Lord Krishna & His Bamboo Flute!

There is a beautiful story about the flute of Krishna. You know Krishna always holds a flute in his hand, but there is a great story behind it. Everyday Krishna would go in the garden and say to all the plants, "I love you". The plants were very happy and responded back and said "Krishna, we love You, too".

One day Krishna rushed quickly into the garden very alarmed. He went to the bamboo plant and the bamboo plant asked, "Krishna, what's wrong with you?" Krishna said "I have something to ask you, but it is very difficult". The bamboo said "Tell me: if I can, I will give it to you". So Krishna said "I need your life. I need to cut you". The bamboo thought for a while and then said "You don't have any other choice. You don't have any other way?" Krishna said, "No, no other way". And it said "OK, I surrender to you".

So Krishna cut the bamboo, made holes in it, and each time, while he was doing that, the bamboo was crying with pain, because he was paining the bamboo so much. Krishna made a beautiful flute out of it. And this flute was with Krishna all the time. 24 hours a day, it was with Krishna. Even the Gopis were jealous of the flute. They said, "Look, Krishna is our Lord, but yet we get to spend only some time with him. He wakes up with you, He sleeps with you, all the time you are with him".

So one day they asked the bamboo, "Tell us the secret of it. What secret do you have, that the Lord treasures you so much?" And the bamboo said "The secret is that I'm empty inside. And the Lord does whatever he wants with me, whenever he wants with me and however he wants with me". So this is complete surrender: where God can do whatever He wants with you, whenever He wants, as He wants. And for that you don't need to be scared, you know, you have just to give yourself. And who is yourself in reality? It's just Him!

Who is a Sad Guru

"Guru Brahma Guru Vishnu Guru Devo Maheshwara

Guru Sakshath Parambrahma Tasmai Shri Gurave Namaha"

The true meaning of Guru is "one who dispels darkness of ignorance". Guru resembles the trinity Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Brahma is a creator. Guru creates or inculcates knowledge in the minds of the students. Guru is Vishnu. Lord Vishnu maintains the creation. Similarly Guru helps in keeping up the knowledge. Guru is also Shiva. Shiva is the destroyer. Guru destroys or gets rid of the ignorance from the students' minds.

The Lord in the Gita says:

“Uddharedaatmanaatmaanam Naatmaanamavasaadayet
Aatmaiva Hyaatmano Bandhuraatmaiva Ripuraatmanah”

One should uplift one’s lower self- the mind, by his higher self – the soul. One should never downgrade one’s self, for the self verily is both the friend and the foe of the self. As we see in this verse, a pilgrim’s journey to the Lotus Feet begins with developing the Atma Kripa. Once efforts to elevate the mind with the help of the Atma are undertaken and Atma Kripa is attained; we become ready to receive the next kripa which is the Guru Kripa. The Guru appears to guide us in our spiritual journey. Guru kripa qualifies us to the next stage of Shaastra Kripa. We learn to study contemplate on and practice the eternal teachings with the help of the Guru and thus engage ourselves in Shravana, Manana and Nidhi Dhyaasana. All these take us to the final stage of Eshwara Kripa when we become eligible to receive the grace of the Almighty.

In the word GURU, Gu stands for Gunaatheetha [The one who is beyond the attributes] and Ru, for Rupa Varjitha [The Formless one]. Hence, the true Guru is the Lord Himself. By putting into practice His teachings in our day to day life, we can easily spiritually understand every mundane mechanical activity of ours and qualify to earn the Eshwara Kripa – His Divine Grace. 


It is important to value the Master. But it is far more important to master His Values so that our life becomes His message. 

To the one who holds my hand, as i trod on the path laid by HIM,
To the one who gives me the faith to believe in HIS uncertainty ,
All that I can say is :

Anyatha sharanam nasti Twameva sharanam mama!


May Guru's grace be upon us all always!