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REFLECTIONS ON GURU
Sri Sri Sitaramdas Omkarnath
  1. Guru can never be asat (untrue). Bhagawan Sri Ram used the epithet Sat Guru, to describe the preceptor who confers liberation from worldly existence.
  2. Even a great fool who sings the praise of Guru must be considered a scholarly pundit.
  3. Without taking refuge with the Guru it is impossible to take even a single step forward in the worldly or spiritual life. Guru is the sole refuge of all.
  4. Those who implicitly believe in devotion to Guru and Guru’s word, they are able to gain supreme bliss- there is no room for doubt in this. Guru kripa hi kevalam (Guru’s Grace alone is absolute)!
  5. Human beings have three Maha-Gurus: one’s mother, father and one’s spiritual preceptor. One must show great devotion to them. Their welfare and desires should be attended to. Whether little or more, whoever gives you spiritual knowledge, he should be recognized as a Guru.
  6. Assuming a human body God has descended on earth to rescue sinners – all distress vanishes by adopting a Guru. Mysterious are the sweet feet of Guru! O Tongue, sing the Name of Guru! O Mind, contemplate on Guru’s abode! O Head, bow down regularly in every watch of the day before the soft lotus feet of Guru.
  7. Crazy mind! Learn this wisdom: The heart blooms as you say ‘Guru Guru Guru’. See the form of Guru with the eyes. Listen to Guru’s teachings with the ears. Always meditate with your mind focused in the thousand-petalled lotus in the forehead and make the mystery of this world as lucid as the cow’s hoof.
  8. Do not forget Guru is embodiment of Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara. He assumes the human body in order to grace and consecrate human beings.
  9. First concern yourself with obtaining Guru; once you take refuge with the Guru, all your woes and worries will cease, he will usher you on the path of God. You won’t have to think of anything else. You will be free from all worries.
  10. A father gifts the body; Guru gifts knowledge, therefore in the sorrowful ocean of worldly existence there is none greater than Guru.
  11. Satguru and God are not different; God Himself appears in the form of Guru.
  12. What do you mean by distinguishing between Guru and Shiva? Gurudeva is Shiva personified – He is omniscient. He knows everything! The dirty mirror of your heart reveals the sullied image of Gurudeva, but it is not real.
  13. Gurudeva is the favourite deity, by contemplating about His divine sports the mind effortlessly melts away and steadies. Where and how did you get the darshan of Gurudeva? How did he accept you as a disciple? ... Where all did you wander about with Gurudeva? Write down all the special events related to Gurudeva in a notebook and contemplate on it. By contemplating on divine sports of Gurudeva the mind will quickly melt away. Try it.
  14. Guru Mantra
  15. Try to purify the ground first by repetition of ‘Guru’, ‘Guru’. Once the soil is ready, you will get the seed in fitness of time, and with the receipt of Guru’s Grace, you won’t have to worry about anything.
  16. By being initiated into a mantra, the power of the Guru is gained. The siddha mantra handed down through spiritual succession takes the spiritual aspirant into the inner world extremely fast. The purpose of getting initiation into a mantra is to get Guru’s Grace. Guru is none other than God. He imparts His own Self through the investment of mantra; it is to install Guru in one's heart and happily cross over the ocean of worldly existence that the refuge with the Guru is sought.
  17. Sri Gurudeva puts God inside us in the form of mantra whispered into the ears.
  18. The mantra ‘Guru’ is the supreme lord among all the mantras in this world. Without taking recourse to it nobody can advance in the spiritual world.
  19. ‘Guru’, ‘Guru’, ‘Guru’, the devotees should do the japa of ‘Guru’, ‘Guru’, ‘Guru’ all the time, while standing or sitting, in the day and night. Whoever takes shelter with a Guru, for him the vast ocean of worldly existence becomes small and easy to cross as cow’s hoof. Just keep doing the japa of ‘Guru’, ‘Guru’, ‘Guru’.
