Sri Swami Vishwananda gives commentary on the Guru Gita - Part 4

Yesterday, Sri Swami Vishwananda continued his commentary on the Guru Gita covering verses 91-119. Here is an excerpt of his commentary.

VERSE 92
Shvetaambaram shveta vilepa pushpam,
mukta vibhoosham vibhoosham muditam dvinetram;
Vaamaanka peetha sthita divyashaktim,
mandasmitam saandra kripaa nidhaanam.

Here ‘Shvetaambaram’, the white robe, means that the Guru is always in purity. The Guru is never tarnished by anything of the world. The white paste, which the Guru is anointed with, symbolises that whatever He has, He can also transfer it to His bhakta. The flower and pearls in this verse mean the strength and purity.

"The Guru radiates joy, but His joy is not just a plain temporary joy. His joy is the eternal joy of the heart. When one recognises one's Guru, there is a different kind of joy which awakens within oneself and this joy which awakens inside is something eternal. Even if the bhaktas don't feel the same joy all the time due to their mind state or due to where they are in the world, but yet this joy that the soul felt when one meets one's Guru is eternal. It stays always within one's heart. And whenever the mind of that bhakta is turned inwardly into his heart, diving into there to meet the Guru, the same joy awakens itself again.

"In this verse Bhagavan Shankara is also saying that the Divine Mother Herself is seated on the left side of the Guru. Like yesterday, one of the verses was saying, the Mother is ever ready to fulfill the wishes of the one who is surrendered to the Guru.

"Here the scriptures say that the Guru is not bored, the Guru has always a smile. You see, Krishna is always smiling, you never see Krishna with a gloomy face, in a very miserable state - even in the middle of the battlefield, when He was talking to Arjuna, He had always a smile in His face, because He is always aware, ahead of what is coming. So Lord Shiva said, ‘The Guru has always a smile’, because the Guru is always forward. Bhagavan Shankara carried on saying that the Guru is the ocean of Grace, which means that His Grace is endless, so one should meditate on the Guru.

VERSE 98
Evam vidham gurum dhyaatvaa,
jnaanam utpadyate svayam;
Tat sadguru prasaadena,
muktohamiti bhaavayet.

“Here, Bhagavan Shankara is saying that service to the Guru is the meditation to attain the Grace of true knowledge, not book knowledge but inner knowledge. And this knowledge is only given by the Grace of the Satguru.

"When one has the Grace of the Satguru one realises oneself, one attains liberation and one attains the Lotus Feet of Shriman Narayana Himself. And this happens automatically. There is no formal initiation, but it happens through the dedication which the bhakta has towards the Guru. The more they are dedicated, the faster it happens.

"You see, the Guru will never go around telling you what you have to do all the time. You have also the take the responsibility of surrendering yourself to the Feet of the Master. Otherwise one can do sadhana for years and years and years and still doesn't receive anything. Whereas to the one who is completely surrendered, in a fraction of a second the Guru can give everything - a fraction of a second is even too much - the Guru can give realisation instantly!

"And the Grace of the Guru flows automatically from Him to His disciple, doesn't matter where he is, what he is doing, which place of the world the disciple is. The moment they have complete shraddha, faith and surrender to the Master, the Grace flows from the Master to the disciple. Here I am utilising the word ‘disciple’ because in this verse Bhagavan Shankara talks only about the disciple, not about the devotee.”