Welcome to Day 40 of our 40-Day Retreat..
Today I have decided to speak to you about Guru Gita as a song of freedom. I feel very happy to speak about Guru Gita because I feel like my life is a testimony to it, that I have realized the fruits of Guru Gita.
The Song of the Seeker, the Song of the Liberated One
Guru Gita is a song of the seeker and also the song of the liberated one. The one who is seeking will find great comfort, guidance and wisdom in Guru Gita – unending. As you go deeper and deeper into the verses, it will take you deeper and deeper within yourself. For the liberated one it is a joy to sing it because it represents their experiences, wisdom, joy and service.
The Discipline of Singing
When I first became acquainted with Guru Gita in India, I was having spiritual awakening at the same time, so the Guru Gita became a book of wisdom for me. It guided me and it provided me with a discipline, a discipline of singing.
I always say to you that singing is not just singing. Singing is an energy discipline and if you understand the science of sound and how chakras, or energy centers inside are involved in sound, in song, in singing, you will see that singing is much more, than what it appears to be.
Singing can take you on a path of transformation. I am sure that great singer’s lives have been transformed just by singing. Of course you know that if you are an artist, that art can transform your life. If you are a dancer, a singer, a musician, a painter, a poet, it can transform your life. It takes you deeper and deeper within your own being to the source of all creativity, wisdom and beauty within you. It makes you a servant, an instrument, a channel to express the Divine. The chanting or recitation of Guru Gita is a very elevating action or practice.
Every Verse of the Guru Gita is a Mantra
Much more than that, Guru Gita itself says that every verse is a mantra. Mantras are sounds of power. When you repeat them in a space they not only inspire the hearts and minds of people, but they energize the space by the power potency of the sounds, the seed sounds in the mantras. They electrify the space.
When you repeat them regularly they hold you in a discipline - disciplining your mind. If you are really attentive to it, it creates a discipline in the space around you. This is extremely important because when our emotional and mental energies are fluctuating then our spaces are also filled with fluctuating energies. So when you recite or chant mantras with full attention and from the depth of your being, they energize the space consistently.
When you repeat them with full attention, they stay in your mind. It is beautiful when a mantra can stay in your mind besides your prayer and meditation. The mantra can stay with you throughout your day because it is inside the mind, it is etched in the mind beautifully and powerfully, the mantras have noble and deep meaning. The Guru Gita is such a mantra.
Love for the Guru Gita
I remember in the early days falling in love with the Sanskrit language. Waking up in the morning in South India, in an Ashram and listening to an older person singing these verses. I am lying on my bed sleeping in a dormitory and I am hearing these beautiful sounds and I am thinking “Oh my God, I love this, I love this prayer that he is singing.” A few weeks later I was sitting in an Ashram chanting Guru Gita and I said “Oh my God this is beautiful, this is heavenly!”
In the beginning it was difficult to follow the verses but after a while the verses and words come to you. When I started to have spiritual awakening, wow, the wisdom! This was describing what was happening to me!
Guru Gita Speaks About the Teacher, the Guide, the Mentor
What is marvellous about Guru Gita is that it speaks about the teacher, the guide, the mentor and in life we need those. Even if we think we don’t need them, we are still drawn to them. When you read a book for guidance and you thing “Well, I am reading this book, I am not caught up in any person.” Well, the book is written by a person and those words carry the energy of a person. So in reading the book you are being influenced and guided by a person.
You see in our world today how many people are drawn to following so many iconic people, like Entertainers, sports people, wealthy people, those who are going after pleasures and seem to be very successful - those who sing the praises of all the pleasures in the world. We are drawn to want to be like them, to follow them. And some of us are drawn also to the spiritual giants, when we see them, when we see self mastery, we see spiritual wisdom, we are drawn to it. So we naturally as human beings follow people whether we think so or not.
From the moment a human being is born, they are guided by somebody. The moment the mind starts to think, we begin to follow - we start reading books, we start seeing pictures, we start listening to words and we are influenced by our world.
