Guru
“You will have to sit outside and wait. One of the assistants will call you at some point in time. It is all random though, so do not complain if someone who had come after you gets to speak with the Guru before you”
I did not like what I heard. But having traveled that far, didn’t want my ego to deprive me of whatever experience destiny had in store that day. A friend of mine suggested I visit this Guru in a remote village - “If you want to seek answers for anything at all”. So here I was after a good two hour drive from the city and then another hour or so on a dusty road that led to this half village, half forest location.
There were quite a few cars, some luxurious included, that were parked outside the tiny two room hut. “Those who came in luxurious cars must be here for health and those who came in Ola cabs or small cars must be here for wealth” I assumed rather disdainfully. I was not sure what category I fell into given my car. “Doesn’t matter. I am here neither for health nor wealth anyways”.
I waited in the outer room of the two room hut, stuffed along with some twenty other people. It was summer but the heat was not as bad as it was in the city, probably due to the green surroundings and the simple (actually no) furnishings of the hut. However I’d have rather preferred a trek in the forest to this wait for an unknown amount of time for an unknown person. “If they do not call me in the next 30 minutes, I will walk out” I promised myself, though I was not sure if that would be considered sacrilege and I’d be pulled up and yelled at by some discipline enforcing disciple. I waited nevertheless with the rest of the crowd, each looking extremely respectful and eager to meet the Guru.
Hardly ten minutes passed when someone tapped me gently and pointed to the second room. I was glad my wait was over and got up with a smug expression of being a ‘chosen one’ (there were still a good number of people who have been waiting there before I came in). Suddenly I felt respect for the Guru as I felt he had a very good capability of judging people !
“You don’t need to tell me anything about yourself. I don’t care” the Guru thundered, may be his way of forcing people to come to the point quickly.
I looked at him. It was difficult to guess his age as the beard was mostly black, the skin on the face rather smooth and the eyes really bright and inquisitive. The rest of his body from head to toe was covered in some multi colored clothing. I must say I was slightly disappointed because the color of his clothes was not saffron. The man radiated some kind of calmness though.
“Quickly spell out your problem. I will either try to help you or save both our time by asking you to leave”
“I do not have a problem, actually. I was here out of curiosity as my friend spoke very highly of you. I just wanted to talk but can leave if you wish so” my ego nudged itself into the conversation.
“May be you should leave then. But since you have come this far I can try and answer any one question you may ask. It could be for someone you know” he ignored the hint of ego in my voice.
“I will ask you about what many people discuss quite passionately on the internet now a days. You know internet, computer etc. right?” He nodded impatiently asking me to continue.
“Tell me what is Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism. It seems like a vexed topic of late”
“Is that all or do you have anymore follow up questions”
“That is all for this visit. I will leave after whatever answer you provide”
“It is very simple. Just think of three entities. God, World and You. You can imagine whatever shape or form or name you believe in for God. For the world, you may imagine your routine life with all its characters, troubles and travails or, you may imagine whatever you think the world is. I don’t care really”
My mind was racing with extrapolations. Was this guy one of those brilliant scientists who, having realised the futility of it all, became a spiritual seeker? What could be this guys past? Where was he born and what was he before he became a guru?
There were too many questions that cropped up. The man waited for a couple of seconds, knowing probably what was going on with me, and then asked me again to if I had those three entities in my mind. I nodded in the affirmative.
“The objective is to realize God. Listen to this carefully now. OK”
“OK” I was all eagerness and ears.
“You, the individual, is made of a physical body and some learning - all acquired in the world. That learning is made of secondary and primary inputs. Secondary is when you learn from someone and primary is when you experience. The learning gives you your views, opinions, thoughts of all sorts and essentially gives you and the world a sense of each other”
I wanted to blurt out that I knew all this. This is all ‘motherhood statements’ as they say in the corporate world. “Give me the real dope” I wanted to say. He took sometime before he spoke again though. May be he was allowing my mind to settle down and grasp these inputs without mixing them with my worldview.
“Gnana yoga is when you step away from the world, challenge every piece of knowledge and learning you got from it - including the definitions, names and forms of God - and in the stubborn isolation of mind and body, pursue a single thought of nameless, formless God”
“Still a thought?”
“Yes. Until the thought becomes a sense. And then that sense, instead of all the past learning and your old idea of you and world, will define your experience henceforth. When this sense starts directing all your other senses, you will see God everywhere and in everything”
I remained silent. This seemed simple enough to understand but I don’t think the Guru meant it to be understood and learnt.
