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HOW CAN GURU, MANTRA, DEITY BE ONE?
(Excerpts from The Maid in the Quest of Her Beloved)
Sri Sri Sitaramdas Omkarnath

Part III

Ramdas: Well, Crazy father! How can the three, Guru, Mantra and the deity be one? The Guru is human in form, the deity conforms to the description embodied in the formula for meditation; the Mantra consists of a few letters of the alphabet. How can they be one? Is not that a puzzle?

The Crazy Man: The very same question had occurred to Parvati in the Mundamalatantra.

Parvatyuvacha
Aikyam Jnanam Mahadeva kathamutpadyate Prabho
Narakritir Gurum manye Devata dhyanarupini
Mantraschakshara-rupo hi kathamaikyam bhavechchiva.

To which Siva replied:
Eka jati swarupena swabhadeka janmatah
Etesham bhavajogetu eka sadhanameva hi
Gurorjatischa Mantrascha Mantraja tatu Devata
Ataeva Vararohe Devatayah Pitamahah
Pituscha bhavanad Devi yatha chaiva pituh pituh
Tadudbhava toshameti viparite viparyayah.

It is Mahakala who in essence is one being formless that happens to be every body’s Guru. As for Mantra, it is sound and the deity’s form is self-assumed. All three are therefore formless. That explains why the three are one and the same. Out of Guru comes Mantra; out of Mantra, the deity. So Mantra is the deity’s father while Guru is his grandfa­ther. Meditation on the father pleases the grandfather as well. As the approach to each of the three is the same, Guru, Mantra and the Deity can be described as one.

In the Matrika bheda Tantra Shiva says:

“The best of the sadhakas obtain the supreme Mantra from the lips of the Guru, and out of the Bija grows the form of the deity. Other forms however may evolve at the Guru’s bidding.”

Gurvadi bhavanad Devi bhasiddhah prajayate.

“One can realise the idea that Guru is the Origin, if one seeks to do so”. That is why I affirm the identity of the three, Guru, Mantra and the Deity. Without knowledge of this identity, there cannot be fulfilment of Mantra. The Guru, undoubtedly, is Mantra; the Guru, of course, is the Deity.
That supreme deity assumes two aspects, according as he is inde­terminate and determinate. Referring to the indeterminate, the Shruti observes: his three Padas remain unmanifested, while on one pada float the infinite crores of universes. That inseminate absolute for his self-revealing sport creates each universe with all its creatures through his own power. And to rescue these creatures he assumes determinate forms such as Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwar, Rama, Krishna, Sita, Radha, Durga, and so on. Then again to demonstrate how the ever elusive may be seized, he incarnates himself as Guru. As it is not always possible to remain with the Guru, he installs himself in the seeker as Mantra, in the form of mystic syllables like “Kling”, “hreeng”, etc. The sound of Mantra awakens the “Parapara” Guru i.e., the great-great-Guru namely the Kundalini. Her awakening is another name for the Mantra getting instilled with life. Many psychic experiences occur, both without and within. The deity grants vision of himself (or herself). The Mantra loses itself in the deity’s body, the seeker is admitted to the sushumna. He becomes a liberated spirit. Going into sushumna, Hamsa resolves into Soham, Soham passes yielding place to (Om). Then A and U leave the pada M that is left is of Naadall compact. Naadcontinues. Then come the stages called Vindu, Kala, Kalateeta, Vindu is ahamkara, kala is Mahat tattva, Kalateeta is Prakriti. At the final stage the supreme Brahman appears. Every faculty of perception gets dissolved and merged. What that stage is like can hardly be conceived. The yogi turns stiff as a log. He wakes up only to feel baffled and bewildered. Words fail him to express his joy.
Ramdas: Tell, in what manner should one meditate on the supreme Brahman?

The Crazy man: Well-asked indeed! Pray, how can there be meditation on the supreme Brahman?
However, listen:

Dyam murddhanam yasya vipra vadanti
Kham vam nabhi chakshushi Chandra Suryyau
Dishah shrotra yasya padau kshitimcha
Dhyavyoshau sarva bhutantaratma.

The sphere called swar is his head, the sky is his navel, the sun and the moon are his eyes, the different directions are his ears, and the earth is His foot. Jai Sitaram!

Ramdas: Is the earth his foot? So we reside right within him, eh?

