Shri Nanakiji

 

Nanaka and Nanaki, digital edit, by Jeronimus, of Indian calendar art

Shri Nanakiji (Bibi Nanaki ji) was the older sister of Shri Guru Nanakaji, the founder of the Sikh religion.

She recognised her brother's holiness, from his infancy, and became a protective mother figure to him. She encouraged her brother's spiritual life, and was his first follower (the first Sikh). She suggested that he use music as a vehicle for spreading his teaching.

Shri Mataji has identified Nanaki as an incarnation of the Goddess, Devi. Shri Devi is the fiercely protective warrior aspect of the Goddess, but sometimes she takes birth as a close relative of great spiritual masters, to give them support in a quieter role.

Jupiter

NASA image of Jupiter's clouds

In the ancient Hindu philosophical system of correlates, the planet Jupiter represents the aspect of the Divine as Guru - spiritual teacher and upholder of Dharma. When we awaken this principle within us, we develop wisdom, discipline, and self mastery.

Brihaspati was a sage mentioned in the Vedas. He was the teacher or guru of all the gods. In time he became associated with the planet Jupiter. It is sometimes said that Jupiter is the Earth's protector. Its immense gravity field absorbing comets that could have wiped out life. The guru principle gives a person gravitas and dignity. Brihaspati is often depicted riding an elephant, the animal which best embodies this quality. The Sanskrit word guru, means ’weighty and venerable’, and is probably related to the Latin gravitas, from gravis, meaning ‘heavy’.

Shri Mataji has explained that Jupiter is the planet for the area of the subtle system known as the Void - bhava sagara in Sanskrit. Bhava sagara can be translated as 'Ocean of Worldly Existence' or 'Ocean of Illusion'. If we become lost in attachments to aspects of life, we fall into confusion. The inner master is the navigator who takes us across this ocean. In the subtle body this Void is located around the navel chakra at the centre of the body.

Jupiter takes approximately 12 years to complete a circuit of the Sun. A "Jupiter return", is a time when the planet is at the same position as it was at the time of birth. It therefore happens at the age of 12, 24, 36, 48 and so on. These are times in which there is an expansion of life's opportunities and sense of self-mastery.

Socrates

Socrates was an incarnation of the guru/teacher aspect of the Divine. A primordial master who returns again and again to guide humanity in various times and places. His own guru was a woman called Diotima, a seer or priestess, who, he said, taught him the philosophy of love.

In her view, love is a means of ascent to contemplation of the Divine. For Diotima, the most correct use of love of other human beings is to direct one's mind to love of Divinity. With genuine Platonic love, the beautiful or lovely other person inspires the mind and the soul and directs one's attention to spiritual things. One proceeds from recognition of another's beauty, to appreciation of Beauty as it exists apart from any individual, to consideration of Divinity, the source of Beauty, to love of Divinity.

Diotima, guru of Socrates.

The Oracle at Delphi declared that  no man was wiser than Socrates, but he maintained that he had no wisdom of his own. He interpreted the judgment of the Oracle to mean that only the Divine is wise. Being the wisest among men was simply to recognise that the individual ego is nothing in comparison with Divine Wisdom.

He continually exhorted the people of Athens to seek truth within, and not to accept everything taught by religion, including the mythical stories about the gods, many of which attributed human failings to the Divine (for example the supposed infidelities of Zeus). For this he was eventually accused of challenging accepted religious views, and corrupting the youth. 

In his speech in defence of his actions (The Apologia) Socrates stated that his way of self-knowledge had offended the vanity of the politically influential men who had accused him.

He addressed the court thus:

"Men of Athens, I honor and love you; but I shall obey the god rather than you; and while I have life and strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy, exhorting . . . [and] persuading you all, old and young alike, not to take thought for your persons or your properties, but first and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man, public as well as private. This is my teaching, and if this is the doctrine which corrupts the young, I am a mischievous person."

Socrates taught that virtue is sufficient in itself for happiness, and that it is not possible to learn anything unless one leads a virtuous life.

According to Plato, he also had a mystical side, discussing reincarnation and concepts such as the Sea of Beauty. 

From Wikipedia:
The Sea of Beauty is one of many analogies and similes employed to describe a high vision of reality. Some writers have employed this term upon having arrived at the most mature, the farthest, and the highest stages of the philosophical or mystical search. It is described variously as the Beatific Vision, enlightenment, nirvana, satori, Kensho, Bodhi, awareness, true knowledge, etc.

Those who claim to have had such a high and final vision sometimes report that reality is, at its deepest level, utterly unified, like a vast ocean, and that it is unutterably beautiful, or rather, source of all beauty. Such likenesses are drawn many places, including the mystical poetry of Sufi Jalal'udin Rumi and the writings of Plato.

Rumi, in this unidentified excerpt, writes:

"The shop of Oneness,
The Ocean that has many harbours,
Yet where there is no division
Between man and man, or woman,
But only a unity of souls
In the process of return to their Creator,
Whose breath lives inside each one
An helps to guide us home."

Plato, in his Plato's Symposium (210d-e) writes (in the character of the priestess Diotima):

The result is that he will see the beauty of knowledge... the lover is turned to the great sea of beauty, and gazing upon this, he gives birth to many gloriously beautiful ideas and theories, in unstinting love of wisdom, until, having grown and been strengthened there, he catches sight of such knowledge, and it is the knowledge of such beauty... ... The man ... who has beheld beautiful things in the right order and correctly, is now coming to the goal of Loving: all of a sudden he will catch sight of something wonderfully beautiful in its nature; that, Socrates, is the reason for all his earlier labors."

Shri Nanaka

Guru Nanak, founder of the Sikh religion, dedicated his life to dissolving the man-made differences between Hindus and Muslims. By teaching a form of Advaita (non-dualism) he showed that Hinduism is not, in essence, incompatible with the basic tenet of the monotheistic religions - the unity of the Divine. 


"That which is inside a person, the same is outside; nothing else exists; by divine prompting look upon all existence as one and undifferentiated;"
-Guru Granth Sahib

Guru Nanak and his companions once visited Mecca. An official was angered to discover them sleeping with their feet towards the Ka'ba, the sacred shrine. As they were dragged away, the Ka'ba appeared to move too.
Guru Nanak told him: "God does not live in one place. He lives everywhere."
The Sikh view is that spirit and matter are not antagonistic. Guru Nanak declared that the Spirit/Self is the only reality and matter is only a form of Spirit/Self.

"When I saw truly, I knew that all was primeval. Nanak (the person), the subtle (spirit) and the gross (material) are, in fact, identical."

Nanaka is an incarnation of Shri Adi Guru Dattatreya, the teacher/guru aspect of the Divine.
The Primordial Guru is associated with the ocean. As the ocean gradually wears away the rocks of the shore, so the teacher gradually wears away our ego and conditionings.