“Karma Yoga is when you accept the world as it is. You accept the world and its vagaries as acts of God and therefore, accept every situation and task that you face as a direct instruction from God. You complete each task and handle each situation to the best of your ability, remembering again that every item of the configuration that makes a situation or task, is owned by God. Since your objective is to realize God, you accept everything as it is and keep moving. Since the owner of your work too is God, its returns too - all the good and bad - go to the God. You just be a sink of all that awaits you”
“A question here. What is my ability? And what is good and bad?”
“Like I said. Your ability is whatever you have acquired from the world - itself a making of the God - and and your own mind and body. When you forget that the results of all your actions are owned by God then you accrue Karma and continuously redefine you. When you reach a state of perfection in giving up the results to their rightful owner and stop redefining yourself, you realize God”
“And good, bad?”
“They do not exist. What exists is a simple duty towards all that awaits you”
May be it was simple for him. Didn’t sound very simple to me.
“Just listen. It is simple indeed” I wouldn’t say one needs to be a sage to read the confused expression on my face.
“The last path is Bhakti Yoga. You remain in the world and accept all there is. The only difference is you identify a God for yourself and then perform only those tasks that you believe are relevant to that God. You think, talk and act only of that God, for that God and by that God. You may define a duty for yourself which entails only those tasks that keep you engaged with that God”
“Like a Meera?”
“Like a Meera”
“OK. All you just said sounds quite deep. Is there a simpler explanation?”
“Get out of the world and realize God or Stay with the world and realize God or Stay in (but not with) the world and realize God !” Thank God looks cannot kill.
“One questions remains. What is Sanatana Dharma?
“An ancient responsibility or duty - a guiding principle while following any or all of the above. All it means is this - you own your existence to many things and therefore you are bound by your duty towards them. The five elements that make up everything in this world; the parents who brought you into this world; the people, the animals, birds, bacteria, the environment in general, the ambience that help you live and thereby create an opportunity for you to realize God. All these make up your dharma or Swadharma. It is ancient because there possibly was an agreement many many ages ago, when man could still communicate with everything around him, that we shall remain friends with everything. That we shall always hold life and the objective to realize God as the highest principle and let each other pursue that path”
“So if I am practicing Karma Yoga, then upholding life and its pursuit of God as the highest principle is Sanatana Dharma?”
“Yes. And all the while performing only Swadharma”
“That was wonderful and ” he cut me off abruptly.
“Get out now and do not waste my time”
As I walked out of that small hut, I felt that I understood that the ‘cut off abruptly’ was not really something I should even think about.
Vanity is just a burden in the path of Dharma.
I did not like what I heard. But having traveled that far, didn’t want my ego to deprive me of whatever experience destiny had in store that day. A friend of mine suggested I visit this Guru in a remote village - “If you want to seek answers for anything at all”. So here I was after a good two hour drive from the city and then another hour or so on a dusty road that led to this half village, half forest location.
There were quite a few cars, some luxurious included, that were parked outside the tiny two room hut. “Those who came in luxurious cars must be here for health and those who came in Ola cabs or small cars must be here for wealth” I assumed rather disdainfully. I was not sure what category I fell into given my car. “Doesn’t matter. I am here neither for health nor wealth anyways”.
I waited in the outer room of the two room hut, stuffed along with some twenty other people. It was summer but the heat was not as bad as it was in the city, probably due to the green surroundings and the simple (actually no) furnishings of the hut. However I’d have rather preferred a trek in the forest to this wait for an unknown amount of time for an unknown person. “If they do not call me in the next 30 minutes, I will walk out” I promised myself, though I was not sure if that would be considered sacrilege and I’d be pulled up and yelled at by some discipline enforcing disciple. I waited nevertheless with the rest of the crowd, each looking extremely respectful and eager to meet the Guru.
Hardly ten minutes passed when someone tapped me gently and pointed to the second room. I was glad my wait was over and got up with a smug expression of being a ‘chosen one’ (there were still a good number of people who have been waiting there before I came in). Suddenly I felt respect for the Guru as I felt he had a very good capability of judging people !
“You don’t need to tell me anything about yourself. I don’t care” the Guru thundered, may be his way of forcing people to come to the point quickly.
I looked at him. It was difficult to guess his age as the beard was mostly black, the skin on the face rather smooth and the eyes really bright and inquisitive. The rest of his body from head to toe was covered in some multi colored clothing. I must say I was slightly disappointed because the color of his clothes was not saffron. The man radiated some kind of calmness though.
“Quickly spell out your problem. I will either try to help you or save both our time by asking you to leave”
“I do not have a problem, actually. I was here out of curiosity as my friend spoke very highly of you. I just wanted to talk but can leave if you wish so” my ego nudged itself into the conversation.
“May be you should leave then. But since you have come this far I can try and answer any one question you may ask. It could be for someone you know” he ignored the hint of ego in my voice.
