Gospel on Guru Purnima-2003

Morning Discourse

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

Today all of you have surrendered Guru Dakshina in the form of some money at My feet for the sake of propagation of divine knowledge and devotion to Lord Datta. The full moon today represents gold or a silver coin (money), which you have to surrender to Guru as Guru Dakshina. Every month, you have to do this on every full moon day and this is reminded by the full moon. But every human being cannot be a Guru. He shall be a Sadguru which means the Lord in human form. Only then your money is properly utilized. The money proves your real love. To whom are you giving the money? To your children. So, your real love is on your children, simple and straight test. If you have real love on the Lord, you will give that money to the Lord. No more argument. This is the practical test. Prayers by words and meditation by mind are only the ways to prove your devotion on God to others, which is not real. Of course, they act as side pickles if the main item i.e., rice is present in the meal. The main item here is Guru Dakshina, which is called as Karma Phala Tyaaga i.e., sacrificing the fruit (money) of your work for the sake of God. Without the Gurudakshina, simply by singing and thinking about God is like offering a meal plate in which only pickles are present. You should recognize the Sadguru so that your Guru Dakshina does not go waste and misused.

The Sadguru is to be recognized by the infinite true knowledge possessed by Him. The Veda says, ‘Satyaṃ Jñānam ...’, which means that the Lord in human form should be recognized by His true and infinite knowledge. The four greatest statements from the four Vedas also say the same. The first three statements say that God appears in human form like Me, like you and like him. The last statement says that such human incarnation is recognized by His special knowledge. Even scholars give knowledge but their knowledge gives you a headache. The knowledge of the Lord touches your heart and gives you immense pleasure as said by the Veda, ‘Ānando Brahma’. So, by His blissful knowledge, you can recognize the Lord like the fire is recognized by heat. Miracles are not His identity marks. Miracles are performed even by demons like Ravana etc. They are the jewels of the Lord, which are taken by the demons through rigid penance. Demons are also the foolish children of the Lord. So He gives those jewels to the demons as they do penance for them. But by these jewels, demons could not become God, as they could not get His inherent quality i.e., blissful, true and infinite knowledge. Demons claimed that they are God. But sages did not agree for the same reason.

The entire Bhagavad Gita stresses on this Karma Phala Tyaaga. The first hymn of the first Upanishad (Īśāvāsyam) says that you should return the extra money you have earned to the lord, which is not permitted by Him. It says that this entire world is His wealth only. Gopikas donated the fruit of their whole work viz., butter to the Lord in human form (Krishna), avoiding even their children and reached the 15^th uppermost world called ‘Goloka’. They also surrendered their bodies to the Lord. This body is also the fruit of your previous action called ‘Prarabdha’. By this, they sacrificed even justice and did not even fear for Hell. Their love to the Lord was the highest and so the Lord granted the highest world to them. Their Gurudakshina was everything i.e., their money (butter), their bodies, their minds, their words etc., and what not?

Lord was misunderstood that He was always after Gopikas and not males. He was abused as a fan of women. What is the secret in this? A man is surrounded by several egoistic (Rajas) qualities. But a woman has several submissive qualities (Sattvam) like fear, obedience etc., which are required for salvation. This is the reason why the male sages were born as Gopikas to attain the salvation. According to Lord Datta, any soul has to take the last birth as a woman. But, this does not mean that every woman is in the last birth.

A hunter called Kannappa sacrificed his eyes to the Lord, which are the best parts of the body and is the best Guru Dakshina. Veda says that you can earn the minimum which is required by yourself and your family which is permitted by the Lord and not extra. If you have taken extra, return it to the Lord. For example, when you have gone to your friend’s house, you are offered a cup of milk. You can drink the milk but not take away the cup. Veda says that if you have taken extra, you are a thief and it is a sin. If you return the extra, you will be excused by the Lord. Otherwise, that sinful extra money will lead you to all problems. Some devotees offer even from their minimum or sometimes even their entire minimum. Patil, a devotee of Shirdi Saibaba used to offer his entire annual crop to Baba and took back whatever was given by Baba. When a rich man came for the spiritual knowledge, Baba said, ‘You could not give Rs 5/- required by Me. How can you know God?’ Baba used to ask Guru Dakshina from everybody only to teach this most essential aspect of Karma Phala Tyaaga.

The Lord does not need your money because the entire money is left here only in this world and you go alone with your sin. So, all His money is in His bank only i.e., this world. You are in His bank. You took extra from His bank and while dying, left those extras in His bank only. You have not taken the extra with you except the sin committed by you by taking that extra and at least by not returning it to Him with your own hands.

Shabari offered even her meal i.e., fruits to Lord Rama. This represents good money. The hunter (Kannappa) offered raw flesh to Lord Shiva, which represents sinful money as it was earned by hunting. Both reached the same Lord because Rama (Vishnu) is Shiva. The Veda says, ‘Shiva is Vishnu (Śivaśca...)’. The intensity of love is same in both the devotees. So, if you offer Guru Dakshina with full love to the Lord, He will not find fault with your sins. Kannappa was given salvation irrespective of his sinful hunting since he did not enjoy that flesh but offered it to the Lord. But if one enjoys, he gets the sin.

