Sri Guru Gita ETV - Episodes 201 to 250
Translations of Pujya Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji’s daily explanation of Sri Guru Gita on ETV from Datta Jayanthi in Dec 2013 onwards in Telugu
Episodes 201 to 250
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Observe the parrot from Shuka Vana. Find out of the species it belongs to and make a note.
Visit for photos of parrots and information on the different species.
A parrot first listened to the secret knowledge about Guru while Siva was explaining it to Parvati. Later Sage Suka (Parrot) gave this knowledge to his father Veda Vyasa. It was revealed to humanity through Srimad Bhagavatam and Skanda Purana.
At end of the year 2014 during Datta Jayanthi in December, there will be held a competition.
Episode 201
Finally, one day, Lord Datta said, “Indra, King of Gods, I know why you came to me. But, I am a man of pleasures. I cannot help you”. Indra folded his hands and pleaded with Lord Datta, “Swamy, don’t test me anymore. You are not a man of pleasures. You are certainly not a man of Yoga either. But, I know one thing. You are neither of these. You are Yoga yourself. You are neither a man of Yoga, nor a man of pleasures, nor a man of sacrifice. You are Yoga yourself. Virtues and vices cannot touch you. You are the sinless Anagha Swamy. The Mother next to you is the power of yoga, manifested as Anagha Lakshmi. We know that the Mother next to you is not a woman of pleasures either. She is the power of Yoga, not just Mother Goddess, but the power of Yoga. That is why she is Anagha Lakshmi. You are both Lakshmi and Narayana (Lord Vishnu and his consort). Please bless me”.
Lord Datta smiled, “If you bring your enemy to my presence, your work will be done. Consider it done if you can put them in front of me. You will not have to worry about anything at all”. Then Indra challenged Jambhasura and the demos to a battle and cleverly had them end up in the Sahyadri mountains while fighting. He made sure Lord Datta’s eyes fell on them. At that time Lord Datta looked like a mad man and Anagha Devi, a woman of rare and enchanting beauty. It was a strange sight indeed. Jambha and other demons were infatuated with her beauty. They did not like the fact that the beautiful lady was with the mad man. They ran to them, pulled the mad man aside and put the beautiful woman in a palanquin. The crazy demons lifted the palanquin itself and placed it on their heads.
Indra and the Gods were worried, but Lord Datta who was not at all worried burst into a laughter. “Your work is done. Their work is finished”. Lord Datta continued looking at the demons while imparting knowledge to the Gods. “Lakshmi dwells in seven positions in the human body. When she dwells in the feet, they will have the fortune of living in large mansions. When she dwells in the thighs, they will receive beautiful clothes. When she dwells in his private parts, he will live happily with his wife. When she dwells in the chest, it will result in fulfillment of desires. When she dwells in the neck, they will receive jewelry and ornaments.and have the support of relatives. If she dwells in the face, she confers an abundance of food through all lifetimes, absolute power in words and the ability to compose poetry. After traversing these six places, when Lakshmi gets on to the head, she will leave. That person will be ruined. That is why, we should never keep Lakshmi on our heads. It is like saying, “his insanity has gone to his head” (it means the insanity is aggravated). The powerful demons are now rendered powerless. Now, you can go and earn back your kingdom”. As soon as Lord Datta said this, Anagha Lakshmi jumped from the palanquin and stood near Lord Datta.
Indra killed Jambhasura while the other gods killed the rest of the demons. They earned back their kingdom of heaven. For universal welfare, the greatest Yogi, Lord Datta, showed such amazing miracles with his Yogic power. The Lord’s miracles were all only to uplift the worlds. He cleanses thoroughly with his tests and purifies those who believe in him. He continues to keep them pure. He bestows knowledge along with wealth, abundance, and education. The Sadguru’s miracles are so great.
Episode 202
Complete realization of the Supreme occurs only with the Sadguru’s grace. Even incarnations of the divine like Sri Rama and Sri Krishna set examples for us by learning all knowledge from a Guru. Sri Sankara Bhagavadpada who, in this new age, spread the glory of Sanatana Dharma to the four corners of the planet also approached and served a Guru. When young Sankara was a year old, he already knew alphabets, words, phrases and big sentences. By the time he was two, he knew other languages. At three, he completed the study of sound, poetry and drama and began the study of scriptures. By five years of age, he started the study of Vedas. Sankara could grasp and recount whatever was taught to him by his Guru just once. Generally, the intelligent learners study throughout the year and finish the study of the Veda within the year. A lot of people take 12 years to study a Veda, but Swamy (Sankara Bhagavadpada) finished the thorough study of each Veda within a year.
In that tender age, he also developed Vak Siddhi (ability for the spoken word to come true).
An impoverished housewife used to be very sad about her inability to give nothing but a gooseberry in alms. Sankara made it rain gold in her house. For the sake of his mother, he had river Poorna flow in front of the house. In due course, he achieved mastery and excellence in all kinds of knowledge. He inquired into the truth in the Upanishads. He achieved mastery in the Science of Logic and the Science of Reasoning. He grasped the secrets in numerology. With the intense desire to make knowledge of the Supreme easily accessible to everyone, Sankara adopted Sanyasa (path of renunciation) with this mother’s permission and set out to have darshana (seeing a divine being) of his Sadguru.
Guru alone is capable of removing the doubts in the mind. He alone can give us knowledge. How? By removing ignorance. He can show us the path to ending the cycle of births and deaths. To have darshana of such a Sadguru, Sankara walked went through villages and forests, crossed rivers and reached the banks of river Narmada. There, he fell at the feet of Govinda Bhagavadpada and humbly prayed to him thus:
“In the devotee who seeks refuge, you are the Sadguru who breaks through the 8 nooses of aversion, suspicion, behaviour, caste, strength, fear, attachment and compassion and then bestows purity. I am seeking refuge in you, who blesses us with yoga, and am waiting for your command”
The old and learned Govinda Bhagavadpada was awaiting the arrival of an eligible disciple. He questioned Sankara, “Son, who are you?”. Then, Sankara said, “Swamy, I am not the five elements”. Let’s see what he says next.
Episode 203
We discussed that Sankara reached Govinda Bhavadpada, prostrated at his feet and humbly said:
“In the devotee who seeks refuge, you are the Sadguru who breaks through the 8 nooses of aversion, suspicion, behaviour, caste, strength, fear, attachment and compassion and then bestows purity”. In the beginning itself, Sankara quickly found out and sang praises of the Guru’s fame, Guru principle and the Guru’s compassion. He humbly prayed“I am seeking refuge in you, who blesses us with yoga, and am waiting for your command.” Such humility is necessary. A lot of people think they have a right to be taught because they sacrificed everything to come to the Guru. There are even disciples who try to test the Guru.
The old and learned Govinda Bhagavadpada too was awaiting the arrival of an eligible disciple. He questioned Sankara, “Son, who are you?”. Then, Sankara said, “Swamy, I am not the five elements. I am not their attributes either. I am not the sense organs. I am of the form of truth, knowledge and bliss. I am the Parabrahman. I am changeless. I am complete”. He said “Sivohamasmi kevalaha sivoham”. Hearing the words, the Guru was immersed in ecstasy. He affectionately drew Sankara close to him. Because, for a person to have this kind of realization, he must have earned a lot of education, spiritual practice and humility. The Guru, right then and there, initiated him into Sanyasa and christened him “Sankaracharya”. Sankara had a lot of humility and obedience. Humility is very important. With a lot of obedience, he learned Vedas and other scriptures as well as the science behind them one more time very thoroughly and minutely.
Govindapada initiated Sankara into a mantra and 4 Mahavayas that were the essence of Upanishads. Immediately, the principles of the Brahma Sutras occurred to him. All doubts were erased and questions answered completely.
Durlabho visaya tyagaha. Durlabham tattva darsanam
Durlabha sahavastra Sadguruo karuna vina
Without Sadguru’s grace, the disciple cannot do anything. He will not be able to get rid of his desires for material belongings. He will be unable to realize the Guru Principle. That is why, the Guru must be served selflessly to obtain knowledge.
Even though Sankara was an incarnation of the Almighty, he was always contemplating on the Guru, singing glories of the Guru, serving the Guru. He became a guide to the world by practically demonstrating how one should serve the Guru Later, with the Guru’s permission, he wrote commentaries on Brahma Sutras, propagated the philosophy of Advaita to all corners of the country and poured life back into Sanatana Dharma. We cannot recall Sankara Bhagavadpada’s history enough number of times for our life. We will keep coming back over and over again to the story of Sankara Bhagavadpada who taught us the Guru principle.
Episode 204
Padma Pada. Without Guru’s grace, no knowledge can be successfully realized. We have been talking about the Guru so far - that there is no knowledge without the Guru’s grace. To obtain that grace, the disciple should constantly serve the Guru, should worship the Guru, should meditate on the Guru. The disciple should forget himself in service to the Guru. The disciple should have unwavering devotion towards the Guru’s feet. A disciple with such devotion will earn a place in the heart of the Guru. He will earn the Guru’s grace completely.
Yatpada pansavah santah kepi samsara varidheh |
Setubandhaya kalpante desikam tamupasmaha ||
Sankara Bhagavatpada’s disciple Padma Pada is a great example of a disciple who had such unwavering devotion. Padma Pada’s stories should be discussed at least once every day. These stories have so much power. Padma Pada’s previous name was Sananda. He was a Brahmin boy from the Chola kingdom. Sananda learned the Vedas and Vedangas, studied the scriptures, observed complete and lifelong celibacy. Yet, none of these gave Sananda complete bliss. His mind was not at peace for some reason. Some mental trouble always tormented him. Looking for a preceptor who would remove his sorrows, Sananda traveled many countries.
At that time, Sananda heard about the reputation and prestige of Sri Sankaracharya. He learned that Sri Sankaracharya was in Kasi. He set out for Kasi to have Sri Sankaracharya’s darshana at any cost and get rid of his sorrows. At Kasi, when Sananda saw Sri Sankaracharya for first time, he was amazed at the divine radiance of Sri Sankaracharya. He decided to himself that Sri Sankaracharya was his Guru. He approached Sankara and held on tightly to both his feet.
He prayed that until the Guru (Sankara) gave him refuge, he would continue to be hold on this feet. The Guru understood the anxieties and the desire for knowledge in the disciple. He affectionately pulled him up and asked, “Son, who are you? Why are you here? Where are all the places you are traveling. Why did you come here? What brought you here?”
Sananda gave his details and said, “Swamy, I distanced myself from the worldly attachments and visited many pilgrimage places to gain mental strength. “I don’t have any worldly attachments, I already distanced myself from them, but I am suffering from mental anxieties. There was no use of visiting so many pilgrim places I prayed to the Gods. I undertook a lot of worship and rituals. Not one, not two, O Lord, but several. Still my mind could not find peace.”
The doctor gives medicines only for physical ailments. But, Sadguru alone is capable of curing the disease of samsara (worldly life) and bestowing eternal happiness. With tears in his eyes, Sananda prayed, “Remove my ignorance and save this hapless soul”. Let’s see what he says next.
Episode 205
Sankara Bhagavatpada accepted Padmapada as his disciple. Sananda was serving his Guru with a lot of devotion. Guru meant everything to him. Whether his eyes were open or closed, he was always meditating on the Guru. Guru was his world. There was nothing beyond the Guru for him. He always awaiting the Guru’s command. He carried out all tasks of the Guru with a lot of dedication. He would understand the Guru’s mind and act accordingly. With a lot of concentration and with humility and obedience, he would practice the knowledge taught by the Guru.
Gradually, he became one of Sankara Bhagavatpada’s favorite disciples. Sankara would lovingly call him “Sananda”. Sankara noticed other disciples wondering what the reasons were for Sananda to become such a beloved disciple. He planned to show them Sananda’s devotion.
We normally do see that when a few devotees gather around a Guru, they may be jealous of each other. A lot of disciples discuss, “Why is he closer to the Guru, why I am not closer? What did I do? What is his greatness to deserve this? Did I commit a sin? Did they do something great?” If such thoughts occur in their minds, it means these people are the demons gathered around the disciples to take on the sins of the disciples.
The first thing to discard in service to the Guru is jealousy. Suspicions like, “May be the Guru likes him more than he likes me”, “Why doesn’t he acknowledge me?” should not be allowed. If this bug enters the mind, it means that these people have started on their path to their downfall.
That is why, once you are with a Guru, you should consider everything and everyone around the Guru as the Guru himself. You should think, “All of them are the Guru’s forms. They are all teaching me beautiful lessons”. You should feel, “You went to the Guru, I am so happy. Seeing you go to the Guru, I felt like I went to the Guru myself. If you found that happiness, I found happiness too.” When we inculcate this open mind and loving heart, liberation will automatically follow. There is no need to do anything else, no need for a yantra, mantra, tantra or anything else.
We sometimes say, “I don’t know what sin I committed, why do I have these faults despite my devotion to the Guru? “ This is what it is. This is the mistake we make. These are our faults. vAs soon as one starts to think, “I have been here for 10 days, the Guru did not even talk to me. This devotee came just yesterday and the Guru is talking to him”, he is immediately a demon. From there, he restarts his cycle of births starting out again as a microorganism. But, once you correct that thought and start serving the Guru, realizing that everybody is equal and that everybody else is just a different form of your own self, that they are all like you, you will start coming to a good state.
That’s what happened here. Seeing Sananda, the other disciples got jealous. The Guru is always calling Sananda, always saying “Sananda”, “Nanda”. Why does he not call us? We are right here. You should think, “Let me also get that good fortune”, but you should not think, ”Why does he not call me”. That is why, Sankara wanted to correct this behavior in them. He called Sananda to show the disciples Sananda’s devotion. Let us see what happens. Let’s see the play that Sankara Bhagavatpada orchestrated here.
Episode 206
So far, we discussed that Sananda would carry out the Guru’s tasks with a lot of dedication. He would understand the Guru’s mind and act accordingly. Not everyone can do this. Some people do the work before the Guru even asks them to. Some do the work after the Guru asks them to. Some do not do the work even after the Guru asks them to. Examine for yourself which category you belong to. The first category is where one understands the Guru Principle, understands the Guru’s mind and briskly gets the tasks done. Alright, there is the second class of people who do the work after being asked to...let’s at least belong here. We don’t want the third class, which is to not do the work even after being told by the Guru. There are demons walking amongst us, there are humans walking amongst us and there are people with godly nature walking amongst us. Which one of these are you?
Doing without even being asked to - understanding what needs to be done and getting down to doing it immediately thinking, “this might be it, let me do it” is associated with godly nature. Doing after you are being asked to is human nature. Procrastinating to tomorrow after being asked to do it is demonic nature. Which nature you will associate with, which nature you associated with so far, when you will next get admission, I don’t know, but you should be careful. With a lot of concentration and with humility and obedience, Sananda would practice the knowledge taught by the Guru. It was enough for Sananda to be taught once, because he had great concentration. Only when one has concentration, humility and obedience will the knowledge be absorbed completely by the seeker, otherwise it will not.
We discussed that Sananda gradually became one of Sankara’s most loved disciples. We discussed that Sankara would lovingly call him “Sananda”. Sankara noticed other disciples wondering what the reasons were for Sananda to become such a beloved disciple. “There seems to be some secret, that is why our Guru is keeping Sananda so close to him”. Such thinking is normal among humans, those disciples were after all human. So, like this, a doubt arose in their mind that led to such discussions. Guru Sankara noticed this. “The disciples have this bad habit, let me teach them a lesson” he thought. He planned to show them Sananda’s devotion. He wanted to show them what real devotion to the Guru meant.
One day, Sankara who went to the banks of river Ganga with his disciples called Sananda who was on the other side of the river saying, “Son, Sananda, come over to this side quickly”. Sankara called Sananda on purpose. The Guru called on the disciple was on the other side and asked him to quickly come over to this side. How would we have responded? Would we say, “I don’t know how to swim, Swamy”? Would someone say, “I don’t have a boat, Swamy”. Would yet another person say, “I don’t have the power to come over to that side, Swamy. Why are you calling me?” It’s very well possible. There are many among you, yes?
But, look what Sananda’s devotion prompted him to do. Sananda to whom there was no thought other than the Guru’s command, quickly walked over water to the other side of the river. This is not mesmerism or magic or the power of penance. It is purely devotion to the Guru. There are many who say, “I am very devoted. I think of him day and night. Who do you think the Guru is! I’m always chanting Guru Brahma Guru Vishnu Gurudevo Maheshwaraha. I am always thinking of the Guru” while they have a lot of desires in their heart. Sananda’s case was not like that.
First, he already let go of all attachments in the world. Secondly, he learned all forms of knowledge. Third, he served his Guru with singled-minded concentration. Fourth, he had acquired good karma all his life. Fifth, he had an abundance of Guru’s grace. See for yourself if you have all these. Sananda walked over the water and reached the other shore. Every step that Sananda took on water, lotuses bloomed to prevent him from sinking into the water. Everywhere he stepped, lotuses bloomed. Everybody was awestruck. Seeing his devotion, all other disciples - who usually think about food, about their next meals - were surprised. When Sananda walked, lotuses bloomed. When we walk, calluses grow on our feet. We don’t even walk without footwear. Amazed at his devotion, the other disciples offered him their respects. Since then, the name Padmapada (Padma = lotus; Pada=feet) became famous. Did you see the devotion to Guru?
Episode 207
Thotakacharya. With Sadguru’s grace, even the most dull-witted person will become a scholar. But, to earn Sadguru’s grace, one must be like pure gold. Only with pure gold can a good ornament be made. If you just turn in any gold to the goldsmith asking him to make some jewelry out of it, he will say, “There is a lot of impurity in this gold, it will need to be purified by placing in fire”. That is why, to earn Sadguru’s grace, one must be pure. Sadguru’s grace is a test.
