Approach Your Guru Today - Sri Ganapati Sachchidananda Swamiji

Ayaantyeva muhuh

kaamaha

Tarangaa iva saagare

Tadantam maa

prateekshasva

Sadyah sadgurumaashraya

(Purport: Just as endless waves arise in the ocean, desires too arise in the minds of human beings. Don’t wait till they subside. Approach your guru without delay.)

Once upon a time, there lived a king named Vijitashwa. In his prime age, he used to disguise himself as an ordinary citizen and carry out spying work in his kingdom to find out what his subjects thought about him. One day, when he was moving in the outskirts of his capital, he saw a dilapidated temple, from where he could hear two persons engaged in a quarrel. The king became curious to know as to what the dispute was about. He went near the place.

There were two persons inside. One of them was shouting at the top of his voice. The other person was only murmuring. The king went nearer and peeped through the window. He saw two saints inside.

Both were aged. One of them was very old. It was this old man who was shouting. The other person appeared to be his disciple. He was begging in a feeble voice. The conversation continued. A few sentences of the conversation got imprinted in the mind of the king.

Disciple: Sir! Even great sages of yore fell prey to infatuation with women. Who am I after all! You are my Sadguru. You must look after me.

Guru: It is true that elders say that disciples are the responsibility of Gurus. Just because they say like that, is it fair to hold me responsible for this sin of yours?

Disciple: I came to you as a small body. I was careful. I don’t know how it happened. But it happened. You should protect me.

Guru: Inferior people who can not control their desires don’t deserve Gurus. One should have some qualification even to approach a Guru. The disciple should wash the dirt off his heart himself. It would be wrong to expect the Guru to do that also.

The conversation continued on these lines. The king did not find anything that would interest a spy. So he left the place silently.

After a few years, the king happened to develop interest in spirituality. His was a family of good tradition. He had adequate educational background also. With the help of these, he engaged himself in spiritual Sadhana. But, as he continued his Sadhana, more and more doubts cropped up in his mind. The scholars in his court had a tough time trying to clarify those doubts. The king would simply present his doubt to the scholars and ask them to come up with answers.

When the scholars could take no more, they devised a plan. An elderly scholar told the king one day ‘O! King! We scholars are not intelligent enough to answer questions of this high quality. Unless you approach a Sadguru, your doubts will not get clarified. Therefore I strongly suggest that you take refuge in a Guru.’

The king liked this suggestion. But when he heard the scholar mention ‘Sadguru’, his mind spontaneously went back in time. He reminisced the conversation that had taken place in that dilapidated temple. So he decided that he should approach a Guru as soon as he could overcome his desires.

From that day onwards, he strived to eliminate desires. By the time he was about 60 years of age, he got some confidence in himself. "May be, I should start looking for a Guru now" he thought. But as fate would have it, the neighboring king declared war. The king had to safeguard his kingdom and so he mounted a counter attack. As the war went on, he realized that he still had desire for his kingdom. He shunned himself and decided that it was still not time to look for a Guru as desires had not completely disappeared from his mind.

Having realized his mistake, the king hurriedly coroneted the prince and absolved himself of his responsibilities. It took him nearly twenty years to completely conquer his desire for the kingdom.

"Let me now start looking for my Guru" thought the king. Unfortunately, the very next day, the king slipped and broke his back. He became restless with the thought of spending time on the bed, unable to move. "All my life, I was in full control of myself and my men. Now I am dependent on others even for the daily chores"-–his mind moaned sorrowfully. Simultaneously another thought also cropped up from another corner of his mind. "The desire to be healthy, the desire to control others is still there in my mind. How then can I consider myself eligible to approach a Guru? I am already 80 years of age now. I am not eligible even now, when will I be? Is there any hope??"

The feeling of failure was unbearable. One day, all of a sudden, he remembered the elderly scholar who had advised him to look for a Guru. He asked his men to find out where he was and bring him to the capital. He came to know that about 40 years had elapsed since that scholar had become a monk.

The king was surprised to hear that. "The same scholar, who had shamelessly admitted that he was not intelligent enough to clarify my doubts, has achieved victory over desires, has renounced family life, has found himself a Guru and has become a monk! How is this possible?" the king was really astonished.

"Wherever he might be, bring him to me" ordered the king. The scholar could be spotted without much difficulty. He agreed to come without making much fuss. When he finally came to the palace and stood before the king’s bed, what the king saw was not the dull and unassuming scholar of those days. What he saw was pure flame. Pure brilliance like the blazing sun! The bed ridden king could neither sit up nor lie down. He became restless. He could not control himself and started sobbing.

Without his knowledge, the king blurted out "Sadguru Deva!!" and looked at the scholar with folded hands. He started pleading.

"Sadguru Deva! You are indeed a great scholar. You are a Yogi. You have no desires. I am an egoistic person. I am a worldly man. I am a man with desires. I hope I am not committing a sin by addressing you as `Guru’. I hope that I am not aspiring for something for which I am not eligible."

The king could not display more modesty.

The Yogi smiled benevolently and said—

Yogi: O! King! You are a blessed man. You are capable too. You are a brave man who ventured to conquer desires. I am an ordinary person. I stepped into the path of spirituality with the help of my Sadguru even as I was struggling in my worldly life. You need not show me so much of reverence."

