The Teacher is Consciousness!

Gurur Brahma

Gurur Vishnuhu

Gurur Devo Maheshvaraha

Guruh sakshat param Brahma!

This is the morning prayer of the Himalayan Tradition. The prayer that is said every morning to open The Center for service to the Fond du Lac community and beyond. The Center is dedicated to this “trinity of divinity.” But what does it mean in English?

A simple translation is:

The teacher is Brahma (the Creator).

The teacher is Vishnu (the Sustainer).

The teacher is Shiva (the Lord of dissolution).

Truly, the guru (teacher) is the Transcendent One (Universal Consciousness).

To explain this further, it means knowing that:

All of life is Consciousness, individual and universal! All of life is filled with three major forces of reality—the creative force (Brahma), the dissolving force (Shiva) and the force that maintains the balance between creation and destruction, the sustaining force (Vishnu). Together they form a Trinitarian Unity of Universal Consciousness/Awareness.

Every single one of us experienced that trinity of energies at our conception. The driving desire/nature of our father’s sperm and the welcoming desire/nature of our mother’s ovum united and we were created. In that creation the sperm and the ovum/egg were destroyed (dissolved) and out of that dissolution, the sustaining force of love created us.

The birthing process moves our individual consciousness into the darkness of the material human world. Consciousness then moves us through our human life toward the awakened, enlightened experience of light. Our life moved by this consciousness dispels the darkness of our normal day-to-day experience to the awareness of our truly spiritual Self. This entire process of living becomes our “guru,” our “dispeller of darkness,” our “teacher.” That is why Brahma (the Transcendent, Universal Consciousness) is our guru.

The scientific name for this force of life, this Transcendent Creator, is called consciousness. It is truly our guru, our teacher, our dispeller of darkness. That consciousness moves through life directing all the natural laws in our physical world. It stimulates our drive for food, sleep, sexual activity, and self-preservation. That consciousness teaches us what we need to know through the trial and error process of our actions and our thinking.

Many religions believe that each of us is created by a Loving, Intelligent, Transcendent Being, that in English we call God. Christianity considers this one God a Trinity. The Yoga Tradition understands the origin of life in a similar way. It labels this Trinity (Brahman, Vishnu, Shiva) of One Consciousness (Brahman).

When I am still with the Center of my individual consciousness every day in meditation, I am often blessed with a teaching that comes from the Universal Consciousness and I am grateful!

I am convinced we all need to listen to that Universal Consciousness (God/Brahman/Christ) every day in quiet meditation. May you find that internal teacher/guru as well in your meditative times.

Namaste’