Being with Guruji Sri M - ( Vikom Retreat -Part 4 )
14.12.2013 (Saturday)
Final day of the retreat had arrived and all of us were looking forward for another exciting day Sir.
Satsang: Morning 9AM to 10AM
Kalathil Lake Resort, Vikom : Kerala, India
Sir let us choose topic of our choice. Finally based on the Majority Sir decided "Guru" as the topic for satsang for the last day of this retreat.
What is the meaning of Guru?
Mere words cannot express Guru.it is not possible to explain Guru with the language we have.
Gu -hidden
Ru- Rudra; So GuRu is Dispeller of darkness.
When ever we talk of Guru`s, Ramakrishna Pramahamsa is among the most important example of them. He was a model Guru and had 12 disciples; he never discriminated between them. He always treated all of them as equals. Though Vivekananda was one of his disciples; Premananda and Ramakrishnanda are among the most evolved of this disciples. He always treated his disciples in a required manner. eg: I will tell it through a story: Once when Ramakrishna Paramahmsa and his disciples were passing by a boat, few people in the boat made fun of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa; so Ramakrishnanda walked towards the boat, he is very well build and has a personality of a wrestler, Ramakrishnanda held the boat and turned it a bit to scare the fun makers and warned them to not repeat such incidents; once he returned back to his guru proudly. Ramakrishna Paramahmsa told Ramakrishnanda if that is the way to behave with common people and told him to smile and ignore next time when such acts repeat. On another instance when similar instance took place Premananda looked at the people making fun of his guru and smiled at them. Ramakrishna Paramahmsa scolds Premananda telling if he has no shame to see his Guru made fun of.
In a Guru, external manifestation is not important. To a guru his worlds should come from heart, he has nothing to hide with his disciples; he is all pervading and full. This reminds me a story. A poor man when born, at the age of 55 becomes very rich and had everything, this man decides to turn spiritual and asks his wife to join him on the spiritual journey, she rejects the offer. Now this rich man starts looking out for a cook during his journey; eventually he finds a cook and he sets of to his journey with cook and his books. He camps at an Oasis and reads all the books he has. After 7 years , he realizes that he needs a guru to guide him; so he leaves his cook at the camp and goes in search of a Guru, after few days he finds a young man; who is very knowledgeable and hence the rich man requested the young man to take as his disciple and guide him. The young man could not accept him as he had his own problems to be sorted out forehand, so he replied the rich man he cannot accept him as his disciple until his problem is solved, so the rich man asks what is his problem and the young man tells that his Guru has run away 7 years back and he is not able to find him; he goes on describing how his Guru looks. To the rich man shock, the description matches that of his cook; so the rich man requests the young man to visit his camp and clarify his doubt if his cook might be his Guru. They both walk to the camp and the young man sees that his Guru has been cooking food to this rich man for past 7 years, the young man asks his guru why is he doing it and the cook answered "It took 7 years to make the rich man realize that he needs a teacher".
My Guru Maheshwarnathji walked me on spiritual path. Everyone around him used to feel his presence. When he used to walk in; everyone used to go silent; that was the energy he radiated, it was also contributed by the fact that he was 6 '2', fair and kept smiling, his smiles melted hearts, even elephants melted before my guru, there is something that happened when we were in Mouni baba`s cave near Rishikesh, Once many Bairagi sadhus came to my guru and complained about a rouge elephant near Neelkant that was killing sadhus. My guru resisted telling them to complain to forest department, eventually he accepted that he will take care of it. That day night, my guru woke me up and took me up hill, we saw a Leopard, it stared at us, and I started chanting “Om Gurubhyoo Namaha”, after some time the leopard left us, suddenly from nowhere an elephant charged at us. Seeing my guru it stopped a few meters away from us. My Guru talked to it about something. Elephant knelled and trumpeted. Later Maheshwarnathji scolded elephant saying, "if this is the way elephants behave? Why are you killing innocent sadhus? You should behave well". Then my Guru told me to do pranams to elephant. I bowed before it, it blessed me and trumpeted.
Always learn and see and then practice from a Guru but never imitate him. This reminds me of a story : Once a Toddy (Local Alcohol) shop owner will be praying for his Guru to visit him, accidentally his guru walks by his shop with his disciples who are thirsty and steps in to his shop. Toddy shop owner says he has nothing to offer but tortoise meat and toddy, Guru tells him to serve toddy, guru drinks one glass bottoms up and asks for another glass, the owner refills it; rest of the disciples drink their stomach full one after another and are total drunk. When they walk out they have no balance, they walk like snakes. Next at a foundry shop, guru stops seeing his disciple and gets in to the shop. He asks him what he has, so the owner says he has only liquid iron. Guru asks for it in a glass and drinks it without much hassle. Now he stares at his disciples and tells them drink as much as they want.
Book Review: http://yellareddy.livejournal.com/67523.html
Part1: http://yellareddy.livejournal.com/71434.html
Part2: http://yellareddy.livejournal.com/71819.html
Part3:http://yellareddy.livejournal.com/72122.html
Part4: http://yellareddy.livejournal.com/72250.htmlPictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30155173@N06/sets/72157638845101054/