(speech by Sri Satyanarayana Murthy Upadrashta on the occasion of
Guru Poornima during Sri Swamiji's visit to Baton Rouge, USA)

Om Sri Gurubhyo Namah. Jaya Guru Datta.

Today is Ashadha Poornima. Vyaasa Maharshi was born on this full moon day. He is the source of many of our religious and philosophical traditions. He composed Brahma Sutras (aphorisms of Vedanta). Vyasa completed codification of the four Vedas and the writing of the 18 Puranas on this day. He taught Rigveda to Sumantha, Yajurveda to Vyshampayana, Sama Veda to Jaimini and Atharvana Veda to Pyla. The scriptures say that keeping the weak, short-lived and the not-so-intelligent people in mind, Lord Srimannarayana was born to Satyavati and Parashara as Vyasa and divided the Vedas into four:

Ksheenaayushah ksheena satvaan durmedhan veekshakaalatah
Parahsaraat satyavatyaa mamshaam kalayaa vibhuh
Avateerno mahabhaago vedam chakre chaturvidham

Therefore Vyasa Bhagawan is Lord Vishnu Himself. That is why we do Vyasa Prarthana in the following way:

Vyaasaaya Vishnu roopaaya vyaasa roopaaya vishnave
Namovai brahma nidhaye Vaasishthaaya namo namah

Also, Bhagavan says in the 37th verse of the 10th chapter of Bhagavad-Gita (Vibhooti Yoga) :

Vrishneenaam vaasudevosmi paandavaanam dhananjayah
Muneenaam apyaham Vyaasah kaveenaam Usanaa kavih

Lord Vishnu has declared that of all the Munis, He is Vyasa.

Among Dattatreya's 16 Avataras, the Adi Guru incarnation occurred on this day of Ashadha Poornima. Therefore, this day is known as Guru Poornima. Sri Guru Datta gave Darshan to Alarka on this day and blessed him with Yoga Vidya. Guru Datta is the one who introduced Brahma Vidya, Sri Vidya and Yoga Vidya to this world. Dattatreya is the Vishwa Guru. He is the only Avatara Purusha that has the title "Guru Deva", meaning both Guru and Deva. That Parabrahma form itself is this Vishwa (Universe) and He is the Vishwa Guru. Since Parabrahma is Datta Himself, this universe is Datta Swaroopa. Guru Geeta proclaims :

Gurumadhye sthitam vishwam vishwa madhye sthito guruh
Vishwa roopo virooposou tasmai sri gurave namah.

Poornima is a great day for people who do Dhyana or meditation. Datta's path is the path of meditation and there is great significance to Poornima(full moon day) in the Datta tradition. In fact, 8 of the 16 incarnations of Lord Dattatreya occurred on Poornima.

- Vishwambara Avadhoota incarnation on Chaitra Poornima
- Dattavadhoota on Jyeshtha Poornima
- Aadiguru on Ashadha Poornima
- Digambara on Ashwayuja Poornima
- Yogiraja on Kartika Poornima
- Kalagnishamana on Margashira Poornima
- Leela Vishwambhara on Pushya Poornima
- Siddharaja on Magha Poornima.

Poornima refers to full moon and full moon symbolises the mind filled with delight. There is a close link between the mind and the moon:

Chandramaa manaso jaatah ÉÉ.

Guru Poornima is an occasion for cleansing the mind to make it absolutely pure. We should purify our hearts to let the Divine live in it. Guru Poornima signifies eliminating all darkness and evil from our minds.

The true meaning of Guru is 'one who dispels the darkness of ignorance in us'.

Gukaaraschaandhakaarastu rukaarastannirodhakah

On this Guru Poornima day, we follow the path of Sanatana Dharma, perform Pada Pooja to our Guru and revere Him as the Brahma Vidya Guru for the flow of Brahma Jnana. We must remember all the gurus with reverence and gratitude in the Guru Parampara (lineage of Gurus) beginning with Lord Dattatreya, Narasimha Saraswati in the middle and our beloved Sadguru, Sachchidananda. We must meditate upon the names of all those in the Guru Parampara to obtain their grace. We should indulge in Swadhyaya and Nama Sankeertana. We should shed our ego at the lotus feet of our Sadguru and follow His teachings.

