We have discussed elsewhere that the ultimate Reality, Brahman, is indescribable in any factual language and is not sense-perceivable. We have also found It is the essence of every individual being, knowledge of which only can take us to higher levels of contentment in life. Humans, therefore, cannot afford to ignore their own essence, Brahman. Then how will we know It? Depend on those who know It already! Only they can help. Who are they? The ṛshis, the wise teachers, who live with the experiential awareness of Brahman.

When a seeker becomes a disciple of such a wise teacher (guru), he/she has three significant stages in the guru-disciple association before attaining the end goal; the three stages are śravaṇa, manana and nididhyāsana, in that order. In stage one, the disciple listens to the wisdom teaching of the guru; it is śravaṇa. When he/she subjects the guru’s words of wisdom to deep contemplation and meditation, it is manana, stage two. In the last stage, (a) the disciple realizes what the guru has been guiding him/her to attain ̶ the Reality, and (b) at the same time, he/she finds that the gurus’ wisdom teachings were as true as the Reality itself.

How did the disciple succeed in his/her endeavor? He/she did manana (contemplation and meditation) on the words of the guru. Manana is so demanding a process that the mind has to be kept steady for a long, long period on the object of manana; and the ‘object’ of manana was the guru’s words. The mind will stay on the object (the guru’s words) for so long, only if the person has so much adoration for the object. The task will be an arduous one unless the person (and the mind) has an enormous amount of appreciation for the guru’s words. The appreciation or adoration of that degree is nothing but absolute faith or śraddhā. Brahman is not perceivable by senses and is indescribable as well. If one has to do manana to realize such a Reality, one certainly needs something to meditate on. The guru teaches him of Brahman, an unverifiable, abstract conception! The disciple has to tune his/her inner organ (antaḥkarana) perfectly to stay in harmony with that of the guru, to ensure that the pārasparya is always on. If the disciple has no faith in the abstract conception the guru speaks of, can he/she ever achieve the goal? Impossible. Such is the importance of śraddhā (absolute faith) in the guru-disciple association.

If there is no access to a wise teacher as the guru, what do we do? Study śruti with śraddhā (absolute faith). For a student of Vedanta, śruti means the Upanishads or any other scripture such as the Bhagavad Gita, equivalent to śruti. Reading and absorbing teachings of those scriptures is as beneficial as directly hearing the words of a guru, for they are nothing but the recorded teachings of the ṛshis. Reading them with śraddhā is as good as śravana (listening to a guru). Go on then to the stages one and two with the same śraddhā, which is absolute faith in the guru’s words, either directly heard or learned from the scriptures; let the absolute faith become an adoration.

[ To visit the Bhagavad Gita Self-Study page, click/tap on this link: Bhagavad Gita Svādhyāya]

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