Posted on: 04 Feb 2005
The Veda says “Yavateervai Devataah” which means that all the deities are present in the Sadguru who can preach the true meaning of the Veda. In this mantra, Sadguru is referred as Brahmana. Brahmana means the Sadguru who knows Brahman. Brahman means the Veda. The Lord alone knows the true meaning of the Veda as said in the Veda (Brahmavit Brahmaiva). The Lord comes in human form and appears before the eyes of the human beings here itself as said in the Veda (Yat Saakshaat Aparokshaat). Therefore such a human form of the Lord is the abode of all the deities. Arjuna could see all the deities in the Vishwarupam of Lord Krishna. Arjuna saw the Vishwarupam with the help of ‘Divya Netra’, which is also called, as ‘Jnana Netra’, which is the eye of Knowledge. The eye of knowledge means Knowledge itself.
The word Deva means a form of light. Light means the Sattvam quality and Sattvam means ‘Jnanam’ (Knowledge). Knowledge means the various ideas made of awareness. The awareness is like gold and the various ideas are like different golden ornaments. Therefore the different deities mean the different feelings of the human form of the Lord, which are different forms of His awareness. The true knowledge of such a Sadguru is Brahma. His love, which rules the devotees, is Vishnu. His anger to punish His devotees for their ignorance is Rudra. His auspicious bliss, which does not change by the worldly matters, is Shiva. His preaching is Saraswati. The Guru Dakshina given to Him is Lakshmi. His super power is Parvati. His capacity to finish His mission in spite of obstacles is Ganapati. His courage without any fear is Hanuman. His severe anger to punish the atheists is Veerabhadhra. His removal of the dark ignorance by His preaching is Surya [Sun-God]. His enjoying the role through ignorance is Rama. His attraction of the devotees is Krishna. His removal of the sins of His devotees by transferring them on Him is Venkateshwara. His ordering capacity is Shastha. His nature to give the results to all the living beings according to their deeds is the nine planets.
Thus the Sadguru in human form is the composite of all the deities. Such human form of Lord is coming in every human generation so that He is not partial to a particular human generation. The entire world is in His body. There is nothing outside. Everything is in the Sadguru. People are worshipping the external inert forms without knowing the real nature of Sadguru. “Bahirmukha sudurlabha” means that there is nothing in this external world. “Antar Mukha Samaradhya” means that the internal form of the human incarnation is the real Lord. The human body of the Lord called as Sadguru is the modification of Maya and He is Prakriti itself. Such a human body follows the rules of nature and behaves like any other human body, which is weak and is called as Lalita. The word Lalita means the Prakriti, which represents the human body of the Lord and which is tender, without any divine strength. There is no other way than to worship the external form of human incarnation because the internal form is beyond imagination. Therefore Lalita (human body) is only the alternative to worshipping the Lord.
The Lord with a human body is called Saguna Brahman, which means the Lord associated with Guna (Quality). The quality depends on the substance and surrounds the substance. The super power Maya is the root deity. The different forms of the Maya are the different deities. Maya is called Para Shakti, which means pure awareness. The different forms of awareness are the different feelings. These feelings are the different deities. Therefore the Sadguru (Lord) can show the form of any deity just by getting that feeling. His Will materializes as the form of the deity and you can look Him as that deity. You must have firm faith on such Sadguru and this firm faith is the entire essence of your spiritual effort (sadhana).
Surya (Sun) can only remove darkness but not the ignorance. The sun is the inert planet [sun is considered as a ‘graha’ or ‘planet’ from the astrological or philosophical point of view], which is a model for ignorant people. As the sun removes darkness, the Lord removes ignorance. Therefore the real deity form of the sun is the Sadguru and not the inert sun. Such a Sadguru enlightens the intelligence as said in the Veda (Dheeyo yonah). Such a Sadguru is compared to the sun (Savita). The inert sun can only remove sleep of the body but the preaching of Sadguru removes the ignorance that covers the intelligence. Therefore it is said “Na Guroradhikam, Gurussakshaat Para Brahma” i.e., nobody is greater than the Sadguru and the Sadguru is the final Lord.