The Guru gives us a new birth in the Jnana Loka, the world of knowledge and in the Adhyatmika Loka, the world of the Self. He opens our eyes to knowledge and changes our mental outlook, moulds it anew. Changing or giving another shape means creating or giving another birth. Since the Guru creates the birth of knowledge in us, he qualifies to be called Brahma, the Creator.

Then comes preservation. How does the Guru take care of us? He sustains us by bestowing on us the Adhyaatma riches in our life of Jnaana. Just as Maha Vishnu gives us wealth and health to nurture our body, the Guru protects us by giving us Upadesha and by showing us the path of Sadhana to foster the Atman. Instead of finding bliss for himself (or enjoying himself) in Samadhi, he sacrifices his happiness for our sake and does all he can to liberate us from Samsara.

Shankaracharya, in his classic work, Viveka Chudamani, defines a guru as :

Shaantaah mahanto nivasanti santo
vasantavalloka hitam charantah
Teernaah swayam bheema bhavaarnavam janaan
ahetunaanyaanapi taarayantah

The Gurus exist as men of peace, as great men, as saintly and virtuous men who have crossed the terrible ocean of Samsara. They also make others cross it. The spring brings blessings to the world without expecting anything in return. This is exactly what a Guru does for the world. In this way, the Guru is like Vasanta (spring season), which brings benefits to the world without any reason or motive.

Several good things keep happening to us, as if on their own, without our knowledge, through the agency of our Guru. Suddenly, we wonder about how they happened. "Was it due to this or due to that? How was our task accomplished?" We will recognise in a flash that it was Guru Kripa, the compassion of our Guru that made things happen in our favour. The Guru takes care of us and removes all our difficulties in this world. His chief function is to take care of our Atman. In this way, he is like Vishnu, the protector.

Is not a guru a man of highest Satvic qualities? How can he be a destroyer like Rudra? The very mention of the words like Rudra generates fear, does it not? The guru, on the other hand, is full of compassion and grace. How can we speak of him as Rudra? It is probably because they did not want to create fear in our hearts that the name Maheshwara is used (in the verse) instead of Rudra. Even so, the reference must be made to the function of Samhara (destruction). Since Brahma and Vishnu have been mentioned, in order, for creation and protection, we cannot understand the function of Maheshwara in any other way.

Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara are mention in a sequence. As we have already noted, the guru performs the functions of the first two (creation and sustenance), albeit in a way different from Brahma and Vishnu. The third function is destruction and it must also apply to the Guru. Does this mean that the Jnana that the Guru inspired in us as Brahma and nurtured in us as Vishnu will be destroyed by the Guru as Rudra?

No, absolutely not! There are evil forces that constantly drag us down into the mire and prevent us from obtaining the light of knowledge. The Guru battles with them patiently and destroys them. That is the function of Samhara (destruction, the function of Rudra) that he performs. When a crop is grown, the weeds must be removed. Similarly, it is as important to remove our intense ignorance as it is to give us knowledge, it is indeed more difficult to destroy our ignorance than to impart Jnaana. The guru as Rudra dispels the darkness of ignorance. The definition of the word "guru" itself is 'he who dispels darkness'. Gu stands for darkness, Ru stands for dispelling. Three functions are performed by the Guru: causing the birth of Jnana in the student; nurturing the Jnana so created; and destroying the obstacles on the path of Jnana. These encompass the functions of creation, protection and destruction. In this way, our Guru becomes Trimurthi.

