsely assume the characteristics of the virtuous; those full of sins; atheists; Those who consider the Universe as separate from Brahman; the lustful; the wicked; the ungrateful; the hypocrites; those who do not perform their religious duties; the unforgiving; those who only speak ill of others; those who speak for the sake of speaking without a sincere desire to find the Truth; the peevish; the injurious; the fraudulent; and those who, because of their vices, are excluded from the performance of all religious duties, all these should be discarded by the Gurus; Knowledge should be imparted only to the disciple who is ever opposed to sin.
Good disciples should choose their Gurus keeping in their mind the instructions contained in the verses above, and serve them with sincere devotion.
G means Shiva, u Brahman and ru the Sun; the Guru (G+u+ru) has the perfect knowledge of the meaning of all.
When even the primary five elements (earth, water, fire, air and ether) are destroyed at the time of Universal Destruction, a liberated soul who has attained the state of Shiva, keeps existing as Perfect and All-pervading.
O Goddess, I have told you everything about devotion to the Guru and meditation on Him. These teachings, if followed under the Guru’s instructions, lead to liberation. Fixing My own mind on all this, I think about it and talk about it, because it is good for everybody; one should indeed always worship the Guru. No one can find the path which leads to liberation without the Guru’s Grace.
The disciple says:
Directing our intellect, senses, Prana, mind and words towards the Guru, we, your disciples, bow before Your Lotus Feet, Which are meditated upon with devotion, as a result of their good actions of the present and the past, by all those who are yearning for liberation.
I meditate on the Lotus Feet of my Guru, Who can bestow the light of Knowledge and the desired final Bliss; I meditate on the Guru, Who is pure and perfect Knowledge and the resultant bliss incarnate.
The Divine Mother, Parvati, Says to Lord Shiva:
O Great Lord, I’d like to know which is the meaning of Pindam and Padam. O Shankara, be compassionate and tell me which form is beyond form.
Lord Shiva says:
Pindam is Kundalini, Padam means ‘Hansa’ or ‘I, the individual soul, am That, Brahman’. The form is Bindu (the seed) and the one who is beyond form is Niranjana (Brahman).
From the worldly point of view the Guru is just the Guru (in that particular human form); when, in due time, the disciple develops devotion for Him, He appears as the greatest of all creatures; and when, having attained knowledge, the disciple performs all the actions without any attachment to their fruits, He appears as pervading all Creation.
No one can attain Knowledge without the Guru’s Grace, even though he may have studied the Vedas and the others sacred texts such as the Shadangas and the Shastras, including those dealing with spirituality.
[ Shadangas: they are six in number; they comprise 1) Proper pronunciation and euphony, 2) Prosody, 3)Grammar, 4)Etymological explanation of difficult Vedic words, 5)Astronomy, 6)Rituals. ]
The disciple says:
I meditate on the Guru Who, having harmonized all philosophies, is free from any doubt and practices penance in a lonely place; the Guru is really Ishwara (God).
Lord Shiva says:
The supreme goal, Liberation, cannot be attained by working to achieve worldly ends; only by unselfish work one can attain knowledge and so Liberation.
In order to be cured from the disease of worldly existence, the disciple must regularly repeat the Guru Gita (the Hymn to the Guru), which gives an idea of the high spiritual state of the Master. If one recites the Hymn with devotion, listens to it recited or prepares copies of it and gives them to the deserving, one’s desires will be fulfilled.
One must regularly recite the Guru Gita, the Supreme Mantra; the power of the other innumerable Mantras does not equal even a sixteenth of that of the Guru Gita.
The regular recitation of the Mantra, that is of the Guru Gita, destroys every sin, danger, disease, calamity, demon, evil spirit and the fear of death, which must come at the destined moment; the repetition of the Mantra evades poverty, dispels the fear of tigers and thieves, subdues hunger and keeps off illness.
Reciting the Hymn to the Guru regularly, one attains Liberation. A person who recites it for his personal welfare gets permanent prosperity and the eight Siddhis or supernatural powers: 1) becoming as small as an atom, 2) levitating at will, 3) the power of obtaining anything, 4) an irresistible will, 5) the power of increasing size at will, 6) superiority, 7) the ability to subdue, and 8)the capacity to fulfil all desires.
In a clean and beautiful place, one should spread a small mat of kusha grass and on it a hairy antelope skin. One should sit on it holding the back and the head straight and , with steady mind, start the japa (repetition) of the Mantra.
In order to achieve worldly ends one must, while meditating, cover one’s seat with pieces of cloth of different colours: to avert evil, the cloth should be white; to subdue or win over a person, red; to achieve malevolent aims, black; and to acquire wealth, yellow.
