Re: KAnchi ParamAchArya satsangham
guru has fatherliness too
If appA--(Tam)father is guru then guru is appA too!
In the nIti shAstram, five people are referred to as appA. As to who they are:
जनिता चॊपनेता च यस्तु विद्यां प्रयच्छति ।
अन्नदाता भयत्राता पञ्चैते पितरः स्मृताः ॥
janitA chOpanetA cha yastu vidyAM prayachChati |
annadAtA bhayatrAtA pa~jchaite pitaraH smRutAH ||
1. janItA--one who gives birth, is the father known to everyone.
2. upanItA--one who performs the sacred thread ceremony for the son: (This is usually the father but then) for many sons whose father is no more, it happens that another man performs the ceremony, right?
• Even when the father is alive, when the brahmopadesham is done for two sons in the same muhUrtam--auspicious duration, then for one son the father and for the other, another man like chittappA--(Tam)father's younger brother or periyappA--(Tam)father's elder brother vests him with the sacred thread, right? -- Such a man whoever he is, he too is a father.
• The shAstra--scriptures say that only he who has good gAyatrI anuShThAnam--rigor of chanting the gAyatrI mantra (and doing sandhyA vandanam) should do the brahmopadesham for the child.
• In ancient times, a janaka pitA--father giving birth, who did not have the rigor, had the upadesham done for his son, only through men who had attained siddhi--competence, in the gAyatrI. Such guru becomes that son's father.
3. yastu/yachcha vidyAM prayachChati--one who teaches the vidyA--different subjects of education, only this is our viShayam--subject. So one who is guru (teaching vidyA) is a father.
4. annadAtA--if a man nourishes giving sAdam--(Tam)meals, then he is a father for the one who dines.
5. bhayatrAtA--one who protects when there is fear, he is a father too.
Thus, there are five men (who are considered as father). But then what is prasiddha--well known, next to the father who gave birth, is the pitA sthAnam--father status, to the guru only (rather than to the other three people).
If that father gives janma--birth, this father (guru) destroys janma!
• As to how it can be said of this man (that he is a father), when only he who gives janma is properly a father,
just as a direct father enables a jIva--individual soul, to take birth in the bhUta prapancham--physical world, this man enables birth in the Atma prapancham--spiritual universe!
Just as he gives the physical life, this man gives the spiritual life! So he can be said to be a father, right?
In the path of vaidika anuShThAnam--Vedic rigors, for those who, upanayana pUrvam--undergoing the sacred thread ceremony, enter pAramArthikam--the path that leads to the supreme truth, there is this name dvijanma--of two births,--as iru piRappALar in Tamizh.
• In Adi kAlam--ancient times, it was only guru, who thus performed the upanayanam of giving the second birth, thereby becoming a pitA--father, and thereafter keeping the shiShya--pupil with him in gurukulavAsam--residing in guru's home, and cultivating the pupil.
• It is known by the very mentioning (of the word) gurukulavAsam, residing with him! The second birth that takes place as soon as the upanayanam is performed, is dvitIya janma.
• The name dvijanma is there for the pakShi--bird too. After the female mother sits on the egg and hatches so the shell opens with a crack, coming out as a pUraNa pakShi--complete bird, is the second birth.
• He is the guru, who keeps the jIva--individual soul, and hatches the pupil with anugraham--divine favour, so the pupil gets the pUraNa rUpam--full form, in which the shell of ANavam--(Tam)ego cracks and he flies away to paramAtman--supreme soul.
Even in mentioning the student as pupil[/b] in English, there is this dvijanma tatvArtam--principle of two births, although they don't know it.
• [u]Pupa is the stage before a worm becomes an insect. [laughing] instead of dvijanma it is chaturjanma--four births, for the pUchchi--(Tam)insect!
Instead of just the two births as egg and then the complete prANi--animal, there are four births (to the insect):
first the egg, and then worm; thereafter that worm, puking a silky thread from itself and weaving a cocoon around it, and entering the stage of inaction inside, is the pupa; and then the (final) birth as the complete insect that comes flying out from the cocoon, tearing it apart--thus four births!
• pupa would be egg-shaped too. The word pupil has come only from that word.
It is also said that the kAryam--action that guru does is like the wasp stinging at its worm to make the worm become a wasp.
• When saying that, we tie up the second and fourth stages as the insect being born from the worm.
Only our vaidika sampradAya abhiprayas--opinions of the Vedic tradition, were prevalent in Adi kAlam--ancient time in the western countries, and later when they went in a different path, they had some sort of mix (of their former Vedic path) and only thus the pupa--pupil has arisen.
• But then in later times that tAtparyam--reference was lost on them--as in their anuShThAnam--spiritual life, nothing like the guru-shiShya pathati--guru disciple series continued!
• Today we have forgotten everything too, following them (blindly) as if the western culture is the life!...
What appA-ammA--(Tam)father and mother, give us, is the first janma--birth, with the body having the precedence.
• What occurs in the upanayanam by guru upadesham is the second janma, with the soul having the precedence.
• Progressing on and on and on, in that janma, only in the end, does one become the Atman, paramAtman, destroying the bhUta prapancha janma--physical birth(s).
The guru who does-upadesham--teaches, veda vidyA--Vedic education, doing upanayanam is NOT the one who takes the pupil up to that end sthAnam--status/position.
• Only to the extent of creating chitta shuddhi--refinement of mind, through karma--religious/spiritual acts, and chitta aikAkryam--unity of mind, through bhakti--devotion, that he (guru) guides in the path.
• For them (these refinement and unity) to become enduring and stand dRuda--firm, one should be thoroughly plunged in life so all his karma are spent and all that the jIva--individual soul, owes to the deva-RiShi-pitrus--Devas, Sages and Ancestors, and to the jIva prapancham--world of Jivas are settled.
• For this to happen, depending on individual saMskAras--accomplishments/purification, it might take a short or long time.
• Only in-apUrvam--extraordinarily. for some persons, can the brahma jnAnam--knowledge of Brahman, of becoming paramAtman, can be siddha--accomplished, right from brahmacharya Ashramam--the stage of bachelorhood, or even that (stage) absent or incomplete.
• Others can go to the vidyAbhyAsam--prospect of knowledge, of becoming Brahmam,
only after the brahmacharya Ashramam that starts with the gurukulavAsam after upanayanam, is over,
and then remaining in the gRuhasthAshramam--stage of householder for several years, becoming involved with life, all the karma debts being settled, and the chitta shuddhi, aikAkryas are sampAdana--accomplshed.
When thus the chittam becomes shuddha and the aikAkryam of unified thinking is siddha--accomplished, another guru would come to make that chittam hold on to paramAtman as the single goal. He would accord the saMnyAsam--the stage of renunciation, and do upadesham.
• Owing to the mahiman--might/power of that upadesham--the mahiman of that guru's anugraha shakti--power of divine favours, abiding in the upadesha vAkyam--the shiShya, progressing in stages in the pAramArthika life that he has taught, would make it birthless for him ultimately.
At that stage the shiShya himself attains the birth of becoming parabrahmam.
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रत्नाकरधौतपदां हिमालयकिरीटिनीम् ।
ब्रह्मराजर्षिररत्नाढ्यां वन्दे भारतमातरम् ॥
To her whose feet are washed by the ocean, who wears the Himalayas as her crown, and is adorned with the gems of rishis and kings, to Mother India, do I bow down in respect.
--viShNu purANam
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