Shri Guru Leelamrit
(The Nectar of Teacher’s Sport)
by
Pujya Shri Rang Avadhoot
Put into English by:
Shri Shantilal Thaker, M.A. B.T.,
Vidya-Bhasker
Page 3
IDEAL DISCIPLE DIPAK – SERVICE OF THE TEACHER.
Alakh continued his teachings to Niranjan. I will tell
you the power of devotion. There was a king in the solar
dynasty. Ambrish by name. He was a devotee of God Vishnu. He
fasted on the eleventh day of every month. Once on the
twelfth day in the early morning, Sage Durvasa came to test
the king. The time for breaking the fast was near. Durvasa
went to take a bath in the river, together with his
disciples he deliberately delayed there. To keep his vow,
the king broke his fast by sipping only a little water. The
Sage Durvasa returned. He was angry with the king ‘For
having broken the fast without feeding the guests. The king
remembered the Lord, who appeared for the sake of his
devotee. The Sage cursed the king to be born in various
kinds of species. The God Vishnu interceded! “The king is
too soft to bear your curse. Please transfer that curse to
me” The Sage agreed, and said, ‘You will have to incarnate
yourself ten times in the bodies of a fish, a boar, a
tortoise, a lionman etc.’ Vishnu accepted the curse for the
sake of his devotee.
It is difficult to understand the power of devotion; It
is of nine kinds:
(I) Hearing,
(2) Reciting,
(3) Remembering,
(4) Serving His feet,
(5) Worship,
(6) Loveful prostration,
(7) Steady-minded serfdom,
(8) Feeling of firm friendship, and
(9) Total self-surrender.
In the first kind of devotion, the devotees hears with a
pure mind the deeds of the Lord in all His incarnations.
In the second, he recites the names of the Lord with the
accompaniment of musical instruments.
In the third, he remembers the beloved image of the Lord
continuously, even in sleep.
In the fourth, he serves the auspicious marked feet of
the Lord, of the saints, holy persons, his spiritual teacher
and of parents with deep love.
In the fifth, he worships the beloved image of the Lord
thrice a day with flowers, burning incense, waving before it
the holy lamp of ghee.
In the sixth, he prostrates himself before his beloved
image of the Lord in all temples, without pride, not caring
for the criticism of worldly people.
In the seventh, he thinks himself to be his Lord’s serf
doing his will, casting away all ego and pride, never caring
for his means of livelihood, so that there arises in his
heart deep love for the Lord, dispassion and knowledge.
In the eighth, he thinks of the Lord as his dearest
friend, uniting his soul with the Lord’s self so that no
distinction remains.
In the ninth he offers himself completely, unreservedly,
within and without, to the Lord with the sense of absolute
surrender, so that no inner or outer sense of separateness
remains with the Lord. It was by this supreme eighth kind of
devotion that the Lord was pleased with the cowherds-women
in his incarnation as Krishna, and with mother Anasuya, so
that He was born as Datta of her womb.
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