Sri Guru Gita – 20 July 2014 – Episode 210

Jaya Guru Datta Pranams Sri Appaji _/\_!!
Humble pranams at the Lotus feet of Our Dattatreya Avataara Sadgurudeva _/\_!!

Jaya Guru Datta. Episode summary:

Jaya Guru Datta.
Next, Bharadwaja. Remember that to acquire knowledge from a Guru requires firm determination. It’s an initiation. One will need to toil without annoyance or rest. You should not look for rest in between. “I need some rest. Ohh, I’m tired of reading the Bhagavatam over and over again. Let me take just a little rest, let me go for a stroll to take in some fresh air”. You should not even be irked or annoyed. Nor should you be bored. “Why do I have to read the same thing over and over?” You should be so immersed in what you are reading, you should become a part of what you are reading so that there isn’t even the effort in reading again.

“I’ve chanted the name of the Lord thousands of times”, “I’ve chanted the name of the Lord millions of times, tens of millions of times. I’ve used the rosary so much, look my finger is swollen. The rosary has fallen apart, my hand is all swollen and I am vexed with all this”. The moment you are vexed or annoyed, all your chanting and penance is like performing a Yajna in water (i.e., all your chanting and penance is a waste). That’s it. Closed. Your penance, your initiation becomes like a fistful of salt thrown into the sea. It just melts into the salt of the sea. You cannot search for it after.

One needs a firm vow of determination. Effort without annoyance and rest is required. You should never be annoyed or vexed. Those who are never annoyed will not even feel tired. They are always enthusiastic doing service to the Guru. The moment you think, “None of those people are doing anything, why am I alone doing this?”, you are ruined; you will fall from yogic grace. In case you are wondering who is a Yoga Bhrashta (someone who falls from Yogic grace), it is person like this.

After toiling hard with a lot of devotion towards the Guru, if you suddenly one day get irked and feel, “My Guru has said this to me, he humiliated me”, you will fall from Yogic grace, you will become a Trishanku Yoga Bhrashta (Trishanku denotes the middleground or limbo between one’s goals or desires and one’s current state of possessions).

The more the Guru chides you, the more your sins are getting washed off. You are forgetting that he is drawing you closer to himself. “He was unjust towards me, he was not fair to me. Oh, he did not give me anything”. Is this something that can be put in a bag and given to you? He (the Guru) will not even give that.

Spiritual practice is like that too. There should be no room for annoyance or rest. You should never even utter the word, “Boredom”. “I have heard this bhajan so many times. Why couldn’t he sing a new bhajan”. Done. All the merit from listening to the bhajan previously has been destroyed. It is closed. You must instead say, “I can never hear it enough number of times”.

So, be careful and remember that spiritual practice is also like that. Guru gives various kinds of techniques, bestowing various kinds of knowledge removing each kind of ignorance from us. We do not even realize that he is working on us. We are administered anesthesia prior to being operated on by the doctor. Without even administering anesthesia, the only doctor who operates on us to remove our wavering nature and our sins is the Guru. All other kinds of doctors do something else. That is why we should be careful. We should not waver. We should not be annoyed. We should never complain of boredom. We should not say “Next” (looking for the next command from the Guru).

Whatever has been asked of you should be immediately acted on. You should not say, “He asked me to do something else before, so let me finish that before I come to this”. You must immediately carry out whatever he asked you to now. Once this task is complete, you can go back to the previous task. You should never forget about the previous task.

This is not something that will be done in a day or in a year. Some people demand instant liberation. It’s like saying, “I need liberation immediately. Urgent! Urgent! I arrived here after booking my return trip. I have to leave by the evening train. So, if I get liberation immediately, I can take the evening train back”. If you are given liberation, how will you go back by train, you may go under the train. There are some people that occasionally come up to ask for liberation immediately. I tell them that they are mad.

Jaya Guru Datta.