Great Spiritual Teachers – Why a life of suffering?

The lives of the ten Sikh Gurus, or the life of Jesus Christ, or Gautham Buddha, or Sri Ramakrishna, or Swami Vivekananda, or any other great saint who attempted to teach the world had always been a life of extreme suffering. We, ordinary humans, may ponder over this fact and enquire, “They lived like us, suffered like us. Why should they be looked upon as partial incarnation of God and hence worshipped as God? How can they show us the way? In which way do they differ from us?” Here is a story to understand the role, the mission, of all our great spiritual gurus (teachers).

Once upon a time, there lived a farmer who didn't believe in God but his wife, however, did believe, and she raised their children to have faith in God and in the teaching of gurus, despite her husband's disparaging comments.

One dark evening, the farmer’s wife was taking their children to a shrine near the place they lived. She asked him to come along, but as expected he refused. "All that is nonsense!" he said. "Why would God lower Himself to send a part of himself to earth as a man if God is really such a great soul as you say?  That's ridiculous.” So she and the children left, and the farmer stayed home.

A little while later, the winds grew stronger and the darkness turned into a dust storm. As the man looked out of the window, all he saw was a blinding storm with dust taking over everything outside. When he sat down to relax, he heard a loud thump. Something had hit the window. He looked out, but couldn't see due to dust filling his eyes.

When the storm settled down a little, he peeped outside to see what could have hit the window. In the field near his house he saw a flock of pigeons.

Apparently, they had been sitting on trees nearby when those poor pigeons got caught in the dust storm and couldn't reach their destination. They were lost and stranded on his farm with no food or shelter. They just flapped their wings and flew around the field in low circles, blindly and aimlessly. Probably, a couple of them might have banged into the window. The man felt sorry for those pigeons and wanted to help them. ‘The big store room outside would be a great place for them to stay’, he thought. It will be warm and safe; surely they could spend the night and can wait for a bright morning. So he walked over to the store room and opened the doors wide, then watched and waited, hoping they would notice the open store room and go inside. But innocent birds just fluttered around aimlessly and didn't seem to notice open doors or realize what it could mean for them.

The man tried to get their attention, but that just seemed to scare them, and they moved further away. He went into the house and came with some grains, spread them, and made a trail leading to the store. They still didn't catch on. Now he was getting frustrated. He got behind them and tried to shoo them toward that big store room, but they only got more scared and scattered in every direction except toward open doors. Everything he did could not get the birds to go into the room where they would be warm and safe.

"Why don't they follow me?!" he exclaimed in anger. "Can't they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm safely?" He thought for a moment and realized that they just wouldn't follow a human. "If only I were also a pigeon, then I could save them," he said loudly.

Then he had an idea. He went into the store, got one of his own domesticated pigeon, and carried it in his hands as he circled around behind the flock of poor storm struck pigeons. He then released it.... His pigeon flew through the flock and straight into the room - and one-by-one, the other pigeons followed it to safety.

He stood silently for a moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes earlier re-played in his mind: "If only I were a pigeon, then I could save them!" 

Then he thought about what he had said to his wife earlier. "Why would God want to be like us? That's ridiculous!"

Suddenly it all made sense. That is what God had done. We were like the pigeons – blind, lost, perishing. God sent his messengers who appear like us but they don’t lose their way in the midst of the pain and suffering of this world, since they are His messengers. They live a blemish-free life in spite of their suffering, show us the way, and save us.

As the winds and blinding dust died down, his soul became calm and pondered over this wonderful incident. He understood why Gurus had also lived a life full of struggles and pain. Years of doubt and disbelief vanished with the passing storm.

He fell to his knees in the field, and prayed his first prayer: 
"Thank You, Oh Lord..... Thanks for coming in human form to get me out of the storms of life..."