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The story about Eklavya and Dronacharya

Sanātana Dharma is a living path sustained through the living transmission of knowledge from guru to disciple. A living dharma is alive and evolving, unlike a closed system which becomes static and outdated. The term "guru" signifies the remover of darkness, applicable to every teacher who imparts knowledge, from a parent to a professor. This eternal tradition requires a living master for true training, as theoretical knowledge alone is insufficient. Religion must not be fanatical or reliant on mere ritual; true devotion is the essential offering. The continuous development of knowledge and training across all fields is the living process of Sanātana Dharma. The disciple's role is to learn with concentrated dedication, while the guru teaches all students equally, recognizing their different capacities.

"Every teacher who is teaching us something is our guru."

"Religion must not be fanatical. Religion must not be only that we stand in prayer, prayer, prayer."

Filming location: Strilky, Czech Republic

O Viśvamādevakī, Dīpanārāyaṇa Bhagavān, Mādhava Kṛṣṇa Bhagavān, Sanātana Dharma kī, Dīpanirañjana Sabadhukam, Prabhudīpanirañjana Sabadhukam, isī mantrase hove manaman, isī mantrase śrīdīpanirañjana sabadhukam. Prabhu-dīpa nirañjana sabha dukha, isī mantra se hove mana mana yāna. Isī mantra se hove śrī-dīpa nirañjana sabha dukha, prabhu-dīpa nirañjana sabha. Isī mantra se hove mañjana, isī mantra se hove. Śrī Dīpa Nirañjana Sabaduka, Prabhudeepa Nirañjana Sabaduka. The sādhanā of Dīpa Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān, like every sādhanā, needs dedication. Sanātana Dharma is known as a living dharma. What does "living dharma" mean? Living means alive. What is a non-living dharma? It has a final closing; after that, it is no more. That knowledge we call Vāsī knowledge—old, from yesterday. It is like food from yesterday being served today. But Sanātana is living. Sanātana Dharma does not indicate only the dharmas which exist now, because the root of all is Sanātana. As far as we get developed—civilized societies, education, all kinds of academic titles, any kind of professional documents, diplomas, certificates, etc.—day by day it gets stricter. This is the guru principle. "Guru" does not mean only what we call a spiritual master. We all know "gu" means darkness and "ru" means light: the darkness of ignorance and the light of knowledge. When a child comes to the age of one and a half years, two years, three years, then grandparents or parents tell the child to put this on that side, look, put it again here—certain things. Then nursery school, primary school, high school, college, university. Every teacher who is teaching us something is our guru. That’s why we call him master: English master, Hindi guru. A professor, a dean; every faculty has its head for every different profession. There was some doctor or professor, a surgeon, and he wrote very clear, very detailed instructions on how to do a certain kind of operation, etc. That professor passed away. His or her knowledge remained in the books; it means it is not lost. But if you only study this book and know it by heart, you might say, "I don’t need any diploma. I know the tools, I know the techniques, and I know how to do it. I can do the brain surgery." Which country will allow it? Which hospital will hire them for the operation theater? No, you have to go through a living professor or doctor, learning and training. Even the electric worker—they are our guru. Your driving teacher is your driving guru. Music teacher, yoga teacher, ātmā jñāna teacher. This is Sanātana Dharma, and that is called living religion. Religion must not be fanatical. Religion must not be only that we stand in prayer, prayer, prayer, with agarbattis (incense). Where we put the incense, some are very angry mosquitoes. Mosquitoes think, "What are these humans doing?" This is a symbol: when something good and pure comes into our hands, it becomes for us divine, holy. And that’s what we are doing. But without that also, we can pray. God will not say, "Why you didn’t bring the Agarbattī?" Anyhow, God is now only the picture here, so he can’t smell. But he smells our bhāva. Bhāva means our devotion, our love. It is our love that the picture can become life. And if you don’t have love, even your living parents are a burden for you. So, day by day, more technology is developing. This means training more and more gurus. That’s called eternal Sanātana Dharma. Can you imagine? Fifty years, no more any educational institutions. No one teaching anyone anything, no newspapers, nothing. How will the world look, please? After 50 years, how will the world look? Everyone has a laptop in hand, but nobody is teaching. So, nothing will function. We will be like a deer in the forest, jumping into someone’s kukurū’s field, taking and eating. So education, the training, and day by day more