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Vedharahasyam
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Guru Parampara was in vogue in our blessed land from time immemorial. We thus had a situation in which formal education was only through a Guru. Whether it was vedic learning or music or the arts or the Shastras; all learning occurred with the blessings and the kind involvement of the Guru in ancient India.
The Guru was an institution by himself/ herself. For each pupil, Guru was the representative of God on earth. The Guru had taken upon himself the sacred duty of guiding a pupil through his learning years. In return for his sacred involvement in guiding the pupil, the Guru expected nothing in return. The Guru’s contribution in the evolution of the disciple or pupil was immeasurable and no one could fix any price. However, since Gurus too have a functional side of life requiring minimal food and similar household amenities, it was an established practice to offer “Gurudakshina” to the Guru.
Pupils who studied in the above Gurukula environment grew into complete human beings understanding their individual strengths and accepting their shortcomings and through their whole lives, endeavoring to improve themselves functionally and spiritually. The Guru studied each pupil and helped him/ her as per individual requirements. There was thus minimal internal conflict within each member of society and thus peace and harmony within the entire society was possible.
The Human predicament:Compare the above with the current state of affairs. We see terrorism, suicide bombs, war, pain of disease, great human distress, confusion; everywhere and all of the above are only increasing day by day. Education today is intended to enable one to learn skills to earn a livelihood, whether it is a Medical degree or carpentry. Thus education is only taking care of one of the aspects of living. Is life a matter of eating food and wearing clothes, living in a big house or driving a powerful car? How do we deal with the various thoughts and ideas that sweep through our minds day in and day out? How do we deal with our anger, our envy, our pride, our prejudices, our pain, our miseries, our joys, our sorrows? How do we deal with our feeling of emptiness? Do we not see very rich and wealthy families suffering with mental depressions? Do we not see very ordinary men with little or no income living at complete peace with themselves?
How do we sort ourselves out in this mess that mankind has created? It is crystal clear that in this highly commercialized world, we will not be able to get correct guidance from anyone, since any one you contact is very likely to mislead you since he himself is most probably confused. It is very important therefore for each of us to get the correct Guru. A Guru cannot be obtained by our cleverness. It is the experience of wise men that to get a Guru you must have the blessings of God. In fact getting a Real Guru itself is one of the greatest blessings. This was the case even in ancient India. It is even more so now when there is utter chaos and confusion all around us.
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