38. めfDJlल| गkLuJl、g@、} FlजfJlल| गkLu} FBJ् じ JろJlल| गkLuRf、ゲ| Jki゚Jlल| गkLu} कm Ff すざごす

dhyダnam┣laṁ gurom┣rtiḥ pujダm┣laṁ guroḥ pダdaṃ | mantram┣laṁ gurorvダkyaṁ muktim┣laṁ guroḥ k条ipダ || 86 ||

86. The original root and essence of dhyダna (meditation) is Gurumūrti, the Guru's embodied formś the original root of worship is Gurup ダ daṁ, the Guru's Feetś the original root of mantra (sacred sound vibrations) is Guruvākyaṁ , the Guru's Word. The original cause of liberation is Gurukṛipā, the Guru's grace and compassion.

Love of the Guru

Let us look into the higher type of love- the love that was experienced by Meera, by Chaitanya, by Ramakrishna, by Ramana Maharishi, all these great saints. Ramakrishna says, "My love for the Divine is a totality of three major kinds of love - a miser's love for his money, a chaste wife's love for her husband and a mother's love for her child - all these three put together and something more, is my love for the Divine'. Of course, we will not be able to understand by these three definitions. Love for the Divine is almost like a feeling of being one with the other, falling in tune with the other person. It is an ecstatic, highest expression of your being.

Just by the utterance of the word 'Krishna', Meera was put into ecstasy. In the sutras, it says, "If tears roll down if you listen to God's name, be sure that it i s your last janma.' Ramakrishna also says the same in the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna.

If you listen to the kirtanas of Annamacharya on Lord Balaji, he feels that the Divine is present, it is an actual experience for him. In some of the verses Ramana Maharishi laments before Arunachalaś he says, "You are my house-owner, my husbandś how can you stand by and watch while thieves come in and take me away, O Arunachala!

The five senses are referred to as the thieves who come into the house and take away the being and Arunachala is the Atman. When somebody asked, "Bhagavan, how can you say all these things to God?" Bhagavan replies, "For you, God is only a faith, just a beliefś for me He is a living Being."

Ramana Maharishi always used to say, "It is the love of the devotees which keeps me in the body." Any Master comes down and lives in his body just for the sake of the love of the devotees. Masters as such have no karmaś they have nothing to achieve, nothing to gain. They don't have anything to enjoy. Then why should they be in the body? It is only for the love of the devotees.

When you express normal love with all its expectations, it heals five different kinds of restlessness. But love without expectation does miracles in your life. Ordinary love gives life to yourself , selfless love gives life to even the stone that you worship. Even a stone can become God, even an ordinary man can become a Guru.

A small storyŚ a man was searching for an enlightened master. No matter how much he searched he could not find one.

Finally he went to a forest and decided that the first person he saw would be his guru. After a long wait a man came running towards him. He jumped up and caught hold of this man's feet and said, "O Master, you are my Guru, my God. Please guide me." The running man was actually a thief. He had just stolen from the palace and was trying to escape. The man confessed that he was a thief and that he was in a desperate hurry to get away from the police chasing him. No matter how much he explained, the first man insisted that the latter was his Guru and wanted guidance to attain enlightenment. Finally the thief said, "As you have taken me as your Guru, do as I tell youś close your eyes and sit down, don't open them till I tell you to." Immediately the man obeys and the thief disappears. He continues to sit and his mind tells him that the running man was only a thief after all, that he should look for another Guru. But his conviction and faith said that once he had accepted one as a Guru, he had to do as bidden.

So he sits in meditation , determined to see it to the end. Because of his faith

and deep love for the Master, after a few days, his tapas reached Kailash. So Shiva had to come down to bless him. Of course, this may be a mythological story but what is expressed in this story is a great truth.

Love gives life even to stone. Selfish love when expressed heals your restlessness and gives life to you. Selfless love gives life to everything around you. When you express selfless love, it gives life to other jeevas. So love to survive and to give life.

VぶVfगLFK、る| @jA、□fDGल| @k K@् じ गkカFfBFKugHゎu} VWムf|SqD @あलJ् すざさす

saptasダgara-paryantaṁ tīrthasnダnaphalaṁ tu yat | gurupダdapayobindoḥ sahastrダWen tatphalaṃ || 87 ||

87. Whatever fruit is acquired from pilgrimage and bathing in the sacred water bodies extending to the seven seas, cannot equal to even one thousandth part of the fruit, the spiritual results derived from partaking the feet-washed-water, gurupādokaṁ of Vrī Guru.