By Maneka Sanjay Gandhi

I became a grandmother last month - Anasuyaa which means “without envy”- and that introduced me to yet another Hindu avatar Dattatreya, the son of Anasuyaa and Sage Atri.

Dattatreya is regarded as an incarnation of all three- Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma. While his birthplace is regarded as Mahur, Maharashtra some sources claim that he was born in Kashmir jungles near Amarnath. Guru Gobind Singh writes in the Dasam Granth that Dattatreya was an incarnation of Rudra. Dattatreya is the subject of the Dattatreya Purana.

Dattatreya interests me most because of his attachment to all the elements of nature. He is always depicted with four dogs and a cow. Pre-Vedic Indian dogs were regarded as auspicious symbols, and later deities assumed dog forms and were linked with glory, devotion and fidelity. The four dogs are supposed to represent the four Vedas. They follow the Lord as "hounds of heaven, watchdogs of the ultimate Truth". They help the Lord in "hunting" and finding pure souls. The cow represents Kamadhenu  the wish fulfilling cow or Mother Earth. He stands in front of the Audumbara, the celestial wish -yielding tree. All his temples emphasise his closeness to nature and the ultimate unity of everything.

Dattatreya, in the eleventh book of Srimad Bhagavatha, lists his 24 Gurus:

From the Earth, Dattatreya learned the qualities of forgiveness, unselfishness and the strength to bear burdens.

The Air to Dattatreya was a symbol of pure consciousness. Pervading everywhere, yet uncontaminated, carrying fragrance, but not being the fragrance, it teaches detachment, never staying in any one place, always moving.

The Sky was his third guru. The deeper mind is like the sky: vast and unseen, holding thoughts and feelings like clouds, seeming limited but really limitless in its possibilities.

His fourth was Water. In its very ordinariness water is extraordinary. It supports all life, shapes the face of the earth, and nourishes the soil so that mighty forests can grow. It cleanses, purifies, refreshes. To Dattatreya it was symbolic of the compassion of a yogi that unobtrusively flows to the world, nourishing and strengthening.

His fifth was Fire, which destroys all that is material, reducing everything to its essence.

The Moon seems to wax and wane, yet there is no intrinsic change in it. Likewise the moods and changes in man are qualities of body and mind, not part of the atman.

The Sun’s omnipresent light is reflected in gutters, rivers, streams, puddles, and looks different according to the contents and qualities of the water, but in itself it is the same. The atman in different bodies seems to take on the qualities of the body, but in reality it is the same one everywhere. Also who can forget the life-giving Light which came from the sun which gives to all.

Dattatreya saw a pigeon whose little fledglings were caught in a net by a hunter. They cried piteously, luring the mother and other birds to their death. He realised that attachment was responsible for our destruction. Our prejudices, desires, passions destroy the spirituality within us.

The ninth guru was a Python. Seeing it eat only what came to it, Dattatreya learned the value of surrender and a belief in the generosity of the earth.

The Ocean receives all rivers, all the waters of the earth, some clean, some polluted, yet it remains the same, calm and undisturbed.

Seeing a Firefly drawn to destruction by its infatuation with the flame, he realised how desire can lead to destruction.

The twelfth was the Butterfly. Flying from flower to flower, leaving them un-bruised, taking what was given voluntarily and offering goodwill in return.

The thirteenth came in the form of an Elephant caught in a trap while maddened with desire for a wooden female elephant. Dattatreya points out the distractions and delusions of sensual desire.

The Bee speeds his time making honey which the honey-gatherer enjoys. Most people waste their time, energy and emotional investment gathering possessions enjoyed by other people. Precious time should be spent in reaching the inner self. One remains peaceful so long as one has about enough for the time being. Once he begins to collect, he invites upon himself misery.

The yogi watched a Deer. Nimble and swift of foot, it was on guard. A hunter realised that the animal was distracted by music. He played and when the stag advanced towards him, he caught it in a trap. The lesson this incident conveyed was: Let no attraction have such hold on you as to make you lose your balance of mind.

The Fish is caught because the bait with the worm is a temptation. One should be wary of the sense-organs and desires associated with them.

A courtesan called Pingala waited for her lover with anguish and dejection. Disgusted with herself she thought, 'It is because of my expectation that I suffer.'  She turned her awareness within and a transformation took place. 'Had I but sought the divine beloved with the same ardour, I would not be in this plight now.' Leaving her desires aside, she took to the spiritual path. Dattatreya was inspired by the lessons Pingala  learned from her suffering, the ease with which she dropped her ignorance and the heights to which her consciousness soared, free of desire. He exhorts us to profit from dejection.

What should be the attitude of a devoted soul to worldly possessions? A piece of meat, which the Kuru Bird was carrying in its beak, set dozens of birds after it. The other birds were closing in on the Kuru Bird when it opened its beak and dropped the meat. Immediately the birds left it alone. Dattatreya concluded that collection turned one uneasy, fearful and persecuted, leaving one with hardly any time for quiet contemplation or even sleep.

A little child lives from moment to moment. He does not remember the pain of a moment ago, nor does he dream of the future. All of him is present at every moment. There is no tension in play and no competition, just sheer joy and celebration. The spiritual path too can be light and full of celebration. Contentment is one of the qualities of a disciple. To reach God one has to be child-like. How much of peace and serenity would one experience when no time is wasted on worrying?

The twentieth guru was a young girl. Preparing food for her guests in another room, her glass bangles jingled loudly as she pounded her paddy with the pole, distracting her and her guests. She took them off till she had just one on each wrist and there was restful silence for all.  Dattatreya understood that one should walk alone on the spiritual path. Even a close, silent companion can create mental noise that prevents inner silence.

From the archer Dattatreya learned the importance of one pointed concentration.

The snake taught him two things. One was to abandon crowds. The second was not to create attachment. A snake never prepares a hole for itself to live in. It stays in any hole for a night, and the next day it moves to another hole. Do not hold on to anything, whether a thought, or emotion. This will help the sadhak keep his awareness totally in every moment, unconditioned by yesterdays.

The spider weaves its web with its saliva and when it is done with it, takes it back into itself. This reminded him of the divinity that creates and brings back into itself. The other lesson was that the spider wove a web and waited in the centre for flies to be caught. But a hungry crow swooped down and the spider could not save itself, being too involved in the vast web. Let not a man's ambitions be so as to turn him into a prisoner in one's own palace. Use the power of concentration wisely in order to make one free of bondage: used carelessly it will make one a slave of one's schemes.

The twenty-fourth guru was the wasp. The wasp is said to take an insect to its nest. The insect becomes one-pointed with fear, almost meditating on the wasp in its terror, until it takes on the characteristic of its tormentor and becomes one with the wasp. "Brahma vidya brahmeva bhavati," ("To know Brahman is to become Brahman.").

A mind that is open to all species and forms of nature learns all the time, sees beyond forms into essence. A mind that simply sees other species as food or usables, suffers as much as the species he devours.

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