The Pearl of Wisdom - Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Search for a Guru

Disciple: Swami, to know God one needs the grace of a guru. His advice is necessary. How is one to find him? How many kinds of Master- Gurus are there?

Guru: I shall tell you how the various types of gurus operate.

1. The world is a guru. It shows you hypnotic fascination. Son, there are many more traits among all these sixteen gurus. Four among these have been identified as the final choice. The best among the four gurus is the guru who is full of grace and compassion. O Son, he is the one whom you must seek. That is the path to reach God. Do you understand, O disciples, gems of my eyes?

2. The parents are the gurus of the arts.

3. The foster-mother is the guru who raises you.

4. The school is the guru that causes affinity for the worldly pleasures in the drama of life and the development of the body and its survival.

5. Associate-ship is the guru that teaches you good and bad, bad and good, like going to school, showing affection to many and mixing with them. This is the relationship guru, which is to move as close friends, teaching good or evil in accordance with the relative relationships.

6. The guru who initiates you to seek employment and thereby improve yourself.

7. The damsel-guru who shakes the mind, causes pain to the body, weakens the nerves, melts the bones, enhances pleasure, makes sorrow permanent, winks the eyes, melts the meaning, distances the Lord and diminishes courage. She is the dancing damsel guru who pushes you to the depths of hell.

8. The Asuru-Guru (demon guru) who reduces the mind to dust and the state of the mind to ash, honours Maya (delusion), elevates Manthric (magic) and teaches the acquisition of things.

9. The false devotee guru who conceals truth, divides strength and tempts you into sinful acts.

10. The Meignani (true and wise) guru who disciplines the senses, establishes good deeds, elevates charity, destroys the malefic forces, exhibits the bliss of the greater happiness of self-realisation and shows as false the “I” and the “You”, the world, slumber, the sea, the hills, the mountains, the body, the stomach, the valley and the land. He implants wisdom, enhances judgement and dispels the adverse effects of destiny.

11. The Great Guru who shrinks the body, establishes truth, loves others’ lives as his own, exalts service to man and performs his duty to the country. He recognises love as God and charity as noble, the straight path as the great path, the world as a narrow path and that there is reward in service to others.

12. The guru of ignorance is devoid of the inner-eye. He schemes to appease his one-span stomach, conceals the Motionless, Unique One and projects the movable one, disturbs wisdom, enhances arrogance, increases greed, separates the “I” and the “You”, creates drama, separates the six levels of wisdom, affirms the transient as real, stirs the senses, makes gods of all what he sees, makes Kovils (temples) of the things that are pleasant to behold, forgets the hereafter and pushes you into the deep hell. He has no self-awareness, no understanding of race and is not mindful of the future. He makes the world a market- place with divisive mentality. He consumes all lives as food for the survival of his one-span stomach. He conceals truth, elevates falsehood and torments the living-beings. So does the guru of ignorance.

13. The Mamakaram (betraying, possessive) guru roams the world, commands respect, shortens life, develops his body, destroys God, kills analytical wisdom, uses every opportunity to elevate himself, forgets God, loses compassion, loses his eyes, conceals intelligence, buries beauty, enhances false bliss, elevates his reputation, displays his pride, loses his heart, forgets his character and covers his body, mouth and stomach. He competes for himself in the four corners of the world. What appears as pleasant becomes sorrowful throughout life. For example, physical exercise is pleasant for the body but eventually is painful for the entire body. There is unfathomable sorrow in the last crossing.

14. The poet guru thinks there is nothing beyond his education. He says he can mend breakages and resurrect the burnt-dead. Pleased with his words, he prides himself of his speech. He rejoices in his desires, welds the separated parts, destroys unity and dances and sings according to the limit of his knowledge. He stretches his arms for alms, shows his one-span stomach, speaks all that comes to his tongue, composes what comes and casts away what is beyond his comprehension. He augments his existing knowledge, argues that what he says is correct and what others say is wrong. He picks quarrels with a rod in hand, breaks heads and pollutes the mind. He forgets to realise that there is one caste, one race and only one God, the Omniscient of Illumination and that we are all born of one womb. He divides race, damages wisdom, casts away the Motionless, Unique One and accepts the transient “ I “ and “You” and “You” and “ I ” and the dancing dog that barks at the hill. He is the poet guru.

15. The flirtatious, winking guru snatches away respect, deadens intelligence and takes away your rights. She winks the eye, mesmerises ideas, devalues God, holds the hand, bites the cheek, shows the teeth, twists the body, dulls judgement. Extols the virtues of Maya (delusion), winks to create an opportunity for adverse purposes, steals the mind, excites the body and instills torpor into the mind. She arouses lust and drives you into the jungle. She is the merciless prostitute who leads you to the end of the wrong path. She is the flirtatious, winking guru.

16. The sixteenth type of guru thinks that the world, worldly possessions and freedom are pleasant. He believes that body, wealth and life are eternal, that wife and children are proud possessions, name and fame are praiseworthy, shops and markets are gains and titles are creditable. He sings various songs of praise, speaks sweetly day in and day out, sows his thoughts as seeds, develops his body and exhibits pride in wife, children and cattle. He cuts the universe and rolls away death. He hurts the poor and makes them suffer. He reduces their wages and destroys co-operation. He torments the mind, demeans man, devalues good deeds, increases sins and openly gives money at high rates. He sees obscene scenes, often laughs, speaks the unmentionable and believes that this birth is pleasant. He witnesses obscene scenes, destroys man’s ideals, wears costumes that should not be worn, sings songs not knowing how to sing, runs not knowing how to run and follows the track the body leads through. He is forgetful of nature, forgetful of birth and fosters devilish divisive tendencies, induces forgetfulness of God and accepts all visible objects as gods. Armed with ideas of destruction, he severely abuses those who realise God. He kicks, assaults and chases them away. Alas, this guru would be kicked, torn into pieces, secretly consumed as food and the world would not know what had happened to him!

Son, there are many more traits among all these sixteen gurus. Four among these have been identified as the final choice. The best among the four gurus is the guru who is full of grace and compassion. O Son, he is the one whom you must seek. That is the path to reach God. Do you understand, O disciples, gems of my eyes?