(6/9) Once Upon a Guru

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Hooghly district,
1 March 2019, part 6
Translated from Bengali

There is one story about a guru. It must be from Isopanisad or some other scripture like that. I read a lot, so sometimes I do not remember where I read one thing or another. I have told this story many times, and I will tell it to you again today.

There was once a gosai guru. There is a village called Alampur where there are a lot of such gosai gurus, I will tell you about one of such gurus. So, there was that one guru who gave initiation to many people. He had a rule that whenever he gave initiation to somebody, he would then come back to their house once a month or once a year to collect money. Somebody gave ten rupees, somebody gave a hundred or a thousand rupees, depending on their financial situation. This is how that guru maintained his family.

This is what is called 'guru business' – just as you grow and sell eggplants, they make disciples and get profit through them. What happens when such gurus die? Usually, the guru's son becomes next guru and carries on his father's business. This is what is called a 'kula-guru'. Their parampara goes from the father to the son, then to the son of the son, and so on. The son can be a thief or a dacoit, but it does not matter – in such families he still becomes the next guru.

So, by and by, that guru had grown old. He was sure that his only son would carry on his business after him. But his son did not want to do it because he could understand, 'Father has been cheating people. He has been taking money from people and spending it to buy us food and clothes. It is wrong, and it is a crime. He is doing wrong himself and goes to cheat other people, making them his disciples, taking their money. He has never become a disciple himself, how can he be a guru?' No matter how the guru tried to bring his son to his path, he could not do it. The son did not want to go down this path. Instead, his son was always looking for a bona fide guru. Eventually, he found an ashram with a good guru. He did not take initiation, but he would go there every day to hear the guru give class on Bhagavatam. The boy would come home only to eat and sleep; he spent the rest of the time at the ashram, listening to the sadhu. His parents did not like it because he was not taking care of the family, he did not do anything. His father was getting old, and in his old age he would roam the streets collecting rice and money.

One night, that guru's wife spoke to him privately. She said, 'You are getting old, you cannot walk so much. How long are you going to collect and bring all this rice and money home? Our son has not come to this path, he does not want to become a guru. All he knows is wandering about the town... What is going to become of us? How will we survive? I do not want to die of hunger. Listen, I was thinking of something. Instead of going house to house, why do you not go to the king from the neighbouring village? He is very rich, why do you not make him your disciple? If you can collect five maund rice [200 kg] and a thousand rupees a year from him, it will be enough for us. You will not have to go anywhere else.' The guru thought, 'My wife is right. She has a good idea. Let me go to the king's house tomorrow.'

The next day, he went to the king's house and brainwashed him, 'You will get this, you will get that, you will be very happy.' In the end, he coaxed him into taking initiation...

[To be continued...]

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Length: 64 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Self-Rectification
2) Resist Defective Lifestyle
3) Six Pillars of Devotional Life
4) Leave This World
5) Do Not Poison Your Mind
6) Once Upon a Guru
7) 'My Happiness or Your Head'
8) Price of Peace
9) Pave Your Road to Holy Dham