24 Apr 2004
The right side (Dakshina) of Datta is the form of Guru. Datta is the united form of the three forms (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva). Therefore in the south (Dakshina) the three Gurus viz., Shankara (Shiva), Ramanuja (Vishnu) and Madhva (Brahma) were born as three Gurus. All the human Gurus must treat them as their Gurus. The left side of Datta is the form of Bhagavan [God]. Therefore Rama, Krishna etc., were born as incarnations of Bhagavan in the North who are the ideals for the human beings.
Shankara had only four disciples. He never craved for disciples, fame or money like the present human Gurus. If there are ten disciples, the Guru collects ten paise from each disciple and can get one rupee. The aim of the Sadguru is not to earn one rupee and His aim is to completely cut off the bond with money in the case of at least one deserving disciple to give salvation to him. Therefore Sadguru takes one rupee from such a single deserving disciple. The Lord came as a guest to the house of Shaktuprastha. The aim of the Lord was to liberate Shaktuprastha and his family from the bonds of money and to give them salvation. The aim of the Lord is not to pacify His hunger because the Lord has no hunger. The Lord in the form of a guest asked for the entire food that was prepared for the family. A beggar goes to ten houses and earns his complete meal.
An inefficient teacher collects the fees from ten students and each student gets only ten marks and fails the examination. The aim of such a teacher is not the passing of the students. An efficient teacher concentrates on only one deserving student so that He passes with good marks. A doctor in a government hospital gives some medicine for temporary relief of a single disease, which is reported by the patient. The doctor of the Apollo hospital (a sophisticated hospital in India) conducts all the tests and cures all the diseases. The doctor of the government hospital takes a fee of ten rupees from ten patients. The second doctor collects a hundred rupees from one patient. In Shirdi, several householders were ready to give food to Sai Baba. But Sai took food only from five houses throughout His life. He wanted to liberate those five deserving devotees and His aim was not His food. A beggar goes to all houses since his aim is only getting his food. This is the difference between a Sadguru and Guru.
Today the human gurus are unable to liberate even a single person through their preaching. They are similar to the barber on the Tirupati hill (A famous pilgrim place in India where people shave off their head and offer to the deity.) who partially shaves many persons and does not completely shave even a single person. Ten customers will be around him and each is incompletely shaved. Such several incomplete disciples surround the present Gurus. No disciple is completely liberated. The aim of present human Guru is the fame of having many disciples and the collection of money from all the disciples. No human Guru is interested in the final welfare of even a single disciple. But the Sadguru aims at the liberation of at least a single disciple and His preaching is always harsh because it is the truth. The preaching of the human Guru is always false and sweet. When a patient suffering from high blood sugar goes to a restaurant and asks for a sweet by paying ten rupees, the owner of the restaurant supplies the sweet and does not enquire about the person’s sugar level. Therefore he appears to be sweet to you. This is the case of the human Guru. But the case of the Sadguru (Guru Datta) is different. The ‘Datta Café’ is very peculiar. When you go to the ‘Datta Café’ for the sweet, the owner will charge you rupees thirty for a blood test. If there is a high level of sugar, he will charge another ten rupees and give you bitter medicine. You lose rupees forty and during blood test you feel a lot of misery when the needle is injected. You will get a lot of unhappiness while taking the medicine. This is the difference between the human Guru and the Sadguru. Therefore today all the human Gurus must remember Adi Shankara who is a Sadguru.