One must face a particular direction while repeating the Hymn in order to achieve worldly ends: to avert evil, one must face the North; to subdue or win over an enemy, the East; to destroy an enemy, the South; and to suppress any force or feeling, the West.
Those who regularly repeat the Great Mantra are freed from ties, attain Liberation, all joy and comfort and become more and more devoted to their Gurus. Being their bad deeds destroyed, they get the fruits of the good ones only. They even achieve the ends normally impossible to achieve and are freed from the evil influence of the planets.
Repeating the Great Mantra regularly, the disciple saves himself from the insane effects of bad dreams and benefits from the effects of good ones; he is always in peace; he is blessed with long life, health, wealth and many sons and grandsons; he lives in comfort, free from illness, suffering, fear, impediments, and difficulties; all obstacles are removed; he achieves the four goals of worldly life: religious merit, wealth, fulfilment of his desires and Liberation.
Anyone who repeats and meditates the Mantra, undoubtedly gets all that he desires. The Great Mantra is just like the cow, that is believed to exist in heaven and that gives all the desired objects; it is like the wish-fulfilling heavenly tree and the blissful gem Chimtamani, which is believed to fulfil all the desires of its possessor. A person who prepares and gives to the deserving ones copies of the Hymn to the Guru, attains supreme bliss.
If you repeat it with that purpose, you see your desires fulfilled; the devotees of the Divine Mother, the Sun, Shiva, Ganesh and Vishnu repeat it and, O Goddess Parvati, undoubtedly reach their goals.
Now, O Graceful One, I will tell you in which place one should sit and repeat the Hymn so that one’s desires may be fulfilled. The favourable places are: a place surrounded by the sea; a river bank; Holy places; the temples of Vishnu, Shiva, the Divine Mother or any other deity; a cow-shed; the space under a banyan or amalaka tree (Emblica Officinalis); Vrindavan; any clean and unpolluted place and where religious rites are often performed. When the disciple reaches one of these places, he should start repeating the Hymn with a steady mind and in silence. By such repetition one attains the merit of a hundred horse-sacrifice, success in all undertakings and attains Liberation.
[ A horse-sacrifice: a very old Vedic ceremony celebrated in India in the past]
With a view to wash and clean themselves from the worldly dirt and free themselves from worldly ties, those who are engaged in spiritual practices should bath regularly in the waters of the Hymn to the Guru.
The places really holy are those ones where live the Gurus who have the knowledge of the real and the unreal and even about Brahman.
The wise disciple should constantly and with devotion direct his mind towards the Guru, regarding Him as the One Who is never reborn. He should always live at the place sanctified by the Guru’s presence and doing so he attains joy everywhere under all circumstances.
He who has attained knowledge by constantly repeating the Hymn to the Guru becomes one with the Guru just as sea-water, mixed with milk or sweet water, becomes indistinguishable from it; just as the space inside every pitcher is indistinguishable from the infinite universal space and just as the individual soul, having acquired Knowledge, merges with the Supreme Soul.
O Graceful One, no other Mantra is as great as the Hymn to the Guru. Nothing surpasses the Guru; this Truth I have revealed to you.
Only when the Guru is pleased , the sacrifices, the penances performed and the charity practised by the disciple in the course of various incarnations bear fruits.
I have revealed this secret to you. It must be kept secret but it may be handed down to a disciple engaged in serving his Guru.
Darling, this Mantra can be handed down to a very wise and virtuous disciple, sincerely devoted to his Guru.
He who constantly practices the repetition of the Mantra received from the Guru, certainly attains spiritual realization or Liberation.
The Guru represents the supreme Thirta or place of pilgrimage; compared to Him any other pilgrimage destination is insignificant. Scholarship, wealth, power, charity and prosperity of those, O Graceful One, who do not serve their Gurus regularly, is meaningless.
There are many so-called gurus who are only interested in the money of their disciples and don’t guide them on the spiritual path, for the simple reason that they are not qualified for doing so; a real Guru who removes the suffering of his disciples is difficult to come across, O Goddess.
The disciple says:
I bow to my Guru, that divine being constantly absorbed in Brahman, whose Lotus Feet are warm with love and compassion; Through His Grace I experienced that I am Vishnu and have created all that exists.
I salute the Great Mantra of the Guru which is the only Mantra that can save the disciple while crossing the ocean of the world; this Mantra is perfect and sanctified, adored by saints and gods, and it dispels poverty, suffering, fear and sorrow.
