There are some very significant influences in life – parents, grandparents, elder siblings, friends, teachers, mentors, peers…but the most important of them all is the Guru.
Notice that I mention the Guru as distinct from a teacher. You can have many teachers – good and bad, but you will only have one Guru. You can learn from many, but can only be the disciple of one. There will be many instances in life where you come across strong influences that potentially change the direction of your path – but the one instance that sets the path of life itself, the course of your onward journey. That happens when your Guru finds you.
Yes, you cannot choose your Guru – he chooses you.
You cannot pay him – for what he does for you is far removed from the world of money. You cannot repay him as well – he doesn’t expect it back, nor will you ever have the capability to do so. You can pay it forward though, and reach a point when you find your disciples.
You have to be lucky that he finds you – if he finds you – and if he finds you in time. Yes, there is a time, a day, a moment when you feel it, and you know it. Of course, he knows before you do, he always did – he just waits to see when this realization dawns on you.
I found my guru one evening in 1991, when I walked into the Kyokushin Karate Dojo in Indiranagar. Wearing a blue tee with black stripes, surrounded by karatekas in their crisp white dogis, moving in sync, as I awkwardly tried to match their steps – their hands, their kiai. I saw him standing at the door of his office, watching intently, seeing this thin, lanky kid with thick spectacles pretending to be interested in what was a test class.
Of course he knew. Of course I didn’t. That there was a black belt hidden inside. That there was a person whose potential was waiting to be explored. That there was not a student, but a disciple.
Thirty-five years and a bit more have passed since that day. I am still learning. I am trying my best to find the potential in others, to make them realize it, to help them to see the way. All thanks to that one moment.
And all because that one person found me.
Today is Guru Purnima. Today is the day of my Guru – Acharya Shri Rakumjee to others, Sensei to me. Disciples may forget their Gurus, so is the thankless nature of the world today, but a Guru never forgets his disciples. I bow to him, in reverence, in silence, in acknowledgement of the fact that I am me, because of him. I have been lucky, and I wish this luck upon everyone of you.
Prepare yourself. Your Guru is out there – all you need to do, is be receptive.
Wishing you all a very blessed Guru Purnima.
OSS!