Guru gita 011: It is incorrect to use Sadguru for the fulfillment of material desires

Once we obtained the Sadguru, forgetting the main purpose for which we sought Him, we may now seek His help to fulfill our material desires that were suppressed for so long. We forget that we should seek Spiritual Knowledge and liberation!

It can be compared to the event wherein we are asked to count the gold coins. Forgetting that our duty is to merely count the coins and considering it our fortune to be blessed with a chance of counting the coins, we instead think- ‘oh anyway there are heaps of coins here. What is lost if I pocket a couple of handfuls’ or ‘oh, can you please give me a couple of handfuls of these gold coins’. Such thoughts come to the head. We forget our duty to count coins.

Similarly, when we see the Supreme Being who can grant everything we seek, we begin to chase our material desires. There are many who fall in this category. These desires take us in all directions.

To add to this, Guru’s tests also begin from this point itself. Instead of thinking- “O I am seeing the Supreme Lord. I had this chance for darshan. I am lucky”, we begin to think of the material problems that we can explain to Him. We begin to tell Him all our problems.

“After attaining Him, our mind has attained peace no doubt, but in our house problems are on the rise” with this attitude there are many who have left their Guru.

There are some who state, “This doctor gave me some medicine. After taking couple of doses my pain has aggravated”. The truth is that only the symptoms aggravate, the doctor can pluck it out in totality. This is the method he adopts.

Just because gold is precious, is it possible to create a jewel from crude gold without putting it into fire? Gold has to be put in fire and beaten before it can be cleansed. Can we say that the silk cloth is very precious and hence we refrain from washing it? Likewise, Guru has to put a devotee to test periodically so as to remove the hidden dirt from his mind. Without realizing this, the devotee runs away from his Guru.

The highest form of Guru’s test can be understood from the story of Deepaka which is contained in Datta Purana. There are many examples which teach us the importance of Guru’s tests. The more the tests, the purer one emerges.