If you say, “Bless me. If you bless me, everything will be done”, Saduguru will say, “You want my blessings? Okay, you will face tests from today”. That is the blessing. Sadguru’s grace is not just a token that can be given away like a pumpkin. It’s not as simple as saying, “Sadguru did not give me the pumpkin”. Obtaining Sadguru’s grace means that the tests in your life have started - it may take a year, it may take 10 years, it may take the entire lifetime or even the next life. That is Sadguru’s grace. We cannot even admit ourselves into Sadguru’s grace. We just talk about it because we have heard it in stories and have seen examples.
It’s like saying, “If we have devotion, what can we not accomplish? If we have Sadguru’s grace, what can we not accomplish? Everything will be okay. Just ask him to give it (Sadguru’s grace), why the delay? We have been waiting for two days”. Guru’s grace is not a stick he can give you, it’s not a piece of jaggery he can just give. He will not even give the piece of jaggery just like that. It is true that the Sadguru’s grace can turn even the most dull-witted person into a scholar. But, the disciple needs to acquire certain traits in order to become a scholar. It is true that he will also become knowledgable. But, to earn the Guru’s grace, it is the disciple’s duty to serve him with devotion. But, if you don’t have this and still want Sadguru’s grace within a second or within a minute or within a day or within a year saying, “Sadguru is my only refuge”, will it happen? Why do all this drama? We are being guided in the right direction, we are being taught what we need to do to earn Sadguru’s grace. Just put it into practice. That is the Guru’s grace. There is no need to look for any results. Receiving guidance is itself the Sadguru’s grace.
Sadguru may say, “Do this worship”, or “Be this way”, or “Study this”. The story of Thotakacharya, one of the four key disciples of Sankaracharya explains this point.
Guru Gita Sloka:
Guruvaktra sthita vidya prapyate tatprasadatah |
Tasmattam desikam dhyayet yathatyosit priyam swakam ||
There were many disciples engaged in study and practice of knowledge under the tutelage of Sankara Bhagavadpada. There were many disciples and many kinds of disciples. A boy named Giri also came to be Sankara’s disciple. Giri was dull-witted. He was unable to absorb the lessons taught by the Guru. His mind used to be elsewhere. He would think, “Has the seasoning been added to the food in the kitchen?” or he would think “Have they rung the bell in the kitchen yet?”, or he would think, “What will be the new dish today?” and so on. He was always immersed in these thoughts, his mind was never on what was being taught. He would not understand anything easily. He was very dull-witted. That is why, his fellow disciples would never take him seriously. But, how did Giri feel? We said he was dull-witted and stupid, but what was his stupidity like. Let’s see.
Episode 208
We discussed that there were many disciples engaged in study and practice of knowledge under the tutelage of Sankara Bhagavatpada. We also discussed that a boy named Giri too came to be Sankara’s disciple. Giri was dull-witted. He was unable to absorb the lessons taught by the Guru. He would not understanding anything easily. That is why, he became an object of ridicule among his fellow students. When they called him by his name, “Giri”, they would imply that he was dumb as a stone and make fun of him. Giri means mountain. There is no effect on the mountain even if you collide with it. So, they implied that he was like a big stone.
Even though Giri was not intelligent, his mind was pure. Did you see? We find some people dull-witted, but their minds are pure. Giri’s devotion to his Guru was boundless. Even though he was dull-witted, he would attend on all of the Guru’s tasks. He would take care of all the tasks; like a machine, he would just keep doing one task after another. Nothing else would matter to him except doing those tasks. He would get the water ready for his Guru. He would wash the Guru’s clothes. He would fetch drinking water from the river. He would do all these tasks on his own. But, he did not acquire any knowledge being taught. When he sat in class, he would never absorb what was being taught. But, he would be able to carry out all other tasks. He would gather the flowers required for worship. Every moment of the day, his interest lay only in serving the Guru. Did you see, we said so many things about Giri, that he was dull-witted, that his intellect was too stubborn to absorb any knowledge, but he was doing such good service, he had great devotion towards the Guru.
One day, when it was time for Sankara to teach, the disciples gathered for the class. Sankara also arrived. The disciples pulled all their scriptures together and eagerly looked forward to the lesson their Guru was going to teach them. But, Sankara did not start the lesson. He sat quietly. He did not see Giri among the students in the class. The Guru noticed that Giri was not in class. Giri, who had gone to the river, to wash the Guru’s clothes and bring them back did not return yet. The disciples who saw that the Guru was awaiting the arrival of Giri got jealous and began whispering among themselves, “Why is our Guru looking for that Giri?” “What is this? It is the past the starting time of the class. Yet, the Guru is not starting the class. We have to go out and play after the class. What is this? We are getting late”.
It is like saying, “Even after so long, the bhajans have not started. We have been here for a very long time. Why did he not come today?” as if they are paying wages for the bhajans. They may not even question those they are paying wages. They make a demand, “Why will he not give darshan today? Why did he still not come for bhajans?” The disciples waited for the dull-witted Giri to return.
The class has not started and time is running out. Yet, the Guru is not starting the class. They discussed among themselves, “He is awaiting the arrival of the dull-witted Giri. Why is he waiting for Giri? Giri will not understand anything properly anyway. This is strange. Why is the Guru so compassionate towards him? It does not matter anyway whether he sits in this class or not. He does not understand anything”.
The omniscient Sankara comprehended the thoughts of his disciples. He understood the ridicule they had for Giri.
Episode 209
We discussed the way Guru Sankara waited for Giri to come to class and the way the disciples wondered why the Guru was waiting for Giri with so much compassion. The omniscient Sankara comprehended the thoughts of his disciples. He knew what they were whispering to each other. He understood the ridicule they had for Giri. He decided to correct their behavior and show them Giri’s devotion to Guru.
Immediately, Guru Sankara who was an ocean of compassion filled his disciple Giri with his grace. By the power of Guru’s will, Giri became very scholarly. He became proficient in all forms of knowledge. Giri who was walking back from the river with the cleaned clothes of the Guru on his shoulder, approached his Guru with devotion, sang glories of his Guru with “Thotaka” hymns and prostrated to the Guru. Listening to the hymns bearing beautiful poetic ornamentation and sound, flowing in perfect and incomparable beauty from Giri’s lips, his fellow disciples were aamzed at this scholarliness and poetic abilities.
“We thought he was stupid, but what a deed has taken place here!” The pride in them vanished. They realized their mistake and pray to Guru Sankara for forgiveness. “We thought he was dim-witted, but we see what has happened now”. Sankara initiated Giri into Sanyasa (renunciation) and christened him “Thotakacharya” and made him one among his primary disciples. By eloquently reciting the Thotaka hymns with the Guru’s grace, the name “Thotakacharya” became very popular.
This story about how, with the Guru’s grace, even the most dim-witted person can, within a second, become a scholar is only a small example to show that service to the Guru confers the greatest results.
Without any devotion or service, some people approach the Guru, offer a prostration and after four days and after performing 5 or 6 homas wonder, “Why did I not get liberation?” They cannot even pronounce “liberation” correctly. Will liberation come that quickly? I don’t know. You’ve come to me because of good karma over many births. You must try to strengthen this as long as you are alive. But, you should not think you will get liberation right away. You experience all your karma elsewhere and come here and demand, “Why am I still not completely healed?” What is this? You come and ask all these questions of the innocent Swamiji. “What are you saying? I placed my faith in Swamiji”. What is faith? Does faith mean just visiting the Guru 4 times. Just because you have difficulties and illnesses back home, you come here and demand, “I’ve been asked to come. I’ve been waiting since this morning. I still haven’t received anything”. What is this? Will things happen in a second? Are you as devoted as Thotakcharya? Do you have that much devotion to Guru? Tell me. We learned so far that with the Gurus’ grace, even a fool becomes a scholar within a second, but why are we applying that to ourselves? We discussed a small example over and over again to understand that great results are obtained by the grace of Guru.
Episode 210
Next, Bharadwaja. Remember that to acquire knowledge from a Guru requires firm determination. It’s an initiation. One will need to toil without annoyance or rest. You should not look for rest in between. “I need some rest. Ohh, I’m tired of reading the Bhagavatam over and over again. Let me take just a little rest, let me go for a stroll to take in some fresh air”. You should not even be irked or annoyed. Nor should you be bored. “Why do I have to read the same thing over and over?” You should be so immersed in what you are reading, you should become a part of what you are reading so that there isn’t even the effort in reading again.
“I’ve chanted the name of the Lord thousands of times”, “I’ve chanted the name of the Lord millions of times, tens of millions of times. I’ve used the rosary so much, look my finger is swollen. The rosary has fallen apart, my hand is all swollen and I am vexed with all this”. The moment you are vexed or annoyed, all your chanting and penance is like performing a Yajna in water (i.e., all your chanting and penance is a waste). That’s it. Closed. Your penance, your initiation becomes like a fistful of salt thrown into the sea. It just melts into the salt of the sea. You cannot search for it after.
One needs a firm vow of determination. Effort without annoyance and rest is required. You should never be annoyed or vexed. Those who are never annoyed will not even feel tired. They are always enthusiastic doing service to the Guru. The moment you think, “None of those people are doing anything, why am I alone doing this?”, you are ruined; you will fall from yogic grace. In case you are wondering who is a Yoga Bhrashta (someone who falls from Yogic grace), it is person like this.
After toiling hard with a lot of devotion towards the Guru, if you suddenly one day get irked and feel, “My Guru has said this to me, he humiliated me”, you will fall from Yogic grace, you will become a Trishanku Yoga Bhrashta (Trishanku denotes the middleground or limbo between one’s goals or desires and one’s current state of possessions).
The more the Guru chides you, the more your sins are getting washed off. You are forgetting that he is drawing you closer to himself. “He was unjust towards me, he was not fair to me. Oh, he did not give me anything”. Is this something that can be put in a bag and given to you? He (the Guru) will not even give that.
Spiritual practice is like that too. There should be no room for annoyance or rest. You should never even utter the word, “Boredom”. “I have heard this bhajan so many times. Why couldn’t he sing a new bhajan”. Done. All the merit from listening to the bhajan previously has been destroyed. It is closed. You must instead say, “I can never hear it enough number of times”.
So, be careful and remember that spiritual practice is also like that. Guru gives various kinds of techniques, bestowing various kinds of knowledge removing each kind of ignorance from us. We do not even realize that he is working on us. We are administered anesthesia prior to being operated on by the doctor. Without even administering anesthesia, the only doctor who operates on us to remove our wavering nature and our sins is the Guru. All other kinds of doctors do something else. That is why we should be careful. We should not waver. We should not be annoyed. We should never complain of boredom. We should not say “Next” (looking for the next command from the Guru).
Whatever has been asked of you should be immediately acted on. You should not say, “He asked me to do something else before, so let me finish that before I come to this”. You must immediately carry out whatever he asked you to now. Once this task is complete, you can go back to the previous task. You should never forget about the previous task.
This is not something that will be done in a day or in a year. Some people demand instant liberation. It’s like saying, “I need liberation immediately. Urgent! Urgent! I arrived here after booking my return trip. I have to leave by the evening train. So, if I get liberation immediately, I can take the evening train back”. If you are given liberation, how will you go back by train, you may go under the train. There are some people that occasionally come up to ask for liberation immediately. I tell them that they are mad.
Episode 211
We discussed that the Guru, the Paramatman, teaches various techniques, bestowing various kinds of knowledge removing each kind of ignorance from us.
Sloka:
Guror vidyatmano nanyat satyam satyam na samsayah |
Tallabhartam prayatnastu kartavyo hi manisibhih ||
This is not something that will be done in a day, or in a year or in 10 years or in 18 years. Its like saying, “I climbed up the steps to the temple of Lord Ayyappa for 18 years. I did not get Darshan of the Lord.” It’s like saying, “I climbed up the hill in Tirupati once”. Once you decide to climb, you must keep climbing till you are alive. You must climb till you have legs. You must climb until your legs lose their strength.
Service to the Guru is similar. You should never be annoyed doing service to Guru, never. If you ever get annoyed, there is no service to the Guru for you from that day. All the service you did so far was a farce, a drama. Your devotion is deceitful. Hide that deceit. Let go of the expectation to get liberation immediately. This is a cuss word. I call it a cuss word. “Will I get liberation immediately? Will I get liberation in this birth itself?” If you keep thinking like this, you will get liberation not in this birth, but tomorrow or the day itself after when you are put in a mental asylum. You will get liberation very soon.
This is very wrong. Liberation cannot be gained like this. You cannot gain liberation by using scare tactics with the Guru. A lot of people cry and say to Swamiji, “People around me are scolding me for going to Swamiji”. So, why are you coming then? So, will the Guru say, “Oh is it? People around you are scolding you? Oh my darling child, let me give you liberation right away”? The Guru will not say that. “My daughter is not getting married. People are asking me why my daughter is not yet married even after I have been going to Swamiji for 3 years. That is all Swami, I am worried about people talking like that”. So, to appease those people, I should immediately get your daughter married? Is this good behavior? Can you blackmail Swamiji like that? Can you say those things to Swamiji? Some cry, “I have spent money and come to Swamiji 4 times, I did not get liberation”. Can you talk like that? Is it not blackmailing? Isn’t it blackmail to tell me that your neighbors and relatives are chiding you for going to Swamiji out of devotion even though nothing good has come out of it? Tell me. I don’t know. I just felt that there was deceit. Can you talk like that?
Let them chide you. You have acquired enough karma, so they are chiding you. I am also asking you why you came here. Even if you have been coming for the last 10 years, your story is closed with today if you talk like that. What kind of liberation is this? What kind of devotion to the Guru is this? Do we compare our devotion to the devotion of the great characters we have been talking about? Is this what Guru Gita teaches? Nice. Fulfilled.
Spiritual practice should always keep going as ordained by the Guru until our last breath. Until the very last breath, our spiritual practice should continue. There is no room for the word “rest” for this being, for these sense organs and for this intellect. Who needs rest? The sense organs? Are the sense organs yours? Who are you to give them rest? “I will take a break from chanting for 4 days”. Who are you to say that? That is why there is no room for the word “rest” here. To understand this, we need to learn the story of Bharadwaja. Whatever I have said so far is the story of Bharadwaja. You foolishly assumed that what I said so far related to you, related to Swamiji, related to Ashrama, related to your visits to the Ashrama. No, it was not. I was only telling the story of Bharadwaja from a different angle. It is incidental that you may also relate to it.
Episode 212
The first name that comes to mind when we think of study of the Vedas is Bharadwaja. The way Bharadwaja, who is one of the Saptarishis (the 7 great sages. The others are Gautama, Atri, Jamadagni, Kasyapa, Vasishtha, Viswamitra), acquired knowledge is very interesting. We discussed so far how one should conduct himself when studying under the guidance of a Guru. In the course of his study, when Bharadwaja completed the study of the branch of Vedas assigned to him, he asked his Guru if his study was complete? We do not need to go into the details of what branch he was studying. He asked his Guru if his study of the subject assigned to him was complete.
The Guru said, “Son, not even 1% of it is done. Unless you are born again with a full lifespan, your study of the Vedas will not be completed”. We have to listen to what the Guru says. We cannot go against it. That is it. If the Guru says, “It will not happen in this birth. You need to take another birth. You will need to serve the Guru again. Until then you will not attain liberation”, then, one has to take another birth. Bharadwaja embarked on deep meditation to acquire the lifespan required for the study of the Vedas. He pleased Indra, the king of Gods and earned the boon for another birth will a full lifespan. People had such energy back then to pray and acquire such boons. Can we do this? We are limited to being happy just reading about them in books.
So, Bharadwaja again started his study of the Vedas. He realized that his study of the Vedas was not completed in that birth either. He again deeply meditated on Indra. When the Guru said that his study was not complete, he took another birth. Like this, Bharadwaja had to take 3 births. The fourth time, Indra appeared and said, “Bharadwaja, this fourth time, you are earning the blessing to live for a thousand years. By the way, what you are doing with this lifespan? You are taking so many births. What do you really need? What are you doing? You are getting one thousand years now, what are you going to do?” Bharadwaja replied, “Lord, I decided to study the Vedas completely and thoroughly. My lifespan was not enough to do that. That is why, I meditated 4 times”. Here, study (of Vedas) does not mean just reading. It means understanding and absorbing the essence completely.
Some people say, “I am studying the Vedas. I am almost done. I studied all the Upanishads. I know them by-heart, I can recite them anytime without any mistakes”. Is that enough? One needs to grasp the truth in them completely. Until then, you will not understand them. In the study of the Vedas, one needs to contemplate the meaning of each syllable. Every syllable in the Veda has knowledge associated with it, where did the syllable come from, what is the meaning, where does it get its meaning from and so on. One needs to understand those truths completely.
Then Indra pointed to Bharadwaja three mountains of sand to symbolize the infinite Vedas. So far, Bharadwaja took on 3 births and is again taking birth for a thousand years and asking Indra about his study of the Vedas. Indra is pointing to him 3 mountains of sand. What will he say? Picking up a fistful of sand at a time, Indra said, “Bharadwaja, if Vedas are as big as this huge mountain of sand, what you studied is as much as this fistful of sand. That was a huge mountain of sand. “The study of the Vedas is like this big mountain of sand. Since you asked me how much you studied, I am telling you. It is one fistful of sand. This is how much you studied”.
But Bharadwaja did not lose heart at all. Let’s see what happens next.
Episode 213
Bharadwaja. When he performed intense penance for Indra, Indra appeared before him and blessed him for the fourth time with a 1000 year life span. Indra asked Bharadw aja what he was doing with that lifespan. Bharadwaja said that he was praying for the lifespan so he could study the Vedas. Indra was alluding to how difficult it was to live for 1000 years when Bharadwaja told him it was only for the study of the Vedas. Then Indra pointed to Bharadwaja 3 mountains of sand as being symbolic of the infinite Vedas. Picking up a fistful of sand from each mountain, Indra said, “If Vedas are as big as these mountains of sand, what you studied is as much as this fistful of sand”.
