Dakshinamurti

“What does he teach? Look at his hand gesture. That shows what he teaches. His index finger, the one we use to point at others, represents the ahankara, the ego. The other three fingers represent your body, deha, mind, antahkarana and sense organs, prana. They also may be seen as the three bodies, sariras, the gross, subtle, and causal. This is what the jiva mistakes himself to be. The angustha, the thumb, represents the Lord, the purusa. It is away from the rest of the fingers of the hand, yet at the same time, the fingers have no strength without it. In this gesture, mudra, in Dakshinamurti's right hand, the thumb joins the other fingers to form a circle, teaching that the jiva, who takes himself to be the body, mind and senses, is the whole. The circular hand gesture visually states the entire upadesa, teaching: tat tvam asi, “You are That.” Just as a circle has no beginning or end, you are the whole. That is the final word about you. Nobody can improve upon that vision; no culture can improve upon it. Even in heaven, it cannot be improved upon, for the whole includes heaven. Therefore, you have the final word here, because you are everything. It is better that you know it. That teaching is contained in the Veda, represented by the palm leaves in the left hand of Dakshinamurti. And to understand this, you require a mind that has assimilated certain values and attitudes and has developed a capacity to think in a proper and sustained way. This can be acquired by various spiritual disciplines represented here by a japa-mala, The fact that the Lord himself is a teacher, a guru, means that any teacher is looked upon as a source of knowledge. And the teacher himself should look upon Isvara, the Lord, as the source of knowledge. Since the Lord himself is a teacher, the first guru, there is a tradition of teaching, so there is no individual ego involved in teaching.

Dakshinamurti is seated upon a bull, which stands for tamas, the quality of maya that accounts for ignorance. This is the entire creative power of the world and Dakshinamurti controls this maya; Then, there are bound to be obstacles in your pursuit of this knowledge. Dakshinamurti controls all possible obstacles. Underneath his foot, under his control, is a fellow called apasmara—the one who throws obstacles in your life. This tells us that although there will be obstacles, with the grace of the Lord, you can keep them under check and not allow them to overpower you. There is no obstacle-free life, but obstacles need not really throw you off course; you keep them under control.

Thus, the whole form of Dakshinamurti invokes the Lord who is the source of all knowledge, the source of everything, the one who is the whole, and who teaches you that you are the whole. He is Dakshinamurti, the one who is in the form of a teacher, guru-murti. We invoke his blessing so that all of you discover that source in yourself. If this self-discovery is your pursuit, your whole life becomes worthwhile. This project of self-discovery should be the project of everyone. That is the Vedic vision of human destiny.”