(Synopsis of a talk given by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj on December 23, 2009, in Bhakti Dham, Mangarh, explaining a new kirtan verse)
In our scriptures and also in the world three kinds of situations are written about and described. In some places it is written that God is the greatest. It is also written that God and Guru are equal. It is also written that the Guru is greater than God. An ordinary person, who reads the scriptures on his own can’t understand which of these three is correct and so he becomes confused. I am now now going to reconcile these three.
These three statements are, in fact, correct. But they contradict each other – how then could they all be correct? In the scriptures it is written that God is the greatest, so this point is certainly correct (Shvetashvatara Upanishad 6/8, Gita, 11/45, Bhagwatam, 3/2/21 and 2/4/40).
All these verses say that there is no one, nor will there ever be anyone equal to God – so someone being greater than God is completely out of the question. The name for God is brahm, which means He is the greatest and He makes others great.
So the definition of God is that He is absolutely unlimited and the greatest (Taitariya Upanishad 2/1). Why is this? Listen to the reason. The Ved says that all the individual souls are parts of Him. The individual souls are a power of God. Both Maya and the souls are powers of God. Apart from these two, there is no third power that exists (Purush Sukta, 3) This same verse is also found in the Chandogya Upanishad, 3/12/6, and the Tripavibhuti Narayana Upanishad, 4/1.
So all the individual souls are parts of supreme God. A part can’t be equal to the whole. A part means a fraction. A grain of sand could never be equal to the entire earth. The Gita also explains the individual soul is a part or true fraction of God (Gita, 15/7, 9/18). The Subhal Upanishad (6/4), the Bhagwatam (3/50/38) and Ramayana declare the same.
So logically no one would even consider that a part is equal to the whole. They are opposite to each other in nature. Therefore, there is no one now, nor will there ever be, nor was there ever anyone equal to God.
But it is also said that God and Guru are equal. And when you practice devotion to God, it is said that you must practice exactly the same devotion to the Guru. The Vedas declares this (Shevtashvatar Upanishad 6/23). Why is this? Because, as the Narad Bhakti Sutra (41) says, there no difference between God and Guru. God and Guru are one (Bhagwatam, 7/15/26, 7/15/27). So the Gita, Bhagwatam, Ramayana and other scriptures, declare both are equal. How are they equal? How could a part be equal to the whole?
In actuality, they are not equal, but with God’s grace and after God realisation, God makes the individual soul equal to Him. This is definitely possible.
God has eight main divine qualities (Chhandogya Upanishad, 8/1/5). The Vedanta or Brahma Sutra has said (1/3/13-16) that God gives these eight qualities to an individual soul after God realisation. The soul even receives the quality of satya sankalpah, in other words, whatever he thinks, happens. He doesn’t have to do anything. He simply desires and it comes to pass (Chandogya Upanishad, 8/2/1-10).
Therefore, God and Guru are also equal. Whatever knowledge, bliss and eternal life God possesses, the realised soul or Saint attains forever.
There is one area in which God will remain the greatest (Brahma Sutra, 4/4/17, 21), which is creating the world, remaining seated in the hearts of all the individual souls, noting their actions and giving them the consequences of their actions, and so on. These tasks are only done by God, not by any Saint.
But why then is it said that the Guru is greater than God?
(Continued in Part 2)
© Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat and Bhakti Bliss, 2009
