Because last week's Capricorn Full Moon was the celebration of the Guru (it was actually the birthday of Veda Vyāsa, the OG Guru), in our Friday evening restorative yoga class (which you can watch here), we explored the idea of "Guru as Consciousness", as a principle rather than a person which seems to be the emphasis of so many texts and verses describing the Guru! This conception identifies the Guru with Śiva or rather, Brahman which is Pure Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, the One Reality and the Ground of All Being. It is a quietistic sort of expression. 

Then, we explored the concept of the "Guru as Transmitter of Power" (which I will upload next) right after this class, and here we see a more dynamic conception, that of the Guru as guru-śakti, "spiritualizing force" or "the quickening impulse", as Swami Vivekananda called it. 

Together, these conceptions of Guru as quietistic Consciousness and as transforming Power taken together form the idea of Śiva AND Śakti as the Guru, with the third aspect in the triad being the human teacher, the body in which the above two conceptions are harmonized and actualized. 

The Guru as such is the trika, the resolved trinity of God-Power-Individual, i.e Śiva-Śakti-Nara. 

Enjoy!

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