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There is no one greater in the three worlds than the guru. It is he who grants divine knowledge and should be worshiped with supreme devotion.
Atharva Veda, Yoga-Shikha Upanishad, 5.53. YT, P. 26

Monday
LESSON 323
The Guru Tradition
In a traditional Saivite family, the mother and the father are the first teachers, or gurus,
of their children, teaching by example, explanation, giving advice and
direction until their children are old enough to be sent to their next guru, in the arts, sciences, medicine and general education. Families that have a satguru will often choose the most promising religious young son to go to his ashrama, to study and learn the religion and become a sannyasin or a family pandit in later years, depending on how his life works out. In this case, the mother and father, the first gurus, turn the entire direction of their son over to the satguru, the second guru, who then becomes mother and father in the eyes of the son, and in the eyes of his parents as well.
Hindu
children are traditionally brought up respecting their parents. They
follow certain in-house protocols of culture and conduct. Therefore, it
is not difficult for an Asian man to live in an ashrama and follow the protocols of respect that monastic life demands. True bhakti, devotion,
starts with your mother and father. You have to start there if you want
a relationship with God and the Gods. Once the problems with mom and
dad are resolved, then that love for the mother and father is
transferred or extended to God, Gods and guru. It certainly
doesn't mean that you no longer love your mother and father. It's just
the opposite. You have more love, a deeper love, for everyone.
Transferring the love of your family to your guru doesn't mean they no longer have your love, but that you've included your guru in the family. Love is inclusive, not exclusive, on the spiritual path.
To the traditional Saivite, the guru is everything. As Satguru Siva Yogaswami sang, "Mother and father are Siva. Sisters and brother are Siva." Therefore, the guru is Siva; and that is everything, because Siva is everything. But the satguru
is not your business partner, not your psychiatrist, not your
psychologist, not your older brother, as Western persons may regard
him. Western people who do not follow any protocol in their homes
satisfactory for harmonious living should be careful not to transfer to
the guru any disobedience and antagonism that they might have
had for their parents. Many Western homes, in teaching by example, do
so through reverse psychology, teaching what you shouldn't do rather
than what you should do. Relating to a traditional guru is difficult for those brought up in this way. Respect for elders is not there. Neither is responsiveness.
From
my monastic devotees especially I expect the razor's edge of
attentiveness. I expect anticipated responses. This means that the shishya should read the mind of the guru,
give the answer without forethought when a question is put. He must be
sensitive and anticipate. It is not a schoolhouse relationship: five
hours of study and then homework. It is a twenty-four-hour
relationship. I expect to see the monastic in my dreams. The
relationship with the grihastha devotees is different. My
expectancy is that they will maintain the Saiva Dharma as it is
understood to be in the eyes of the community they are associating
with. I also expect each of their male offspring to serve for at least
six months, up to two years, at Kauai Aadheenam, in preparation for
adult life. And I expect all members to perform four hours of karma yoga per week throughout life.
We are all involved in the Nandinatha Sutras, which are the combined effort of all the gurus of our parampara,
with blessings from Maharishi Nandinatha himself. These aphorisms
reflect the patterns of belief and behavior of every aspect of life for
all those on the Kailasa path. Nandinatha's great disciple, Rishi
Tirumular, shows us in the Tirumantiram how well he was taught by his guru
and how well he fulfilled his mission by going to South India to revive
the monistic theism of Saiva Siddhanta. The vast amount of knowledge in
the Tirumantiram, which digests the Agamas and Vedas and weaves them together in such an ingenious way, indicates a lot of deep meditation, training and yoga
practice. It also indicates a great spirit, because he actually did
what he was sent to do, so we actually have that great treatise today,
over 2,200 years later. That shows us an unbroken continuity of what?
Intellectual knowledge? No. Of spirit, the spirit of the guru.
Tuesday
LESSON 324
Continuity Of Spirit
Before books were invented, the traditional way of conveying information was through the spoken word. This is called sampradaya. Sampradaya, verbal teaching, was the method that all satgurus used. A satguru can only give his shishya as much as the shishya can hold in his mind at any one time. If the shishya comes with an empty cup, the cup is filled by the guru. But if the shishya comes with a cup that is already full, nothing more can be added by the guru.
