Reinvent The Self!

This is Margashirsha month, a Guru’s month. We celebrate Datta Pournima as Lord Dattatreya’s Birthday. Pournima connotes wholeness, completeness. Datta means given. It’s given to all of us. It’s given to everything that there is. This principle of wholeness is everywhere to be seen and experienced. It requires a curious and intuitive mind. Mruga symbolises these qualities. From Mruga Shira becomes Margashirsha. Guru guides a curious and intuitive mind to experience the ultimate reality, enlightenment. Guru literally means dispeller of darkness.

Lord Dattatreya is regarded as the son of Atri (not three, or beyond three) and Anasuya (free from jealousy, not touched by six enemies of mind).

Now here Atri means beyond three, Beyond Brahma (sattva), Vishnu (rajas) and Mahesh (tamas). It also means Beyond Past, Present, Future. It also means Beyond solid, liquid and gaseous. In short, Atri means anything beyond comprehension.

So Dattatreya is a combination or a culmination of Atri and Anasuya. Anasuya is a pure flawless mind! A flawless mind is required to comprehend that which is beyond three. Our mind is conditioned (samskaras) in some way so as to see and interpret the reality in a biased way (samskaras introduce biases, flaws). Dattatreya is regarded as the Supreme Guru! He guides us towards the path of enlightenment.

Though enlightenment is One, it’s experienced in so many ways. Some have experienced it in the form of Advaita, for some it’s Dvaita, for some it’s Vishishtadvaita, and so on. It’s Guru who decides what suits us best.

Guru Gita, Guru Paduka Stotra and Guru Padukashtaka are some of the timeless renderings created in praise of Guru without whose grace every experience is meaningless. In a sense, it doesn’t lead us to come out of the cycle (samsara). In fact it makes us further cling to the cycle. We say we learn from our experience! Isn’t it?

Different experiences have different lessons. Only Guru can render our every experience into only one form, Bliss! Whatever may be the form of that experience, He ensures we are in a Bliss. There are no lessons whatsoever!

Following is a small attempt to write what I could make of those priceless renderings.

Guru’s Command is the Supreme Duty

Guru Vachan is the Ultimate Truth

Guru Paduka is the Sovereign Meditation

Guru Mantra is the Supreme Devotion

Loyalty to the Guru is the Sovereign Faith

Whatever we get, whichever state we are in, is Guru’s Sovereign Grace

Receiving Guru Mantra is the Ultimate Gift

Realization or Enlightenment is in acknowledging Guru’s Sovereign Grace

Mukti is in Supreme Surrender. It is the Eternal Place near our Guru’s Paduka!

तस्मै श्री गुरुवे नम: !