He picked one nariyal from His bed and handed it over to me saying, “La, de de apna nariyal mujhe”.
Like every year, “Guru Poornima”, was having ceremonies at Gurgaon Sthaan. Thousands of devotees were there to offer their ‘Nariyals’ to Guruji. Guruji sat on a decorated seat in the Sthaan hall and the devotees kept coming, in an unending que, one by one and placed the nariyal on the holy feet of Guruji. Guruji held the nariyals and touched them with His forehead, blessed and then returned to the devotees with instructions to keep it at home for the whole year till the next Guru Poornima.
For selected Shishyas, a particular arrangement was done in Guruji’s room. He would sit on His bed along with Mata rani. The Shishyas came one by one, placed their nariyal on his holy feet and took blessings from Him & Mata rani. Some Shishyas would put a garland of flowers around His neck and feed Him the sweets with their hands and did pranaams again.
Then Guruji placed His holy feet in a thali. The Shishya would wash ‘His’ feet with safron mixed Jal and drink the collected Jal from the thali. This Jal is known as ‘Charanamrit’. The charanamrit referred to above, is the highest degree of an award from the Guru to a Shishya. Quite a few of the Shishyas are blessed to get such a boon from the Guru.
It needs the whole ‘Vedant’ to explain what the ‘Charanamrit’ is.
Once, when all the Shishyas had completed the ceremonies of Guru pooja in the ritualistic way and their nariyals were lying on His bed, I got reminded of my mistake and asked,
“Guruji, all have offered their nariyals to you but; I have not done it, I forgot to do this”.
Guruji looked at me and smiled. He picked one nariyal from His bed and handed it over to me saying, “La, de de apna nariyal mujhe”. (“Ok! Give your nariyal to me beta”).
Amazing! What a liberal master is my ‘Gurudev’. My big mistake – totally overlooked. Wah Hey Guru.
Baarambaar Pranaams Hey Guru of Gurus.