Dakshina is the wife of Yajya.

[Guest guest]

When thinking what can we do to help -- here a great stoy about the meaning of

dakshina

that is on the Devi Mandir website.

 

Dakshina is the wife of Yajya.

 

She was created to complete yajya. Without Dakshina,

yajna is not complete. Yajya comes from the root Yuj

which means to unite. The union is not complete without

Dakshina. Because, if you really go into union, when you come

out you just want to express your love, and your joy,

and your appreciation, and your sense of privilege, to

have been able to enjoy that experience of being in

union. Dakshina is that expression.

 

And if you come out of some spiritual practice and say

"well, now I'm going to go look at the stock market, and get what I

can for myself...and now I'm thinking about me", then you

haven't gone into union. When you come out of that union,

you just want to give. Gu means darkness, and ru means take away.

Guru means that which takes away the darkness, or illuminates the

light. The question here is Guru Dakshina. If

someone takes away my darkenss and illuminates a light

for me, I want, to the extent of my capacity, to say,

"I appreciate that. I want to make your life easier

because you've made my life easier. Not as an

exchange, but I do want to make it possible for you to

continue your work. It is my honor and my privilege

and my duty to express that in real terms, as a real

help." That is the tradition of Guru Dakshina.

 

There are six activities that are allowed to be

performed by a Brahmin: to learn, to teach, to worship

for ourselves, to worship for others, to give what we

can, and to receive that which is offered as a token

of love and respect. Brahmins give because they love

God, and they receive because people who feel their

love want to give. People want it to go on, they want

it to continue. They understand the value of it.

Dakshina is always based on appreciation, and respect

and love, and the desire to expand the joy, love and

wisdom. That is the tradition of the wandering Sadhu.

 

The Sadhus would sit under a tree, or in a temple, and

they would sing and dance and do pujas, and share the

wisdom and love of God. And the people of the

villages, the people in the locality would appreciate

the inspiration. They would say, "come on back, come

again, we want this inspiration more. We want to help

support you, so you can do it more." That is the

concept of Dakshina.

 

Q: Is it Dakshina if you ask for it?

 

A: No it is not Dakshina if you ask for it. If

I sell you a mantra or a puja for $50 that is called

"doing business," and that is not one of the six

activities of a Brahmin.

 

Q: If you don't or can't ask for it, then how are we

in the west to know about it.

 

A: You know in your hearts if you've been

touched, you know if you've been inspired, you know if

your life has changed because of contact with a holy

person...then you want it to continue.

 

Q: Please tell us how it was in India when

you were with your Guru.

 

A: In my own experience, in my own development,

I built my Guru an ashram. It was 40 feet wide, and

60 feet long, with a straw roof, and a havan kund,,

and that was the ashram. With Sushil and Subod, I

actually built the ashram. We carried the mud, and we

made the walls and stuck the bamboo in, strung the

roof, baled the straw, and we made this 40-foot by

60-foot ashram. The walls were 3 feet high, and the

rest was open so the smoke could go out. We put a

havan kund in the center, Guruji sat down and chanted

the Chandi 9 times each day for 3 years.

 

Sushil, Subod and I would travel around in an oxcart

from village to village, and we would sit down in

every farm house, and I would play harmonium, Sushil

would play finger cymbals, and we'd sing Hare Krishna

and All You Need Is Love, we would take whatever they

would give us. We'd put out a gunny sack. Somebody

would give us a can of ghee, someone would give us a

bag of rice, somebody would give us some dal, and

someone would give us wood. We'd fill up the oxcart

and we'd walk...wewalked 100 miles in a week, all around the interior of

Bengal and Bihar, and we'd walk through the rice

paddies and along the wagon tracks to the interior

villages. We'd sit down at every farmhouse, every

courtyard and we'd sing, and not say a word. Well,

we'd say, "there's a Yagya going on" or "whatever you

want to put in the yagya" and people would come out

with a bag of rice, clean dal, and we'd fill up the

gunny sacks, and we'd go back to the ashram and Guruji

would be chanting the Chandi all day long.

In doing what I did to support my guru in his sadhana,

I got the privilege to learn the Chandi, to see India,

to learn six Indian languages, and to get the Bhava,

the flavor and the desire to do it myself. And so I

was able to sit for 1000 days on four different

occasions. That's how the Chandi became part of my

life. As a privilege, I gave Dakshina to my guru.