The search for Guru is an eternal search and the one who finds a ParamGuru during his lifetime should hold on to his Guru and serve him well, in order to earn grace of the Guru Shakti and God. To reach God, we need a Guru. All the Avatars and saints had Gurus. The Gurubhakti of some of these saints is extreme. Sant Eknath was one such saint. He belongs to Maharashtra and is one of the shining stars in the galaxy of saints such as Tukaram, Namdev, Jnaneshwar, Jana Bai, Saku Bai and others.
Sant Eknath was a well known saint, scholar and poet of Maharashtra. He belonged to a well to do Brahmin family of Paithan which was a religious centre of those days. He was extremely intelligent and gifted with clarity of thinking. At a young age, he had a formidable knowledge of the Vedas and Shastras but was not content. He knew that the bliss that the sacred scriptures spoke of could not be attained by mere book knowledge. One needed to have internal experience of the truth to be one with the divine peace and bliss. Knowledge of sacred scriptures gave no peace. All Shastras taught that Guru was God and by serving Guru, one could attain God. His internal yearning for a Guru was intense and Lord Panduranga directed him in a dream to Guru Janardhanaswami.
Janardhanaswami was a reputed scholar and a great devotee of Lord Dattatreya. Eknath served him with great devotion for twelve years. He cleaned his Guru’s home, kept the pooja articles ready, bought household items and maintained accounts, cooked, washed the Guru’s clothes etc. He attended to his Guru day and night. He also took care of the needs of the sadhus who visited his Guru. His Guru taught a variety of methods and approaches to God as per the need of his students – some were taught Raja Yoga, some Brahma Vidya and some Shastras. Eknath did not seek to learn anything from the Guru. He did not ask for knowledge, wisdom or mantra. Eknath’s sole purpose of seva was his Guru’s happiness and well being.
Janardhanaswami was very pleased at the seva done by Eknath. He was wonderstruck that the young man did not seek any rewards for his selfless seva. So he decided to reward him by bestowing on him the darshan of his favourite form of God – Lord Dattatreya. He asked Lord Dattatreya to give darshan to Eknath the next day morning when Eknath was returning from the river after his morning bath. The next morning, when Eknath was coming back after his bath, he saw the radiant form of Lord Dattatreya standing near a tree. As sign of respect, he prostrated to the Lord and the Lord placed His feet on Eknath’s head as a blessing. Eknath came back and continued his work at home for his Guru as usual.
Janardhanaswami was very restless. He was waiting for his disciple to come home and tell him about the darshan of the great Lord Dattatreya. He imagined the stunned look on Eknath’s face as he described the effulgence of Lord Dattatreya. Eknath would be overflowing with bliss and wondering if it was real or a dream and the Guru would reassure him that it was definitely real. Janardhanaswami made himself calm down in order to calm the excited Eknath as he recounted his meeting with the Great Dattatreya. To his surprise, Eknath came home and continued with his work peacefully. The astounded Guru called Eknath and asked how he could be so calm after having had the darshan of Lord Dattatreya. Eknath replied: O Gurudeva, I never desired this. I see you as God and I have your darshan daily. If I had not considered you as God, maybe the darshan would have been exciting. I seek only your grace and darshan!
His love for his Guru was so great that Eknath signed all writings as Eka- Janardhan. Due to his great guru bhakti, in his later years, Lord Panduranga Himself served Eknath as his servant in his home. When we have a genuine Guru and the Siddha Mantra of SitaRam in our lives, let us practice the mantra japa and serve the Guru without expectations to receive his grace to the fullest. Guru is indeed God and he blesses his disciple
