“Guruji, I offer to you as Dakshina my pride and ego.”

Once there was a man, who went to a Rishi, to a  Sadhu, and wanted to get knowledge. He wanted to study under the Guru and he did. After some years, he succeeded in his study, and as you know, in the Hindu culture when you study under the Guru, at the end of your study you have to give a Dakshina. Dakshina is normally whatever you feel close to. So when he went in front of his Guru, he said “Guruji, I don’t know what to give you as Dakshina. You tell me.” The Guru said “My dear child, I want that you give me the most worthless thing.” As the Guru said that, he bent down to pick up some earth, some soil and as he was doing that he heard a voice. Mother Earth said to him “You fool, you consider me worthless? Look around you. You walk on me, all this greenery, all these beautiful flowers, everything comes from me. How can you consider me worthless?” Then he started thinking “Yes, it’s not worthless.” He put it down and as he was walking he saw a stone. He said “A stone – who cares about a stone?” He was going to pick up the stone, when the stone started talking to him and said “You consider me worthless? I tell you, all these big, big buildings that you see around, they are all built from me. The statues, the Deities, are made from me and then you pray to those Deities, so how can I be worthless?” He thought for a while and said “Yes it’s true.” Then he started thinking “If the soil that we don’t think too much about is not worthless, and if the stone itself is not worthless, what could be more worthless than my ego? That’s the most worthless thing.” He went to his Guru and bowed down to his Guru and said “Guruji, I offer to you as Dakshina my pride and ego.” You always learn new things. Even from the smallest detail, you always learn.