We saw that the Paushya Parva of Mahabharata is about the importance of guru seva, guru shushrusha, and the benefits of dedicated service to the guru.

We are talking about the genuine guru shishya sampradaya.

In which the shishya goes to the guru at a very young age, starts living with him, does service to him, and gains knowledge.

This has nothing to do with the present-day busy gurus with lacs of followers who would give you some deeksha and meet you once in a year or once in a lifetime and claim to be guiding your life.

Paushya Parva would also give you some insight into how the guru shishya relation worked.

You should know the real essence, then only you will know what is wrong with the other system.

Basically, this Paushya Parva is about guru bhakti.

Here, there is a Rishi called Uttanka.

Uttanka was the one who instigated Janamejaya to perform Sarpa yajna as a revenge to his father’s killing by Takshaka.

Why did Uttanka do this?
What was his enmity with Nagas?

To come to this, Mahabharata is explaining the guru parampara of Uttanka and the incident that led to his enmity with Nagas.

Dhaumya had three shishyas: Upamanyu, Aruni and Veda.

Gurus kept only very few shishyas because they had to provide close attention to every aspect of their development.

Dhaumya had only three shishyas.

Even Vyasa Maharshi if you see, at any point of time, he had four shishyas, five shishyas, or maybe ten shishyas.

How many shishyas Adi Shankara Bhagawadpada had?
Four.

When Suta narrates a story, there may be thousands of Rishis sitting and listening.
But Suta is not their guru.

In the real guru shishya relationship the number of shishyas is limited.

Here also the gurus are classified.

If the guru is doing teaching for a livelihood, he is called Upadhyaya.

योऽद्ध्यापयति वृत्त्यर्थं उपाध्ययः स उच्यते

If the guru is doing teaching as a profession, as a livelihood then he is called a Upadhyaya.

वेदैकदेशाध्यापकः

This kind of guru also doesn’t give you the entire knowledge.
He may have the entire knowledge, he may not have the entire knowledge.
But only part of it is imparted to you.

In Ganesha Atharva Sheersha there is this term- अवानूचानमवशिष्यम्

Anoochanaa means- साङ्गवेदविचक्षणः, someone who knows the Veda along with its six angas.
That is another kind of guru.

What is the meaning of guru?

गीर्यते स्तूयते महत्त्वात्

Someone who is great, someone who is praised because of his greatness.
He is a guru.
Gurutwa means greatness.

Since parameter of greatness used to be knowledge far higher than physical power and money power in the past, the term guru became synonymous with knowledge.

Today, someone who teaches you a technique that too after charging you a fixed fee is also a guru.

Because we are so thirsty for gurus.

We want to become dependent on somebody, we have become so restless that we want to hand over the reins of our life to someone.

We are not able to manage our lives ourselves.

So we want somebody to take charge.

At that time you see advertisements- come to me I will change your life, and we fall for it.

And all kinds of business practices, if you do my technique, you should not do anything else.

Remove all photos of Gods and Goddesses from your home, keep guruji’s photo and start worshiping.

Monopolizing the spiritual world.

Understand one thing very clearly, this is not Sanatana Dharma.

Paushya Parva will talk about guru bhakti.
But those gurus were different.

If what I am saying is offending to you, it is because you have started enjoying your shackles.

I am not saying real genuine gurus don’t exist anymore.
There are still gurukulas where children go at a young age, stay for six and eight years and learn.

They stay with the guru, as part of his family.
Take the same food, sleep under the same roof.

The guru and guru patni take care of them like their own children.
This is still there.

I am talking about those whom you think is your guru and stand in a queue to take darshan and touch his feet.

The real guru will take the child to the hospital if he falls sick.
The guru patni will become the bystander and attend.
Those are the real gurus.

For clarity, I am saying this.

Every guru today says: surrender to guru, he will take you to your goal, he will show you the path.

Nothing else is required.

Paushya Parva will exactly show you this.
How surrender will help.

But those gurus were different.
In nine out of ten cases today, what it means is financial surrender.

You hand over the login and password of your bank account to the gurus’ foundation,

This is the surrender.

A guru who doesn’t even know your name, what emancipation is he going to give you?

My problem here is- you are coming into the spiritual world with a lot of aspiration, motivation, expectation.

I don’t want you to end up in the customer list of some bookseller or spiritual course seller.

It is painful when someone comes and tells you that I have been with this organization for 20 years.

All that I have done is write account books for them or develop their website.
Or plant posters and banners of the guruji all over the place or organize public events for the guruji, get new enrollments for the guruji’s spiritual course version 2.0.

Maybe this is the guru bhakti and guru shushrusha they expect, and glorify.

In this perspective, Paushya Parva will give you a lot of clarity.

What guru bhakti is all about, what guru shishya relationship is all about.

More than this, what guru bhakti should not be about.

What guru shishya relationship should not be like.

You will see shishyas blindly following what guru has told in Paushya Parva.

But those gurus were different.
They were simple beings who lived in forests and had two or three shishyas.

Not spiritual corporates like what we have today.
Where you can also end up as a roll number in their customer list.

Today in your twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, you have had so much of exposure to the world.

God has blessed you with intelligence.

You might have had successes, failures, you might have enjoyed, suffered.

Why do you have to surrender your judgment and life to someone who doesn’t even know you?

If you are to hand over the responsibility of your life to someone else, surrender to someone else, then why did God even create you?

Take guidance, learn from wherever possible.
You can learn from an infant, a newborn, if your eyes and ears are open.

You don’t have to surrender to anyone.

Please don’t think that I am referring to any particular organization or person.

They may be offering yeomen services to the society in terms of charity.

The only point is this is not what you are there for.

You are there for knowledge, spiritual progress.

For this, you should know what a guru does and what a shishya does.

Just want to summarise this.

Guru is absolutely important in the spiritual world.

Guru is God in the spiritual world.
There is no doubt.

There are several categories of gurus right from the ones who teach you a little bit and make a living out of it which is called Upadhyaya.

There could be a guru who is omniscient, all-knowing.

You can surrender to a guru, who is by your side 24x7, knows all about you, knows all about himself, his capabilities, his limitations, and also all about everything.

If you are lucky to get such a person, then you are blessed.

The guru you deserve only comes to you.

Don’t confuse a yoga instructor or someone who teaches you a breathing technique with such omniscient gurus.

Don’t even confuse who teache you Bhagavad Geeta or Upanishad in a weekend classe or knowledge camp with a guru whom you can surrender to.

They are doing great work.
No doubt.
But you need not surrender to them.

They may not be even knowing that you have surrendered to them.

You can surrender your spiritual life, no harm if they are good.

But worldly life, don’t surrender to anyone, don’t surrender your judgment to anyone.

Your personal life, your family life, your career, your finances, your decisions;
don’t surrender to anyone.

That is not what gurus are for.

It may look very promising.
Don’t do this.

That is not what they are there for.
They are there to guide you spiritually and only spiritually.
Don’t bother them with all these.

Or you could be disillusioned soon.