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command, the willingness to follow a discipline, prompts the Guru to
work upon the disciple, and give him this invaluable gift of Shaktipat.
Finding proper atmosphere or conditions, the Shakti agrees to
descend into the humble disciple. The Guru tries his utmost, with all
the power at his command to benefit the disciple. Similarly, the
surrender of the disciple to the Guru should be absolute to derive
maximum benefit. This gets reflected in the give and take
relationship. It is as if one is surrendering to the Lord. In the words of
Saint Kabir,
"There is nothing of mine in me, whatever exists is yours only.
So if I give what is yours to you, what goes of me."
Unable to repay the debt of the Guru
It is said that even if the disciple offers his skin to the Guru, for
shoes to be made of it, he can still not repay the debt of the Guru. So
great is the importance of Guru in Hindu literature and society. It is
not necessary that the repayment of debt be made in cash or by
materials alone. The disciples with lesser financial and material
resources and even the others may repay the debt to Guru by
physical or other service. If someone doesnot have time for physical
service, such a person may serve the Guru mentally. Thus the give
and take equation be established by the disciple rendering service by
material,physical or mental means. When the Guru finds the disciple
ready and fit for receiving Shaktipat, he happily announces his
intention to the disciple. He directs the disciple to come on an
appointed date, at an appointed time and place, after ablutions and
bath, to receive Diksha.
The Guru evaluates the purity of body, mind and senses of the
disciple and only when he is fully satisfied of disciples purity, does he
condescend to give Diksha. He determines if the wastes and
impurities inside the disciple have ripened to a stage where these are
easy to remove, and then only calls the disciple for Shaktipat.
When the Guru is pleased with the disciple, he mercifully
gives him the benefit of Shaktipat. After this the disciple's journey
to self-realisation starts in right earnest. As the time passes and the
disciple goes deeper into the self, he achieves self realisation. Adiguru
Shankaracharya has aptly brought out the importance of Guru by
comparing him with the alchemist's stone (PARAS or PARASMANI).
Most religions recognise exitence of three worlds i.e, this
Universe, the Heavens and Hell or Nether World. In Hindi these are
called Triloka (Tri-Three Loka - Worlds). As per Adiguru there is none
that can be compared to Guru in Triloka. If you compare the
alchemist's stone to Guru, then it is not a fair comparison. For the
alchemist's stone turns iron into gold. The Guru on the other hand
makes the disciple the Parasmani, quite like himself, fully competent
and capable.
There is a story of a householder, who before leaving for a long
business trip, hands over his Parasmani to a yogi for safe keep. After
return from the journey he seeks the Parasmani back from the Yogi.
The Yogi tells him that the stone had slipped from him into the river
bed, while he was bathing there. At first some doubt arises in the
mind of the householder about the Yogi's intentions. After a little
while he gets over the feeling and asks the Yogi the place where the
stone had slipped into the river bed. He then dives into the river bed
to look for his Parasmani. Lo and behold, whichever stone he picks up
from the river bed is a Parasmani itself. Bewildered he falls at the feet
of the Yogi, throws all the stones back in the river and seeks to be
taken as a disciple.
So there is no comparison of a true Guru possible. The most
sought after Parasmani falls too short in comparison. Guru is a living
God who makes the disciple like himself. He a benevolent donor,
who believes in highest charity. He bestows his life's earnings, the
Siddhis-his powers, on the disciple. He thus makes the disciple the
Lord of these Sidhhis.
A disciple who considers himself suitable for receiving Guru's
blessings, is made the master of Sidhhis by the Guru though the
disciple may be illiterate, ignorant, innocent, weak or a woman. This
is illustrated from a story of Adiguru Shankaracharya.
Adiguru Shankaracharya s bless on disciple
Adiguru Shankaracharya was sitting with his three disciples, while
the fourth disciple Totak (later Totakacharya) had gone to the river to
wash Guru's clothes. As Totak got late in getting back to the Ashram
(hermitage), the other three disciples in unision blamed Totak for
wasting their time. They complained to the Guru that they wanted
their lessons to begun but as Totak had not returned, their valuable
time was being wasted. They further added that Totak was a moron,
and was incapable of learning, and therefore, urged the Guru to begin
the lessons. They expressed that Totak is unlikely to go very far in the
field of education. However, the Guru declined to accept their request
and told them to wait for Totak, "Only after he comes shall we start",
said the Shankaracharya. They had to wait further for a while till they
saw Totak coming.
As Totak walked towards them he was chanting some Shlokas;
Shlokas (poems of religious nature) that were original, that were his
own. These poems were in the praise of Mother Durga, the Goddess
that rides the tiger. These invocations were extra ordinary and
naturally surprised the self styled pundits, the three learned disciples
of Adiguru. Totak was elevated to the rank of Acharya (Teacher) and
thereafter came to be known as Totakacharya. This miracle could be
possible by Gurukripa (the blessings of Guru) alone. The affection of
Shankaracharya on Totakacharya resulted on the blessings
descending on the latter. Nothing else could explain the sudden
transformation of a near moron into an acharya. Thus the lesser in
learning went way ahead of his learned co-students by the grace of
Guru. Today no one knows the names of the other disciples of
Adiguru and only the name of Totakacharya and his Totak-
chhands(Totak-poems) remain.
The Guru makes complete unprejudiced evaluation of the
disciple before choosing him. The question that arises is, what are
the desired qualities and qualifications of a disciple. It is basically the
consciousness of the individual that comes under scrutiny of Guru.
The Guru sees the position and potential of consciousness in the
disciple. This is basis of selection. No other factors come into play. It
is immaterial whether the person is male or female. It is merely the
state of consciousness and to which stage it is elevated that is of
consequence. Nothing else matters. The Guru knows that which of
the disciples is competent and capable, who is dedicated and who is
superficially involved? He goes by the quality of heart rather than
quality of brain, as it is total submission and unconditional surrender
that alone can take the disciple to his goal. These are matters of heart
more than of head. It is, therefore, natural that Guru has soft corner
for those whose ground is prepared for the seeds of higher
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