Swami Muktananda
Debt to the Guru
Question: You once said that it is impossible to ever repay the debt to the Guru. Is there no way for the disciple to repay the Guru for his divine grace?
Baba Muktananda: If you could tell me how to get free from this debt I would welcome your suggestion. Then I too would be able to free myself from this debt to my Guru, along with you.
Being fully aware that I can never repay that debt, I am honoring him here so much: I am holding arati [sacred ceremony of waving of lights] to him three times a day. I am following his teaching. Whatever I am doing is exactly what he wanted me to do.
What could a disciple possibly give to repay the debt to the Guru? We had only one thing and that was bondage, and the Guru took that away.
The Guru has awakened our inner Shakti; he has transformed our inner being and has made us like himself. How can we ever repay the Guru for this?
What do we have which could clear the debt? Nobody should think that the Guru’s debt can be repaid by offering so many acres of land, which belong to the Lord in any case, or by offering him a few bundles of cloth. The Guru has transmitted his own power into us and has brought about a radical change in us.
Jnaneshwar Maharaj writes eloquently on this theme in his poetry. He says, “I am trying to find out how I can repay the debt to You, O Lord, but I have not succeeded. I could not repay this debt with anything of this world, so finally I have decided to give myself to You�the whole of myself�and I will no longer remain me.
Take my sense of separateness away from me forever so that even the question of repaying your debt may vanish from my mind.” A disciple should therefore give himself to the Guru. He has nothing else by which he can repay the Guru.
– Swami Muktananda
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