Siddha Yoga: Guru is Divinity, Says Siddha Yoga  

By Viveka

Siddha Yoga: Guru is Divinity, Says Siddha Yoga  

The Universal Spirit dances within and around beings who, having surrendered their individual identification to It, serve to channelise God's beneficial energies. In becoming the conduit of Divinity they become the Divine.

Retaining no traces of individuality to hinder the flow of God's love and harmony through them, their work is done by God, their teachings are from God and the transformations they cause are also from God alone. God, then, is the actual Guru, the physical body only serving to spread love and knowledge about His own Self.

This is the true foundation of Siddha Yoga in which allegiance to the guru is complete. Reverence of the spiritual master as God is the foundational belief. Those who embrace such a path find true protection, peace, love, joy, well being and the experience of the Divine at every step because of blessings from their spiritual master.

A true guru is one whose mere presence brings about a deep transformation, whose voice, more than words, serves as a vehicle to lasting inner bliss and who with ease instils a state of calm. Such a one whose identification with the Supreme is complete, and who, with authority from the guru's lineage, enables us to retrieve our identification with Divinity, is a true guru.

One who can take us to the state of divine bliss and help sustain it; who can take us beyond the initial blessings that prayers or austerities bring, and transforms us into beings overflowing with love and gentleness, is a true guru. We become free from pettiness and pride once we perceive everything as being divine, including our self. We gain insight into a new dimension.

We begin to draw strength from inside; we establish contact with the vibrantly active life force, the divine Shakti. We yearn to thank God for Shaktipat , the inner initiation by the true guru. Kashmir Shaivite texts repeatedly stress that true initiation alone to recognition of ourselves as God.

The Spanda Karikas , a Kashmir Shaivite text, says that Consciousness of the highest Self abides in a fully realised being without interruption. So it is essential to carefully select the guru in whose hands we put our entire being.

Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, spiritual head of Gurudev Siddha Peeth , Ganeshpuri, maintains that we must always test a guru before accepting him - we have to be sure that the guru we choose will take us to the Divinity from which we have sprung.

Explaining the Kularnava Tantra , she says that the sign of a master established in the Self is that whatever such a being does is an offering to God, whatever word he uses carries the power of the mantra, wherever he looks, spiritual power is felt and lives are transformed.

Such a guru lives and functions in this world but what he gives to it is always the pulsation of Consciousness - nothing but love and experience of the Truth. The Tantra further highlights that many gurus are like lamps inside homes, but rare is the guru who illumines all, like the sun.

Many are learned in the Vedas and scriptures, but rare is the guru who has attained the supreme Truth. The Siddhas tell us that the guru is the ultimate mystery. From the guru emerges all creation. Even the highest deities spring from and subside in it. Only one initiated by a true guru can comprehend this principle and help others experience it.

To find and accept a true guru, to receive the highest initiation, to follow the guru's teachings with resolution is the means to experiencing lasting bliss. Without the experience of Truth human life has no value, explains Gurumayi, but with the experience of Truth human life is priceless.

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See also: Siddha Yoga, Spiritual Guidance, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)