Message of Sri Swamiji on Guru Purnima - 16.7.2000

New Jersey devotees are very very lucky. Sri Swamiji has given them the boon of having their Sadguru with them on this auspicious GURU PURNIMA DAY. Earlier Swamiji was thinking of celebrating it in Baton Rouge. You all are very lucky. Not all in this crowd is a believer. One who says, "There is no God" is also a devotee. One who declares there is no God has to understand the concept and then prove there is no God. But By then he will get self-realisation. One who gives guidance is a Guru. How can we find a genuine Guru? There are different types of Gurus. Guru is one who removes our darkness. We must follow the Guru without any wishes. We have to pray him to remove our darkness in us. We have to inquire about self-realisation. We have to ask questions like who am I? Why I came here (being born) again and again? We should never ask silly things. We have to surrender completely. We should try to become good devotees. Swamiji asks some devotees to do Mantra Japa, perform Annadana etc.; Swamiji will assign different jobs to different types of devotees. This is left to Guru himself. Bhakta should not decide how the Guru should be. We are not capable of selecting Gurus. There is a story regarding this. Lord Shankaracharya had a big band of knowledgeable pundits around him. The pundits were claiming that they should also get equal respect as Shankaracharya. He walks towards a meat stall and asked the shopkeeper to give him some meat, as he was hungry. The pundits also followed the lord and everybody ate the Non-vegetarian food. While continuing his journey the lord went to a blacksmith's workshop and asked for some water, as he was very thirsty. But the blacksmith replied that drinking water is not available at his work place. Meanwhile, the lord saw the molten iron and drank the liquid metal to quench his thirst. The pundits were not able to do this. The pundits, ashamed of this act prostrated to Shankaracharya and requested him to forgive them for their shameful act. We should not look at the dress of the Guru. We should run towards spirituality. Spirituality will not come to you. We have three types of qualities, Satva, Rajo and Tamo Gunas. If you have Satva Guna, the Guru will come to you. If you have Rajo Guna you have to go the Guru. The Tamo Guna people do not believe in God. The Rajo Guna people should be careful. By controlling our emotions we have to surrender to our Sadguru step by step and in a slow manner.

Jaya Guru Datta