Many satgurus work
with their devotees in unseen ways. They have the ability to tune into
the vibration of a devotee anywhere his physical body might be on the
planet, feel how he is feeling and send blessings of protection and
guidance. The guru-shishya system of training is personal and
direct. Much is unspoken between them, so close is the mental
attunement. The traditional observance of brahmacharya helps to stabilize this relationship.
An advanced shishya is one whose intuition is in absolute harmony with that of his satguru. This harmony does not occur in the beginning stages, however, when the devotee is probing the subject matter of the guru's teachings
for answers. Only after he has conquered the fluctuating patterns of
the thinking mind does an inner flow of harmony begin to become
apparent to both guru and shishya. The shishya is
expected to cultivate his inner life as well as his outer life. The
more sincere and consistent he is with his inner work and his inner
friends -- God, Gods and guru -- the more safe and secure and blessed he will be. Your relationship with your guru is growing stronger even now as you come to better know yourself and proceed in your study of these daily lessons.
Hindu
temples sustain Hinduism around the world. Scriptures keep us always
reminded of the path we are on and the path we are supposed to be on,
but only from the satguru can you get the spirit, the shakti,
the sustaining spirit, to make it all come to life in you, to make the
temple meaningful and to complement the scriptures with your own sight,
your own third-eye sight. Otherwise, it's just words.
Nathas
are not on the path of words. The Rishi wandered down from the
Himalayas to Bangalore. What did he say? Nobody knows. Whom did he talk
to? Nobody knows. Did he influence crowds of people? Perhaps, but he
only had to influence one individual, Kadaitswami, to speak out to the
world. Kadaitswami caught the spirit of the Rishi, who had caught the
spirit of the previous rishi, the previous rishi and all the ones that preceded him. It is that spirit of sampradaya
that makes the traditional teachings meaningful, that gives you the
power to discriminate between what is real within those teachings and
what is superfluous or just plain nonsense, that gives you the power to
blend Siddhanta with Vedanta, Vedas with Agamas.
The irreversible spirit of the guru carries through all of the shishyas. It is basically the only gift a guru
can give -- that sustaining spirit. He doesn't have to give knowledge,
because that has already been written down. He doesn't have to build
temples, because there are more than enough temples for everyone. The
rare and precious gift that he can convey is the inner spirit of his
religious heritage. That is his unique gift to the world.
Nathas
do not follow the way of words. Kadaitswami spoke to a lot of people.
Who knows what he said? They didn't have tape recorders in those days,
and doubtless he never wrote anything down, but the spirit carried
through him to Chellappaguru, who didn't say an awful lot. He wasn't
following the way of words either. He spoke only divine essences of the
philosophy. He didn't write 3,000 verses like Rishi Tirumular did. Nor
did he give lectures to crowds like Kadaitswami did. His spirit was
passed on to Satguru Siva Yogaswami, who passed his spirit on to a lot
of devotees.
We must remember that during the time of the British, all gurus
had to keep a very low profile and that Yogaswami's great work started
to flourish publically only after the British left Sri Lanka. He passed
his spirit on to lots of devotees, including me. If I had not journeyed
to the northern part of Sri Lanka and gone to Siva temples, worshiped
there and received initiation from Yogaswami, would I have returned to
America and built a Siva temple or helped found over fifty other Hindu
temples scattered around the world? No. Would we have a monastic
community? No. Would we have an international Saiva Siddhanta Church?
No. Would we have a Himalayan Academy? No. Would we have a Hindu
Heritage Endowment? No. Would we have a HINDUISM TODAY
magazine? No. Would we have family missions all over the world? No.
Would we be sitting here right now? No. Only because of the existence
of one satguru in this venerable line of gurus, I
caught the spirit; and through this spirit the words manifest, the
activities manifest, the devotees maintain that straight path, the
disciplines bear fruit, the inner sight comes, and after it comes, it
stays. Without satgurus, we would only have temples and scriptures. Without satgurus, we wouldn't have the spirit, and people would stop going to temples and stop reading the scriptures.
