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Diversity in Gaudiya Vaisnavism
27th of May, 2007 - 11:45
A fellow Vaisnava wrote to me, asking about the flavor of Gaudiya Vaisnavism I followed since joining the Gaudiya Kutir. (Not that the Kutir is a movement to join!) He understood, reading my profile and the faq page at the Kutir's website, that there must be a fair deal of plurality among the Gaudiya Vaisnava tradition, and wanted to hear more. Here's what ensued.
The Meaning of the Word Guru
25th of May, 2007 - 22:16
Today I ended up browsing the website of Alan Kazlev, a prolific author who has written some articles of interest concerning guru, guru-hood and related challenges. This blog entry, originally an e-mail to him, concerns a misgiving I had about objections on the meaning of the word "guru". Some of his writings were of substantial interest in reflecting my past experiences with guru-figures — expect to read related reflections in the future.
Madhukari and discovering prema
14th of May, 2007 - 12:00
These are some notes I wrote to a friend concerning madhukari, the practice of collecting almsfood from houses, and especially from the houses of Vrajavasis — which is the way most bhajananandi-mahatmas of the past would sustain their lives.
Doing madhukari, dainya awakens in the heart and the svarupa of the dhama begins to unveil... 
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The Meaning of the Word Guru
Posted: 25th of May, 2007 - 22:16
Today I ended up browsing the website of Alan Kazlev, a prolific author who has written some articles of interest concerning guru, guru-hood and related challenges. This blog entry, originally an e-mail to him, concerns a misgiving I had about objections on the meaning of the word "guru". Some of his writings were of substantial interest in reflecting my past experiences with guru-figures — expect to read related reflections in the future.
Browsing your website, the following text put me studying and writing. There's an objection there to the explanation of "guru" drawn from interpretation of "gu" and "ru" along with a note stating that it is "an idea popularised by frauds and is complete nonsense", quoted from what's reputed as an authoritative source in Sanskrit. Before tackling the objection itself, I'd like to note that one will hear this definition from a great number of sources, many of which I would never characterize as a fraud — Sivananda springs to mind as an example, and a quick Internet search would no doubt show a great many more. Traditional etymologies elaborating on a word by examining its constituents are in fact quite common. Often, they either involve interpretation of the syllables of the word in connection with verbal roots, or otherwise derive meanings that take syllables as abbreviations of longer terms. In this particular case, you'll find the etymology at the Upanisads themselves, in the Advaya-taraka-upanisad — not a modern source by any count, listed as one of the 108 classical Upanisads in Mundaka as it is. The verse reads as follows: gu-zabdas tv andhakAraH syAt ru-zabdas tan nirodhakaH /
andhakAra-nirodhitvAt gurur ity abhidhIyate // 16 // "The word 'gu' is darkness, the word 'ru' is its destroyer;
With the destruction of darkness, guru is thus titled." Verses exploring the word "guru" are also found in the Guru-gita: gu-kAraz cAndhakAro hi ru-kAras teja ucyate /
ajJAna-grAsakaM brahma gurur eva na saMzayaH // 1.44 // "The syllable 'gu' is darkness, and the syllable 'ru' is said to be light;
Indeed, there is no doubt that guru is the brahman that swallows ignorance." gu-kAro bhava-rogaH syAt ru-kAras tan nirodha-kRt /
bhava-roga-haratyAc ca gurur ity abhidhIyate // 1.45 // "The syllable 'gu' is the disease of this world, the syllable 'ru' is its destroyer;
The taker away of the disease of the world, guru is thus defined." gu-kAraz ca guNAtIto rUpAtIto ru-kArakaH /
guNa-rUpa-vihInatvAt gurur ity abhidhIyate // 1.46 // "The syllable 'gu' is that which is beyond qualities, and the syllable 'ru' is that beyond forms;
By the abandonment of qualities and forms, guru is thus defined." gu-kAraH prathamo varNo mAyAdi-guNa-bhAsakaH /
ru-kAro'sti paraM brahma mAyA-bhrAnti-vimocanam // 1.47 // "With the first syllable 'gu', he sheds enlightenment over the qualities led by illusion;
With the syllable 'ru', he is the great brahman and deliverance from the knots of illusion." While I am more mystified over the source of the "gu" syllable as "darkness", one of the direct meanings of the syllable "ru", as found in Sir Monier Williams' Sanskrit dictionary, is "to break, shatter". As seen in some of the verses from Guru-gita, the "gu" has been taken as indicating "guNa", the ropes that bind the Atman to mAyA, while the guru is engaged in the "ru", or the act of shattering the illusion. Anything under the guNa is no doubt veiled in avidyA, of which darkness is the mighty emblem — and a common metaphor at that. Of course, the word also means "heavy", that certainly is one of the dozens of dictionary definitions for the word. It also means "great", "large", and "extended". And it also means "hard to digest", "high in degree", "violent", "vehement", "excessive", "difficult", "hard" and "grievous" even. Yet it also means "important", "serious" and "momentous", "valuable" and even "highly prized". But alas, it also means "haughty" and "proud", even if "venerable" and "respectable". Then it also just means "a spiritual parent or preceptor", or in general "parents and other venerable persons" — these two are as much direct dictionary meanings as any of the others given, even if "heavy" and "weighty" happen to be the first in the list. Take that for whatever it's worth, the fruit of a pleasant moment of research all the same.
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