But Bharadwaja did not lose heart at all. He joyously prostrated to Indra reverentially for having shown him the nature of the Vedas. Indra, pleased with Bharadwaja’s dedication and firm resolve, blessed him and said that every student should be like Bharadwaja. Indra said that if every student is like Bharadwaja, any kind of education can easily be attained, any practice will bear fruit and knowledge will be kindled. He initiated Bhardwaja into “Savitri Upadesa” and before leaving, blessed him saying, “You do not need to gain any further education, all mantras will appear before you. You will become famous as a seer of mantras”.
Afterwards, Bharadwaja remained an eternal student. Every time he recited a mantra, he felt like a student studying the Vedas. He continued to always be like that. The scriptures “Bharadwaja Smriti” that he authored on the principles of Dharma have gained much fame. Bharadwaja is the great soul who showed the world what spiritual practice should be like.
Guru Gita Sloka
Guror vidyatmano nanyat satyam satyam na samsayah |
Tallabhartam prayatnastu kartavyo hi manisibhih ||
Let’s move forward.
Guru Gita Sloka
Namami sadgurum santam pratyaksa siva rupinam |
Sirasa yoga pithastham mukti kamyartha siddhaye ||
By meditating on the supremely peaceful Sadguru, our mind will become peaceful. The Lord, the Sadguru, is an eternal ocean of peace. That is why those who pray to him also become peaceful. Their peace seems as deep as an ocean. When we pray to or contemplate on someone with certain attributes, we absorb a few of those attributes. That is natural. Sadguru is always peaceful. He is an eternal ocean of supreme peace. Just as the ocean is solemn and majestic, the Sadguru’s peace is too. That is why they say the Sadguru is Supremely peaceful. They don’t just say “peaceful”. But, he is supremely peaceful. He is the most peaceful of all in the universe - of all living beings, all planets, all creation. He is more peaceful than all of these, he is supremely peaceful. Guru exists as the image of this entire creation. That means, he appears as an image of everything in this creation. What this means is that he is everywhere, all pervasive. He is supremely peaceful. He is the supreme image of the creation. He is the creation and the creation is him. He is the ocean, he is the depth and majesty of the ocean. That is why they are saying here that by meditating on the supremely peaceful Saguru, our mind will become peaceful.
Episode 214
For any task in our day-to-day life to succeed or for any practice in our spiritual life to become powerful, peaceful nature is very necessary.Things will not happen just like that. If you want everything to light up, but don’t have any light, how is it possible? How can you get what you want without working for it? “I want to be able to concentrate, I want to have peace, I want knowledge...”. If you don’t even try, if you don’t do your spiritual practice, if you don’t practice peaceful nature, how would that be possible?
You see the big ocean and lament about how little water your vessel contains? How big is your vessel? How much spiritual practice are you undertaking? For any thing in our worldly life to succeed, for any practice in our spiritual life to become powerful, the important requirement is peaceful nature, patience. Without patience, nothing can be achieved. We sometimes say to others, “You have no patience, you don’t have the habit of being patient”. Patience also means tolerance. If you lose tolerance and give in to anger, many disasters can occur. Anger destroys the fruit of all penance in a moment. We read of many such stories in history.
Guru Gita Sloka
Namami sadgurum santam pratyaksa siva rupinam |
Sirasa yoga pithastham mukti kamyartha siddhaye ||
You may have undertaken many good deeds, you may have been very patient throughout, but if at the end of it all, you suddenly get angry, that is what people will remember. There are many stories in the scriptures to explain this to us.
The righteous Parikshit, the spiritually accomplished Shringi also succumbed to anger. At that time, Shringi’s father Shamika imparted a valuable lesson to them that everyone should remember. One day, Parikshit went to the forest for hunting. He was tired after hunting for a long time. In the meanwhile, a deer really attracted him. The deer seemed to be get captured, but would eventually escape again and again. The deer was escaping the king’s arrows. The king would shoot arrow after arrow, but the deer would escape and run away. Could the king be quiet? His determination got stronger. He began chasing the deer. On the way, the king found a hermitage. The king who was already tired and thirsty by then, went into the hermitage to quench his thirst. That was the hermitage of sage Shamika. He was very peaceful by nature. But his son, Shringi was a little boy. He hadn’t yet conquered anger. The little boy was ill tempered. The king who entered the hermitage saw Sage Shamika absorbed in deep meditation. Bowing to the sage, the king said, “A deer escaped my arrows and came this way. Did you happen to see the deer?” The sage who was absorbed in deep meditation did not even notice the arrival of the king. The sage was completely absorbed in his meditation. He did not provide any reply. Let’s see what reply he gives later.
Episode 215
We were talking about the great sage Shamika and King Parikshit. The tired King Parikshit found a hermitage that he stopped at for some rest. We discussed that it was the hermitage of sage Shamika. The sage was very peaceful by nature. But his son, Shringi, even though young, hadn’t yet conquered anger. The king who entered the hermitage saw Sage Shamika absorbed in deep meditation. Bowing to the sage, the king said, “Maharishi, a deer escaped my arrows and came this way. Did you happen to see the deer?” The sage who was absorbed in deep meditation did not even notice the arrival of the king. The sage was completely absorbed in his meditation. He did not provide any reply. The king was still awaiting reply expecting that the sage would reply in a little while. “The sage will wake up from his meditation when he hears me, he will wake up due to the question I asked”. But a long time passed and the sage did not wake up from his meditation. The king waited a very long time, hoping the sage would wake up. The king kept looking at the sage hoping for an answer. But, when the sage did not open his eyes for a very long time, the king lost his patience, “I’ve been asking for a very long time, but he is not talking”. The king was enraged.
Picking up a dead snake lying at a distance, he put it around the sage’s neck and went away. The king was very angry. Luckily, he did not try to punch the sage to wake up him. Had the king done that, his story would have ended right there. But, instead of walking away quietly, he picked up a big dead snake and put it around the sage’s neck.
The king lost his nobility with that act. Whatever noble nature he had, he lost with that act. What a great emperor Parikshit used to be. As soon as Parikshit left, Shringi entered the hermitage and saw his father. He was furious seeing the insult meted to his father. He immediately pronounced a curse, “Whoever insulted my father will die on the seventh day from today by succumbing to the bite of serpent king Takshaka”. Because he put a snake around the father’s neck, the offender will meet his death due to a snake on the seventh day from that day cursed Shringi. That’s how angry he was.
Because all these people had achieved great fruits from their penance, their words always came true. We also talk on the street, pick up quarrels and curse each other. What is the use? Quarreling and cursing, people get tired and then resort to drinking. But, here, the spiritual practice and penance done by the noble souls, the great sages was truly great. One glance, one word, one touch, one step from them is enough for their energy to pervade throughout that place.
Here Shringi too lost his patience, discretion and knowledge. One one hand, the emperor lost his patience and put a dead snake around the sage’s neck, and on the other hand, son Shringi lost his patience seeing the insult meted to his father. Despite performing so much meditation, Shringi lost his patience. Such a great emperor, such a great Pandava emperor, he was from the lineage of the Pandavas, he too lost his patience despite being an emperor. He could have simply walked away because the sage was absorbed in meditation, but he did not. Both, emperor Parikshit and sage Shringi lost patience.
Let us see this great example of what kind of disasters one encounters when patience is lost. Let’s move forward.
Episode 216
We discussed that as soon as King Parikshit left, Shringi, who entered the hermitage was extremely furious seeing his father in that state and immediately pronounced a curse, “Whoever insulted my father will die on the seventh day from today by succumbing to the bite of serpent king Takshaka”. Shringi too lost his patience, discretion and knowledge. Shringi removed the dead snake from around his father’s neck and threw it far away.
At that time, Shamika, the great sage, opened his eyes slowly. He learned about what happened. He chided Shringi and said, “Son, anger ruins meditation. It destroys the Ashta Siddhis (ashta =8; siddhis = supernatural powers). That is why, the spiritually wealthy as well as the spiritual seekers should not have any anger. They should discard anger. The penance of one without patience is like water in a *** with a hole”. What a beautiful analogy. “It is a ***, no doubt. It also contains water. But, it also has a hole. But, after a while, it will not have any water due to the hole. Still, it’s a ***. That’s what will happen. The Tapasvi (one who performs penance or deep meditation) will have a big body, but it will be like a *** that cannot hold its water. Even a small hole is enough to drain the water. The penance of one without patience is like the water in a *** with a hole. How can there be any water in it?”
The sage continued, “What have you done? Who did you think he was? He was our emperor. We are carrying out our meditation in his kingdom. You’ve made a mistake”. Saying this, the sage immediately dispatched a disciple to let the king know of what happened. That is why, a spiritual seeker should be very cautious when it comes to anger. He should win over it with peace. “What a disaster has taken place! What will happen next? If he dies from snake bite, what will be the fate of the kingdom? What will be our fate? You made a grave mistake.”
That is why, one should constantly pray to the Sadguru for a peaceful nature. Despite doing a lot of meditation, despite a lot of knowledge, we sometimes lose our patience. We get angry over small things. A lot of people say during childhood, “You have anger at the tip of your nose” (a phrase in Telugu to mean that the person is short tempered). If one broke a sweat on the nose, they would say that the person was short tempered. If one broke a sweat on the eyes, they would say that he was a very cunning fellow. If one broke a sweat on the ears, they would say that he would believe in gossip and trash talk. If one broke a sweat on the forehead, they would say that he was a hard working person. If one broke a sweat on his neck, they would say that he occasionally would say some good lies. What is this? You must be thinking that this is some Science of Sweat.
Normally, elders talk to us about and guide us in our actions. They talk to us about our difficulties and our patience. All these will seem like Lizard Science or Parrot Science or Ominous Science or Cat Science or Dog Science and now the new Science of Sweat. It is not like that. Elders only use these actions as proverbs to caution us. That is why, if we are to have a peaceful nature, if we are to improve our good nature, if we are to get good results for our meditation, we should meditate on the Sadguru every moment. Similarly, those who meditate on the Sadguru, who is an embodiment of peace, before embarking on an auspicious task will keep their mind from losing to anger quickly.
Episode 217
Mother Goddess humbly questioned Lord Shiva fervently begging him to teach her the Guru Principle. She pleaded for even more knowledge on the Guru Principle. She very clearly enunciated what she wanted. With great devotion, she prayed, “I prostrate to your feet, please bless me”. She demonstrated how a disciple should behave. She demonstrated how disciples should conduct themselves and how they should ask the Guru for what they want.
Disciples eager to gain knowledge from the Guru should first surrender to the Guru. They should not go to the Guru with preconceived notion of what they already know. There are many people that present their knowledge in front of a Guru and say, “What else do I need besides this?” There are others that say, “I acquired knowledge so far. Please bless me”. There are yet others who say, “There is no other knowledge more important than this. This is all there is to knowledge”.
There are people who ask, “Can you tell me if there is anything more to learn?” And when the Guru tells them, they counter with, “I thought it was not like this. I read that book which said something different. That Guru said differently. But, they are referring to what you are saying differently there. The scriptures are saying something else. And in common usage it is referred to differently too. But, what you are saying is different from all the above. So, what should I follow? So, should I just follow whatever I learned before, Swamy?” So, why bother even asking for more knowledge in the first place?
A lot of people come with half-baked knowledge and ask for more knowledge, feeling like they have learned a lot already. Some of these people say, “This Swamy has come to our house, that Swamy has come to our house, you also come”. So, either you are implying, “All these Swamys have come before, so you are not a big deal, you come too” or you are implying, “My place has been certified as a good place due to visits by all these Swamys so you should come too”. I do not understand what you really mean.
Some people praise one Guru in front of another. That is not necessary. That is completely unnecessary. Will they be quiet if you praise one product while talking of another? If you praise river Cauvery while bathing in river Krishna, will river Krishna be quiet? Of course, it will let you bathe, no problem, but how can you keep talking about each one in the presence of the other, constantly comparing?
When one prostrates to the Guru with the desire to gain knowledge, he should completely forget the knowledge he gained thus far. The real Guru will ask that the disciple completely forget everything he learned so far. Only then will the Guru bestow him with real knowledge. If the Guru does not do this, the disciple will counter everything the Guru is saying, every step of the way saying, “It’s not like that, it’s not like this” as if the Guru himself is teaching the Guru. How will the disciple ever gain knowledge? He will not. That is why, here, they are saying that the disciple desirous of gaining knowledge should first surrender to the Guru. They must surrender completely to the Guru right there. Guru is the source for any worship, for any teaching, for any Dharma. Only with the grace of the Sadguru will it be possible to remove ignorance. Remember this very well. Ignorance will not be wiped away on its own. It may be removed with experience, but that will take a very, very long time. With Sadguru’s grace, the ignorance within us will be wiped away within a moment. That is why, to get rid of ignorance, Guru is the only witness. Guru is the only teacher, we should surrender to the Guru and pray to the Guru. The Guru alone can do this. Surrender to the Guru is the only way to do this.
In Sri Rama Gita, Lakshmana says to Lord Rama,
Aham prapannosmi padambhujam prabho
Padambhujam prabho - Lord, you are my only refuge. You are the only one that makes me happy. Please teach me to so my ignorance is removed. When Rama and Lakshmana were walking in the forests during their exile, there were many discussions they had. Rama continued to teach Lakshma. We will discuss all this later.
Episode 218
When Arjuna stood in the battlefield and saw in front of him his relatives, fathers, grandfathers and Gurus, he was overcome with sorrow and dropped his bow (Arjuna’s bow is called Gandeeva), refusing to fight the battle. Everyone that has read the Bhagavad Gita knows this. Saying, “There are so many relatives, I cannot do this. I cannot fight them”, he threw away his weapons. He sacrificed them. Recognizing his own weakness, he sought refuge in Lord Krishna praying to him to teach him his duty. If Arjuna had not done this, we perhaps would not have had the expansive Bhagavad Gita and this great teaching today. Arjuna was wondering why this was happening to him. The one who pleaded with Krishna saying, “I want to fight, I want to fight, I need to earn my kingdom back, I need to punish the wicked, please help me”, who even left for the battlefield and got ready to fight, is now unwilling to fight when the battle is about to start. What has come over Arjuna now?
He threw away all his weapons, saying he did not want any weapons, that he could not fight the battle. He sought refuge in Lord Krishna and prayed to him to teach him his duty and said, “What are my weaknesses and faults? Why I am wavering? Please help me recognize my faults and teach me my duty”. What did Arjuna say? He said, “I am your disciple. Do not think of me as your relative now. Even though I am your relative, I am your disciple. Because, I am wallowing in ignorance, please grant me knowledge. I am running around in darkness, please shed some light. I am your disciple, O Lord, O Guru, O Sadguru. You are the Guru to all the worlds. You are the Jagadguru (Guru to the universe). I am immersed in sorrow and attachments. Please help me walk the right path. I am filled with sorrow because I have to kill so many people. I am filled with attachment. These are my relatives, my uncles, grandfathers. How can I kill them? He is my older brother, how can I kill him? He is my little brother. How can I kill him? I cannot do this. I cannot kill them. I am immersed in attachment. I am drowned in sorrow. Please help me walk the good path. Please teach me my duty”. Today the Bhagavad Gita is such an ideal for us. It is a wonderful scripture. It is a great teaching. Everybody born as a human being, every single person, in all countries across the world, should read the Bhagavad Gita, should study the Bhagavad Gita and should follow the Bhagavad Gita. This is a must. Unless this happens, our country will not prosper. When one does not follow the Bhagavad Gita, there will be no peace. People should follow Bhagavad Gita to the extent possible. The Lord taught it in a way that’s appropriate for every body, in every stage of life.
That is why Bhagavad Gita is a very sacred scripture for us. When Arjuna surrendered himself completely, Sri Krishna accepted the position of Guru and taught him. Until now, he acted only as a relative. Of course, all acts are carried out by the Lord himself. The one who acted as a relative, the one who acted as friend, the one who promised to support him in earning his kingdom back and doing him good is now the Sadguru who accepted the position of Guru to teach him his duty. Using Arjuna as the proxy, he taught this world the Gita.
To summarize various philosophies describing the Guru, it says,
Anapekshah Suchih Dakshah Karunamrita Sagaram
One who is proficient in the Vedas and all scriptures, one who is firmly established in the knowledge, one who views everyone as equal, one who has the ability to teach the disciple in a way that he understands, one who is compassionate towards the disciple and wants to uplift him, such a person is Guru.
Episode 219
Lord Krishna, acting as Guru to Arjuna was teaching him the Guru Principle. Summarizing the various philosophies describing the Guru, the Bhagavad Gita says,
Anapekshah Suchih Dakshah Karunamrita Sagaram
One who is proficient in the Vedas and all scriptures, one who is firmly established in the knowledge of Brahman, one who views everyone as equal, one who has the ability to teach the disciple in a way that he understands, one who is compassionate towards the disciple and wants to uplift him is Guru.
The Guru has an intense desire to bestow the disciple with real knowledge and make the disciple like him (Guru). It is only due to many births of intense devotion (on our part) that God, out of compassion, comes to us as a Guru and teaches us the the path to Self Realization. We should remember this very well. Who is Guru? Paramatman. For the Paramatman himself to come to us is possible only due to many births of worshipping God, of good behavior and noble character. It is not just someone that is coming in the guise of a Guru. God himself comes to us as Guru.
Scriptures declare that the Guru uplifts them from the ocean of samsara (worldly life).
