Affirmations, States of mind, गुरुर्ब्रह्मा gururbrahmA shlokam

Affirmations regarding the states of mind:

1) Mind immersed or subsided into pure consciousness; nirvikalpa samAdhi, guNAtIta
2) Mind sees Lord and Its Power in everything (or in heart of pure devotion)
3) Mind acknowledges God and world, God not held permanently
Luckily for this one the fourth state has been transcended permanently
4) Mind only sees world but no God

sAttvic buddhi is the portal to Realization.

For many the path may be to see God in Guru as human first, for some Guru seen inside as God alone.

Different interpretations of gururbrahmA shlokam:

गुरुर्ब्रह्मा गुरुर्विष्णु गुरुर्देवो महेश्वर:
गुरुस्साक्ष ात् परंब्रह्म तस्मै श्री गुरवे नम:
gururbrahmA gururviShNu gururdevo maheshvarah
gurussAkshAt parambrahmA tasmai shrI gurave namah

Some interpret it as
The Guru is BrahmA, the Guru is ViShNu, the Guru is Maheshvara
Guru is the very ParabrahmA, therefore obeisance or salutations to Guru

Of course, if the mind realizes that God is the true Guru, then this is the correct interpretation, but often the mind confuses the body of the one who speaks the Truth to be the Guru. Then the embodiment of Guru is taken to be Guru and the aspirant expects the body of the Guru to be like BrahmA, ViShNu or Shiva. This results in excessive adoration of the body of the Guru. This is a stage that must be transcended.

To this one by Grace the verse was revealed as follows:
BrahmA is thy Guru, ViShNu is thy Guru, Thy Guru is Maheshvara
Thy Guru is ParabrahmA, therefore obeisance or salutations to Guru.

As a delightful consequence, this mind did not look outside for a Guru in the body, but rapidly turned inward to seek the Guru within. The recognition that God indeed is the Guru was very beneficial at an early stage in practice, and the mergence with Guru being synonymous with the mergence with God also became clear rapidly.