CHAPTER 19
Service to the Guru
Disciple: Swami. O guru leader, how is service to the guru to be performed ?
Guru: Pay obeisance at the feet of your virtuous guru. Seek him. Perform your duties towards him. This is the glorious word of the guru’s most precious bequest. This is the oil of the heart that flickers without a wick. This is the gracious word. It is beneficial to serve Him. Do not run away. Do not turn away. Do not stumble and fall. Do not look up or down. Look at the centre. Keep the virtuous guru in your heart. Surrender your body, wealth and soul, all three to Him. Pay close attention to the guru’s word. Observe good conduct, good character and good behaviour. Speak good words. The words of the guru are beyond the sciences and the religions and should be adhered to. They are glorious words. Do not have a frown on your face. Do not restrict your heart. Do not be haughty. Forget esteem and pride. Accept the guru as the Father of Light, the one who removes your idiosyncrasies, the lamp that dispels darkness and the substance that fills your heart. Accept him as the one who teaches that birth is suffering, unclean and destructive. He is the mythical essence of the scriptures. He is the seed of wisdom and will lead men to the good path. Say:
“I trust you always, O Gurunathar ( guru who guides ). Make my soul pure in this impure birth and make it shine. Grant me the Grace of the Holy One.”
Reflect and remember the guru with a full and loving heart. Be of service to him. Seek the good guru leader my disciples, gems of my eyes. The guru presides over the abode of the divine state. It is the primary duty of the disciples to greet the guru with reverence and obtain his blessings with patience and silence. They must be seated in one place without making any disturbance.
The second duty is to conduct yourself knowing your inner responsibility and not disobeying the guru’s words. You should complete your duties with purity of body, mind and speech, even if there is any difficulty in the administration. Get up early in the morning, bathe yourself, remember God with purity and worship Him and fulfil all your regular duties. Pay obeisance to the Gurudeva and stay in readiness to perform the duties to the guru. Some of the duties are polishing his utensils, washing his garments and bathing him. You should carry out to perfection whatever duties that are assigned to you. You should obtain the food requirements of thegurudeva and offer them to him in kindness. You should assimilate the discourses of the gurudeva, keep them in your mind and live accordingly. You should dispel evil qualities like anger, lust, miserliness, delusion, bigotry, aggression and replace them with kindness, benevolence, pity, charity, pleasant speech, sacrifice, generosity and thus develop yourself.
This will make you happy and others happy too. This is the rare service of great magnitude that you can perform to the gurudeva. To love other lives as your own and to do such rare service are equivalent to your service to God. It is the great desire of the guru to show you how to live, not only for yourself but also for others as well.
If you follow the way of the gurudeva, the resplendent grace will glow. Your inner eye will manifest itself. The Word of God will be born. The great light of wisdom will dawn upon you. The enormous diseases of birth will be destroyed. You can reach the House of Everlasting Happiness of Immortality. This is the peace of soul strived for by our disciples.
O son, the criterion which will determine the extent of the grace of the exalted guru, to be reached by the disciple will depend on his service, the path he follows, his thoughts, his clarity and his understanding with which he performs his duty. I shall tell you a story.
Once there was a restaurant where many people would go to eat. They relished the tasty food served there and paid money for it. A stray dog would go there to eat the remnants of the food thrown out along with the banana leaves. This was an usual occurence in the self-destructive country. The dog would wait outside the entrance of the restaurant waiting for someone to feed it. The customers who go to this restaurant would call out to the waiters with arrogance, “ Hey, give me the curry soon !” The waiter would reply,” Sir, be a little patient. I shall bring it right now.”
Before the cook could take out the curry from the oven, the customer would cry out, “Hey, is it not hard-earned money we pay? How long is a man to wait for his rice !” and throw out the rice with the leaves on which it was served. The stray dog outside would eat the rice. Another customer would remark, “ Hey man, the food is tasteless. It is no good. Is it not hard-earned money we pay?” All this was said with arrogance. They would further say, “ Look at your shop. Look at yourself. Look at your food.” In this manner all the customers would throw away their food. The stray dog outside would eat it. Yet another customer would throw out his food. The dog would eat that too. One of the customers would look at the dog and say, “ There is a dog outside. Poor dog!” He would keep one fistful of rice and call out to the dog lovingly. He would keep the food on the ground bending himself. The dog without shyness or fear would eat the food on the leaf.
These four customers gave food to the dog. To whom does this dog belong? To whose call would the dog respond? However much the four customers would quarrel, argue and assault one another, to whom does the dog belong? Even if they fight, break their heads, they cannot resolve their disputes. The dog itself would understand reason and with patience and calmness go to the man who fed it.
One person threw the rice with anger. Another threw the remnants because the food lacked perfection. Yet another left a morsel of food with love and care to the dog, calling it with kindness after he had consumed his portion. The dog without any hesitation went close to him and thereby it belonged to him.
Likewise, O my disciples, gems of my eyes, the guru ( sheikh) with the fullness of God’s Grace will grant you charity, words of wisdom and grace, depending on your own thoughts and ideas, conduct and sate of mind. This is the secret of the heart of the Incomparable Gracious God. It is not easy to discover this. O child, follow the guru and continue to do so, without looking back. Follow the path he travels which is the best way.
O disciples, gems of my eyes, do not test your guru by deviating from his path and allowing yourself to be directed by your own mind and your own wisdom. Do not conduct yourself thinking what you do is correct and what the guru does is wrong.
It is only the white ant that originally built the ant- hill, that knows its secret. An ant or the one who cuts open the ant-hill will not be aware of its subtlety. The white ant will not cut open the ant-hill or break it. In the same ant-hill there are rooms for the snake, the white ants, the rat and also other appropriate accommodation for the occupation pf crawling creatures like the mongoose, the iguana and the ants. But it is only the white ant that knows the intricacies of the nature of the accommodation for these creatures, the secret of the construction of their rooms and the method of stimulating the growth of the ant-hill. By the secretion from its mouth, the white ant dexterously takes the earth and builds the house, the rooms and the openings without letting the water to seep in. The snake, white ant, rat, iguana, mongoose, and other crawling creatures occupy the ant-hill.
The ants mature, develop wings and fly away from the room occupied by them. The iguana, the rat and the ant go into the room to eat the white ants. The snake goes in to catch the rat. The mongoose goes in to catch the snake. The dog goes in to catch the mongoose. All these creatures and many more claim the ant-hill as “my house” and “your house” in various ways. Nevertheless, whatever occupies the ant-hill, it belongs to the white ant. It is the white ant that knows it. The others cannot build the house.
The true wise men, the gnanis are not deceived by the contempt of any number of persons. This fact must be embedded in your mind. Be steadfast in the true path without being deceived, O disciples, gems of my eyes.
Reflect carefully on what I have said. These kind words come from my vibrant heart to the children born with me and to the infants with their baby language. They are the miracles of the King, The Almighty Allah. I praise with my tongue the beauty of the One with the Six Faces and say this, O disciples, gems of my eyes.