The more humble the disciple is with the Guru, the more love the Guru has for the disciple. Humility is very important. We learned yesterday of people that say, “I learned half the knowledge, please give me the other half”. There are people who show off their scholarship to demonstrate what they learned. Sankara Bhagavadpada is teaching thus about how one should conduct oneself with a Guru:
Sushrushaya sada bhaktya, pranayomai rvinayoktibhih. Prasannam guru ma saadhyah,
prashthavyam jnayamatmanah
One should always serve the Guru with devotion, prostrate to the Guru and humbly speak to the Guru. One should humbly serve the Guru with devotion. One should prostrate to the Guru with devotion, and not just dive mechanically when you see the Guru, like you would dive into a swimming pool. In prostrating to the Guru, one should not think, “I might as well do a prostration. It is good exercise”. One must prostrate with devotion, in complete surrender, with the feeling, “You are the only one. You are everything. That’s it, do whatever you want”.
The disciple must serve the Guru with devotion, prostrate to the Guru and speak humbly to the Guru. The disciple must find an appropriate moment when the Guru is happy before he presents his question. The question should pertain to spiritual knowledge, not worldly desires. The disciple should then await the grace of the Guru. The disciple may use the opportunity for other questions, but should be careful. The disciple should prostrate to the Guru with pure devotion. In other words, he should completely let go of his pride, authority and ego. There is no room for any of these in the presence of a Guru. With great humility and obedience and finding an opportune and appropriate moment, the disciple should put forth his question with devotion. Whatever question is being asked, it should be asked at the appropriate time. Just because the Guru is visible, when he is getting into the car or when he is rushing to worship, you should not grab him like you would chase and grab a rabbit and pose questions then. You should always wait for the appropriate time.
Episode 220
When one does not realize the Guru Principle, the study of the several scriptures or the acquisition of several kinds of skills is futile. These will only throw you into illusion. So, how does the disciple need to be for the mind to be absorbed in the Guru Principle? Many people do not pay attention to the Guru Principle. There are a lot of people that say, “We are doing some service to the Guru. We are passing time. It is helping us earn some food and clothing. Our life is going on like this”.
Someone asks, “Are you living near the Guru?”. There are people that say , “Yes, we are. life is going on. It is not possible to not have some anxiety or another. Yet, we forget everything there and live somehow. It is hard to live outside these days. So, we just manage to live there, near our Guru”.
Is this why you live? Is this why you came to the Guru? We should experience real bliss with a Guru. We are near a Guru so we can gain knowledge of the Absolute. We are not there for food and clothing. Even though it might seem so externally (that we are living there for food and clothing), we should use every opportunity to gain knowledge. We should think about, recall and reflect on the knowledge acquired. So, what should the disciple do when he wants the Guru’s grace, when he wants the mind to be absorbed in the Guru Principle?
If the disciple says to the Guru, “I left everything behind and came to you”, is that humility? That is arrogance. One should have humility and devotion. Even if you have done a lot of service, you must continue to be humble. Some people have humility and devotion to the Guru on the day they enter the Ashram, but those qualities disappear after a few days. They feel, “Oh, this is all there is to it?” There starts their downfall. They will take birth as a demon in darkness.
You were pining to come to the Guru, to have darshan of the Guru, you were intensely yearning for the Guru’s grace, you had a lot of humility and devotion on the day you arrived. The humility and devotion you had at that moment is what you should continue to have till today, till the end, till you die. Only then will you understand the Guru Principle. After you come to the Guru, you should not say, “Oh, this is all there is to it.”
There is no end to this. Now, some people may attain liberation and go to Brahma. They may think, “Is this it? Why couldn’t there be something else?” What else? There will be Brahma’s head there, that’s all. If you go and sit on Brahma’s head, you will say, “Is this it?” How much do you need? Is that not what we were working for? For that bliss, for that knowledge? When we gain that peace, that itself is liberation. That is why one must have humility and devotion to the Guru. Only then will one realize the inner meaning of all that is learned, otherwise he will not. There is not one or two, but so many kinds of knowledge. When one does not get the inner meaning, that knowledge is like logs of wood on one’s head.
You are so educated. You earned so many degrees. Wow, you learned all Vedanta by heart. You even wrote all Vedanta. What is the use? They are like the logs of wood on one’s head. It is like the comfort and use one gets from keeping the logs of wood on one’s head all the time, while sitting, and while sleeping.
The great sage (Maharshi) Bharadwaja had a disciple named Gargi. Gargi was very intelligent. He was well educated. He would understand and remember anything he heard just once. But, he had a strange habit since childhood. He would engage in debates with other people and would be satisfied only when the other person conceded defeat. He had to hear the other person say, “I don’t know”. A lot of people have this urge. They keep putting a barrage of questions. The other person keeps answering. At some point, the person answering will say, “I don’t know”. That’s it, the one putting the questions is so happy because he knows the answer.
Let’s learn the story of Gargi ahead.
Episode 221
The great sage Bharadwaja had a disciple named Gargi. Gargi was very intelligent. He was well educated. He would grasp anything he heard just once. But, he had a strange habit since childhood. He would engage in debates with other people and would be satisfied only when the other person conceded defeat. There are many people like that. If they find someone sitting quietly, they will go sit next to that person. Slowly they will start,
“What is your name? What town do you come from?”
When the person tells them where he is from, they will say,
“Oh, that town! My grandparents live there”.
In reality, they don’t have any grandparents that live there
The person says, “Oh okay”
“Where do you work?”
That person will answer.
“Oh, it’s getting late. What is the time?”
That person gives the time.
“Oh, you must be getting late?”
The other person hesitates and says, “It’s okay”.
“What is your subject?”
The person responds.
One by one they ask questions and pull the other person into it. The number of questions these people ask will not even be asked in job interviews. That is it, they will continue to ask questions and argue relentlessly. Until the person concedes defeat, they will not be satisfied. There are a lot of people like this. They continue to talk non-stop and ask questions until the person finally says, “I don’t know”. Then, they are satisfied, “See. I know. You don’t know”. They are never satisfied otherwise.
So, Gargi would unnecessarily get into arguments with others for this. Maharishi Bharadwaja chided him during many instances. Still, there was no change in Gargi. The Guru said, “Don’t do this, it is not good. It is not good to keep asking questions so that you can finally hear them say that they don’t know the answer. Why do you have so much ego?”. But, Gargi did not stop.
Even some students engaged in worldly/material education believe they know more than the others. Feeling that they are ahead of other students, they tease and torment the other students. Some students do actually learn more than others. They gain proficiency in a particular subject. Agreed. But, their pride continues to be with them, “I am better than the other students studying along with me”. They always feel like they alone are proficient in the subject. Believing that they are ahead of everybody else, they give their fellow students a hard time.
Knowledge is as expansive as the ocean. It is very deep. All knowledge can be summarized in one sentence. It can also be gathered into one big scripture. Yet, we can never reach the bottom of it. We sometimes summarize the Ramayana into one line. Bhagavatam can also be condensed into one line. Mahabharata also can be condensed into one line. We can summarize into a small line. We can describe them in just 4 lines too. The entire history of India can be described in 4 lines. Similarly, it can also be described in a big scripture. Bhagavatam is so vast. Mahabharata is very vast. The history of India is very vast. We can talk about them endlessly everyday. Yet, we will not reach the bottom of it.
The Guru alone knows what should be taught, to whom it should be taught, when it should be taught, what the benefit of that teaching is and how the disciples’ shortcomings should be fixed. A lot of teachers just say, “Okay, I am finishing the syllabus”. The teachers these days do not have the habit of testing the students to make sure that every student has understood the lessons taught.
That is why, the Guru’s greatness is being described here.
Episode 222
We were talking about the Guru and the knowledge he imparts. The Guru alone knows what should be taught, to whom it should be taught, when it should be taught, what the benefit of that teaching is and how the disciples’ shortcomings should be fixed. Even though sage Bharadawaja told him many times, Gargi did not let go of his pride of knowledge. Gargi did not heed the Guru’s advice. In any case, Gargi completed his education in a few years. Eventually, the time leave the Gurukul (Guru’s school of spirituality, often residential in nature) had arrived. Bharadwaja bidding his disciple farewell specially advised him, “Look, do not insult anyone”.
Speaking of not insulting anyone, even though we may not intend to hurt the other person, we may behave recklessly. By the time Gargi completed his education and returned, poverty and misery had taken over his house. There was not even food to eat in the house. In order to earn some money, he set out for the court of King Janaka. The king was a scholar, very knowledgeable and had no enemies. We can talk endlessly about the virtues of Janaka. We will talk another time about the king’s nature and his knowledge.
Here, Gargi’s parents were happy that their son was going to earn some money. Gargi went to Upamanyu’s ashram enroute. Upamanyu, who was very happy to see Gargi, honored him since he(Gargi) was a disciple of sage Bharadwaja. Accompanied by his disciples, he joined Gargi to go see the king.
The king joyously worshipped and honored his guests. In those days, visiting scholars were always worshipped and honored. After completing the honors, the king humbly asked them the reason for their visit. Gargi said to the king, “Your majesty, I learned that you honor a lot of people. But, it would be better if you find out their scholarship before you honor them. I want to have a debate with you”. He came to the court of the king with a desire. He did not even have anything to eat, so he came to take anything the king may give him to get rid of his poverty. The king was a very respectful man. He had welcomed them humbly and asked them what they wanted. Instead of responding to that, Gargi said, “Before you help people, first find out about them”. Should hungry, impoverished people talk like this? “Please know who you are giving food to. Be careful. You should not feed everyone”. If someone says that, he will be the first one that’s denied food. Was that the appropriate thing to say at that time? When the king was honoring him, instead of happily blessing the king, he asked to have a debate with the king.
Witnessing Gargi’s pride, Upamanyu was surprised. He felt bad thinking, “I didn’t know he had so much pride. I may have made a mistake in coming here with him”. Though Upamanyu was young, he was very experienced and peaceful by nature. He had great devotion towards his Guru and was always desirous of singing glories of his Guru and spreading the Guru’s fame. Upamanyu was surprised thinking about the pride in Gargi’s words. Let’s see what happens next.
Episode 223
So far we discussed that Upamanyu, accompanied by his disciples, joined Gargi to go see the king. Gargi, who was impoverished, was going to king Janaka to get some help from him. The king joyously worshiped and honored his guests. When the king humbly asked them the reason for their visit, they are supposed to tell the king what their desire was. Instead, we discussed that Gargi said, “Your majesty, I learned that you honor a lot of people. But, it would be even better if you find out their scholarship before you honor them. I want to have a debate with you”.
Upamanyu was surprised at Gargi’s pride. But the king calmly said, “You must be tired from traveling today. So, let’s talk tomorrow”. This was the appropriate and respectful thing to say. He did not get into a debate right away. This was the first blow to Gargi’s ego. When the king calmly deferred the debate to the next day, Gargi already felt the pinch. He was very ready and eager to have a debate at any cost, but when the moment the king deferred the debate to the next day, he felt a blow to his ego.
The next day, there was a very detailed discussion on the scriptures. The king’s scholarship was well known to everyone. He was not an ordinary king. He was a great scholar. Everybody knew that. Gargi who had knowledge of what he was taught, but never gained knowledge based on experience argued until he lost. Until he lost, his ego did not subside. He assumed he was the only one that was highly educated. Second, he had the desire to defeat everyone. He asked King Janaka to forgive him, “I made a mistake, I had a lot of ego”. He realized his mistake and humbly prayed to the king for forgiveness. It was then he realized the essence of all his education. Until then, he knew everything he learned, but he did not know the essence of his education. He had so much education, but did not have the essence of that knowledge he acquired. What is the use?
That is why, one must realize that education coupled with ego will not grant knowledge. Those with ego will not be able to acquire real knowledge. In other words, without understanding of the Guru Principle - which is the essence of all knowledge - any amount of prayer, chanting, penance, worship, rituals is futile. The Guru Principle is the most important of all knowledge. There is no use if one does not understand the Guru Principle even if he is a great devotee or is very knowledgeable. For self realization, one has to seek refuge in the Guru. Without the Guru’s help, no one can gain self-realization. Lord Panduranga (Lord Vishnu) himself revealed this to his beloved devotee Namadev and enabled him to receive the Guru’s initiation.
Namadev was very knowledgeable. This is a good story, you must listen. Namadev was very knowledgeable. In his childhood, when he felled trees for wood, he wondered how the trees felt. Immediately, he struck his leg with the ax. He wanted to know the pain the trees were feeling when they were axed. Immediately he axed his leg. He was in great pain. He was a great soul who realized in his childhood itself, the Vedic saying, “Atmavat sarva bhootani”. We can never talk enough about Namadev’s devotion.
Episode 224
We discussed that we cannot praise Namadev’s devotion enough. He was such a great devotee that he used to forget himself while singing praises of Lord Panduranga (Lord Vishnu). Whenever he found a moment, in fact with every breath, he would sing the Lord’s name, “Ranga”, “Vithala”, “Vithala”, “Vithala”, “Vithala”, “Vithala”. Pleased with his devotion, Panduranga would himself sometimes talk to Namadev.
Once, Jnanadev organized a satsang. A lot of devotees assembled to sing the glories of the divine (for Divya Nama Sankeertana). Namadev also participated in it. After the Bhajans (singing of divine names) concluded, Jnanadev summoned Gora Kumbhar (potter-saint) and asked him to test the devotees present. Gora Kumbhar said, “Gurudeva, I am a potter, all of them here are great devotees. I do not have the capability to test them”. He said that he was just a potter and the people gathered there were eminent scholars and devotees. He said he was not qualified to test them. Jnanadev said, “Everyone’s body is like a ***. How do you test whether or not the pots are fully baked? Use the same method in testing them”.
Gora Kumbhar took a stick and gently struck each one’s head saying “this one’s good” or “this one’s not fully baked”. This was interesting. He came to Namadev and tested him as well. Namadev was sitting with everyone else in a row. When the stick was approaching Namadev, he was furious, “What is this? Why is he beating everyone like this? He is smacking some on the head, he is hitting some on the back and he is repeatedly beating some others. How dare he come here to beat me”. As soon as the stick struck Namadev, he was very angry. Suddenly, Kumbhar told the Guru, “This *** has not been fully baked, it needs to be baked some more”. Namadev felt even more humiliated. He, who was a great devotee, who would converse with Lord Vithala everyday, was already feeling insulted for having come here for satsang. Namadev used to sing glories of the Lord. He was also somewhat knowledgeable.
So, Namadev was already feeling like it was a mistake having gone there for the satsang and to partake in the meals. “What is this? He is having Kumbhar smack me on the head.” He felt greatly humiliated. Angrily, he addressed Jnanadev thus, “Jnanadeva, you and your disciples are causing great humiliation to us. This is intolerable. We cannot bear this. We do not want to eat here, you humiliated us, you are having Kumbhar beat us, this is not good”. Saying this, he walked away in a huff.
Due to the humiliation he experienced, he was upset. To get some peace of mind, he went home and sat down to pray to Panduranga. Panduranga appeared in front of him and enquired about the reason for Namadev’s sorrow, “Why are you unhappy? What happened to you?” Namadev described the humiliation meted out to him. Then Vithala said, “Namadeva, what Jnandev said is correct. You do not have a Guru. That is why you are feeling bad because you are unable to understand what happened. If you had a Guru, you would have understood the Guru Principle. Since you do not have a Guru, you are unable to understand what happened. That is why you are feeling bad”. When Namadev heard this, he said, “Lord! Compassionate One! You are full of compassion. Whenever I pray to you, you yourself talk to me, you sit with me for a meal. Why do I need another Guru?”.
Let us see what happens next.
Episode 225
Because Namadev’s mind was in turmoil due to the humiliation he experienced, he went home and sat down to pray to Panduranga to get some peace of mind. Panduranga appeared in front of him and enquired about the reason for Namadev’s sorrow. Namadev said, “I have been greatly insulted. Out of reverence for the elderly Jnanadev, I went there for a meal. When I went there, Jnanadev and Kumbhar were doing a little charade with Kumbhar striking everyone with a stick, saying, “This is baked”, “This is not baked”. They smacked me a lot, even before the meals. Moreover, they said that I was not baked. You appear in front of me everyday, no one else gets this. No one else gets to talk to you, but I do. No one else gets to touch you, but you sit with me for meals. How can there be a greater devotee than me in this world? How can he say that this *** is not fully baked? How can he even compare this body with a ***? I cannot bear this insult”.
Lord Vithala said, “Namadeva, what Jnanadev said is true. You do not have a Guru. That is why you are feeling bad, because you are unable to understand what actually happened”. When Namadev heard that, we discussed that, he said, “O compassionate Lord, you are my God, I talk to you, I see you, I have meals with you. Who is a greater devotee than me? Why do I need another Guru?” Then, the Lord said, “Namadeva, your devotion is very great. Owing to your devotion, I appear in front of you every time you pray. True. I sit with you for a meal. I talk to you. I touch you. Why? There has been devotion ingrained in you for a long time. That is the good fortune you earned. That is what is drawing me to you. But you are unable to understand the Principle of Truth. You have God, but you do not have a Guru. Owing to the merit you earned previously, I came to you. That is good. You know that getting close to me is very difficult. But, you have to eventually acquire self-realization. To attain self realization, you need a Guru. It is only when you attain self-realization that I can always be with you. But, now, once your merit diminishes, I will have to leave. I cannot come back for sometime. Then, you will even curse me, “Why are you not coming when I am so devoted to you? ” Your quota would have been spent. Your good fortune would have been exhausted. There would be nothing left. It is that good fortune that got me close to you in the first place. From the moment I came to you, you should intensify your spiritual practice. Only then can I be with you forever. What you have now is good fortune you earned a long time ago. I am appearing to everyday due to this merit. But, in this birth, you are not even thinking about Guru and about knowledge. That is why, you must receive initiation from a Guru to attain self-realization. To give you this message, I caused that incident to happen. Who do you think Jnanadev is? I caused that incident to happen.