developing—that’s called vidyā, knowledge. And that is between disciple and guru. Disciples have to learn very concentratedly. And when the professor is teaching, he doesn’t concentrate on only one child, but on all his students equally. But the capacity of the student is different. If a professor will concentrate only on one student, then it’s like in Mahābhārata time, Droṇācārya, who with great love was teaching his son. And when Ekalavya came, he rejected him. That was against Sanātana Dharma. So, Guru Paramparā is called living religion, Sanātana Dharma. Sanātana Vidyāteṭa Rāma, may long live this Sanātana Dharma. It is the Sanātana Dharma through which this body is created. It is Sanātana Dharma that all chakras are there. And it is Sanātana Dharma which makes the borders. Every chakra must be there, and not that one chakra jumps to another place. Not possible. So Guru Paramparā is Ādi, and Ādi from beginning till the end it will be. That’s why many dharmas came, many systems came and disappeared, but Sanātana did not. And that is the only one which can give us knowledge, all kinds of knowledge, all professions. So similarly, the Vidyā, what we call the knowledge, comes from the Master. One way is okay: I’m learning, and I will use it. But the second is that love. When Droṇācārya refused the one student because he was from the tribes from the mountains, and because he had a school only for the princes, kings... Ekalavya asked Droṇācārya, "Gurudev, can I also learn?" He said, "What is your name? What is your family background, etc.?" So he said, "I am a tribe. I am from the forest." The tribes are the origin of that land: the American Indians, Mexicans from the Inca culture, Maya culture, then the Maoris, Australian Aborigines, and Africans. These are the tribes. From the beginning, their generation is from there. And we, mostly now—it’s not bad if I say, don’t mind, please—we are like gypsies, and what we call the other people, nomads. We are moving here and there. Many of you don’t know from where your grandfather was. Many of you don’t know the tenth generation passed, from where all it came. We have no roots. Our roots are rotten. We don’t know which culture we have in our blood. How many mix it is? That’s also very good. We call it pulau, a nice mix of rice and beans and dāl and spices. So Droṇācārya said, "I’m sorry, I can’t teach you because you are not from the royal family. And this is only royal colleagues." He said, "Thank you, Gurudev," and then he went away. After 50 meters, he comes back and he asked Droṇācārya, "Gurudev, who is this student whom you are teaching now, out of the school hours?" He said, "This is my son." "Is he a royal prince?" Droṇācārya was sweating. He said, "No, he is not, but he is my son." "Gurudev, is this a gurukul?" "Yes." "Thank you," and he left. But when he said one word, "Gurudev," he accepted him as a Gurudeva, and he went back to his village in the mountains. And he made a beautiful statue from the clay, a statue of Droṇācārya. And every day he used to pray to him, and morning discipline, Brahmamuhūrta. He was practicing his archery, his bow and arrow. And when he felt, he put down bow and arrow, and on the knee he fell down and said to Droṇācārya, "Gurudev, sorry, forgive me. I will try again through your blessing." Likewise, he learned archery, one of the best in the world. Second, Droṇācārya promised Arjuna—you know in the Bhagavad Gītā—"Arjuna, you are my disciple. You will be one of the best in archery." And so that’s why in the Bhagavad Gītā it says Abhyāsa, Abhyāsa, Kuntī, Abhyāsa. O son of Kuntī, Arjuna, in Kuntī, Arjuna. Practice, practice, practice. Practice makes a master. So even at night, two o’clock in the night, Arjuna used to get up and practice. He was practicing his archery. That’s called Lagan. Lagan means decided to do this only. Well, Arjuna became great. There was a test: they hung on the ceiling a picture of a fish, like a circle, you know? You see the picture, Yin and Yang, and exactly below was a water pot. They put a water pot, very clean, pure water. Down was black colored, so you could see your face like in a mirror. And now, that picture, which was round, was put in some techniques so that it was moving like a cycle, clockwise. Now, it is said the winner will be the one who can shoot the arrow, looking in the water, at the eye of the fish, because it was a picture of a fish, and it’s moving. Don’t look up. The picture is reflecting down. You can try today. And so many failed, but Arjuna did it. Second thought: there is a bird sitting on top of the tree. "Shoot at that bird. Do you see the bird?" So many said, "Yes, yes, yes." And they asked Arjuna. Arjuna said, "I don’t see the bird. I see only the eye of the bird." In which direction would he move? So he was accurate. Now Arjuna was thinking, "I am the champion, world champion." So for the next test, they went to the forest. A few kilometers far, they had a dog with them. They went in the