Seek the Supreme Teacher – the Parama Guru
Guru Gita is saying “In following those in our world, ensure that you follow the true ones who can lead you to higher knowledge and freedom”. It is saying understand these people, and understand the process which they follow. It says, in following different teachers in the world for various reasons, look for the highest teacher of all, the supreme teacher. If you want liberation from the bondage of ignorance, or the trap that holds the mind in materialism, then seek those teachers, those teachers that the Guru Gita describes as Parama Gurus.
Guru Gita speaks about different Gurus and their purpose. Our world is filled with different Gurus and they all have a purpose. It is a joy for me to look at what each teacher in our world has to offer and to honour that teacher. That teacher is an expression of my own self and is a gift to the world. That teacher is a part of the universal power or principle of guidance.
The Meaning of ‘Guru’
Guru Gita spoke in the beginning verses about Guru in the Universe. We must remember what Guru means in every sense. It means removing darkness from inside of us. Guru Gita states very clearly that Gu represents darkness, bondage. Ru represents the light, that which removed the darkness.
You will find that throughout our world, people are helping us to open up the mind, to learn more at different levels. All these Gurus are necessary on our path when we want to learn, and extremely necessary on our path when we want to become free - truly free.
Guru is the Supreme Consciousness Inside of Us
Guru Gita tells us about the mystery; it tells us how to relate to Guru. What is beautiful about Guru Gita, is that it is not limiting, it goes beyond Guru as a human being. This is the most marvellous thing about Guru Gita for me. It doesn’t limit Guru to being a human person. It says Guru is a supreme consciousness inside of us manifesting in the entire Universe, working in a marvellous co-creation through human beings, in the whole Universe, in every situation, to remove darkness. It opens up our mind to see Guru in the most Universal sense. Guru Gita is saying very clearly that we need to ultimately understand that Guru is within us.
The Fulfillment of the Teacher
The fulfillment of any teacher, any Guru is when you become accomplished and you become like the Guru in whatever you are doing. If you are a music teacher a music Guru, then you want the person to master the music because you have mastered it. If you are a language Guru, then you want the person to master the language as you have mastered it. If you are a scripture Guru, then you want the person to understand the knowledge of the scriptures as you have.
The goal of the spiritual Guru as well, is for you to experience what that Guru has experienced. Ultimately in following any Guru we need to become like they are. So Guru is not about worshiping in the external sense, it is about becoming in the internal sense. That is what Guru Gita says “By meditating on Guru, on Guru Principle, on the Light, you need to become the Light.” The verses are very clear. It speaks about the importance of these verses that form a blueprint for the spiritual journey, the journey to liberation.
The Central Question: “How can an Embodied Soul become Liberated?”
Remember that Guru Gita started with a simple verse, a simple question, but a very profound question, we began the 40 Days with this. The question is “How can an embodied Soul, the spirit within us, that eternal spirit embodied within flesh, within matter and in the bondage of ignorance, become liberated?” That is the central question in Guru Gita.
The guide in Guru Gita, the Cosmic Teacher is so happy to address the question, saying that “This question is of benefit to the whole world and it is out of love for you that I give you this wisdom.” The Guru Gita is a dialogue between the seeker (the one who is asking the question) and the teacher (the one who is established in wisdom or the light). So the Guru Gita is a manual for living, it is a manual for enlightenment, it is a manual for learning the relationship between you and that grace bestowing power of Light in the Universe.
Chanting the Guru Gita
The power of the Guru Gita, the power of the Mantra, is that you can use Guru Gita as a mantra for study, for contemplation, for recitation (chanting), for honouring and it becomes a very powerful tool for spiritual discipline. I kept this discipline for over 30 years.
I was thinking this morning, while I was chanting the Guru Gita that every time I chant it, it is like the first day. It holds me in that space every day of newness, of the “Now”. Energetically it holds me, in a very deep space of consciousness. Each word that I sing, every song that I sing, I feel it floating out into the Universe, energizing everything. It expresses my heart, every verse of wisdom, expresses my heart. So it’s a love song for me, singing to the beloved of my heart, singing to every Being that can appreciate and understand, holding me in its energy and grace, blessing me with its power. What can I say to you about Guru Gita?
