The Forgotten Tenth Man

 

The forgotten tenth man

The need for a Guru is felt by most people at some point of time in their life. In Sanatana Dharma, we say

गुरुर्ब्रह्मा गुरुर्विष्णुर्गुरुर्देवो महेश्वरः ।
गुरुरेव परं ब्रह्म तस्मै श्रीगुरवे नमः ॥१॥
Gurur-Brahmaa Gurur-Vissnnur-Gururdevo Maheshvarah

Gurure va Param Brahma Tasmai Shrii-Gurave Namah

This shloka means that Guru is the Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara. Guru is the Supreme Brahman and to that Guru, we salute.

The Sanskrit term Guru itself comes from Gu that means darkness and ru meaning the light to dispel the darkness. Guru is a person who guides a person from darkness to light.

There are innumerable stories both in the Vedic and Puranic age, where kings and even avatars of Gods had deferred to their Gurus. There is an interesting story that brings forth this simple but powerful concept.

Once in the village in the country of Mahishmati, there were ten friends. They were spiritual, hard working and good citizens. The only problem was they were not very bright. The only problem was they were not very bright. Once they decided to take a trip to all the religious places. The started by visiting the temples in their neighbouring kingdoms. They then travelled north towards Varanasi.

At Varanasi, they finished their darshan and were travelling around the city. The Ganga was in full spate as it was immediately after the monsoon. The friends came to a gushing stream while walking on the outskirts of the country. There were no boats or boat men around.

After much discussion and debate, the friends decided to cross the river using the tree trunks to cross the stream. One by one, helping and supporting each other, they reached the other side of the stream. They decided to check if everyone was there. Even though there were a few of them, they came up with this idea of counting themselves.

The first person made all his friends stand in a line. He started counting. “One, Two three, four, five, six, seven, eight and nine. We seem to be one short”, he said. His friends did not trust his counting capabilities. He made the first guy who counted join the line. He came out and started counting. He again counted nine.

The third man thought he was smarter than his other two friends. He did the same by coming out of the line and counting the others who stood in the line. This went on for some time, till all of them did the counting.

Now they were genuinely concerned. They sat down sad and dejected and started crying. “We are so cruel and careless. We let our brother get washed away in the stream. We were so busy taking care of ourselves that we did not even hear him shout.”

They started blaming themselves and each other for the loss of a friend. None of them wanted to proceed further and they just sat down on the banks of the stream. A passer by saw the friends lamenting and crying. He felt sorry for the friends. He said “Why are you crying?”

One of the friends replied “Oh, our brother is dead.” The passer by asked “Which brother, where was he and how did he die?” One of the friends replied through his tears “When we started to cross the stream, there were ten of us. One of our brothers got washed away and now there are nine of us.”

The passer by started laughing. He said “But you are ten.” The person who answered him got angry. “Do not laugh, sir. We counted. We are nine. See there are nine of them sitting there “

The passer by looked at him with amusement. “Oh, foolish one. You have to count yourself too. You go stand next to them and I will count.”

Lo and behold, there were indeed ten of them. The friends were relieved and ashamed. They looked at the passer by with admiration and said “Thank you sir. You made us realise our mistake.”

In this example, the passer by represents the Guru. A Guru tells you when you make a mistake and also how to correct yourself. This simple but powerful example tells us that we need a Guru to understand our potential and not waste time on useless matters.

Shri Gurubhyo Namah!!