Wednesday
LESSON 325
Sustaining the Connection
A satguru doesn't need a lot of words to transmit the spirit to another person; but the shishyas have to be open and be kept open. The little bit of spirit extends like a slender fiber, a thin thread, from the satguru to the shishya,
and it is easily broken. A little bit more of that association adds
another strand, and we have two threads, then three, then four. They
are gradually woven together through service, and a substantial string
develops between the guru and the shishya. More strings
are created, and they are finally woven together into a rope strong
enough to pull a cart. You've seen in India the huge, thick ropes that
pull a temple chariot. That is the ultimate goal of the guru-shishya relationship.
Upon the connection between guru and shishya, the spirit of the parampara travels, the spirit of the sampradaya
travels. It causes the words that are said to sink deep. They don't
just bounce off the intellect; the message goes deep into the
individual. Spiritual force doesn't just happen. It's a hand-me-down
process, a process of transmission, just as the development of the
human race didn't just happen. It was a hand-me-down from many, many
fathers and mothers and many, many reincarnations that brought us all
here. Parampara is a spiritual force that moves from one person to another. I am not talking about the modern idea of bestowing shakti power, where somebody gets a little jolt and pays a little money and that's the end of the association with the teacher. Parampara is
like giving a devotee one end of a tiny silk thread. Now, if the
devotee drops his end of the thread, the experiences are stopped and
only words are left, just words, one word after another, another and
another. The devotee then has to interpret the depth of the philosophy
according to the depths of his inherent ignorance. What other
measurement does he have? The relationship with the guru is a
constant weaving in and out of one fiber of the thread added to another
fiber, added to another fiber, added to another fiber, just like this khadi kavi
robe we wear in our Order was woven. Each fiber is attached to another
fiber, attached to another fiber, attached to another fiber, and
finally we have a thread. Between the guru and shishya many
threads are all woven together, and finally we have a firm rope that
cannot be pulled apart or destroyed even by two people pulling against
one another. That is sampradaya. That is parampara. That is the magical power of the Nathas.
As we look at this great line of satgurus -- coming from Lord Siva Himself through Nandinatha and countless ones before Nandinatha, to Rishi Tirumular and countless rishis
after him to the Rishi of Bangalore, to Kadaitswami, Chellappaguru and
Yogaswami -- we see the same spiritual force flowing. We see an
undaunted, rare succession of individuals who considered adversity as a
boon from the Gods, wherein all the accumulated karmas to be
wiped away come together in one place to be taken care of all at once.
Nathas don't run from adversity; nor do they resent it. They take it
within themselves in meditation and deal with it, dissolve it in the
clear white light within themselves, every tiny little bit of it. They
consider it a boon from the Gods that it all came at one time rather
than strung out over a period of many years. The mysterious Nathas have
their own way of handling almost everything, and much of that is
revealed in the Nandinatha Sutras. These sutras have
within them, summarized in short stanzas, all the knowledge that's
within our catechism and creed, all the knowledge that's in our
monastic Holy Orders, all the knowledge embodied in our Saiva culture, in our brahmacharya
course, and all the other books and lessons we have published and
distributed throughout the years. They give codes of behavior, conduct,
ways of living, ways of moving, ways of thinking, as well as the basic
core of the monistic Saiva Siddhanta taught by our Kailasa Parampara
for eons and eons of time.
Thursday
LESSON 326
Why a Guru Is Necessary
Many of you have been studying with me for ten,
twenty or thirty years. I want you to think and think through the rest
of the day about the spirit of the satguru. Suppose you didn't have a satguru. You would be guided by the spirit of your intellect, or the spirit of your instinct, or the energies of confusion. The satguru
only has one job, to keep his devotees on the right track. We do not
follow the way of words, which is repeating from memory verses and
stanzas of scripture with meager mental interpretations of their
meaning. We follow the way of transformational spiritual unfoldment. We
follow the marga of sadhana and tapas. Shishyas move from one stage to another in spiritual unfoldment as they progress through the different petals of the higher chakras and come into one or more inner awakenings, one after another. They are not to settle down in any one or several of the chakras
and consider, "This is a nice life. I like this part of my unfoldment,
so I won't strive further." They can't do that, because the spirit of
the guru drives them onward. He is constantly thinking and saying, "This is not good enough; you can do better."
