All glories to Śrī Guru & Gaurāṅga
By
Śrī Śrīla Shyām Dās Bābā Mahārāj
What we can observe in the name of guru-pūjā among those Māyāvādīs is nothing else but an external show—an exhibition of great pomp & decoration. There may be big big arrangements, thousands of people may gather, and abundant prasāda(?) may be distributed, but the most essential or vital substance is completely absent. What is that? Genuine faith in Śrī Guru.
According to the teachings of those Mayavadis, the ultimate conclusion is that the individual self is identical with impersonal Brahman—ahaṁ brahmāsmi. If one truly accepts this, then where is the utility for guru-tattva at all? If guru going to get dissolved in undifferentiated Brahman, devoid of individuality, then who remains to instruct, to guide, or to bestow the feeling of Brahma–tattva in true sense? Such a conception is absolute ridiculous. If all distinctions are false, then the Guru, the disciple, and instructions —all become illusory. By this conclusion, guru-pūjā becomes nothing else than self-worship in the guise of Guru puja.
According to their conception, Guru is concluded as something like impersonal figure (?)—almost like a ghost, without form, without function etc., which is devoid of any reality. By following the conclusion attributed to Adi Shankaracharya, they say that one who has realized Brahman can no longer act as Guru, for his individuality is lost now. Then what left? Who will instruct? Who will guide? Who will deliver the fallen soul? According to their conception the only possibility which remains is that one must accept a non-realized — a conditioned being as Guru. How funny that is!
Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda has declared that Gurupādapadma is brahma-vastu—but not inert, impersonal abstraction of Māyāvādīs. Guru is the living current flow of divine revelation, the transparent medium of the transcendental world. To conclude Guru as an impersonal conception is to commit violence against guru-tattva, which is a great offense.
How strange — Māyāvādis decorating the seat of Guru, but at the same time they also remove Guru from that seat. They offer flowers outwardly, but inwardly they deny the eternal individuality and function of Sri Guru. This is not Guru puja—this is a great contradiction. This is not worship—this is guru-aparādha in the guise of guru puja.
Sri Vyasa Deva — the very embodiment of guru-tattva, has given Vedas, Vedānta, Upanishads or Bhāgavata etc. to establish the eternal reality of Bhagavān and His devotees. But Māyāvādī proclaim that Sri Vyāsa Deva is misled, He is wrong. In this way they deny the authenticity of Sri Vyāsa Deva who is no other than Bhagavan Sri Krsna Himself.
To seek liberation by dissolving individuality into Brahman is nothing but only a suicidal squad. It is just like a man approaching an important minister with a plan to kill him — with an apparently honest mood of providing a garland to him (as if with great respect), which is fitted with a dangerous explosive bomb hidden inside the garland. In the same way, under the pretense of liberation, one destroys both self and the possibility of getting eternal service. In this way we can solemnly say that where there is lack of faith in Guru-tattva itself, then there cannot be any possibility of guru-pūjā at all.