The Beauty of the Guru Gita

There are thousands of stories from all over the world of the great things spiritual masters do. The Guru
Gita, a lesser known cousin of the Bhagavad Gita, reveals the archetypal spiritual master as an
incarnation of God.
The Guru Gita has one of the most brilliant openings of any scripture: Siva, third member of the Hindu
trinity, annihilator of ignorance and ultimately of creation, is in his heaven surrounded by saints and
sages. Seeing him bow to the ground before someone in the group, his wife Parvathi asks, "All creation
is subject to you. To whom do you bow?" Siva says, "I bow to the Guru," and then explains what he
means in 352 verses.
I've met a few of these great souls: my own Guru, Swami Satchidananda, who passed on in 2002;
Premananda of Rishikesh, India; Paramanand of Hardwar, India; Ammachi, the hugging saint; and
Muktananada of Canada. I can testify that the Guru Gita does not in any way understate the case.
Sri Guru Gita is a splendid exposition of an ancient method. The Guru Gita contains the instruction
imparted by Lord Siva to his consort the Goddess Parvati. Truth can never be told, it must be imparted.
In the same way truth can never be learned it must be experienced. Herein lies the importance of the
Guru Principle, one of the core topics of the Guru Gita, whose meaning is, "The light that dispels the
darkness."
The Guru Gita states, a Guru in human form is the supreme servant because the sole object of his
existence is to transmit or impart to the beloved disciple the Light prevalent in His/Her consciousness
thus activating the Light which lies latent in the consciousness of the disciple. This explains why the
first Truth imparted to Parvati is: "Thou art That." From that point in onward Lord Siva proceeds to
describe the conditions necessary for the disciple to maintain the chalice of his/her consciousness in the
proper position and condition to receive the luminous unction proceeding from the Guru till the
moment comes, when in complete awareness, he/she may be able to exclaim "I AM THAT!", "I AM
What is the Guru Gita?
Authored by the sage, Vyasa, the Guru Gita is a Hindu scripture of 216 verses. It is a piece of the
Skanda Puruna, an ancient genre of Hindu texts. It relates a conversation between the, Lord Shiva and
his wife, the Parvati, in which she asks him to teach her about the guru. The main body of the scripture
then begins as Shiva answers her by describing the guru principle, the proper way of worshiping guru
and all the ways and benefits one can receive by reading the Guru Gita.
The relationship between guru and disciple is a sacred and alchemic one that has existed for all known
history. It is present in every faith tradition. A good example of this is the way Jesus' disciples worship
him and his words during his life. This is the main theme of the Guru Gita as Shiva explains the
benefits and practice of this relationship. With that I say "Salutations to all the Satgurus who have
walked the earth and illumined it by their divine presence."
Along side this ancient relationship there is another major theme. Shiva delves into the meaning of the
guru principle, the relationship of service to the true self that is within all beings. Shiva explains the
nature of the Satguru by beginning with a fundamental truth imparted: "Thou art That."
The chanting of Guru Gita, along with other devotional practices of Guru Bhakti Yoga, lie at the heart
of the ancient Hindu tradition. This tradition is still continued today all over the world and although it
is harder to find good English translations of the Guru Gita, when compared to more popular texts like
the Bhagavad Gita there is still many resources available for an interested seeker.

http://www.srigurugita.com