King: O! Pious one! Long ago, I had asked the same question. You had then said that I should take refuge in a Guru. Unfortunately, that has not been possible for me till now.

Yogi: It was not possible for me also. My Guru himself pulled me towards himself. It was he who saved me.

King: May be, you had conquered your desires by then.

Yogi: I had not conquered my desires. Neither did I conquer them. In fact, it was my Guru who drove away my desires.

King: But I had thought that one should not leave that work to one’s Guru….!

Yogi: I did not relinquish my responsibility. I did not expect someone else to do my work. But as I spent more and more time in the proximity of my Guru, all my dirt got washed away. There was nothing left for me to wash.

King: But…..! Why did it not happen in the case of the Guru and disciple that I had seen long long ago?

Yogi: The disciple whom you are referring to … I remember…..! He tried to transfer his responsibilities on to his Guru. He expected his Guru to take the burden of the sins he committed.

King: What about you then?

Yogi: ‘I am responsible for my faults’ was my conviction. I considered my Guru as someone who would spot my mistakes and punish me mercilessly. I begged to be punished. I believed that it was the best form of education.

King: Would anyone ask to be punished?

Yogi: Yes, one would, if one realized one’s mistake.

King: Oh, yes. But such a person can punish himself, can’t he?

Yogi: I will realize my mistakes slowly. Also, the punishment that I give myself would invariably be of a milder degree. Therefore, I need a trustworthy person who would punish me adequately, appropriately. Therefore, I started searching for my Guru. Who would be he? Where would he be? I didn’t know. What happened was, as soon as I resolved to find him, he came to me himself. He gave me shelter. This is what I meant when I said ‘I took refuge in him’.

King: Your method may have suited you. But my case is different. I thought that I should wipe out all my desires before looking for a Guru. What is wrong in it?

Yogi: If it is possible to wipe out all desires, if one can remain in that state forever, there is nothing that such a person needs to do. He need not take refuge in a Guru.

King: But….. the Guru that I saw on that day … He seemed to suggest….

Yogi: The disciple that you saw on that day believed that his sins were the responsibility of his Guru! He was therefore carefree because he thought that it was the responsibility of his Guru to see that desires did not crop up in his mind. He himself remained careless. He did not take any sort of precaution. Therefore there was no possibility for the desires to leave his mind. In fact, he had even confided that with his Guru. Your case is different. You were cautious. But you were proud that you were trying to conquer your desires. You thought you were the doer in eliminating desires from your mind. The learned call such an attitude as ‘ego’. This ego will never allow the desire – "I should win" to vanish from your heart. In other words, the desire to win is always there. Therefore, you were unable to get over your desires completely.

King: One should not think "I am trying to eliminate". They would not go away by themselves. How then will one ever become free from desires? When will one reach a stage when one can approach a Guru?

Yogi: If ‘elimination of desires’ is understood in the same way as you understand it, then no one will ever be able to succeed. Every Sadhaka will then land up in the same spot as you have landed. The day will never come even after several births.

King: How then should one understand those words?

Yogi: ‘Elimination of desires’ should be understood as the recognition in one’s heart that desires should be overcome. It is a mental state in which one is prepared to welcome punishment when there are desires in the mind. The moment you are prepared to have such an attitude, you should start looking for your Guru. If your prayers are honest, if your longing is genuine, your Guru will himself drag you towards him. Viewed from the disciple’s standpoint, this situation is `taking refuge’. Viewed from Guru’s standpoint, it is showering of compassion. What the Guru does, how he does it, is beyond the disciple’s comprehension. In fact, it is not even necessary for the disciple to comprehend it. What the disciple really needs to do is, realize his responsibilities and act accordingly. This is exactly what the Guru expected his disciple to do that day! You did not listen to the conversation till the end. It would have been better if you had. The following Sookti addresses the problem that you have faced all your life.

Aayantyeva muhuh kaamah
Tarangaa iva saagare
Tadantam maa prateekshasva
Sadyah sadgurumaashraya

(Purport: Just as endless waves arise in the ocean, desires too arise in the minds of human beings. Don’t wait till they subside. Approach your guru without delay.)

You are a living example for what has been said in this Sookti. Different desires crop up in different stages of life. All these deserve to be eliminated. If one is eliminated, another will crop up. We can not stop it. What we can do is, ward off the evil effect these desires have on us. Even that, we can not do ourselves. If one tries to do it all by one’s self, one is sure to grow old like you. Therefore as soon as one senses that the evil effect of desires is taking its toll, one should take refuge in a Guru. We have already discussed what constitutes `taking refuge’. The Sookti qualifies this with the phrase `without delay’. What happens if one postpones it? Well, you are a living example for that. Dattatreya is the Guru of all Gurus. He is the primordial Guru. May He shower compassion on you. May He draw you towards Him.

May this sermon of the Yogi illumine your hearts. Jaya Guru Datta.

© "Bhaktimala" (June 2003) published by Sri Bhakti Mala Trust, Sri Ganapati Sachchidananda Ashrama, Datta Nagar, Mysore 570 025. Reprinted with permission.

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