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#2343 -
This issue features a typed excerpt from Nothing
Ever Happened, Volume 3, a biography of Papaji
edited by David Godman. The book is available at
http://www.davidgodman.org/books/nothingeverhappened.shtml
David Godman: A few weeks
ago in Satsang you said that the Guru gives his grace or his
'final teachings' to the one he is pleased with, not to anyone
else. You used the example of a beggar going to President Clinton
and asking for a million dollars. The president has the power to
give a billion dollars, not just a million, to the right person,
but he will not dispense funds to unworthy people who bang on his
door and demand large amounts. So, asking is not enough.
Worthiness must also be there. My question is, 'What pleases the
Guru? What does he have to see in a devotee that would make him
happy enough to hand over his billion dollars?'
Papaji: The man who needs
that freedom, the man who wants it more than anything else, and
to the exclusion of all else, he is given preference. Other
people can sit with the Guru for years at a time, but they will
not get the same benefit even if they repeatedly ask for it.
When I was at Ramanasramam in the 1940's,
people were coming and going all the time. Some would sit with
the Maharshi for a while. Then they would go outside and start
performing a puja by the well. Some of them would even do their
pujas in the hall itself, while Maharshi was giving satsang
there. Even close devotees of the Maharshi would do this. If you
want to run off and do a puja instead of sitting silently in the
Master's presence, it means that you have some unfulfilled desire
that is still pending, and while that desire is there, you will
not get the full benefit of the Guru's grace.
In the dining room there was a wall between
the brahmins and the non-brahmins. The brahmins would not eat
with the non-brahmins, nor did they want to be seen by the
non-brahmins while they ate. The Maharshi didn't follow rules
like this. He sat by himself where he could be seen by both the
brahmin and the non-brahmin diners. These people went to the
Maharshi with a desire to be treated differently. They wanted to
be treated as special people, so they insisted on maintaining
caste differences, even in Maharshi's presence. People go to the
Guru for grace, for freedom, but their old habits and desires
soon reassert themselves. They eventually get lost in their
lifestyle.
Not everyone was like that. There was a
devotee called Muruganar whom I liked very much. Of all the
people there, he was the only one who seemed able to keep his
mind on the Maharshi all the time. Other people lost themselves
in outside affairs and relationships, but Muruganar was always
sitting quietly in the Maharshi's presence. If he spoke, his sole
subject matter was the Maharshi. He never tired of telling other
people how great the Maharshi was, and he wrote thousands of
poems in praise of his Master.
I liked his attitude and his commitment, so
when he got sick with low blood pressure, I used to visit him. I
took him various herbal preparations and treated him myself
because at that time there was nobody else looking after him.
Towards the end of his life, in the early
1970's, he became very sick, so sick he had to be admitted to the
ashram dispensary. I happened to be in Tiruvannamalai at that
time, so I went to see him. I stood in front of the room, but Dr.
Rao, who was in charge of the dispensary, did not allow me to go
into the room to speak to him. Muruganar saw me and tried to call
me inside, but the doctor would not let me enter. He was so sick
he wasn't able to speak, but when I looked in through the window,
he looked back at me very affectionately.
Muruganar didn't get lost in
desire-fulfilling rituals. He came, put his attention on Maharshi
and kept it there.
If you are with an enlightened man, you
don't need to perform any rituals or practices. You don't have to
propiate the gods or ask favours from them. You don't need to go
to a church or a temple in your spare time. Everything you need
can be obtained by sitting quietly in the Guru's presence.
That reminds me of a story about a
fakir who visited Akbar the Great, the emperor of
Later that day the emperor was told that a
fakir had come to see him while he was saying his prayers, but
had left without stating his business. Akbar sent for him,
apologised for being busy during his first visit, and asked what
he could do for him.
The fakir replied, 'I came here as a beggar
to ask you for money, but when I arrived I saw that you also were
on your knees, begging from God. I thought to myself, "This
man is also a beggar. Why should I ask for anything from him? If
I need anything, I will beg from the same person whom he is
begging from. I will take all my requests to God Himself.'"
If you want freedom, if you want the grace
of the Guru, go to him directly. Don't depend on any
intermediaries. Propitiating to the gods will not help you. They
themselves will have to go to a Guru sooner or later for their
own enlightenment. How can they give you what they don't have
themselves? When you go to the Guru you will not find him on his
knees praying to God. He already has everything he needs, and he
can pass it on to suitable people.
This brings us back to the original
question: 'What does the Guru have to see in a devotee that would
make him willing to hand over his entire treasure to him?'
Worthiness must be there. You cannot demand
freedom and expect to get it if you are not worthy. If the
worthiness is there, you will not even have to ask. If the Guru
sees that you are worthy, automatically everything will be given
to you. The Guru cannot pass it on to an unworthy person, and an
unworthy person cannot get it by demanding it. You have to win
the heart of the jnani, by your devotion and your desirelessness.
Once you have won his heart, his whole kingdom, his whole
treasure automatically become yours.