The Supreme Godhead has three main functions – creation, sustenance and destruction. These cycles of functions are eternal. In Hinduism these functions of God are named as Lord Brahma – creator, Lord Vishnu – nurturer, Lord Shiva – destroyer. There was a time when these three forms of Gods united to manifest on Earth for purpose of leading mankind back to God. This avatar was called Dattatreya. He was the ‘Lord of Yoga’. He was the’ Adi –Guru’ or the First Guru of the Natha Sampradaya – tradition of group of people called Natha. He is worshipped both as Avatar and ParamGuru.
Dattatreya taught us to be aware and live consciously. He lived in Truth and taught the Truth. As he moved along in life he watched and learned many things. Dattatreya speaks of twenty four gurus from whom he learnt important lessons: The earth, air/breeze, sky, fire, the sun, pigeon, python, sea, moth, elephant, ant, fish, Pingala -the courtesan, arrow-maker, infant/playful boy, the moon, honeybee, deer, bird of prey, maiden, serpent, spider, caterpillar and water.
Dattatreya observed and learnt from living and non living things around him. They were his Gurus. From the earth he learnt to be patient and loving and be dedicated to welfare of all living beings; from air to live in this world without being affected by joys and sorrows in same manner that air lets go of good and bad smells when it blows; to be pure and unaffected within oneself like that skies which are not affected by clouds; from the fire that burns everything into the same ash similarly self-realized man rejects the manifest forms and properties of things as illusion and realizes their one original essence; from the Sun, which illuminates many forms in nature to our visions in the manner the sage who illuminates the true nature of all things to his disciples; from the family of pigeons who gave up their lives for each other due to attachment, the lesson that we should not get caught in the coils of possessiveness and bring our own spiritual destruction.
He learnt from the python which lies in one place and catches and eats whatever it gets, that a man in search of wisdom should refrain from running after pleasures, and accept whatever he gets spontaneously with contentment; from the sea that takes in the waters of all rivers but does not rise even an inch, he learnt not swell with joy or get depressed by sorrows of life; from the moth which leaps into the fire and burns, he learnt to leap into the fire of wisdom and burn out the illusions of life; from the ant which works tirelessly to collect food, he saw the example of how to overcome obstacles and work tirelessly towards self realisation; from the fish which is caught due to the worm on the hook not to get caught by craving for delicious food and hence to have control over taste
Pingala the prostitute neglected her divine spirit and wasted her life in worldly pleasures realised and repented for her mistakes, in the same way the wise man should understand that renunciation of material things leads to realising infinite joy; from the arrow maker who was so focussed on his work that he did not notice a parade going by, that we should learn to focus single-mindedly on self realisation; from the playful boy who does not care for anything but is happy within himself , in the same way a wise man is happy within himself; from the moon which reflects the light of sun ,the same way as our soul reflects the light of God; from the honeybee which sucks out only the nectar , similarly to read all Holy Scriptures but retain what is essential for our spiritual practices; from the deer who gets caught by music like a spiritual aspirant who has a weakness for secular music gets caught by in it.
From a bird of prey who lets go the dead rat to escape the attack from other birds -- the same way a wise man lets go worldly desires to live in peace; from a maiden who removed all but one bangle on her hands so as not to make noise the same manner in which a wise man lives in solitude so that he can avoid noise and gossip and do sadhana single-mindedly; from the serpent who moults his skin when the new one is ready -- the same way at the time of death, the wise man leaves his body like throwing out old clothes and dons a new body; from the spider which spits out and spins a web and later draws the web into itself -- the same way the Supreme Power creates the Universe from itself and also draws it back into itself at the time of dissolution; from the caterpillar who focuses on the buzz of the wasp and eventually becomes a wasp -- the same way the mind of the disciple is focussed on the charm and qualities of the Guru and he becomes like the Guru; from water to serve all by quenching their thirst and yet flow from higher to lower levels -- the same way the wise man serves all and yet remains humble and a servant of God.
Dattatreya is the source of all traditions and embraced all spiritual paths. He spread the universality of true religion. When we walk the path of Truth, we walk the path of Dattatreya. We may belong to any religion or sect, but we will eventually come under the guidance of Dattatreya who is the Guru of all mankind. He is the link between man and Divinity.
