Offering to the Guru.

What is offering to the Guru (Gurudakshina)?

For a true seeker, spiritual progress is his only aim. The all-wise and all-knowing Guru not only skillfully guides the seeker in his spiritual journey, but also gets spiritual practice done from him. Regardless of the path of Spirituality, it is only by the grace of the Guru that one can attain God. For this, the seeker is eternally indebted to his Guru. Payment for a debt of gratitude to the Guru, for all that the Guru has done and continues to do for the seeker, is called Gurudakshina.

What is the best offering to the Guru?

On the eve of Gurupurnima, let us remember the adage ‘God desires spiritual emotion’. The offering of spiritual emotion and devotion at the holy feet of the Guru (God’s manifest form) is the best offering one can give to the Guru (Gurudakshina).

The need to develop spiritual emotion in ourselves also has a more pressing and practical application in the world today. If we look around us, we see the dismal state of society and the rise in conflict and war around the world. The cause of this is spiritual in nature due to the bad elements in society being controlled by distressing energies from the subtle planes. These distressing energies obstruct the spread of righteousness and obstruct seekers in their spiritual practice. In the years to come, this distress is going to increase significantly. Development of spiritual emotion within us is a powerful remedy to overcome the effect of these distressing energies.

Chanting*, prayers, gratitude and service are essential tools to develop and increase spiritual emotion towards God. Let us look at some of the tools / measures we can take to develop spiritual emotion:

Contemplation and Remembrance

Another way of developing devotion to the Lord is through constant contemplation of His Name and His virtues and having the attitude that everything happens because of Him. This is known as ‘Smaran bhakti’ in Sanskrit (smaran = contemplation, bhakti = devotion).

This includes constant remembrance of the gross (physical) form of the Guru or God through His picture or statue. We can also remember His unseen, or subtle form through chanting The Lord’s Name. If one harbors the spiritual emotion that with every breath one takes, every task that one does throughout the day or that one is living every second only because of The Lord, then one will remember Him throughout the day.

We are more likely to remember God when we are in trouble. A story from the ancient Hindu epic ‘The Mahabharat’ tells us about the mother of the Pandavas. She would pray for unhappiness as she felt that when a person is unhappy or in distress they are more likely to remember God.

This is true expression of this form of devotion. However, we need not ask for unhappiness since if we make the attempts mentioned above devotion will develop quickly. Those who constantly remember the Guru are able to develop the spiritual emotion that everything in this life belongs to the Guru.

Prayer

One of the ways we can show our devotion is by meditating upon The Lord through our surrender unto Him. This is known as ‘Vandanbhakti’ in Sanskrit (Vandan=salutation, bhakti = devotion). This includes praying with spiritual emotion, so the prayer reaches God.

The God principle exists in each and every particle in the Universe. If one is constantly aware of the presence of God in everything around us and leads one’s life in accordance with this feeling, one would be able to rapidly develop spiritual emotion. It is recommended that an average seeker should pray to God according to his religion, while a disciple who has been blessed by a Guru should offer prayers unto the Guru.

Seekers should strive to have the spiritual emotion that God exists in each and everything that they encounter daily. To help one in this regard, one can pray to the Guru or God to experience this spiritual emotion.

Gratitude

By expressing gratitude after praying to The Lord, we acknowledge God’s power. This enables us to reduce the feeling that we can do everything on our own and also reduces our ego. We often forget to thank God after our prayers have been answered or after experiencing Bliss.

A seeker can also develop subtle ego about getting spiritual experiences or experiencing Bliss. Subtle ego pertains to the seeker thinking that he is unique. It is therefore important to offer the ‘doer-ship’ for a spiritual experience or the experience of Bliss, to the Guru.

Service to the Truth

Gratitude unto the Guru means service unto the Guru’s unmanifest form (the Teaching Principle of God). If service unto the unmanifest form is done with the spiritual emotion that one is serving the Lord Himself, then the Guru will grace the seeker and spiritual emotion will be evoked.

From the viewpoint of generating spiritual emotion, service unto the Absolute Truth is 10% important while service unto the Guru is 50% important. Spiritual emotion is developed rapidly when one offers service to the Guru’s manifest or unmanifest form. Sometimes it is not possible for each one to serve the manifest form of the Guru.

One can serve the Guru’s unmanifest or unseen form with the feeling or attitude that one is serving the manifest Guru. Serving the Guru’s unmanifest form means spreading Spirituality, and in turn spiritual emotion is developed much faster.

*If one is not currently doing any spiritual practice, one can begin with the simple, but powerful spiritual practice of chanting (repetition or constant remembrance of) God's Name as per one's religion. (Seekers at the initial stage should chant the Name of the Family Deity (Kuldevata) or the divine principle as per their religion; refer to Issue 3, section: Clarification of Doubts for a list of the Names of God in various religions. Seekers in the advanced stage of spiritual practice can refer to Issue 124, section: Message to Seekers to determine the appropriate chant for them.) If one is already doing some spiritual practice, one can complement it with chanting.