8.4 - Guru Worship

Diksha is a special process for removing evil taints and initiating pupil with powers and siddhis.

Kinds of Dikshas are:

Chakshusi by mere glance

Sparsa by touching the head.

Vacha by words blessing.

Manasi mentally blessing.

Sastri by teaching sastras.

Yoga is Guru entering into the pupil’s mind inwardly.

Howtri Kriyavati performing homas with fire.

Howtri Jnanavati doing the homa mentally, to bless the pupil.

Need for a Guru.

The question is whether Guru is needed or not? Even now people conduct heated arguments. Some arguing that there is need and others arguing that there is no need. These debates are usually fruitless and they excite and result in loss of peace. A good example is Heamdpant alias Anna Saheb Dabolkar’s case. On his first visit to Shirdi, he hotly contested for one hour or so that a Guru was an unnecessary fetter and quoted the Gita, in his support. Bala Saheb Bhate took the opposite view and maintained that destiny was supreme and that all had a Guru. The discussion made Anna Dabolkar less fit to approach the great Guru Sai Baba by reason of restlessness. But Baba by graciously revealed his Antarjnana. All that passed during the discussion made Anna Dabolkar feel humble and contrite. He felt that Baba was a wondrous Supreme Power before whom he and his weak powers should bend and given up his “reason” and supposed independence. And thus he became the sishya of Baba. By Baba’s grace he found that destiny had fixed him up.

The Sastras, for example, Srimad Bhagavata, Bhagavata Gita, Guru Gita, Katham Mundadam Taittiriya, Maha Narayanopanishad say clearly that without a Guru Brahmanjnana and Moksha cannot be attained.

The need is questioned as a rule by persons not yet fit to be sishyas that is those without humility, reverence, patience, receptivity and other virtues, or the proper attitude towards great saints. They must be advised to have Satsang. That is they must move with bhaktas and fit themselves for further progress. When they are fairly fit, they will get their Guru. It is not the truth that sishyas always go out to find the Guru. The reverse is often true. There are many noble souls waiting to be approached by persons who want to become sishyas and have the proper attitude and training.

“Let students come.”

There are great souls who have attained perfect peace and who are working to benefit and bless the world like the spring season. Though they have themselves crossed the terrible ocean of samsara, they are ferrying others across without any reward or recompense or motive. Sai Baba himself sent for N.G. Chandorkar expressly and drew hundreds or thousands to him inwardly and unnoticed by them. Baba says, ‘No one comes to me except by my drawing. I draw people to me under various pretexts such as the worldly objects they want. When a boy ties a bird’s foot with one end of a string and pulls the other end, can the bird refuse to come?’ This drawing is mostly due to rinanubandha. That is prenatal ties and obligations. This is termed by Baba Saheb Bhate, the irresistible pull of destiny. The need for a Guru is patent especially in worldly affairs. People do not expect the children to learn the three ‘R’s, drawing, etc., without a teacher. If this is so in the material world, how much more essential is the need in the subtle spiritual field? Generally one’s spiritual progress and the stages one has to go through, and the way of mastering problems that arise there are often dealt with in books on religion. These books will not suffice to enable one to tackle this subject effectively. Religious literature is a vast forest, through which one cannot pick one’s way.