Namadev prostrated to the Lord, sought permission from him, sought refuge with the Sadguru and attained liberation as a realized soul. Did you see? Even though God himself was appearing before him, even though the Lord was always with the him, there cannot be liberation without Guru. All else is transient. That is why, they are telling us about the great importance of a Guru through this story of Namadev and Jnanadev. We have discussed the story of Prahalada, the most important among devotees of Vishnu in Datta Darshanam several times. Prahalada sought refuge in Lord Datta and attained self-realization. That is why, one must always seek refuge with a Sadguru to attain the knowledge that will lead to self-realization.
Episode 226
Those who completely surrender their mind to the Guru will definitely attain liberation. We discussed the interesting way this happened in the story of Namadev. In the story of Namadev, there was devotion, but there was no devotion towards Sadguru. He had not even accepted anyone as Sadguru. Some people argue about why they need a Sadguru when they are already directly conversing with God. Some others even argue about why need a Sadguru when they have already mastered so much knowledge. There are people who say, “What does a Sadguru do? He gives two mantras. I already learned those two mantras”. “What else can Sadguru do? Can he teach me some other skill or knowledge? No, he will not even do that”. That is why those who felt they already had God were told by God that unless there was a Guru, there was no liberation.
That is why, one must offer their ego. That is what is surrender of the self. So, surrendering the self means surrendering one’s ego completely to the Guru. That is the kind of surrender true seekers of knowledge should make. What is self-surrender? Surrendering the self is not just giving up wealth. A lot of people say, “I have surrendered myself, I have surrendered everything”. Giving up wealth, giving up the house, the husband leaving the wife and the wife leaving the husband, leaving the kids, offering all the money in the donation box, is this surrender of the self? These are just what are physically visible. The inside is piled up with ego. Ignorance has taken root. Some kind of madness has piled up. Eccentricity has piled up. There is some madness in these people. All these should be given up. Lot of people sit in the presence of the Guru as if they are meditating. The Guru does not even talk. The fickleness and pride in mind, intellect, thoughts and ego should be surrendered. It is not just the physical surrender. It is not just offering two lakh rupees (10 lakhs = 1 million) or paying three lakh rupees or offering a house. One must let go of the ego. That means, it is not enough to just surrender yourself physically. It is not enough to think, “I did it. I even surrendered myself physically”. The ego inside you should also be surrendered. In other words, the external bad characteristics visible to the eye as well as the internal bad characteristics should be completely sacrificed to the Guru.
When people say they have given up everything, they are usually talking about giving up what is physically visible - wealth, land, children - all these are visible to the eye. What are the things not visible to the eye? Ego, ignorance ingrained in the intellect, I mentioned earlier - madness and eccentricity, even those should be given up. These must be completely sacrificed to the Guru. It is said that such people gain knowledge of the self easily. The Guru is saying, “They will gain knowledge of the self easily”. Our past karma holds on to us tightly. If that karma is extricated from the roots, knowledge is acquired. That is liberation.
In his youth, King Janaka once organized a conference of scholars. He questioned, “What is the way to attain liberation quickly?” At the outset of the discussion, King Janaka said, “Help me get knowledge within a second. If I were to place one foot in the horse stirrup, I want to get knowledge before I place the other foot in the stirrup”. He challenged the scholars. People normally mount a horse with the help of stirrups. “Once I place my left foot in the stirrup, before I take my right leg over the horse and place it in the stirrup, I want knowledge. Tell me if there is knowledge I can gain like that. If not, I will imprison all of you”. What a situation this is? If he cannot gain knowledge, what use is it to imprison those that are there? It’s his ego from being the king.
The scholars agreed. Each one exceeded the other, debating in great detail. Still the debate was inconclusive. Even after strong arguments and debates, the matter was inconclusive. There did not seem to be a way to gain knowledge within a second as per the king’s desire. Knowledge needed to be gained in one second. We discussed earlier - knowledge was to be gained between the time the first leg was placed in the stirrup and the time the second leg was placed in the stirrup. The king was young, so he threatened to imprison everyone. Let’s see what happens next.
Episode 227
We discussed that when King Janaka was in his youth, he once organized a conference of scholars. He asked them for a way to gain liberation quickly. We discussed that at the outset of the discussion, King Janaka said, “Help me get knowledge within a second. If I were to place one foot in the horse stirrup, I want to get knowledge before I place the other foot in the stirrup. Otherwise, I will imprison all of you”. The scholars agreed. Each one exceeded the other, debating in great detail. Still the matter was inconclusive. Finally King Janaka was frustrated and as declared earlier, put all the scholars in prison. He thought, “The matter is inconclusive. There are so many scholars here. Even though there are so many scholars here, nobody could give me the answer” and put everyone in prison. That was all was capable of.
At that time, Ashtavakra came to that conference. All those present were already imprisoned. A great sage had arrived. King Janaka who knew of the greatness of the sage got a little cautious. He knew that Ashtavakra was a very great soul and was highly knowledgeable. He prayed to Ashtavakra too, to grant him liberation within a second. Let’s see if Ashtavakra also has to go to prison.
Ashtavakra said, “Can the Vedas ever be untrue? I will definitely do as you requested. Vedas themselves have said that knowledge can be attained within a second. Can that be untrue? The Vedas can never be wrong. Therefore, I will try. I will do as you desire. But, you have to follow what I say. Whatever the Guru says must be followed. Only if you follow what the Guru says will it be possible”. King Janaka agreed to this because he wanted the knowledge. He was curious to see how Ashtavakra, whose body was deformed, could give knowledge in one second.
Ashtavakra said, “With the sun and moon as witness, you must accept me as your Guru. Before I teach you, you must accept me as your Guru”. The king agreed to this as well. He promised to do as told. Then, Ashtavakra was the Guru and Janaka was the disciple. The Guru said, “You must offer to me your position and all your wealth”. This is the Guru’s command. “You must give me your position as well. Get down. You are sitting up on the throne. Get down”. Janaka followed the Guru’s instructions; he did not even know what was going on in his own head at that moment. Then the Guru said, “Bring a horse, we will go out. You asked me if it was possible to get knowledge from the time one leg goes on the horse’s stirrup till the time the other leg goes on the other stirrup. Here, I will do it because you took me as your Guru. You gave me your position, your attachments, all your wealth and luxuries. With the sun and moon as witness, you accepted me as your Guru. That is why, I will do it right here and now”. Then, he said, “I want to enable you to get knowledge within a second because you asked for it. Bring a horse, we will go out”
Ashtavakra then said, “Once you place your foot in the left stirrup, do not move until I ask you to. King Janaka agreed and stayed still. King Janaka too was quite stubborn because he wanted to find out what this kind of knowledge was. Ashtavakra happily sat back and started eating a fruit. He was testing Janaka’s feelings. Some people who saw Janaka in this state felt bad for him. Some others felt that this was a fitting lesson to the king who punished the scholars. Ashtavakra just had the king freeze like a statue. The king held the horse reins, placed one leg in the stirrup, pulled the other leg up, when he was ordered to stay still. It was like kids playing “stop” (all the kids freeze in their respective positions when someone shouts “stop”). That’s how King Janaka stood still when Ashtavakra asked him to. Let’s see what happens to this “stop”.
Episode 228
We were discussing the story of Ashtavakra. We discussed that Ashtavakra became Janaka’s Guru. Upon Ashtavakra’s command, Janaka offered him all his power, wealth and luxuries. Then, he asked Janaka to bring a horse saying that he would give him knowledge within a moment. Janaka brought the horse. Janaka raised the left leg and placed the foot in the stirrup. We discussed that before he placed his other foot in the stirrup, Ashtavakra said, “Stop”. It’s like kids playing “Statue” (a game where kids freeze in place when one of the kids says “statue”). He still had one leg midway to the other stirrup. Everybody was witnessing what was going on. Some thought, “This Guru did a good thing. The king put so many scholars in prison. Because he gave those scholars grief, this is a fitting lesson for the king”. But, out of fear for the sage, nobody said anything. They did not know what Ashtavakra would say next, what he would do next. His penance and meditation was so great. Whatever he says would come true. So everybody was very careful.
In this state, Ashtavakra was Guru. King Janaka had become an ordinary man because he did not have a kingdom anymore. He gave away his power over the kingdom and all his wealth and luxuries. Therefore, Janaka was there like an ordinary man. Saying, “Janaka, surrender all your inner feelings to me” Ashtavakra asked him to sit on the horse and said, “Let’s go to the royal court”. He had asked Janaka to surrender all his inner feelings and emotions. Janaka did as instructed. Once they reached, he said, “Prepare a seat for me”. He sat on the seat prepared for him and said, “I am hungry. Take his bowl, beg for food saying “Amma” (Amma = mother. In other words, beg humbly) and bring it to me”. What a test this is? See the travails the great emperor was going through for knowledge. He was now in the clutches of Ashtavakra. The other scholars trying to demonstrate their scholarship, were in prison because they could not satisfy Janaka’s desire. They were experiencing great grief in prison. Ashtavakra did not get caught like the other scholars. His body had many deformities. We discussed his story in the past. Now, Janaka was in his clutches. He was going through a lot of trouble and inconvenience.
Promising knowledge, he had him sit on a horse and came to the royal court with the horse, sat down and said he was hungry. There was nothing there that Janaka could offer because he had already surrendered everything. Janaka could not even touch water there. Therefore, Ashtavakra took a bowl and gave it to him. Beg for food saying, “Amma”. When Janaka took the bowl and set out as ordered by the Guru, the courtiers felt bad for the king, “What difficulty has come upon the King. Why does the King have the bad fortune of begging? That bowl is just a coconut shell. Now, he has to bring food in that shell. What is this?”
In the meanwhile, the Guru called Janaka back and asked, “Did you get self-realization? Did you understand my actions?” He did not teach anything. But, he asked if Janaka attained self-realization. “Are you able to understand the meaning behind my actions?” Janaka said, “Lord, I have attained self-realization. I have no enemies now. I have no worries anymore. Whether I get food to eat or not, I am not worried”. Did you see? Now, he has no relatives, no wealth, he had given away everything. He had also surrendered all his inner feelings.
Episode 229
We discussed that Janaka was about to set out with an empty bowl to beg for food as instructed by the Guru. The Guru Ashtavakra who was seated on the emperor’s throne called him back and said, “You do not need to go, come back”. When Janaka came back, he asked, “Did you attain self-realization? Did you understand my actions? Did you get self-realization at least now? Did you understand the inner meaning of my actions?”. Janaka said, “Swamy, I attained self-realization. I feel so because I have no enemies. I am not a king anymore. That is why, I have no enemies. I have no fear of any kind. I am not afraid of someone trying to kill me. I have no worry of any kind. I am not concerned about whether I will receive alms or not. Even though I am going out begging, it makes no difference to me whether I receive alms or not”. Then the sage said, “You have found what you wanted. Now, I am returning your kingdom to you. Rule over it happily”. He further blessed Janaka saying, “You received whatever you wanted. You said you had no enemies. Reason? Your ego was gone. You said there was no one to cry for you. That is because you surrendered everything. You had nothing left. I did all this so you can get that feeling. I am giving you back the kingdom. Rule over it righteously”. The sage then left.
This is what a Guru’s test is like. In a different narrative, they have a slight variation of the story too.
Here, the scholars tried unsuccessfully to teach Janaka wisdom through debating. Ashtavakra was a great Yogi. Because he was such a great soul, he was able to teach Janaka practically and bless him with divine knowledge. He did not just come and give sermons. He showed it practically through actions.
Only if one serves the Guru with body, mind and senses, with purity in thought word and deed (trikarana shuddhi = purity in thought, word and deed), getting rid of ego and in complete self-surrender, will he attain self realization with the Guru’s grace. This story clearly demonstrates that one cannot gain self realization only through study of scriptures and debates. By debating over and over and over and over, by arguing about what is greater, one can show his scholarship, but there’s no use. Instead, Ashtavakra used practical application to impart wisdom.
Next, when the Guru gives anything, it should be received with devotion. Getting Prasadam (anything given to us by the Guru is automatically sanctified and sacred and is considered Prasadam) from the Guru is good fortune. The 98th sloka in the Guru Gita says this. Shall we listen.
Sloka:
Upabhunjita no vastu guroh kincidapi swayam |
Dattam grahyam prasadeti prayohyetanna labhyate ||
Whenever the Guru blesses us with something, we should receive it with devotion. Getting Guru’s Prasadam is a good fortune. A lot of people go to Gurus and cry over their problems. The Guru listens to everything they have to say and gives them a flower or fruit or vermilion as Prasadam. But, they are not satisfied, “What is this? After I talked about so many problems, all I am getting is a Raksha (sacred thread that’s tied around the wrist), is that all?” I don’t know, maybe they need something large and voluminous like a pumpkin. Or, maybe I should bring a car and put the blessing in the car. They think blessings are as big as buffaloes. They think blessings have to be big and blunt. It is enough for the Guru to merely think about their problems. A lot of people are not satisfied because they don’t know the significance of the Prasadam given to them. They will not understand the significance that even a blade of grass will carry when given by the Guru, they will just put that blade of grass on a shelf. If they are given some vermilion, they put that away on the window sill. The ants on the window sill attain liberation. Even when given sugar crystals, they will not put them in their mouth.
Episode 230
We were talking about the 98th sloka in Guru Gita.
Sloka:
Upabhunjita no vastu guroh kincidapi swayam |
Dattam grahyam prasadeti prayohyetanna labhyate ||
With a desire to get rid of their problems, a lot of people go to Gurus and cry over their problems. The Guru listens to everything they have to say and gives them a flower or fruit or vermilion as Prasadam (anything given to us by the Guru is automatically sanctified and sacred and is considered Prasadam) . But, they are not satisfied. They do not know the greatness of the Prasadam. Carelessly, they put it away some place and forget about it. Sometimes, they even give it away to others. They lose the Prasadam. They do not understand, talk about or share the glories of such Prasadam. And as noted, they sometimes give away the Prasadam to someone else. After some time, they again come after the Guru crying that their difficulties did not get resolved. That is wrong. Prasadam from God or Guru should be handled with care. One should be very careful about it. Very careful. Indra’s story demonstrates the significance of the Guru’s Prasadam.
Once upon time, Devendra intoxicated with his victories was filled with arrogance that there was no one as great as him. While thus arrogant, one day, he drank nectar and was sporting with the celestial maidens. At that time, sage Durvasa was on his way from Vaikuntha to Kailasa. Indra saw him, gathered his presence of mind and prostrated to the sage. He honored Durvasa and his entourage appropriately. Pleased with this, Durvasa gave Indra the garland of Night-Flowering Jasmine flowers that Lord Vishnu had given him. It was very sacred Prasadam given by Lord Vishnu himself, but since Indra was his disciple, he gave it to him. That garland was Lord Vishnu’s Prasadam. It had the power to get rid of old age, diseases and death. It even could grant liberation. Indra who was engulfed by the pride of his power placed the garland on his elephant’s head. It would have been good if he at least placed the garland on his own head, instead he took the garland and placed it on the elephant’s head. Indra was already seated on the elephant that was moving. Immediately, the elephant left Indra and ran into the forests. As it ran, the garland of Night-Flowering Jasmine flowers fell under its feet and got crushed. The garland that was on the elephant’s head fell down and got crushed under the elephant’s feet.
With Lord Sri Hari’s Prasadam crushed to the ground, Durvasa was enraged. “Aye Indra, this was the garland that Lord Vishnu blessed and gave me. It is an offering of the Gods to Lord Vishnu. Whether it is a fruit or a leaf or a spoonful of sanctified water, it must be accepted with devotion. Instead, if one rejects or discards the Prasadam, he incurs the sin of killing a Brahmin. Any Prasadam given by the Guru should be carefully protected. We should save it in a safe place with devotion. It should not be given to others. A lot of devotees place anything given by the Guru - whether it is Prasadam or a Raksha (sacred thread that’s tied around the wrist) or Vibhuti (sacred ash) or vermilion - in a little container in their shrine. They occasionally take pleasure in looking at it. They even use it as needed when they are in danger. But, what did you do instead with the Prasadam given by the Guru? You discarded it. That is why you will incur the sin of slaying a Brahmin. One who incurs this sin will lose everything he has”. The sage cursed Indra saying, “Because you insulted the purity of Lord Vishnu, you will lose your kingdom” and walked away immediately.
At the same moment, Swarga Lakshmi (Goddess of Heaven) left heaven and merged into Maha Lakshmi (consort of Lord Vishnu) in Vaikuntha. Demons conquered Indra’s kingdom. Indra, devoid of his kingdom was full of misery and helplessness. With great grief, he approached the Bruhaspati, the Guru to the Gods.
Episode 231
We discussed that because Indra insulted the Vishnu Prasadam that sage Durvasa gave him, the sage cursed him, “Since you insulted the purity of Lord Vishnu, you will lose your kingdom” and walked away immediately. At the same moment, Swarga Lakshmi (Goddess of Heaven) left heaven and merged into Maha Lakshmi (consort of Lord Vishnu) in Vaikuntha. Demons conquered Indra’s kingdom. Indra, devoid of his kingdom was full of misery and helplessness. With great grief, he approached Bruhaspati, the Guru to the Gods.
In every instance of life, it is inevitable that we seek refuge with a Guru - whether it is Guru who enables us for a certain occupation or Guru who gives knowledge or Guru who initiates us into a mantra, or Guru who grants liberation.
Indra pleaded with his Guru saying, “Sage Durvasa told me that it was Prasadam from Lord Vishnu. The Prasadam was full of purity. I did not heed what he said and placed the Prasadam on the elephant’s head. The elephant ran into the forests and in the process crushed the garland under its feet. This is my mistake. That is why Durvasa got angry with me and cursed that I would lose my kingdom since I insulted the Prasadam of the Lord that he gave me. He cursed that I be left with nothing. O Lord Guru, please protect me. I am seeking refuge in you. Please liberate me from this curse”.