Did
Chellappaguru ever say to Yogaswami, "OK, now we've done enough. Let's
just be ordinary"? No, he kept walking him around and feeding him,
walking him around and feeding him, walking him around and feeding him,
walking him around and feeding him, until finally Satguru Yogaswami was
walking around and feeding everybody, walking around and feeding
everybody, and eventually everybody was doing the same thing. Passing
on that spiritual quality, we don't have any problems. We don't have to
solve problems with words. Problems are tackled with words when you are
following the path of words. This can be a long, long, tedious process.
But when spiritual awakenings are there, problems are solved by lifting
consciousness. The problem goes away, just automatically goes away. It
is a do-it-yourself process, a mystical tantra not to be ignored.
Every Hindu needs a satguru, a preceptor. The satguru is as much a part of Hinduism as are the temples, as are the Vedas
and our other great scriptures, because not everyone can see for
themselves. They need someone to see ahead a little bit for them and to
keep them on the right track and in the right mood. Because people are
tribal, they need a guide. I've heard prominent swamis all
through the years remark, "You all need a spiritual guide. If you don't
want me, find somebody else, but you need someone to guide you through
life." It could be a grandmother, it could be a grandfather, it could
be your astrologer, a temple priest, a visiting yogi or a resident swami in your community, a sadhu, a pandit or a rare satguru
-- somebody that you will listen to and follow. The choice must be made
after much consideration, after talking with parents, consulting elders
and searching the heart. Once the choice is made, don't change your
mind. Be loyal and give him or her all the love and devotion you have
to give and more. Take advice and admonition as golden offerings and
proceed in confidence. Many benefits will come from their guidance on
the path of dharma for a fruitful and fulfilling life.
A
heavy burden falls upon the preceptor, too. He or she must produce
results and continue to do so. Preceptors are not entertainers, content
to be lauded or bowed down to in adulation. Rather, they must benefit
their followers' lives, lessen their karmic burdens and
strengthen the family, hold marriages together, as well as seek out
potential religious leaders and train them well. They must follow the karmas of
each individual and each family year after year, and they must be there
for devotees when needed most. They must demonstrate their shanti and bask in the bliss of attainment. They must be spirit, for spirit lives on.
Friday
LESSON 327
Guidance And Growth
When people do not have a guide, they wander around
bumping into each other. They can't see the consequences of their
actions. They perform good, bad and mixed actions and don't keep on the
right track and therefore end up wandering around in circles. They
don't listen to their mothers. They don't listen to their fathers. They
don't listen to their spiritual guides. They don't listen to their
local religious mentors. But they do listen to the hottest rock star,
to their drug dealer and their gang leader. They do listen to the
Miranda reading from the police officer before they have to listen to
the local judge and later to their parole officer. Some have to listen
to their AIDS or cancer counselor and make plans for an early
departure. So, they can listen. Yes, listening is still functional. Am I communicating? Are we communicating?
Unfortunately,
many children are raised by their parents these days to not listen to
anyone. "Don't ask me. Make up your own mind," they are told, "I just
want you to be happy." Children are raised to be confused. They are
raised to be loners in a complicated world. They are raised to be
lower-consciousness people. And in many schools they are raised to
become educated criminals. Let's get back to the basics of raising
children properly, giving them proper guidance. It is the dharma of the parents to raise their children properly, as it is the duty of the satguru to see that they do it.
It is the duty of the shishya to be responsive to the satguru and not resistive. I was impressed at an ashrama in India we visited recently with how responsive everybody was to their guru. The guru there merely looks, and devotees ask, "What can I do to serve?" The guru
speaks, and everyone immediately responds. No resisting: "I have
something else to do. You already gave me ten things to do. How can you
possibly want me to stop now and do something else? Isn't there
somebody else around here who can do it?" I saw none of that there.
