First Guru Dakshinaamurthy
In this article we will learn about the AadhiGuru which means the first Guru – Guru from the beginning. The first Guru / Aadhi Guru is called as “Lord Dakshinaamurthy”
The Supreme Lord himself became the first Guru ( which means Guru from the beginning ) for the souls and imparted his teachings. Please read about the first Guru and the teachings from him with Attention.
In puranic times (or in the beginning of time) four sons of lord brahma (responsible for creation) called sanakaadhi sages were well versed in Vedas and scriptures and were very knowledgeable and intelligent, but they are not able to attain completeness despite their vast knowledge. Without completeness and complete divine wisdom and for want of them they became anxious and distress.
They wanted to know about the supreme being who is present everywhere, who can do anything, who is beyond time, who doesn’t have beginning and end , who is of supreme divine grace, who is responsible for the creation, sustenance and destruction of the material world and who is present as atom within atom and source of light even to the atoms.
With this in mind they prayed sincerely and with full of devotion and with their mind melting with devotion. They prayed to the lord to show them the way to divinity. They were very distressed without knowing the path to divine wisdom.
Knowing the anxiousness and wishes of Sanakaadhi sages Lord sarveswaran (Lord is called by this name which indicate he is capable of anything and everything. Traditionally lord shiva is called by this name) decided to shower his graces on the sanakaadhi sages. He appeared before them. On seeing the form of lord before them the sanakaadhi sages were surprised and were stunned.
They thought – “We wanted to see the supreme lord but we are seeing a strange form before us. Who is he? Why is he here? What is the reason for him to be here?” They asked these questions among themselves.
Since they are well learned and very intelligent they were able to reason and find out answers for the questions that has raised in their mind. “We wanted to see the supreme lord and we were praying sincerely for that and suddenly we are seeing a huge form appear before us.” They realized it is none but the supreme lord who has come before them and remaining still and showing the way to realize him.
Is it easy to know the supreme lord who is beyond our senses , mind and intelligence?! We should be spiritually mature enough to know him. Even for the great sages of sanakaadhi calibre lord did not shower his grace directly!?
To sanakaadhi sages who know everything in this world and through them to the whole world lord himself appeared as Guru and gave the “moona upadesha” as his grace.
To reach him he showed the importance of getting Guru Upadesha by himself becoming a guru. The supreme lord himself became guru and appeared before sanakaadhi sages as Lord Dakshinaamurthy. By his appearance as Dakshinaamurthy and by its form and shape he showed the way for divine wisdom and to reach him.
Before them without any speech, with half eyes opened, sitting with left leg folded and with right leg planted on the demon sitting below the stone tree the supreme being himself as Dakshinaamurthy. Dakshinaamurthy is having four hands and in one hand he is having fire(divine light), in his other hand he is carrying a small drum(sound), in his other hand he is having Vedas and in the fourth hand which is giving grace kept in chin mudra (index finger folded to touch the middle of thumb finger). In this way they saw the four hands of lord Dakshinaamurthy.
In the right side of Dakshinaamurthy’s head which is wearing crown there is sun and in the left side of his head there is curved moon. His face is displaying calmness, dispassion and equanimity and is very beautiful with a mild smile. They studied this form and shape, thought using their knowledge and wisdom, discussed among themselves and finally arrived at the correct conclusion. What is that conclusion?
The form that appeared before them is none but supreme lord himself. To overcome death (lord yama) who is represented as south direction and to achieve divine immortality lord Dakshinaamurthy is facing south and we have to sit in the direction of north facing Dakshinaamurthy. Since lord is sitting facing south they called him Dakshinaamurthy (Dakshin-> means south and Murthi means form of lord available for his devotees).
Since lord is sitting with complete silence and without any speech they realized one has to maintain silence and avoid speech. This is called Moona Nilai.
Since lord is carrying fire in his one hand they realized god is of form of divine flame or divine jyothi. Since he is carrying drum in his other hand God is also of the form of divine sound which is Ohm. Which means god is of both divine sound and light. This is nothing but vindu naadham.
By carrying vedas in other hand he is imparting to the sages that Vedas teach them that god is of divine light and sound and also it teaches the way to reach him. The fourth hand is giving grace to the people with the sign of chin mudra.
God who is of divine light and sound is showering grace upon us and his grace can be realized from the place of chinmudra. Know and realize what is chinmudhra and do penance there with silence. This is the message that Dakshinamurthy is conveying to the humans with his form.
