See, Ajja is my Guru. I didn’t know where he lives. It is a very remote place, in Puttur. In Puttur also, if we go and ask, ‘ajja’, they will say, ‘which ajja?’. He is not a very famous personality in Puttur.
Myself, my wife and children, one of my friends and my driver, we all went there. We went on Aug. 14th, one day before Independence Day. We had a holiday. I mean I had applied for leave because 15th was a holiday. We went there. By the time we reached Puttur, it was 8 pm. We started asking people, ‘ajja’, ‘ajja’, but nobody knows who is ajja. Finally, somebody could tell, “Oh! That old man, many people come to see him”.
Finally, we could find the Ashram. It is called ‘Gandhi Ashram’, the old age home, where he stayed. At the old age home, people gave us some food, and a place to sleep, and we slept. The next day morning was Independence Day, and there was a Flag hoisting program. Near the Flag hoisting pole, they were waiting for ajja to come out. Ajja was not coming out at all. There were not many people also. Apart from the five of us who went there and some ashram inmates, not many people were present there.
Every year, they used to print some 500 invitations, to send it to the villagers, for this function. This time also, they have printed 500 invitations. Ajja has said not to send the invitations. “I have invited people”, he has said. Whom, he has invited, nobody knows. So, he has said, “I have invited people. They will come. Don’t send invitations”. Now, people are also not there. Otherwise, around 500 people would have gathered there.
Then, they waited for ajja, and ajja said, “I won’t come out”. They hoisted the Flag. Normally, on Independence Day, he will come and sit on the chair, and people will sing some bhajans, listen to his few words and go. This time also villagers came for listening to his words. The chair is put. People are sitting there. He is still not coming out. Somebody went inside, and told ajja, “It is Independence Day. People are waiting”.
“I am enjoying my swatantrya, why should I come there?”, he said. People didn’t know what to do. So, then, people started singing bhajans, some people got bored and went off. We have gone to meet him; he is not coming out. We were supposed to go back to Bangalore, in the afternoon. But he is not meeting.
Then, I asked somebody, “what’s happening? Can we meet him?” He said, “Ajja is very unpredictable. He doesn’t meet anybody who is not really spiritually inclined. Sometimes, many politicians come, and he runs away. He doesn’t even give his darshan. He closes the door and sits. I thought, something like that is happening to us also. He is not coming out at all.”
Then, I said, “If he is not coming out, then, can you please ask him if we can go inside?”. The person went inside and said, “Ajja is calling you to come in”. Then, all of us, myself, my wife, my children, my friend, and the driver, went inside. Then, he started shouting, started talking something nonsense, “Blah! Blah! Blah! Blah!”. I was not able to understand what he was saying. He must be saying something very meaningful, but I was not able to understand.
I am looking at his face, very serious. Then, he started talking continuously, for 10 minutes, blabbering. We could not understand what it was. Then my friend and the driver got bored. They went away. Suddenly, ajja is talking sense. “Why did you call them? I invited only you people”. He didn’t want those people. By talking some non-sense, he sent them out. Then, he spoke to me intimately and initiated me into Atma Vichara, ‘who am I?’. Like this, the ways of wise ones are very different.
The same thing with Ramakrishna Paramahamsa also. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was watching through the window. Suddenly, he ran and hid below the cot. His disciples were perplexed on why he was hiding below the cot. Vivekananda asked him why he was hiding below the cot. He said, “that Seth is coming. He is not coming seeking God. He is coming to ask me, how to make more money in his business. I am very scared of him”. So, he is hiding. So, this is how it is.
I told you the Goodrif story. Goodrif was a realized Master. He does things in a very peculiar way. He charges a very high fee for the course. Then, suddenly, he will cancel it. A couple of times, he had cancelled like that. Some people will drop out.
Then, one day, just before the event happened, he would shift the venue, to some 300/400 miles away, and call them there. Then, only a few people will go. So, he says, these are the few people, who are really interested, and he would teach them.
So, each Master has a way of eliminating students. The rest of the students will just waste the bandwidth and energy. To get a good quality student is a challenge. For that, what happens is that the Master’s will use these things. For example, Osho. He gave a lot of talks. The talks attracted a lot of people. He would give very nice talks. Out of that, some good people emerge. It is like casting your net wild, they say.
That’s how it goes on. Everybody will not be equal. There will be some horses, there will be some donkeys, there will be some monkeys. It requires a lot of effort for a Guru to handle a variety of people to build an organization and all those things.
So, most of the people like Ramana Maharshi, what they do is, they don’t build the organization. They would give core teaching to some and go. Whereas there are now Gurus, who build ashrams and run the administration. Huge effort and huge crowds. Out of that, some good people will emerge. But then, there is a lot of conviction involved, a lot of work.
The focus is diverted. When you want to attract a lot of people, you need to have dance, song, entertainment programs. The focus from the core spirituality gets diverted.
Pranams
Prabhuji
References:
SelfKnowledge Talks_T28_Guru Eliminates Unworthy Disciples_19May2016
https://youtu.be/qyTtqzaTPQQ