Maybe everybody was just on their good behavior because we were there,
but it certainly took a lot of practice. They must have been practicing
to be on their good behavior for about five years before we arrived.
Wonderful responsiveness. Because of such responsiveness, the
connection between the shishya and the guru maintains a
systematic growth, and the spiritual life comes up within the
individual which breaks all routine and yet works within routine, is
beyond all intellectual and reasoning abilities yet works within the
intellect and through reason, is unpredictable yet predictable in that
it is consistently unpredictable.
However, we must remember
that blind obedience is never the spiritual way. It is intelligent
cooperation that is the binding force in a well-run ashrama.
Intelligent cooperation means obtaining an extremely clear
understanding of what is requested to be done before proceeding. Often
this requires asking questions, discussing the direction or project, as
one would do in a modern corporation, then, once all is understood,
making the leader's direction your own direction. This is intelligent
cooperation, not blind obedience. Those are the spiritual qualities
that I see in all of you here at Kauai Aadheenam and which are
manifesting in my shishyas all over the world.
Saturday
LESSON 328
The Mission Of the Nathas
Responsiveness is the spiritual quality I look for
in my devotees. Without that quality in life, nothing really works
right. People settle down to an ordinary, routine job, and begin the
process of hate, jealousy and revenge, hate, jealousy and revenge,
hate, jealousy and revenge with their employer and with employees who
work close to them. Nowadays even with their mothers and fathers and
brothers and sisters this kind of competition goes on. Such negatively
competitive people never make it to the top in any modern corporation
or make much out of their lives.
In the Nandinatha Sutras
I make it very clear that competition -- competitive games, competitive
sports, competitive activities of all kinds -- should not be stimulated
within young people, or old people, because the winner-loser
consciousness keeps the lower qualities active. I tell my devotees, be
helpful to everyone; don't compete with anyone. Do the very best you
can and appreciate others' doing the best that they can. You all have a
lot to think about when you read the Nandinatha Sutras and
consider that the foundation of wisdom within them originated from deep
within, 2,200 years ago, when Maharishi Nandinatha sat with his shishya,
Tirumular, and said, "Go down to South India and teach about the
glories of Lord Siva. Teach that He is within you and you are within
Him, that He is the Life of your life, and your soul was emanated from
Him. Keep our monistic philosophy moving along down there. I can see
that they have gotten a little bit confused." He didn't go to the
airport and buy a ticket on a jet plane to South India. He had a long
and arduous journey, probably on foot for the most part, and by bullock
cart. Many, many things could have happened to him on the way. He could
have faced many temptations. He could have been tempted by pretty girls
bathing at the rivers. He could have been robbed. He could have been
assaulted. He could have been killed, but because of his tapas and the good karma he had accumulated by being carefully obedient to his guru, the connection with his guru,
the spiritual force, carried him like a magical carpet to where
Chidambaram is today. He started his mission and he fulfilled his
mission, and his mission is being fulfilled to this very day, right
here in this room, and will continue to be fulfilled 2,200 years from
now.
Nothing can stop the spiritual force. Death cannot stop
it. The intellect cannot stop it. Once it begins, it continues. The
instinct cannot stop it. Adversity cannot stop it. In the future, we
envision pictures of our Nandinatha line of satgurus all the
way around this room, then around, and then around, and then around. We
can see ahead another 2,200 years. It's the same spiritual force, shakti
of Siva, flowing through the Nathas. There are many Nathas being born
again as Nathas to move things along, to improve conditions; and when
things aren't going very well, more Nathas will come to put a spiritual
force into the world through such media as HINDUISM TODAY.
This public service of our Natha order has united the Hindus of the
world, educated the Hindus of the world, so they can talk to one
another in one voice, in one common forum, and look in the same way at karma, dharma, reincarnation, the Vedas and Agamas
and all these wonderful things that we are writing about in our
international magazine. Hindus can now freely and knowledgeably speak
about their religion and the four major denominations within it,
understand one another in Asia, England, throughout the continents of
Europe and Africa, North America, South America, and have better
appreciation for their very great religion, which is put forth in HINDUISM TODAY in a simple, pragmatic way. This is all the work of the mysterious Nandinatha lineage.
