Welcome to Day 22 of our 40 Day Retreat 2008.
We have been speaking about Gurus, and the last day I spoke to you about Karana Guru. I said that today I would speak about the Parama Guru – the ultimate Guru. However, I decided to change the topic a little because there is yet another Guru that we need to give attention to. It is not a Guru that we will follow, but it is a Guru that is important to understand. This is the Gurus of lower knowledge who are called Nishiddha Gurus.
Gurus of Lower Knowledge - who are they?
Guru Gita has dedicated a few verses to this Guru, so it must be important to speak about this Guru. I am, therefore, going to take the session today to speak about Nishiddha Guru. Of course, it will inform us about who these Gurus are and what are the consequences of following such Gurus. And for the ones who follow such a Guru, what are their chances for liberation.
First, let me read for you what Guru Gita says about Nishiddha Guru. So far it has been really nice looking at the different types of Gurus that exist in our world. And Guru Gita takes time to talk about each one of them, whether they are important to us now in the journey or not, but in the context of the social order of the world, all these Gurus exist and we need to understand them.
It says:
Moha maarana vashyaadi
Tuccha mantro padarshinam
Nishiddha gurur ityaahuh
Panditaa statva darshinah
The Guru who initiates one in the lower types of vidyas (mohana, maarana, ucchatana, vasya, etc), him the Panditas (the knowers and seers of Truth) call by the name Nishiddha Guru.
Mohana -hypnotic / spellbound
Marana - killing /destructive
Tuccha - lower mind
Vasya - to have under control
Consequences of following Nishiddha Guru
I am going to read for you the consequences at the same time, because Shiva, the Cosmic Teacher, goes on to say what are the consequences of following the Nishiddha Guru.
Nishiddha Guru shishyastu
Dushta sankalpa dushitah
Brahma prayala paryantam
Na punaryaati martyataam
The disciple of the Nishiddha Guru, impelled by evil and wicked desires of a harmful nature, never again gets a human body till the close of a Brahma Pralaya. Which means, a long time.
Then the one who follows the Nishiddha Guru has to come back in a time that is appropriate to that experience which it needs and that will be a long time. In the evolution of the consciousness itself it is going to miss out its chance and needs to come back at the close of a Brahma Pralaya. This is very interesting.
If I were to continue the story, as you know in the Guru Gita the Cosmic Teacher Shiva is narrating the story to his companion Parvati. So Parvati became very disturbed by what was going to happen to students of Nishiddha Guru, and she had a certain question about students of Nishiddha Guru.
A Pertinent Question
Parvati addressed Shiva:
Swayam moodhaa mrityu bheetah
Sukritaad viratim gataah
Daivaan Nishiddha Gurugaa yadi
Teshaan tu kaagatih
What is the fate of those disciples who follow a Nishiddha Guru, and due to meritorious deeds have attained detachment, but still have fear of death?
The students have done good deeds and have come to a state of dispassion. They have now detached themselves from such actions and worldly things.
When student becomes qualified
Then He says to her:
Shrunu tatvam idam Devi
Yadaa syaadwirato narah
Tadaa saavadhi kareeti
Procyate shruti mastakaih
O Devi, hear this Truth. When one is endowed with vairagya or dispassion, the srutis say that he has become a qualified student.
Once he is endowed with vairagya, Shiva is saying that he has now become a qualified student. Shiva then gives him the next step:
Akhandaika rasan Brahma
Nitya muktam niraa mayam
Swasmin san darshitam yena
Sa bhavedasya deshikah
One who enables the student to see within himself the one homogenous essence that is ever free, free from pain, that immortal Brahma becomes the Saviour and Teacher.
He is saying that when the qualified disciple finds the teacher who can lead him to that state inside, that Teacher becomes the Saviour to free the person of all pain.
Guru Principle used in negative ways
This shows how Shiva has given a few verses in the Guru Gita to the Nishiddha Guru. When we look about our world we definitely see those teachers, so to speak, leading people on the destructive path into lower knowledge or vidya. Those who are involved in gang warfare, for example, leading others into destruction and violence, that is a sort of use of Guru Principle in the negative direction.
Those who use some kind of hypnotic spell on people to change their mind and to hold them in some kind of hypnotic bond influencing them to do things; those are also types of people who use the Guru Principle in a negative way. Those who exploit and use their control over people to their own ends who are destructive to society and by the force of their bad deeds, they influence the world into negative things. Those who follow such teachers are going to end up in negative or disastrous consequences.
Discriminate; focus on Self-transformation
If you look at the world around you, you will see stories of such a nature. I am sure you can recall in some of the cult-like movements where people have lost their physical lives, their earthly bodies because of following blindly those kinds of teachers. So there are in the world teachers of the lower vidyas or knowledge, and they are using the Guru Principle in negative ways causing people to follow the wrong path. It is therefore extremely important to be able to see that and to discriminate, and to ensure that we do not follow those kinds of lower vidyas because sometimes it can become tempting.
Some of those people can give promises of all the good things you can develop or the things you can achieve by using these means. Of course, it is extremely important not to be caught up in that but to keep our eyes on our own Self-transformation and the transformation of the community. We must always hold in our mind the uplift of community. Whatever we do in terms of guiding or influencing people, it should always be for good. So here the Guru Gita also informs us of the consequences of such teachers.
Bring positive influence to our world
What I would say in offering this information to you is that it should bring within us concern for our world. When we see how negative teachers can influence our world, then we need to do more in terms of positive influence to our world. Wherever we can, we need to influence those whom we think are going on the wrong path. If they are receptive, we need to be able to influence them to do good.
And more so, we need to remember them in our prayer. Those teachers who are teaching the wrong way, we should bring them to our minds. We also need to ask the Universe to bless them that they may transform themselves. And all the followers, whoever they may be, are destructive to the world, so we should ask that they be awakened to the Light. So in our prayer every day, we should be thinking about those people who are following the wrong path, and pray for their spiritual awakening. This is what it should impel us to do.
Self-transformation; World Transformation
We need to create transformation in the world by the force of our own transformation. And it is beautiful to see when we become transformed and there is more light within us, that we feel a joy in sharing that light and reaching out to the world.
In your prayer every day, pray for those who are deluded, those on the wrong path, those who are wicked. Pray for those leaders who influence people in that way. Wherever you can, try to influence another to be strong because each person whom you influence will influence others. Always remember the mushroom effect or the snowball effect of the good that we do everyday. When we help another, that person helps a few more, and those help many more, and so it goes.
Role of Blue Star to create a better world
So the negative in the world should stimulate us to want to do more positive things, and of course, that is the role of Blue Star and my presence in the world. I am very happy to be here so that I can bring the higher knowledge to people that they may move away from lower knowledge or vidyas. But I accept that those Gurus will exist in a world of duality. If there are good Gurus there will also be bad Gurus. So they exist in the world of duality and there must be something they also teach us – what we should not get involved in and the consequences of following such a path.
I leave you with Nishiddha Guru today and the need for blessings for such souls; the need to pray for them and their followers; and the need for working harder to create a better world. Let us therefore offer prayer and blessings for such beings so that they can be transformed in their ways.
