Guru and Disciple

Author(s): Dada Bhagwan
Publisher: Mahavideh Foundation

Page 12

The Guru and the Disciple
11
The Guru and the Disciple
Everyone makes animals their gurus, but these people do not call the animals their gurus, whereas Dattatreya did! If someone were to beat an animal, it would flee. That is what people have leamed; they have learned that if someone beats them, they should run away. People have learned this from the animals.
Moreover, you will not attain liberation by calling just the animals your guru; you will have to make the entire world your guru in order to attain liberation. If you make every living being your guru, and learn whatever you can from them, you will attain liberation. God is present in every living being so if you embrace and learn from them, you will attain liberation.
Did you understand the concept of a guru? Questioner: Yes.
Dadashri: Your experiences too are your guru. Your experiences will guide you from within. The experience, which does not become a cause to guide you, is not an experience. That is why these are all gurus.
have parigraha (acquisitive tendency towards material things). We can learn from them too. So everything we learn from is our guru. The dog does not want to become our guru but if we consider it our guru, then the lesson we learn from it will give results. This is the real way!
If you trip and fall down over something, that too is your guru. How can a person progress without a guru? If you are walking on a road and you trip and fall, the obstructing object may say, 'What will you lose by looking down a little when you walk?' Therefore, I see a guru everywhere and in everything. Whatever you learn from, consider that as your guru. If you learn and gain something by tripping, then you should consider it your guru. I have gained many benefits from everything in this way.
There should be no annoyance towards the guru. Today all knowledge has been obstructed because of annoyance with the idea of a guru. The one who opposes the idea of a guru has been stung in
the past life It is not possible to do without a guru. If someone says, "You can do without a guru,' it is a contradiction. In this world, it is not possible to proceed without a guru, whether it is a technical matter or otherwise. Such a statement is worthless. People ask me why so many people make such statements, I tell them that they do so without an understanding and that they do not mean any harm by it. They are merely expressing in this life the aversion they had for their guru in their past life.
Questioner: Why would that repulsion have arisen towards the guru?
Dadashri: When people say there is no need for a guru, do you know what that is comparable to? Once, when I was young, I threw up while eating doodhpaak (milk pudding). I may have vomited because of something else; it was not necessarily
One man was limping and another man began to make fun of him and laugh at him. A little later, he happened to meet me and told me that he had made fun of someone, but then suddenly he realized what he was doing and asked himself whether he saw the Soul within the limping man. He said he immediately became aware of Gnan.
So everything teaches us. Every experience teaches us something. If just once, someone were to pick your pocket, that experience will teach you a lesson and that lesson will remain with you.
If you can learn from a dog, you should learn from it. Even dogs can be considered gurus. A dog can be sitting here for an hour and half, then if we give him some food, he will eat only as much as he can and will leave the rest. He will not be greedy or