Lord Dattatreya had twenty-four gurus, each of whom were a different element, animal or character from the natural world. The guru principle is that which organically unveils and unravels the truth and allows ignorance to be dissipated. Therefore, it can be said that the twenty-four gurus of Lord Dattatreya were simply those parts of life that revealed some kind of deep truth about existence to him.
He didn’t go looking for these gurus. Through life, he found them and they found him. The Datta path is the path of life itself. When we live life consciously, everything can be our teacher.
Here are the twenty-four natural gurus of Lord Dattatreya, along with what the great avadhuta learnt from them:
1. EARTH
The first of Lord Dattatreya’s gurus was the element of earth. Earth is able to support and host life within it and upon it because it is stable and unmoving within itself. When we become stable and unmovingly content within ourselves, we are able to effortlessly support, uplift and inspire others by simply being our natural selves.
2. AIR
Air teaches us to remain pure and uncontaminated by whatever experiences arise in life. The air may host various odours and other substances within it, but it never keeps these things forever and it always maintains its movement as wind. In this way we should move through life. We should accept the experiences, the objects and the relationships that come to us, but we shouldn’t’ assume that these things are permanent. Free, open and unattached to anything, we should keep moving and flowing with the natural current of life.
3. SPACE
Space is present everywhere and yet it is not affected by anything that appears within it. Even if this whole universe were destroyed, space would remain like a blank canvas or screen, totally unaffected. The element of space can be compared to the nature of soul, which is simply pure existence itself and its manifested expression as energy. This existence-energy appears as everything, it empowers and nourishes all appearances, and yet it is always in itself free from the limited destinies of such appearances. The root of our life is pure existence. When we choose to identify with that root instead of the illusory play of appearances, we become unlimited and immortal.
4. WATER
Water has the qualities of cleansing and purifying. Water is able to wash impurities away and dilute them. These qualities are also inherent within existence itself and with the sage, who, representing that existence, remains perfectly pure and clear at all times. Anyone who comes in contact with a sage is automatically purified by being in their presence alone. Being deeply connected with a sage is like being connected with a natural spring of pure water, which we can drink from and use to dilute the density of our accumulated patterns of ignorant thinking.
5. FIRE
Fire can consume any impurity without itself being consumed. Likewise, a sage can experience anything and everything without being affected by it. Fire is both always the same and always different. The dancing movement of flames are always changing, yet they always remain scorching hot. Similarly, the sage, established in the unchanging essence of existence, constantly manifests himself in diverse ways whilst remaining permanently unified and at ease within himself.
6. MOON
From the perspective of Earth, the moon waxes and wanes. From the moon’s own perspective, it is always the same. The same is true for the sage. In the eyes of others, he may appear to be different from one day to another, and he may also appear to be born and to die. However, the sage feels himself to be ever the same, unchanging and totally beyond the appearances of birth and death.
7. SUN
The light of the Sun illuminates many objects at different times and in different places, yet the Sun and its light always remain whole and full. Similarly, the sage can empower and give his time and energy to many beings without ever losing anything. The heat of the Sun also evaporates water and causes it to rise from the Earth. However, that same water eventually returns to Earth in the form of rain. Likewise, whatever the sage takes, he always gives back in an equal amount or more.
8. PIGEON
There once lived a pigeon couple who were in love and were extremely devoted to each other. They also had some babies, who they were very fond of and attached to. One day, the couple went away to fetch food for the children. When they returned, a bird catcher was in the process of capturing their babies in a net. When the pigeons saw this, they both jumped into the net themselves.
The lesson from these pigeons is that attachment to anything in this world will eventually bring us to the point of destruction. Attachment to things outside of ourselves causes us to relinquish our connection to our natural essence. When this happens, the destruction has already happened—we are lost and shipwrecked in an illusory, dream-like world.