Importance of Reading the Guru Gita
I will read to you a few of the verses from Guru Gita that speaks about the importance of reading Guru Gita. This Guru Gita has carried us through the 40 Days with its beautiful wisdom and it has held us in meditation with the power of the verses. It has held us in its Grace with the energy that we have felt from deep inside.
This Guru Gita would have come from the Source, from where all wisdom and beauty comes. Whoever would have been the channel, may that being be blessed, of course it comes from the Source of all wisdom.
Guru Gita is to be studied with Faith and Devotion
Now let us hear what Guru Gita has to say about repetition:
Imaam tu bhakti bhaavena
Pathed vai shrnu yaadapi
Likhitvaa yat pradaanena
Tat sarvam phalam ashnute
“Whoever studies this with faith and devotion with love for it and understanding or even hears it or writes it in a book and makes a gift of it to someone, this person attains all merit, meaning earning Grace.” Of course that is why I like to give it out, and listen to it, to study it and to recite it.
Guru Gita is a Mantra.
Guru Geeta aksharai kai kam
Mantra rajam idam priye
Anye cha vividhaa mantraah
Kalaam naarhanti shodasheen
“Oh dear Paarvati Goddess, every letter and syllable of this Guru Gita is each a mantra raj, a king of mantras.” Of course this is here, to get you to embrace Guru Gita powerfully. “Other mantras are not worth even one sixteenth of it.” Of course other mantras are powerful, but this is just to glorify that Guru Gita is so good.
Guru Gita Wards of Negative Influences
This other verse speaks about how chanting Guru Gita can ward off negative influences.
Asiddham saadhayet kaaryam
Navagraha bhoyaapaham
Duh swapna naashanam chaiva
Suswapna phala daayakam
“One attains success in all actions including those which are considered unsuccessful. It removes the fear of the evil influences of the planets, destroys bad dreams and bestows the fruit of good karma.” It says it is a protector from the negative.
Guru Gita bestows the Four Goals of Life
Sarva paapa prashamanam
Dhame kaama artha mokshadam
Yam yam chinta yate kaamam
Tam tam praapnoti nishchitam
“This is the destroyer of all sins. It bestows the four goals of life – righteousness, pleasure, wealth and liberation.” It says by repeating Guru Gita you achieve all the goals. “He certainly attains all objects of his desires.”
Guru Gita is a Tool
I live by these words, I have experienced these words, and the Guru Gita has certainly fulfilled these for me. It is a marvellous song of protection, of spiritual discipline that attracts all good things from the Universe.
Over the years I have used Guru Gita as a tool and I have found that it has kept me on the spiritual path powerfully. It has taught me so much about the relationship between the student and the teacher. It has expanded my view of the teacher, moving it away from the person, to the power inside of me and to the power in the whole Universe.
Guru Gita is my song for life. As long as I live, I will forever sing this song. It is certainly the song of freedom and it is certainly my love song to that liberating power in the Universe that we call the Guru Principle. It is my love song. So I hope that in singing it for you, in speaking of it to you, that you too will be inspired by its beauty. Its more than a song, it is an expression of freedom, and its words certainly hold the key to liberation.
Post Meditation Remarks
Namaskar everyone, welcome back and in this particular year our 40 Days ends on a beautiful Sunday. And we end the 40 Days with Guru Gita, the song of freedom, the song of liberation, the song of the seeker and the song of the liberated one, the song that can fulfill all our needs in society - individual and collective. May we see this song as our song and may we give even more power to this song as we embrace its values in our own lives. We give power to teachings by embracing and reflecting them. We give power to the song by doing the same.
It would have been late in this night that the beautiful experience would have come to me, this crowning experience, waking up in the morning, a different person, a completely different person.
Have a wonderful day everyone, it is my greatest joy to be in service to you.
Namaskar.
