Role of a Guru
In Hinduism the
social system is based on respect for elders or those greater than oneself in
terms especially of knowledge. A ‘Guru’ is very important for self development
and revered as much as one’s parents and held in the highest regard. This holds
true even for a king. The Guru is one’s teacher who imparts knowledge ‘Gyan’
and provides spiritual guidance. Hinduism
also emphasises the importance of keeping the company of the wise (Satsang) in
order to live in the right way.
A slight distinction is made sometimes between the ‘Guru’
who grants a disciple the wisdom to live a good
life (‘Gyan’), or the ‘Acharya’ as a highly learned person who teaches
skills, arts etc. (i.e. giving shiksha or instruction) or the ‘Sat Guru’
provides the initiation and life long guidance to reach spiritual realms of the
supreme God through self realization. (i.e. giving ‘diksha’ ). The initiation (diksha
) is due to the power of the Guru to absorbs the past sins and karmas of his disciple
so that true spiritual knowledge can be revealed.
From ancient ages to modern day the relevance
and importance of a Guru or a Mentor or Guide remains and even today, more than
ever we all need a Guru. It is said that
a true Guru places the highest regard to true knowledge and is a symbol of
wisdom, peace, piety, tolerance and simplicity all of which inspire respect. In
the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna surrenders to his Guru Lord Krishna and this divine
example provides a reference of what is expected out of the Guru also.
Sometimes however teachers are themselves lacking in the essential qualities a
‘Guru’ must have and are highly overrated and yet demand the reverence of their
student as they place themselves on a pedestal. It is vital to guard against
such ‘self deification’ and ensure that the Guru one accepts matches the
standards and expectations in the first place as they are to be held in the
highest regard.
It is also important because faiths,
thoughts, movements survive based on the qualities of the ‘Guru’ promoting them
which sometimes becomes far more important than the quality of the message
itself in those teachings. A ‘Guru’ who inspires with his wisdom, serenity,
compassion and presence is essential as much for the community as for the
individual to maintain cohesion and virtue and goodness in social interactions.
Aashrama
Vedas recommend specific lifestyle
and aims during life based on the stage of life one is in and divides life into
four stages. The first stage (‘Brahmacharya’) is that of being a student
learning about life with obedience, discipline, self control and respect for
elders. The role of the Guru is most important in this stage although guidance
is required for life. The second stage (‘Grihasta’) is that of a householder
with the focus being on family duties, material well being and stability. The
third stage (‘Vanaprasta’) requires one to reduce attachment to relations,
renounce one’s control over family matters relations and detach from material
ties during one’s old age. In olden days this was done by retreating to nature
(dwelling in forests) or pilgrimages. The final stage (‘Sanyasa’) requires complete
attention on ‘Brahman’ in order to realize the higher cosmic truth and attain
liberation. These stages therefore correspond somewhat to the four
‘ Purushartha’ of Dharma, Artha, Kaam and Moksha.
In
today’s age, with humans enjoying ever longer and healthier lives, it becomes
even more relevant and important to find the balance between these prescribed Aashrama versus ever growing human ambitions and desires that sometimes only get
fulfilled by the time the third stage of life is reached. Elders often want to
still be in the driving seat and continue to demand the respect and obedience
of those in the first two stages but forget that they themselves are in fact
required to relinquish control and demands from their family ties in order to
let younger people rise to their aspirations. The onus of overcoming their egos
and looking to serve lies on the elders more as they are in the third stage and
have had the chance to gain the necessary wisdom through experience and self fulfilment.
I find the Aashrama concept very important
therefore and feel that therein might lie the secrets of how sons and daughters
could be allowed to live happily with their parents if both were to recognize
and respect what their roles ought to be at that stage.
Varna
Varna
classifies society into four types of professional divisions namely Brahmana
(priest/teacher), Kshatriya (warrior/politician), Vaishya
(landowner/entrepreneur) and Shudra (servant/manual labourer). This is an
ancient concept when society functioned under different rules of governance and
within a different framework that wasn't purely economical. Traditionally
children followed into their father’s footsteps and thus families belonged to
the same Varna over generations. The Varna provided guidance on role and
responsibilities of individuals to provide them with a meaningful life and also
achieve a well functioning society and kingdom.
However Varna is
not to be confused with ‘Jati’ (caste).
These classifications were based on the Guna (characteristics or
tendencies) and Karma (action) of the individuals. The Brahmanas have an
intellectual mindset with dominance of satwic qualities on rajasic base. The
Kshatriya are more inclined to fight for Dharma due to a rajasic dominance on
a satwic base. The Vaishya are good at trade due to rajasic qualities on a
tamasic base and the Shudra are comfortable in providing service having
tamasic qualities on a rajasic base. In olden days people in each Varna saw it
as their role best suited to them based on their nature without one role being
superior to another until somewhere along the line in history these meanings
and intentions got distorted. I also believe that there is a provision to
change one’s Varna by chosen work or action ‘karma’ even if it is usually determined
by birth ‘Janma’. As per the Bhagwad Gita, at birth everybody is a Shudra; by
Karma alone he becomes a twice-born.’
Varna and Jati are different. People in specific trades
formed their community (Jati) with unique traditions, customs be it land managers
or black smiths or farmers. But people in a particular ‘Jati’ were wrongly
classified as belonging to one ‘Varna’ during the colonial era when the need to
classify and census developed misconceived linkages between Jati and Varna and wrongly
classified into higher or lower castes due to abuse of the Vedic practices to
suit certain sections of society at certain times. Historically people in
specific communities were more focused on preserving their traditions
irrespective of Varna or even religion and in very olden times this system
would have aided disciplined living free of conflict. It is important to
overcome the terrible abuses and intolerances developed out of the Jati system
in recent years just as it is important to erase intolerance or prejudice
arising out of any differences over say race, religion, gender, age,
nationality etc. Moreover abiding by ‘Jati’ alone without considering all the
other doctrines laid out by the Vedas such as Dharma, Purushartha, Aashrama Sat-karma etc. will naturally not translate into appropriate Vedic living as
picking and choosing bits out of a whole system is bound to fail.
Lineage (‘Gotra’) of a family refers to being descendants of one of the eight identified Rishis (sages). As per Wikipedia the
sages are Gautama, Bharadvaja, Vishwamitra, Jamadagni, Vashishta, Kashyapa,
Atri and Agastya from whom all forty nine Gotra have evolved to which Brahmanas are said to belong. People belonging to the same Gotra are deemed
brothers & sisters and hence cannot marry each other. A ‘Kula’ is a
community of people following similar rites and rituals and worshipping the
same deity (‘Kula Devata’).
