Picture: Purnima is the day in June or July that falls on the full moon; a day meant to honor the Guru. Picture sent by a sincere devotee.
Guru Purnima is honoring one’s guru and guru lineage. Guru, of course, is not a word many of us grew up with, but it has entered the common lexicon since the 1960s and 70s. Now we have Wall Street gurus, communication gurus, anyone who is an extraordinary talent in their field can be identified as such. This generalization is not all inappropriate, for anyone who brings light to a field of knowledge meets the qualification. However, the title takes on a more specific and refined meaning in the spiritual field.
A spiritual guru: one who brings light into darkness. He can be one who teaches a more intellectual course of study, but as you rise up higher it is the rare person of realization that can fulfill the true role of a guru. A realized being has risen to, and gained mastery of, the various spinal centers that represents specific levels of consciousness. The first level concerns basic quest for life and survival. Surrender of one’s life in service to God and God in humanity is a means to rise above this initial level.
Then comes desire for pleasure and sex instinct that is meant for the survival of the species—this is nature’s way of perpetuating humanity. Humanly we can learn to imbue this energy with love, dedication and beauty by a husband and wife, taking it out of the gross and indiscriminate nature into which it can devolve. But, that same energy can be used for the higher purpose for gaining realization and service to God—rather than merely fulfilling basic urges and sense satisfaction. The transmutation of these energies is the key to attaining mastery over the second chakra or energy center.
Climbing higher on the spinal ladder one comes to the evolutionary development of individual will. Here one learns to submit one’s own will to Divine will through spiritual dedication. Initially an aspirant abides by spiritual laws handed down in religious traditions or through spiritual teachers. As the mind is purified direct intuition of Divine will becomes possible, and through submission to God’s direction spiritual mastery is gained in the 3rd chakra.
The heart center signifies going beyond strictly individual concerns and growing into a larger world. Humanly, loving another and the willingness to sacrifice for others, a loved one, children, friends or the larger world community is a primer to Divine Love. Divine Love is experienced with the opening of the 4th chakra at the heart, and there Divine Love flows out to one and all in an unfettered way. The experience of Divine Love is purifying in itself, and prepares the aspirant to give oneself, heart and soul, to Divine Love—transcending the personal/individual and entering the impersonal/transcendent.
The 5th chakra concerns knowing what right conduct is based on higher truth. Initially this is known through a quickening of the mind that makes you now this is correct, and this is not. Submission in thought, word and deed to this higher knowledge makes you become dharma itself and prepares you for even more perfect attunement to inborn dharma, direct apprehension of truth. This attunement is your initiation for entering into the 6th chakra, otherwise known as Kutastha Chaitanya or Christ Consciousness.
In Christ Consciousness there is a more perfect union with the Divine Mind. Love and intelligence are both informed by a steady stream from the pure Mind of Father-God. The individual is practicing perfect surrender in body, mind and soul, and the power of God flows freely through such a one. In this stage there is still the sense of “I and Thou,” a thin but definite veil of division between human and Divine. The son of man, or human consciousness surrenders completely to the Divine Essence, and is willing to go through whatever God desires. Through these experiences in the Mystical Crucifixion, or the Battle of Kurukshetra, the veil of separation is pierced—when the process is complete there is only knowing oneness of God.
This oneness is a merging into the 7th chakra at the top of the head. The tall head gear or hats of religious heads is symbolic of the fully opened 7th chakra. Depictions of the Buddha show three coils of hair above the top of his head, indicating mastery over the three bodies, the physical, astral and causal and being established in this highest center. This is the summa cum laude for the yogi or spiritual master. Mother called this, “Going over the top.” Once the individual has been completely subsumed into the Spiritual, then the Spiritual may once again manifest as the individual, only now it is all done in complete accordance with all the purity of the Spiritual Consciousness manifesting through the human, the complete God-man or Godwoman.
According to Meher Baba, a master of the 5th chakra and above may function as a guru—not before. In some rare cases, the guru may have gone all the way, and having gone over the top may serve to help others to do the same. Large followings are not the sign of a more advanced guru, a Maha-Yogi such as Babaji may only have a few disciples at a time, but each aspirant has earned their position—even then their full realization is not guaranteed, for free will is always in play until complete illumination is achieved.
True gurus such as Mother and Master do what they do out of compassion and a desire to help others to know God. We are the direct beneficiaries of these benevolent Beings who spend their lives bringing spiritual Light to this world. Oftentimes those who the guru seeks to help are not able to fully take advantage of what they are given. But, even though the guru wants realization for all aspirants here and now, they also have the understanding that each soul comes with their own karma and purity of desire. A few may fully take what is given, others just a portion, and some may walk away empty handed—not because it was not freely given, but because the individual was not yet ready to embark upon the Great Adventure.
So we honor the guru and the guru-lineage for what we have been given. We make certain we are not “the poor workman blaming his tools,” but really go to work and fully engaged with the truth and the guru-shakti that the powerful guru gives. We strive to take the Light that has been freely given, and in return give the Light we now know within to all the world, in all that we do. For, to really honor the guru means that you do what he or she asks you to do, to give as he or she gives, to emulate the guru in all the important ways–to be an emissary of truth. There is no greater way to honor the guru.