20 Jul 2023
Ms. Thrylokya asked: Swami, please explain the total picture of Guru Dakshina (money offering) to the Sadguru.
Swami replied:- It depends on your capability (Yathaa shakti) and your devotion (Yathaa bhakti) to the preacher or Guru. There are five possibilities:-
1. If your capacity is 100 and your devotion to Guru is 100, give 100 as Guru Dakshina.
2. If your capacity is 100 and your devotion to Guru is 10, give 10 only to Guru as Guru Dakshina.
3. If your capacity is 10 and your devotion to Guru is 100, give 10 to Guru as Guru Dakshina.
4. If your capacity is 0 and your devotion to Guru is 100, don’t give any Guru Dakshina but salute to his feet.
5. If your capacity is 0 and your devotion to Guru is 0, you will not give any Guru Dakshina and you will not even salute to his feet.
6. If your capacity is x and if your devotion to Guru is x, give x as Guru Dakshina to Guru. (x may be a flower or a fruit or even a spoon of water as said in the Gita – “Patraṃ puṣpaṃ phalaṃ toyam…”).
7. If x (something) is also absent with you but you have x devotion, salute to the Guru and Guru will give something to you! (Generally, this case does not exist in the world. A greedy devotee may act like this case!)
Like this, you must follow the principle to give Guru Dakshina, which is the minimum between your capacity and your devotion. Here, if Sadguru (contemporary human incarnation of God) is present in the place of Guru, whatever you offer to Sadguru, it shall be with full respect, fear and shyness because Sadguru is not in need of your offering. Sudaama offered only a little parched rice as Guru Dakshina to God Krishna with respect, fear and shyness and got unimaginable wealth from God in return even though he did not aspire for anything in return! In the case of Sadguru, you are proving that your theoretical devotion is not false love but true love by the practical devotion, which is offering Guru Dakshina. The Sadguru, Shirdi Sai Baba used to ask Guru Dakshina from devotees for this reason only. You shall not show ego because Sadguru is not a beggar at all. Even when you offer something to a beggar, don’t show your ego because God will not like such attitude. Satraajit was having a special gem that delivers a lot of gold every day. Krishna asked for that gem for the welfare of the public. Satraajit refused and underwent heavy loss. Hence, greediness is the most important hinderance in the spiritual path. It is not the magnitude of your offering that is important, more important is the percentage of your offering to your capacity. A beggar donating one coin to God has done 100% sacrifice to God since she has only one coin. Always, very poor people only have won the heart of God and the rich are generally very very greedy. Jesus said that even a camel may pass through the eye of the needle, but a rich man cannot reach God. In the case of Sudaama, he was not having even one coin and his family along with himself was fasting for several days. Even then, he borrowed a little quantity of parched rice from neighbours to give it as Guru Dakshina to God Krishna. This is practically an unimaginable case and hence, he was rewarded with unimaginable wealth!
A very important point in this topic is that Guru Dakshina means offering of money to Guru and not offering of material. If you are offering to a beggar, you must offer in the form of material. If it is money, the beggar will misuse it in vices like drinking, smoking, gambling, etc. Guru has no vices due to spiritual knowledge and will use your offered money for procuring the necessary material for him. Suppose you offer some specific material to Guru, he will have to sell it for half-price or for lower price in order to purchase his required material. Even if you offer some good quantity of material, in your merit-account, only half of that material is added. You have undergone 50% loss in your Guru Dakshina by offering material instead of money.
Guru Dakshina shall be given to Sadguru, who is the contemporary human incarnation of God. You cannot give Guru Dakshina or even offer meals to formless God or statue or photo. Greedy devotees avoided the human form of God exactly based on the inner greediness so that anything can be offered by moving hands and enjoying it by themselves! This is the inner secret in avoiding the human form of God and selecting formless God or statue or photo. If Guru Dakshina is given, Sadguru takes and if meals are offered, Sadguru will eat! Externally these devotees do not agree to this truth for the sake of prestige and hypocritic generosity!!
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