direction where Ekalavya was practicing, and the dog smelled him. The dog was barking and running, "Who is there?" And Ekalavya was practicing, and the dog was noisy. So Ekalavya collected all his arrows, and so quickly, he shot the arrows into the mouth of the dog. Within no time, the whole mouth was full. But not a small injury was found in the dog’s mouth. The dog couldn’t close his mouth. He could make noise. He was doing like this, but not falling down. The dog went back to Droṇācārya, and the Pāṇḍavas were surprised. Arjuna said, "Gurudev, you promised me I will be the best one. But who is this?" So there are many like this. "How many are there? I’m only in the darkness. I can’t do what that artist has done." Droṇācārya said, "I don’t know. Let’s go." So they went in the forest, and they saw a young man with only one cloth, and he was practicing. There were animals flying in the air. Droṇācārya said, "Hey, boy, who are you?" He said, "Gurudev, I am your disciple. How happy to see you!" "Who taught you this?" "You, Gurudev." Arjuna said, "What?" Gurudev said, "No, I didn’t teach you." "You remember Gurudev? I came to Gurukulu, and you sent me back. But your kṛpā was with me. I made a statue. Every day I pray. Whenever I make a mistake, I ask for pardon. So it is you who inspire, who teach me." Droṇācārya said, "Yes, you passed your examination. But now you have to give Guru Dakṣiṇā. Otherwise, your practice will not be completed." He said, "Yes, I’m ready. What do you want?" So Droṇācārya said, "I want to have your right thumb." So immediately, he had a knife, he chipped his thumb. And with the banana leaf, he offered his thumb. It means now he cannot be the first in shooting the arrow because he promised that Arjuna would be the best one. But Ekalavya was always the best. So this story remained for many, many students of TASCAM: honesty, faithfulness, and obedience. So many, many things which we can learn when we have that lagan. Don’t think that Gurudev is somewhere else and you can do what you want. So there was one story told—not a story but some event told to me in front of the people in Kathu. In Kathu, where we have this Śiv Bhāg Āśram in the village, there was a small room of Mahāprabhujī, and then some bhaktas made two rooms. So Mahāprabhujī left from time to time. When Gurujī used to go to Kathu, Gurujī used to stay in that room. And one bhakta, his name is Rāmakaraṇa, he’s there. So he was sleeping in the room with Gurujī when Gurujī was sleeping. At eleven o’clock, Gurujī said, "Rāmakaraṇa?" He said, "What, Gurujī, you are not sleeping?" "No, no... no. My suitcase is under my bed. I can’t sleep. Because there is a līlā amṛt in the book, or in the suitcase. I can’t sleep, over. So please put it out." "Okay, go to sleep." After two hours, Gurujī said, "There is between my shirt, there is a small picture of Gurujī, Mahāprabhujī, and I can’t sleep. Sleep. Please take this and put it up." And then Gurujī went to sleep. He told this story because I told him to speak something on opening days. He said, "I don’t know anything. What can I tell? But I can only tell you, maybe you all don’t understand, but for me it was a great lesson. Some people may think it is stupid, but for Gurujī it was not like that." That is called bhakti. That is the bhakti between guru and disciple or bhakta and bhagavān. That says that love can melt the rock. And intellect can explode the rock. So this is the difference between love and intellect. So Mahāprabhujī is love. Yes, so that love, that devotion, that will bring us there, not any techniques. You may do something to get some miracle, some magic, black magic or white magic, but then you have to suffer for that. But it is that love that brings there, so what Mahāprabhujī says, "Bhajan, bhajan." So bhakti, devotion, and faith in Gurudev can make us perfect. We think we know. Yes, you know much better than me. But what I know, you don’t know, and I know what is better for you. So it is, Gurudev knows. Argument? No. Give, give. Droṇācārya said, give your thumb. He didn’t ask for what and why. Just chipped it and said, "Here you are, Gurudev." That’s it. So, argument is not good. And at the end, who is right? Master, no arguments. I had just now a telephone call, and this and that, to Jñāneśvaram. Mahāmaṇḍaleśvaram, Jñāneśvaram, you know. And he argues a lot. I told him, "Don’t talk, do this." He said, but it is not; the dictionary says different. I said, this is a dictionary of computers. Not someone who has studied under a master. So, of course, he does his best to show himself as the best. That’s great. To show oneself best, it’s not a good rest. So maybe somebody else was, not Jñāneśvarjī, but it’s good for him. Deeper, so webcast will be evening, my dear, 7:30. Hari Om. Devī Svara Mahādeva. Dīpa Nayan Bhagavān, Mādhava Kṛṣṇa Bhagavān, Sanātana Dharma kī, Om Śānti.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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