Some devotees blindly copy or imitate the actions of their Guru. Lord Shiva says we must implicitly follow the directions of the Guru. That is enough. We need not copy each and every action of the Guru because we are not yet evolved enough to fathom the purpose of Guru’s actions.
Once a realised being Makarios was sitting along with his disciples on the shores of a lake. As Makarios was casually talking to the disciples, he pulled out a few fish from the lake and swallowed them alive. Makarios swallowed four fish. The ignorant disciples who saw this, decided to follow the act. They took atleast 30 fish from the lake. Not only that, they cooked them, spiced it up and then happily consumed all of it. After a while, they saw that their master, Makarios had moved to a bigger lake. So the disciples followed him. Makarios now, spit the four fish he had swallowed into this lake as this was much bigger lake despite which there were no fish in this lake at all. To the disciples astonishment, the fish were alive and they began sporting in water. Their master said, “You happily ate so many fish there. Now, let me see if you can spit it out like me”. When the disciples tried to spit it out. They spewed dead and decayed matter.
This incident shows us that this is not the right way of following the Guru. This is nothing but ignorantly imitating the Guru. A few un-evolved souls think that the Guru only scolds people. This is due to the factor of ego. We are unable to accept what the Guru says as final. Since the Guru is well versed with our past, present and future, the Guru tells us not to waste our efforts in the wrong and unnecessary direction. Since, we are limited with bare remembrance of the past and no foresight, we feel disappointed when the Guru tells us not to do something that germinates in our mind as an idea and ends up becoming a deep-rooted desire.
The Guru says the ideas that we generate are mostly based on senses to fulfill our desires. Sometimes the ideas work and many times they don’t. If the ideas are generated through intuition, then there is no ambiguity as intuition arises from our own soul at the right time as the right kind of knowledge.
The Kurma avataara of Lord Vishnu tells us that until we withdraw the senses, we can’t attain. Although creation is blended in the five senses, we have forgotten to direct our senses to our creator. God participates in our five senses. It is never too late. At least now, we must begin the act of dedicating our senses to God, Before we eat, we must offer our food to God. This becomes naivedya or consecrated food. In the same manner, we light incense sticks or offer dhoopa and decorate God through alankara as we dress ourselves. We touch the threshold of the temple, our house, altar of God, God’s photo, the Guru’s Lotus Feet. We ring the bells. Here we are using the five senses of hearing, smelling, touching, tasting and seeing that is shabda, gandha, sparsha, rasa and drishya. God accepts it as now we are using our senses in the right way.
The Guru teaches us how to use our senses correctly. Commenting on a verse from the 18th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Sant Jnaneshwar Maharaj says, “O Arjuna, consider all your actions as offering flowers to Him in whom the entire world exists. When you worship him with the flowers of your actions, God’s joy is boundless.”
Extract from ‘The Force of Nirvana’ by Shri Shri Nimishananda