The divine message that Dakshinaamurthy bought is “Keep you eyes open and be just present in the spiritual consciousness in the eye without any action”. This is what told by Dakshinaamurthy without any speech. This is the secret wisdom of divinity. Vedas tell the same truth in coded and hidden way. The lord who is present everywhere is of the form of divine light. With this divine light divine sound is also present and this divinity is present in human body in the place of chin-mudra. If we cling on to this chin-mudra and be just there (in chinmudra) we can realize and reach the supreme lord. Sanakaathi sages came to know this and by following this they realized him and reached him and attained divine blissfull immortal life.
In this the important thing is chin-mudra. This is the place in the human body through which he is accessible and we can reach him. This is the place in which we have to do penance. This is the place where we have to be just there. Lord as Dakshinaamurthy has bent his index finger and touching the middle line of the thumb with his other three fingers stretched out.
The Lord Ayyappa in sabarimala is also showering his grace in the sign of chin mudra. chin mudra denotes EYE. How?!With chin mudra in your hand and if you turn your hands the region in which the index finger is touching the middle finger resembles like our eyes. Our eye length is same as the length of thumb finger from the tip till the middle line. So chin mudra means EYE and this has been represented in coded terms so that we may think and realize this. To make us use our knowledge only these things were represented in coded form.
In KathaUpanishad the hero character Nichikethan asks the lord of death yama where the lord is residing in human body. To this lord yama replies the supreme lord is present in the human body which is of the size of thumb and is present as smokeless divine flame. This is one more proof that eye is the way to reach god.
In our human body the length of thumb from tip to the middle line represents the eye as both are of same length. The lord who is of divine supreme flame and light is of flame without any smoke. He is inside our eyes as the divine light without any smoke. This is divine secret. Only if we get to know this we can be just there and do penance with our eyes opened as indicated by Dakshinaamurthy.
So as Dakshinaamurthy the supreme lord’s teaching is realize the divine light in our eyes and be there with our eyes open. Since sanakaadhi sages were highly learnt, knowledgeable and intelligent they can understand lord’s teaching and can realize him. Since Dakshinaamurthy imparted to them without speaking they were able to realize the truth. This is the truth. This is satya and this has been certified by different sages, seers, siddhars and Gnanis.
Aadhiguru imparted the teaching to sanakaadhi sages without speaking whereas in the case of Saint ArunagiriNathar lord muruga took the form of a Brahmin and imparted the teaching by speaking the words “Just be there and do nothing” (Summa Iru) and saved him.
In all the above incidents god did not showered his grace directly instead god came as guru and imparted his teachings and blessed them as guru. By this the supreme lord tells about the importance of guru and imparts the teaching which is “Just be there and do nothing”. Those who does penance with the divine consciousness in the eye and with the eye open will get spiritual maturity and only for those person the supreme lord will show himself , will make them realize him, will embrace them and will overwhelm them with his grace.
Realize that the eyes were the only way to divinity. Realize doing penance is the only way to divinity. Eye is the way. So open your eyes to this.
In today’s world there were so many people who do prediction based on horoscope. In horoscope we have 9 planents called Navagraha. In this come the planet of Jupiter also called Guru Graha who is brahaspathi. Only this guru undergoes changes from one constellation to other constellation. This guru is not Dakshinaamurthy. Dakshinaamurthy is not the guru of Navagraha. Dakshinaamurthy is supreme lord himself who is showing the path of divinity to us.
The teaching imparted by Dakshinaamurthy which is “Just be there and do nothing” – one who gets to know this penance by a guru upadesha and getting dekshai from the guru and does penance will get divine wisdom and will reach the supreme lord. By this way by doing penance one who has committed sin and karma for thousands of his birth will be done away by the grace of the Aadhiguru. Only when we get the vision of this guru will our sins be washed off. Aadhiguru should see us from within us. We should get the grace of Dakshinaamurthy. Only then all our karmas will be washed away with and we will get divine spiritual immortal life. So to get rid of our karma seek Aadhiguru. To know aadhiguru you offer your humble respects to a sadguru here get upadesha and Deekshai. Do penance. “One who does penance the penance will never go futile” -> Saint Avayaar.
So any how one needs to get a Guru. Even if one gets any type of guru it is important. The duty of one is to be sincere and true to a guru. If a sishya or disciple is true and good it does not matter whether the guru is qualified and good or not. By being true to any guru and if the guru happens to be a fraud then lord aadhiguru on merit of the disciple being true and good will bless that disciple and show him to a true guru. Since aadhiguru is one with ocean of compassion and divinity himself.
So in short everyone needs a guru. We need a qualified and true guru. We should know and realize about Aadhi guru.
“One who does not offer respects to the feet of guru, for them lord will always be elusive” – saint tamil poet Avvayaar.