The Message of the Guru

[Satyajit Roy]

The Message of the Guru
(Taittiriya Upanishad)
Paraphrased- simplified- abridged
By R.R.Diwakar

[The span of ashrama life for students was usually twelve years. The students lived with their preceptors and served them and the ashrama during that period. They learnt the Vedas, maintained the sacrificial fire and studied whatever the guru taught them. Below is given a model message from a guru to a departing disciple at the end of the period. This might be said to be a ‘Convocation Address’ if we liken the ashramas of old to the ‘residential universities’ of today. This occurs in the Taittiriya Upanishad.]

Young boys eight or more entered the ashramas and were entrusted to the care of the guru or the preceptor. They spent twelve long years in study and sport, in service and sadhana or spiritual discipline. They were called brahmacharis, that is, those who adopt a particular discipline in order to know Brahman. Brahmacharya is not mere continence, but a whole code of disciplined conduct which aims at the conservation, development and concentration of physical, mental and moral energy, in order to attain the highest spiritual goal.
The twelve strenuous years thus spent by the youngsters in the very home of the guru in close association with him, built up very affectionate relations between them. The gurus were expected to take almost parental interest in their charges, while the disciples were to render filial obedience to the gurus.
Let us imagine in one such ashrama, a day dawns when a disciple or a group of them is about to depart and plunge into the wide world. He is leaving the charmed circle of the ashrama to battle with the currents and cross-currents of life. He is to transfer himself from the cloister to the market place. He is now to test in the world of experience what he has learnt within the precincts of the academy. He is to cut off his moorings in the sheltered bay and launch the boat of his life into the open sea. Fears and thrills of anticipated adventures fill the young man as he contemplates the prospect before him. The guru too feels the wrench and his heart is full of emotion. He has some anxiety about the future of his young disciple. But the separation is inevitable- it has to come one day. In fact, by that separation alone can the future development of his student be ensured.
Such are the mixed feelings that surge in the heart when the Vedic guru gives the parting message to the brahmachari after his study of the Vedas is over.

“My dear child, your study of the Vedas is over. Now go forth into the wide world.
“Speak the truth and practice the Dharma or the Law. Never fail nor falter in the study of that part of the Veda that has been assigned to you. Study more but never less than thy portion.
“Give to your preceptor such wealth and such things as are dear to him. Never allow your line of life to lapse. Behind you, you must leave children.
“Never falter from the truth or from the Law (Dharma). Never stint nor make mistakes in doing good. Never neglect to do that which would lead to prosperity.
“Do not give up your studies and do not stop teaching.
“You ought not to omit to do your duties towards your gods and ancestors; commit no mistakes in performing them.
“Revere your mother and your father as much as you revere god. Let your guru (preceptor) be looked upon as god. Let your guest get the same respect as is due to god.
“Be thou faultless and pure in thought and action. Only such of your qualities and actions as are clearly good should be cherished by you, and not others. Such knower of Brahman as are greater than ourselves ought to be highly respected by you.
“Whilst giving, give with faith; never without it. Give richly. Give with humility. Give with fear, lest you give too little. Give with feeling and with full knowledge.
“At times you may be in doubt about the wisdom of a certain course of action. At such a time you should act in a manner in which thoughtful and virtuous knower of Brahman who are desirous of following the Law, do act.
“So also, as regards your conduct towards men of ill fame; it should be like that of thoughtful, virtuous knower of Brahman who follows the Law.
“This is the message. This is the advice. This is the knowledge. This is the command. Thus should you live and act in life.”


OM TAT SAT

[Tapan Mukherjee]

On, 14 February 2008, there was another mass shooting in the USA. A frustrated person shot 18 people in a lecture hall during a class on a university campus and then shot himself dead. As I am writing this, five deaths have so far been reported. Why are people so frustrated that they do such things? What has gone wrong with the human society that such events are becoming quite common?

The reality is that we have lost our sense of identity. We do not know who we are. This is why people are so frustrated. We are thinking that we are these bodies. It is this false sense of identification that is the very source of our frustration. We want to live forever, but we are foolishly misidentifying ourselves with a perishable lump of matter. All we have to do is realize who we really are and then act fully in terms of that realization. This will bring an immediate end to all frustration and bring a new era of peace, happiness, prosperity to the entire world.

So what is the world waiting for? Why doesn't everyone take advantage of this knowledge and become liberated right now? They are steeped in ignorance. So somebody needs to distribute this knowledge to them. It is simply a matter of getting the good news around to everyone in a compelling and convincing manner. That's all.

So who is that somebody who will distribute this supreme knowledge? That someone is you. Tell everyone you meet about Akhanda consciousness. Be a part of the solution, the Akhanda consciousness revolution, not a part of the problem, the status quo.