Decoding Guru | Gurutva | Guru Tattva

 Is Guru a teacher, a mentor, or a state?

गुशब्दस्त्वन्धकारः स्यात्‌ रुशब्दस्तन्निरोधकः।

अन्धकारनिरोधित्वात्‌ गुरुरित्यभिधीयते॥ १६॥ 

Advayatāraka Upaniṣad [Śukla Yajurveda]

The syllable ‘GU’ signifies darkness (गुशब्दस्त्वन्धकारः).

The syllable ‘RU’ denotes the obstruction to that darkness (रुशब्दस्तन्निरोधकः).

That (he/she/they/that) which by the virtue of which the light of realisation that obstructs darkness shows the path is termed as GURU.

The term ‘Guru’ is cryptic. It is an expansive algorithm which we spontaneously arrive at as we progress in our lives from linearity to non-linearity. This expansion is facilitated in our moral, social, financial, physical, and mental lives through constant learning and unlearning from various sources that we understand as teachings and as teachers.

There therefore is a difference between a teacher / mentor and a Guru. The former is a person, a flow of thoughts (gyāna ज्ञान) from whom we decide or prepare to absorb from, either by force, choice, or circumstances. The latter is a state of sensorial expansion at which we non-linearly arrive within ourself, a state of Guru tattva ( गुरुतत्व), an unfettered, immovable grounding arrived at through a subconscious stream of vidyā (विद्या) known as Guru. A nivṛtta (निवृत्त) space where the linearity of sense projection ceases to exist, a space within where one is neither forced nor intellectually rationalised by insecurity, false perception of knowledge, detachment, or guilt to surrender. It is a spontaneous process one arrives at without realising it, without trying to achieve it or compete for it. One can therefore never make a Guru, or search for a Guru, or assign or find one. Being a spontaneous state within, one simply arrives at the Guru without any external validation of lineage, birth or justification, the way a new-born child seamlessly surrenders to their mother, without any logical, moral, social, financial insecurities. This state exists for a minimal time in the child and very soon begins to diminish as the child builds their own world through the sensory inputs they receive.

Attaining Gurutva is reverse engineering towards the state of the new-born. Here, we slowly but spontaneously arrive at non-linearity within, where all worlds created out of sense projections become irrelevant. What remains is the absorption of the pure prāṇa (प्राण) energy… The grounding or Gurutattva that has pure light… Nothing is hidden behind it... Here, the sun neither rises, nor does it set…

Guru Pūrṇimā (गुरु पुर्णीमा) commemorates the auspicious time and day when Lord Śiva transformed from an eternal Yogi to the first Guru, or the Ādi Guru, and dispersed the eternal knowledge of Yoga to the Saptaṛṣi. This day, which falls on the full moon of the Āṣāḍha month (July-August) of the Vedic calendar, is celebrated as a mark of gratefulness towards that pure stream of non-linear expansion that flows through the medium of a person, place, or deity, through whom the eternal state of complete prāṇa absorption was found for one in their individual journey…

May we find the Guru within.

                                                  Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI.