Why must one take a guru?

[Guest guest]

By Prahlad Chandra Brahmachari-May 4, 1975- Translated 1976 by Bill Morgan and

Pradeep Mukherjea

One day Narada Rishi went to the assembly of the gods. Thirty-three crores of

gods were sitting there. That Narada Rishi, what a devotee of God he was!

Always drunk with God’s name, he traveled on foot, without beast or cart,

throughout the three worlds.

When he went to the assembly of gods, he was given a small seat below everyone

else. Narada Rishi sat down before them. All of the Gods were there: Indra,

Vayu, Varuna, Yama, Dijopal, the Nine Planets, thirty-three crores of them

sitting in splendor offering oblations of wheat into the sacred fire. Narada

Rishi, with a touch of sadness stirring in his heart, questioned the Great

Father Brahma. "Oh Great Father Brahma, I am your own child! Why do I have such

a low seat today?"

Brahma replied, laughing, "Narada, you are God’s great devotee! You are always

singing God’s name, but you have never taken a guru. For that reason your seat

is so low."

Then Narada thought to himself, "It’s true. I have no guru-mantra. In accordance

with Mother’s order I practice repeating the name of God, but I have never taken

a mantra from a guru." Then Narada Rishi vowed to all the gods: "He whose face I

see first at dawn, him shall I graciously accept as my guru. I will take

initiation from him and return to this assembly of gods." This was great faith

and trust in God! This was the practice of spontaneous devotion.

That night Narada slept soundly.

In the early morning he opened the door and saw an old fisherman with a net on

his shoulder and the pole of the net in his hand. As he was walking along on

his way to catch fish, he was weaving his net.

Before he had even see the face of the fisherman, Narada ran to him. Bowing at

his feet he said, "Old fisherman! You must give me initiation! You are my guru!

I have vowed that he whose face I see at daybreak, him shall I graciously accept

as my guru."

The old fisherman said, "What this? Oh Thakur! You are a rishi, the greatest of

them all, Narada Rishi! The Lord’s great devotee! I am only a low-caste

fisherman. I catch fish, I throw the net. I will be your guru? Don’t make a

mistake. Let go of my feet!"

But Narada would not let go of his feet. He said to the fisherman, "Look, please

give me initiation."

The fisherman said, "But I don’t know even a single mantra! I have never taken

initiation myself! What mantra could I give you?"

"That which is in your mind, give me that." The meaning of the word mantra is

"mon-tor,mon-tor" (Your-mind). Whatever word the guru speaks, if there is

complete faith in that word, then that word is verily the best mantra.

The fisherman thought to himself and then said, "But I don’t know anything else.

I just throw the nets at the pond, swinging them around my head, singing, ‘Oh,

Hari Bol, Oh Hari Bol!’ This is what we fishermen sing when we throw the nets

to catch fish."

Narada Rishi said calmly, "Okay, give me that very one," and he leaned forward

to receive the mantra.

Then the fisherman said, "Oh, Hari Bol! Oh, Hari Bol! Oh, Hari Bol!" He said it

three times and then left. Narada bowed to his guru.

When he went back to the assembly of the gods, the gods were able to know that

Narada had received a mantra from a guru. They put his seat very high. Then the

Great Father Brahma said, "Narada, sit down on this high seat!"

Narada asked him, "Why is my seat so high today?"

"Ah! Today you have taken a guru and received initiation, haven’t you? For that

reason your seat is so high. And we shall all pay homage to your guru. Please

request your guru to come. We should all like to see him who is the guru of

Narada Rishi!"

Narada then thought to himself, "This is distressing! A dreadful problem!"

Narada knew that he had taken initiation from a mere fisherman. "I promised,"

he thought, "that he whose face I would see first this morning, him I would

take for my guru."

All the thirty-three crores of gods said with one voice, "Please, you must bring

your guru. We all wish to see him, and together to bow at his feet."

What could Narada do? A difficult situation! He went running back to the old

fisherman. Bowing at his feet he said, "You must go with me to the assembly of

the gods! Please, climb on my back! Without beast or cart we shall travel

across the three worlds!"

The guru fisherman said, "Narada! What an astonishing thing to say! Hari Baba!

You are the great Rishi Narada! You are God’s devotee! You are going to carry

me piggyback?"

The old fisherman was somewhat lame and didn’t want to go, but Narada would not

release him. As Narada took him on his shoulders to the assembly of the gods,

the ancient fisherman kept hold of his net. And the stick, with which he weaved

his net, he held on to that as well. Taking these belongings he went with Narada

to the kingdom of heaven.

The gods were waiting. When they saw, they were all astounded. "What is this?

Narada Rishi’s guru is an old fisherman?" They all rose in amazement. They

asked Narada "Is this the guru you said you had accepted?"

Narada then revealed the truth to them. "Yesterday I promised this assembly of

gods that he whose face I would see when I rose this morning, him I would

graciously accept as my guru. So when I opened the door and saw this fisherman

walking along, I said, ‘This is no fisherman,’ and I accepted him as my guru.

So you please bow down at his feet."

Then Narada Rishi lay in a full shastanga pranam before his guru. The guru

pranam is shastanga pranam:

holding the two feet of the guru in the hands, the head goes down on top of the

feet, lying completely prostrate. In this shastanga position, Narada bowed to

his guru.

All the thirty-three crores of gods moved to bow down to Narada Rishi’s guru.

And when they came to pranam, what did they see? That old fisherman was no

fisherman! This was all God’s test. All of a sudden instead of the form of the

fisherman there appeared Shiva himself! He whom we call Shankar.

Triumbakam Yajamahe Sugandhim PushtivardhanamUrvar Ukamiva Bandhanan Mrityro

Mukshiya MamritatOm Namah Shivaya.

Shiva! Narada Rishi’s guru was Shiva! That which was the form of the fisherman,

that which was the net, this was all the casting of the net of maya’s illusion.

 

Samsat Jalrupen Min Rupen ManavaJanjalo Jal Rupen Kal Rupen Dhivara.

Shiva is the god of destruction. In the large pond of this world he throws the

net of illusion and catches his fish. For that reason the old fisherman had a

net on his shoulder. What he was weaving was not the net, it was:

Mahamaya Prabhavena Samsar Sristi KariniMahamaya Prabhavena Mahagotta Nipatita.

As the spider makes its own web from its own saliva, and binds it together, in

the same way, in this illusion, this maya, we say "I", "I". This is my room,

this is my son, this is my grandson, this is my wife, this is my father, this

is my house, this is my country. This that is "mine"—Thakur Ramakrishna has

said: "When will I be free? When ‘I’ ceases to be." This word "I" is the

weaving of the net of illusion. The word guru itself means he who in the midst

of great darkness shows us light; he who removes the darkness; he who lights the

lamp of wisdom in us; he who makes us see within ourselves the light of

Parabrahma, Paramatma; he is the guru.

"Gurur Brahma Gurur VishnuGurur Devoh Maheshwar;Gurur Shakshat

ParambramhaTashmai Shri Gurur Veh Namah"May the Merciful Sri Sai Baba always

shower His grace on us and our families and remove our problems and anxieties

by giving us all - strength , goodluck, success and happiness with peace of

mind.Sai bhakt,Deepa Hdebu7366

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