9. PYTHON
Pythons can eat almost anything whether large or small. Whatever comes its way, the python is able to eat and digest it. So too does the sage accept and easily digest any possible experience, whether apparently positive or apparently negative, which he encounters in the world. The sage has no preference for one type of experience over another. For him, all experiences are equal. He is perfectly established in equanimity.
10. OCEAN
The hidden depths of the ocean are not necessarily visible when you look at its surface. The ocean may display waves and turbulence on its surface whilst remaining perfectly still underneath. The same is truth with sages, who remain always anchored in a state of perfect equaninmity whilst displaying many diverse actions and behaviours in the outside world.
11. MOTH
A moth, captivated by the light and heat emanated by a fire, may foolishly dive into that fire and incinerate itself. Likewise, beings in this world may be tempted to lose their own natural equanimity by becoming hopelessly attached to changing experiences. The sage avoids this by equally accepting everything that comes to him and everything that leaves him. He can enjoy everything whilst being attached to nothing.
12. HONEYBEE
The honeybee moves from flower to flower to collect nectar without ever hurting the flowers. Also, the honeybee only ever takes what it needs. The sage also takes only he needs from this world, and from others, and he accomplishes this without ever using violence, control or force. He walks lightly in this world, almost like his feet never touch the ground.
13. ELEPHANT
Out of lust, an elephant falls into a trap that was created using the scent of a female elephant. The elephant then gets captured and imprisoned. In this life, there is nothing wrong with sense pleasures. However, as soon as we become attached to these pleasures, we become their prisoner. We will only cease to rely on our senses for pleasure when we establish ourselves in the peace of soul, which is the overflowing source of all pleasure and joy.
14. HONEY THIEF
Bees collect and store honey as a way of preserving nectar, which is their main food. However, it is quite easy for a honey thief to come and take all of that nectar away, and thus undo all of the hard work of the bees. Likewise, the inevitable circumstances of life can easily remove anything external that we have earned and stored. We should keep what we need and use and nothing more. It is foolish to work for something that we imagine we’ll own in ten or twenty years. We may not even be here in ten or twenty years. Live for today. Don’t project happiness and fulfilment into the future. Cultivate the real wealth found in acceptance and contentment.
15. DEER
There was a deer who loved music. One day, it was lured into the murderous sites of a hunter by the sound of music. The deer’s uncontrollable attraction to music led to its unfortunate death. There should be nothing in this world that has such a great hold over us like the music had over this deer. If we have not discovered natural contentment within ourselves, then we’ll most likely get attached to various sources of temporary pleasure in the outside world. At the beginning, it may seem like we voluntarily choose to engage in these things, but later we may become bound and totally addicted to these temporary pleasures. The man who discovers the abode of joy within his own heart can never become a prey to anything in this world. He is free to do or not to do.
16. FISH
The tongue of the fish is unconsciously drawn to certain tastes. When a fisherman places a tasty bait on a hook, the fish will certainly impale himself on this hook and lose his life. The sense of taste is difficult to control. However, if we lose ourselves to the sense of taste, then we will spend all of our time thinking about food and no time contemplating about who we are. However, one good quality of the fish is that it never attempts to leave its home in the water. Likewise, a sage never leaves his home in the natural recognition of the absolute truth.
17. PROSTITUTE
A prostitute named Pingala became tired and exhausted of going out and looking for customers. Exhaustion led to hopelessness. Hopelessness led to acceptance. Surrendering her hope for anything more than what she already had, she felt a natural sense of release from her worries. It doesn’t matter how much or how little we have. The unfulfilled mind will always ask for more. However, this ‘more’ never ends. Contentment has to be discovered now—with whatever we have or do not have—or never. Trading hope for acceptance leads to effortless contentment.
18. HAWK
Once a hawk picked up some food and began to fly with it. Soon a few other birds of prey began to fly after it and also attacked it. As soon as the hawk dropped the food, the attacking birds also left it alone. In life, the more that we accumulate wealth, possessions, positions, roles, ideas, beliefs and opinions, the more trouble we will find. There is nothing wrong with having anything if we are not attached to it, but if we are not happy to drop whatever we have accumulated, then we will become heavy. This path is about become lighter and lighter until we become light itself.