The Crazy man: Sitaram! If a man is thrown into the sea, he is immersed in it and has nothing but the sea on all sides; it is the sea that lies above, beneath, beside and before him. Similarly all creatures are immersed in the sea of the supreme. The only difference between this sea and that is that the supreme is not just outside us but also inside us, even as the sky is. Immersed in him as man is, he believes himself to be separate and the precise point of sadhana (or spiritual exercise) is to eliminate this sense of being separate. The mind gets dissolved in samadhi; the poor doll of salt loses itself while trying to plumb the depths of the sea and it is “Jai Sitaram” with him.

The Crazy man starts singing:

Dive, O, Mind, with “Kali” on your lips,
Into the unfathom’d depths of your heart.
That mine of gems, the sea, is no blank, you know;
But can riches be fished with two dives or three?
With one long dive, O Mind, proceed,
To the shore of your Kula-Kundalini.
Jai Sitaram, Jai Sitaram, dive, dive, do dive, I say.

[The Crazy man begins to dance]

Ramdas: Enough of your dance, Crazy father! I have questions still to ask.

The Crazy man: Wait, Sitaram, let me have a bout of dance.

[“Sitaram, Jai Raja Ram, Gouri Shankara Sitaram”, he shouts, as he claps his hands and dances in ecstasy after which he takes up his seat.]

[A long pause; then Ramdas speaks:]

Ramdas: Oh Crazy father, have you returned to your senses?

The Crazy man: Yes, Sitaram! What have you got to ask?

Ramdas: Well, it is held in certain quarters that until joy and enlighten­ment be found, one can go on experimenting with new Gurus. Is this supported by the Shastras?

The Crazy man: Yes, the Shiva Purana says-

Yatrananda prabodhova nalpamapyupalabyata

vatsaradapi sishyena so nyam gurumupashrayet.

“If initiation by a Guru does not fetch even a slight joy or enlight­enment, the disciple may, on the expiry of a year, approach another Guru.”

Ramdas: What if the second too should fail? And then the third, the fourth, and so on? Should Guru after Guru fail? Is the seeker to pass from Guru to Guru ad infinitum? If all life is spent in quest of the Guru, when will spiritual exercise commence? How can one serve so many Gurus? And how can one manage with so many Mantras? If a man abandons his Mantra, he meets, I am told, with death; if he abandons his Guru, he is punished, I am told, with poverty; in case both are abandoned the result is, I hear, confinement in Raurava hell. To lend one’s ears to whomsoever one meets is to pave the way to the hell called Raurava. Can even a Siddha Guru prevent it?

The Crazy man: Jai Sitaram! It is of course for the meanest of seekers that the Shastras prescribe that course. The respectful disciple never abandons his Guru, no matter how degenerate the Guru may be. He knows:

Avidyo va Savidyo va Guru reva cha daivatam
Amargasthopi margastho guru reva sada gatih
(Nigama kalpadruma)

“Be he learned or ignorant, the Guru is a God to the disciple. No matter whether he follows the right or wrong course, he remains the only resort for the disciple.”
He knows:—

Gurau manusa budhischa Mantre chakshara budhikam
Pratimasu shila buddhim kurvano naraka brajaet
(Jnanarnava)

To look upon the Guru as an ordinary human being, to look upon the Mantra as a mere collocation of letters and to look upon the Image of the Deity as a block of stone is to book for hell.

Paitryam Guru kulam Yastu tyajed vai Dharma Mohitah
Sa Yati Narakam Ghoram Yavachchandrarka tarakam
(Pichchhilatantra)

He who is lured by a false sense of dharma to abandon the line of his father’s Guru, has to live in hell as long as the sun, moon and stars exist.
But then if there is no one competent to initiate, in the ancestral line of Guru, that line may be abandoned with impunity.

The respectful disciple knows:

Mantrartha Devata jneya Devata Guru rupini.
Tesham veda na kartavya Yadeechhe-chhbhamatmanah
(Tarapradeepa)

The letters comprising the Mantra are indeed the deity; the deity is none other than the Guru. He who cares for his own welfare will make no distinction between the Mantra, Guru and the deity.
So you see, the respectful disciple holds fast to the Mantra even if it does not grow sentient all at once. He looks to his own shortcomings and tries to correct his own failings by right observances, pure food, study of sacred texts, holy association and so on; he will not lay his ears open to be whispered into by any and every man on the false plea of his Guru’s incompetence. He lays bare his soul’s distress at the feet of his own Guru and asks him how his Mantra may grow sentient. The Guru too leads the respectful disciple along the way laid down in Shastras for having the Mantra activated. That is how his Mantra becomes instinct with life and he is gratified. Shraddha or reverence is the soul of all sadhana. Where that is wanting, achievement is impossible.