Sri Guru Gita – 29 May 2014 – Episode 158

Jaya Guru Datta
Translated by Archana Penukonda
Guru Ashtam, Sloka 2:
Kalatram dhanam putrapautradi sarvam
Gruham bandhava sarvametaddhi jatam |
Guroranghri padme manaschenna lagnam
Tatah kim tatah kim tatah kim tatah kim ||

The house is abuzz with joyous activity like Nanda Gokulam (where Lord Krishna grew up) with wife, wealth, children, grandsons, granddaughters. Hearing the grand child call him “grand father” is a source of so much joy. That his wife will not eat till he comes back home is a source of so much joy. Aha! Why do they have so much love for him? The crux of the matter is “Dhanam meru tulyam” (from Sloka 1 in Guru Ashtakam, meaning wealth as big as Mount Meru). The reason is hidden in money.

A man has a big diamond necklace. The heirs are waiting for him to die. The diamonds are very big. This man is always wearing it. All these people around him pretend to love him a lot. The love is not for him, it’s for the necklace. Once in a while, they keep wishing that he dies. In their minds, they are waiting for him to pass away. And then there are relatives. Where there is jaggery, won’t there be house flies? Your relatives are flocking to you because you have wealth, mansions, education, power, influence and much more just as house flies surround a piece of jaggery. If you didn’t have these possessions, would any relative even look at you? Place an announcement in the newspaper one day that you’ve lost all your wealth and have become a pauper. Even your wife will not treat your properly thereafter. Take off the diamond necklace and place the announcement in the newspaper and see the events unfold.

There is no unselfish love in worldly life (samsara). It is always selfish. Each one is intertwined with the other due to desire and selfishness. To pass on the sweetness from one piece of sugarcane to another, God has intertwined so. It is strange. There is no use of all of this because your mind is not absorbed in the Guru. That is why, first, focus your mind on the Guru. When your mind is absorbed in the Guru, all these will seem even more beautiful to you. They will cause more joy. Not only that, renunciation will also become easy. When necessary, such a person can drop everything and leave. Such dispassion will arise in you. Generosity will fill your being. Such a person will withstand all difficulties without getting dejected. A lot of people develop a lot of fear and lose sleep over little things. They struggle a lot because they have too much attachment. That is why they are saying here that when you want to share your wealth, when you want it to be useful to other people, when you want it to be of service to Guru, renunciation will come to you automatically.

No amount of praise or discussion on the Guru Principle is enough. For every instance, for every minute, Sankara Bhagavadpada (who composed this hymn) has specific advice for each person. Depending on the ego of each person, depending on their personal values, he described what each person can and cannot attain.

Jaya Guru Datta.