19. CHILD
A small child sucks milk from his mother’s breasts. He is innocent, without worries and is totally dependent on his mother for everything. The sage sees life itself as his mother and relies on life for everything. He neither worries, nor does he try to control and manipulate life in his own favour. He is totally surrendered to what life brings him and what life takes away from him. He is always taken care of by life: the supreme mother of existence.
20. UNMARRIED GIRL
There was once an unmarried girl who wore many bangles on her arms. One day, the family of a bridegroom came to visit her house to see if she would be a suitable wife for their son. She then went into the kitchen herself to prepare food for the guestS. As she began to husk the rice, her many bangles started to clink together and make a lot of noise. Realising that this noise would reveal that she was poor and didn’t have a servant to cook, she removed most of the bracelets. With only two bracelets left on each arm, the noise continued. Therefore, she removed another bracelet on each arm so that each bracelet remained alone. Then the noise stopped.
In life, as long as there ARE two, we will always suffer to some degree. As long as we perceive separation, we will always have some degree of fear within us. We must arrive at the point where we only perceive one sole being, one existence, both inside and outside of ourselves.
21. ARROWSMITH
Once there was an arrowsmith who was so absorbed in fashioning the tip of an arrow that he didn’t notice a royal procession passing behind him. When someone later asked him what he thought of the procession music, he said that he didn’t hear anything. Like the arrowsmith, we should be so absorbed in our perception of the truth that we see nothing else. The more anchored we become in the permanent, equanimous essence of existence, the more we will only see that essence everywhere we look.
22. SERPENT
Snakes do not make holes for themselves but rest in holes abandoned by other creatures or the hollows of trees. Such creatures do hold any ownership or possessiveness of the places that they sleep in. Each day, they keep moving and allow themselves to flow spontaneously with the current of nature. The law of such creatures is constant adaptation and flexibility in dealing with their environmental circumstances. Wise men also live like this. They can use anything but have no ownership over whatever they use. They remain constantly open and flexible to the unpredictable movements of life.
23. SPIDER
Once a small spider built itself a web. When a larger spider came to chase after the spider, it ran so fast that it became entangled and tied up in the web. Then the larger spider ate it. In the same way that spiders unfold a large sticky web from out of themselves, we also create a web of thoughts and emotions that we later become tangled in. Instead of losing ourselves in this web, we should remain focused on the essence of existence within us. When we do this, we attain mastery over whatever we create mentally or in the world.
24. WORM
A worm was once caught by a songbird and placed in its nest. As the songbird began to sing, the worm became entranced in the bliss of sound and totally lost its fear of dying. Existence also has its own song that echoes within us as an internal vibration—an inner sound. When the mind is quiet, the sound is heard. The one who meditates on and eventually merges with this sound goes beyond birth and death.
WHAT CAN WE LEARN?
The core teaching that we can take from reading about the twenty-four gurus of Lord Dattatreya is that the guru principle is all-pervasive. The guru principle is in operation in every second. We have to be open to tune to this principle and see what it has to teach us about ourselves, about others, and about life.
Our twenty-four gurus may not be the same twenty-four gurus that Lord Dattatreya had. We may have many more than twenty-four gurus, and we may learn very different lessons. But it is the principle of this story that is important. The principle is learning from life. We are life. We learn from life. This is the core of the Datta path.
This life is nothing more than life playing and dancing within itself. We should be open to this dance. We should become this dance.
Avadhuta Chintana Shri Gurudeva Datta
May we tune our minds to the Supreme Guru of Gurus, Lord Dattatreya.
Read more about Lord Dattatreya’s teachings in Avadhuta Gita: The Reality-Path Of Lord Dattatreya
