Question:

Guru, what makes a teaching, any spiritual tradition, authentic, genuine? What are its criteria?

Answer:

This is a good question. Not every sadhu in India will give you a detailed answer to this question.

Sometimes, some scientists, researchers, or spiritual seekers try to argue about the authenticity or inauthenticity of certain teachings, and lines of transmission. I don't like this term very much, and I would use the terms "authenticity" and "completeness". But not everybody understands what it really means, and not everybody understands that every deep tradition, lineage, dharma family has its own internal signs or standards of completeness, of authenticity of the lineage, that is, of authenticity, passed on to subsequent generations from teacher to teacher. Moreover, they have pretty profoundly, and I would say, even sophisticatedly and subtly developed internal methods of evaluation and verification of their students, but not all of them, but those who are chosen to be successor teachers, lineage bearers, holders of teachings (vidyadharas). The selection and training of disciples, vidyadharas, is a separate, interesting and profound topic.

So, these methods are kept secret in every guru, pravar or kula family, i.e. sadhu family, for obvious reasons - so that they cannot be revealed or copied.

Therefore, by and large, it is absolutely useless to discuss the authenticity or inauthenticity of other lineages without belonging to them, without being among its initiates, because it is impossible to find out if you do not belong to this lineage and it is not revealed to you. There are no standard criteria except the presence of parampara. So, I will not talk about other traditions, and I will only talk about ours.

It is made authentic by eight things. First of all, as is customary, the presence of a guru-shishya parampara is an unbroken transmission line of moksha Dharma. The transmission line is like a channel through which divine knowledge is transmitted from the Absolute itself, the Creator God, the great gods and rishis, siddhas, that is, saints.

We follow two main lines - the northern, Himalayan lineage of Shiva, Dattatreya, Dattatreya's order, Juna akhara, recreated by Sri Shankara, and the southern lineage of the siddha Paambati, the guru Shivaprabhakara siddha - Yogi Avadhuta Brahmananda of Kerala.

With both these lineages, their masters, gurus, devotees, myself and my disciples, we always maintain close ties. I have spoken at length about this many times. This is all the guru-shishya-parampara, the "channel" of transmission of the teachings.

However, the seekers have very vague notions, which do not go beyond the concept of "diksha" and "parampara." There needs to be more to have a concept of parampara as a channel of knowledge transmission; one must also understand what exactly should be transmitted through this channel. But usually, this is not explained to anyone except the teachers-holders of the line.

Seven treasures

Seven treasures (sapta-ratna) are transmitted through this channel.

Now, what is transmitted through the line of transmission?

"Shabda," the sacred sound coming from the Absolute itself or Brahma the Creator or one of the great Deities, that is, some essential mantras are transmitted through this line, or at least one mantra, even one mantra is enough, because being a sacred sound coming from Brahma the Creator and Brahman, the Absolute, it has the power to liberate.

Then the "shastra." Also transmitted along this line are the sacred texts of the tradition; these are the Upanishads, the Puranas and other texts.

Then, "yukti," the true method of interpretation of the Vedantic philosophy of the shastras, the method of reasoning, the actual teaching that eliminates ignorance.

Then "devata," the continuous connection with the gods, siddhas, rishis, or the chosen deity of the tradition (ishta-devata), his blessings, the methods of honouring (upasana) and invoking him.

Then "upaya," specific methods of practising different kinds of yoga to attain Liberation, to attain samadhi.

"Kripa." Then what is called kripa, anugraha, or shaktipatha-wave of divine grace present in every generation of enlightened lineage teachers" which comes through connection: satsang, guru-yoga, samaya, darshana, seva or otherwise, awakening the disciples.

"Anubhava," finally, the most elusive but essential thing, that which is necessarily manifest in the disciple who leads the proper sadhana - the personal mystical experience of Enlightenment (anubhava), which is reproduced in every generation of disciples in the same way and verified by the masters.

Anubhava, of course, is not transmitted as transmission, kripa is transmitted, although it may arise, but the ways of evaluating and verifying anubhava are transmitted.

So, when all these factors are present, the transmission line is fully authentic, total, and complete. The completeness of the lineage is expressed symbolically by the special sacred objects adopted by the tradition, symbols that are ceremonially or informally passed on to the disciples who hold the lineage. I spoke about this earlier. Personally, I am in favour of ceremonies.

What is transmitted in our lineage

In the guru-shishya parampara lineage, we have mantras such as the guru-mantra and others, the shastra texts of the triple canon, the Upanishads with commentaries by Sri Shankaracharya, and other texts such as the upadesha texts of the teachers of the lineage.

"Yukti," the method of true reasoning that overcomes ignorance, is transmitted in the form of mahavakya-great sayings whispered in the ear of the lineage holder, and also in the form of explanations from guru to disciple. This is passed down as an ancient tradition too, and I received it at the mahamandaleshwar initiation at the 2010 kumbhamela at Haridwar.

In our lineage, we give some mahavakyas, their understanding and practice, more importance and others less.

"Devata" means the methods of worshipping and invoking the blessings and power of the chosen deity, in our case Adinatha Avadhuta Dattatreya.

"Upaya" means all the main methods of meditation, contemplation, which are necessary to cultivate the mind, to enter samadhi, to acquire the fruit of the teachings, you receive them through transmission from me and my disciples.

"Kripa", "anugraha" is possible if, in every generation of gurus of the lineage, there is at least one awakened one who has had the experience of samadhi. I hope every generation of my students in the future will have such teachers if they conduct seva and sadhana well and this aspect will never be interrupted.

Significant is the presence of anugraha in every generation of realized teachers, i.e. if the Guru has the experience of awakening, the experience of samadhi, he can pass it on to his disciples. It is his divine charisma that inspires, purifies the karmic errors of others and restores the divine power of the scriptures and methods. In general, the lineage is held by awakened teachers.

Finally, anubhava - here everything depends more not only on the lineage and the guru, but also on the disciple, how he will practice, and conduct sadhana. If he performs sadhana correctly and diligently, he will receive all necessary signs of realization, all necessary spiritual experiences, about which the teaching speaks, for example, experience of non-divine samadhi, experiences of pure vision or contemplation, shambhavi mudra, kundalini yoga, nidra yoga, etc.

There are detailed methods of testing these experiences in different sections of the teachings, but traditionally, they are not described openly; otherwise students will have an involuntary desire to create them artificially.

So, according to our criteria, a lineage is authentic and complete if it represents all seven precious things of Moksha Dharma.

From the satsang of Sri Guru Swami Vishnudevananda Giri