The Guru consoled Indra saying, “Do not grieve. It is inevitable that everyone experience the results of his karma, whether good or bad. If one incurs good karma, he will experience good results. Because you performed bad karma here, you cannot escape the consequences. Karma is the cause of everything. Even karma from millions of births continues to follow the beings. Good karma will pave the way for blessings of Maha Lakshmi while bad karma will be the cause for misery. In grave danger, the name of Lord Narayana is the only way out. Hence, meditate on Lord Narayana. Only Lord Narayana has the authority to relieve us of the karma if we realize our mistake and are repentant about any karma we do, any bad deed we do. Therefore, chant Narayana mantra.
Subsequently, Brahma, Bruhaspati, Devendra and all other Gods went to Vaikuntha together and sang glories of Maha Vishnu. That is why, we often see “Indra Stuti” (praise sung by Indra) as part of the glories of Maha Vishnu (Narayana Stuti) in the scriptures. Everybody went to Vaikuntha along with their Guru and pleaded with the Lord. The Lord blessed Indra and the other Gods with a great message on Dharma. He asked them to join forces with the demons and churn the ocean of milk”. That is his karma. There is no escape from it.
The Gods were immersed in preparations for the task. Did you see? He told them to join forces with the demons and carry out a certain task. Jaya Guru Datta. Let us see what happens next.
Episode 232
Indra’s Guru is saying, “In grave danger, the name of Lord Narayana is the only way out. Hence, meditate on Lord Narayana. Go and meditate on Lord Narayana. There is no other way". We discussed that Brahma, Bruhaspati, Devendra and all other Gods went to Vaikuntha together and sang glories of Maha Vishnu. The Lord blessed Indra and the other Gods with a great message on Dharma. He said, “Join forces with the demons and churn the ocean of milk. Churning the ocean of milk would provide you with nectar. If you consume that nectar, the demons cannot do anything to you. But, you have to join them in preparing to churn the ocean”.
The Gods then immersed themselves in preparations for the task. On the other hand, Sri Hari asked Lakshmi Devi to take birth with his aspect in the ocean of milk. The gods and demons churned the ocean. Goddess Maha Lakshmi rose from the ocean of milk as Goddess Shashwata Lakshmi (Shashwata = eternal). Sri Swamiji has wonderfully described the episode of churning the ocean of milk as part of Bhagavatam discourses. You all heard it. You may hear it again and again in the future. It’s a supremely wonderful episode. The Supreme Lord Vishnu underwent so many difficulties for the sake of his devotees. Here, Goddess Maha Lakshmi rose from the ocean of milk as Goddess Shashwata Lakshmi and again wed Sri Hari. She bestowed the gods with their kingdom and prosperity. That is why, the Prasadam received from a Guru or from God should be handled very carefully. Even a blade of grass given as Prasadam should be handled with great care. You must not be careless or negligent. You must not say, “This is all I get?” You must not think, “I have been working so hard since morning. He just threw a Raksha for my face”. That Raksha itself is meant to protect you. It is meant to protect your being. It gives you prosperity. It bestows knowledge. It bestows the Guru’s grace on you. Because, even just getting the Guru’s Prasadam is very difficult. When we do receive such Prasadam, if we receive with great devotion and dedication, all our difficulties will be removed.
What do we understand from this story? Indra had a big ego. He was the king of the Gods. Besides Indra was once blessed with immortality. That’s a big story. Such an Indra had to go through so much hardship because he insulted the Prasadam given by the Guru. Finally, even Maha Vishnu himself had to undergo hardships for the sake of his devotees. Did you see, we learn from this story that one who places complete faith in the Guru and follows the Guru’s instructions will be blessed with knowledge. Now, let’s move ahead.
King Kusika. Sometimes devotees feel like they are rendering great service to the Guru. “I sacrificed so much to come to the Guru. I left everything behind to come here. I used to draw a salary of Rs. 70,000. I left that behind to come here. Even now, if I go out to earn, I will draw good money”. There are many people in the world that talk like this. It is a big mistake to talk like this. You can earn that salary of Rs. 70,000, but you cannot easily get the opportunity to serve the Guru. You should think that service to the Guru is superior. You should not keep talking about your own greatness. Only the Guru should say good things about you. That is such a great blessing. The Guru says good things about us only out of love for us. Because he cannot give love any other way, he gives it in this way. “He sacrificed so much to come here”. There is nothing wrong in it. You get overjoyed, believe it to be true and start getting careless. That is a big mistake. It’s a mistake to think that you are rendering great service.
Episode 233
We discussed that some devotees feel they are rendering great service to the Guru. But, that is a big mistake. Out of compassion for you, to uplift you, Guru blesses you with service. He has so much love for you. It is to uplift you that the Guru blesses you with opportunity to do service. You should consider this a great fortune and not assume you are doing some great deed. You should not think, “I left everything behind. I came here for Swamiji”. You came here for yourself. Why do you use Swamiji as an excuse? You can leave right now if you want to. You should not keep laying the excuse on someone else, more so on the Guru. You should not even say, “The Guru summoned me here”. You can say, “Out of compassion for me, the Lord has blessed me to come here and has given me the opportunity to serve. This is my great fortune, I am very lucky”, but you should never say or even think that you are rendering some great service. You should neither say this to others, nor should you let these thoughts in your mind.
If we observe the great service that King Kusika rendered to his Guru, we will understand what our mindset should be in service, how stable our mind should be. Did King Kusika render such great service? To test King Kusika’s devotion to Guru, sage Cyavana once came to his kingdom, “Let us see if he has such great devotion”. As soon as he saw the sage, the king went up to him, offered him water to wash his hands and feet, honored him and enquired about his well being. He humbly prayed to the sage, “Your arrival has sanctified my kingdom today. Great souls will not stir from their place without a purpose. It is our good fortune to have the opportunity to serve someone so spiritually accomplished as you. I am at your command. Please let me know how I can serve you”.
“King, your humility and manners are making me happy. I don’t need anything in particular. I came here to stay with you for a few days. It is enough if you and your wife serve me without any shortcomings”, said the sage. What a test! It is very rare for the Guru to say this. He came here to test the king. Will anyone normally say, “I will stay in your house. Both of you should serve me well. You should serve me together”? This is clearly a test by the Sadguru. The king agreed and arranged for quarters for the Guru with all facilities possible. He arranged for delicious food items for the Guru’s bhiksha (meals) and made him happy. After completing his meals, sage Cyavana told the king, “King, I am sleepy. Until I wake up, you and your wife should serve my feet. Until I wake up on my own, no one should disturb me or wake me up”
Let’s see what happens ahead.
Episode 234
We were talking about the Sadguru’s tests. We were discussing the story of King Kusika. Sage Cyavana, the Guru, was telling the king, “I want a special mansion. I want delicious food”. He further said, “I am going to sleep now. You and your wife should perform service to my feet till I wake up. You need to keep serving until I wake up on my own. You cannot wake me up”. He then went into yogic sleep. What a test this was! This was a big test.
“Keep performing service at my feet, you cannot move away while you are serving, nor can you wake me up. Until I wake up, you need to keep serving”. According to the Guru’s instructions, the royal couple exercised extreme alertness and with great stability of mind, foregoing food and sleep, kept performing service to Cyavana’s feet.
Twenty one days passed thus. That’s it. Neither did they stir from their positions, nor did the sage wake up from his sleep. If those without devotion to the Guru were serving, what would they do? Saying, “The Guru has passed away”, they would carry away the Guru. They would not wake him up, they would actually carry him away.
But, the couple had wonderful devotion to the Guru. According to the Guru’s command, they continued doing service to the Guru’s feet. Was it for a day or two? There are many people these days who will use the Guru’s feet for a soft pillow to sleep on, instead. There are many like that. They will find it very comfortable and relaxing. But here, twenty one days passed. We cannot serve for twenty one minutes. We fall asleep before the Guru does. He may get startled and probably wake us up. Twenty one days passed. On the 22nd day, Cyavana woke up slowly and began walking out of the mansion without even acknowledging their presence. What is this? Not only did he sleep for 21 days, with the couple sitting right there continuing to serve him, but when he woke up, he slowly got up and walked out right away without even greeting them. I don’t know if the Gurus are crazy. The royal couple followed him out. People from this day and age may have said, “Where are you going? Just stay here.”
The couple followed him out. Wherever the Guru went, they went too. This time, Cyavana using his power of illusion subjected them to fear and anxiety and went to sleep again. He got them both scared, filled their minds with illusion and slept right there, he did not need a home or a bed. The Kusika couple again began serving his feet as they did before. We can talk endlessly about the Kusika couple. Again, twenty one (21) days passed. May be he had a vow for 21 days. At the end of these 21 days - that’s a total of 42 days - Cyavana woke up and said, “King, I will go on the chariot to donate gold, diamonds, cows etc. to the poor and the needy. You two should pull the chariot in place of the horses”. What a crazy Guru, I don’t know. For 42 days, they gave up food and sleep, served the Sadguru’s feet and finally, after the Sadguru woke up, instead of having a shower and eating food, he says, “I need to sit in the chariot, you pull the chariot”. He did even want horses. Good. Let us see what happens.
Episode 235
We discussed that the Kusika couple again immersed themselves in performing service to the Guru’s feet. Twenty more days passed. Cyavana woke up from his sleep and said, “King, I will go on the chariot and give gold, diamonds, cows and other things to the poor and needy. You two should draw the chariot in place of horses”. Kusika positioned himself in front of the chariot, the queen positioned herself behind the chariot and they began pulling the chariot happily. As the royal couple thus pulled the chariot, Cyavana sat in the chariot with great authority and using a strong goad, prodded them to move faster. He was beating them like one would beat cows, oxen and horses saying, “Go faster”. On one hand, Cyavana was beating the royal couple and on the other, he was giving away all of the king’s wealth to the poor and needy he saw along the way. He exhausted all the king’s wealth. Moreover, he donated all the land the king had. While that may be, he was continuing to beat them prodding them to go faster.
When the chariot reached the outskirts of the town, Cyavana got off the chariot and looked at the royal couple once. There were not in the least discouraged. He looked at them once to see how they were. Were they annoyed? Were they sleepy? Were they complaining of hunger? Or were they sad internally on losing all their wealth? There was no sign of anger or annoyance on their faces. There was no sign of negativity in their inner feelings. He searched their inner feelings and their body language. Did they distort their face? Did they close their eyes and sigh? What is in their mind? Are they expressing anything outwardly? He found nothing.
Cyavana was overjoyed with their pure mind and attitude to service. That’s how much they served him. He gently massaged their bodies once with his hands. Immediately, all the injuries on their bodies disappeared. They had so many injuries. Cyavana sat in the chariot and beat them up a lot. They had even pulled the chariot. Their necks were badly bruised and injured. They were bleeding from the many injuries they had. He glanced at them compassionately, touched them and gently massaged them once with his hands.
Cyavana drew them close to him and said, “O King, I am very impressed with your unparalleled peaceful nature and restraint of sense organs. I am very happy. Ask for whatever you want. I yelled at you so much. I beat you and scolded you so much. You never even had the pride of being a king. You accepted everything with devotion. You accepted all the beating and scolding with devotion. I made you penniless. I deprived you of food. I made you powerless, yet you did not get annoyed. King, you have so much devotion to the Guru”. He went on to say, “Ask for whatever you want”. The royal couple told the sage in unison that they wished for nothing but service to the Guru. Cyavana was their Guru. They expressed their wish thus, “We don’t want anything. It is okay if we lose all the wealth. Any amount of pain the body is subject to is okay. Any amount of humiliation is okay. Because you are offering a boon, we only want the fortune of serving you”.
Cyavana was even more pleased with their dispassion. He said, “King, you will have a grandson called Viswamitra. He will become capable of not only uplifting your lineage, but also this world. He will become a Brahmarishi and will be the Guru to the Sri Ramachandra, incarnation of the Paramatman. Because of your name, he will also gain fame as Kausika”
Did you see what a great boon they got? This story clearly shows us how service should be done and what the fruits of service are when done with a pure and stable mind and without any desire for its outcome.
Episode 236
The Sadguru is compared to a mirror. Because, just as a mirror shows us our reflection, the Sadguru shows us our true nature. The mirror shows you what your face looks like, it does not show anything different. In case your face is distorted, that is what the mirror will show too. If you smash the mirror against the wall, “How dare you show my face distorted, what are you thinking?”, it’s of no use. An ordinary mirror is normally useful for us to see our reflection in, so we can decorate our form. The mirror called Sadguru helps to fix our nature and our behavior. When we look into a mirror, we only see our external form. That which shows us our inner nature is Sadguru.
While far away objects appear tiny in the mirror, the mirror called Sadguru very clearly shows us even unknown tendencies that have been coming to us from our previous births. When we look into a physical mirror, we see tiny reflections of objects that are far away. But, the mirror called Sadguru shows with great clarity, the tendencies accumulated birth over birth. It is only in the reflection that the object knows of itself. In some cases, if there is no reflection, the object even forgets its state. Let us discuss a small example to show how the Sadguru shows us our forgotten mental state.
A shepherd once found a little lion cub in a forest. The cub’s mother died as soon as it gave birth. The shepherd took pity on the cub, picked it up and brought it home along with his herd of sheep. The lion cub grew up little. The shepherd was taking the lion cub to the forests along with the sheep for grazing. While this went on, one day, a big lion attacked this herd of sheep for its food. As soon as the sheep saw the lion, they began running out of fear for their lives. The terrified lion cub, crying like a sheep, ran along with the sheep. The cub used to eat the same grass the sheep ate, it forgot all about meat and it forgot how to hunt. When the big lion saw this cub, it was very surprised. It wondered, “Is this a lamb or a cub? It may be a lion’s cub, it looks like a lion cub”. Immediately, the big lion gave up chasing the sheep, chased the lion cub instead and captured it. The big lion asked the cub, “You ran away in fear like a sheep, but you are a lion cub, aren’t you?” The cub, trembling in fear said, “No, I am a lamb”. “What, you are not a lion cub, you are a lamb? No, no. You are a lion. You shout like a lamb, you eat grass like the sheep, but you are a lion cub. You can roar like me”. Saying this, the big lion roared. But, the lion cub could not roar, it bleated like a sheep. Then, the big lion, after thinking about what it needed to do so the cub realizes it is a lion cub, took it to a lake. Thinking, “Even after telling it so many times, the cub insists it is a lamb. I will help the cub realize it’s actually a lion cub”, it took the cub to a lake. Let’s see what happens there.
Episode 237
We discussed yesterday that the lion cub could not roar, that it was growing up with the sheep, that it shouted like the sheep and ate grass like the sheep. The big lion wanted to somehow show the cub that it was actually a lion cub. It thought of an idea, made a good plan and took the cub to a lake. The big lion showed the cub its own reflection in the lake. The lion cub had never seen its reflection before. Why would it go see its reflection?
Then the cub understood, “I am a lion. Drinking sheep milk and eating grass like a sheep, I became like a sheep”. Immediately, it gained the characteristics of a lion. It’s fear disappeared. The reason for this transformation in the cub was the big lion showing the cub its own reflection and enabling it to know itself. Similarly, the Sadguru too acts as a mirror and brings transformation in his disciple with his power and shows him the karma accumulated over many births and bestows knowledge. He reveals to the disciple, “Your true nature is bliss”. What is in you - your true inner nature is bliss, in other words, it is liberation, it is Paramatman. Otherwise, the disciple would continue to be immersed in ignorance.
Based on the eligibility of the disciple, Gurus make disciples practice silence or chanting or worship or meditation to help them gain control over their mind. To help them improve concentration, based on their eligibility, the Guru prescribes, “You can do this”, “You should not do this”, “You need to only focus on chanting the divine names, that is enough”, “You should only go on pilgrimages”, “You must only chant this mantra”, “You must only do this worship”, “You must only practice silence”, “You do not need to do anything, just serve the poor and the needy”. Based on their eligibility, based on their karma, based on their karma over their past lives, the Guru will sometimes issue these commands to help them gain control over their mind. We discussed that the Guru makes them practice silence or chanting or worship or meditation. He gets rid of the termites of ego and attachment that have taken over the disciple’s mind using mantras, rituals (tantras) and other tactics. Like this, since he employs many methods and techniques to show us our true nature, the Sadguru is compared to a mirror.
Next, by the grace of God, among the 8,400,000 species, we attained the human birth that is most conducive to spiritual practice. Out of love for this human world, God made this creation very beautiful. He blessed us with so many things. The most precious among all of these is time. Time is very important. We keep saying, “Time, time, time, time”. We keep talking about time, but do not realize its importance. Every hour of our human birth is very precious. Every second is precious. Each breath is precious. We cannot describe its importance in words. Those who understand the principle of time can achieve anything. The spiritual seeker should not waste a single moment. He should be engaged in good deeds every single second. To attain an enlightened state, the seeker needs to use his time wisely. He should not misuse it. What do we do instead? We spend some time there, some time here, we talk to people about unnecessary things, we sleep at erratic hours, we talk whenever we feel like. Let this be.
Let’s move ahead and talk about time.
Episode 238
We were talking about time i.e., Kala. Time is the greatest. Man should not waste a single moment of time. One should use time wisely, it should not be misused. We do not know how many days we will live. We do not know how many days, how many seconds we are going to be alive. Every second, every moment, every breath should be used to do good to ten other people. We should only do good things that give lasting benefit. You should be useful to ten other people. Even if you can make yourself useful to a Sadguru, that would be good. He will be useful to millions and millions of people. That is why, it is enough if you surrender all your service to him. That is why, one must not waste even a single moment.
