Guru Brahma Guru Vishnu Guru Devo Maheshwara || Acharya Prashant (2016)
Questioner (Q): ‘*Guru Brahma Guru Vishnu Guru Devo Maheshwara.*’ Can you explain this?
Acharya Prashant (AP): ‘Guru’ stands for that which calls, the force that which pulls you inwards from darkness into light. Now you worship ‘Brahama’, ‘Vishnu’, and ‘Mahesh’ and the various deities; this verse says that the Guru is the essence of all that which you have ever worshipped. And again just like Jesus, the Guru is not a physical entity.
The Guru is the Aatman itself, the Self, that is Guru. This verse is saying that when you are worshipping this or that, you are worshipping it so that you can get peace. And you get peace only through the Guru. Not even through the Guru, the Guru is peace itself.
Do not just call anybody as ‘Guru’. Guru is not a cheap word. Do not use it casually. Just as you cannot go about giving your heart to anybody, similarly you cannot have anybody as your Guru. It is a love affair deeper than love. Guru is very-very proximate to God himself. Just as you cannot have too many Gods, similarly you cannot have too many Gurus. But the west has appropriated the word Guru. There you have ‘management guru’, ‘real-estate guru’, ‘hockey guru’, ‘culinary guru’, ‘tailor guru’, ‘sex guru’.
Q: ‘Love guru.’
AP: ‘Love guru.’
What is going on!
‘Guru’ is a sacred word. Just as you do not throw around the word ‘God,’ similarly, have some respect for this word.