Sri Sadguru Mahime

Author: Charana Dasa

Translator: Shri.Ganesh Prasad

Chapter 44: The silent one..

 

Gurunatha was very soft at heart, he would never hurt anyone. As he wore a rough exterior, people thought of him to be ill tempered. Not many people could see the soft childlike innocence behind that rough exterior.

One of his wife’s relatives was in areca nut business. Thanks to Guru’s blessings the business was going well and they had a turnover of over a crore. Gurunatha always used to tell us “One who does not let money, power and youth get into his head even when having all of them at once, can only go on to become a complete person”.

People in this family changed their behavior after they became rich. Gurunatha used to look at them with the same affection as before. The daughter of that family had not got an alliance yet. One day Gurunatha coming out of the Shiva temple, as was his regular practice started to distribute flowers and fruits visiting every house on the road. Doing this he came to this relative’s house as well and called out the daughter of the family and gave her some dried grapes. But, her ego had got the better of her and she threw back the grapes at Gurunatha saying “Let your grapes be with you, I don’t want them”. Unruffled by the hostility shown, Gurunatha only said to one of his followers ...” See what kind of behavior” and moved on.

Her brother used to roam around the town on his two-wheeler always, even while taking cattle out to grazing. One day when it rained and Gurunatha was returning to his house, this person purposefully drove into a puddle near him and got Gurunatha’s clothes soiled. Gurunatha only said “See what kind of relatives are these” and moved on. Not understanding Gurunatha’s silence they kept on humiliating Gurunatha in various forums.

Fed up with all this, once Gurunatha tapped on his thigh and said “You may have to come and fall at my feet one day” and went inside.

That year being greedy they had bought a lot of areca nut for reselling. They had a shock waiting for them. Areca nut prices which were rising till then plummeted, they started accumulating debts. They could not repay their debts as they did not have any other source of income. Financial status of the house started to take a toll on the serenity and happiness of the family. Lenders started harassing them. They had to sell whatever little farm land they had. Still the debts could not be repaid. Alcoholism and diseases crept into the family. Son of the family could not bear the humiliation and even attempted to commit suicide, he was saved by Gurunatha. They could not even afford two square meals at one point of time. The son could not bear the humiliation and surrendered to Gurunatha. Gurunatha called the lenders and spoke to them, paid some debt from his own money and got some debt written off.

The girl who had thrown back grapes at Gurunatha did not have anyone to get her married off. Forgiving the girl for all the humiliation she had done to him, Gurunatha finished her parents’ responsibility.

The incidents and characters are not of importance here but what stands out is how Gurunatha stayed silent offering all admirations, humiliations to Eshwara.

Gurunatha used to jokingly twist a Sanskrit proverb to say.. The silent one becomes enemyless and also gets a lot of food! His silence was a great quality that we should adopt and follow.

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