Dattaguru Reveals 24 Spiritual Teachers-22 to 24

Wednesday, April 25, 2012, 9:44

22. Snake: Dattaguru, Shri Dattatreya points out that snakes live in holes made by other animals; they never make their own place to live. Samnyasis should also live like that, moving along from one place to another. It is not their job to build ashrams, schools etc. However, since the society and the government are not doing their part, Sannyasis are doing it for the welfare of the people. Since parents are not able to pass on the right values and our ancient culture to their children, we step in and run Balavihar groups.
When householder build a house, they must remember that the house belongs to God and they are only caretakers. In this way one can avoid getting attached to the house and its belongings.

23. Spider: Just as a spider creates a web from itself, sports in it for some time and then swallows it, God also creates the world, sustains it and then dissolves it. Truly speaking, each one of us creates our own world. The ultimate Truth is non-dual; all else is only an illusion, says Dattaguru, the Avadhuta.

24. Worm: Dattaguru, Shri Dattatreta also points out to a worm placed in a hole by a wasp, and continually contemplating on it out of fear, turns into a wasp in course of time. In the same way, when man concentrates on something, whether it be out of love, hatred or fear, he attains the nature of the thing he concentrates on.

Having enumerated the twenty-four Gurus, Dattaguru, the Avadhuta [formally said that he had leamt some things from his own body which is perishable and the source of much misery. He learnt dispassion from it. However, we can gain knowledge of the Truth only while living in this body; so we must take good care of it and use it to develop Viveka (discrimination) and Vairagya (dispassion).

Conclusion: Our bondage is only due to ignorance of our Self; we identify ourselves with what is not our true nature. Assuming a wrong identity, we are suffering. To gain the knowledge of the Self, we must prepare our mind and purify it. This is the purpose of this discourse on the twenty four Gurus.

About the author

Swami Tejomayananda

This article is a continuation of “Gurus-24 Spiritual Teachers," which, is an excerpt from Swami Tejomayananda's “The Twenty Four Gurus" The article is about the spiritual teachers found in nature and world as revealed by Shri Dattatreya, acclaimed as Dattaguru. It covers teachers from 22 to 24. This article is written for the Vedanta Vani of Chinmaya Mission.