Chapter XI
How can such coddled comfort-loving persons attain Moksha? If a Guru is not able to secure such disciples, why should he deplore his fate? It is strange that there are Gurus who lament when they are not able to attract such disciples towards them! Opium eaters, Ganja smokers, are unfit to be Gurus. They are cheats. How can those who spend all their energies in securing the wherewithal for their living to be Gurus? How can those who seek to fulfil their sensual fancies be disciples? These are Dhana (money) gurus, those are Mada (pride) disciples! To consider such as Gurus and Sishyas is to drag those holy names into the dust of disgrace.
Who, then, is the genuine Guru? It is he who teaches the path of destroying Moha or delusion. And who is the genuine Sishya or disciple? It is he who seeks to control and conquer the outward fleeing mind. The Gurus of today shout every day from platforms what they stuffed into their heads the previous day under the midnight lamp. Their performance is only like regurgitating the food once swallowed and nothing more. They talk like parrots reproducing what they have learnt by rote. Even children know that greed and anger have to be mastered; but in these people, greed and anger, envy and hatred, lust and pride pop up their devilish heads through every little word that they utter, every little deed they do. If those who claim to be Gurus do not themselves master these propensities, how can the unfortunate disciples who resort to them succeed?
If the Guru is supremely self-sacrificing, saturated with selfless Sarvajana-samaana sympathy, seeking to sustain Sathya, his soul suffused with strength-giving thoughts, striving to secure sorrow-less lives for all, leading a sweet and simple life, satisfied only by the chance to show others San-marga and Sath-guna - then perhaps only a few disciples will gather around him. They will impose upon him faults that sully him and cast doubt upon his integrity and genuineness! But the Guru will be as serene as ever, for he suffers no loss. The loss is all for the Sishyas, who let go the great chance.
Of one thing, be certain. So long as the delusion that one is the body is not cast aside, God cannot be realised; however far one may wander, whatever the number of Gurus one might select and serve. Stick to that delusion and all the Dhyana, all the Japam, all the waters of all the holy Theerthams that you bathe in, cannot win success for you! All your effort is as useless as trying to bale out water with a vessel riddled with leaks.
