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PRABUDDH JEEVAN
wards such a guru can only be natural; the guru's love is also of the same kind. Hence the one is always ready to give and the other is always ready to receive. Common knowledge, on the other hand, is something which we can accept from anyone. I can learn a lot from a carpenter with whom I have no connection and of whose faults I am aware; I can acquire knowledge of carpentry from him just as I purchase goods from a shopkeeper. Of course, a certain type of faith is required even here. I cannot learn carpentry from a carpenter if I do not have faith in his knowledge of that subject. Guru bhakti is an altogether different matter. In character-building, which is the object of education, the relationship between the guru and his disciples is of utmost importance and where there is no guru bhakti in its pure form; there can be no character-buildig.'26
Mahatma Gandhi described, `Guru is Brahma, Guru is Vishnu, Guru is God Siva. Guru verily is the supreme Brahman; to that guru I bow. I am convinced there are strong reasons for the Hindu belief concerning the greatness of the guru. That is why I have been looking for the true meaning of the word `guru' and saying time and again that I am in quest of a guru. The guru in whom Brahma, Vishnu and Siva merge and who is the Supreme Brahman Himself cannot be an embodied man with his humours and diseases. He will possess the powers of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. In other words, He can only be an ideal being. This guru, our desired god, can only be God who is the embodiment of Truth. Hence the quest for such a guru is the quest for God. If we look at the matter thus. the meaning of all that the writer has said is easily understood. One who can show us God is certainly fit to be guru and may be said to be greater than God. We see God's creatures suffering in many ways. Anyone who can free us from this web would deserve a place superior to God's. This is also the meaning of the saying: 'The servant of Rama is greater than Rama.' The meaning of all these great utterances is so simple that if we examine them with a pure heart we shall not be led astray. Every such great utterance has an indispensable condition attached to it. One who frees us from desire, anger and so on, intiates us into the religion of love, frees us from fear, teaches us simplicity, gives us not only the 1 This is not translated here. The writer had referred approvingly to Gandhiji's view that no living being should be worshipped and no man could be called
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well while yet alive but had pointed out that, according to Hindu tradition God could be reached only by the grace of the guru and therefore one could worship the guru. He gave the instaance of a Marwari devotee from Calcutta being received by the crowds in Bombay with drums and cymbals. Intellingence to establish identity with the poorest of the poor but also the heart to feel such identity is certainly, for us, more than God. This does not mean that such a servant of God by himself is greater than God. If we fall into the sea we shall be drowned. However, If we drink, when we are thirsty, a jugful of water from the Ganga which flows into the sea, taking it from near the source, that Ganga water is more to us than the sea. But the same Ganga water is like poison if taken at the point where the Ganga meets the sea. The same is true with regard to the guru. To accept as guru one who is full of conceit and arrogance and hungering to be served is like drinking the poisonous water of the Ganga that carries all manner of filth into the sea. Today we practice adharma in the name of dharma. We cherish hypocrisy in the name of truth and degrade ourselves as well as others by pretending to be possessed of spiritual knowledge and usurping all kinds of worship. At such a time dharma consists in refusing to accept anyone as guru. It is doubly sinful, when a true guru cannot be found, to set up a clary figure and make a guru of it. But so long as a true guru is not found there is merit in going on saying `Not this. Not this', and it may one day lead to our finding a true guru.
There are many hazards in trying to go against the current. I have had, as I continue to have, many experiences bitter and sweet of this. I have learnt but one thing from these, viz. that whatever is immoral and must be opposed should be opposed, even if one is all alone in opposing it. And one should have the faith that if the opposition is truthful it will one day surely bear fruit. A devotee who is after eulogy or worship, who is offended if not given honour, is no devotee. The true service of a devotee is to become a devotee oneself. Hence I oppose, wherever possible, the worship of human beings which is in vogue nowadays and urge other to do likewise.'27
Mahatma Gandhi said, 'I had accepted many persons in this world as my gurus, but I am not in that position. I have said, on the contrary, that I am still in search of a guru in religious matters. It is my belief,
| SR No. | 525999 |
| Book Title | Prabuddha Jivan 2014 Year 62 Ank 01 to 12 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Dhanvant Shah |
| Publisher | Mumbai Jain Yuvak Sangh |
| Publication Year | 2014 |
| Total Pages | 700 |
| Language | Gujarati |
| Classification | Magazine, India_Prabuddha Jivan, & India |
| File Size | 19 MB |