“I will ask you about what many people discuss quite passionately on the internet now a days. You know internet, computer etc. right?” He nodded impatiently asking me to continue.
“Tell me what is Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism. It seems like a vexed topic of late”
“Is that all or do you have anymore follow up questions”
“That is all for this visit. I will leave after whatever answer you provide”
“It is very simple. Just think of three entities. God, World and You. You can imagine whatever shape or form or name you believe in for God. For the world, you may imagine your routine life with all its characters, troubles and travails or, you may imagine whatever you think the world is. I don’t care really”
My mind was racing with extrapolations. Was this guy one of those brilliant scientists who, having realised the futility of it all, became a spiritual seeker? What could be this guys past? Where was he born and what was he before he became a guru?
There were too many questions that cropped up. The man waited for a couple of seconds, knowing probably what was going on with me, and then asked me again to if I had those three entities in my mind. I nodded in the affirmative.
“The objective is to realize God. Listen to this carefully now. OK”
“OK” I was all eagerness and ears.
“You, the individual, is made of a physical body and some learning - all acquired in the world. That learning is made of secondary and primary inputs. Secondary is when you learn from someone and primary is when you experience. The learning gives you your views, opinions, thoughts of all sorts and essentially gives you and the world a sense of each other”
I wanted to blurt out that I knew all this. This is all ‘motherhood statements’ as they say in the corporate world. “Give me the real dope” I wanted to say. He took sometime before he spoke again though. May be he was allowing my mind to settle down and grasp these inputs without mixing them with my worldview.
“Gnana yoga is when you step away from the world, challenge every piece of knowledge and learning you got from it - including the definitions, names and forms of God - and in the stubborn isolation of mind and body, pursue a single thought of nameless, formless God”
“Still a thought?”
“Yes. Until the thought becomes a sense. And then that sense, instead of all the past learning and your old idea of you and world, will define your experience henceforth. When this sense starts directing all your other senses, you will see God everywhere and in everything”
I remained silent. This seemed simple enough to understand but I don’t think the Guru meant it to be understood and learnt.
“Karma Yoga is when you accept the world as it is. You accept the world and its vagaries as acts of God and therefore, accept every situation and task that you face as a direct instruction from God. You complete each task and handle each situation to the best of your ability, remembering again that every item of the configuration that makes a situation or task, is owned by God. Since your objective is to realize God, you accept everything as it is and keep moving. Since the owner of your work too is God, its returns too - all the good and bad - go to the God. You just be a sink of all that awaits you”
“A question here. What is my ability? And what is good and bad?”
“Like I said. Your ability is whatever you have acquired from the world - itself a making of the God - and and your own mind and body. When you forget that the results of all your actions are owned by God then you accrue Karma and continuously redefine you. When you reach a state of perfection in giving up the results to their rightful owner and stop redefining yourself, you realize God”
“And good, bad?”
“They do not exist. What exists is a simple duty towards all that awaits you”
May be it was simple for him. Didn’t sound very simple to me.
“Just listen. It is simple indeed” I wouldn’t say one needs to be a sage to read the confused expression on my face.
“The last path is Bhakti Yoga. You remain in the world and accept all there is. The only difference is you identify a God for yourself and then perform only those tasks that you believe are relevant to that God. You think, talk and act only of that God, for that God and by that God. You may define a duty for yourself which entails only those tasks that keep you engaged with that God”
“Like a Meera?”
“Like a Meera”
“OK. All you just said sounds quite deep. Is there a simpler explanation?”
“Get out of the world and realize God or Stay with the world and realize God or Stay in (but not with) the world and realize God !” Thank God looks cannot kill.
“One questions remains. What is Sanatana Dharma?
“An ancient responsibility or duty - a guiding principle while following any or all of the above. All it means is this - you own your existence to many things and therefore you are bound by your duty towards them. The five elements that make up everything in this world; the parents who brought you into this world; the people, the animals, birds, bacteria, the environment in general, the ambience that help you live and thereby create an opportunity for you to realize God. All these make up your dharma or Swadharma. It is ancient because there possibly was an agreement many many ages ago, when man could still communicate with everything around him, that we shall remain friends with everything. That we shall always hold life and the objective to realize God as the highest principle and let each other pursue that path”
“So if I am practicing Karma Yoga, then upholding life and its pursuit of God as the highest principle is Sanatana Dharma?”
“Yes. And all the while performing only Swadharma”
“That was wonderful and ” he cut me off abruptly.
“Get out now and do not waste my time”
As I walked out of that small hut, I felt that I understood that the ‘cut off abruptly’ was not really something I should even think about.
Vanity is just a burden in the path of Dharma.
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