What, then, is the different between Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara on one hand and the Guru on the other? Rudra destroys the body created by Brahma and sustained by Vishnu. The Guru creates Jnana and sustains it. But it is not this Jnaana that he destroys. Obviously, he can not destroy something which he has himself crated with love and affection. The Trimurthi consist of three. What one god creates is protected by the second and destroyed by the third. Here (in the world of Jnaana), it is the same individual who performs all the three functions. But there is this important difference: what is created and sustained is Jnaana; what is destroyed is Ajnaana (ignorance).

So, in this way, what Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra do together for a Jeevi in worldly life, the guru does all, single-handedly, by himself in the life of Jnana. It seems strange: three great gods are needed for our worldly life which is not enduring and not capable of giving us everlasting bliss. But just one individual, the Guru, seen I human guise, is all that is needed for the Jnaana that will never perish and is everlasting. But the deities constituting the Trimurti, perform their functions for all Jeevis, while the guru performs his functions for a select group.

To sum up, we saw how guru is like the Trimurti. A god who is the Trimurti conjoint is Dattatreya who had brought the holy tradition of the Gurus (Guru parampara) to this mortal world. All gurus are like Dattatreya É like Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara who create the body, nourish it, and destroy it respectively. We may have to be born again and again but the Guru will accompany us throughout and will not give up until we are united with the Light (become ourselves the light). Let us consider the difference between the Trimurti and the guru: the Trimurti's role with regard to our life is based on our Karma; the role of Gurumurti is to take us across this karma, to release us from it. Guru may even take upon himself our karma and lighten our burden. So he becomes especially entitled to our obeisance. Truly, therefore, it is said,

"Gurubrahma gururvishnuh gurudevo maheshwarah É.
Tasmai Sri gurave namah"

The meaning of one part of the verse still requires explanation: "Guruh saakshaat param Brahma". How is the Guru paramaatman? Very simply, the guru takes us to the goal beyond which there is nothing. The meaning of this, the meaning of the statement about the Atma-svarajya (the empire of the Atman) and the Jnaana Jyotis is that he transforms us into the Parabrahman. He tells us that it is the Parabrahman who has taken your guise ("you are indeed the Parabrahman"). The guru helps us to discard our guises and reveal ourselves as the Parabrahman. Unless the guru himself is the Parabrahman, will he be able to bring about such a transformation? So, the declaration is apt : "Guruh saakshaat parambrahma".

Vedas declare that whoever unties the knot of ignorance in the heart of the Shishya is the real Guru.

They say that one' guru is greater than Ishwara. Why or how? All those excellent qualities that belong to Ishwara are present in the Guru also. The guru is pure, not addicted to untruth; he has compassion and is a great jnaani. Besides, we see him in person unlike god whom we are unable to see before us. So, if we grasp the sacred feet of the guru and become devoted to him, we will receive all such blessings as are to be gained by becoming devoted to Ishwara. That is why devotion to guru is so important. However, we should not be forgetful of devotion to God. Afterall, it is the Lord who brings the devotee and the Guru together. Without such grace of the Lord, how can we obtain our Guru? In the opening verses of Viveka Chudamani, Shankaracharya says :

Durlabham trayamevaitat devaanugraha hetukam
Manushyatvae mumukshutvam mahaa purusha samshrayah

"Three great and rare opportunities or boons are obtained only by the grace of the Lord: the first is the birth as a human being; the second is the desire to become a liberated soul; and the third is coming in contact with a guru or a great man."

Shankaracharya, in his Gurvashtakam clearly explains the importance of meditating upon Guru's holy feet. Very simply, he says : You may have everything in the world in your possession, but if you cannot concentrate and meditate upon Guru's feet, everything is useless:

Shareeram suroopam tathaa vaa kalatram
yashashchaaru chitram dhanam meru tulyam
Guroranghri padme manshchenna lagnam
tathah kim tathah kim tathah kim tathah kim

My dear fellow devotees, we are immensely fortunate today, to be with our wonderful Sadguru, our Gurudeva, His Holiness Sri Sri Ganapati Sachchidananda Swamiji, an incarnation of Lord Dattatreya, on this Guru Poornima day.