Sunday
LESSON 329
Inner Bands Of Steel
If you ever become discouraged and wonder about the
path, remember that there are three pillars of Hinduism that will keep
you on the path: the satguru, the temple and the scriptures. Go to the temple, strengthen your relationship with your guru
and begin studying the scriptures. Discouragement will go away and
courage will come. Dark hours will go and bright hours will come.
Problems will bend down as the intelligence from the spiritual force
begins to come up. This is the way of the mysterious Nathas, who don't
follow the way of words.
Nathas don't have any hype. We are not beating a drum or selling a mantra or
selling a seminar or selling a promise. We just are who we are, doing
what we are doing, and if anyone comes along to help, that is our karma
at that point in time. We do the very best that we can with the
facilities that we have. We don't sell healing. We make no promises.
Nathas do their job on a very broad scale and pay attention to every
small detail at the same time. That's the working of the spiritual
force that has come from Sage Yogaswami, Chellappaguru, Kadaitswami,
the mysterious Rishi and those that preceded him, back to Tirumular and
Maharishi Nandinatha and those that preceded them and those that
preceded them and those that preceded them, for as long as people have
walked on this planet.
Yes, there are three pillars of our great religion: satgurus,
temples -- Siva temples, Murugan temples, Ganesha temples -- and the
oldest scriptures in the world. But it's the spiritual force of the satguru
that makes the religion come to life in the individual. Would we all be
sitting here today if when I went to the Jaffna Peninsula to find my guru
he wasn't there, and I just worshiped in a few temples for awhile and
came back to the United States? No. We would not all be sitting here
today. The temples don't give you that kind of spiritual force. The
scriptures don't give you that kind of spiritual force. It is only the satguru
that gives you the sustaining, spiritual force that makes life on this
planet worthwhile and gives you the ability to prevail over all
challenges and make a lasting difference, not only in yourself but in
the lives of others.
Now we are all working together to bring
Hinduism, especially Saivism, into the twenty-first century. It is
going to take all of our energies collectively to make that next big
step, because there will be many changes. It is our job to bring the
best of tradition into the twenty-first century, with clarity of
thought and, most importantly, with the spirit and mysticism that go
along with it.
Spirit expressed in a simple example would be, "I want to do my hatha yoga! I want to get up in the morning and meditate!" Lack of spirit is, "I have to do my hatha yoga.
Oh, do I really have to? Maybe just today I won't get up and meditate."
That's the instinctive mind talking. That's not the superconscious mind
talking. "I want to" -- that's the spiritual force. "Do I have to?" or
"I should" -- that's the instinctive-intellectual force.
Sitting here today thinking about our wonderful lineage of gurus,
about what they said and what they didn't say, you will find that we
don't know what some of them said and what they didn't say. But what
they did, that's the important thing. And how did they do it? Through
continuity of the spiritual force -- one thread and then another
thread, one fiber and then another fiber and another fiber, until a
rope was built up that was stronger than any humans could pull apart.
Bands of steel, generation after generation, that's the Nandinatha way,
unbreakable bands of spiritual force.
It is important that
newcomers to the Hindu faith, the young people especially, realize that
in ancient times as well as today the family unit is complete only when
it includes an ordained spiritual mentor, a guru or pandit. It is to him or her that the family turns in times of joy and celebration. It is to him or her that the family goes when karmas
are heavy, when difficulties and confusions are encountered on the path
and the proper course is unclear. This mentor's firmness and clarity
are a stabilizing influence in the family's year-to-year life. For most
but not all Hindus, a family temple is also a necessity, as is a
collection of sacred writings or scripture, often the teachings of
contemporary masters.
We encourage all to receive, with
enthusiasm, as one would a God, all Hindu religious leaders, when they
come to your community. Show the proper protocol, rush forward, garland
them with flowers, lay gifts at their feet in humble obeisance. They
are the mainstay and powerhouse and source of all expressions of our
beloved Sanatana Dharma and its followers.
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