yogi said, ‘who drinks the nectar? The one
who has a Guru. The one who doesn’t have a
Guru in his life, goes thirsty, there is no juice
in his life; he does not know true joy. But one
who has a Guru drinks the nectar; again
and again ‘.
There is plenty of nectar in the inner realm
of our Being. One who has a Guru drinks it in
abundance. One without a Guru goes thirsty
all his life.
He is describing our own physiology. Bliss
is above the head, in the Sahasara Chakra.
The nectar is there. When there is Guru in
life, then you get access to it. Otherwise, life
becomes meaningless.
There are a lot of beautiful poems written
on this. I’ve not read them all, only heard a
little bit here and there. But the essence of
all that is how the quality of consciousness
gets shifted, and this shift is a gift (wisdom
is a gift).
The company of wise brings bring about a
shift in the Consciousness, rather it is given
to you as a gift, and you feel thankful. It is
not something that you have earned in your
life. You cannot earn it, but it is bestowed on
you, and there lies the key.
Many people think wisdom means reading
a lot of books. Wisdom has nothing to do
with books. Wisdom has nothing to do with
gathering information. It is just the quality
of consciousness that shifts in the mind,
which is bestowed by the Guru Principle, by
acknowledging the Guru in life.
One has to acknowledge this. The Guru
does not accept or reject anyone. It is the
student, the disciple, who accepts a Guru as
‘His Guru’.In India, there is a famous story of Eklavya
(a character from the Hindu epic, the
Mahabharata). Eklavya is considered the
epitome of devotion.As the story goes, Eklavya wanted to learn
archery to save the deer in the forest that
were being hunted by the leopards. He
was the son of a poor hunter. He went to
Dronacharya (a master of advanced military
arts) and requested him to teach him archery,
but Dronacharya rejected him because he
was the teacher of the Royal family, he was a
Raj Guru. He was teaching the royal princes
of Bharat (India).In the olden days, a teacher of the royal
princes cannot take on someone else and
teach him archery and make them equal to
the prince. It was not considered ethical.
He teaches archery to the princes to make
them great archers, to protect the Nation.
Therefore, the same knowledge cannot be
taught to all and sundry. It was forbidden to
make anyone else as powerful as the prince.
His duty was to not to create a competitor
for the prince. Otherwise, the Nation would
not be safe and secure.So here, Eklavya wanted to take Dronacharya
as his Guru, but Dronacharya would not
accept him as per the law of the land.
Nevertheless, Eklavya accepted Dronacharya
as his Guru. He went home and made a
statue of his Guru. He learnt archery and
became better than the princes. He became
an expert. He would just hear the sound of
the animal and aim an arrow at it.Arjuna, the prince found out about this. He
saw that Eklavya was far better than he was.COVER STORY