[ Jnaneshvar ; painting by Balgajbar, Gurudev Siddha
Peeth, Ganeshpuri ]
Debt to the Guru
Q[uestion]: You once said that it is impossible to ever
repay the debt to the Guru. Is there no way for the disciple to repay the
Guru for his divine grace?
Baba [Muktananda]: If you could
tell me how to get free from this debt I would welcome your suggestion.
Then I too would be able to free myself from this debt to my Guru, along
with you.
Being fully aware that I can never repay that debt, I
am honoring him here so much: I am holding arati [sacred ceremony of waving
of lights] to him three times a day. I am following his teaching. Whatever
I am doing is exactly what he wanted me to do.
What could a disciple possibly give to repay the debt
to the Guru? We had only one thing and that was bondage, and the Guru took
that away.
The Guru has awakened our inner Shakti; he has transformed
our inner being and has made us like himself. How can we ever repay the
Guru for this?
What do we have which could clear the debt? Nobody should
think that the Guru’s debt can be repaid by offering so many acres of land,
which belong to the Lord in any case, or by offering him a few bundles
of cloth. The Guru has transmitted his own power into us and has brought
about a radical change in us.
Jnaneshwar Maharaj writes eloquently on this theme in
his poetry. He says, “I am trying to find out how I can repay the debt
to You, O Lord, but I have not succeeded. I could not repay this debt with
anything of this world, so finally I have decided to give myself to Youthe
whole of myselfand I will no longer remain me.
Take my sense of separateness away from me forever so
that even the question of repaying your debt may vanish from my mind.”
A disciple should therefore give himself to the Guru. He has nothing else
by which he can repay the Guru.
from:
The Glory of the Guru:
An Offering to Our Beloved Baba Muktananda
on the First Anniversary of His Mahasamadhi
Ganeshpuri, India: Gurudev Siddha Peeth, 1983, p. 52.