Punishment from nature.

- Yadu asked Lord Dattatreya who is your guru? Then Lord Dattatreya says, I have many gurus. I have learned different things from everyone.

The whole existence wants to teach me and you something. There is a lot to learn from nature and this thing is characterized by Lord Dattatreya. There is 'Avadhutopakhyan' in the seventh chapter of Srimad Bhagavatji's Ekadash Skandha. In it, Yadu asked Lord Dattatreya who is your guru? Then Lord Dattatreya says, I have many gurus. I have learned different things from everyone. Lord Dattatreya says, Akash is my guru. I received punishment from the sky that there is lightning in the sky, clouds thunder but nothing happens to the sky. So I learned from the sky that whatever happens to the body, the soul is immortal. The immortality of the soul is learned from the sky.

Then Vayu is my guru. From Vayu I took the virtue of incompatibility, that if a person wants to acquire any knowledge or to advance in any field, he should remain incompatible. Asanga means 'solitary happiness.' Living in solitude, thus being solitary or isolated, then who to associate with? So do the scriptures, do the book. Rabindranath Tagore asked God for one thing. He asked God, O Lord! I have a scripture in my hand when the time of my death is near. So to accompany the scriptures. Thus, there is talk of being inconsistent but only of the scriptures, of doing good things. So the inspiration came from Vayu.

Lord Dattatreya says that the earth is my guru and I have learned the virtue of forgiveness from the earth. The nature of the earth is forgiveness. That is the spirit of giving up. In Sanskrit we have a saying there that 'Kshma Virasya Bhushanam.' Forgiveness is Viro's ornament and this verse is beautifully explained in our Hindi prayers! Even though prayers are sung in school, the heart of it is so beautiful that, 'We don't think what we have got, we just think what is the offering, for cool happiness, everyone's life will become Madhuban.' We have three cultures out there - offering, offering and dedication. If a guest comes to our house and we give something to the guest, it is an offering, then whatever we do for the fathers is an offering and whatever we do for God is an offering. So the spirit of surrender comes when the virtue of forgiveness comes inside us and the virtue of forgiveness is learned from Lord Dattatreya Prithvi. Secondly, he has received the virtue of patience from the earth; That man has to have patience in life and the third virtue that Dattatreya Bhagavan has adopted from the earth is tolerance. So forgiveness, patience and forbearance they have learned from this earth. The earth has been tolerating everything and that is why we should worship the earth when we wake up in the morning. Mataji should say 'Sarme vasane devi, parvat sthanamandale, Vishnupatni nam stubhyam yad sparsh shamsvame.' O Mother Earth, if we set foot on you, forgive us. So to receive forgiveness from the earth.

Then 'Jalan Guru.' Lord Dattatreya says that water is my guru. I learned the virtue of cleanliness from water. Sanitation means the sattvic thoughts of life are to be learned from water. Sattvic thoughts mean positivity. There is only one thing to learn from water. If we do any work, we often do not say that if we simply remove the word 'im' from 'impossible' then everything is 'possible'. If you simply remove the word 'a' from 'impossible' then everything is 'possible'; And Dattatreya Bhagwan got inspiration from that water. That means 'Jalan Guru.' Then another took a deep breath from the water. Water should be deep, so our thinking should also be deep and we have taken the quality from other water that water should be light. That is why man should also be a light flower in his life; It is inspired by water. That is why it is said in our scriptures that if you meditate on Lord Krishna, then Lord Krishna will worry about you. But meditation should belong to God. That means 'Jalan Guru.'

Then the moon is my guru. I received the virtue of coolness from the moon. That is why even man should be cool by nature. What should a man's anger be like? Should be transient. Just as the nature of water is cool. So in the scriptures it is said, The wrath of the saint should be fleeting. Saint means gentleman. Gentleman, that's why we all came. So this inspiration has come from Chandradev.

Then the sun is also my guru. It is the nature of the sun that it burns itself and gives light to others. That is how human life should be. It should be a task to enlighten others. You light yourself and give light to others. Like an agarbatti that burns itself and gives fragrance to others. That is the way life should be. So this inspiration has come to God from the sun.

Then Lord Dattatreya says that Agni is my guru. Fire is omnivorous. So the inspiration came from Agni to take whatever the saint gets in prasadi. Ask for alms in five houses and take whatever you get as prasadi. He got inspiration from Agnidev.

Then Lord Dattatreya says that the sea is my guru. I learned from the sea that if you look in the sea, the waves are bouncing. Even the sea is calm from within. If you look from the outside, the socks are bouncing. But the sea is calm from within. Such is the world; So even if there are waves of happiness and sorrow in the world, man has learned from the sea to remain calm from within. So nature teaches a lot. Just like Dattatreya Bhagwan took punishment from nature, if we take punishment from nature then we can make a lot of progress in our life. No need to despair. We get a lot of hope from nature. Astu with the same request.

- Dr. Krunal Joshi