Will the Guru punish his disciple? Can’t he be saved by God?

25th December 2012 – Tuesday

In today’s Satsang, the following question was posed to Amma by a devotee:

“Amma, in Guru Gita, it is stated that Lord Siva explained to Parvati that if God became angry with a person, he can be saved by his Guru; but if Guru became angry with a person, no one including God can save the person. It is difficult to digest this. Even among worldly people, if a child does something wrong, the parents don’t reject the child. If that is the case with even non-spiritual persons, how can it be true that the Guru would get so angry with a disciple that none can save him?”

The gist of Amma’s replay was as below:

“Siva Purana glorifies lord Siva as the supreme lord who is the most powerful of all Gods. Vishnu Purana glorifies lord Vishnu as the ultimate God that Siva and Brahma worship; he is the greatest and most powerful of all. Same case with other puranas that glorify other Gods. It is this way that the puranas tend to strengthen the faiths of devotees of their chosen God forms.

“In a similar vain, Guru Gita is a scripture that explains the glories of the guru and it is intended for the disciples to understand the greatness of the Guru and develop full faith in him. Like God’s anger being too powerful to combat, it is stated of Guru’s anger too. But even Guru’s anger is only meant for the good of the devotee.

“Guru is great because to understand God correctly, Guru’s guidance is a must. To overcome negativity and egotism, Guru’s guidance is essential. Guru’s anger too could be one form of his ways of putting his disciple in the right path; Guru creates situations in such a way that the disciple faces problems in real life to overcome his weaknessess and advance in spiritual strength.

“Even a Guru’s explicit display of anger could be an act — his lila. A true master has transcended ego and  he lives in the plane of Atman. His anger is not ego-centric like normal persons.”