  20. By mere utterance of the sub-syllable ‘ga’ one is absolved of the heinous sin of Brahmahatya, the utterance of ‘u’ indemnifies the individual from sins committed throughout the life. The remaining three sub-syllables of the magic word ‘Guru’ viz. the ‘ra’, the ‘u’ and the ‘h’: once uttered, destroys the cumulative effect of all the sins committed in the past ten million births! By chanting the mantra ‘Guru’ lord Shiva absolved Himself from the sin of Brahmahatya, Parashuram from the transgression of Matruhatya and foremost of the gods Indra from the sin of Brahmahimsa.
  21. Guru Protocol
  22. A capable disciple swiftly gains perfection if he strives to undertake spiritual practices treating Guru as Lord Shiva incarnate. Tailang Swami often said, ‘Guru mile laakhon laakh, shishya na mile ek (There’s no dearth of Gurus, you’ll get lakhs of them, but it’s hard to find even a single shishya). Unless one becomes a satshishya (true disciple), one cannot hope to gain the grace of a satguru (true Guru). As is the disciple, so will the teacher be. Each gets his own match.
  23. ‘I will act in whichever way my Guru, with whom I have taken refuge, commands me’ – this is the duty of a disciple. To conduct oneself according to one’s own will is foolishness.
  24. After diksha, your body is in the possession of God embodied as Sri Guru. ‘I’ is turned into ‘this servant’, ‘mine’ is turned into ‘of this servant’ – this is the way to conduct yourself.
  25. Meditating on Guru-paduka (wooden sandals worn by the Guru) or on Guru Himself and performing Guru-Puja (worship of the Guru) with the mind as its sole offering – this should be done at the Sahasrara (top of the head). External Guru-puja or worship of Guru-paduka and prayers chanting of Stava/ Kavacha (mantras for ensuring safety and well being) etc. are various forms of service to Guru. Continuous repeating of the mantra-japa or, doing it by writing the same on two-petalled lotus (between the eyebrows), and going round the Guru, constitute true service to Guru. Meditating on the kundalini at the Muladhara, performance of mental worships, reading/chanting of prayers and Kavachas and to meditate that He (the Guru), is permeating through one’s entire body – all these constitute His worship. Finally, the Parameshthi Guru-puja (i.e. the ultimate form of Guru-worship), is nothing but the uniting of the awakened kundalini at Muladhara with the Supreme Shiva dwelling in the form of a bindu (pointed light source) at the Sahasrara (top of the head) after penetrating the six Chakras.
  26. What can a disciple offer to God in the form of Guru who has occupied him completely, both his inside and outside? He then does not have anything of his own to give because everything belongs to Sri Guru. The best kind of dakshina to be offered to the Guru is to do sadhan and bhajan according to his instructions. The only dakshina which the Guru desires is that his disciple, by dint of his sadhana, may be self-fulfilled and may gain immortality. The greatest dakshina of a Guru is the gaining of Paramananda by the disciple.
  27. Guru, Mantra, Ishta
  28. There are two manifestations of God – Saguna and Nirguna i.e. God with form, name and attributes and God without these three. As long as a human being has body awareness, that is, a feeling that ‘I am the body’, he is labouring in ignorance and forgetfulness of true self, until then he is entitled only to Saguna worship.
  29. He is the Ishta Devata (favourite deity), He comes in the form of Guru; He resides in the form of Mantra.
  30. Without duly recognizing the oneness of Guru, Mantra and Ishta, it is not possible to achieve mantra siddhi. Guru is both mantra and Ishta Devata (favourite deity).
  31. Taking Guru to be a human being, treating mantra as mere collocation of words and to see the stone in an idol are all offences leading one to hell.
  32. You were born, you were educated, and you went through samsara, in all this you are merely a body! One day Gurudeva came into your life and accepted you, you became a disciple. From the time compassionate Gurudeva absorbed you, this body became Gurudeva’s; now the body is not yours. It belongs to Gurudeva.
  33. How hard does a human being toil to get rid of sorrow? If only a person could do Japa of the Guru-given mantra until it is consummated and realised! That would not only rid him of sorrows but also help him attain to divinity.
(From Cloudburst of a Thousand Suns compiled by Tridandi Swami Madhav Ramanuj Jeeyar. English Rendering by Raj Supe aka Kinkar Vishwashreyananda. Copy of the book is available at Flipkart.com)