Sri Sadguru Mahime

Author: Charana Dasa

Translator: Shri.Ganesh Prasad

Chapter 86 : Social Service

Once a college lecturer had come to meet Gurunatha, he was an active member of a religious organization and was trying to establish himself as a social worker. Trying to push one of his organization’s resolutions, the lecturer said Gurunatha should educate people about the importance of cows and help eradicate cow slaughter.

Gurunatha replied. “While I appreciate your noble intentions behind this, have you paid any attention to what will happen to those families who are entirely dependent on this for their two square meals? If you ban cow slaughter, what is your suggestion to these families about, what should they do to earn a living? Can you put forth your ideas on that first?”

Gurunatha continued.. “Let me suggest one thing.. you have about 16 lakh rupees deposited in the bank(giving him the exact amount he had kept in the bank) you shall distribute it among those affected families before you push for cow slaughter ban, will that be acceptable to you? That would be a real social service”. The lecturer was speechless.

“It is a misconception that those who have lakhs deposited in banks lead a peaceful, happy life. Happiness and tranquility have to come from inside. You can accumulate things that are supposed to make you happy but you cannot collect happiness itself. How much ever money you may have, what you can eat is a small quantity of rice isn’t it?”

Once an insurance agent met Guruantha, probably by force of habit, he suggested that Gurunatha should insure his life. Gurunatha replied “When there is no ‘assurance’ that this body will stay, how can I ‘insure’ it? Don’t know when Eashwara will give a pink slip to this body, if you keep money aside thinking that it will help you in times of distress, you are giving a red carpet welcome to distress or misfortune isn’t it? If at all you want to make a deposit, you should put a deposit in God’s bank and that deposit should be of our good conduct and being in his namasmarana(a spiritual exercise of repeating God’s name). Once you do that, a Sadguru will take you along life’s journey making sure you are never in any distress.

Once this Charanadasa tried shooing away the dogs which were moving around among a group of devotees, Gurunatha stopped and asked me why I was doing it. He went on to say “ This house does not belong to me or you, we go away from here if we are bored, we talk about others, these dogs won’t do it. Do they? They stay in this house more than us; this house belongs/means more to them than us, isn’t it? His words that day had taken the meaning of ‘equality’ to a new level.

He continued, “A dog’s saliva has got poison, a snake has venom in its teeth. But, a man’s entire body is venomous, his jealousy and conceit make the whole society venomous too. It is a big misconception that we think our bodies are beautiful, if you don’t take bath for a few days you would know how beautiful your body is, the animals never take bath do they? But still a cow’s urine even the cow dung is useful. Can you name one part of the human body that will be useful?

But, there is one thing that can be done only when you take birth as a human being, which most of us fail to do and that is Sadhana (moving in the path of self enquiry to achieve spiritual enlightenment/eternal bliss).

For Copies of Sadguru Mahime English and Kannada, Guru Bandhus can contact 94810 25416.

Unauthorised copy and distribution in any way without the permission of the Original Author is strictly prohibited.