You are offering Guru Dakshina to the Lord in Tirupati after getting some help from Him in your problems. The money offered by you was His money only, which you have stolen as extra. Instead of returning that extra money with humble apology, you are giving that extra to the Lord to get some work from Him. Here also, first you get the work done and then only pay. That is your faith! An atheist is giving money to another man and is getting his work done in the same way. In what way you are greater than him? Shri Venkateshwara in Tirupati is only the external dress of Guru Datta. So today, Guru Datta is giving the true knowledge to you to rectify this. Guru Datta says, ‘Today, you should leave all this chain of sins and offer Guru Dakshina to the Lord without expecting anything in return, because whatever you possess belongs to the Lord only. You are giving the money to the shop, which was stolen by you from the same shop. So you should not take any article from the shop in return. You should give the stolen money to the shop with all apologies and go back. Datta is so kind that by the time you reach your house, hundred articles will be present in your house.

You must return the stolen cup to its owner, in which he has given milk required by you. Similarly, you must return the extra money stolen by you to the Lord. This is Guru Dakshina. So the attitude here must be apology and fear, but not pride. The Veda says, ‘Bhiyā deyam’ which means, give to the Lord with fear. The Veda says, ‘Saṃvidā deyam’ which means that you should recognize the Lord by His knowledge. The Veda also says, ‘Śraddhayā deyam’ which means that you should have patience to search the deserving person i.e., the Lord, for your Guru Dakshina. The point here is that you should return the cup to the actual owner and not to some other person. Similarly, you should give Guru Dakshina to the Sadguru only because He is the Lord and the actual owner of this entire wealth.

People are hasty in doing charity. Store the money with patience day by day and once you recognize the Sadguru, offer the entire stored money to Him as Guru Dakshina. That day is real Guru Purnima. Every day, the moon is growing indicating your money, which is being stored with patience. Place, time and deserving person are the three main parts of charity. The last part is the most important. You are giving Guru Dakshina to some person at a particular place like Varanasi and on a particular day like full moon day. You are giving unnecessary importance to place and time. But, you are not analyzing that person with your knowledge to know whether he is the Lord or not. Whatever maybe the place and whatever maybe the day, if you are giving all your stored money as Guru Dakshina to the actual Guru Datta, that place is Varanasi and that day is Gurupurnima.

But, if Datta is not available as an incarnation (Sadguru), the next best alternative is a poor devotee of Datta, because the Lord dwells not only in the incarnation but also in devotees. Sage Narada said this in his Bhakti Sutra (The principles of devotion) ‘Tanmayāhi te...’. But in the body of a devotee, both Lord and the soul of the devotee co-exist. Lord advises the soul and that soul has to preach or do the service. In such cases, errors occur. For example, you have donated money to a spiritual trust containing devotees. They simply provide food to 100 pilgrims on a Shivaratri day at Varanasi, which is a total waste. All the pilgrims are capable of earning their food and are not in need of food. In this context, Sadguru feeds one deserving poor devotee for 100 days with your donation. Your money is fully utilized and you get its full fruit. In the case of Sadguru i.e., the incarnation, only Lord lives in the body. So, He directly preaches and He does the service without any error. Shirdi Saibaba used to give the Guru Dakshina given to Him to several poor devotees and He knew what, when and to whom it should be given. He knew all the past deeds of each soul. He can never be deceived. But, beggars deceive you by many tricks.

After giving Guru Dakshina to the Sadguru, you should not verify Him about the use of it. You should have complete faith in Him. If He is Sadguru, naturally He knows its full utility. If you believe the fire is really fire, you need not test it by putting your finger. If your faith is partial, it is like the child of a monkey, which catches the stomach of its mother. Transferring from one place to another is the duty of the mother. But catching firmly is the duty of the baby monkey. In such a case, the baby may fall. But when you have full faith, the Lord catches you and takes you up, just like a cat catches its child by her mouth and carries it along. Saibaba after receiving Guru Dakshina was not advised or observed by any devotee regarding its expenditure. An income tax officer tried, but failed. He was not giving anything to the poorest devotee called Mahalsa. All the devotees were worried. But, Saibaba was testing Mahalsa for his firm devotion. If he is helped, the test is disturbed. Tests by Datta are only for your use. He knows your levels even without a test. He also teaches you the same. But you do not take it seriously. When you are tested practically and the reality comes out, then only you realize your levels. For this purpose only, Datta conducts tests, but not to know the level of a devotee. He is Sarvajna (omniscient) and knows your level even without the test.

The full moon represents not only the stored money for Gurudakshina but also represents the full mind or faith. As per the Veda, ‘Moon stands for money and mind. Moon is Goddess Lakshmi which is the money (Candram...) and the moon is born from the mind’. Saibaba could have asked the people who gave Guru Dakshina straightly to give to those poor devotees to whom He wanted to give. But, He took and gave it to the poor devotees secretly. This tested the faith of the people in him.

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