Honoring the Guru Tattva

An acharya gives ‘shiksha’ (knowledge) but a guru gives ‘diksha’, which is the height of awareness.A guru simply does not stuff you with knowledge but kindles the life force in you. In guru’s presence you become more alive, every cell in your body becomes alive. That is called ‘diksha’. It is the height of intelligence and not information. An acharya gives you information and knowledge but a guru invokes intelligence and not just the intellect. The pinnacle of intellect is intelligence, awaken intelligence. So, a guru awakens intelligence, not information.

Mind is connected with the moon and the full moon is a symbol of completion and celebration. So, Guru Purnima is the day when the disciple wakes up in his fullness and wakefulness. In that wakefulness, he can’t be but grateful. And it is the gratitude of advaita, of oneness. It is not like a river moving from one place to another. It is an ocean moving within itself. Gratefulness and Guru Purnima symbolises the fullness of the student, of the disciple. And celebrates in gratitude.

Guru communicates in silence. And then all doubts simply disappear - Sri Nathadi Guru Thrayam. There are three levels of gurus and there are three different forms of gurus.

The first is the absolute form, which is all-permeating. He is everywhere. Another form of guru is knowledge. The third is the physical form. In such a way our being, our consciousness works. Our consciousness has three bodies: First is the physical body, next is the subtle body, emotions and thoughts and then the causal body which is pure consciousness.

Guru Purnima is the day when the person recognises the physical form. Knowledge belongs to the subtle because causally it is all-pervading and beyond the dimension of time. It is everywhere, at any time, all the time. All three are forms of one guru tattva(Guru principle). Therefore, we celebrate all the forms the guru appeared in. Those many forms help us at every step of our life.

Guru is not just the physical body. He is omnipresent, omnipotent and cannot be separated from life. He is light, knowledge, wisdom, and body. All things together. This entire universe is the body of the guru. Therefore, having a guru in one’s life means that you have everything in life – bliss, happiness, comfort and knowledge. Liberation is impossible without a guru.

The guru’s job is not to find you a job or relationships, those are extras things. The important aspect is inner freedom and the realisation that you are light and you are space. That is the main goal. And how we move towards the goal all other things come along the way. When the guru says: “We are one, that is knowledge. Therefore, you are not alone on this journey toward infinity. I’m with you, you’re not alone, there is no separation.”

Guru Purnima is the day when you honour the guru tattvawhich is present everywhere. When you dishonour this, the darkness dawns. Understand this wisdom that the giver is giving you everything that is needed in abundance, start utilising the gift. Use the intelligence that is given, it only sharpens when used. If you have a good voice, use it for others because it’s a gift.

You must love and serve others without wanting anything in return. This is important usually we think I gave so much love to that person what did he give me in return. In this way we try to make the other person feel that we have done them a great favour by loving them, this we must not do. Love is your nature; it is acting with dignity, naturalness, compassion and simplicity and we are born with these qualities.

Surrender all your qualities and become hollow and empty to come closer to the guru tattva, this is what you need to do, surrender all your positive and negative qualities and be happy.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji,