Nature the true guru

Tue, May 13 12:10 AM

Once, King Yadu encountered the happy hermit Dattatreya and said, "Every being is driven by some longing. But you live in a forest, free from all desires. What is the secret of your happiness, and the name of your guru?" Dattatreya said, "The Self alone is my Guru. My bliss is the fruit of self-realisation. Yet I have learnt wisdom from 24 gurus."

Surprised, Yadu said, "Please Sir, elaborate."

Dattatreya said, "We human beings live on this earth, plough, dig and damage it in many ways. Yet the earth never swerves from its course and feeds all creatures on it. Seeing this I learned that the wise never deviate from patience. So the earth is my first guru."

"The air blows on sweet and foul smelling things without any discrimination. Though it momentarily seems to take on the smell of its surroundings, it soon regains its pristine quality: I learned that a spiritual aspirant should live in the world unaffected by the dualities of life like joy and sorrow."

"The sky contains the air, the stars, the clouds, dust, and so on, but itself remains untouched. At sunrise or at night, it seems to take on different colours, but in fact it maintains its colourless Self (Atma). The lesson from this guru is to remain untouched by anything in the phenomenal universe."

"The characteristic of water is coolness. It nourishes and nurses all life. Water acquires the shape of its container and thus teaches us to be unassuming, while being benevolent and beneficial to the Universe."

"A bee makes honey with great diligence, but a honey-gatherer comes and takes the honey away. Undeterred, the bee again starts again. Man should, like the bee, not be disheartened by calamities."

"A raven got hold of a piece of flesh. It was pursued and pecked by other birds. When raven dropped the piece, it attained peace. The lesson learnt is not to be greedy, that we attract trouble if excessively attached to worldly things." So bit by bit, the rishi taught the king wisdom...

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