It has been said, “Guru krpáhi kevalam”. It has also been said that “Brahmaeva gururekha náparah”. You know in the word “guru”, there are two syllables, “gu” and “ru”. “Gu” means “darkness”; darkness in spiritual life, darkness in psycho-spiritual strata. And “ru” means “dispelling entity”. “Guru” means the entity that dispels all sorts of darkness from your spiritual and psychic bodies.
Táraka Brahma is the only guru, and nobody else can be the guru.
Nirguńa has no objectivity. Hence, Nirguńa does not keep any link with this world. So the Nirguńa Entity, as it is, cannot be the guru. And Saguńa is under certain bondages. So Saguńa cannot be the guru.
The guru should be just like Nirguńa, but keeping a sweet link with that expressed world. And no other entity can be the guru, can be the dispeller of darkness from your spirit and mind: “Guru krpáhi kevalam” means “Brahma krpáhi kevalam.”
What is Krpá? In Samskrta, the root verb is “kr”. “Kr” means to help one in one’s progress even when one does not deserve it. So if one deserves it, that is, if one has the qualification to get oneself fully developed and fully exalted, then in that case there is no necessity of krpá, there is no necessity of help from Táraka Brahma. But when one does not deserve it, when one has not got the qualification for development, and still one is helped, that sort of help is called “krpa”.
Now you may say, this entire Cosmos, all the creation, everything that you see or feel, everything is His creation. Then for the sake of impartiality He should help all. That is, His krpá should be for all. Why should there be a special case? I have said so many times that there should not be any special case. Wherever there is a special case, there is favouritism. So there should not be any special case. So there should not be any krpá for anybody. Everybody should be treated equally. If Parama Puruśa helps somebody specially, then He is supporting partially.
Now there is something to say in this connection. The philosophy says that the Supreme Entity has created everything, so He belongs to everybody, and everybody belongs to Him. But a spiritual aspirant who has developed love for Him won’t accept this philosophical gospel in his personal life. He says, “Let there be so many principles, so much logic and philosophy; I am not to be guided by those philosophical texts. I am to be guided by my own feelings”. And what is that feeling of that spiritual aspirant who has developed love for Him? He says, “God is mine and He belongs to me only, and to nobody else, and I belong to Him only and to nobody else. That is, my God is my personal property and I don’t want to share this personal property with any second individual”.
So, when such a strong sentiment of love has developed, there is certainly force in it. By dint of that force, that poor and weak man attracts Him and He cannot neglect that man. That attraction is a thousand times stronger than the gospels of philosophy. If He is attracted by such loving sentiment, then is He at fault? Certainly not. And everybody has the right to attract Him like this, Why don’t you do it?
And the second thing is that even under normal conditions He is showering His compassion on each and every particle of this universe. He is showering His compassion without distinction of caste, creed, nationality or religion.
But what happens? There is a shower, a heavy shower of compassion on each and everybody, but if during that shower you hold an umbrella over your head, you won’t be drenched. So is the fault that of the shower? Certainly not. The fault is with your hand and with your umbrella of vanity; and that is why you are not drenched by that compassion, by that krpá. He is not at fault. Then what are you to do? You are to remove that umbrella of vanity from your head, and then and there you will be drenched, fully drenched, by His universal compassion.
Nobody else is the guru. Táraka Brahma is the only guru. And the second thing – there is no alternative but to pray, but to request, but to do sádhaná, to get His compassion and attract Him by dint of that loving force, that loving stamina within your heart.
Shrii Shrii Anandamurti
9 September 1978, Patna
Published in Ánanda Vacanámrtam, Part 2