“Guru-Tvam” (Guru Principle) means, as you all may know, the principle That (Tat) which is inside you (Tvam), which lead you towards Light (Sat) from Darkness (Tamas), or, from the Unconscious to the Conscious and, the Super Conscious dimensions of our Soul’s journey through the haze of Illusionary existance or, Maya.
Following is a very ordinary, mundane incident happened to me way back in 1983, an incident which is imprinted on my personalty and approach towards life in general. I believe my experience in this “Gurutvam” revealed to me certain high Vedantic truth about attachment, relationship and liberation. So, I thought its worth sharing, Under The Banyan Tree, to my friends!
Those days, as a bachelor, I was staying in a high income group (HIG) colony of government servants on Lucknow-Faizabad Road, Lucknow. One day, back from office, I was reclining on my chair in the balcony sipping tea. The parapet of the balcony was covered by the branches of a Nelly (Indian Gooseberry) tree. I used to feed the visiting birds to the Nelly tree and ants living on the parapet with grains and sugar. Watching the busy n disciplined life of various ants community was quite interesting, educative and time passing.
Now, to brief up the story, let me come straight to that particular incident.
Far away and left alone from its crowded community, I saw one stray little Ant, on the cemented floor of the balcony, struggling to pull away and take home a large size, single grain of sugar. Not a single member of its community was available any where nearby and the scene of a lone creature struggling to pull away a large chunk of the booty was a cosmic scene on that large clean and clear expanse of the balcony floor.
I sat down on the floor and saw the Ant was determined, persistent and persevering in its mission of towing that object of desire (a grain of sugar…). With suspended breath I sat there to see the success of the “Project Haul” and minutes and seconds passed by but the grain of sugar won’t move a bit and, those hind legs of the poor creature, the Ant, were raised up from the ground. I felt sad and thought why the Ant can’t leave the mission and call it a day!
Then to my surprise, the Ant loosened it’s bite and lo! it started running around hither n thither as if in an ecstasy of freedom – freedom from the object of its desire and, bondage…
In a split second, the joy n ecstasy that descended into my being knew no bounds.
Those days I was undergoing deep melancholic depression and home sickness due to, yes, sort of attachments and, the kind of relationships.
The few minutes of drama enacted for me on the floor of the balcony of the house where I lived, gave me an instant relief and, like the Ant which was set free from the bite on its object of desire, I too felt the freedom to “let go” of many of the sweet n sour objects, persons, places and events, that bound my life and drag like an octopus in to the whirlpool of worldly life…or Maya.
Even today, at times, whenever I feel I m too much getting entangled, stuck up, try to recapture the situation n scene of this incidence, where, the Ant, my Guru, showed me how to set myself free!..
And yes, I get instantly healed!!!
I consider I have had that “Guru-Tvam”!!!…
– Ravindranath
