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Definition of the guru

CHENNAI DEC.1. For centuries, preceptors have been the torch-bearers of a hoary tradition that lays emphasis on imparting knowledge and wisdom in a manner aimed at enhancing the spiritual wealth of devotees. Endowed with the probity of mind and an all-pervasive piety, a long line of illustrious Acharyas have soldiered on, helping floundering devotees bridge the chasm of doubt, despair and ignorance. Scriptures state that it is desirable for a spiritual fledgling to seek a guru, serve him in a befitting manner whereby the teacher, out of kindness, fills the lacuna in the student by preaching and discoursing on higher, abstruse aspects of life. Such a rite of passage cannot be bought with all the riches of the world, but should be earned by adherence to the principles of the guru-sishya parampara, said Sri V.V. Mukundan in a discourse.

There was a great preceptor who lived as he preached. Amazed at his humility and seeming poverty, a well-wisher mixed rice grains fashioned out of gold in the alms bowl that the Acharya held out every day. His wife, an equal, knew neither the yellow metal nor its worth. But the husband aware of its mesmeric quality, equated it to poison insidiously creeping over one's fingers, over arms, to the neck, to hold the devotee in its thrall and make him a slave to baser things in life. This personage was none other than Vedanta Desika, the preceptor without parallel, who laid down the characteristic traits desirable in a mentor.

Defining a guru, the Ramayana recommends that he should be a man of godliness within and not in external manifestations such as matted hair and long nails; rather, he should master the holy texts such as the Divya Prabhandam, the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana and the Vedas and discourse on the same in a manner easily discernible to the ordinary devotee. Shunning the mere following of rites and rituals, it is preferred if a teacher can bring to `life' the subject, a feat sage Narada is renowned for. Vedanta Desika, whose treatise is held to echo the teachings of the Vedas, similarly lays emphasis on steadfastness of faith, on the ability to resist the line of the lucre and other worldly pleasures and on leading a virtuous life. It is also laid down that an apt student is one who is tuned mentally to his teacher's wavelength with unwavering faith. Madhurakavi was one such sishya, whose devotion to his preceptor Nammazhwar so pleased Lord Krishna that He, along with His consort, appeared in full glory to the devotee and blessed him.

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