Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori

GURU AND ŚIṢ YA
THE Guru is the religious teacher and spiritual guide to
whose direction orthodox Hindus of all divisions of worshippers
submit themselves. There is in reality but one
Guru. The ordinary human Guru is but the manifestation
on the phenomenal plane of the Ādināthā Mahākāla,
the Supreme Guru abiding in Kailāsa. 1 He it is
who enters into and speaks with the voice of the earthly
Guru at the time of giving mantra. 2 Guru is the root
(mūla) of dikṣa (initiation). Dikṣa is the root of mantra.
Mantra is the root of Devatā; and Devatā is the root of
siddhi. The Munda-mālā-Tantra says that mantra is
born of Guru and Devatā of mantra, so that the Guru
occupies the position of a grandfather to the Iṣṭ a-devatā.
It is the Guru who initiates and helps, and the
relationship between him and the disciple (śiṣya) continues
until the attainment of monistic siddhi. Manu says:
“Of him who gives natural birth and of him who gives
knowledge of the Veda, the giver of sacred knowledge is
the more venerable father. Since second or divine birth
insures life to the twice-born in this world and the next.”
The Śāstra is, indeed, full of the greatness of of Guru. 3
The guru is not to be thought of as a mere man. There
1 Guru sthānaṃ
hi kailāsam (Yoginī-Tantra, chap. i).
2 Mantra-pradāna-kāle hi mānuṣe naga-nandini,
Adhisthānaṃ
bhavet tatra mahākālasya śaṃ
kari,
Atastu gurutā devī mānuṣe nātra sa ṃ
śayah. (ibid.)
3 See chap. i of the Tantra-sāra, which also deals with the qualities of the
Guru; the relationship between him and the disciple, qualities of the disciple
and so forth.