MOkshasaadhanam (Means of Liberation) – 6

Krishna Sastri

Aum

The Guru Sishya Samvaadham that we have witnessed above clearly brings out two important facts:

1) The Vedic aphorism “ Aachaaryavaan PurushO vedha ”. A person who has a teacher (alone) knows Brahman.

The importance of the Guru is to be explained here. A person who is desirous of knowledge is a priori ignorant. If he happens to be his own teacher, what he gets is what he has viz. ignorance! Also inscrutable is the power of ignorance. It will make the ignorant one to arrogate that he knows all! Moreover the Guru is obtained by the Grace of Easwara as a result of dedicating one’s work to Him without desiring its fruit (“ Easwaraarpitham NEchyayaakritham ”). An ignorant person can also arrogate that he has ‘chosen’ so and so and his Guru. By this he makes Guru into some kind of a tap to be turned on and off as he wishes! Also such a Guru he has chosen is not a real Guru the way we would mean a Guru.

In ‘Tripura Rahasya’ there is this story. Lopaamudhra is the wife of sage Agasthya and she is one to whom Ambaal is Prathyaksham. In Lalitha sahasranaamam there is a reference to Lopaamudhra: “Lopaamudraarchitha leela kluptha brahmaanda mandala”. So Agasthya asks Lopaamudhra to reveal to him the secret of AmbaaL. She tells Agasthya that as a wife she is not qualified to teach him (because the sishya has to prostrate to the Guru) and so she asks him to approach sage Dattathreya for this knowledge. Agasthya goes to Dattathreya and falls at his feet firmly holding them seeking the knowledge. The Dharma is that when a person falls at your feet you cannot run away from him. At the same time the secret of AmbaaL cannot be revealed to anyone without knowing if he is a fit ‘paathram’ to receive it and Dattathreya does not know if Agasthya is a fit person to reveal the secret. A typical example of Dharma sankatam!

Days went by with Dattathreya standing there and Agasthya on the ground prostrating to him!!

Suddenly, AmbaaL appeared before Dattathreya with her husband Shiva on the Nandhi vaahana and told him that Agasthya is qualified to receive the secret and then vanished!

Dattathreya was in horripilation in the bliss of having seen AmbaaL as Dhampathi samedha on Nandhi vaahana. He bent down and lifted the prostrating Agasthya and said to him: “O! Agasthya! I have been doing tapas for ions of time to have a dharshan of AmbaaL without success. You came and fell at my feet, and Lo and Behold! AmbaaL comes to me as Dhampathi samEdhar and blessed me! How can I describe your greatness!! Come, let me reveal to you AmbaaL’s secret.”
(contd.)