Guru and Disciple

Author(s): Dada Bhagwan
Publisher: Mahavideh Foundation

Page 35

The Guru and the Disciple
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A conduct deficiency in disciples
In the Kramic path, the guru is at the head and he has two or three disciples with him, not more. Our scriptures have expounded on the fact that a true disciple will follow the guru step-by-step and there will be at least two or three such disciples. That path is very rigid, is it not? There the guru will tell you to give away your dinner plate to someone else. Then the disciple will say, 'No Sahib, I cannot afford to do that. I will go back home." Who would stay there! Therefore, the writers of scriptures have said that behind each Gnani of the Kramic path there are two or four disciples, not more.
Questioner: Do the disciples not have even that much energy force or power to follow through (charitrabud)?
Dadashri: Yes, but where would they get that energy from? What capabilities do they all have? If they are all eating and one of them does not get any shrikhand (sweet yoghurt pudding), then he will get upset. He has so much irritation in just one day and in just one meal. He keeps getting irritated. In fact, if he gets less shrikhand than others do, even then he gets irritated. Where will such people get their charitrabud?
And one day if I say to everyone, 'If you are served something that you like, then you should taste it and immediately pass it on to someone else and eat whatever you do not like to eat.' Then what would happen?
Questioner: Everyone would walk away.
Dadashri: Yes, they would walk away. "Good bye, Dada," they will say! And later they will greet me by saying, "Jai Shri Krishna" from afar, from the other side of the fence!
What is it like for the gurus in the Kramic path? The gurus believe that the vyavahar (interactions) that they are doing is real and true and they are the doers of it, so this is what one must
The Guru and the Disciple
renounce. That is the way the worldly life is. When the worldly life is based on illusion and a person looks for knowledge in it, is he likely to find it? What do you think? Will he be able to find it?
Questioner: No.
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Dadashri: The path is fundamentally wrong there! And that is why the Gnanis of the Kramic path and their disciples are bogged down with worries. There is nothing but suffering. If you tell three disciples, "Today, learn the Charan Vidhi by heart and learn this many pados (hymns) by heart,' one of them will scratch his head wondering how will he accomplish it? He goes home and tries to learn it by heart, but since he cannot, he spends the entire night being restless. He reads and bickers. While he bickers, he feels a certain dislike towards the guru for giving him such a cumbersome task. If a disciple does not like doing what the guru commands, his feelings towards the guru become negative. Such is the Kramic path. Even the guru thinks to himself, "Today, if he does not carry out my orders, I am going to tell him off!' Now when the disciple goes to the guru, on the way there he feels apprehensive, worrying about what the guru will say to him. Hey! Why did you make him your guru in the first place? You would have been better off the way you were. You should have stayed without a guru if you have so much fear of being reprimanded! It would have been better if you did not have a guru. Learn to accept some scolding to progress spiritually. Should you not taste a diet of scolding?
In the morning, all the disciples come to meet the guru. Two of them have followed the guru's instructions, while one has not. They go and sit with the guru and he can tell just by looking at their faces which disciple failed to follow his instructions. It is written all over his face that he has done nothing. The guru gets frustrated in his mind and thinks, "He does not do anything.' Since the disciple did not learn his assignment by heart, the guru rebukes him. The guru's eyes, which have turned red, remain that way. The guru