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entire world. Who can become supreme upiri? None except the one who has become the disciple of the entire world can become the upiri of the world.
Questioner: Lord Dattatraya adopted the good attributes from wherever he could and from whomever he could and it is said that in his life He had twenty-four gurus. Now the scriptures say that one should have only one guru. Please shed some light on this.
Dadashri: One needs to make the whole world his guru. Attain gnan knowledge from wherever you can, but what does it mean when they say that there should be one guru? It means that one guru is needed for the kindergarden level, one for the first standard, one for the second standard etc. The person who goes to college will need twenty-four gurus and the one going to graduate school-university level will need to become a disciple of the whole world. That is why 'we' have become a disciple of the whole world. This will be the case for the upper level college. But before that, how long should a person have one guru only? One guru is fine for the levels of the kindergarden, the first standard, the second standard; one guru will suffice for the lower standards where children are taught, 'for the time being, do only this much and do not look anywhere else. Otherwise, everything will be ruined. In this way they establish a base for them. Then as the standards progress, they have to make the whole world their guru. The lower standards have to make only one guru. A person may tell me, 'Sir I have made one guru', then I would understand right away that he is in the second stardard. I will tell him, 'You are right.' Does that solve your question?
Questioner: Yes, it did.
Dadashri: Ultimately, it is worth making every living being on the earth your guru. What did Lord Mahavir do? He made every living being of this world his guru and he lived as their disciple. That is because there is always something to learn from every living being.