Twenty four Gurus of Dathathreya Avadhootha

Twenty  four Gurus   of  Dathathreya Avadhootha

By

P.R.Ramachander

Based on the  information in  http://muneshkumarkella.blogspot.in/2013/05/lord-dattatreya-and-his-24-gurus.html)

Once  there   was a sad  king  who approached ,

Many Gurus    so that  he can learn to be happy,

But in spite  of all efforts   , he failed  miserably  thinking  all Gurus are useless

But one day   he met  a great  saint Dathathreya in the forest.

He seemed    to be rolling in great  joy and the king asked  him,

“Sir   from which  Guru  did you learn to    be so greatly happy.”

And that  saint replied  “I have   twenty   four Gurus  ,

And from  each of them  I learned  something   great”

The king was   greatly surprised   and   asked ,

“Great one  , May I know    who those   gurus  are?”

Daththreya  laughed and told  , “The  five elements  of nature,

Moon,  Sun, dove  , Python ,Honey bee . Honey thief,

Birds of prey , ocean ,moth  Elephant , deer  ,

Fish , Dancing girl , child  , unmarried     girl,

Serpent  , arrow smith  , spider and wasp.

The king    wanted to laugh  but  controlled  it,

And asked   saint Dathathreya  ,” May I know,

What you learnt   from each of them  ,

So  that  I can find a suitable  Guru and the saint replied.

“Earth taught    me   tolerance  , patience and forgiveness,

The Air taught me  art of moving everywhere without   getting  influenced by bad  qualities,

The sky taught me   broad  and limitless  vision  and  freedom from dark things like the cloud below you,

The water taught me  how to remain pure, take colour  of surroundings  and  create gentle waves while speaking,

And the Fire taught me   to shine in darkness  and  destroying all  bad  ideas thrown at me.”(1-5)

“The moon taught me   as to how to  remain unaffected  while growing big or small,

The Sun taught me that God is one  but is seen as many  like its reflections in different pots,

The piegeon reminds  me how  two of them died  by jumping  in to hunters net , by trying to save their kids.

And taught me   that   attachment    to any thing   blinds me   from logical thought  and  destroys me.”(6-8)

“The Python patiently   waits   for its food   and swallows   anything   that comes its way ,

Not bothered about its taste or size  and it taught me   to wait   patiently  for knowledge  of all sorts,

The honey bee visits   several flowers   collects honey without hurting them  and it taught me,

How to wander   from  door to door   begging for alms   without troubling   the householder.”(9-10)

“The honey thief   comes   and collects   honey stored   with effort  by honeybee  with great effort,

And he teaches me not to   collect   wealth   and store  it   for    a future  which no one has seen,

The birds of prey attacks the   weak bird   which collects   the food    and keeps it  on his beak,

And it teaches  me not to collect and hold   but  eat what  we need   and fly away happily.”(11-14)

“ The ocean taught me to collect   huge  knowledge  and maintain my  humility without   growing   big or small ,

The  moth taught me not to rush at things when they are attractive  and   get destroyed by  those illusions,

The Elephant taught me to avoid passion  and not get destroyed  like him when he jumped  in the pit to be with a female  elephant,

The deer due to its love for music was  snared by the hunter and  it teaches me not to get   attracted  by mundane things.”(15-18)

“Due to its  attraction to taste  a fish is caught  in the hook and it taught me  control of Toungue so that I am not troubled, 

The dancing girl  making money selling her body got peace  when she gave it up  and it  taught me

The need to abandon   expectation from others,  The child taught me to get pleasures  from very simple  things,

The maid who had to remove bangles from one hand  while pounding    to avoid any noise  ,

Taught me   that  I should preferably live in solitude  so that me and others   are not disturbed.(19-21)

The   serpent taught me to live in solitude and not   getting bothered   by giving up my body(its coat)

I learnt from an arrow smith who did not   even know   , when he was working   that king has come to meet him,

I learnt from the spider  which makes the web and later eats it ,That  God creates   as well  as destroys

The caterpillar caught by wasp  teaches me that  by only thinking of one thing  , we can become that thing,

And the king stopped   lauging and understood that   if we    are  a receptive   student  ,

Everything   we see  can be our Guru   and started living happily like many Gurus he saw.