Guru Dakshina

by Smt. Susmita Devi

In the 2014 Janmastami edition of e-Sanai, the below quoted paragraph about Guru Dakshina by Sri Sandip Dasgupta caught my attention:

“The question that immediately comes to mind is: What Guru Dakshina should one give to a Sadguru? While it is true that all kinds of objective knowledge warrant some kind of Guru Dakshina, Sri Sri Babathakur has very categorically stated that a Sadguru never asks for Guru Dakshina.  A Sadguru has attained Supreme Realization, where He identifies Himself with the Supreme Oneness – which is the substratum of each and every object in this world.  So where is the need for Guru Dakshina?”

As you are probably aware, there are two ways to realize the Self:

a)      The path of devotion (Dwaita), which requires the concept of a worshipper and the worshipped - in other words duality, in which give and take is common

b)     The path of Knowledge (Advaita), in which only Oneness exists – and thus ideas pertaining to give and take become irrelevant

Both the paths lead to Self-realization if sincerely and thoroughly followed; however a path mixing the two concepts is often a mistake.  The mind simply gets confused, and neither path can be followed properly.  Sri Sri Babathakur once said:”The exclusive path of Knowledge can appear dry as a bone to follow, so why not sprinkle a bit of sweet devotion on it... but without forgetting that the path for you is the path of Knowledge”.   Some individual minds are best suited for the devotional path with its dual aspects, but a few may succeed in following the incomparable path of Knowledge as propounded by Sadguru Sri Sri Babathakur and a few other Self-realized souls (such as the late Ramana Maharshi whose devotees established an ashram in Tiruvanamalai).  Sri Sri Babathakur sent me there to contemplate on what I had heard at His feet during my first month in India.  Sri Sri Babathakur jokingly said:” Your time to travel a bit has come. I don’t want you to get spiritual indigestion”.

It is common for Gurus to highlight the dual aspects that the mainstream of devotees find easier to follow.  Conventional dualistic worship is also helpful in a sense as it represents a broader base of followers/devotees.  Such a base can be used as an economic support for setting up an ashram or a community which eventually may serve a wide range of people for devotional purposes and social service.

The above is the very reason why a discussion about Gurudakshina is needed.  If a person professes to follow the path of ‘Oneness of Knowledge and Knowledge of Oneness’ in its totality, the pertinent question to be asked is:  Who is giving to whom? That can be answered quite easily by remembering that the very base of any manifestation is its Essence - and that the only purpose of an essence is to provide flavor, which individuals can use to enhance their Knowledge.  In other words, one can say that in order to benefit from the Divine Lila (God’s illusive play), a materialized entity is needed in the form of a body-mind- intellect combination – an apparent individual. That concept can be superimposed on all perceptible manifestations on this earth – from ithe nanimate to the animate.  Mankind is at present, the most evolved species of all Divine manifestations.  I remember Sri Sri Babathakur once receiving a bouquet of flowers where one stem was broken.  He picked it up and ‘bandaged’ it with a thread, winding the thread around the place where the stem had broken while saying that the flower was also part of the Divine in manifestation.

The whole idea of developing a society harmoniously depends on observed rules and regulations. Since birth, an individual usually is force-fed with ideas of individuality, which again quite often prevents a child from developing an altruistic attitude.  The ‘I, me and mine’ becomes so ingrained in the mind while growing up that as an adolescent and grown up, it becomes quasi impossible to accept the idea of a fundamental ‘Oneness of all’.  For quite some time I had to use different descriptions of what was mine like:  Thank you for caring for this body (instead of saying me), or where are the shoes fitting this body (instead saying: where are my shoes) and so on.  People sniggered and thought I was not able to speak proper English.  When it came to learning how to use Bengali, I got a pleasant surprise - for the very concept of being but a manifestation of Divinity is embedded in the language.  If I was hungry, the direct translation would be:  ‘mine’ is hungry - to be understood as the body is hungry.  I’m certain many other expressions in Bengali are uttered without realizing such intricate Truths.  Also notice, that in English, the ‘I’ is always written as a capital letter, whereas in Bengali the ‘I’ consist of three letters - ‘ami’.  Unless one is open to receive - and assiduously practices - the injunctions presented to one and all by a Self-realized Guru, the path of Knowle.dge indeed seems unwieldy because one’s utterances must be practiced before they can be thoroughly embedded in the thought patterns.  Later the ‘I, me and mine' can be used more freely when talking, because the Knowledge has then become the very background for the thought pattern.

When a devotee gives anything to a Sadguru, He will graciously engage in the play of give and take so as not to upset the prevalent Divine Game.  The state of mind of the giver is the crucial juncture;  if given out of Pure Love (without expectation of any return or quest for a favor), it is but an expression of Divine Love for Itself by Itself etc. (remember the list of prepositions often uttered by Sri Sri Babathakur).  As soon as an expectation pops up in the mind, uttered or unuttered, it becomes an enticement.

To conclude, I must over and over remind both the readers and myself about what Sri Sri Babathakur often pointed out:  Who is giving and who is the recipient... if they identify with the Eternal Oneness????