8.9 – Guru Worship

Story of Namdev

Namdev was an ardent worshipper of Vittal. He had frequent Sakshatkara of
Vittal and Vittal even spoke to him. So Namdev was under the impression

that

a) he had achieved complete God-realization and self–realization,

and

b)there was nothing to achieve further in the spiritual field.

When he had such wrong notions in his mind, he once visited an assembly of saints. There was Gora Kumbhar, another saint. He wanted to test which of the saints present were ripe or pucca and which were unripe or kaccha. The pucca pot is fully baked one. When struck with a mallet, it produces highly musical sound different from the thud. On the contrary, an unbaked or half-baked pot will crack.

Gora Kumbhar went round with his small mallet in hand and struck the head of one saint after another and said, pucca, pucca that is ‘ripe,ripe’. When he came near Namdev, Namdev got afraid and did not wish to face the mallet stroke. So he got up and went away. Then Gora Kumbhar said unripe,unripe’, and ‘kaccha,kaccha’. The whole assembly held Namdev to be an unripe one,because he had no Guru.

Then Namdev went up to Vittal and complained. Vital said that he was really unripe,kaccha. Namdev thought that Vittal’s sakshatkara to him was sufficient. But Vittal answered, ‘No’, and that he must go to a Guru to realize God in full. At the time he was only realizing God in Vittal and not in other forms. He was not able to see God in every form of life. Then God Vittal told him to go the Guru Visoba Kesar.

Namedev challenged Vittal to appear in any form and he would recognize him in any form. Vital then appeared first in the form of a Harijan who was baking buffalo, recently cut, in a pot. Next Vittal appeared as his own child.

Namdev not realizing Vittal in that Harijan form came to Vittal and said that he had not kept his promise of coming to test him. Vital said that he was the Harijan. Namdev was horrified and wanted another test. Next Namdev was told to sit under a tree near a well and go on with his worship, and then Vittal would appear. Namdev was waiting Vittal’s appearance. But he saw a Mohammadan riding on a horse breaking his images. On the second day, Namdev went to Vittal and complained that he had not come. Then Vittal said that the Mohhamadan who broke his images was Vittal. ‘Can you break images?’ was the wondering query of Namdev. Vittal answered ‘Yes”.

To realize God in all forms, he asked Namdev to go to Visoba Kesar. And when Namdev went there, he saw an old man, and that is Kesar. He was placing his feet with shoes over a stone lingam, which was worshipped by people. Namdev was aghast and told Kesar to place his foot elsewhere. When the old man requested Namdev himself to lift his
emaciated legs and lift them up and leave them where there was no lingam. Namdev immediately lifted up the old man’s shod feet
and placed them two or three feet off. On the place where Namdev placed the old man’s feet, a lingam shot up. Again when Namdev shifted those feet, to another place, there also a lingam
shot up. Namdev was greatly surprised, and then Kesar told him,
‘You think my shoe is unworthy and that the lingam alone is God. To get over this prejudice and wrong notion, you are sent here’. After serving this Vishoba Keasar for some time, Namdev went back, and then his pucca God-realization was proved by Vittal’s test.

8.8 - Guru Worship

Need for a Guru – Sastraic authority:- “Acharya Devo Bhava” is mentioned in Taittiriya Upanishad.

Acharyavan Purushoveda says, “it is the man who has a Guru that can get knowledge or realization.”

Mundaka Upanishad says, “to get Brahman, Knowledge realization, one should go with his Guru who has realized God.”

Srimad Bhagavata says, “the Sadhaka must resort to a Guru devoted to God, who has realized God and is calm.”

The Katha Upanishad says,”in this matter of realization unless some one else speaks it out, there is no way.”

Guru Gita says, “Studies do not suffice. Without a Guru, there is no Realization.”

This Atman, that is, its realization is not got by study or repeated chanting Vedas nor by keenness of intellect or by much learning. It is he whom Realization desires that gets it. To him it reveals it’s from. Of course this realization, which is personified, comes as a matter of fact because there are methods through the grace or bodies of the Gurus.

Even Vyasa, who taught his son Suka all the Vedas, sent him to Guru Janaka for confirmation. King Janaka acted as his Guru and enabled him to perceive that what his Guru had taught and what the Vedas explained was the same as the actual realization, which Suka had in him. Until and unless such a seal is set on one’s realization, that realization is not complete.

That is a correct description of Baba’s Marga. It has been called Guru Marga in Guru Gita. Guru Marga is a form of Bhakthi Marga in which faith in and devotion to the Guru is the only Sadhana for achieving everything including salvation, Mukti or Brahmaiktya, Satchidananda conquest of samsara, and also all yoga, siddhis and temporal welfare.

Here Baba showed the applicability of the Guru Gita to religious progress. The one who is acquainted with the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of the spiritual field, a forest is a vanjari. The fourth person, Baba who realized that a guide was needed, and mere talk with bookish knowledge was of no use at all to help one to realize God and himself. Above all, the question was not an intellectual one. It was a problem as to how a particular soul was to be raised to realization, and that as essentially a matter of moulding the entire soul of the student or sishya. What is wanted therefore is humility, receptivity, and a powerful desire to reach the goal with the aid of a Guru. Therefore, a readiness to adopt a Guru and surrender everything to the Guru is needed. Everything is Tan, Man, Dhan that is, body, mind and possession. As a result of the intense love he bore to his Guru, Baba sacrificed and surrendered at the feet of his Guru. The solution of the problem as to whether there is need for a Guru is already reached when the sishya get into the proper humility, receptivity, and longing attachment to the Guru, culminating in mutual love. Then realization is reached. Purely by Guru’s grace, Realization flashes upon the sishya. Baba said, “The Guru’s grace is our only sadhana. Jnana comes as experience or in the wake of Guru’s grace. He alone succeeds who feels the Guru is the one thing needed.”