The Bridge To Consciousness

Parents are the first gurus a child will know. They are the best preacher to the child. Then why does the need arise for a Guru? Guru is the divine link between the superconsciousness and the human soul. Guru shapes and guides the person on the path of peace and knowledge.

Lord Brahma recited and great Guru Vyasa wrote all four Vedas for the benefit of mankind. He also wrote many Puranas. Thus, a full moon day was dedicated to the Gurus and called ‘Guru Purnima.’ Every person in this world is in debt to Saint Vyasa for his invaluable contribution to the world.

India is perhaps the only country in the world that has a special day celebrating the guru as the spiritual guide, yogi and sage. In many cultures, we find teachers honoured in various ways with special events. Some would make Guru Purnima a similar occurrence. While there is a connection, the Indian idea of Guru Purnima goes much further.

The idea of the guru or the Selfrealized seer and yogi is the dominant image that India has brought to the world as representing the essence of its timeless civilization.

The guru has been one of India’s main exports to the world, with great gurus from India travelling and teaching worldwide and inspiring millions. The term guru itself has entered into many languages and discourses in the East and West. The importance of the guru is one of the pillars of India’s traditional system of spiritual knowledge, reflecting the need for instruction and practices recommended at an individual level.

Modern India has been blessed with dozens of great gurus, who have appeared in every generation. A number of these great masters inspired India’s independence movement like Sri Aurobindo, Swami Rama Tirtha and Swami Vivekananda. Some taught through silence like Ramana Maharshi and were still able to command worldwide recognition. Some have set up numerous schools and institutions like Swami Chinmayananda; others have preferred to remain unknown. Most gurus are part of long lineages extending back many generations if not centuries.

Swami Sivananda and Dr APJ Abdul Kalam

APJ Abdul Kalam had just finished his interview at the Air Force Selection Board at Dehra Dun. But he could finish only ninth in the batch of 25 examined to select eight officers. Deeply disappointed, he trekked down to Rishikesh. He bathed in the Ganga and walked to an Ashram nearby. It was the Ashram of Swami Sivananda. Before Kalam could speak anything, Swami asked him about the source of his sorrow. Kalam told him about his unsuccessful Air Force interview. Dr Kalam narrates in his own words what happened next in his autobiography, The Wings of Fire:

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear - How true! Here was the teacher to show the way to a student who had nearly gone astray! “Accept your destiny and go ahead with your life. You are not destined to become an Air Force pilot. What you are destined to become is not revealed now but it is predetermined. Forget this failure, as it was essential to lead you to your destined path. Search, instead, for the true purpose of your existence. Become one with yourself, my son! Surrender yourself to the wish of God.” Swamiji said.

Filled with energy, Kalam returned to Delhi where he had also attended another interview for the position of Senior Scientific Assistant, Directorate of Technical Development and Production, DTD & P (Air) at the Ministry of Defence. He had been selected and then the rest, as they say, was history.

Guru Ravidas and Bhakta Meera

Meera was a 16thcentury Bhakti saint who sang mystic melodious hymns on Krishna. She was a Rajput princess and a widow. Against opposition from her clan as to the way she was becoming the epicentre of a very popular Bhakti movement, she stood firm in her devotion to Shri Krishna - her Lord and the Lord of the Universe. According to one of the many traditional narratives, she nevertheless needed a guru to initiate her properly in the science of self-realization. She chose Guru Ravidas as her guru. She went to Kashi and was given the Advaitic non-dual wisdom by the Guru. Some historians claim that there is no proof for this to have happened. But the civilisational wisdom of India in creating these traditions is far more honest heart of India than the superficial data quest of the historians.

Guru Ravidas was born into a family of cobblers, considered untouchables by the socially stagnant elite. Mirabai was a queen widow.

By making Mirabai the disciple of Guru Ravidas, the emphasis is made that there can be no birthbased or gender-based distinctions in attaining spiritual enlightenment, which is supreme knowledge.

This also makes it clear that in all other domains, any birthbased or genderbased discriminations are non-essential and could be eschewed as society evolves and progresses.

Mahamati Prannath and Chhatrasal

Chhatrasal, a young warrior who was orphaned by Mughal aggression was searching to free the nation from the tyranny of Mughals. Tradition has it that when he consulted with Chhatrapati Shivaji he realised the importance of having a spiritual mentor for undertaking what appeared to be a humanly impossible mission. One night, in 1683, in the Chhatarpur forests of Bundelkhand, Chhatrasal took asylum in a lonely hut where there was a sage who called him by his name. That was Mahamati Prannath who belonged to Pranami Sampradaya of Sanatana Dharma.

He not only blessed Chhatrasal with his sword but also blessed him that the region would have diamond mines which could help the young Hindu warrior raise an army against their aggressive tormentors. The place where the saint promised the king abundance of diamonds today has diamond mines.

India owes so much to Guru Mahamati Prannath but for whom Bundelkhand would have suffered under the Mughal tyranny.

Chandala of Kashi and Adi Shankaracharya

The guru who initiated Adi Shankara into sanyasi and imparted him Advaita was Govinda Bhagavatpada. The practical Vedanta was imparted to Adi Shankara through a Chandala in the holy city of Kashi.

Here, when Adi Sankaracharya and his disciples asked a Chandala to move out of the way, the Chandala asked if they were asking the body or the aatma to move.

He pointed sharply to the nondualism that exists both in terms of the physical elements that form the bodies of all and the aatma that pervades all. Hence, for a teacher of non-dualism to ask another human being to move away was untenable.

The question made Adi Shankaracharya realise Advaita in all its splendour and implications. He bowed to the Chandala and considering him as his guru sang the Manisha Panchakam - wherein he stated that he accepts as his guru any person irrespective of his social or birth status, who has discrimination and Advaitic vision.