Guru Purnima: From Heart to Heart
This flow of knowledge from the heart of the teacher to the heart of the student, this flow of knowledge, is the current of joy from the heart of the teacher to the heart of the student. It’s a current of joy — it’s a great joy. In teaching, the teacher feels fulfilled because this process of teaching is a process of creating waves of joyfulness in the heart; and the overflow of knowledge, a very great joy. And this has been created by the student— the student is always very loving to the teacher. So the relationship of a student and a teacher is of love, gratitude and receptivity, and increasing happiness and growth towards fulfillment. This is the intimate relationship. It’s a very intimate relationship.
– HH Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
We celebrate this special occasion, known as Guru Purnima, which traditionally, expresses the totality of the relationship between all teachers and students. On this Full Moon day, we offer our hearts full of gratitude to Vamadeva for being the one who has taken this role of teacher and for passing on the teaching of perennial wisdom to whatever capacity that it is able to be cognised and received. We recognise the ultimate in you, as you see the divine in each of us, as well as acknowledge that very principle which conceals and reveals reality.
We take this time today to pause for a moment and consider all that went into the formation of this relationship and brought us here at this point, including the sacred tradition which has guarded this deemed precious knowledge, passed from heart to heart, master to master, since time immemorial. May the connection to the teacher remain steadfast, and may the purity of this relationship always be protected so that what is meant to may be brought forth and come to fruition – the glory and knowledge of the Self and the Universal Love that it brings.
Below is an excerpt from Igor Vamadeva on the nature and significance of the teacher-student relationship, especially in the context of what it might mean in modern times when it has been popularly stripped of its potential richness and subtlety. May these words bring deep insights and a deepening into how one understands this relationship to be for oneself in the fulness of today.
With love and in service,
Team & Sangha Flowing Wakefulness
THE GURU-DISCIPLE RELATIONSHIP
by Igor Kufayev
The theme of the teacher-student relationship. We started with the theme and what it means and what it takes to be a teacher. And of course, when we say “teacher”, it is impossible to speak about someone in isolation from what is required, what actually makes one a teacher. There is this old proverb, “It is the student who makes the teacher. It is someone who comes and makes someone into that which then can have many different ways in how that comes across in terms of this particular form, this particular relationship.
I would like to introduce something here which many of us share within our beautifully growing community — where we are all united by the same desire, the same ardour, the same intent to recreate these units within the collective consciousness, where we can tend to our own evolution, and where we can also introduce something new into this world — which this world eagerly requires. How that is going to take place? What shape is it going to take? This is open to all the various possibilities, and we are all very interested to see what may come out of it.
However, with that said, no matter how lovely this intention is, many of us are aware of the environment in which this work is being done in our day and age. It becomes very apparent that the environment where this work unfolds, is a very peculiar environment in the sense that it cannot be some kind of isolated island of dreamers who come together to build something. We are all part of our prevalent cultures; we are all part of our very fast globalised culture, which shares a lot of common roots that all come from that which connects us together, and at the same time keeps us apart. So, in this respect, this relationship at some point, in certain cultures is seen as an indispensable part of this work has now been threatened by the very notion that this relationship is “an outlived paradigm”.
That notion that the relationship between teacher and student is somehow an outlived paradigm in the sense that it doesn’t require any of this holy territory of, “Let’s get down to business. You know something I don’t know. Put it on the table, let me see how it looks. If I like it I’ll take it; if I don’t like it, I’ll leave it there. The Guru is within, so let’s just make it very clear… there’s no need to go into this hula-hula of devotion, and all of this stuff that belongs to the old ages. I don’t want to clutter my life with that. I want to have clear space on my desk, I want to know what I am doing, I want to have very clear definition. I am just here to receive some knowledge. You’ve got it? Fantastic! Here is my commitment, I’m willing to pay for it, okay — I’ll shake your hand — and goodbye once the seminar is over”.
There are certainly these elements in modern spirituality where that is also part of the parcel, where many teachers don’t want to even enter the degree of commitment required for this work to enter another dimension. An exchange took place some time ago in California between myself and a dear friend of mine, a well-established master in the Sufi tradition with a lineage. With this in view and after very careful consideration of these exchanges, it has become clear to me that we are working in a time where this relationship has undergone terrible fragmentation — if not fracture.
It was literally fractured at some point, simply because the trust has been abused — perhaps on both sides. The purpose of this now is not to go into the intricacies of what has happened, not into the details of what exactly happened historically and how it happened, but simply introduce to many of you who are new to this webinar — perhaps new to this teaching, new even to myself — is that something that would be there, addressed periodically, but on a continuous basis, that that relationship is not only not an outlived paradigm…but in order for something to be truly delivered, it requires something which neither mind nor intellect nor any other faculty can grasp — it can only be transmitted through that which can enter very silently, very quietly from one Heart to another Heart.
It is from that perspective only, that the traditions where this relationship has been nurtured and cherished, the authenticity, the preciousness, validity, value and sacredness of that relationship preserved, because without that element, spiritual transformation, spiritual process may be an exercise in vain of gaining something out of the process — which essentially is more about removing what is unnecessary instead of gaining something to be free. It is a very vast theme, and not a theme which is embraced in modern spirituality — especially in our highly globalised western culture.