During the Mahabharata war, Sri Krishna blesses Arjuna with the ability to see his Universal Form (Vishwaroopa; Vishwa = universe; Roopa = form). When Arjuna saw that form, he was of course feeling blissful, but along with bliss, he also felt intense fear. Out of that fear, he asked Vishwaroopa Sri Krishna thus, “Lord, I am unable to see you in this form. I am unable to understand you completely. Who are you? How should I understand you?” Krishna was Guru, relative, friend and God. Arjuna was so fortunate to see the Lord in that form. He asked “How do I understand you?” Sri Krishna replied, “I am of the form of time” Because Arjuna was his own disciple, he said to him, “I swallow everything. I am time”. He was like fire. Fire does not discriminate. It burns everything. He said, “I am fire and of the form of time. I swallow everything”.
A lot of people are losing out by wasting the God-given gift of time. Where they are losing out most is from wasting time. People watch a movie for 3 hours and waste time. One can watch a movie once a while if there is a good movie, if it will do good to you, if you think it is a good movie, otherwise it is a waste of time. Watching the same movie again is a waste. A lot of people waste so much time in unnecessary talk. It is called garbage talk. They do trash talk, talking ill of others and destroying time. They just sit there and even say “we are passing time”. They say, “We are just killing time”. Does it make sense to kill time? Time should be used wisely, does it make sense to kill time? Does it make sense to lose out like this?
Will the time from today, will the second from today come again tomorrow? Will this year, this week, this day, this dusk, this dawn come again? Will the same year, the same month come again? No. It will be a different year, a different month, a different second, a different morning,a different evening, a different afternoon. You are losing time now. Let us see if you can breathe the same breath you just did, by taking it back. It is gone. You will only get a new breath. That count is gone. If you throw each grain of salt in your fist into the ocean, will you get the same salt back again from the ocean? That salt melted. That is why, time is very crucial.
A lot of people say “katha kalakshepam” (katha = story; kalakshepam = pastime) when they talk about Hari Katha (composite arm form composed of story telling, poetry, music, dance, drama, philosophy. Usually stories of the Lord; Hari = Lord, Katha = story). It should not be called a pastime. Passing time with Hari Katha? Listening to Hari Katha is a great fortune. It should not be called a pastime. That is wrong. We will talk about an example in that respect. Let’s see what that example is.
Episode 239
We discussed that a lot of people were losing out in life by wasting the precious God-given gift called Time. Here’s an example story:
Once, a king went to the forest for hunting. There, he saw an old man working hard to cut wood. He felt pity for the old man and went up to talk to him. That old man told the king about all his troubles and said that there was no one to look after him and that cutting wood was his only means of livelihood. The king out of compassion, donated to the old man a piece of fertile land close to the forest. There were also many large sandalwood trees on that piece of land. The king made that donation and went back to his kingdom.
Two or three years passed. The king again went hunting. He again found the old man cutting wood in the same place. The king thought, “What is this? I gave him a piece of land with large sandalwood trees. Why is he here again cutting wood? What kind of man is this?” The surprised king sent his servants to bring the old man to him. He asked the old man, “I donated a piece of land to you. Instead of living comfortably by using that land for farming or by employing laborers to do the farming, why are you again toiling to cut wood? Because you were getting old and still working that hard cutting wood, I gave you that land, but why are you still engaged in this work?” The old man replied, “King, I was unable to till the land you gave me. I did not have the strength to do it. There were large trees on that land. Felling those trees and selling them also felt difficult. That is why, I axed those trees, burned them, made coal and sold it away. The money I earned from selling that coal has already been spent. That is why I am again cutting wood for livelihood”. This is what he did with the sandalwood trees.
Then the king said, “Old man, what have you done! Those were all sandalwood trees. If you had sold them, you would have enough money for many generations. You got hasty out of ignorance and ruined the opportunity you got.” Regretting the old man’s foolishness, the king went back to his kingdom.
The king called God has bestowed us the gift of sandalwood trees called time. Did you observe? We need to understand here. What did the old man do to the sandalwood trees given to him by the king? He axed them and unable to even sell them, he burned them, made coal and sold them. Does it make any sense to do that? Like that, God has given us these sandalwood trees called time, or time equivalent to these massive sandalwood trees. In the form of Guru, he constantly reminds us of its value as well. In the form of Guru, God himself, is reminding us of the value of time. He is constantly reminding us that time is like that garden of sandalwood trees and its value is like Sadguru. It is up to each one of us whether we use it wisely or whether we axe the trees, burn and make coal and waste them. We should not destroy the value called Sadguru and the sandalwood trees called time. In other words, we should not kill or waste time.
We should understand the Guru Principle and use time wisely.
Jaya Guru Datta. Let’s move ahead.
Episode 240
When chanting, worship, meditation etc are done in sacred pilgrim places, they give results faster. The reason for this is the positive energy of the place joining together with your spiritual practice. We can see from our scriptures that sages and saints would find pleasant and isolated places in forests to carry on their spiritual practice. That is why, when a Sadguru gives a mantra, he asks you to chant it by the river, in a temple, at a shrine or at a calm and serene place. Even though the entire world is God’s creation, each place has its special energy. Remember this very well. Do not assume that all places are same. Each place has its own power and energy. Everybody has to agree. Everybody knows about it and everybody has to admit it.
There are people who question, “If God is in your heart, why go to temples?” A lot of people say, “God is in my heart, why should I go elsewhere?” They are unable to understand that due to consecration of God’s idols with Vedic chants, the entire temple is purified and energized. “Why are temples considered so sacred?” The temple is considered so sacred and powerful because the consecration was done with powerful mantras, because the Yantra (a mystical, geometric design placed under the deity’s idol) has so much power and because the entire place is so energized. Whatever good or bad happens to us, the influence of the place plays a role to some extent. There is a good story that talks about the energy of the place.
Rama entered Dandaka forest during his exile. Lakshmana who was carrying the items belonging to Sita and Rama was walking behind them. When they arrived at a certain place, don’t know what happened to Lakshmana, he gave all the items to Rama saying, “You both carry your own things”. By then, he had accepted Rama as his Guru. After walking some distance, he recovered and said, “Oh, what is this? My Rama, my Guru, my brother, why is he carrying all the luggage”. He regretted what he said earlier, “What happened to me? What all did I say?” He fell on Rama’s feet and prayed for forgiveness.
Rama laughed and said, “Lakshmana, that was not your fault. The influence of the place there was such. Demons had done meditation there in the past. Their negative vibrations are still hovering in the atmosphere there. Anybody else would have been in the state just like yours. After crossing that place, your mind was restored to its original state. That is not your fault. It is the influence of the place. The place has some bearing on anything good or bad that happens to man”. Explaining thus, Rama pacified Lakshmana.
From this, we understand what the influence of a place is. That is why, we are asked to go on pilgrimages once in a while. The calm and serene environment in those places will have a positive effect on our mind. It will benefit our spiritual practice. These days, a meditation room is being set up in many temples and Ashramas. If we want to restrain our mind from hankering after material activity, it is good to set aside a room in the house for prayers. We cannot talk enough about the influence of the place. We have seen what happened to Lakshmana.
So, just as a place has its influence, there is a lot of influence in service to the Guru as well. When serving the Gurus, their influence falls on us and we imbibe their goodness. They do not need to specially bless us, their association is such.
Episode 241
Let us learn some secrets in spiritual practice. Following certain disciplines is a must for spiritual practice. These are called secrets. When one follows these disciples, he will definitely be blessed with realization of the mantra and even darshana (opportunity to see a holy person or a deity) of the Sadguru. Some people do not follow those disciplines. They will say, “We want the Guru’s darshana quickly, we want to talk to the Guru, we want knowledge”, but they will not try to make any changes in their lives. They almost seem to make some changes, but do not really do so. They follow the disciplines for two days, but discontinue from the third day on. They will seem ready to fast for two days, but will not actually fast. They will chant the Lord’s name 100,000 times today, but the next day, they think , “Ohh, who is going to do the chanting, God knows everything that’s on my mind”.
There is no room for laziness in spiritual practice. What does this mean? Laziness. Many people have laziness. They fall asleep in the middle of their spiritual practice. They fall asleep in the middle of their chanting. They fall asleep while turning the beads of the rosary. That does not work. That is called laziness. You can sleep as much as needed, but you must not sleep during chanting. Spiritual practice has no room for laziness. But, on the other hand, the eagerness to quickly finish the process does not work either.
There are many who say, “Because they said laziness does not work, we completed it very quickly for today because we were getting sleepy. We had planned to chant certain lakhs of times, so if we can finish this quickly, we can enjoy the rest of the holiday”. “Ohh, I chanted 4 lakh times, I feel good”. Sure, you feel good, but you will not realize the power of the mantra. Your mind feels good, because what was on your mind? “I wanted to chant a certain lakh number of times, I finished that count today”. Your mind will have an unknown laziness and satisfaction from such thinking , but that does not work. When you are in a hurry to finish, your mind cannot be made steady.
Some people want to do every good deed. They pay lip service, “I need to do this good deed. I need to talk good. I need to do good to other people. I must do spiritual practice too”. They keep saying this over and over, “I need to do spiritual practice, I need to concentrate, I need visit pilgrim places, I need to talk to Sadguru, I need to read good books”. But, what do they follow up these words with? They keep procrastinating their tasks to the next day or the day after. “I will start studying the Ramayana from tomorrow”. If they hear the Ramayana somewhere, they say, “How can one not study the Ramayana? One has to study the Ramayana”. If there are little children reciting some verses from the Bhagavad Gita along with its meaning, they feel very ashamed, “It would be nice if we learned the Bhagavad Gita verses and the meanings too”. This is very wrong behavior. This is a mistake.
Those who say, “Let’s do it tomorrow, I will start from tomorrow”, will not start at all. When those addicted to smoking say, “I will quit smoking from tomorrow”, they will never quit smoking. They must quit right then and there. It is not until you have actually stopped smoking that you have quit. You must have that obstinacy. There are those that say, “Let me drink alcohol today, I will quit from tomorrow”. What will you quit after drinking today? Tomorrow, you will feel like drinking another. It is only when you harden your mind right then and there, become your own doctor and try to correct that bad habit that you will attain concentration from that goodness. Otherwise, what does paying lip service do for you? People keep procrastinating saying “tomorrow”, “the day after tomorrow” etc.
The second category of people start on the task right away, but their focus is more on thinking about when they can finish the task than on doing the actual task. A lot of people start right away, but they will be victorious only if they do it with concentration. They do not. “I need to finish this task. It should be completed by tomorrow”. They go through the task very quickly. As a result, they make many mistakes. They will have to start all over again. They have to be reprimanded by others, they have to pointed out at. They receive a lot of criticism, “What is this, look at your spellings. You should use upper case letters, but you used lower case letters. There are no punctuations, no periods. There are no commas here” and so on. Then they have to start fixing all over again.
Similarly, a lot of people that are initiated into a mantra think they have to attain liberation right away. Just as on one hand they may start on a task at hand right away but are unable to concentrate, ruining the task and doing it all wrong, on the other hand, because the Guru asked them to chant 2 crore (20 million) times by the river, they finish chanting within 2 hours what would normally take 2 days in the cold. How can they attain salvation? Neither of these two kinds of people can reach their goal.
Let’s move ahead.
Episode 242
We were discussing that in spiritual practice neither hurriedness nor laziness works. We discussed that spiritual practice must be done with patience. Only when interest is combined with hard work and patience, the seeker will achieve his objectives, otherwise, he will not. Patience is very important. If you don’t have patience and want to finish the task in a hurry, the task will be ruined. Only a person with patience and hard work will gain happiness in his spiritual practice. Such a person will feel, “I do not even want liberation. I want to continue doing this spiritual practice, one after another”. He feels happiness in just doing his practice. When the task is complete and one feels it was well done or if another appreciates that the task was well done, the person is very happy.
In many households, the mother cooks. When everybody sits to eat, if one says, “Mother this food is so tasty”, the mother is lost in happiness. She does not even care to eat. She wants to fine tune it and cook even better the next time. Our mind reacts the same way. When we carry out a certain task to achieve an objective, if you or someone next to you or your teacher feels that the task is successful, the mind is in heaven. That means, the person is content thinking, “the task I am doing has been successful.” Such a person gains happiness in just doing his spiritual practice. He carries out his practice with concentration and patience.
One must also master certain techniques in achieving his goals. To fix one’s aim, to reach a goal, unless you know some techniques, how can you get there? We should not just blindly keep going in a straight line. We should learn a few techniques. Such a person will achieve success in any field. Once he masters the techniques appropriate for the task and fixes his aim, he will certainly be victorious.
A person once felt like learning sword fighting. He approached a teacher who taught sword fighting. He bowed to the teacher and asked, “Sir, how many days will it take me to learn to maneuver the sword skillfully?” Here is a student coming to learn sword fighting who is already interested in the results and is asking right at the outset about how long it would take him to maneuver the sword. The teacher looked at him, laughed and said, “It will take 10 years”. He knew that this person was lazy. “Okay, if I practice without taking a break, if I consistently practice maneuvering the sword everyday for 24 hours, without even taking a holiday...”. The teacher intervened and said, “Hold on, son, hold on. Why are you in such a hurry? It will take 20 years, that’s it”. So, to the question on how long it would take if he put in all his concentration and practiced without a break, the teacher said it would take 20 years. The seeker should not be in a hurry in any matter. A seeker that is in such a hurry will not achieve anything easily or quickly or properly. This person had not even been admitted in the school for sword fighting, he did not even know how to hold the sword, but he starts practicing in a hurry because he thinks he’ll learn in 10 years. “Hold on, son hold on, it will take 20 years, not 10 years” said the teacher.
What this means is that if you are in a hurry, you will not achieve your results easily or quickly or properly. That is because, you have no concentration. You just want to finish quickly, get your certificate and run. Even if he gets the certificate, he cannot gain happiness. There would be no satisfaction from what he learned. He just did something for the sake of it, it did not mean much.
If the teacher is satisfied, we will be satisfied too. But, even if the teacher shows mild satisfaction, our mind still needs satisfaction. Even if the teacher is not satisfied, we should practice until we are satisfied. Then, you will definitely be successful.
Episode 243
The Sadguru here is revealing a few secrets, a few techniques for spiritual practice, a few secrets of Yoga. We talked about sword fighting where the teacher said that the student would need 10 years, or even 20 years to learn to maneuver the sword. Let’s talk about an example in that respect.
Say, there are two yogis who were engaged in spiritual practice for several years. Narada once went to these yogis. Both of them got up and offered prostrations to sage Narada. They wanted to find out when their spiritual practice would be complete. Narada was a great Yogi and knew the past, present and the future. They both wanted to know what Narada would say about their spiritual practice.
The first among them asked, “Lord, when will I attain liberation?” Narada replied, “Be patient for 3 years, you will attain liberation”. As soon as he heard that, unable to wait that long, he was filled with sorrow. “It will take me 3 years?”
The second said, “Lord, what about me? You told him it would take him 3 years, when will I attain liberation?” Narada responded, “Look at that tamarind tree over there. You have to take as many births as the leaves on that tree”. The second yogi was filled with great joy. He also instantly attained liberation. He was filled with so much joy that he even forgot his body.
Here, the poor first yogi did not know that over-zealousness does not work in spiritual practice. He was rushing to attain liberation quickly and was forcing himself to spiritual practice as if someone asked him to. He was forcing his mind, his body and his sense organs. That is why he was left dissatisfied, he wanted to get results faster and faster. But, the second one felt, “I am happy to be able to do spiritual practice, I can gain liberation happily. No problem, I can take as many births as the leaves on the tamarind tree. No big deal. I will attain liberation at least then. I will at least gain liberation eventually even if I have to take as many births as the leaves on the tamarind tree”. He was happy thinking, “Okay, I will attain liberation at least by then”. That is why he gained liberation instantly. He thought, “At least by the time the leaves of that tree drop, I will gain liberation”.
From this, we clearly understand that over-zealousness, “When I will I reach my goal?”, “When will my spiritual practice conclude?” will not work. The yogi should have been happy that it would only take him 3 years. And for the other yogi to take as many births as the leaves on the tamarind tree is no child’s play. It is hard to even count the number of leaves on the tamarind tree. In such a case, the second yogi should have been sad thinking about the number of leaves on the tamarind tree. Instead, the first yogi was sad about having to do spiritual practice for 3 more years. He should have actually been happy. One who experiences happiness in spiritual practice and works towards his objective will reach his goal quickly. Otherwise, he will not.
Let us recall verse 15 from the Guru Gita. We cannot recall it enough number of times. These slokas keep coming up based once in a while on the examples we are discussing. That is why you must listen to the slokas this second time. You should understand that Swamiji is explaining the meaning of the sloka. You should not wonder about why you are hearing this again. Why not listen to this again?
Sloka:
Yadanghri kamala dvandvam dvanda tapa nivarakam
tarakam bhava sindhosca tam gurum pranamamyaham
The lotus pair of the Sadguru is the reliever of the passion caused by dualities. Passion caused by dualities. Love and hatred, cold and heat, joys and sorrows etc are called dualities. The Guru rids us of the passions caused by these dualities. How does he rid us of them? The Guru enables your mind to clearly grasp that the reason for your joys and sorrows is none other than yourself. You should not point to others as responsible for your joys and sorrows. We are being told here that you alone are responsible for your joys and sorrows. Let us learn more.
Episode 244
We were talking about the 15th sloka.
Sloka:
Yadanghri kamala dvandvam dvanda tapa nivarakam
tarakam bhava sindhosca tam gurum pranamamyaham
We were talking about the dualities. Relief from the passion caused by dualities. Love and hatred, cold and heat, joys and sorrows etc are called dualities. The Guru rids us of the passions caused by these dualities. How does he rid us of them? The Guru enables your mind to clearly grasp the knowledge that the reason for your joys and sorrows is none other than yourself. To console the grieving Yudhisthira who considered himself responsible for the death of Kauravas, Bheeshma told a story.
“Why are you grieving so much?” See, people here are becoming Gurus to each other. This is God’s divine play.
