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Today, I would like to offer some commentary on a very famous mantra we all know: "Brahmanandam paramasukhadam." Oṁ brahmānandaṁ paramasukhadaṁ kevalaṁ jñānamūrtiṁ dvandvātītaṁ gaganasadṛśaṁ tattvamasyādilakṣyam. Ekaṁ nityaṁ vimalam achalaṁ sarvādhiṣākṣibhūtaṁ bhavātītaṁ triguṇarahitaṁ sadguruṁ taṁ namāmi. This mantra is the 89th mantra from the Śrī Guru Gītā. The Guru Gītā is part of the Uttarakhaṇḍa, the final section of the Skanda Purāṇa, one of the very famous and extensive Purāṇas. This mantra describes the qualities of a guru. So, what does "guru" mean? What does the guru actually comprise? What are his qualities? Oṁ brahmānandaṁ. Brahmānanda. This is the ultimate bliss. Brahma is the endless absolute. Ānanda is bliss. Brahmananda is the highest bliss one can achieve. Paramasukhadaṁ. This is the second quality, the second requirement of the guru. The first is to have this bliss. The second is paramasukha dāna—to give the highest happiness. He should be able to give that highest happiness. Kevalaṁ jñāna-mūrtiṁ. Kevalam means "the only," the one who has realized himself. The one who knows himself is the ultimate. Jñāna mūrtiṁ means the incarnation, the embodiment of knowledge. In this first line, we could also place "kevalam" at the beginning: "the only." The guru is one who has only these qualities, which continue to be described in what is actually one long mantra. He has experienced the highest bliss, he gives the highest happiness, he is one, and he is the embodiment of knowledge. Dvandvātītaṁ. Dvandva is "me" and "mine." I am sitting here, you are there. "They" versus "us." Somebody else. Happiness, unhappiness. Any kind of duality is called dvandva. Atītam means beyond. So, he is beyond this duality. He is above that. Gaganasadṛśaṁ. How is he beyond this? He looks at everybody equally, like the sky. The sky equally covers all the globe. It covers us, our neighbors, our friends, and our enemies. The sky does not distinguish between anybody. So, the guru is above duality and is equal, like the sky. Tattvamasyādilakṣyam. Tat tvam asi, ahaṁ brahmāsmi, and other great mahāvākyas (great pronouncements). The one who is described in these four mahāvākyas—and there are more—such as tat tvam asi ("thou art that") and ahaṁ brahmāsmi ("I am Brahma"). Each of the four Vedas has one mahāvākya which is the main statement for that Veda. The guru is described by all these mahāvākyas. Tattvam asyādi. Lakṣyam. His quality, his description, is given by all these mahāvākyas: "Thou art that," "You are that," "So am I," "That am I." Ekaṁ nityaṁ vimalam achalaṁ. Ekam: he is one. Nityam: he is continuous, endless. Vimalam: vimal, without any spots, without any dirt, without anything; he is completely pure. Achalam: he is steady, he is omnipresent, he does not move. If you remember from the Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad: "īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvaṁ yat kiñca jagatyāṁ jagat." Īśāvāsyam sarvaṁ—Īśā (God) is everywhere. Everything is God. So, the Guru Tattva (the principle of the guru) covers everything. Sarvādhiṣākṣibhūtaṁ. He is the witness of all. He is the absolute witness. Our job is actually to become a witness, especially the witness of our actions and reactions. We can do whatever we want, but we have to pull out and we have to witness. He is the perfect witness. He is not only the perfect witness; he is the perfect witness of everything—sarvādi, everything that is there. He is witnessing that. This is again another quality of the guru tattva, or the quality of guru or God. Bhavātītaṁ. One was dvandvātītam (above duality); this is bhavātītam. All this, when we get involved in something, is called bhava sāgara—the ocean of worldly experience. We experience good things, we experience bad things; we experience both. Bhavātīta: he is above this, above these experiences. More precisely, he is above the involvement, the identification with the experience. When you go and say, "This is me. I am that. I am suffering now, and I will suffer forever"—no, you will not. Nobody suffers forever. Bhavātīta: he is above these feelings of experience. Triguṇarahitaṁ. He is without the triguṇas: sattva, rajas, and tamas. Sattva, rajas, and tamas comprise all this. Everything is made out of this. It is like we have a periodic table of elements in chemistry, and the world is made from these. But even these elements are made of the triguṇas. So, this is the absolute way of creating the world. The guru tattva, God, is above that. Sadguruṁ taṁ namāmi. I greet that Sadguru. So, what the Master said in this mantra is that he gave us the knowledge of what a guru must have to actually be a guru. So, if you think for yourself, "Am I a guru?" Excellent, very good. Check if you have any of these qualities. If not, all okay. Sadguruṁ taṁ namāmi: "That Satguru I greet." It is not tam guru, not tam sadguru. Namāmi: "I greet that Satguru." And then, because in the poetry we say only one word, "one," we can now put "kevalam" at that beginning: Kevalaṁ taṁ sadguruṁ—"Only that Satguru I greet, who has all these qualities." All these qualities—who has that is called Satguru. So, once you decide, "I am Satguru," just check for any of these qualities. Just check if you have them. And this is the tattva of Satguru. This is the energy of Satguru. This is like the ultimate description of what Satguru actually is. Because he is omnipresent, everlasting, he is everywhere. The Guru, like Swamiji, Vishwa Gurujī, comes to us and teaches us all these things very simply—baby steps from kindergarten onwards. Then finally, when we manage to join our intellect and our heart, the knowledge appears. Even after that, we have many, many examples in Mahāprabhujī's bhajans, where Mahāprabhujī—the person who was able to bring dead people to life, who organized the rain, who did so many miracles—said, "I’m just a servant of you. I’m the servant of my master. Without my master, I’m nobody." He said, "My master is my life." So, we have so many examples in our paramparā (lineage) of this knowledge and of this feeling that "I am a disciple." And in case you wonder if you are a guru, just check for any of these qualities and work toward them.