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The Guru and the Disciple
not a naguro! So let me go and get a kanthi! Let me make a
guru!’ That is how they made gurus. They are the sheep and those
gurus are the shepherds. Nevertheless, I cannot use words like
this. But when you want to know the facts, then I tell you this
purely for your information and, I speak with vitaragata. Whenever
I say anything, it is without raag-dwesh (attachment or aversion).
I am a Gnani Purush; I am considered a responsible person. I do
not have any attachment or abhorrence anywhere.
Questioner: I met two or three ascetics who wanted me
to tie a kanthi on me and I declined.
Dadashri: Yes, but only the shrewd will not allow it; the
naive would allow it, will they not?
Questioner: If we have not tied a kanthi by any guru but
we feel an attraction towards a guru, and we take his gnan, can
that be regarded as an established guru-disciple relationship or
do we need to have a kanthi? Many scriptures and acharyas
(spiritual principals) say that one should not even look at the face
of someone without a guru.
Dadashri: It is like this: if you want to join a sect, then you
should tie a kanthi and if you want to remain free, then you should
not. Wear the kanthi of the one who gives gnan (knowledge).
What the sect is saying is that first, you should learn about this
standard (prescribed rituals and practices) and until then, you should
not be looking anywhere else.
Otherwise, how can one be called naguro? No one these
days is a naguro. Who used the word naguro in the first place?
The gurus with a kanthi started the whole concept so that they
would not lose any ‘customers.’ There is nothing wrong in not
wearing a kanthi. The kanthi creates kind of a psychological
effect. So what do all these sectarian opinions do? They push
their kanthis on others so that a person feels, ‘I belong to such
and such a sect,’ so there is a corresponding psychological effect.