We have seen quite a bit within our own community; we have seen quite interesting developments, quite beautiful unfoldments, but we also have seen interesting peculiarities of this process. We have also seen the ugly side of that process. We have seen how this relationship can be taken for granted, misinterpreted, twisted only to remain in the status quo, only to disallow that which the work requires. I find it is not unusual that last night when I was left on my own to contemplate for a few moments of repose, it came back to me that it is now needed more than ever. Unless we — and when I say “we” I mean this growing spiritual community — take the plunge and the courage to revive the sacredness — that lost sacredness between the preceptor and the one who receives in an act of transmission, then who is going to do it?
It seems to me that there is this taboo. Many teachers simply will not even venture there, or not venture outside of a very, very, very small closed circle, because it is a dangerous territory. We are treading the territory where one can be destroyed from the perspective of political correctness in just the split of a moment, because with all the so-called transparency of the internet, how easy it is to run a show from one’s office, from one’s home, one who assumes this role as a teacher, and one who wants to be a destroyer of this process, one who wants to say, “Guess what? All of this is an outlived paradigm; it’s a thing of the past. We live in a time of democracy…who says that the teacher holds any kind of importance here? We are all teaching each other, we are all walking each other home — like Ram Das said — we’re all holding hands, we’re all sitting in a circle, we all share the same thing”.
I would like to conclude this introduction with a few traditional perspectives. This — what is essentially know in western vocabulary, in western language as the teacher-student relationship is also known in Sanskrit as Guru-shishya. Guru-shishya — Guru stands for that principle of that which conceals, and that which reveals. It is the highest principle, without which there is no freedom, or no freedom of Self-realisation. It is the very aspect of our own Awareness which conceals its own reality from itself, and then reveals it. However, the Guru is not just some kind of abstract principle living in some high realm, high loka, or stratosphere; neither is it a principle which is essentially the very whole, the core of the heart. If the heart has that core which contains it, there is also the core within the core of the heart — that is what Guru represents.
So in this respect, Guru is not just an abstract reality, within or without; it would have to take form, it would have to be a living being — a living being in female or male form. It is then that with or without the form coming into one being, where then it can be contemplated, it can then be healthily projected outward to receive the reflection of one’s own growth, one’s own awareness. And shishya here stands for that — even if temporarily — placed in that relationship which creates that relationship. There is no such thing as a Guru as such, nor is there a shishya as such. They only exist as one indivisible whole. Guru-shishya also has two other terms in Sanskrit.
It is also known as sampradaya; there is this Sanskrit term sampradaya which literally exemplifies the relationship between Guru and shishya, between teacher and student. Sampradaya, if you want to translate it, it is the passage or the transmission of the knowledge of the Self; it is the undying transmission of the sacred craft, whatever that craft is. It is what the term sampradaya exemplifies. It is simply the continuity of knowledge, which requires that transmission from Heart to Heart.
There is also another term within the given tradition, parampara. As some of you may know, para stands for the one which is the ultimate; that which transcends everything, just as when para is put in front of a term like Paramashiva it is the highest aspect of the Absolute. It is that which transcends absolutely everything, every attribute; it even transcends the transcendence itself. When para and para are put together it is essentially, literally that — it is the passing on of that which is the most sacred, that which is transcendent.
So that in a way is how to understand the teacher-student connection, and the teacher-student relationship — it is the act of transmission. And it does not matter which modality the teacher chooses to deliver his or her work. It doesn’t matter which tradition the teacher belongs to. It doesn’t matter whether this is a knowledge based upon some kind of techniques, or a process of inquiry, or it belongs to a more artful path where various means are involved — or no means are involved. It is an inseparable part of that process in as much as we speak about that Heart to Heart connection. It has nothing to do with, “Oh, one is installed up there, and others are sitting below”. It has nothing to do with touching the feet, it has nothing to do with annihilating oneself in front of the master or someone who is being put in that position. All of this would be irrelevant; all of this is absolutely irrelevant…if not for the most important part.
The most important part is the transmission of knowledge from Heart to Heart. What form it will take is none of anyone’s business …if it will take the form of lovers — let it be. If it will take the form of mother and daughter — let it be; mother and son — let it be; friends — let it be. Companions — whatever you want, whatever form — it is open, there is a very vast array of forms that this relationship can take.
I wanted to say this because it is something I have encouraged myself to have the courage to look into, and I encourage all of you to be open, bold enough and courageous enough to look into this and see what prevents you — what is there that stands in its way — what limitations? What fears? Because we have to be honest if we are in this community, set to revive and recreate the sacredness in this relationship. We will have to go and to face all the underbelly of this — everything. We cannot just say, “Oh, we are just going to put a blind eye on what happened in the past”, or we are going to essentially ignore all the possibilities and just hope it is going to just happen to us in a nice way. Unless we face the limitations, unless we face the fears together collectively — each individual and collectively — we won’t be able to recreate that relationship and restore the sanctity to that relationship, without which the transmission…I don’t want to sound categorical here, but it has been emphasised in so many different traditions, that essentially it is where the possibility of savoring that Universal Love is possible, here and now in direct human contact. It is as simple as that.
— Igor Kufayev, Online Darshan in July 2015
Photos: Courtesy of Flowing Wakefulness.
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