Whoever teaches us good things is a Guru to us. Such a person is our well-wisher. Elders are advising us of matters that help us in the path of liberation. They come to us as Gurus. If you read or listen to the Mahabharata, every page, every moment, the greatness of the Guru is revealed. Krishna played such a great role there. He played the role of a Sadguru. He went into each person’s heart and taught them of the spiritual practice they needed to attain liberation.
Bheeshma is saying, “Dharmaraja, do not grieve. You were not responsible for the destruction of Kauravas. Why are you grieving thinking, “I am responsible, I am responsible”. Why do you keeping saying, “Because, I played a game of dice and lost at it, we are beset with this sorrow”. How did you become the cause? Their karma alone is the reason. Because they accrued strong karma, you were a means to teach them a lesson due to which you decided to play the game of dice.
Listen to me, long ago, the son of a Brahmin lady called Gautami was bit by a snake”. Bheeshma was helping Dharmaraja understand. “The boy immediately died. The lady sat crying in front of the boy’s body. That is natural. In the meanwhile, a savage called Arjuna came by holding a snake in his hand and excitedly said, “Mother, this is the snake that killed your son. If you permit, I will cut this to pieces”. This is a savage called Arjuna, not our Arjuna (from Mahabharata). We keep coming across the name Arjuna a lot. The name Krishna, the name Dharmaraja also keep appearing quite a bit. Even in Ramayana, there are many people with the name Rama. Not all Ramas are Lord Rama. And not all Arjunas are Arjuna. This was a savage called Arjuna.
Bringing the snake to the mother weeping by the corpse, he said, “This is the snake that bit your son, is it not? Mother, this is the snake that killed your son, is it not? If you permit, I will cut this to pieces” . The mother did not agree to this. She did not give him permission to kill the snake. She said, “Tell me how the snake is responsible for my karma or my son’s karma. The snake is not the cause. Therefore, let it go. How can the snake be the cause. My son saw the snake many times. If the snake bit my son now, it is because my karma has come to bear”. The savage did not agree. He thought that because the snake bit the boy, the snake should be killed. Moreover, he insisted that the snake be killed. “No, this snake has to be killed. There will be no closure until then. It unjustly killed the little boy”.
In the meanwhile, surprisingly, the snake itself spoke. “O savage, I have been listening to what you are saying”. Let us see what the snake has to say. How is it that the snake is talking? Sometimes, snakes are talking, sometimes parrots are talking, sometimes cows are talking. Sometimes, horses are talking, expressing their feelings. Let that be. We will later talk about the story where parrots talk.
Episode 245
We were discussing so far that the lady was wailing sitting by the dead body of her son who was bit by a snake. A hunter brought the snake saying, “Mother, permit me to kill the snake” to which the lady said, “Do not kill the snake. Why do you want to kill the snake? This is a result of my karma and my son’s karma. What can the snake do? How can the snake be responsible for our karma? We are responsible for our own karma. The snake received the order to kill, so it did. So, do not do anything”. We discussed that at that point, the snake suddenly began talking.
“O hunter, I have been listening to what you are saying. Why are you cursing me so much? Why are you so eager to kill me? You are making me responsible for the body’s death, do you have any sense? How can I be the cause? There is nothing in my hands. I am just like a stick in the hands of the Lord of Death. I bit the boy only on his order. Why would I want to bite the boy? I see him everyday I would not normally bite the little boy. It was a command from the Lord of Death to bite him. It was a command from the supreme power, so I bit the boy”.
The Lord of Death (Yama) appeared and said, “You are fighting amongst yourselves and blaming me. What is this? O snake, not only are you able to talk, but you are unjustly accusing me. The lady is also saying, “It was my bad time, it is my karma that I lost my son”. You are also saying the same thing. The hunter is agreeing with all this. What are you doing? Why are you blaming me who is somewhere else. In reality, what is in my hands? Everything is controlled by Kala Purusha (Time personified; Kala = time; Purusha = Supreme Being). It is not under my control. I am under the control of Kala Purusha. I do as he commands. It is my duty, that is all. It is not my doing, I just follow karma”.
When he heard this, Kala Purusha himself appeared. He said, “I am always blamed for anything that happens to anyone. What is this? Unjustly, you first blamed the snake and then you said it was not the snake. You thought it was karma, you thought it was Yama in the form of karma and then Yama appeared. Yama said it was not him, but Kala Purusha. So, here I am. But, I am also merely an instrument”. What, everybody is trying to escape here.
First, they blamed the snake. The snake said, “I came here because it was Lord Yama’s command”. When Yama was accused, he said, “I do as Kala Purusha commands”. Now Kala Purusha, the Supreme, is here. Kala Purusha is saying, “Why are you unjustly accusing me? Each one’s karma is what guides them. There is nothing here that I did or did not do. Each one’s karma is always in his/her account. Each one’s karma continues to be on his/her plate. It is always in his/her account”.
Then, the Brahmin lady intervened and said, “O hunter, did you see? Kala Purusha is saying what I said. He is the Supreme being. I told you right in the beginning that this is my karma. You called everybody here one after another. Did you see? What happened eventually? Kala Purusha himself is saying the same thing.”
Episode 246
We were talking about Kala Purusha, the snake, the hunter and the woman who lost her son. We discussed that the Supreme Power, Kala Purusha appeared and said, “Everyone blames me for anything bad that happens to anyone. Step-by-step they keep passing the blame to another until it points to me. In reality, I too am merely an instrument. Each one’s karma is what guides them. There is nothing that I do or do not do.”
The Brahmin lady slowly intervened and said, “O hunter, did you see? Kala Purusha is saying what I said. That is why, nobody is responsible for my son’s death. His karma alone is the reason. Therefore, let the snake go”. Then the hunter, ashamed of his ignorance, let the snake go. Thus Bheeshma, assuming the role of a Guru, explained the Principle of Karma.
Therefore, it is clear that no one is responsible for another’s joys or sorrows. One should not blame another saying, “I am sad and these people are responsible for it”. No one else is responsible for one’s sorrow. Nor are they responsible for one’s happiness. In other words, each one’s karma takes on the form of joys and sorrows. Each one must experience the karma accrued due to one’s good or bad deeds. No one else can experience for him. Each one needs to experience it for himself. We should remember this very well. You should not assume that someone else will carry your karma for you. You should not expect to come to the Guru and do some rituals and pass your karma on to the Guru. You must experience the result of of your sins.
You have to either digest what you eat or suffer indigestion yourself, but how can your neighbor suffer indigestion on your behalf? If you say to the doctor, “I ate food, I think I have indigestion. Doctor, I do not want medicine. Can you suffer indigestion on my behalf?” why would the doctor suffer indigestion on your behalf. The doctor will give you 4 injections, but why would he go through the experience on your behalf? You need to pay for whatever you have done. A person who gains this knowledge will be isolated from bad karma. The day, the moment, a person understands this, he will be distanced from bad karma. So, by seeking refuge at the Sadguru’s feet, by meditating on his feet and serving his feet, this knowledge will be firmly established in the mind. That is why, the Guru’s feet are referred to as “Dvandva tapa nivaranam” (reliever of the passion caused by dualities). All passions and anxieties are removed from one who seeks refuge at the Guru’s feet and has firm faith in the Guru. Dvandva tapa nivarakam (dvandva=dualities; tapa=passion/heat; nivarakam=relief).
Next, the disciple’s duty. So far, they talked about the disciple’s practice, they cautioned us. Now, they are talking about Dharma, about what should the disciple’s conduct be. To the question, “What is the right behavior for a disciple?”, the answer is a little tricky. Because, only one with all the virtues becomes a disciple. The most important of those virtues is devotion to the Guru. Devotion to the Guru is the foremost Dharma of the disciple. We are talking about Dharma, the primary Dharma of a disciple is devotion towards the Guru. That is Dharma. Many people ask, “What is Dharma? Is it donations and charity?” Dharma is devotion to Guru, concentration. We should understand that, that is the greatest of all virtues. Dharma is a great virtue. Everyone should follow and apply it in their lives. So, let us learn about Dharma in more detail.
Episode 247
We were discussing till yesterday that the answer to the question, “How should a disciple be?” is a little difficult. Because, only one with all the virtues becomes a disciple. What did they say was the most important of those virtues? It was devotion to the Guru. Devotion to the Guru is the foremost Dharma of the disciple. We should understand that, that is the greatest quality of a disciple. There is nothing that a disciple with unwavering devotion towards the Guru cannot achieve. Even the Gods look forward to the opportunity to aid such a disciple in his tasks. See, even the Gods are standing by to help out a devotee who has unwavering devotion towards the Guru. That is because, the disciple is practicing devotion to the Guru as his Dharma. Even the Gods await the opportunity to be of assistance.
To help us understand this better, let us briefly learn the story of Udanka. Udanka was one of sage Paila’s disciples. We have many example stories of Gurus and devotees. Even after discussing many examples, there will be millions more. Even then, it’s not enough. We forget these stories right then and there. Even if we can remember one story, that will be enough. Even if we can remember one Guru-disciple story, we can use it as a reference.
We are talking about the story of Udanka. He completed his education, all the while serving his Guru with great devotion. He attained good education from his Guru. Now, it was time for him to step from Gurukulam (Guru’s school) into Grihastha Ashrama (householder’s life). There are various stages of life. Here, after completing his education, he was getting into Grishastha Ashrama. You know there are various phases after Grihastha until they reach old age. Udanka went to the Guru and prayed, “What can I offer to you as Guru Dakshina?” (Guru Dakshina = tradition of repaying one’s teacher after completion of formal education). He said, “I got all my education from you. I am now going home. What can I offer to you as Guru Dakshina?” The Guru said, “Son, you served me with devotion and earned good education. That itself is Guru Dakshina to me. You learned so much. You had so much dedication towards your studies. That is enough for me. Your dedication and devotion to Guru are enough Guru Dakshina. But, why are you insisting that I ask for Guru Dakshina? I do not need anything. Therefore, go to my wife, find out what her desire is and bring her whatever she needs. That itself will be Guru Dakshina. Do not ask me. Why are you asking me? Even though I am refusing, you are asking. I am saying that you are okay to go and live with continued devotion to the Guru, but you are insisting on offering Guru Dakshina. I do not need anything. So, go ask my wife”
Udanka then went to the Guru’s wife and asked her. She said, “I decided to undertake a religious vow. For fulfillment of that vow, I need the earrings of the woman of great chastity - King Paushya’s wife within 4 days”. The earrings of the queen of King Paushya. What is this? Moreover, she said, “I need them within 4 days, I am undertaking the vow”. Instead of quietly going home, what did he get into? Udanka set out to bring the earrings. Now, this was mother’s order, there is no escape.
On his way, a great man mounted on an ox told him, “You are on your way to doing your Guru’s work. Eat this ox’s dung and go. Eat your fill”. Indra himself came in the form of that man to help Udanka. Udanka did as the great man asked him to.
Udanka then went to the queen and pleaded with her to give him her earrings. See how interesting this story is. Let’s move ahead.
Episode 248
We were discussing the story of Udanka - Udanka asked his Guru what he could offer as Guru Daskhina when his Guru directed him to his wife. The Guru’s wife asked Udanka to get her the earrings belonging to the queen of King Paushya. Udanka set out on the task with devotion towards his Guru. He ran into Indra who wanted to help Udanka owing to his great devotion to his Guru. Still, Indra put him to a small test and asked him to eat the dung from the ox which Udanka did. Udanka then went straight to the queen and pleaded with her to give him her earrings. In the meanwhile, there is also another story unfolding. The queen gave him the earrings saying, “Carry them without ever placing them on the ground. Where you place them on the ground, that’s it, the serpent king Takshaka will take them away, be careful. There is a very nice story that takes place here, we will talk about that another day.
Udanka who was carrying the earrings back stopped at a lake during dusk. Forgetting what the queen said, he placed the earrings on the ground and stepped into the lake for a bath. It was the time of dusk and Udanka, who wanted to do his daily rituals (anushthana), placed the earrings on the ground. He forgot what the queen had told him. Takshaka seized the opportunity and appearing in the guise of sage, took the earrings and disappeared into Patala Loka (nether world). That was what was meant to happen. He took away the earrings. Udanka had forgotten and placed them on the floor. Udanka who had decided not to return without the earrings took a small stick and began digging up the hole into which Takshaka disappeared. Takshaka had disappeared in the form of a snake. So, Udanka spent hours digging and looking for the snake. Pleased with his devotion to the Guru, Indra and the other gods appeared in front of him and gave him Vajrayudham (Indra’s powerful weapon) saying, “Why are you digging with a small stick?”
With that he made a tunnel to Patala Loka, earned back the earrings and offered them to the Guru’s wife as Guru Dakshina. Did you see? For Indra himself to give his weapon, devotion towards the Guru was the reason. That is what is devotion to the Guru. Devotion to the Guru is as important as the education we gain from the Guru. Even Gods stand by and protect those who have unwavering devotion towards the Guru. This story helps understand that very well.
Next, as we move ahead, forgiveness. If you want to move forward quickly and achieve progress in your spiritual life, you must inculcate certain habits in your worldly life too. You must imbibe great virtues in worldly life. Important among them is forgiveness. Forgiveness is a virtue that everyone needs to practice. That itself is a spiritual practice (sadhana). Forgiveness does not come easily to anyone. People are always getting angry. If someone makes a mistake, if someone says something, or if someone does something that one does not like, he will hold a lot of anger against that person until he can scold or beat him up. But, forgiveness is a great sadhana. Even a thousand years of meditation becomes futile in a second if there is no forgiveness. We discussed that some people have anger at the tip of their nose. So, even if you meditate for a thousand years, your spiritual practice becomes futile within a second if you do not have the quality of forgiveness.
Jaya Guru Datta. Let’s talk about the quality of forgiveness.
Episode 249
We were talking so far about the quality of forgiveness. Forgiveness. We discussed that even the spiritual practice of a thousand years becomes worthless in a moment if there is no quality of forgiveness. In this regard, we know the story of Vishwamitra. No one has more forgiveness than Mother Earth. Lord Dattatreya told us about his 24 Gurus. Earth is one among his Gurus. Lord Datta said that he learned the quality of forgiveness from Earth. Regardless of how much she is tortured, kicked or dug into, she definitely bears it all patiently. We are witnessing it ourselves. So many people are digging into earth, so many are kicking and so many are walking on earth. They are inflicting so much pain on her. Regardless of how much pain is inflicted on her, Mother Earth silently bears it all. The seeker must also try to earn such patience. Only then can they became great.
When we examine the lives of some great people, we learn what patience is like. Regardless of how others talk to them, regardless of how much others insult them, their natural trait is to always do good to others. Despite not knowing anything about these great people, criticizing and blaming them unnecessarily is a lowly trait among people. Even if they know nothing about the great people, they unnecessarily criticize them. That is a lowly trait, it is not? Even if they don’t know the first thing about them, they will keep pointing fingers at them and blaming them. That is a lowly trait among people.
However, great souls pay no heed to such behavior, any amount of blame or criticism does not bother them. They treat blame, praise and rejection the same. Working towards universal welfare and doing good to others is their natural behavior. They will tolerate anything to do good to others. There are many stories in the scriptures that reveal these virtues among the great souls. Even in these days, there are many such great souls. Everyone knows the story of Kabir. He is a great devotee.
Once, he went to a house to beg for alms. Out of anger, the lady of the house threw the rag she was mopping the house with at him, “What is this? He troubles us everyday”. Still Kabir remained calm. He took that cloth, washed it up, tore it into pieces, made wicks out of them and lit lamps. Moreover, he prayed wholeheartedly to God to bless the lady with good disposition. Did you see? If it were someone else, he would have thrown the rag back at her. That is real devotion to the Guru. Kabir Das was also being tested by Lord Vithala. As a result of this, the lady took birth as a very knowledgeable person and undertook many charitable deeds.
In another instance when Kabir went begging for alms, the lady of the house did not even open the door. Still, he patiently went back there the next day. Why did he go back there again? Perhaps to give her liberation or to instill better sense in her. God keeps doing this through the Guru.
Episode 250
We heard that story where Kabir washed the mopping rag that the lady of the house threw at him, and made wicks with it. Subsequently, the lady attained knowledge and got liberated. When the same Kabir again went out to beg for alms from another household, the lady of that house did not even open the door. Still, Kabir patiently went back there the next day. Guru persists after you to give you knowledge. The lady opened the door this time, but she showed her annoyance and did not give him food. Earlier, she would not answer the door, but today, she got impatient and opened the door. She did not give him any food, instead she showed her annoyance. The third day, Kabir again went back to the same house. The lady got very angry and dumped the ash she had in her hand on his head. While the other lady threw the dirty old rag at his face, this lady took the ash from cleaning the stove in the house and dumped it on his head. Still, Kabir went back to the same house the fourth day. He could have gone to some other house, but he went back to the same house where he got ash dumped on his head.
The lady was surprised. This time, she called him in and gave him food. She took pity on him. In this manner, she gained a bit of a charitable disposition. Thinking that he would not come back again if she gave him food, she fed him. The goal of great souls is to somehow bring about good thoughts in people and to uplift them. The goal of this Guru was the same. It is with this goal that they wander around different towns. It is with this goal that they beg for alms. They travel around the world. Without realizing this, some people make it their duty to blame great souls, criticizing their every action. It seems like these people have to take back the little sin that the great souls may have accumulated in blessing them. This is nothing but envy.
Great souls treat huts and mansions alike. Whether it is mud or a soft bed of swan feathers makes no difference to them. Great souls and Gurus mingle with society to inculcate qualities such as compassion, charity and patience in people. They do not care what people say. They are not related to anyone. They are not bothered with what someone thinks. Their only goal is to benefit and uplift others. It is only with that goal that regardless of all insults, accusations and blaming, they forgive others. That is why one must follow such noble souls and practice the qualities taught by them instead of unnecessarily blaming them. This story tells us that noble souls must not be criticized.